Does Bob Cuddy actually believe the environmental community is so shallow and self-destructive that it would prefer to elect Debbie Arnold over Jim Patterson in a fit of pique over Patterson’s pick for Planning Commissioner? (“Tilt-A-Whirl supervisors now are pro-growth,” Jan. 6).

The primary reason for Patterson’s defeat was that he haplessly allowed himself to be redistricted out of office. Despite his status as the most vulnerable member of the board majority, Patterson and his colleagues approved new district maps that significantly increased the number of Republicans and decreased the number of Democrats in his district.

Patterson barely won re-election in 2004 when Republicans held an eight-point advantage in District 5. He got shellacked when that advantage increased to 12 percent in 2012. Hordes of green supporters couldn’t have closed that gap.

The board should have sought the advice of a skilled professional when drawing the new district maps. Instead, it left the county’s political fate in the hands of a staff planner. Result: District 5 is no longer competitive, North County is consigned to 10 years of Republican representation, and the county has a board that is far more conservative than its constituents as a whole.

Patterson was the architect of his own demise. The numbers don’t lie.

It just takes some actual journalism to connect the dots.