California county on track to be run by militia-aligned group

A retired police chief and self-described Reagan Republican with decades of public service, Leonard Moty checked all the boxes to represent his community in one of California’s most conservative counties.

But on Tuesday, voters ousted Moty, handing control of the Shasta county board of supervisors to a group aligned with local militia members. The election followed nearly two years of threats and increasing hostility toward the longtime supervisor and his moderate colleagues in response to pandemic health restrictions.

Related: California sheriff warns officers not to join far-right extremist groups, records reveal

While it’s not yet clear who will replace Moty, the two candidates in the lead attended a celebration on Tuesday with members of an area militia group, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The recall is a win for the ultra-conservative movement in Shasta county, which has fought against moderate Republican officials and sought to gain a foothold in local government in this rural part of northern California.

It also highlights a phenomenon that extends far beyond the region, as experts warn the pandemic and eroding trust in US institutions has fueled extremism in local politics and hostility against officials that could reshape governments from school boards to county supervisors to Congress.

“I think it’s going to be a change in our politics. I think we’re going to shift more to the alt-right side of things,” Moty said on Wednesday. “I really thought my community would step up to the plate and they didn’t and that’s very discouraging.”

Located more than two hours from California’s more densely populated state capital, Sacramento, Shasta county has long been a conservative bastion and home to a thriving State of Jefferson movement, which advocates for secession from California and the formation of a new state. But it was also the sort of place where people could work through their differences to achieve common goals, said Moty, who had served as a supervisor since 2009.

After the pandemic took hold in 2020 and the governor instituted lockdown measures, however, many residents were outraged by the restrictions and what they viewed as the failure of county officials to stand up to the state government. Shasta county was among the least restrictive in California, Moty said, but residents unhappy about state rules and mask requirements began showing up in meetings in large numbers.

Moty and other supervisors were soon subjected to levels of anger and hostility once reserved for state officials, in what Lisa Pruitt, a rural law expert at the University of California, Davis, describes as a trickling down effect.

“There’s a lot of pent-up anger by a lot of people in rural and quasi-rural places that they’re not getting a fair shake from the government,” she said. “Most of that has been directed at state government. The anger at state officials is now trickling down at local officials because people think ‘my local officials aren’t doing enough’.”

Carlos Zapata, a local militia member who helped organize the recall efforts, in 2020 told the board there could be blood in the streets if the supervisors didn’t reject state health rules such as mask requirements.

“This is a warning for what’s coming. It’s not going to be peaceful much longer. It’s going to be real … I’ve been in combat and I never wanted to go back again, but I’m telling you what – I will to stay in this country. If it has to be against our own citizens, it will happen. And there’s a million people like me, and you won’t stop us,” he said.

The rhetoric was a marked change from anything Moty had seen while in office. “This is not the community I grew up in, I was surprised people would make sort of veiled threats toward public officials and push the envelope,” he said.

Disruptions and threatening rhetoric have been seen in public meetings across the country in what experts view as an alarming development. In Oregon, a county commission moved to virtual meetings last month due to anti-mask protesters. A parent in Virginia was arrested after threatening to bring guns if officials didn’t make masks optional.

“Distrust in government has permeated the most local levels,” said Colin Clarke, a terrorism expert. “I’m familiar with the indicators of extremism and radicalization. I see them in places I never expected to see them. If you had told me as terrorism expert I’d be talking about school boards, I’d have said you’re crazy.”

Anti-government extremists have utilized fears around the pandemic as a recruiting tool, Clarke said. “The whole pandemic was really tailor made to far-right extremists and they’re getting a lot of mileage out of it.”

Politics in Shasta county has only become more hostile and contentious. In 2020, voters elected a new supervisor, Patrick Jones, who has been critical of Moty and other supervisors. In January 2020, Jones and supervisor Les Baugh opened the doors to the supervisors’ chambers and allowed members of the public into what was supposed to be a virtual meeting due to Covid cases. Moty has accused Jones, who has been a vocal supporter of the recall, of riling up the public.

Jones did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. He told KQED: “We’ve been demonized as radicals and various things like this. We are not. We are just simply business owners. We’re mothers, we’re fathers, we’re grandmothers, we’re grandfathers – and we want to return to a county where we grew up: a safe, prosperous county that we can be proud of.”

The board elected to hold a meeting last month virtually due to rising Covid cases and threats against Moty and other supervisors. The Shasta county sheriff’s office is investigating what it described as credible threats against Moty and two other board members. One person told Moty that bullets are expensive, but “ropes are reusable”.

The Redding Record Searchlight reported this week that an election official said they had been subjected to bullying in the lead-up to the election.

Meanwhile, money poured into the county in support of the recall from an outsider, a millionaire, Reverge Anselmo. His $400,000 donation to the gathering committee in the recall is believed to be one of the largest in the county.

Polling numbers on Wednesday showed 52% of voters opted to recall Moty. The success of the recall will likely set up more conflict between the local government and the state government, Pruitt said.

Moty is done with politics, he says. He plans to stay in Shasta county “for now”, but worries for the future of the area and that it could become a haven for those with extremist views. For many Shasta county citizens, he said,

“They’re gonna get a rude awakening.”