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Supervisor candidates clash over hobo bash

September 5, 2014

hoboBy JOSH FRIEDMAN

A planned fundraiser for San Luis Obispo County supervisor candidate Lynn Compton involving “hobo stew” has become the center of the latest controversy in the nasty campaign for the fourth district seat.

The Compton campaign is planning an Oct. 5 fundraiser at the Oceano train depot in which attendees are invited to come dressed in hobo attire and eat soup dubbed hobo stew. The fundraiser has prompted allegations from incumbent Caren Ray’s campaign that Compton is showing contempt for homeless individuals.

“Are you appalled, offended and outraged by this disgusting lack of compassion for a segment of our county’s population which Lynn Compton is supposedly campaigning to represent,” Ray’s treasurer Kathie Matsuyama wrote in an email to supporters.

Supervisor Adam Hill also chimed in, encouraging others to forward Matsuyama’s email and to post about the issue on social media pages.

But, Compton’s campaign says that Ray’s supporters have drummed up a controversy by twisting the definition of hobo.

A hobo is not a homeless person, the Compton campaign says. Rather it is a traditional American lifestyle that values travel over stationary living and involves work, just usually in short stints. They also noted that this same type of hobo event has been done for years by the Oceano Elks.

“This is no way of disparaging homeless people,” Compton supporter Linda Austin said in an email. “Hobos are part of American lore.”

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Sounds like fun, wish I could go. Maybe the other candidate can sponsor a dance, where the girl invites the boy, possibly in Arroyo Grande?


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I think Caren Ray. aka Cop-U-Lator (hash harrier runner) already did!


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Why doesn’t Ray’s campaign tell us how she has helped the homeless? Perhaps she can obtain some statistics from Adam Hill’s wife? Oh wait, wasn’t his wife demoted for the

inappropriate use of gift cards meant for the homeless?


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Why doesn’t Caren Ray explain how she became nearly exempt from property taxes on her home with “historical significance”. She’s no different than the group she runs with, and I don’t mean the naked ones!


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hobos were indeed ‘homeless’ usually men who ‘road the rails’ and set up camps next to the tracks out of towns , in the valley, where they would try to stay away from trouble. OH my , who thought this up for a political fundraiser, they need to change the ‘theme’ , or cancel the whole thing. It isn’t a good image.


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Instead of ‘hobo stew’ how about “LET THEM EAT CAKE”.


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Supervisor Adam Hill also chimed in…” I’ve been wondering where our little “waste-of-skin” has been lately.


I met Caren a couple of months ago while she was in our neighborhood and she seemed like a good person and I was leaning towards voting for her until learning that Adam Hill was involved with her by running-his-mouth via emails.


Does Adam Hill not understand what a negative effect he has on anyone stupid enough to allow him to be in their corner?


To Lynn Compton: Adam Hill is the best person you could have campaigning for you. He just cost Caren my vote and my wife’s as well.


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” A hobo is an itinerant worker, a career which sprang up during the depression. A hobo, unlike a bum or a tramp, is more than willing to work, but mostly for a short duration, as their main impetus is travel, the love of the journey above the actual destination. A bum is stationary, feeding off of those unfortunate enough to cross his path; a hobo merely travels from town to town, finding work when he can, but only for the sake of financing his next adventure”. Urban dictionary.


“When I first started hobo’in,

I took a freight train to be my friend

-John Lee Hooker


Even in the 1950’s, we had hobos, and they commanded a certain amount of respect. They always came to the back door and asked for work. We always gave them something to do for money and a couple of sandwiches to take with them. We never saw the same one twice.


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you’re right. many came to my grandparents’ back door in West Virginia. like many oaxacans who came to my back door years ago. honor.


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Well, Citizen, thanks- you raise an interesting historical point. But, yeah- that was the 1950s. This is 2014. Like it or not, the Ray campaign is using 21st century campaign tactics. So the Compton campaign needs to be on their toes if they want to win this election, and to do that they need to be cognizant of the politics of 2014 and not appear to be still lingering in the past. That just falls into the trap of the Republicans being out of touch with the present.


