Nielsen, Logue in ‘campaign silliness' over Senate seat endorsements

The musical chairs for state legislative seats around Yuba-Sutter aren't just confusing for political observers. If you're someone who has endorsed a candidate, you still might be surprised.

Such was the case this week for some elected officials, including some locals, when the state Senate campaign for Jim Nielsen alerted them their endorsements were on the website for Dan Logue's state Senate campaign.

Given some of those people had supported Nielsen during his past Assembly campaigns and said they were supporting his Senate bid this year, Nielsen's campaign cried foul.

"The problem, of course, from the standpoint of voters is they're deceived into thinking they support him," said Dave Gilliard, a campaign consultant for Nielsen. "How it happened, you'd have to ask them."

Among the names on the endorsement list for Logue were Yuba City City Councilman John Dukes and Sutter County Supervisor Larry Munger. According to Nielsen's campaign, both asked to be taken off the endorsement list for Logue, like Nielsen a sitting member of the Assembly.

But Logue campaign manager Cliff Wagner said the discrepancy was a matter of the site being under construction at an inopportune time.

Logue, R-Loma Rica, had originally planned to run for a third and final term in the Assembly this year. But when state Sen. Doug LaMalfa — a political ally of Nielsen's — resigned last month and triggered a special election for the remainder of his seat, to be held the same day as the ge eral election, Wagner said Logue had limited time to jump in.

While Wagner was changing Logue's Assembly campaign site to one for the state Senate run, he said, the page with endorsements was left up while the campaign tried to determine which endorsements still applied. Munger, Dukes and others had publicly endorsed Logue in the Assembly race.

"The bottom line is there wasn't any attempt to misrepresent," Wagner said. "This is campaign silliness. It was a work in progress."

Gilliard said there were about 20 questionable endorsements on Logue's site; as of Friday afternoon, none of them were there anymore.

Though political experts disagree about how much cache endorsements carry with voters, Gilliard said they are important for those who don't know much about candidates in a race.

"What it does is give people a comfort level," he said. "It's not a decision maker in most cases."

CONTACT Ben van der Meer at bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4786. Find him on Facebook at /ADbvandermeer or on Twitter at @ADbvandermeer.