Shasta County Supervisor Kevin Crye Says He Feels Pride, Relief, Regardless of Recall Outcome

Kevin Crye coaches boys’ basketball as final votes come in on the evening of his recall election. Photo by Annelise Pierce.

March 10, 2024 3 pm: We have updated this story to correct a vote total.

As the polls wound to a close on March 5, Shasta County Board Chair Kevin Crye was on the basketball court at a local school gymnasium coaching his son and about a dozen other boys.

As of March 6, preliminary election results show the vote to recall Crye ahead with 53%, but only a 245 vote margin. About 30,000 votes still remain to be counted.

Regardless of the outcome of the recall vote, Crye said he and his family are looking forward to a break from the active campaigning he’s been engaged in for much of the last two years. 

“I feel good,” Crye said. “I’m gonna be able to get back to some normalcy as a dad, and as a business (owner).” 

Elected in November 2022 by a margin of less than one hundred votes, he says he went back to campaigning just two months after his win, in February 2023, when talk of a recall election began gaining ground.

By spring of 2023, over 4,000 residents of Shasta County’s District 1 had signed a petition to recall Crye, putting the issue on the March 5 ballot. Recall proponents, many of them long-term Shasta County seniors, have also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the recall movement, almost all of it from in-county sources.

Crye expressed uncertainty about whether or not he would be able to beat the recall, but said he would feel a sense of relief, and a sense of pride, either way.

“What we’ve accomplished in fourteen months,” Crye continued, “I’m proud of. We got (Measures C and D) on the ballot . . . We have the AT HOME Program, which is something they’ve tried to do for years, and we finally got that off the ground and running. We have a lot of the right people in the right spots (on county staff), and there’s still more work to do.”

While Crye may be proud of what he’s accomplished, his opponents express deep concern about many of his decisions, referring to them as “reckless and irresponsible.” They’ve particularly objected to his stance on changes to the elections process, his support for a deal with the Redding Rancheria that was opposed by many on staff, his decision to suspend the county’s developmental impact fees and his approval of large severance packages for some new county staff members.

Crye was among the majority of Shasta County supervisors who supported the idea that a perceived lack of trust in elections was reason enough to cancel the county’s contract with Dominion for a voting machine system and call for hand counting votes instead. After months of uncertainty and significant investments in a hand counting process, a new state law that became official in October 2023 made Crye’s hopes to hand count votes illegal. By that time the board, including Crye, had already voted to approve a new contract for Hart InterCivic voting machines.

His recall votes are currently being tallied by Hart machines. Asked whether he would trust those machine-counted results, Crye was noncommittal. He said while he feels there’s a lot of room for improvement in the elections process generally, he also very much respects the Assistant County Clerk and Registrar of Voters, Joanna Francescut who’s managing the current elections process.

“I think Joanna is really going to work hard at (looking for room for improvement in the process),” Crye explained, “and I’ve always really respected Joanna’s willingness to listen and have conversations.”

Asked about his main regret about his time in office so far, Crye said he feels he failed to prepare his family, and himself, for the realities of political life. Looking for words to explain his perspective he paused briefly, turned to the team he was coaching, and asked them to share the difference between a wise person and a smart person. The boys, who had clearly heard this question before, answered in unison that a smart person learns from their own mistakes while a wise person learns from the mistakes of others. 

“I wish I would have started following politics a lot sooner,” Crye continued, referencing the boys’ words, “And learned what not to do, or what to say.”

Referencing community concerns about his visit to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell who’s widely seen as an election conspiracy theorist, Crye said he could have been less open with the public about some of his activities behind the scenes.

“It’s not that you’re not honest or transparent, but you just don’t need to share everything. And I’m an over-sharer.” 

Crye sought reimbursement from county funds for his trip to seek advice from Lindell which meant he was required to share information about the trip with the public. Had he paid for it himself he could have kept the trip private.

Crye said he hopes he’ll get another two-and-a-half years in office but emphasized that he’s grateful for the time he’s already had. If the final result on the recall vote allows him to stay in office, he promised he won’t allow the recall threat to affect how he treats those who oppose him.

“If I’m blessed enough to get through this, and I’m still the (county board) chair,” Crye said, “They’re not going to see any gloating. They’re not going to see me all of a sudden treat people differently. I’m not going to all of a sudden lash back (at my opponents.) You know, I’m going to say let’s move on. I forgive. And let’s get county work done. Because that’s what I want.”

“I’ve done the best I can,” he added. “And I’ve worked as hard as I could for Shasta County.”

Recall proponents, including senior citizen Steve Woodrum, who often offers public comment on the recall and has donated to the cause, has spent many of his late afternoons over the last few weeks standing in the rain holding a Recall Crye sign, strongly disagree.

“I sometimes stand on a street corner (with a sign)” Woodrum responded to Shasta Scout by email last week when asked what motivatd his individual demonstration.

“In 2006, I held a sign with the number of Americans killed in Iraq . . . After George Floyd, I held a sign with WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? Now I stand with a Recall sign.”

“Crye is best suited for the private sector where he can make snap decisions with his own money,” Woodrum continued. “he is a promoter and the thing he promotes the best is himself.”

Shasta County Elections Office plans to release the next round of election results today, Friday, March 8 at 4:30 pm.

Have questions, concerns, or comments you’d like to share with us directly? Reach out: editor@shastascout.org.