When the former District Attorney resigned unexpectedly after that fireworks explosion on a sheriff deputy’s property, I got suspicious. The timing. The circumstances. The lack of answers. We still don’t know who knew what and when they knew it. And now we’re supposed to just accept his handpicked replacement?
I don’t think so…
Because of my suspicions, I sat down with Cynthia Rodriguez to hear her out. This is what I found.
I walked into her home and her daughter Libby was there. Libby greeted me like an old friend with a giant hug, and then never left my side after that. And that told me everything I needed to know about the Rodriguez family. About who Cynthia is. About what she values.
Libby is a highly alternative-needs young woman. I won’t pretend to know the full extent of her medical needs. What I know is what Cynthia told me. The years of fighting. The tooth and nail battles just to get the proper accommodations, like sign language (Yes, they had denied Libby sign language, in which she is now fluent) in place for her daughter. She attended hearings for other children, pro-bono. She has fought for ALL children in such need. For years. Not months. Years of fighting a system that wants to give up on children.
That fight didn’t stay at home. It went into her career. It shaped her entire approach to justice.
Cynthia Rodriguez has spent 44 years in the criminal justice system. She’s been a Public Defender at three different offices. She’s been General Counsel for the California Department of State Hospitals, helping to shape a $10 billion budget and over 200 employees, and over $30 million in her division. She knows budget, transparency, and accountability, and she respects those principals. She’s supervised attorneys, investigators, medical professionals, and mental health specialists. She’s worked with CDCR including intense collaboration with officers, lieutenants, and wardens. She had worked with the Legislature, and county agencies across the state. She knows this machine from the inside out.
But more importantly, she knows who the machine crushes when it’s not well run.
The poor. The minority. The disabled. The ones the system was never designed to protect. The ones it was designed to manage, control, and sometimes discard. She’s spent her life fighting for them. Not because it was convenient. Not because it was popular. Because it was right.
She ran for this office in 2021. She got 18,700 votes. Over 40% of the electorate. She went from an unknown candidate to a force in this county because people heard what she had to say and they rightly believed her. She earned that support. She didn’t inherit it. She didn’t get appointed to it. She built it.
And now we have a choice. We can accept a suspicious pick from a compromised administration. Someone who might have known about the fireworks. Someone who might have looked the other way. Someone who owes their position to the very people who may have created this mess.
Or we can choose the woman who has spent her life fighting for the people the system leaves behind. The woman who knows what it means to fight for a child the world wants to give up on. The woman who greeted me in her home with a daughter who hugged me like family and never left her “best friend”s side.
That’s who you want making decisions about justice in Yolo County.
Not someone’s handpicked successor. Not someone who owes favors. Not someone who may be compromised.
Cynthia Rodriguez isn’t compromised. She’s tested. She’s proven. She’s ready.
The former DA left under a cloud. We don’t need his replacement operating in the same shadow. We need sunlight. We need trust. We need someone who fights for the vulnerable because she’s been in that ring her whole life.
Cynthia Rodriguez is that person. She is the one.
Call, email, smoke signals…
Please let your county supervisors know who should be in charge of justice in this county.
Oscar Villegas District 1 – (916) 375-6440 – oscar.villegas@yolocounty.org
Lucas Frerichs District 2 – (530) 757-5557 –lucasF@yolocounty.gov
Mary Sandy District 3 – (530) 666-8230 – mary.vixiesandy@yolocounty.gov
Sheila Allen District 4 – (530) 757-5554 – sheila.allen@yolocounty.gov
Angel Barajas District 5 – (530) 666-862 – Angel.Barajas@yolocounty.gov
Its not a binary choice.
“Someone who might have known about the fireworks. Someone who might have looked the other way. Someone who owes their position to the very people who may have created this mess.”
So without showing any proof if someone “might have” or “may have” known about something it disqualifies them?
You have shown time and time again that you have no problem voting for corruption…
No morals.
So why would ANYBODY listen to YOU upon such a subject?
But you know… keep lapping up every👏 single 👏word 👏 I write.
Good boy!
What kind of kangaroo court reasoning is it that someone doesn’t qualify for a position because they “may have” known something without any proof given?
