Category: Elections

Review of Lettered Amendments on the statewide 2024 ballot and voting recommendations

Note: I’m currently analyzing the 2024 Mesa County ballot (pdf) and all the measures on it, and will post as much information as possible on what I find out prior to putting out a consolidated and shorter Voter Guide later on.

Amendment G – Modify Property Tax Exemption to include Veterans with Disabilities

Amendment G, is a constitutional amendment referred to the ballot by the Legislature. It would reduce the property taxes paid by some veteran homeowners by expanding the existing homestead exemption to include veterans who have disabilities that make them unemployable.

Since it’s a constitutional amendment, it needs 55% of the vote to pass.

Amendment G would lower property taxes for some veteran homeowners who have disabilities that make them unemployable

The homestead exemption reduces the amount of property taxes paid by some groups of Coloradans, including seniors 65 years and older who have lived in their homes for over 10 years, veterans with service-connected disabilities rated 100% permanent and total by the federal government and surviving spouses of Armed Forces members who died from a service-related injury or disease.

Under Amendment G, veterans who qualify for the Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU) rating as determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs would also be allowed to take the homestead exemption on their property taxes, too, regardless of their age. Amendment G would thus expand the number of veterans eligible for the homestead exemption by approximately 3,700 people.

It’s estimated this measure would cost the state about $1.8 million in budget year 2025-2026, since the state would reimburse local governments for the amount of property taxes they lose due to Amendment G.

Arguments for: Everyone seems to like it. No lawmaker, either Democrat or Republican, in the state legislature voted against putting this proposal on the ballot, and there has been no organized opposition to it.

Arguments against: It could make it more difficult for local governments to administer property taxes. There don’t seem to be any other arguments against it.

Recommended vote: YES  (needs 55% of the vote to pass)


Amendment H – Judicial Discipline Procedures 

Amendment H is a proposed constitutional amendment that would create an independent board to judge judges on unethical conduct. The new board would be made up of citizens, lawyers, and judges who would conduct judicial misconduct hearings and impose disciplinary actions, and the measure allows more information about the proceedings to be shared earlier with the public.

Currently, an independent judicial commission made up of people appointed by the Colorado Supreme Court and the Governor investigates allegations of misconduct against judges, and information about complaints against judges and investigations of them is not disclosed until late in the process, if at all.

Law and Justice concept. Mallet of the judge, books, scales of justice. Gray stone background, reflections on the floor, place for typography. Courtroom theme.

Amendment H would create an “Independent Judicial Discipline Adjudicative Board” separate from the Colorado Supreme Court, to preside over judicial discipline hearings and impose sanctions. The new board would be made up of four district court judges, four attorneys, and four citizens appointed by the Colorado Supreme Court and the Governor. The new board’s decisions would be considered final unless there is proof of a legal or factual error upon appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court.

An important change Amendment H would make is that currently complaints that lead to informal punishments for judges are not disclosed to the general public, and no information about a complaint against a judge becomes public until or unless sanctions are recommended, which occurs much later in the review process. Under Amendment H, the proceedings against a judge will become public as soon as formal charges are filed.

Main argument for: Judicial discipline in Colorado has historically been mostly self-regulated, leading to challenges in oversight and self-protection. This amendment would enhance transparency and public confidence and trust in the courts.

Main argument against: The current system works just fine. Judges know how and when to discipline judges. This amendment transfers this authority to attorneys and citizens, who can’t fully understand judicial ethics and the unique challenges of being a judge. The existing system of checks and balances on the judiciary, like nominations and retention elections, assure only the best people become and remain judges.

Who’s for it:

The Colorado Supreme Court Justices themselves support it, according to a 2022 article in the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Amendment H is supported by the Colorado Democratic Party and the Colorado League of Women Voters.

Who’s against it:

The Judicial Integrity Project  opposes the measure, arguing that that it is too weak and far stronger measures are needed, saying “If Amendment H passes, it will be almost impossible to obtain necessary reforms because legislators will allege they did the job with Amendment H.”

