The old expression “there’s room to disagree” certainly applies to the race for Del Norte County District 3 Supervisor. If you go issue by issue, you may find yourself siding with incumbent Mike Sullivan sometimes and challenger Tomm Sanford at other times.

The Triplicate’s endorsement in the contest doesn’t come down to a single issue, or even a tallying up of issues where it agrees or disagrees with each candidate. Rather, it’s the result of an assessment of which candidate better understands and is prepared to engage the issues facing Del Norte County government.

In that regard, Mike Sullivan is the stronger candidate, and The Triplicate endorses his re-election bid.

Billionaires are dipping into their accounts to support their own campaigns. Jerry Brown is reinventing himself — again. Lawn signs are popping up in Crescent City, then bending to the incessant wind.

It’s still too chilly to mistake spring for summer, but the signs of election season are everywhere in California. Here in Del Norte, The Triplicate tried out yet another venue for a candidates forum, and if we can keep on busting into its busy schedule, we may have found a permanent home in the Crescent Elk Middle School auditorium.

About 300 people turned out for the forum a week ago, so it’s a good thing we had a bigger building.

In one of her last By the Way columns for The Triplicate, Ann Garlick wrote about what made her adopted hometown so special.

She recounted waking up late Christmas night with breathing difficulty and severe back pain. She asked her “sleepy and rattled” son, who was visiting from Dunsmuir, to call 911:

“John was asked for the address. He didn’t know it. He was asked who lived here. He told them.

I am writing in response to Mr. Jim Wisbauer’s letter, (“Airport expansion foes appalling, April 13,) in which he promotes beautifying our fair city with a “toilet sign” to suggest that our community is “going down the drain.”

This is exactly the type of negative community promotion that the socially responsible members of The Friends of Del Norte have responded to over the past three decades. We have always brought a positive and farsighted view of our community to the tables at which we are invited to sit.

There is a small article on the front page today about City Councilwoman Donna Westfall launching yet another initiative to throw her colleagues out of office.

A small article, because Westfall has been doing this with regularity since she was elected in November 2008.

We’ll keep this editorial small as well. Just big enough to note that in having her colleagues served with recall paperwork for the third time in less than two years, Westfall is clearly engaging in the politics of harassment.

It’s budget-cutting time again, state-wide and in Del Norte schools, and there’s no $2.9 million federal stimulus rescue for us this year. We all knew that would be the case even while gratefully gathering up those one-time funds a short year ago.

The School Board approved spending all allowable stimulus funds to employ staff this year.  That’s what the funds were for. However, the message was clear: “This is one-time money, and we’ll have to cut by this much next year.” Everyone grimaced imagining the pain ahead. Now we are all living it: 22,000 teachers were pink-slipped state wide by the March 15 deadline.