A week after reports were abounding that Paul Cook was on the brink of resigning as First District San Bernardino County supervisor in order for former State Assemblyman and ex-Hesperia Mayor Thurston Smith to be appointed to that post, word now comes that the 82-year-old Cook is determined to remain in office until the end of his term in 2028 and is openly talking about running for reelection that year.
The Sentinel and other news outlets in July reported that Cook and others had engaged in considerable backroom maneuvering and political horsetrading involving other supervisors, high-level county staff and members of the committees and subcommittees of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee to make way for Smith to succeed him.
Cook, who was formerly the mayor of Yucca Valley, a California assemblyman and for almost eight years a member of Congress, left the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 to run for First District San Bernardino County Supervisor. Based on his name recognition and the considerable amount of money in his political war chest, he was handily elected supervisor in 2020 and comfortably reelected in 2024.
Cook, who actually resides in the county’s Third Supervisorial District in one of the nicest homes in Yucca Valley, worked around the residency requirement in his run for First District supervisor by claiming he lived in the home of his designee as chief of staff, Tim Itnyre, who was the son of a fellow Marine with whom Cook served when he was a commanding officer at the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base prior to his retirement from the military.
In recent years, Cook has faced health challenges, and episodic lapses of memory and lucidity. Nevertheless, his vote in support of the decisions made by the ruling coalition on a Republican-dominated board of supervisors that currently consists of himself, Second District Supervisor Jesse Armendarez, Third District Supervisor Dawn Rowe and Fourth District Supervisor Curt Hagman is considered important, and those on the fourth and fifth floor of the county administrative building at 354 Arrowhead Avenue in San Bernardino have been walking on eggs in an effort to keep from offending him. Nevertheless, there have been occasions in public, including at board meetings and during speeches he has made at open events where his “verbal eccentricities” have raised concerns.
To preserve the county’s political, administrative and managerial order, a move was afoot, the Sentinel was informed, since shortly after Cook’s reelection in March 2024, to make a smooth transition from Cook to some other Republican as the supervisor overseeing the county’s 10,063-square mile First District comprising just a tad over half – roughly 50.05 percent – of the county’s 20,105 square mile land mass and roughly one-fifth of the county’s 2.15 million residents. Cook’s successor, it was understood, would need to be at one with the shared agenda of Hagman, Rowe and Armendarez. It was widely represented that Smith, a now retired cement and concrete contractor who spent eight years on the Hesperia City Council and a single two-year term in the California legislature and goes by the nickname “Smitty” rather than his given first name of Thurston, had emerged as the person best suited to take over from Cook.
The political establishment believed having Cook vacate the supervisorial position mid-term and promoting a “safe” individual who would not obstruct or get in the way of the general direction the current board of supervisors is moving the county in would be preferable to having a number of unknown entities vie for supervisor, creating a circumstance in which the victor might prove unreceptive toward the ideas the current majority has with regard to how the county should be governed or, worse, hostile to those ideas or, worse still, a Democrat.
A plan, reportedly signed off on by San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee Chairman Phil Cothran Sr., was for Cook to resign later this year, for the board to decide to make a temporary appointment to fill the vacancy, to accept applications for the post from among First District residents, including Smith, and to then appoint Smith to the position, which provides its holder with a yearly salary of $194,806.47, another $37,133.02 in perquisites and pay add-ons, and $63,200.50 in benefits for a total annual compensation of $295,139.99. The board was also purposed to set a special election to choose someone to hold the post in the final two years that Cook had been elected to in 2024, running from December 2026 until December 2028. This would allow Smith to run for election to the post in the November 2026 election as an incumbent, which, it was calculated, would confer upon him an advantage that would likely result in his remaining in office.
When information about what was in the offing went public last month, it set off a wave of denials among officeholders, county officials and staff, higher-ups in the San Bernardino County Republican Party and Smith himself, who said his eye is on running from the California Assembly in 2026. Cook, it was reported, was talking about beginning preparations, some three years in advance for his 2028 reelection run.
“More fake news,” was a common refrain.
“You guys never get it right,” one politico said of the Sentinel, specifically. “Or if you do, it’s by accident.”
“Wrong again,” said another.
There were few people who wanted to speak on the record regarding Colonel Cook.