I emailed Chris Forsyth, Esq., Director of the Judicial Integrity Project and asked him about the Amendment. He wrote back:

“The adoption of Amendment H will thwart future reform because legislators will claim they did the job with H. It provides a smidge more transparency and that’s it. It’s not worth a vote. But unfortunately, many people may think just like you are thinking — this is the best we can get. And that’s a really sad thought. [Amendment] H will essentially put the nail in the coffin of more responsible reform for quite a while.”

 

Recommended vote: It’s a toss up. I was initially going to vote for it until I talked to Christ Forsyth and found out how weak of a measure it is. But if we vote no on Amendment H, are we letting the perfect be the enemy of the good?  Is a tiny bit of progress toward holding judges accountable for bad behavior worth all the trouble of setting up this commission just to get us “a smidge” more transparency? I’ll leave it up to you.


Amendment J:

Amendment J repeals the current definition of marriage in Colorado’s Constitution that says only a union of one man and one woman is a valid or recognized as a marriage in Colorado.

In 2006, Colorado voters approved an amendment to the state constitution saying only the union of one man and one woman is a valid or recognized marriage in Colorado. Amendment J repeals this language, which has been declared unconstitutional by state and federal courts anyway.

Recommended vote: Yes


Amendment K:

County Clerks asked for this amendment, saying as Colorado ballots get longer and longer, they need more time to put the ballots together and proof them to make sure they get them right.

Amendment K would make deadlines one week earlier for citizens to submit signatures for initiative and referendum petitions, and would require judges who intend to file declarations that they intend to seek another term file those forms one week earlier than they currently do.  It would also require that the content of ballot measures be published in local newspapers 30 days earlier than under current law. Currently judges have to file a declaration saying they intend to seek another term at least three months before the general election. Amendment K moves up the deadline for judges to file this form to one week earlier.

The Colorado County Clerks Association asked the legislature to put Amendment K on the ballot, so they can get an additional week to build, review, proof, translate and test hundreds of different ballot types needed for each election. As Colorado’s ballots get longer and more complicated, county clerks need more time to ensure that the ballots voters get are accurate.

Recommended vote: YES

Why we keep hearing about a gang “takeover” in Aurora

Fox News helped spread the lie being promoted by former President Trump and MAGA extremists that Venezuelan gangs were “taking over Colorado”

Message from Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper, September 26, 2024:

You’ve probably been hearing nonstop from conservative media and MAGA Republicans, including Donald Trump, that Aurora has been “taken over” by Venezuelan gangs. You might be confused why this information continues to spread even though it has repeatedly¹ been² proven³ false. You might also be wondering what the truth is – the actual ground truth stripped of the politics.

I wouldn’t blame you. This whole thing has been a confusing mess with plenty of misinformation. So let’s look at the facts without the games.

How did we get here?

The short answer is because many Republicans would rather play politics with the border crisis than actually solve it.

Here’s the longer answer on how we got here, with my sources on each claim cited in the footnotes so you know exactly where I’m getting my information. No games, just the facts:

Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper

The story actually starts last year in 2023 when the city of Aurora was trying to push an out-of-state landlord to fix up three apartment buildings that had become derelict.

This past July, that absentee landlord, CBZ management, claimed it couldn’t fix the apartments because Venezuelan gangs had taken over.According to an email obtained by the New York Times, a spokesperson for the management company then started calling news stations with this claim under the guise of a “news tip.”

The only problem is that the people actually living in those apartments said they didn’t know anything about a gang takeover.

They had plenty to say, however, about the terrible living conditions and the totally absent landlord, CBZ management.

But that didn’t stop the story from spreading quickly on social media and conservative “news” sources. A viral video showing men with guns in one of the buildings also added fuel to the fire.

But Aurora law enforcement has been clear. Not only are they aware of this gang, Tren de Aragua, but of the 10 gang members they’ve identified, 6 are in custody and have been since before all this went viral. They also say they’ve seen no evidence that any gang has “taken over” any building.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, himself a Republican, has also issued a statement to set the record straight on the situation, outright refuting claims of a “takeover” and asking for people to stop spreading false information.

