Fact Check: ‘A lot of [Joanna Francescut’s] funding is coming from San Francisco’
Shasta election official Clint Curtis has made claims that donors from San Francisco are “pouring tons of money” into his opponent’s campaign. Records show that donations from San Francisco donors make up less than half of a percentage point of Francescut’s donation total.
The claim
“A lot of [Joanna Francescut’s] funding is coming from San Francisco.”
The context
In recent weeks, Shasta County Registrar of Voters Clint Curtis has made claims on his campaign Facebook page that his opponent, former Assistant ROV Joanna Francescut, has received significant amounts of funding from San Francisco for her campaign.
In a video posted on May 1, Curtis discussed the funding going into the race for ROV, which will be voted on in the primary election on June 2. He explained that Francescut has received about double the amount of donations he has, which is true. But he also stated that “a lot of her funding is coming from San Francisco.”
In another Facebook video posted about three weeks later, Curtis compared the upcoming election to a special election last year, where California voters passed Proposition 50, a controversial measure designed to weaken Republican voter representation through gerrymandering. He said San Francisco stole voters’ representation in Congress, and “now they’re trying to steal this election as well, pouring tons of money into it for someone they know will follow their lead.”
The analysis
Curtis’ claims about Francescut receiving significant donations from San Francisco are false.
According to publicly available campaign finance records, Francescut has received just over $257 from San Francisco donors so far, making up only about 0.2% of her donation total of just over $125,000.
Even when adding in donations from donors who live in a larger group of counties sometimes referred to as Bay Area counties, only about 3.4% of Francescut’s donations are from that area.
Francescut has received almost $11,500 from outside Shasta, making up about 9% of her campaign totals. In contrast, Curtis has received more than $6,500 in donations from outside Shasta County, or around 11% of his total donations. Overall, he’s raised only about $60,000, less than half of what Francescut’s raised.
About 6% of Curtis’ donation sum has come from San Diego County, and 3% has come from outside of the state.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
Comments (25)
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I think he is setting up the basis for whatever the heck lawsuit he will file when he looses. I think June 2 observers need to watch the “poll closers” at the polling station really close.
The last thing I would ever expect is for Mr. Curtis to do is to admit he misspoke and to apologize. That’s not in his character. It’s almost as if his allegations about outside financing amounted to a last minute smear campaign.
All sides of the body “poolitical” agree… Clint Curtis is a snake oil salesman. Let’s vote for Joanna and send Clinty packing in a complete rout. Why is he being sued in other states… and why isn’t he there defending himself? Clinty poo seems to like to threaten with suing others but then cries when others defend their rights. Boo hoo Clinty
Is any of his behavior professional in any way..no it isn’t.. do we really want half naked (gross by the way) ROV’s running around the office after hours…of course not..
Do we really want a serial woman abuser in any County position… of course not
As a “denier… it’s not my fault its someone else’s” do we want him anywhere near county employees… no way
Like other JCK and now CKC idiots..zealots..whackos..megalomaniacs… .whatever fits the day in charge of our county ? Do we want any of them getting us sued more times than any Boards in history? Hell no.. use your vote.. show them the door.
I’m a deeply held conservative and I feel this way… I hope everyone who is sane feels this way.
Return our county to good governance…not Patrick Jones plan of ” get me to three and watch what happens”
Clean house….
Vote for restoring democracy in Shasta County. Vote for Clint Curtis, Rich Gallardo and Darin Hale.
No room for punch in that turd-bowl.
No thank you.
I’ve had enough of the east coast billionair’s son, phgwmfjones, the water users, mega horn girl, the fat people who dress themselves in flags, carpet bagging out of county weirdos, Kevin cry, all the idiots with jacked up trucks and the other old men driving around with flags and trump stickers, squirrel shooting can’t hold a job right wing maga tea baggers, maga nurses and mother for liberty school board members et al.
Full stop no.
Please, just go away
I ran into him at the antique store in Anderson last Saturday morning. He had tight jeans, boots, a tight amd unbuttoned western shirt, wearing a Curtis campaign pin. Very red tan. He had his wife? with him who is a cross between a thinner but still thicc honeyboo boo and the karen meme (bon jovi straw hat). They had easy going swagger… and no one was there watching except me, so it was their natural state.. which i low-key admired seeing as he is such a pariah.
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He left his keys on one of the display cases and i brought them back to him. He thanked me and exclaimed that the Jaguar wouldnt work without it. I replied, “no problem.” An older, problematic Jag. Perfect.
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He will be voted out easily and become another footnote in our rich political history. My sister calls him a bufoon. It is fitting. But he has style.
FORMER SHASTA COUNTY ELECTIONS OFFICIAL JOANNA FRANCESCUT SUES COUNTY OVER FIRING
One of the greatest legal, administrative, and political dangers facing Joanna Francescut’s campaign is not necessarily the existence of her lawsuit against Shasta County itself, but the unresolved public perception questions surrounding its timing, motivations, and future implications should she ultimately assume office as County Clerk/Registrar in January 2027.
Critics, county officials, opposing political factions, and potentially even future litigants will inevitably ask a politically uncomfortable question: if the alleged wrongful termination and retaliatory conditions were sufficiently serious to justify civil litigation, why was legal action not initiated immediately following her dismissal in 2025 rather than during an active election cycle?
Whether fair or unfair, such timing issues create fertile ground for allegations that the lawsuit is politically intertwined with her candidacy rather than solely an independent employment-law dispute. That perception could expose Francescut to accusations of conflict of interest, retaliatory intent, selective disclosure, or even the appearance that proposed reforms, audits, restructuring efforts, or personnel decisions are influenced—directly or indirectly—by unresolved personal grievances against the same governmental institution she seeks to lead.
