Key Findings
Three races in June 2026 will reshape Shasta County's Board of Supervisors and the office that runs elections. Our analysis of every campaign finance filing — 16,159 transactions across 1,043 filers — surfaces five findings the public needs to know before voting.
A single family has spent $25,274 across eight political committees — candidates in both BOS districts, the County Clerk race, two ballot measure campaigns, and a governor recall effort. The Gallardo brothers are the largest coordinated family political operation in the dataset.
Taylor Motors may have exceeded California's $5,900 contribution limit to Kevin Crye by donating $11,000 through two related entities. AB 571 bars entities with the same beneficial owner from circumventing limits.
The same ~20 donors fund virtually every election-denial-aligned committee in Shasta County simultaneously: Curtis for Clerk, Gallardo for D1, Oxley for D5, Shasta Election Reform PAC, and Yes on Measure B.
Clint Curtis — County Clerk/ROV — will administer the June 2026 election in which he is a candidate, alongside Kevin Crye and Chris Kelstrom, both of whom voted to appoint him. His treasurer managed Patrick Jones's committee, which was FPPC-fined $10,000.
Curtis fundraised before filing the legally required Form 501, soliciting contributions at a Patrick Jones town hall on May 24, 2025 — at least 9 days before filing his candidate intention statement. The FPPC requires Form 501 before the first dollar.
Fundraising Timeline: When the Money Moved
The headline totals hide the most important story. Period-by-period data reveals completely different strategic pictures for every candidate. One incumbent front-loaded everything and then went nearly silent. One challenger was dormant for a full year, then exploded. One County Clerk candidate had a six-month head start before her opponent raised a single donor dollar.
Crye mobilized his donor network fast — in the shadow of a recall that nearly ended his political career — and built a cash cushion. But that cushion is not being replenished. Resner appears to have timed her campaign deliberately: dormant while the recall played out, then activating establishment donors as the filing deadline approached. Her 2022 campaign ultimately raised $189,762; if her Q1 2026 pace holds, she is on track to approach that total.
1. Crye is spending a war chest he's not replenishing — only $460 from donors in Q1 2026. 2. Resner's Q1 sprint is real: 36 transactions, $44K in 90 days. 3. Francescut outpaces Curtis in every period, but Curtis had greater transaction volume in H2 2025 (271 vs. 82). 4. Gallagher is buying a seat — $30K self-contribution with no prior fundraising infrastructure. 5. The Gallardo family timed everything for Q1 2026 — Rich's D1 campaign and Eric's Oxley donation both landed in the final push before June.
District 1: The Money Race
The most competitive BOS race pits incumbent Kevin Crye against challenger Erin Resner — a rematch of 2022, when Crye won by roughly 90 votes. A third candidate, Rich Gallardo, trails 43:1 in cash and is funded almost entirely by his twin brother Eric ($4,500). Gallardo is not a funded campaign — he is a protest candidacy with a militia background and a documented record of confrontations.
Crye's Money: Big Donors, Tiny Base
96% of all donor-sourced contributions to Crye come from people giving $1,000 or more. His top donors are a tightly recurring roster — 9 individuals gave to both his 2022 and 2026 campaigns, with the Fookes family, the Largents, and the Duralas accounting for nearly $49,800 combined across both cycles.
Taylor Motors and Taylor Motors Collision Center contributed a combined $11,000 to Crye — nearly double California's $5,900 per-election limit. If the two entities share a common beneficial owner, they have exceeded the legal limit by $5,100. Both have appeared in BOS meeting transcripts, also raising §84308 pay-to-play concerns.
Crye's Top Donors (2026)
| Donor | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Taylor Motors + Taylor Motors Collision | $11,000 | ⚠ Possible Violation |
| Joshua Fookes | $5,900 | At AB 571 limit. Gave $9,800 in 2022. |
| Deborah Fookes | $5,900 | At limit. Gave $4,900 in 2022. |
| Thomas Largent | $5,000 | Gave $9,800 in 2022. |
| Kristin Largent | $5,000 | Gave $9,800 in 2022. |
| Gregg Duralia | $5,000 | Dura Crane Inc. Gave $4,900 in 2022 + $3,300 to anti-recall. |
| Leanne Duralia | $5,000 | Gave $4,900 in 2022. |
| T2 Financial | $4,000 | Redding. |
| Gregory McKinney | $3,250 | Retired, Anderson. |
| Christine McKinney | $3,250 | Gave $500 in 2022. |
The Network: Same Donors, Every Race
The most significant structural finding: a small group of roughly 20 donors and operatives is funding every election-denial-aligned committee in Shasta County simultaneously. This is not coincidence — it is a coordinated political infrastructure, with the Gallardo brothers and the Kent family at its center.
Not a single donor gave to both Crye and Resner. Not one gave to both Curtis and Francescut. The two political tribes in Shasta County share no financial common ground. You are either in one camp or the other — completely.