Caught up in all of this are Venezuelan immigrants themselves. People fleeing a terrible situation in Venezuela, many fleeing gang violence themselves. Now many are reporting a rise in hate directed at them by people who are reading false claims about the gang activity that is being spread for political reasons.¹⁰

232 days ago one of the most conservative senators in the country, Senator James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), negotiated with Democrats and Republicans to write a bill that would address the crisis at our southern border. We didn’t agree with everything in it, but it was a true compromise that would’ve helped fix the problem.

Importantly, it also had work authorizations for new arrivals, exactly what cities like Denver have been asking the federal government to do to ease the burden.¹¹

Republicans embraced the bill, and for a moment it looked like Congress was actually going to act.

But Donald Trump decided he’d rather campaign on the crisis than have it solved.

So he demanded Republicans oppose it. Don’t take my word for it, he’s bragged about killing the bill himself.¹²

And just like that, the bill failed.¹³

But guess what? That hasn’t stopped Trump or MAGA Republicans¹⁴ from making up stories about Aurora to campaign on immigration.

Which brings us right back to the short answer for how we got here: Republicans are making up stories about Aurora, our communities, and our state because the truth is that they decided politics is more important than solutions.



References:

1. https://denverite.com/2024/09/05/venezuelan-gang-aurora-colorado-quick-explainer/

2. https://www.denver7.com/news/front-range/aurora/what-is-tren-de-aragua-the-gangs-history-from-venezuelas-prisons-to-us-soil

3. https://coloradosun.com/2024/09/06/venezuelan-gangs-aurora/

4. https://denverite.com/2024/09/04/venezuelan-gang-aurora-colorado-factcheck/

5. a href=”https://substack.com/redirect/04e0135a-0176-458e-8b20-fdd34bc3e355?j=eyJ1IjoiZmEwbXcifQ.RoAsx4j887_0ktm2W3fqA0cMczcDQwI9fLVTYBXwnfY” rel=””>https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/18/aurora-venezuelan-gangs-cbz-management-apartment-owners/

6. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/trump-aurora-colorado-immigration.html

7. https://denverite.com/2024/09/04/venezuelan-gang-aurora-colorado-factcheck/

8. https://www.denverpost.com/2024/09/04/venezuelan-gang-colorado-aurora-tren-de-aragua/

9. https://www.auroragov.org/news/whats_new/mayor__council_member_address_gang_concerns

10. https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/immigrant-families-in-colorado-really-harmed-by-national-attention-on-tren-de-aragua-activists-say

11. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4459229-denver-mayor-blames-republicans-for-devastating-impact-on-city-after-border-deal-collapse/

12. https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/01/27/donald-trump-border-bill-boast-beto-orourke-acostanr-vpx.cnn

13. https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-security-ukraine-a39e188fa2c6a563203d2c69eaabdc6d

14. https://kdvr.com/news/local/boebert-leads-roundtable-discussion-on-aurora-venezuelan-gang-activity/

New group forms to oppose 29 Road/I-70 interchange ballot measure

29 Road just north of Patterson, as it currently looks. Residents along 29 Road could find themselves living on a busy route to and from I-70 if Ballot Issue 1A passes. If it passes, the measure would approve the City and County taking on $80 million in debt, with a repayment cost of least $173,438,202, to fund the design and construction of a new I-70 interchange at 29 Road.

Concerned citizens of Mesa County announced September 23 that they have formed a local group called “No on 29 Road Debt” to educate the public about the financial, transportation safety and road design problems with the 29 Road Interchange proposal and oppose the upcoming ballot issue, which will be Issue 1A on the ballot. Grand Junction City Councilor Dennis Simpson is an organizer of the group. Simpson is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). John Traylor is a spokesperson for the group.

Measure 1A as it appears on the November ballot. Note the full repayment cost for the measure is estimated at $173,438.202. The federal government has so far not pledged any funds to help with the project.