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My grandparents farm was next to the tracks and a train depot. My grandmother would feed

the hobos when they came by. We loved to sit and talk to them. Such stories and such

nice people. Long for those days again, before all this P.C. came along.


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Ugh. Caren Ray’s campaign team is comprised of the same head-thumped morons as Adam Hill’s. What galls me most is their incessant churlishness seems to win elections. We can do better than this. Give Ray a ride on the rails the hell out of county politics. Maybe she can take Hill with her.


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We can only hope that since she quit her teaching job to take the supervisor appointment, she loses the election, our youth will be far better off!


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OK, so let’s recap here. The Compton campaign says a hobo “… is a traditional American lifestyle that values travel over stationary living and involves work, just usually in short stints” and that “… this same type of hobo event has been done for years by the Oceano Elks.” “This is no way of disparaging homeless people,” Compton supporter Linda Austin said in an email. “Hobos are part of American lore.”


Well, Lynn and Linda, maybe, technically, you have a valid historical point. But, when it comes to contemporary campaign strategy and tactics, neither one of you apparently has any common sense whatsoever.


Did it never occur to you that this idea could be misconstrued and manipulated by your critics and opponents? Did it never occur to you that you could be handing them a ton of ammunition to use against you? Did it never occur to you that use of a term that may have had a different significance ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO might not have the same relevance and utility now? Did you seriously expect that this “fundraising” idea might attract the hobo vote for your campaign? Did you NOT have any other less-volatile fundraising theme options to consider? Who compiled your list of fundraising theme options for consideration?


Seriously, now, this is NOT a rhetorical question: What the Hell were you thinking?


Regardless whether the readers here are Ray supporters or Compton supporters or independents, I’ll bet a whole bunch of them are left scratching their heads about the decision to use “hobo stew” as a wise choice for a campaign fundraising event theme.


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And here is the whole problem with this country: “Did it never occur to you that this idea could be misconstrued and manipulated by your critics and opponents?”. PC to it’s fullest; walk on eggshells.


My grandfather was a detective for the Baltimore & Ohio and I enjoyed his stories. A little Hobo Stew sounds good.


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Did it ever occur to you (or Caren or New Times) that ‘hobo’ is associated with hitching rides on freight trains to move about and that this event is at the Oceano Depot TRAIN STATION? AND, that the Depot had used this very same theme in the past? And no one took exception until it became something to exploit for political purposes?


Not to mention the whole complaint is being put out there by Caren’s campaign treasurer.


Caren Ray is so vacuous.


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Hey, tomsquack and Kevin Rice- I don’t necessarily disagree with what you’ve said. But, again, that’s not the point. There should have been dozens, maybe hundreds, of campaign fundraising event themes to choose from that wouldn’t so easily provide fodder for the opposition to use against them.


Is it unfortunate that this event’s theme is subject to being misconstrued and manipulated? Yes, of course. But, given the nature of the press and the Ray campaign, it is also totally predictable. THAT is where the problem lies here.


You want to defeat Ray and her campaign? Fine. But then don’t continue to give them ammunition to use against you and blindly walk straight into such obvious and predictable traps.


It may be unfortunate, but in this world, ‘ya gotta use your head to succeed.


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yeah, i kind of agree with you here “There should have been dozens, maybe hundreds, of campaign fundraising event themes to choose from that wouldn’t so easily provide fodder for the opposition to use against them”.


a bit sad


makes me think of a 60’s song; “Think me into any shape, your twisted mind has no escape”. not you in particular, of course.


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The Caren Ray people are really getting desperate. And isn’t it interesting that every time something is in the news about Caren Ray, Adam Hill’s name comes up?


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Can’t these people get a life. There really has to be more important issues in our county than a hobo stew feed. Compton is absolutely correct regarding hobos. In fact just recently there

was a show on TV telling the story of hobos just as Compton has stated.

Some time ago there was a restaurant in Atascadero called Hobo Joe’s. I guess that I’m to

assume that it should have been named Homeless Joe’s.

I think it’s time for a break in the Ray campaign. Maybe they should get some relief and

schedule a get together with Steve Adams an Tricia down in Arroyo Grande.


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