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Grain grower uses logging conference to pitch small-donor push in uphill effort to unseat California's Gov. Newsom.

Tim Hearden, Western Farm Press

February 11, 2022

3 Min Read
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Grain grower and California state Sen. Brian Dahle, center, speaks during a panel discussion on wildfires' impact on timberland at the 2022 Sierra Cascade Logging Conference in Anderson, Calif.Tim Hearden

Grain grower and California state Sen. Brian Dahle expressed optimism Feb. 10 in his uphill bid to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom, telling a logging conference audience he believes voters are ready for a fresh approach after 25 years of nearly exclusive Democratic Party rule in the state.

Dahle, a 56-year-old Republican, announced his candidacy Feb. 8 at a noontime rally in Redding that was attended by several hundred people, according to the Redding Record Searchlight.

During a panel discussion on wildfire at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference in Anderson, Calif., Dahle said his goal is to get 200,000 people to donate $1 a day to give him the funding he'll need for a statewide campaign. He believes he can ride what is expected to be a Republican wave in congressional and state elections in November.

"We're going to win -- I can see it and feel it and I know," Dahle said.

Asked afterward if he thought many urban Californians who receive a ballot in the mail will recognize his name, he said they will if he can obtain enough resources.

"We need balance in California," he told Farm Press. "We've had one-party rule for 25 years. You need balance in government."

Third-generation grower

Dahle’s grandfather was a veteran who drew a homestead in Tulelake in 1930 and planted wheat and potatoes. He bought the family’s current farm in 1942, and the family raises cereal grains organically.

A former Lassen County supervisor, Brian Dahle was first elected to the state Assembly in 2012. He was in his fourth term when then-state Sen. Ted Gaines, a fellow Republican, resigned in 2019, after his election to the California Board of Equalization. Dahle won the Senate seat in a special election, and his wife, Megan Dahle, won his old Assembly seat.

So far, two other Republicans have entered the gubernatorial primary -- Major Williams, a former mayoral candidate in Pasadena, and Laura Smith, a local activist from San Dimas, Calif. The candidates face longshot odds in trying to topple Newsom, a Democrat who won his 2018 election with 62% of the vote and defeated a recall attempt last year with the same level of support.

Dahle previewed what could be a key campaign theme at the logging conference, chiding governments' handling of wildfires that have burned nearly 11 million acres of national forest land in California in the last 20 years.

Related: For Dahles, politics run in the family

"We've been doing legislation about climate change, but none of it talks about forests," he said. A bill he introduced to count smoke from wildfires as emissions was defeated by the Senate's Democratic supermajority.

"They killed it because it would take money from the Air Resources Board," Dahle said. "But they'll spend it on a train.

Too much underbrush

"This is not climate change that's causing all these problems" with fires, he added, noting the practice of suppressiing forest fire over the last 100 years has led to massive growth in underbrush.

A big crowd attending the first day of the logging conference and Forest Products and Equipment Expo at the Shasta District Fairgrounds on Feb. 10, buoyed by balmy temperatures that reached 84 degrees. The conference and expo conclude Saturday, Feb. 12 and are free to attend, although some events are ticketed.

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