AI Generated Image of David Nelson post election

Written 11-09-2026, then edited, re-written and posted 11-13-2026. Click Here for the Election Results as of 11-13-2026. Placer County has 191,000+ counted with only 11,000 outstanding many of which will be disqualified (see also damaged, conditional and provisional ballots).

There were a few things on the menu of your intrepid blogger in the Placer County Election of 2026. Given the overall results on the State and National Level it was a rough time for Republicans and was filled with a lot of Faustian bargains for your intrepid blogger. One said bargain was the extremely flawed David Nelson. Another was the ass-backwards world of the City of Lincoln. Still more were the tax measures in Granite Bay and Rocklin.

Please note: The opinions expressed in this blog post are mine, period. If other people agree with me, great! (they should 😉 ) Further, allow me to remind the political universe in Placer County, I DO NOT DO ANYTHING ANONYMOUSLY. If my name is not signed to it, it did not come from me.

2026 was Just completely backwards. But all related to a couple of common denominators. Placer County did not completely track national results because of candidate quality and the occasional wedge issue.

The Two Biggest Losers of the 2026 Placer County Local Election Cycle are the Roseville Firefighter’s Union and the Northern California Building Industry Association.

The Fire Union is the easiest of all to see. They pushed all their chips across the political bargaining table into David Nelson. As of the writing of this blog, Nelson is getting hammered by Anne Carpenter 5716 to 3797. In a move matching the motif of the man I have gotten to know, Nelson was saying something to the effect of all the votes aren’t counted yet. Only someone who is a moron, on another planet, or suffering from a personality disorder makes a post like that when election night has him down 24+%. Shame on you Roseville Firefighter’s Union for legitimizing this guy.

As a fitting note – I heard from the ex-wife that Mr. Nelson took the kids to Mexico for 5 days post-election (wonder how much he drank?), but never has the time to come to Portland with the Kids where their mother lives.

Nelson was ultimately done in by scrutiny of his life decisions and the nature of his relationship to the fire union as he could not shake the accusations he had promised to give away the store to them.

This was not the only act of stupidity, the fire union aided and abetted by two democrat former electeds decided to take a shot at Roseville High School Board Member Pete Constant who is hammering left-wing social justice attorney Jeresia Ewell (10,987-7,642). Remember, Pete Constant fought for and won a pension reform battle that helped keep the City of San Jose out of a municipal Bankruptcy… but listen to the state fire union and you’d think Constant had strangled rabbits in his backyard. (The pension cut was 10%, that’s it)

The RJUHSD is one of the highest performing districts in the State of CA, if not the top. Taking out an incumbent in that district would have been extremely difficult in any political universe.

The Roseville Fire Union now has a hostile High School Board and a Hostile City Council! What a way to start a contract negotiation…

One of the most surreal moments I have had in years is when the far-left Voices of Placer featured some of my work on David Nelson. Lest some of the more extreme brand-label Republicans hyperventilate – I will allow the author to speak for everyone, “… frustratingly Conservative, yet undeniably talented blogger Aaron Park“. That is a full throated two-tusk endorsement.

Not to be outdone, the North State BIA said to the Roseville Firefighters: “Hold Our Beer”.

This started off with some not-so-obvious mistakes. The first was that some of their members still held some loyalty to the 70-something Pauline Rocucci dating back to when I was in Pre-School (Note that I am old enough for an AARP membership now). So the BIA made this even worse by donating $500 to BOTH Pauline Rocucci AND Jefferson “Jeff” Willoughby – ensuring that Willoughby would not be able to raise money from anyone interested in a water board race. When an influential organization splits the baby, it is a signal to interested parties to “stay out”.

Jeff Willoughby gutted out a monster victory over Pauline Roccucci in PCWA District 1. Roccucci started with a clear name identification advantage and the BIA’s actions favored her immensely.

Jeff was not the only one, the BIA passed on endorsing several friendly candidates, mostly school board candidates. An example is Pete Constant also had a difficult time raising money, netting just a few campaign dollars from that sphere of folks.

While Jeff Willoughby was winning 2-1, he was being told by people at the door that their biggest concern was Placer County running out of water – and the people that would see Placer County run out of water were spending big on Anne Carpenter! Landslide Jeff won the biggest margin of any truly contested race in the South Placer Area, demolishing Pauline Roccucci 19,396 – 10,072. 31+% 65.51-34.02!!!

Further, Given that the Fire Union had nothing other than social media to use (as they apparently had no pac money of their own to spend)… what the BIA did was unnecessary.

As of the writing of this blog the BIA spent just short of $60,000 all in on Anne Carpenter. When the first drop of ballots came in, Anne was over 62% of the vote. As the election day tabulation came in – which reflects the full effect of a months worth of campaign advertising, Anne was down to 59%. One could make a compelling argument that the BIA’s $60,000 actually COST Anne Carpenter votes.

What happened with the super late ballots? As of today, Anne Carpenter sits at 59.38%. That is literally rounding error from the final total on election night, there is no argument anyone can make regardless of angle, data subset or otherwise that the $60,000 spent by the BIA on Anne Carpenter was anything other than a waste of money at best.

