Who shapes Redding, Shasta County and the North State

Four institutional power centers, one outside megadonor, and the business families around them

The read

Your four-group hypothesis holds up in the records. Each one runs on a different currency: Bethel has people and civic gifts, McConnell has land and grants, the Emmerson family's Sierra Pacific has timber, jobs and establishment donations, and the Redding Rancheria has sovereign land and the most active campaign checkbook. From 2020 to 2024, outside money from Reverge Anselmo knocked the county board sideways. In June 2026 voters swung back toward candidates backed by Sierra Pacific and local contractors.

Judgment The bloc labels are a lens on documented ties, not proof of coordination. Being a member of a church or getting a donation doesn't show how anyone votes.

Power network

Select a node

Click any circle to see who it is, how it's connected and the sources. Drag to rearrange.

Campaign or civic money
Membership or leadership
Holds or held seat
Land, lease or partnership
Grant

Bethel business ring

Hub → Ring → Reach: the church, the businesses around it, and where they touch government
Hub and ring by sector

Inner ring: owned or run by Bethel. Middle: named in reporting or self-described as Bethel-tied. Outer: crowd-sourced list only, hidden by default. A red outline means the business or its people show up in county campaign filings. Hover any dot.

The money loop

Measured links have a public number. Not measured links are plausible channels nobody has quantified yet.

Reach: where ring-linked campaign checks went

Shasta County e-filings matched by employer, business name and known Bethel figures, 2021–2026. Each check is counted once. Purple bars backed a challenger to, or opponent of, the 2023–24 hard-right board bloc.

Shrinking-hub test
    What the ring data shows
      BusinessTierSectorWhat's documentedSrc

      The crowd-sourced list also names six individual practitioners (doctors and midwives), who are left out here. The city-owned Redding Convention Center is left out too. Being on the list doesn't mean the owner attends Bethel, or that the business coordinates with anyone.

      Campaign matches
      DonorTierRecipientAmountYearSrc

      Grant web

      Nonprofits that take grant money from two or more of the power centers, or that sit on the network's political seams
      Who funds whom

      Filled dot: disclosed grant, sized by amount (log scale). Hollow dot: listed as a recipient, amount not published. Red ring: the nonprofit gave money to the Measure A campaign. "Groups" counts Bethel, McConnell, the Rancheria, Sierra Pacific and government as five separate funders. Click a row for details.

      Case study: Advance Redding, money in and out
        Measure A: the one time the groups pooled money

        What the grant data shows

          Land & assets

          Log scale: each gridline is 10× the last
          Acres controlled

          Bethel's figure is the Collyer campus site only; its other parcels aren't publicly totaled. Sierra Pacific's figure covers all of CA/OR/WA. Anselmo sold his land in 2014. Redding's total area (~40,000 acres) is implied by McConnell holding 4,000+ acres, ~10% of the city.

          Money each group moves

          These are mixed measures (assets, revenue, economic output, project cost), so compare sizes, not like-for-like. Sierra Pacific is private and reports no revenue; the Emmersons are billionaires.

          Named holdings

          Political money

          Who funded whom (Shasta County e-filings, de-duplicated)

          The county portal lists each contribution on several report forms; this chart counts each one once. Band widths use a square-root scale so small checks stay visible; hover for exact amounts. It covers electronic filings only. Anselmo's $100K to Jones (2020) comes from the LA Times. "Local donors only" hides Anselmo, who outspent everyone else combined.

          Law, justice and civic money

          Money given to police, the sheriff, fire, schools and city venues, outside of campaigns.

          What the money pattern shows
          • The Rancheria pays everyone with a vote. It gave to both 2022 sheriff candidates, the then-clerk, school and Anderson races, and maximum checks to every supervisor who backed its casino services deal.
          • Anselmo was the shock. His filed contributions top $1.2M, and reporting puts his total at $1.6–2M. It funded the Moty recall and the 2022 hard-right majority.
          • Sierra Pacific backs stability. Its 2026 checks went to Resner and the professional registrar, and both won.
          • Bethel moves people, not PAC money. The church can't donate, so its political weight shows up as members in office and leaders' personal checks (e.g., Vallotton to Plummer).
          • Local families pick sides. The Taylor and Duralia families backed Crye. Langum, Tullis and Rhoades (paving, aggregates, construction) backed Resner.

          Who holds office

          PersonOfficeTieWhat's documentedSrc

          Housing impact

          How each group can move land, rents and building

          Timeline

          Sources

            Built from public reporting, county campaign e-filings (NetFile), city records and organizations' own materials. Being affiliated with a church or receiving a donation doesn't by itself show wrongdoing or how someone votes.