Meet the Candidate: Gordon Clatworthy

In partnership with KMUD News, Redheaded Blackbelt is publishing a Meet the Candidate interview series with the candidates and incumbents running for Board of Supervisor in the First, Second, and Third Districts of Humboldt County. Each candidate, interviewed by the KMUD News Department, was asked the same series of questions. None were given the questions in advance, and each were allotted 15 minutes to answer all five questions and provide their closing statement. 

KMUD aired the candidates’ answers in rotating alphabetical order by district. We will be featuring one candidate per day, and in the name of fairness, in reverse alphabetical order. Today we are featuring First District Board of Supervisors candidate, Gordon Clatworthy. 

First District Board of Supervisor candidate, Gordon Clatworthy.

KMUD News: Introduce yourself and share a little overview and background on who you are as a person and who you would like to be as a candidate. 

Hi KMUD listeners, my name is Gordon Clatworthy. I’m running for the First District Humboldt County Supervisor position–I’m a candidate. I am a retired Coastie. I’ve been stationed here for a majority of my career, retired out early due to cancer. [I] got treated here; I’m in remission. And I’m just trying to do what I can to help my …beloved Humboldt County community.

KMUD News: What inspired you to run for the First District’s Board of Supervisors position?

What inspired me to run for Humboldt’s First District? Well, I live in the First District, so it’s one of the few places that I, actually, can run. …As long as I’ve lived here, not just in the First District, but throughout the county, …we’ve had a problem with housing, not enough housing, and the growing homelessness issues. 

In fact, when I first got stationed here in the Coast Guard, it took me almost three months to find an apartment. …I had to navigate Craigslist scams …and, you know, people’s houses that they were like, ‘oh yeah, you can stay …in my tiny home.’ But …it’s a shed, …it’s not a tiny home. It’s a shed, you have a lawn mower in there. 

…There just hasn’t been enough push to get some adequate low income housing made, and that was one of my key priorities. In fact, …when I was finally able to buy my house, it took me about three years of looking for something that was not only available in my price range, and able to be purchased with a VA Home Loan. VA Home Loans have to, you know, the homes have to be at least in somewhat decent shape. And the place I ended up buying had been abandoned for a while. Parts of the ceiling had been missing where lights had been in there, and it was just …rough, and I’ve been fixing it up. …I’ve got great neighbors, I love where I live, but yeah, …the house needed help–it still needs help–but it also needed help as well. 

KMUD News: What do you think are the top five issues facing Humboldt County? And how are you hoping to address them if elected?

Oh, my God, top five issues, can we limit it to just five? All right, so top five issues the county is facing: housing is one. Our lack of healthcare access is another. Our issues surrounding our farming and our legal battles dealing with that, definitely a[n] issue. Our roads are horrendous. And our budget is in the …dump. Right now. It’s a terror. So …I think those are …the five major issues that I want to address. 

The …first major issue is housing. Obviously, housing can actually solve a lot of the other problems. So when you have enough and adequate housing, you know, we have medical staff that can’t move into the area because there’s not enough housing for them. So if we build more housing, then we’ll be able to have staff, because we already have those positions allocated for staff, and they’re already budgeted for staff. But if we don’t have the people here, …if we can’t recruit people to come to our area, …recruiting also means having a place for them to live. You know, that’s a big issue. 

Also addressing the homelessness, one of the reasons we have such a high healthcare cost–it’s over 50% of the county budget goes to health care–and a lot of that …is repeat[ed]. …There are people that live on the street and they get sick easier, they get injured easier, and they go to the ER to get treated, and the cost of [the] ER [has] skyrocketed, and the county has to pay for that. And then, …if they don’t have any place to recuperate, they just go back out in the street, wounds get reinfected, …the costs end up skyrocketing. So, using housing to address that issue as well, is something that’s going to save us money in the long run. 

And that’ll also fix our budget issues, or, you know, at least help shore up some of our budget issues.

KMUD News: Can you share an overview on how you plan to engage with the community if elected?

Oh, if elected, because …I have been engaging with the community. I think that’s how you get elected is by engaging with the community, obviously. But yeah, I mean, I’m gonna make myself available to anybody, my door is open. There are issues that people have tried to get addressed through other supervisory people that have gone ignored, and I don’t want to do that. …[P]ublic service is a public trust, and if the public can’t trust me to serve them, then …why do we even have supervisors in the first place?

KMUD News: What makes you the ideal candidate for this job? And do you believe you would do a better job than the other candidates?

Can I do a better job than the incumbent? …[I]sn’t that always …how it plays out? You know, obviously, you can do a better job than the incumbent, …every politician says that until they get into the office, and then it’s more of the same, isn’t it? But no, …I am going to try. 

There are a lot of issues that have not been addressed and need to be addressed. And there are things that the incumbent has done that I would not agree with, I wouldn’t do. Just the …last supervisor meeting before …the break. There was a vote on [the] Climate Change report that he voted no to even receive. …All the other supervisors are there to, you know, accept the report. He’s the only no vote for the Climate Change report. It’s like, …you can’t even do that. Come on. You can do better. …Humboldt County deserves better. And I want to be there for that.

