Editorial: Why is a San Anselmo PR person so interested in Sonoma politics?

Election Day is upon us. The vast majority of those reading have probably already cast their ballot, as 82 percent of voters in our county used mail-in ballots in the June primaries. But there’s something uniquely American about a visit to the polls, to thank the Election Day volunteers and step into the voting booth.

Nationally, the democratic process has come under fire. Dark money, election tampering and restricted voter rights have dominated coverage of the midterm elections. Luckily, here in Sonoma, we haven’t heard much of that in the public discourse. Of course, that doesn’t mean people aren’t quietly pulling strings.

Take Heidi Darling, a marketing and communications specialist from San Anselmo who’s taken a lot of interest in our political process for the last few years. Darling’s company, Llewellyn Communication, was hired by Caymus Capital to drum up support for developer Edmond Routhier’s hotel and housing project proposed on First Street East (FSE).

Darling registered a lot of domain names in the first few months of 2017, most of which never went live, including smartsonoma.com and progressivesonoma.com. On March 23, 2017, she registered impeachrachel.com and support4commissioners.com. The first one never went live, but on April 15, 2017, the second one did, denouncing the council’s recent changes to the planning commission appointment process. It featured a letter from Joe Aaron, a longtime supporter of the FSE project, that read “I’m gravely concerned our mayor, the Honorable Rachel Hundley, is attempting to hijack the Planning Commission and the democratic process.”

On April 5, 2017, Darling interviewed Hundley’s former roommate Audrey Pratt, who had recently threatened legal action against Hundley because she disputed the 30-day notice she was given to vacate their shared residence. It read like someone interviewing an ex-spouse during a divorce proceeding. That interview was posted to a quickly-deleted website that slut shamed Hundley. A version of the interview was also recently mailed, on Llewellyn letterhead, to a handful of Sonoma citizens, again attempting to shame Hundley. It came hand addressed in block letters, mailed from San Francisco.

Darling, in an email to the Index-Tribune, said: “I was hired by a client in April of 2017, with whom I had a signed mutual [non-disclosure agreement] in place, to conduct an interview. I typed up notes and submitted them with clear confidentiality labels. I’ve not done any work with this client for over a year. I’m saddened to see that it has been misappropriated, and do not condone this type of behavior.”

It’s unclear if Darling has had any Sonoma clients other than Caymus.

In the summer of 2017, Darling reached out to at least two city council candidates, before they became candidates. She invited Logan Harvey and Chris Petlock to Caymus for wine and cheese to discuss the FSE project, according to emails provided to the Index-Tribune by Harvey and Petlock.

Several days after that meeting, Harvey got an email from Darling, which he provided to the Index-Tribune. It seemed to end with an offer: “I’d love to see you run for CC or PC btw – you have a great head on your shoulders. I’m involved in putting together a local fund to help ‘youngish’ people get involved. let’s meet on that separately [sic],” she wrote.

Harvey is adamant he never took any money from Darling or Caymus, a fact supported by his campaign finance report. “I just wanted to run for city council to find solutions for our housing crisis. I’m not beholden to any special interests. If I’m elected, everyone who comes before the city council will be on even footing and given a fair shake,” he said.

Via email, Harvey told Darling he was not interested in being associated with Caymus, and says he never heard from her again. Petlock said Darling never made him an offer.

Harvey managed to stay out of the political fray at the beginning of the campaign season, when the website and an attack ad were lobbed at Hundley. But when he and the councilwoman became political allies, he became the target of a recent attack ad alongside Hundley.

In an email to the Index-Tribune, Sara Travis took credit for that ad, which seems to violate Fair Political Practice Commission rules as it does not cite a funding source. We have not been able to confirm Travis’ existence; she called our attempts to verify information about her “unbelievably frightening and creepy.”

We can say she once shared an IP address with Routhier, as we outlined on last Tuesday’s opinion page. Routhier said Travis is a former tenant, and that he has nothing to do with the attack ads.

Let’s hope today’s vote puts an end to the nastiness we’ve seen this season. Whatever happens, all players involved will have to find a way to work together, hopefully with respect and integrity.