People can accuse someone else that they “may have” known about almost anything. That’s just dirty politics in my opinion.
Keith, liebchen, we’ve already established that your opinions are crap, but sure, let’s walk through it one more time for the people in the back.
This isn’t a criminal trial, Keith. It’s a job interview. The standard isn’t proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The standard is whether the public can trust the person to do the job. And when the job is investigating the people who just gave you that job, the answer is no.
You’re acting like this is a courtroom. It’s not. It’s an appointment. You don’t need to prove corruption to say “this person has a conflict of interest that makes them unfit for this specific role at this specific time.” You just need the conflict. And the conflict is staring everyone in the face.
The former DA resigned under a cloud. A deputy’s property had illegal fireworks. People died. Multiple people. The DA quit. And now his handpicked replacement is supposed to investigate the administration that just handed them the keys? That’s a closed loop. That’s someone investigating the one who put them there on their first day. And you think that’s fine?
You’re right that people can accuse someone of “may have known” about almost anything. But this isn’t “almost anything,” Keith. This is dead bodies. This is a sheriff deputy. This is illegal explosives. This is a DA who quit right after it happened. This is murder… The circumstances are specific. The timing is specific. The conflict is specific. You have to be trying pretty hard not to see it.
And here’s the thing you’re pretending not to understand. The issue isn’t whether the replacement “may have known.” The issue is whether the replacement can be trusted to investigate the people who appointed them. That’s not a kangaroo court. That’s basic goddamn accountability. That’s asking for the bare minimum.
You want to talk dirty politics? Dirty politics is a compromised DA installing his successor on the way out the door. Dirty politics is expecting the public to trust that the replacement will investigate the boss who just gave them a promotion. Dirty politics is pretending that’s normal. Dirty politics is defending it on the internet like you’re getting paid by the word.
Possible corruption versus no corruption. That’s the choice, Keith. Not guilt versus innocence. Not proof versus speculation. Possible corruption versus no corruption. One candidate comes with baggage. The other doesn’t. One candidate owes favors. The other doesn’t. One candidate might protect the people who created this mess. The other won’t.
You pick the one with no corruption. Every time. Not because you can prove the other one is dirty. Because you can’t prove they’re clean. And in a job where the public trust is everything, that’s the only standard that matters.
This isn’t dirty politics, Keith. It’s the bare minimum. And the fact that you can’t see that, continues to support everything anybody needs to know about your judgment.
What is crap are your guilt by association efforts to impugn, without evidence, the Acting D.A.
“Because you can’t prove they’re clean.”
Since when does one have to prove they’re clean? I thought the burden of proof was on the accusers. One is considered innocent until proven guilty
It’s like the “when did you stop beating your wife?” complex question fallacy.
Matt because I don’t agree with you can now throw more invectives my way and somehow the Vanguard allows it.
But let me ask you why a County Supervisor would want to choose somebody who ran for an office and lost by 20 points? Somebody who lost in every precinct in the county except one.
I have no idea who they will choose and I have no problem with Cynthia Rodriguez. But if I’m on the board I wouldn’t choose someone who was rejected so decisively in an election.
If Cynthia is interested in the job she could run again in two years. And if I was on the board of Supervisors I would want someone qualified who isn’t interested in running for the job after gaining incumbency by appointment. But that is only one person’s opinion.
Almost certainly, the person chosen to fill the position will be someone who is interested in running and will therefore be handed an incumbency advantage. Why not give it to Rodriguez who at least took the time and effort to run for office as opposed to someone who is an employee in the line of succession of the former DA.
Rodriguez ran and lost by a wide margin as the voters showed they were against her ideology. Why should she now be given the position in which the voters have already rejected her for?
I think the rest of Yolo County might find it a little odd to appoint someone who lost in every other part of the county than Davis. https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/1ddac1ef3410474e91b25ff400376ca6/page/District-Attorney
Good point!
That chart is devastating.
I don’t say this often but I fully agree with Don Shor here.
Reisig was a long term incumbent, and I suspect a lot of people voted on the basis of name recognition, of which he had plenty. In addition, lots of people are change averse and almost always vote for continuity, although MAGA has bucked that trend of late. As a result none of the candidates who ran against Reisig did well.