Francescut draws sold-out crowd of 200 to fundraiser in Shasta County clerk race

REDDING, Calif. — About 200 people packed a sold-out fundraiser Friday evening for Joanna Francescut, the former assistant registrar of voters who is challenging her former boss, Shasta County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis, in the June 2 primary.

The event, titled “A Heart to Heart with Joanna,” was held at the Mercy Oaks venue in Redding. General admission tickets were priced at $95. Reserved and premium seating tiers had sold out before the event, according to the campaign’s website.

The evening featured dinner, live music, a no-host bar and a silent auction. At each table, organizers placed small cards bearing California poppy seeds — a motif Francescut has adopted as a campaign symbol. In her remarks, Francescut called the poppy “a beacon of light, a beacon of hope.”

The fundraiser drew supporters from across party lines, a theme the speakers returned to repeatedly. Former District 1 Supervisor Joe Chimenti, a Republican, opened by urging the audience to look past partisan divisions.

“You can be a Republican, I don’t care, you can be a Democrat, I don’t care, you can be a liberal, I don’t care,” Chimenti said. “I care about fixing Shasta County.”

Chimenti, who said he first visited the elections office in 2006 when he considered running for the Board of Supervisors, credited former Clerk Cathy Darling Allen with guiding him through the process regardless of his political affiliation.

“She said, ‘Hey, you got a few minutes?’” Chimenti recalled. “She took out every piece of paper there was. And she took me through every step.”

He described Darling Allen as “the coach” and Francescut as “the student” who had learned from that mentorship over nearly two decades in the department.

“Shasta County deserves better than we have right now,” Chimenti said. “And we can do that.”

Darling Allen, who served as Shasta County clerk and registrar of voters for two decades before retiring in May 2024 due to health reasons, spoke in support of Francescut’s candidacy.

She urged the audience to remain engaged beyond the primary, noting that the county’s elections department under Curtis would continue to administer elections through the rest of the calendar year, even if Francescut wins in June.

“Electing Joanna as county clerk will go a long way to improving local governance here in Shasta County,” Darling Allen said.

She asked supporters to serve as election observers “who genuinely want to know how the process works,” drawing a contrast with the confrontational observation practices that have marked elections in the county since 2020.

Francescut, who worked in the Shasta County Elections Department for 17 years before Curtis fired her in May 2025, anchored her remarks in personal history and professional commitment.

She told the audience she had found her calling in election administration, recalling how as a child she would sneak out of bed on election nights to learn the results and would beg her father to reveal his vote. He never did.

“That taught me a lot,” Francescut said.

She said she had chosen to remain in Shasta County despite job offers from other counties, framing the race as a matter of community service.

“This community is worth fighting for,” Francescut said. “That is why when other counties have offered me jobs or said, ‘Hey, you should apply for this job,’ I did not do that.”

Francescut emphasized honesty and direct communication as core values of her candidacy, telling the crowd that “what’s more important than transparency is honesty.”

“I will be honest with you, whether you like it or not,” she said.

She called for unity across party lines, echoing Chimenti’s earlier remarks.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican. It doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat,” Francescut said. “What matters is that you are a U.S. citizen, and I want to count your vote.”

Francescut entered the Shasta County Elections Department in approximately 2008 and rose to assistant county clerk and assistant registrar of voters under Darling Allen, according to news reports and public records. She managed the county's March 2024 primary largely on her own after Darling Allen went on medical leave, and she was endorsed by both of her predecessors as registrar.

When the Board of Supervisors selected Curtis for the clerk position in a 3-2 vote on April 30, 2025, Francescut was among the five finalists. Supervisors Matt Plummer and Allen Long voted for Francescut. Supervisors Kevin Crye, Chris Kelstrom and Corkey Harmon voted for Curtis.

Curtis, a Florida attorney and computer programmer, was appointed without prior experience administering California elections. He fired Francescut within his first two weeks on the job, citing her at-will employment status. No specific cause was provided. Francescut announced her candidacy shortly after.

The two candidates have presented sharply different public postures toward the community they seek to serve. Francescut told the fundraiser audience Friday that the job amounted to "ministry," citing advice from former Shasta County Sheriff Jim Pope, and urged unity regardless of party affiliation.

Curtis, meanwhile, has used his position to publicly accuse his predecessor's administration — and Francescut specifically — of criminal conduct. On Jan. 15, during what was described as a "tour of the elections office" he gave to several gubernatorial candidates and election skeptic Doug Frank, Curtis alleged that "ballot stuffing" had occurred under Francescut's watch. He said he had reported his findings to the Department of Justice. No charges have resulted. Francescut has denied the allegations, noting that previous grand jury investigations prompted by similar accusations found no wrongdoing.

The tour prompted the Board of Supervisors to investigate whether Curtis had engaged in illegal electioneering. The board dropped the inquiry on Feb. 11 after County Counsel Joseph Larmour advised that Curtis's remarks were "incidental", despite video evidence to the contrary.

Curtis has also drawn scrutiny for how he engages with the press and the public. In October 2025, the Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to condemn his removal of Shasta Scout, a nonprofit newsroom, from the county's media distribution list following critical coverage. And in a Feb. 11 interview with The Riverside Record, Curtis referred to community members who have criticized his approach as "morons" and "my little socialists," while referring to the board of supervisors as "idiots" singling out two of the five supervisors who appointed him uncooperative.

The clerk's race shares the June 2 ballot with a proposed charter amendment that would mandate hand-counted ballots, require photo identification to vote and restrict absentee voting. Legal experts have said the measure conflicts with state law, and a California appeals court struck down a similar voter identification ordinance in Huntington Beach in November 2025.

Friday's event closed with Francescut asking supporters to stay engaged, not just through the primary, but beyond it.

"We need to come together as a community to show this nation what it's like to join together," she said.

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The June 2 primary is a countywide election. The Shasta County clerk and registrar of voters serves a four-year term.