John Chiv: First Humboldt GOP endorsed Kreis, now last minute spoiler candidate Jessica Watson

Feb 29, 2024

First Humboldt GOP endorsed Kreis, now last minute spoiler candidate Jessica Watson

Last week, I reported incumbent Judge Gregory Kreis was endorsed by the Humboldt GOP. When he was appointed in 2017 he was a Democrat. In my many posts on Kreis, I have mentioned his conservative endorsers Rex Bohn, Rory Hanson, Billy Honsal and others. You can check out the FPPC filings which I have been regularly posting on for months for other names who gave him money.

The last minute spoiler aka write in candidate Deputy DA Jessica Watson already shares some common contacts with Kreis such as former DA Paul Gallegos and now she has another thing in common with him. The Humboldt GOP has also endorsed her. I was not aware that she was conservative or Republican. Did she have a sudden conversion like Kreis? Both have neglected to include this GOP endorsement on their websites. So what else are they leaving out?

The Humboldt GOP are clueless, have achieved nothing, have a track record of endorsing losing candidates for years and did they even bother to research Kreis and Watson? Watson went to Iowa in 2008 and wasn't she in an ad for former President Obama?

Watson does have a colleague at the DA's office who is open about being conservative. I won't say who that is but if you read my blog regularly, it isn't that hard to figure out. I mentioned in my post about Watson's court record and about her being second chair in the Josiah Lawson case for optics. The lead prosecutor was Roger Rees.

Why isn't Watson upfront about being married to a white, retired CHP officer? Watson touts being an African American attorney now yet is a part of the criminal justice system that disproportionately incarcerates and treats people of color differently on a regular basis. This is based on my court coverage of 10 years and seeing who gets OR and, supervised release and the disparity of verdicts and sentences. All which can be verified by court records. I haven't seen anyone in the DA's office bring that up.

I have seen Humboldt Superior Candidate Ms. Van Dyke provide statistics relevant to race and bring a motion to court. I covered and wrote about the case in 2021 which was before this election and I wrote about that particular case again in December 2023 in a post about another ruling by Kreis reversed on appeal in another case. That ruling involved another defendant.

I have seen Ms. Andrea Sullivan, a private defense attorney take cases with diverse clients. I also covered these cases.

Mr. Rees has been the lead counsel on many cases with Watson. Anyone can be an attorney for certain amount of years. The DAs office has a lot of inexperienced attorneys and investigators who have big egos, are unprofessional and that is is reflected in the losses that only get reported on this blog. Do you want to continue good ole boys and gals getting a slap on the wrist for five DUIs and other equally bs sentences and these people are represented by many of Kreis' endorsers. They are just protecting their meal ticket and don't care about justice. If one of the four experienced Humboldt Deputy DAs left in that office were running instead of Watson, at least they know the law and have a record of their experience.

I broke the news she was running and then did a post on her court record. Obviously voters are paying attention. I have read many comments by OK on Reddit. In a forum where facts are rare, OK and a few others stand out because they are well informed from a variety of sources and they use information that can be verified.