From an administrative law perspective, this creates substantial governance complications because an elected County Clerk/Registrar must operate under heightened fiduciary obligations requiring neutrality, procedural fairness, and avoidance of both actual impropriety and the appearance of impropriety. If elected while litigation remains active or unresolved, Francescut could face recurring recusal questions regarding personnel matters, supervisory decisions, records access, disciplinary proceedings, budgetary recommendations, and interactions involving individuals connected to her prior employment dispute.
Additionally, opposing parties may attempt discovery strategies or political narratives asserting that campaign statements, public criticisms, or proposed departmental reorganizations constitute evidence of animus or predetermined retaliatory intent. The political consequences could be equally severe if supporters, donors, activist groups, or anti-Curtis factions begin publicly framing her candidacy as a vehicle for institutional “revenge” rather than lawful administrative restoration.
Francescut must therefore proceed with extraordinary caution by publicly separating her private litigation from her campaign platform, reaffirming respect for judicial due process, and emphasizing that any future governance actions would be subject to independent review mechanisms, civil-service protections, county personnel policies, labor-law compliance, and transparent evidentiary standards.
Most importantly, she must resist the temptation to exploit her litigation history as a political weapon, because the more her campaign appears emotionally or personally entangled with past disputes, the greater the risk that voters, county officials, or courts may question her ability to govern the elections office with the impartiality, restraint, and institutional neutrality required of a chief election administrator entrusted with preserving public confidence in democratic governance.
I think we can trust what Joanna had to say about why she filed the suit, to hold Crye and his MAGA cronies accountable to the law.
What you neglect to mention is her feelings after being a victim of the good old white boys club.
Take for example the treatment of the former female ROV, Cathy Darling Allen. baugh, jones, cry and others harassed her to no end , created a hostile toxic work environment just as they did to Mary Rickert.
Perhaps she took some time to process the events, which is her right.
Wrongful retaliatory termination is against both state and federally. All the yaba daba do doesn’t prevent this lawsuit from continuing. It will be a painful reminder of the idiots named Crye, Kelstrom Corkey Clint and our County CEO for letting it happen. Our 3 amigos will not only cost us 6 fiqures but the total number of taxpayer money flushed because of the deranged management taking place. Don’t let the door hit you in the rear . Oh and take those posers Gallarfo, Hobbs, Hale and what’s her name sweep out too! Foxes in the hen house!
Best part is this…Deniers running the ballot counting , longer counting times, emboldened volunteers showing off thier tasers and get this Crye Curtis and Kelstrom were fired! How beautiful..
Oh my goodness! Did Clint tell a lie? OF COURSE HE DID!
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Clint is based on conspiracy theory that has been proven false time and time again. When you spend years spreading false information, ultimately, you’re just a liar. And there’s a very good argument that lying is what Crye and Mr. Pillow put Clint in office to do as ROV: promote the BIG LIE.
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Mr. Curtis, if you want to tell us the earth is flat, that’s fine. But if you do so as an official who promotes flat earth theory as state business, or if you really believe it, sorry, but you and all the liars you have hired have no business holding an office that is based on trust and truth!
Shasta County- Please send this election-suppressing and election-denying Florida Man packing right back to where he came from! We need a responsible, knowledgeable, and trustworthy ROV and that person is Joanna Francescut!
MAN it’s going to be nice seeing this lying POS tossed out on his ass by the voters (assuming that his scheme to win by “sorting” the ballots at the precincts fails miserably). Maybe after the election Crye can join Curtis and emigrate to Florida—I’m guessing grifting Kevin has just about run out of public money to sponge up.
Do the people of Shasta County really want a liar to be our County Clerk and Registrar of voters. I think not. Vote for Joanna Francescut.
Besides not telling the public the truth, Mr. Curtis is a member of New California State, a secessionist group that does not recognize, and in fact advocates the overthrow of the State of California, and the concept of democracy.
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How can he be trusted to follow California State law?
But by his logic, then Kevin Crye’s donations should also be suspect. Shouldn’t they? Crye’s percentage of donations from the San Francisco area is far higher than Francescut’s.
Curtis is a buffoon and is grasping at straws. He can’t defend his numerous errors on the ballot and in the Voter Guide, his enormous lack of knowledge of CA election law, his misogyny, and his serious inability to lead. Every time he brings up some alleged wrong of Francescut I’m reminded of Trump screaming “but her emails!” Francescut followed CA State law by refusing to hold onto election material past their state-mandated destruction date, by opposing illegal hand-counting, by protecting election staff against pushy and often violent observers, and was vilified by her own MAGA Board of Supervisors for doing so.
Send this clown back to Florida where he still keeps his truck registered.
HOW can you tell Curtis is lying? He is talking or communicating in writing.
I would like Curtis to answer three questions: when he resided in Florida he claimed to write computer code that changed tabulation results. Has he written code for the tabulators here? Has Curtis in any way disrupted the operating systems of the tabulators used in Shasta county? Lastly, under what circumstances is an attorney required to tell the truth?
I would like him to verify his claim that he worked for NASA. Sounds like complete BS to me.
He claimed he wrote code or could write code (only take about 100 lines…HUH) but tabulators have no code. They are not computers. Would he try to ‘fix’ the tabulators. I doubt he would know how. Even if was a computer software coding has changed a lot in 25 years.
He’s got nothing. Just a slick grin, mini flags, “Stepford wife” type cronies and misleading or false information about his opponent.
Like the monkey in the zoo who throws his own stuff at the public walking by to see which one will stick.
Bobby- Thank you for your comment! That made my day laughing so hard! You nailed the guy’s profile ! 🙂
Clown Curtis lying again? Unpossible!!
Selah
Gosh (shocked look), he lied.