KMUD News: With your remaining time would you like to share additional information about yourself or any closing remarks? 

So I was in here [in the KMUD studio,] while the guy was fixing up all the equipment. This …table is from the 1990s, 1990! So I know he’s going through the studios getting upgrades. But we were in here talking about …what it was like being a Coast Guard. And he was like, ‘Oh, he’s got stories to tell…’ So I guess I’ll tell you a Coast Guard story, how about that? 

So one of the first schools I went to, when I first joined the Coast Guard, I …was a reservist, I wasn’t really sure if this was for me or not. The thing about being in the military is you don’t know if you can be in the military until you are in the military. …So I joined as a reservist to help pay for college. And I decided that I loved the job. I loved doing it. And I’d rather just do that full time. So after a little bit of my reserve time was up, I switched over to active duty. 

One of the first schools I went to was a law enforcement school out in Petaluma, California. When they had that, I don’t …even know if that’s there, now–I think they moved it all to Virginia–but while I was at Petaluma, I rented a car and I got to drive up here for the weekend, and I went camping. …I’ve always loved being up in Humboldt, and I’ve wanted to live here, and I was lucky enough to get stationed here …three times. So at the Air Station, on the Barracuda back at the Air Station, one of the things you do while you’re while you’re stationed, especially at the Air Station, is they pull you off when you have certain qualifications. They say, ‘Hey, you know, we need people to …be on the Dorado for a little bit, or be at the small boat station, or go to Louisiana or go to Maine. And so I’ve really lucked out, being here and being able to, to call this kind of my home base, but also to travel the world. And I’ve been all over the place, and I always come back here, and this is really …where I love …living. These are my people. 

It’s a very welcoming place, Humboldt County. And I really …proud to live here and proud to put down roots here, and [I] had my kid here and …it’s wonderful. I really love it here. 

Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I guess I got three more minutes. Oh, my mom was in the Navy. And she was stationed in Australia where she met my dad. So I guess I’m a dual citizen of America and Australia …and I never gave that up. …I’m not really a fan …of living in Australia. It’s too …down under out there. 

…Before I moved here, before I got stationed here, I had been in Florida. I’ve been in Maine, New Hampshire, Louisiana, most [of the] East Coast, but this was always my number one pick …to come to Humboldt. And finally I got it. I’ve even been to Hawaii. Hawaii, it was nice. And I got the option to live in Hawaii and I still chose Humboldt County. I think it’s got the same …vibe. I feel Hawaii and Humboldt County …have a very similar vibe of just laid back …attitude. I love it. It’s great.

Candidate answers were transcribed from an audio interview, and lightly edited for reading clarification where noted. 

For more information on Gordon Clatworthy’s campaign, visit his website at Gordon Clatworthy For First District Supervisor or follow his Facebook page by clicking here. Clatworthy can be contacted by phone at 707-616-4466 or by email at [email protected].

For additional election coverage, Live Candidate Forums will be aired on KMUD News:

During the fourth and fifth weeks of January, KMUD News will be hosting live candidate forums for the upcoming elections that have a direct impact on Humboldt County residents.  Tune in to special editions of KMUD Local News from January 23rd to January 30th. 

The schedule for the forums is as follows: 

• Superior Court Judge: Tuesday, January 23rd, from 6 to 7 pm. 
• First Supervisorial District: Wednesday, January 24th, from 5 to 7 pm.
• Second Supervisorial District: Thursday, January 25th, from 5 pm to 7 pm.
• Third Supervisorial District: Friday, January 26th, from 6 to 7 pm (Please note that candidate Roy Gomez has declined to participate). 
• Measure A: Monday, January 29th, from 5 to 6:30 pm. Gain insights from both proponents and opponents. 
• Assembly District 2: Tuesday, January 30th, from 6 to 8 pm. 

To stay informed, tune in to listen kmud.org, watch live on the @KMUDNews Facebook page, or on the @LaurenSchmittreports YouTube channel. We encourage voters to submit their questions in advance to [email protected]. Your active participation ensures a robust democratic process.

To learn more about the other candidates for the Humboldt County, First District, Board of Supervisors seat, click below:

Humboldt County Meet the Candidate Forums:

1st District Candidates:

• Meet the Candidate: Jerry McGuire
• Meet the Candidate: Gordon Clatworthy
• Meet the Candidate: Rex Bohn

2nd District Candidates:

• Meet the Candidate: Brian Roberts
• Meet the Candidate: Jeana McClendon
• Meet the Candidate: Michelle Bushnell

3rd District Candidates:

• Meet the Candidate: Mike Wilson
• *Note: 3rd District Candidate, Roy Gomez, declined to participate in the KMUD Meet the Candidate forums.

Superior Court Judge:

• Meet the Superior Court Judge Candidate: Gregory Kreis
• Meet the Superior Court Judge Candidate: April Van Dyke