No on 29 Road Debt is a non-partisan community organization dedicated to promoting transparency, safety, and financially responsible transportation plans in Mesa County. The group’s mission is to empower citizens with the knowledge they need this November to make a decision on this proposal. As the ballot issue approaches, No on 29 Road Debt will provide clear, factual information to help voters make an informed decision.

The Trump campaign’s most recent blatantly racist social media post

Racist post by @TrumpWarRoom on Instagram on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024

On Tuesday, the official Instagram account of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, “@TrumpWarRoom,” posted a blatantly racist meme implying that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency in November, placid suburban neighborhoods will be overrun with hordes of Black people and immigrants.

It can’t be a mistake because the Trump campaign tweeted the exact same post on X.

The meme showed a peaceful middle class neighborhood next to a photo of mostly Black recent immigrants waiting outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York in hopes of securing shelter. The nice neighborhood is labeled “Your neighborhood under Trump,” and the photo with Black people is labeled “Your neighborhood under Kamala.”

Trump’s comment accompanying the post is, “Import the third world. Become the third world.”

Trump has a long, well-documented history of racism and emboldening racist ideology.

The verdict is in in Tina Peters’ criminal trial

Tina Peters at her trial in Mesa County

Following are the findings of the jury returned at 5:20 p.m. this afternoon in the criminal case of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters:

Count 1 – Attempt to influence a public servant – Jesse Romero (employee of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office) – GUILTY
Count 2 – Attempt to influence a public servant – David Underwood (employee of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office) – GUILTY
Count 3 – Conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, April 23-May 18, 2021 – NOT GUILTY
Count 4 – Attempt to influence a public servant – Danny Casias (employee of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office) – GUILTY
Count 5 – Criminal impersonation May 23-27, 2021 – NOT GUILTY
Count 6 – Conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation – May 23-27, 2021 – GUILTY
Count 7 – Identity theft – NOT GUILTY
Count 8 – First degree official misconduct – guilty on all options on interrogatories
Count 9 – Violation of Duty – GUILTY
Count 10 – Failure to comply with requirements of the Secretary of State’s office – GUILTY with all interrogatories proven beyond a reasonable doubt

Peters’ sentencing is scheduled for October 3, 2024, at 9:00 a.m.

29 Road interchange debt service would “decimate” city capital: Grand Junction City Finance Director

A vision of the proposed 29 Road interchange on I-70, with roundabouts (Illustration by FHUeng)

Photo: City of Grand Junction

7/25/24 @ 3:39 p.m. – Note: an earlier version of this blog attributed the quotes criticizing the finance director’s use of the word “decimate” to Engineering and Transportation Director Trent Prall. I’ve been informed that was incorrect. They were actually said by City Councilman Cody Kennedy. I have corrected the blog.

In a Grand Junction City Council workshop discussion July 15 about the proposed 29 Road interchange on I-70, City Finance Director Jennifer Tomaszewski, a Certified Public Accountant, told Council members that given the amount of revenue the City takes in from sales taxes, and the City’s current expenses and financial obligations, including its existing transportation debt and maintenance of parks and facilities, the proposed $2.5 million/year in debt service over 30 years that the City would take on to build the project would “decimate our city capital, basically.” [Tomaszewski made this statement is at 1:12:46 in the above-linked video.]

Rowland booted as commissioner

Results as of 10:25 p.m. Tuesday night

Political newcomer J.J. Fletcher of Palisade won by a wide margin over longtime career politician Janet Rowland in the primary election for District 3 Mesa County Commissioner.

Rowland conceded the race this morning via a brief Facebook post. 

Rowland losing commissioner race to JJ Fletcher by a wide margin in preliminary results in Republican primary election

This was the unofficial result as of 8:40 p.m. on election night. It changed little in the two hours after that. County residents seem to have developed a case of Janet fatigue. 

Janet Rowland appears to have worn our her welcome as Mesa County Commissioner in the 2024 primary election. Preliminary results at 8:40 p.m. showed her losing to JJ Fletcher by about 10 percentage points, with the result unchanged in the hours after that.

