Civil War & Feeding Migrants to Wolves: Western CO Congressional Forum Gets Extreme

The forum for Republican candidates for CD-3 held at Appleton Christian Church, 2/12/24. (Photo: Sharon Sullivan)

Article by Sharon Sullivan, Feb. 14, 2024

This article is republished with permission from the Colorado Times Recorder. You can see the original article here. 

Immigration policy dominated the discussion among five of the Republican candidates vying to win Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District primary election in June, and it included some eyebrow-raising statements.

The candidate forum, which took place Monday night at Appleton Christian Church in Grand Junction, included all but one of the Republicans hoping to become their party’s nominee following Congresswoman’s Boebert decision to abandon her hometown district for redder pastures on the Eastern Plains.

While their positions on immigration varied, the candidates found more consensus around their doubts about Colorado’s election system. Four of the five participants spoke in favor of banning the mail ballots used by nearly all Coloradans, based on the debunked conspiracy that they have been used to rig elections. All but one of the candidates advocated for a return to hand-counting paper ballots, a process which has been proven to be less accurate and far more expensive than Colorado’s current system. Hanks, Andrews and Varela all promoted elements of another debunked conspiracy theory: that the Dominion Voting machines used by nearly all counties to tabulate their elections could be manipulated to rig the results.

Big Bear Bald Eagles Live Nest Cam

The watch for eggs to begin hatching starts on 2/29. 

We have our share of bald eagles visiting the Grand Valley this time of year and they’re always majestic and beautiful to watch, but no one here has done anything like this.

My cousin in San Diego turned me on to this Bald Eagle Cam, a 24/7 live feed from a high-resolution, solar-powered color video camera pointed at the nest of two bald eagles nicknamed Shadow (male) and Jackie (female) on U.S. Forest Service land adjacent to Big Bear Lake, California. The camera was put up by the Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV), a nonprofit group.  The exact location of the nest is undisclosed to protect the eagles.

There are three eggs in the nest. The first was laid on 1/25, the second on 1/28 and the third on 1/31. The eggs should start hatching in about two weeks.

The cameras recently caught some dramatic moments including the eagles keeping the eggs warm through days and nights of driving snowfall and high winds, and the appearance of a persistent unwelcome intruder.

Mesa County GOP official decries her party’s continued support of Tina Peters and Donald Trump

Mesa County Republican Party Secretary Terry Porter stood up to Colorado Republican Party Chair Dave Williams, saying his support of Tina Peters and Donald Trump is making  “too many of us ashamed of being a Republican in Colorado right now.”

Mesa County Republicans may be starting to see the harm they are doing to their party and America by continuing to support Tina Peters, Donald Trump and others like them.

On February 2, shortly before Tina Peters’ criminal trial was about to start, Colorado Republican Party Chair Dave Williams sent a mass email out to Colorado Republicans telling them to “Keep Tina Peters in your prayers while she fights the establishment and our corrupt judicial system in her upcoming trial which will begin on February 9th in Mesa County.” He called the criminal charges against Peters “retaliation, persecution, and prosecution for preserving our election records and exposing the fraud inside the machines.”

That email drew quick pushback from Republicans across the state, including former Secretaries of State and current and former Republican county clerks. It also drew a sharp rebuke from Mesa County Republican Party Secretary Terry Porter.

Porter quickly emailed Williams back and included Colorado GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman and Secretary Anna Ferguson in the thread, saying:

CO Republican Party Chair praises Tina Peters, gets pushback from GOP members & former Mesa County GOP Chair Kevin McCarney

Dave Williams

In a mass email to members of the Colorado GOP on Feb. 2,  Colorado Republican Party Chair Dave Williams praised Tina Peters for “fighting the establishment and our corrupt judicial system.” He wrote that the charges against her were “retaliation, persecution, and prosecution for preserving our election records and exposing the fraud inside the machines” and said Tina has “risked so much to expose the fraud by doing her job as a county clerk…”  He concluded by saying that “We must all unite in prayer and support for Tina Peters so that the jury sees this for what it really is and acquits her of all charges.” Williams added, “We are praying for you, dear Tina. You are loved and appreciated by all.” [All Italicized emphasis in original.]

No proof of fraud has been found in Colorado’s or Mesa County’s elections.

The letter drew immediate pushback from a long list of prominent Colorado Republicans including former Republican secretaries of state. According to a February 6 article in Colorado Newsline by Sharon Sullivan, the written response to Williams said,

How to listen to tomorrow’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing about whether Trump can appear on the ballot in Colorado

Trump promoting his “Official Election Defense Fund.” There was no Official Election Defense Fund.

Tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. Mountain time (10:00 a.m. Eastern) the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Trump v. Anderson, the case about whether Donald Trump is ineligible to hold office, and thus whether he can appear on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot.

The U.S. Supreme Court now lets the public listen to arguments via live audio of its proceedings.

Tina Peters fires her attorneys for the 5th time, delaying her criminal trial AGAIN

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, shown here with Mesa County Commissioner Bobbie Daniel (R)

Republican former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters fired her attorneys again today and been granted another delay in her criminal trial as a result. He trial was scheduled to start this Friday, 2/9/24.

The Colorado Sun reports that Judge Matthew Barrett has now set Tina’s criminal trial for July 29 through Aug. 12, 2024. This is the fifth time Tina has switched lawyers since 2022, when a grand jury indicted her on a 13 count mix of felonies and misdemeanors related to election tampering.

Tina Peters’ final effort to delay her criminal trial fails; trial to be livestreamed on WesternSlopeNow.com

Tina Peters in her final show on Rumble.com on January 29, 2024 (Screenshot: Rumble.com)

In a three page order issued Monday, February 5, (pdf) the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit denied Tina Peters’ motion for an injunction to halt her upcoming criminal trial, set to start at 9:00 a.m. this Friday, February 9 in the Mesa County Justice Center, Courtroom 9. 

Tina’s trial will be live-streamed by KREX-TV on their website, WesternSlopeNow.com.

In the most recent episode of her internet TV show, The Tina Peters Show, on Rumble.com, Tina continues to say she won her 2022 Republican primary election against Pam Anderson for Secretary of State, but “lost” the race due to election tampering. Anderson got 43.1% of the vote and Tina got 28.9%. A recount, paid for by donations to Tina, confirmed her loss by over 14%.

Tina also tells her followers that the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel “has run over 700 front page, above-the-fold articles lying about me” adding, “Whatever happened to good media, where you could write them and get a retraction, get an apology?” She continues to say without proof that “there’s illegal software in voting machines and they are connected to the internet.,” and  the candidates who won the April 6, 2021 G.J. city election “couldn’t possibly have won.”

Buyer Beware: Mesa County does not license homebuilders, and state law makes it hard to hold builders accountable

BAD DECISIONS – Mesa County Commissioners approved construction of this Redlands home years ago in which setbacks were inadequate to save the house from sliding down the bluff towards the Colorado River. Mesa County does not license home builders and county building codes and inspections were inadequate to prevent this situation.

If you are planning to build or buy a newly-built home in Mesa County, be forewarned that Mesa County has no licensing requirements for homebuilders and Colorado laws make it hard to hold home builders accountable when things go wrong, and lots can go wrong.

Soils report at heart of lawsuit against Cody Davis & Chronos Builders recommended alternative foundations, but plaintiffs say Davis never disclosed the report to them as Colorado law requires

Swelling clay soils can triple their volume when they get wet, causing them to exert tremendous force on a home’s foundation, and hence damage, if no measures are taken to mitigate the potential damage. Clay soils are very common across Mesa County. [Click photo to enlarge for better view.] (Photo: Colorado Geological Survey)

The geotechnical soils investigation (pdf) done on a building lot on Horseshoe Drive in Fruita where Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis and his construction company, Chronos Builders, built a spec home in 2015-2016 stated clearly that expansive clay soils were present on the site and that “Based upon our experience with the Mancos shale in the vicinity of the site, the shale is anticipated to be slightly to moderately expansive.”

Michael A. Berry, the professional engineer who authored the report, recommended three types of foundations that would better protect the structure from “heave related movements” than a typical shallow foundation, but also admitted such foundations are “usually cost prohibitive.”

Former Mesa County Commissioner Rose Pugliese elected state House Minority Leader

Rose Pugliese supported disastrous former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters in the 2018 election despite the fact that Tina was completely unqualified to be a County Clerk. Tina was running  against Bobbie Gross, who was already certified to run state and local elections, was managing the DMV and had more than a decade of experience in the Clerk’s office.

Former two-term Mesa County Commissioner Rose Pugliese, who moved to Colorado Springs in 2020 to run for the state House District 14 seat (and won the seat), has been elected Republican House Minority Leader in the Colorado Legislature. She replaces Rep. Mike Lynch (R), who resigned as Minority Leader on Wednesday, 1/24/24 after it was revealed that he had been arrested in September, 2022 on suspicion of driving under the influence (DUI) and possessing a firearm while intoxicated. Lynch pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months probation and 150 hours of community service.