The outsiders

You’d think that the office of the state controller would, you know, have stuff under control.

But things got a little crazy last Thursday, when a wild turkey smashed through a window at the controller’s Unclaimed Property Division office in Rancho Cordova.

“He must have been moving pretty fast,” said department spokeswoman Hallye Jordan.

Luckily, no employees were hit by the falling glass or the turkey (pictured). One employee was working close to the window when the bird made its abrupt entrance. “It scared the stuffing out of him,” Jordan explained.

Since it was nearly 5 p.m. when the break-in occurred, the agency sent everyone in the building home, quickly.

Office workers are used to seeing critters around the office building, on White Rock Road. There have been coyote sightings, and a group of local turkeys like to hang out in the building’s parking lot.

Jordan kind of blew Bites’ mind when she explained that, “The name given to a group of turkeys is a rafter, although they are sometimes incorrectly referred to as a gobble or flock.”

Whoa. Anyway, the California Highway Patrol came to remove the bird, and when officers arrived on the scene, Jordan noted, “The turkey started yelling, ‘Don’t Tase me, bro!'”

OK, seriously, the important thing is that nobody was hurt. And Jordan explained the agency has declined to press charges. “We’ll just peck on somebody our own size.”

Kevin Johnson says he’s an “outsider,” running against the political establishment. And nothing says outsider like his upcoming campaign fund-raiser at Mason’s restaurant on April 17. It’ll only cost you $75 to get in the door. But if you want your picture taken with the candidate, it’s $1,150 a pop.

Why that particular number? Turns out that $1,150 is the maximum amount of money any individual can give to a mayoral candidate under local campaign-finance laws.

Mayoral hopeful Adam Daniel (who doesn’t have $500,000 to loan himself for his campaign) pointed out that Johnson announced early on that he would run a “grassroots” campaign. “The average person cannot afford to attend this soulless function. … This is far from grassroots.” Daniel put in a call to Johnson headquarters asking them to call off the event, but got no response. Hmm. Perhaps if he had put his request in writing, on a check …

So how does one run an actual grassroots campaign event? Perhaps it looks something like the No Business as Usual rally being put on Thursday by mayoral contender Shawn Eldredge.

“This is not a fund-raiser; I am not accepting money,” Eldredge explained. “It is an opportunity to be heard, and make a stand for no business as usual in City Hall.”

Instead, he’s inviting local music acts, the public and the other mayoral candidates to come to the event he’s billing as a chance to “bring attention to the importance of human involvement in their local politics.”

The rally will be held at I Dragoni, 2724 J Street, Thursday, March 27 from 5 to 8 p.m. No campaign contributions? All other candidates invited? That’s certainly not business as usual. To underscore that point, Eldredge added, “Jimmy Yee will not be endorsing this event.”