In total, with $100,000 devoted to their narrow efforts, some if not all of that money was diverted from candidates and other efforts. It is easy to see why several candidates ran on empty. Which gets me to…

… the biggest Mistake of all for the BIA. While most all of the Placer County political establishment wanted to see Lincoln Councilmoron Holly Andreatta defeated and removed from office… the BIA gave them all the finger and poured $31,000 into her WHILE SHE WAS MAKING HEADLINES FOR HER BEHAVIOR!!! When you add in the direct money she got from developers in their sphere of influence, it was over $50,000.

Holly Andreatta is up 2914-1873, or about 8.5% after nearly $75,000 in combined money being spent on her! In a sense, the BIA bought themselves the storage wars Lincoln City Council.

The so-called conservatives that supported Holly – once parroting the over-development talking points and strained infrastructure talking points against Shanti Landon in the spring – have no more credibility. And those same people were pushing the massive 1% City of Lincoln sales tax increase that is going to pass handily! Conservatives for overdevelopment and an 8.75% Sales Tax in Lincoln! #teamholly FYI – your intrepid blogger will be monitoring what the majority does with the Measure C money.

They also put $31,000 of independent money and a $5500 check into all hat and no cattle Ben Brown who is going to lose by 4% or 106 votes out of a very small 2780 cast. In essence, while Holly Andreatta got several large checks, they left the barn door open for the other Cowboy-Hat-Wielding candidate:

“I may not be a Cowboy, but this ain’t my first Rodeo”

That’s correct, Spencer Short makes a return to Lincoln City Council after a 10-year absence. The Lot Lizard and crew are already pulling crap in anticipation of what they know is coming. (More on that soon) You could say that Holly Andreatta’s insanity sucked soooooo much Oxygen out of the room that Spencer Short slipped in through the barn door, but when you realize that Benjamin “The Hat” Brown outspent Short 10-1 on the aggregate, including the BIA money… it looks like the BIA’s money worked as well in Lincoln as it did for Anne Carpenter in Roseville.

I will give Holly credit for a key maneuver that was transcendent. I think she loses despite all the developer money had she not done this: She and some of her hardcore took a break from the Flying J and knocked on several doors in the council district attacking The Gathering Inn. Regardless of how Holly’s stupidity and behavior screwed the City of Lincoln legally in trying to fight TGI, the fact is, TGI is not popular in Lincoln and Holly owns this issue. Regardless of my disdain for Holly Andreatta, this fact bears mention as without it, she’d be losing like The Hat is.

Oh and I am hearing that Holly and crew are going to request a recount. I might drive down there to film the Tammy-Faye Bakker look-alikes in the parking lot outside of the registrar’s office when the loss is re-certified.

P.S. Spencer Short is my Attorney, too. Deal with it.

There is another Loser of Note:

Ohana Strategy Group. They should be called the Lincoln Brown Act consulting group. As of the date of this blog, Ohana took $5500 of around $12000 raised my Michelle Kubo. Kubo is losing 3870-3766. That’s 1.36%, go recount that! Imagine how much better Kubo would be doing if they charged her the same $1500 I charged a candidate I worked with that raised a similar amount of money? (Yep, I wrote off with an in-kind donation of $3500 of my normal fee) That $4,000 could have bought a lot of stuff (think Facebook, texting, some slate mail cards…)

Ohana also shows up on Holly Andreatta’s campaign finance report. If they discussed anything going on with the City of Lincoln, any issues or the agenda – regardless of weather or not it was for the campaign… they broke the law.

Ohana Strategy Group is John Reedy and Whitney Eklund – both sitting councilmembers in Lincoln, CA. Whoops. Brown Act or conflicts of interest are us, don’t worry Whitney and Johnny – your intrepid blogger has you on the radar (and your “group” too).

I found myself trying to help pass Measure B in Granite Bay, while it got over 50, it needed 67. I am not sure what is going to happen to that district now, but suffice to say, the Fire Protection out there is going to degrade. It will not be a happy blog at all when I point out what has happened to the fire protection class out there.

I also helped Measure C in Rocklin, and was happy to do so as the City is well-run and I know most all of the members of that council well. It was a lot easier to justify a tax increase in Rocklin than it was for the dysfunctional Lincoln group who went for twice as much! Measure C is going to pass.

The school board races were mixed across the board, but did not reflect the leftward lurch that happened at the state and national level.

What is clear is that your intrepid blogger is going to have plenty to write about in Placer County for a while.

P.S. Every election I work in leaves a lasting mark on my consciousness. Seeing the Videos of David Nelson’s ex-wife (who is deaf) on facebook will haunt me for a while. Especially the recent one where she is sharing (in sign language with a translator overlaid on the video) how blessed she is to have found a nice clean motel to stay in for a while. Meantime, her Ex who is her ex because he cheated on her, went to the court while she was homeless to basically take their children from her. The Roseville Firefighter’s Union owns that 100% and I won’t let them forget it anytime soon.