What were they thinking?

People say and do the strangest things. Public figures are no exception. Here are some of the odd events and statements that left us scratching our heads in 2012.

Toby Schindelbeck’s gaffes

In some ways, businessman Toby Schindelbeck ran a good campaign for City Council this year. He raised a lot of money and made himself widely known in the community. Unfortunately, he was known as much for his gaffes as anything.

First there was his insistence, at a Tea Party rally in April, that low-income housing draws crime—a charge not borne out by police data. Then, in May, he publicly blamed the City Council for the closure of Fire Station 5, when it was the fire chief’s decision.

Schindelbeck also charged that the city had spent $74,000—money that could have been used to keep the station open—to buy five paintings for City Hall. The paintings had been purchased years earlier.

His most notorious gaffe, however, was a posting he made on his Facebook page that went viral, at least locally. It was apparently a response to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi and Mitt Romney’s charge that President Obama had “apologized” for America.

“Obama is an idiot and a coward,” Schindelbeck wrote. “… What a useless puke.”

Then, when Chico State student Christian Crandall posted a calm and reasoned reply, Schindelbeck’s response was blunt: “Christian, you are an idiot. Goodbye.”

Schindelbeck failed to win election, finishing sixth.

Safeway says no!

In April, managers of the East Avenue and Mangrove Avenue branches of the Safeway supermarket chain harassed petitioners gathering signatures in support of Proposition 37, the GMO-labeling initiative.

Despite having prior permission from the manager of the East Avenue store, one local Prop. 37 organizer was told by him that if she were seen anywhere near the store, he would call the police.

At the Mangrove store, when one petitioner, Nicolas Guillermo, was told to leave, he offered documents reflecting state law showing he was legally entitled to gather signatures at such a venue. The next day a sign appeared: “Valued Customers. Solicitors or petitioners are here without our permission. To encourage them to leave, please do not contribute money or sign petitions. Thank you, Store Management.”

Weeks later, the assistant manager of the Mangrove Safeway gave students and teachers from Rose Scott Open-Structured School the boot when they were trying to sell raffle tickets as part of a school fundraiser, despite having the manager’s permission.

Logue’s double run proves costly

Dan Logue dropped a bombshell this election season when he decided to toss his hat into the crowded race for Doug LaMalfa’s vacated state Senate seat, even though he was favored to win the re-election campaign he was already conducting as an incumbent assemblyman.

Questions about how he could possibly occupy both offices were scrapped when he subsequently quit the Senate race, citing health problems, but the damage was done. Not only had he focused more attention on the Republican infighting that plagued the party this cycle, but also had failed to withdraw in time to remove his name from the ballot.

Non-candidate Logue garnered more than 43,000 votes in the race, much to the consternation of fellow Republican Jim Nielsen, who beat second-place candidate Mickey Harrington with a total of 49.8 percent of the votes but failed to get the majority needed to take the seat.

A costly special election to be held Jan. 8—largely resulting from Logue’s maneuvering—is the result.

Candidate gets child support

Successful Chico City Council candidate Sean Morgan raised $38,661 in campaign contributions, including $500 each from three children of David and Sharon Purser, who had also each contributed $500.

City code limits contributions to $500. State law states contributions made by children are presumed to be from their parents or guardians. Morgan said he was fully aware that minors had contributed and that his treasurer, Karli Olsen, had assured him it was OK.

As the CN&R was putting the story together, Olsen called to say they were giving the money back to the kids.

“Nice house … let’s smoke it!”

An April attempt to get high(er) turned into a major bummer for three Chico State University students who accidentally set their house on fire.

The explosion and subsequent fire at the corner of West First Avenue and Warner Street erupted when housemates Nicholas Glasco, Devin Murphy and Cheyenne Havens—ages 19 to 21—allegedly tried to make “honey oil,” also known as “hash oil.”

Internet instructions on how to make the super-concentrated tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) extract usually utilize butane and contain warnings not to attempt the process in unventilated areas.

The three escaped uninjured but were left homeless and arrested on charges of manufacturing a controlled substance. It’s doubtful they got their deposit back.

LaMalfa says abortion causes cancer

Speaking at a Redding debate in September, congressional candidate Doug LaMalfa made a surprising comment to the effect that abortion causes cancer. Asked about it later by KRCR-TV reporter Mark Mester, LaMalfa expanded his statement.

“Research has shown there is that higher level of incidence, there is that risk, and so I would want women to be fully informed of all the aspects of it before they would make a decision like that,” LaMalfa told Mester. “I think that shows more care for women than by simply shuffling them off to an abortion mill …”

It could have died there, but back in the studio Mester did some research and learned that LaMalfa’s statement simply wasn’t true—there’s no connection between abortion and cancer.

The next day LaMalfa’s campaign sent out a correction saying he was misinformed and was relying on information he remembered reading several years ago. (It said nothing, however, about his condescending comment about “shuffling them off to an abortion mill,” as if women were livestock.)

Special Olympics canceled … seriously?

In November 2011, organizers were verbally assured by Chico State officials that the 40th annual Special Olympics Basketball Tournament could be held at campus facilities the first Sunday of the following March, as it had been for decades.

But just weeks before the event, they were informed one of the two gyms they needed had been reserved for a volleyball tournament.

They also discovered changes in university policy had raised the rental price from the $350 they’d always paid to $3,800. The Special Olympics event was canceled. Insult was added to injury when the volleyball tournament was wrapped up Saturday, leaving the gyms in question empty the day the original event was scheduled.

Aanestad calls Obama a Muslim

On April 22, at a Paradise Tea Party Patriots gathering, Republican congressional candidate Sam Aanestad reportedly said President Obama was a Muslim. Allen Stellar wrote in this paper that he’d asked Aanestad if he believed the president was a Muslim, and he said indeed he did.

At a press conference about a month later, Aanestad explained: “What I said was that the president’s background is Muslim. He was brought up in the Muslim culture, his father was a Muslim. Does that mean he follows the practices and customs? He says he is Christian. Who are we to judge?”

Supervisor’s bad joke

In March Butte County Supervisor Bill Connelly forwarded a joke via email to a county employee about a driver at a stoplight next to a “carload of bearded, young, loud Muslims, shouting anti-American slogans” when “an 18-wheeler came speeding thru the intersection & ran directly over their car, crushing it completely, killing everyone in the car. For several minutes I sat in my car thinking to myself, ‘Man … that could have been me!’ So today, bright and early, I went out and got a job as a truck driver.”

When asked about it a few days later, Connelly bristled: “It was just a joke,” he said.

Pedal to the metal

Bay Area resident Lynne Cahill-Gomez’s lead foot earned her national attention in March after she was cited for speeding three times in one hour on Highway 70.

The 53-year-old Hayward resident was booked into a Yuba County jail after being pulled over by the CHP once for driving 103 mph, being clocked 20 minutes later at 105 mph, and then a third time 40 minutes later driving 76 mph in a 55 mph zone. She said she was rushing her help her injured elderly mother.

Cahill-Gomez was released from jail two days after her arrest.