Far-Right Keep Tuolumne County Safe Website Suspended; Tuolumne County on Path to Safety
A final(?) update to the Keep Tuolumne County Safe saga!
For a refresher, during late summer and running up to the 2020 election a website called Keep Tuolumne County Safe popped up and began spreading around Tuolumne county Facebook groups. The content was focused solely on smearing Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors Jaron Brandon and David Goldemberg who were candidates in run off elections at the time, and local grassroots political group Tuolumne County Indivisible. The creator the website used a blend of anti-Semitic and Red Scare propaganda, fear mongering that George Soros was funding Indivisible to take over Tuolumne County.
Parallel to the Keep Tuolumne County Safe propaganda site, someone created a fraudulent Tuolumne County Indivisible website meant to impersonate the group to portray it as a caricature of how conservatives view leftists. The website was promoted by Sacramento dance instructor Ian Nandhra, who coincidentally registered 10 websites on the same webhost as the mimic site. Nandhra was active in promoting Keep Tuolumne County Safe propaganda.
Though the identities of the site creators was never established, a series of fake accounts were identified as the proxies to spread the local propaganda. These fake accounts were all linked to local politicians Jo and Karl Rodefer. Karl Rodefer at the time was the District 5 Board of Supervisor and the incumbent against Supervisor Brandon, while Jo Rodefer was the Columbia Union School District’s Board of Trustees clerk. Both Rodefers lost their campaigns despite spending thousands of dollars self-funding their campaign, and the failed campaign of Cody Ritts who stepped in to run against District 1 Supervisor Goldemberg after incumbent Sherri Brennan dropped out.
Keep Tuolumne County Safe propaganda and smears were circulated by Tuolumne County State of Jefferson president, David Titchenal, State of Jefferson supporters, and various local business owners and friends of the Rodefers.
The full investigation can be read in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.
It appears in the face of complete crushing defeat of their goals, thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours wasted, the operator of Keep Tuolumne County Safe was been suspended by their webhost. Likewise, the fraudulent Indivisible website is unreachable.
Ironically, the suspension of the propaganda sites has actually made Tuolumne County safer because anonymous conspiratorial bigoted propaganda has no place in politics.
