Jim smiled wanly before stepping up to the portable lectern with microphones attached to the front. “Thanks for coming out today. While I’m sure you’d rather be covering how decorations are going on the Rose Parade floats, and I’d rather be gluing seeds to dolphins or giraffes myself…”
The light laughter buoyed his spirits a bit.
“I know there are questions you have, questions that need to be answered, so that’s what I hope to do today. Let me start with a short statement, and we’ll get to what you want to know.”
He considered reading off the prepared statement, but he knew how much he had hated that when he was a reporter. So, he decided to glance down to his page of notes if he needed to, but the rest would be unrehearsed. Scanning the audience, he had a momentary fear the horrific events of last August would repeat themselves, but he quickly brushed aside the worry and continued. Let’s hope this works.
“I have not come here today to defend myself, because the mistakes I have made are in the past and not related to my job in the state legislature. I’ve already admitted these transgressions and paid the price for them.
“Today, I am here to hopefully remind people that I am working hard at a job I did not seek because I want the best for the people of Emerald Valley and the rest of the 42nd Assembly District. It is for them that I am willing to fight to keep this job, and it's for them that I get to keep helping the people of the community where I have spent most of my life, and where my wife and I are proudly raising our children.”
He took a deep breath. He had asked questions of many politicians when he was a reporter, and he had spoken to the media for his friend Fred MacKinnon when his wife died, and often for Delores Holcombe. This was the first time, however, when he needed to defend his own actions to the media. He gripped the lectern tighter than was absolutely necessary.
“Tammi, why don’t we start with you?” He hoped calling on the reporter he had helped train at the Courier would mean an easier question to start things rolling.
“While you say you’ve made mistakes in the past, isn’t the core of what Larry Holcombe said true? Aren’t you, at least in some part, to blame for the deaths of these people? And, if that’s the case, should you really be serving in Sacramento?”
Apparently, I trained her a little too well. “Well, I admit that I was an ambitious reporter and I chased hard after the story, but Jeremiah Harmon was the one who killed those people and he paid for his actions. The death of my cousin weighs on my soul every day, and I’m heartbroken that all the others died as well. Still, as I’ve said before, I have changed as a person, and it is in that light that I hope people judge my actions.”
He next called on Dalton Friedman from CNN.
“In light of these allegations, some would say you weren’t fairly vetted because you had already been appointed to fill the seat and probably would not have won in a traditional election. What do you say to that?”
“I would say that being an independent makes it hard to win in any system where the two major parties effectively lock out others from competing. I’m not saying that I’m trying to start a trend of third-party candidates rising up to disrupt the current power structure, but you can’t deny that polling showed a large number of independent voters liked what we stood for.”
Lauren Hickox’s hand shot up, so he fielded the question from the Sacramento Bee reporter.
“Your office has made a big deal in the past week to highlight pieces of legislation that you have sponsored in the past few months, but several of them have been ‘evergreen’ bills that only add a sentence or two to the state code and are waiting around for lawmakers to sponsor so they can get credit for doing something.”
“Is there a question there?”
"Yes there is. Have you actually been working or are you just trying to look busy?”
“If by several you mean three, then I admit I introduced some ‘evergreen’ bills as you called them. You might think they are pointless, but they do change state law and they are good practice for how the process works. That was instrumental when I co-sponsored a bill, for example, establishing a public-private partnership aimed at creating more open spaces in low-income areas. So, even if the early bills didn’t seem to do much by themselves, they helped me learn how to do my job better.”
He took a series of less-confrontational questions from the local NBC affiliate and reporters from the L.A. Times, O.C. Register and others before one final question from Sara Switzer from Channel 5.
“You talked about working on Rose Parade floats earlier today. Will you be helping out with that this year?”
Jim chuckled. “I wish. I have a three-year-old and newborn at home. The only time I seem to leave the house is to go to work or make a diaper run.”
After the press conference ended, he turned to Brian for an assessment. “What did you think?”
“They were looking for some red meat, and you didn’t accept the premise of their questions, which was good.”
Jim turned to his niece, who had joined them at the park. “What did you think?”
“Well, you were a little snarky with that reporter from the Sacramento Bee…”
“But she had it coming,” Mina said.
“Maybe, but just because you’re right doesn’t mean you need to be rude.” She glanced down. “Sorry, Uncle Jim, but you asked for my opinion.”
He smiled. “No worries. I know what I did made sense politically, but regular people can’t always be sarcastic and not get in trouble for it.”
“Aunt Melissa would totally agree.”
“Now who’s being snarky?”