The Gallardo Family Political Operation
Cross-Committee Donor Network
The table below shows recurring donors across the election-denial ecosystem. Dark red = large contributions; gold = medium; green = small. Read across any row to see a donor's full political footprint.
| Donor | Curtis (Clerk) | Shasta Elect. Reform | Yes on Measure B | Jones D4 | Hobbs D2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bev Gray | $4,810 | $567 | — | $3,200 | $1,798 | $11,325 |
| Kari Chilson | $1,385 | $320 | — | — | $7,500 | $12,405 |
| Dick Wilkinson | $3,410 | $200 | $1,000 | — | — | $4,610 |
| Eric Gallardo | $1,000 | $500 | $3,500 loan | — | — | ~$15,599* |
| Bruce Russell | $650 | $443 | $100 | — | $970 | $2,163 |
| Ronnean Lund | $2,100 | — | $500 | — | — | $2,600 |
| Jim Burnett | — | $325 | $2,500 | — | $1,139 | $3,964 |
County Clerk: The Race That Controls the Election
- 1Curtis is the sitting ROV who will administer the June 2026 election — overseeing ballot counting and certifying results.
- 2Curtis is a candidate in that same election he is administering.
- 3Kevin Crye and Chris Kelstrom — the two supervisors who voted to appoint Curtis — are also candidates on the same ballot.
- 4Measure B (voter ID, hand-counting, single-day voting) is on the same ballot. Curtis publicly supports it and has pledged to "fight to the end" to get it passed — despite admitting he hasn't read it.
- 5Curtis's campaign treasurer, Lyndia Kent, co-managed the Water Users Committee that spent $197,059 defending Crye's recall — now she manages the campaign of the official who will run Crye's next election.
- 6Curtis hired Laura Hobbs — the election activist who filed two failed lawsuits against the Shasta elections office — as elections office staff.
- 7Curtis hired Brent Turner as Assistant ROV — a San Francisco heavy metal guitarist with no prior election administration experience — without posting a public job listing.
- 8Curtis eliminated 9 of 13 ballot drop boxes, saying he didn't trust ballots with "little old ladies running all over" to collect them.
- 9The FPPC confirms that ROVs like Curtis help monitor campaign filing compliance for other candidates — while Curtis himself filed his Form 501 at least 9 days late.
The Curtis Incident Record
Since his appointment in spring 2025, Clint Curtis has accumulated a documented record of controversies that would be disqualifying in almost any other election administration context.
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The Tribal Hedge: Redding Rancheria's $30,923 Bet on Crye
The Redding Rancheria — operators of Win River Resort & Casino — has quietly invested $30,923 in Crye-aligned politics across three election cycles. What makes this significant is not the amount. It's the context: the Rancheria holds a tribal casino contract that was declared illegal by a judge. Crye defended it. Under California's §84308 pay-to-play statute, a contribution of more than $500 from a party with a pending entitlement proceeding before a supervisor creates a mandatory recusal obligation.
Gov. Code §84308 prohibits a supervisor from accepting more than $500 from any party with a pending license, permit, contract, or entitlement proceeding before the board — and requires recusal for 12 months after the decision. The Rancheria gave $4,000 directly to Crye in 2022, $11,000 to defend his recall, and $11,000 to Jones D4. If any Rancheria gaming, land-use, or contract matter came before the BOS while these contributions were in play, Crye was obligated to disclose and potentially recuse. Crye defended the tribal casino contract that a judge later declared illegal.
District 5: An Incumbent Running on Empty
Incumbent Chris Kelstrom — who voted to appoint Curtis as ROV — has just $560 in his campaign account and a single 2026 transaction. Challenger Mike Gallagher leads with ~$39,235, almost entirely from a $30,000 self-contribution. Gary Oxley's entire campaign is funded by one person: Eric Gallardo ($4,999). Oxley, Gallardo, and Curtis all share the same Oregon yard sign vendor — Bridgeview Press of Cave Junction — tying three races together through a single vendor relationship.
Legal Flags
Taylor Motors and Taylor Motors Collision Center gave a combined $11,000 to Crye in 2026. California's AB 571 sets a $5,900 per-election limit. FPPC Regulation 18215.2 requires aggregating contributions from related entities with common ownership. If the two Taylor entities share a beneficial owner, they have exceeded the legal limit by $5,100.
California Government Code §85200 requires candidates to file a Form 501 before soliciting or accepting any contribution. Curtis fundraised at Patrick Jones's May 24, 2025 town hall — at least 9 days before filing his Form 501 on June 2, 2025. The FPPC has confirmed that ROVs like Curtis are expected to help monitor these requirements for other candidates.
Lyndia Kent serves as Curtis's campaign treasurer. She previously served as Patrick Jones's campaign treasurer when the FPPC fined Jones $10,000 for failure to report contributions in his 2019 Assembly campaign. California law holds treasurers jointly liable for filing violations.
What This Means for Voters
Money in local politics is a window — not into who will win, but into who will have a seat at the table after the election. When the same 20 donors fund every election-denial candidate and committee simultaneously, they are not backing individuals. They are building a coalition of officeholders. When zero donors cross the factional line in either race, you are looking at two political tribes who have made a permanent decision about each other.
The fundraising timelines make this a more dynamic race than headline cash figures suggest. Crye's $95,909 is substantial but stagnant; Resner is raising money faster right now than at any point in her political career. In the County Clerk race, Francescut leads 2.5:1 in cash — but Curtis controls the office that will run the election, has systematically reshaped its staffing, and has reduced the county's ballot drop boxes from 13 to 4.
The structural question in June 2026 is not just which candidates voters prefer. It is whether the institutions running the election — and the money funding them — give every vote equal weight.
All campaign finance figures are from official FPPC Form 460/497 filings as of March 11, 2026. Data sourced from NetFile CSHA e-filings (16,159 transactions, 1,043 filers). Contribution limits per AB 571: $5,900/election (2025–2026 cycle). §84308 threshold: $500 (updated Jan 1, 2025).