Big Revelations at Shasta County GOP Event
- Elisa Ballard
- 11 hours ago
- 5 min read
Redding, CA
The Shasta County Republican Central Committee (Shasta GOP) hosted a candidate reception at the Gaia Hotel last Friday evening, February 27, 2026. There were several hundred people in attendance and the atmosphere was electric. Three candidates and a surprise guest speaker each brought amazing clarity and revelations to issues that all Californians are facing. Valerie Vollbrecht, Chair of the Shasta GOP, who led the event, introduced Evan Jones, Turning Point USA Simpson College Chapter President, who led the group in prayer. Shasta County Supervisor Chris Kelstrom led the Pledge of Allegiance, then the GOP candidates running for their respective positions were introduced as each gave a lively speech about who they were and why they were running.
First up was Don Wagner, running for Secretary of State. He is currently a Supervisor in Orange County and served six years in the California legislature. Surprisingly, Wagner stated that he was Doug La Malfa’s housemate in Sacramento when they were both in the State legislature. At that time, La Malfa was a State Senator and Wagner was a State Assemblyman and they shared a home with some other representatives for two years. Wagner became fond of La Malfa and his sudden passing leaves all who knew him in shock and sorrow. Humorously though, Wagner pointed out that La Malfa was “messy” and a snorer and wasn’t good about taking his turn washing the dishes. Returning to the issue at hand, the importance of the Secretary of State’s office cannot be understated, according to Wagner, because ensuring election integrity is at the core of our democracy. Under the current Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, there has been a blatant disregard for election integrity and if the current voter ID initiative is passed, Weber has stated that she will do what she can to stop it. Wagner promised to return trust in elections and bring transparency to the process. The Business Department is also under the Secretary of State, and Wagner wants to make it more business-friendly. There are many California voters who have no party preference, so Wagner believes he can win the seat because he says "Voter ID is a 70/30 issue, with the majority of Californians in favor of requiring it."
Herb Morgan is running for State Controller and he stated he grew up in Oceanside, CA during a time when California schools were rated first in the nation. Sadly, now we are rated 50th in literacy but still spending more than any other state on education. Morgan has four decades of experience in financial markets and made some astounding observations about the State budget. The total State budget has ballooned from $185 billion just six years ago, to $325 billion now. He asked the audience “Has anything in California improved in the last six years? There is only one conclusion that can be reached from all of this, that is that someone is taking the money. California is a money laundering criminal enterprise.” He went on to state that we are the richest state in the richest country in the world. He said that gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton asked him about the fraud in California’s budget, and based on published error rates from an audit on the California budget, Morgan estimates there has been at least $480 billion in fraud or waste in the last five years. Morgan has written letters to State Attorney General Rob Bonta and U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, while Steve Hilton sent a message directly to President Trump. Morgan said that the next morning on Truth Social, President Trump announced an investigation would be conducted in California and he put Vice President J.D. Vance in charge of it. On Wednesday, the FBI raided Los Angeles Superintendent of Schools office and home. Morgan wants to bring “radical transparency” to the State by mandating daily reporting by transactions, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze all transactions. This would prevent fraud before it occurs. He says he has already written the app. He also stated that his campaign will be 100% transparent and he is part of the unofficial CAL DOGE group that has already found two major cases of fraud.
Next up to speak was Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Sonja Shaw, a dynamic force for parental rights from the Chino Valley Unified School Board. Shaw stressed that education should be focused on the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic. She said that she has been on the front lines of Title IX (a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities), protecting girls from allowing boys in their sports and is fighting for common sense things like keeping boys out of girls’ locker rooms and parental notification when a child wants to identify as a different gender. Shaw related a story about how current Superintendent Tony Thurmon tried to take over one of her school board meetings once, and she pushed back on that attempt. She said to google the incident and you will find it. Shaw has been organizing grassroots efforts to get more conservatives onto school boards and asked that people interested in running for seats on school boards in our area, contact Katie Gorman.
A surprise guest speaker was Jenny Rae Le Roux, who is leading CAL DOGE, a state-level watchdog initiative inspired by the federal Department of Government Efficiency. Le Roux is a CEO and has a home near Redding. Le Roux made a profound statement to the crowd: “Nobody planned to hide money in the age of AI.” Now that AI is assisting in “following the money”, massive fraud has already been uncovered. Two large cases have been identified by CAL DOGE so far. The first case of fraud identified by CAL DOGE involves $370 million in cannabis tax money being funneled to Asian LGBTQ+ storytelling, get-out-the-vote groups in high schools, and other such activities instead of the intended use of substance abuse prevention. The other case involves $928 million—originally collected from gas taxes and electric bills under California's Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program that was diverted from installing solar panels on apartment buildings for low-income residents into Democratic voter registration drives and left-wing activism efforts by nonprofits like GRID Alternatives and the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA). Only about $72 million of the $928 million has been spent on solar installations since the program's start, with the rest allegedly funneled into partisan activities. A complaint has now been filed with the Department of Justice and the Public Utilities Commission, which should be regulating this money. The current system in California has been designed to keep people in power, not to benefit taxpayers. Le Roux stated “We knew it was bad, but we didn’t know what was happening. We are going after it now. We have hundreds of investigations. These are everyone’s dollars.”