_____
That evening when the kids were in bed, Jim and Melissa were sitting on the couch with their feet up but still working on their MacBooks. He finished responding to emails before visiting CNN to see what was happening outside of state politics. After reading about economic woes in Europe and political upheaval in Latin America, he pulled up an article about his press conference. As he was reading through Dalton’s summary of what had happened, a related story caught his attention.
OPINION: The Jim Mitchell I Knew
By Virginia Schumann
Virginia Schumann is Managing News Editor at CNN. All ideas and opinions expressed here are hers alone.
I first met Jim Mitchell several years ago when we both were covering the New Creation Fellowship mass suicide. He was a reporter for the Southern California Courier back then, and I was covering the story for CNN.
An up-and-coming reporter, Jim stood out then and, while we chatted only briefly, I could tell he had the drive and skills to be a great reporter.
After I left Crestline, I began reading some of his pieces online and realized he suffered from a moderate form of the disease most journalists are afflicted with: ego.
Finley Peter Dunne once said it was the job of a report to “afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” Well, it can be mighty hard to do that job without thinking that you have been appointed from on high to be the final arbiter of truth.
And, as such, we tend to become convinced of the myth of our own infallibility. Jim did his job well, and wholly deserved all the accolades he and Melissa Jenkins received, including the Pulitzer.
But, after the story, he admitted the high personal price he had to pay for his ambition.
She then went on to talk about how she had followed Jim over the years and had seen how he'd mellowed out and began to check that ego.
At today’s press conference, our coverage shows that while he performed well under combative conditions, the old Jim, who was never without a clever retort, showed himself now and then.
While that may have worked well when Jim had a newspaper column, the job of a politician (well, a good one at least), is to moderate your words. He has a higher standard of ethical behavior and transparency he must adhere to if he wants to weather this recall storm.
I'll admit that he puts on a good show, but I'm not sure whether he's a
new man or the same Jim Mitchell I used to know.
That's something the voters will have to decide for themselves come June.
He shared the link with Melissa, who was writing an article about the new MRI suite at EV Community Hospital.
“Wow, that’s probably not the way you had planned to get on CNN.”
“Brian keeps telling me that ‘all press is good press.’ Let’s hope he’s right about that.”
Melissa pointed her screen toward Jim, and he did a double-take when he saw his own name at the top right corner of the Yahoo! page.
“Oh look, you’re trending.”
“Lovely. I doubt they talk about my fun-yet-fashionable style.”
She chuckled. “No, probably not.”
19
Tuesday, January 10
Jim stowed his messenger bag beneath the seat in front of him, stretching his legs out into the emergency exit row. He checked his text message and found one from Brian asking him to call. Looking around, he noticed the other passengers absorbed on their phones before takeoff.
While Brian answered Jim’s call, Jim warned his chief of staff that he was on the plane already, which he hoped would explain that he would need to be discreet in case others might overhear.
Brian reviewed the latest numbers on the recall petition. “Lizzie says they’ve got 2,500 signatures as of last night.”
“Yeah, but that was with all the media coverage. You don’t think they’ll be able to maintain that pace, do you?”
“That depends on if you do something ill-advised in the next five months. Please tell me you won’t.”
“I have every intention of acting with the utmost decorum, I promise.”
“But let’s be honest, you have a habit of keying off on the press—”
“Only when they’re stupid and don’t know what they’re talking about.” He glanced around to see if his raised voice had caught the attention of the other passengers.
“That’s exactly what worries me,” Brian said. “You’re good at what you do, no doubt about it. But you’ve got to be careful what you say and who you say it to.”
“You’ve been talking to Melissa, haven’t you?”
“No, I figured that out all on my own.”
Jim noticed out of his other ear that the captain had begun the preflight announcements. “I’ve got to go. I promise to be the sweet little angel I always am.”
“You might be an angel. I’m just not sure which side you are working for.”
At least he still has his sense of humor.
_____
Leaving the plane, Jim checked his emails, reading one from Ed Hartley, which had a weblink to the Courier’s opinion section.
Time to Put the Stones Down
By Ed Hartley
There has been much talk recently about the tragic events that took place eight years ago at a mountain retreat in Southern California. And, while news from the West Coast doesn’t always have the same impact to people in the center of the country, this story had a particular impact on me.
Gerald Hartley, the man most people knew as Jeremiah Harmon, was my brother.
The boy I knew growing up was not perfect, but he was not the monster people saw him as at the end of his life. I’m not trying to excuse what he did or the unimaginable consequences it had on the families of his nearly 30 victims. What I am suggesting is that the series of actions that led up to what happened was not the totality of who he was.
Gerald went down a bad path in life and, when confronted with his wrong actions, continued to make bad choice after bad choice until he embodied all of the negative attributes people placed upon him.
