Jeff Hurd holding premature “victory reception” October 5 at venue on Glade Park that’s being sued by Mesa County

[Updated Oct. 4, 2026 @ 1:12 p.m.: Since this article was published, people have reported receiving an email saying the above “Victory Reception” is now being held the same day, Monday, October 5, at Hurd’s campaign headquarters at 1048 Independent Ave., Suite 104 in Grand Junction (by Sam’s Club).]

Incumbent Republican CD3 House Rep. Jeff Hurd is so cocksure he’s going to win his congressional seat again in the November 3 election that he’s holding a “Countdown to Victory Reception” on October 5, well before the election. Not only that, he’s holding his victory party at a venue on Glade Park that is currently being sued by the county (pdf) for failure to comply with the county Land Development Code (LDC). The venue is the Mesa View Venue at 2729 21 1/2 Road, which has been causing headaches for its rural neighbors. (The case No. is 2026CV30298, Board of Mesa County Commissioners v. Cheryl Norton, Scott Norton and Charles Hoge, filed June 15, 2026).

The lawsuit came about in 2025 after the Mesa County Commissioners defied the Planning Board (pdf), which voted unanimously against granting the owners a permit for an event center due to strong neighborhood opposition regarding traffic safety, narrow roads and the area’s future development plans. The Commissioners granted the owners a conditional use permit for it anyway. (pdf)

On April 17, 2025, the Mesa County Planning Commission unanimously recommended the Commissioners deny the Mesa View Venue owners’ application to turn their 35 acre, residentially-zoned property in the Little Park Ranch subdivision into a party and event venue. Despite the negative recommendation, the Commissioners approved a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the event center anyway. The CUP allows the owners to hold 42 events per year, or 3-4 events per month. The venue can accommodate just under 200 people. The CUP also requires the venue to have “bathroom trailers with handwashing stations,” end events by 10:00 p.m., keep noise to specific limits, water down parking areas to prevent dust, allow amplified music only inside the enclosed “event barn” and other requirements. And all of this partying activity is happening in a residential area, not a commercial area, causing headaches for the neighbors in what is normally a rural area of Glade Park that people move to for its quiet serenity and beauty.

Now, after they approved the CUP and started getting complaints about the venue, the Commissioners are saying they only gave “conditional” approval to the CUP. They say venue owners Charles Hoge, Scott Norton and Cheryl Norton “failed to obtain site plan approval in satisfaction of Land Development Code requirements.” The County also says the owners have “continued their unlawful venue operations” at the property after the County “repeatedly advised them over the past year-plus that site plan approval is required” before they can operate the venue. The county also says the owners “attempted to evade regulatory requirements” by claiming some of their events were hosted by “short term rental” guests and not them. The County says it has “issued multiple demand letters, formal notices of violation and cease and desist orders regarding the Defendants’ non-compliance with the LDC,” but the owners ignored them continued their illegal operation of the venue anyway.

The County asked the Court to issue an injunction to stop the owners from continuing to hold events there until they comply with the county’s demand that they submit a site plan, but the judge denied the county’s motion, essentially telling the county that it has already allowed the defendants’ illegal behavior to go on for so long that there’s no emergency requiring the court to issue a restraining order to stop it.

Hurd is also continuing to solicit contributions from attendees at this event despite having already received a fortune from Republican fundraising groups. According to the Summit Daily of Summit County, as of June 2026 “Hurd received $525,571 from Grow the Majority, a fundraising committee formed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, to funnel money to House Republican candidates. Hurd also received $302,987 from Defend Our Majority, a similar fundraising group that aims to protect Republican incumbents in the House. Hurd raised a total of $419,150 from PACs and other committees. Those include PACs aligned with industries such as healthcare, real estate and oil and gas.”

Now it’s proving difficult and expensive for the County to rein in the Mesa View Venue and its alleged scofflaw owners after the Commissioners approved a conditional use permit for it over the unanimous objection of their Planning Commission. (It makes you wonder why the County even has a Planning Commission, and why people would waste their time serving on it.) The event center’s neighbors are also paying a steep price in loss of their quality of life, and Mesa County taxpayers are suffering now too, since they have to foot the legal bills resulting from the commissioners’ bad decision to green light the venue in the first place.

And now Jeff Hurd will be contributing to the headaches by holding an exclusive, premature and arrogant “victory” party there as well.