Rumors are that former Mesa County Commissioner Rose Pugliese hopes to run as the Republican candidate for Colorado Secretary of State, but thanks to the recent antics of her Republican pal, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, there is no clearer indication anywhere on Earth that any candidate is so absolutely unsuited for office than Rose Pugliese is for Colorado Secretary of State.
Pugliese endorsed Peters for Mesa County Clerk in 2018.
That’s all anyone needs to know, and it should put an immediate end to Rose’s political ambitions in Colorado, forever, period.
But the circumstances surrounding Rose’s endorsement of Tina make it far, far more egregious than most people realize.
Never has a more blind, ridiculous, stomach-turning, partisan endorsement caused so much anger, frustration, difficulty and expense for Colorado voters and taxpayers than Rose’s 2018 endorsement of Tina Peters for Mesa County Clerk.
The most qualified candidate for County Clerk at the time was a complete, total no-brainer.
Fortunately we can right the wrong that was done to Mesa County by Rose’s endorsement in 2018. Bobbie Gross will run again for Clerk and Recorder in 2022
One candidate was Bobbie Gross, a Republican with more than 10 years of increasingly responsible experience working in the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office. Gross had worked her way up to being the Motor Vehicle Manager at the time, and oversaw 19 of the then-30 employees of the Clerk and Recorder’s Office. She had co-directed the 2016 presidential elections for Mesa County, was a Certified Elections Official and in July of 2018 was about to become certified as a National Elections Administrator.
The other candidate was Tina Peters, a former flight attendant who had done the books for a construction company, worked for a Hollywood talent agency, had done multi-level marketing and had a degree from the now-defunct Clayton College of Natural Health, an online school that was shut down in 2010 after its students brought a class action lawsuit against it for breach of fiduciary duty.
To get reductive, quotes from each candidate at the time they declared their candidacies were all that was needed to determine the best candidate for this office:
“I’ve had 31 years as a private business owner. I’ve homeschooled my kids, and I’ve worked as a flight attendant. I’ve been out in the public and I know what it takes.”
“I’m the certified elections official in Colorado. I’m going to be nationally certified as elections administrator in July of this year. I bring the dedication and experience in both recording, elections, and motor vehicle.”