Anti-Martin group re-emerges days before election

By KEVIN COURTNEY, Register Staff Writer

A business-oriented group has entered the Napa City Council election at the last minute to promote the candidacies of Juliana Inman and Peter Mott.

Citizens for a Sustainable Napa filed financial reports with the city Thursday, saying it is spending $5,272 for a mailer and a newspaper ad endorsing the two planning commissioners.

The group first surfaced two weeks before the March 2005 election, spending $27,552 to oppose Councilman Harry Martin in his bid to become mayor and several like-minded council candidates.

In this election, the group's anti-Martin sentiments are just as strong, but the ads won't even mention him, group spokesman Jim Asbury said Thursday.

The mailer, which arrived in homes Friday, says "Napa Needs Real Leadership." It quotes from endorsements for Inman and Mott.

Asbury conceded that by weighing in just a few days before the election, Citizens for a Sustainable Napa missed influencing the high percentage of voters who cast absentee ballots.

In supporting Mott and Inman, the group is trying to promote candidates with "integrity," Asbury said. "We're trying to tip the balance against Harry."

"Twelve years is enough," Asbury said of Martin's three terms on the council. "He's too destructive for the community."

"We want to have five people on the City Council who don't have that 'Give 'em hell, Harry' attitude," said Asbury, referring to a Martin campaign slogan that the councilman no longer uses.

Citizens for a Sustainable Napa does not like Martin's fiscal policies, Asbury said. "He's been on the council for 12 years. The council went through $16 million in reserves. He doesn't seem to be a fiscal conservative," he said.

Martin's dual roles as a council member and the publisher of the weekly Napa Sentinel are also not good for the city, Asbury said. He cited the council's recent decision to pay a citizen $7,500 after Martin published information from the man's medical records that had been submitted to the city in support of a request for special accommodation for a handicap.

Martin contends that the information was a public record available to anyone. Martin believes the council paid money to settle the dispute to embarrass him on the eve of the election.

Hearing that Citizens for a Sustainable Napa had resurfaced, Martin said he had no problem with their activism as long as they did not mail last-minute attack pieces.

"If they want to be positive, I don't have a problem," Martin said. "If they want to endorse (Inman and Mott), it's their business."

Martin noted that in the 2005 election, Citizens for a Sustainable Napa sent out attack ads targeting him, his running mate Pat Rogers and a third candidate, Chris Edwards.

Saying that Citizens for a Sustainable Napa represented "developer interests," Martin said their ads might work to his advantage. "I get a lot of votes because I tick those people off," he said.

Citizens for a Sustainable Napa reported raising the following sums of $100 or more: $1,250 -- Land Values Investment, Fresno; R.H. Hess Development Co.; $950 -- Napa Redevelopment Partners, San Francisco, and Andrews and Thornley Construction; $500 -- BPI Co.; $250 -- Michael Murray, and Jenson Motor Center; $200 -- Brian Kelly, and De Crevel Inc.; $100 -- Lee Broad.

As of Oct. 21, Inman reported raising $34,590 for her campaign, with Mott in second place with $30,095. Martin's total was $10,931.

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