Redding Chamber of Commerce endorses Wenham and Prosperi for City Council.
With three seats open, the Chamber has endorsed two candidates after an evaluation “measuring competence over confidence.”
The Redding Chamber of Commerce released its first general election guide for the Redding City Council with Russ Wenham and Christina Prosperi winning the highest score out of seven participating candidates.
Wenham rose to the top, receiving a score of 9.2. Prosperi followed with a score of 8.6.
Endorsements for candidates were based on interviews and forums conducted by the Redding Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee along with input from additional chamber members. The participating candidates received their final scores based on their responses to questions about economic development, public safety, regulatory and business climate, fiscal responsibility, and governance and decision making.
Taking the lead in the fiscal responsibility category, Wenham advocated for labor cost reductions through city salary freezes and strategic furloughs to address increasing budget pressures, according to the election guide.
A community service centered business owner, the chamber said Christina Prosperi’s approach centers practicality and unity. Public safety was Prosperi’s highest placing category at a score of 8.8.
At the forefront of her approach is sustainable public safety, the chamber said. She believes this is accomplished through strong emergency response along with a variety of prevention tactics ranging from enhanced code enforcement to increased youth programs, according to her written response.
The chamber’s general election guide serves as an alternative to highly scrutinized Political Action Committee donations. From 1998 to 2022, the chamber allocated PAC donations to endorse business-friendly political candidates. The practice caused political tensions within the business community and was ended in 2022.
The guide also features recommendations on statewide ballot initiatives, suggesting opposition to propositions 40 and 3, which address taxes for high income earners. The criteria for how the chamber assessed ballot measures was based on their “potential effects on employers, workers, public services, and the long-term strength of our community,” according to the guide.
No endorsement was made for a candidate to fill the Shasta County District 5 supervisor seat. Instead, the guide gave Mike Gallagher an overall rating of 7.7 and incumbent Chris Kelstrom, 6.6.
“Our rubric was designed to measure competence over confidence,” said chamber president and CEO Todd Jones in a press release on Monday. “We looked for candidates who had done their homework, understood the challenges facing our community, and were prepared to offer practical solutions.”
The chamber’s endorsements centered on the same two candidates that were also endorsed in September by a newly-formed group calling itself Redding Good Governance, a coalition of 11 community leaders.
Redding voters will have their say on the contested three open Redding council seats on Nov. 3.
Other Shasta County voters can also participate on general election day by casting their choice for Shasta’s District 5 supervisor along with votes for school boards and local and statewide ballot measures.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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“…this private trade association…is performing a thinly veiled act of self-interest…”
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There’s nothing veiled about it. thinly or otherwise. They’re the Chamber of Commerce. Their mission is to promote their business interests. Those interests include getting their straws into public funds made available for public works.
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There are contexts where that’s not the best model—for example, the electric power grid is privately owned, but rate payers will pay 100% of the price for modernizing and expanding the grid. I’ve read estimates that we’ll be paying an average of $140/month more on our electric bills to fund that effort (likely much more if you’re a PG&E customer). I’ve also read that it would be more like $10-$15/month if the grid was publicly owned.
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Of course, businesses are lining up out the door to be PG&E vendors and get some of your $140/month multiplied by >5 million customers. They’re in business of winning contracts and doing the work. Nobody involved is hiding that.
Franco.. I think we will agree that the Chambers role as a true advocate of businesses was compromised when it accepted the marketing funds from COR. I disagree with you negative assessment of the Chambers role in general. If anything, the Chamber will ensure that the backroom deals and such are handled in public view, The Chamber is controlled by small business not big business, and as such acts at one of the checks and balances against all the things you are concerned about. If anything close to what you’ve expressed concerns about, it would be the Chamber that would (should) complain in a loud and public way. As for the endorsements, again, they done you a favor. They came out a publically announced who they like (no stealth endorsement), Now that you know who they like, and you can use that to decide who you want to vote for.
Of course a bethel cult Jaggernut would endorse another bethel cult Jaggernut!
Wenham, is the building contractor for the new Bethel cult Jaggernut headquarters! The known sexual predators at the bethel cult, are doing everything they can to keep control of the city council.
BUCK FETHEL
OK, the money has spoken.
Selah
“Redding Chamber of Commerce endorses Wenham and Prosperi for City Council”
BIAS at its best!
The political endorsement of Russ Wenham and Christina Prosperi by the Redding Chamber of Commerce exposes the inherent conflict of interest at the heart of local governance, where private enterprise attempts to clear an direct path to public funds. By wrapping their endorsement in the language of “competence,” this private trade association—composed primarily of local real estate developers, commercial brokers, and corporate executives—is performing a thinly veiled act of self-interest. The endorsing committee’s strong bias toward candidates with deep ties to major engineering firms and state agencies like Caltrans reveals an agenda focused less on broad community welfare and more on positioning business-friendly insiders to dictate municipal development.
At its core, this endorsement is about securing favorable access to highly lucrative municipal and state government contracts worth millions of taxpayer dollars. When an organization representing private industries handpicks and finances candidates who have spent decades navigating infrastructure and development pipelines, it creates a revolving door that directly benefits their members’ bottom lines. This corporate alignment threatens to turn the Redding City Council into a clearinghouse for well-connected developers and consulting firms, undermining democratic transparency and ensuring that future city expenditures, zoning choices, and public works projects prioritize private profits over the authentic needs of Redding residents.
Can you just post under one name already?
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Shasta scout, you can delete my other double comment above.