In contrast, Jim Mitchell, whom I have gotten to know better over the years since the tragedy, is someone who has learned from his mistakes and grown into a better person.
In my classroom, I often talk with students about how we can recover from our past mistakes. The biblical story of the woman caught in adultery is a popular one, if only for the fact that we can all too easily imagine what it would be like to have people ridicule us for our sins. And with the advent of social media, such shaming has become all too public, not to mention all too common.
While most people focus on the challenge by Jesus to “let the one who is without sin cast the first stone,” I think it’s most helpful to look at the end of the passage after the accusers have fled.
Jesus turns to the woman and treats her with compassion, not criticism. “Go and sin no more,” he says. Here is this man and, whether you see him as just a good teacher of the Son of God, he had the authority to cast judgment upon her. But he chose not to do so.
We need to keep the same principle in mind today. Jim let his ego cloud his judgment, but he did not lead those people to their untimely deaths. My brother did that, and for his transgressions he paid with his own life.
I’m not here to tell people how to vote. I just want people to know that Jim is not the man he used to be, and people should keep that in mind.
If he is a good person who had a tragic lapse in judgement years ago, don’t we owe it to him to look within ourselves before we pick up the nearest stone?
Ed Hartley is a Professor of Religion and Bible at Bethel College in Indiana.
Moved by the passionate defense, Jim shot off a quick email of thanks before continuing on to the next story.
Booker accepts plea deal of life in prison
By Tammi Cunningham
STAFF WRITER
Gregory Booker, 47, admitted in court Monday to shooting Assemblywoman Delores Holcombe and planning a terror attack on a church in Los Angeles, in return for a life sentence.
Booker, the former leader of the Southern California Division of the States’ Rights Militia, agreed as part of a deal that would limit the District Attorney’s office from seeking the death penalty in this case.
Booker was represented by public defender Natalia Hajjar, who praised the deal.
“Mr. Booker is remorseful for all the pain he has caused people and has accepted the terms of the agreement,” Hajjar said. “He is ready to accept the consequences he deserves.”
Assistant District Attorney Patrick Svoboda praised Hajjar and her efforts on behalf of her client.
“I’m glad we were able to make a deal that is equitable to both parties. Mr. Booker will spend the rest of his life behind bars, which is a just punishment for his crimes.”
Tammi went on to recap the events that led up to Booker’s arrest. While FBI Agent Stephen Dransfelt was quoted in the story, he made no mention of the O’Briens or Terry Gould. And, while she mentioned students had been at the October meeting, she did not name them as most of them were still minors. She ended the story with a quote from school principal Ed Chavez.
“We’re just happy to put this sad chapter behind us and focus on the positive things happening at Emerald Valley High School.”
20
Saturday, April 15
Terry was already seated at a table shaded by a gumdrop-shaped tree when Jim and Strojny walked up.
“Do you want to sit inside or out?”
Jim pointed inside the enclosed hallway that separated Classic Grounds from the candy story next door. “Inside is better. Fewer people will be tempted to interrupt our conversation.”
“And it’s easier for me to make sure you are not disturbed,” Strojny said.
“That bad, huh? It’s like he’s a celebrity or something.”
Jim smiled. “‘Or something’ is more like it. People mostly want to complain or ask for a favor. One of the things I’ve learned in the last six months or so is how to draw boundaries between work and my private life, such as it is.”
The two entered the coffeehouse and approached the counter. Jim recognized the barista behind the counter.
“Hi, Mr. Mitchell, what can I get you? It seems a little warm for a cafe au lait today.”
“You’re probably right, Breanna. I’ll take something cold. How about my favorite?”
Terry’s eyes widened? “They named a drink after you? That doesn’t make you sound like an egomaniac or anything.”
“Hey, it’s was their idea, honest. It’s a frozen hot chocolate with peanut butter and peppermint that Michelle here recommended to me last year. I get it every once in a while and, I assure you, it’s to die for.”
“OK, I’m sold. Make it two.”
They waited for a few minutes by the pick-up counter making small talk before getting their drinks and heading for a semi-secluded table.
Terry took a sip of his drink. “Wow, this is good.”
“Told you,” Jim said. “So, how’s high school life these days?”
“It’s 19 days until the AP Gov Exam, and we’re just starting the review process. A lot of them have 3 or 4 other AP classes, so their entire lives will be about studying and test prep for the next three weeks.”
“And after that?”
“Their brains are pretty much mush for about a week.”
The two shared a laugh before Jim continued the conversation. “Congratulations on getting teacher of the year.”
“Thank you. I’ve been nominated a few times, but this is the first time they couldn’t find anyone better than me.”
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