One politician whose résumé included service as an elected city council member and member of the board of supervisors among other elected posts, held an appointed commissioner position, no fewer than four joint powers authority directorships and has had a career within government that spanned from senior administration to overseeing government finances including a multi-billion budget, spoke to the Sentinel under the condition of anonymity.
The Sentinel, the politician said, had not gotten the facts wrong but had broken the information prematurely, before the changeover to Smith was to be actuated.
“I’m not sure of the timing,” the politician said. ”Word is that the Colonel was to leave as soon as everything was in place, and the leak of this information to the general public has thrown things askew. Paul is an honorable guy who has always been interested in doing all he right things, but as everyone has seen, at 82 years old, the comparisons being made between him and Joseph Biden are not that far off. There is a real question as to his fitness to serve as supervisor at this point. He has health challenges. It is legitimate to ask whether he was in any shape to be supervisor when he was elected in 2020. His staff runs the office, with very little input from him. That is not any different than with the other supervisors. The county supervisors’ staffs and the county CEO run the county. All of the supervisors are disengaged and have been that way going back ten years or more. They used to dominate the county transportation agency, but they’ve given that over to the mayors and council members. The supervisors have tremendous power, but to exercise that power, they have to work, work hard. There is a risk that something will go wrong if they take any initiative and they will end up in the doghouse. There is a slightly better chance something good will come of it and they’ll get glory. But no one wants to work that hard and no one wants to take any risk. Give me an example of one major proposal the board has made in the last decade. I can’t think of one. They’re engaged in housekeeping, keeping the county running, day-to-day and making sure they get reelected. That’s it. Paul is just like the rest of the board, except a little bit slower and even more disengaged.”
Cook has stayed out of trouble by doing, essentially, nothing, the politician said.
“He has two people, Tim Itnyre [his chief of staff] and Dakota [Higgins, his assistant chief of staff], who are competent guys, knowledgeable about the district and the way the county is run,” the politician said. “They are capable of looking after the interests of the district’s constituents and keeping most of them happy. They’re running the office. They’re in charge. They’re the First District supervisor, by proxy, if you will.”
Henry Nickel, who is currently a member of the San Bernardino County Republican Central Committee, served two terms as the Fifth Ward councilman with the City of San Bernardino, and captured the Republican nomination for Assembly in the 40th District in 2018, losing ultimately to the far-better financed Democrat, James Ramos.
Nickel was willing to speak on the record regarding Smith’s prospective replacement of Cook.
That talk among the county’s political elite has turned to easing Cook out of office is not surprising, Nickel said.
“Paul Cook had his moment, but he is getting up there in age,” Nickel sad. “He used to be really dynamic, animated, smart and on his toes. He is not as sharp as he used to be. He doesn’t have the energy or snappiness anymore. He is aloof. It was different when he was in Congress or in the Assembly. He was a leading Republican, but was never all that involved in the [San Bernardino County Republican] Central Committee.”
Replacing Cook with someone like Smith makes perfect sense, Nickel said.
“I have always liked Smitty,” Nickel said. “Everybody likes Smitty. He was successful in business, and he has learned the ropes of being in office. Smitty has been in the trenches. I have worked with him on so many levels. He is definitely someone everybody could work with. He’s just one likeable guy. He can reach across the aisle to the other side and get support. People can get enthusiastic about him. I don’t know if Cook has that kind of support. I don’t think Cook has had the kind of energy Smitty has since before he left Congress.”
Nickel said he wanted it clear that “I have nothing against Colonel Cook. Years ago, because of his experience and understanding of what was happening around the world and within our own country, and given his prestige, he was the right guy to send to Sacramento or elect to Congress. But how long does he or anyone want to keep going? At some point, everybody has to hang it up. You can’t just take the approach that you’re going to run out the clock. You don’t want to make it so you die in office. That is something that is uncomfortable to think about. If you have someone who is in office just to hang on just for the sake of hanging on and then they die, that will lead to instability. There comes a point where you step down and let the younger generation in there to do what they can. Selecting Smitty as the person to take over going forward just makes sense. You want someone who can keep the engine running, money flowing in and can excite the base. Smitty makes a lot of sense because he is someone who is cued in and energetic. In the central committee he is involved in fundraising. He is someone who can use his clout and vitality to advance the interests of our party and our county. If we were doing this as a job interview, I would hire Smitty.”
Nickel beamed, “Now, I think it’s time for someone like Smitty to step forward. Because of the political circumstance, Smitty fits the bill. I can support him, 100 percent.”