Soon to be former Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland

Trump’s shark rant, Las Vegas, June 9, 2024

At a rally in Las Vegas on June 9, Donald Trump’s teleprompter broke, so he was forced to start riffing, and continued to do so throughout the hour-plus long talk.

The rally was outside and the temperature was above 100 degrees. Six attendees had to be taken to the hospital due to the extreme heat, and 24 others were treated on site, according to the Associated Press.

Trump claimed 20,000 people attended the rally, but Clark County Parks and Recreation Special Events said the venue where the rally was held had a maximum capacity of only 3,000 people.

About 43 minutes into the rally, Trump started ranting about electric-powered boats, telling the crowd they are too slow and too heavy to float. (He is apparently unaware the U.S. Navy has been ordering and taking delivery of electric-powered surface combat vessels and submarines for years.) He goes on to talk about MIT, batteries, boats sinking due to their weight, electrocution, sharks and suicide.

Republican CD-3 candidate Jeff Hurd straight-up lies in new TV ad

Scene from a new Jeff Hurd ad titled “Fight for American Energy” that’s running on local TV

We had hoped that maybe Jeff Hurd, a home-grown Grand Junction Republican running to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District in Washington, D.C., might be a slightly more honest politician than we’ve had in the CD-3 office for several years now, but Hurd just disappointed us all.

He put out a new TV ad two days ago in which he straight-up lies to viewers.

Hurd casts himself as a strong proponent of fossil fuels in the ad, showing piles of coal and people filling up their cars at gas pumps. But he lies to viewers right out of the gate by making a false claim that “Biden is waging war on American energy.”

Whether we like it or not, that’s hardly the case.

Abortion access initiative makes it onto Colorado’s 2024 ballot

It’s official.

The initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the Colorado state Constitution will be on the ballot this November.

Since it seeks to amend the state constitution, it will need a vote of at least a 55% in favor to pass.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Election Office announced today that supporters of Initiative #89, the “Right to Abortion,” had submitted the required number of signatures to qualify the proposed constitutional amendment for Colorado’s statewide General Election ballot on November 5, 2024.

Trump-branded weaponry being promoted in advance of 2024 election

This ad for a “Take America Back” 10-inch Trump knife was displayed alongside a Tina Peters video on Rumble.com, a MAGA extremist video hosting site, on April 28, 2024

MAGA supporters are using Trump-themed weaponry to encourage malice and division and threaten pro-Trump political violence in advance of the 2024 election, a dangerous specter that is threatening the foundations of American democracy and civil society.

Meet ‘n’ Greet event this week for JJ Fletcher, the Republican running against Janet Rowland for County Commissioner in the 6/25 primary election

UPDATE, 5/8/24 @ 10:30 a.m. – JJ Fletcher has cancelled this event. 

Claudette Konola will host a Meet ‘n’ Greet this week on Wednesday, May 8 at 7:00 p.m. for JJ Fletcher, the candidate running against Janet Rowland for County Commissioner in the June 25, 2024 primary election.

The event will be at Claudette’s home, so she requests people use the blue “message” button on her Facebook page to RSVP and get the location.

District 1 Commissioner candidate Dr. Tom Acker to speak at Edgewater Brewery May 9 @ 6:00 p.m.

Retired CMU Professor Dr. Tom Acker is running for the District 1 Commissioner seat, against Cody Davis

If you need a breather from Mesa County Republicans who use their elected offices to violate morals and ethics, deny reality and promote conspiracies, commit felonies, engage in religious grandstanding, double-dipviolate state laws, mindlessly spout racist tropes in public hearings, say things that draw national embarrassment onto our community, engage in cronyism, compromise voting equipment, take credit for the contributions of others and spend hundreds of thousands in taxpayers funds on exacting revenge on people they take a personal dislike to — if you want to consider electing people with integrity for a change, then come and hear what Tom Acker, the only Democrat running for Mesa County Commissioner has to say.

Dr. Acker is a retired Colorado Mesa University professor Emeritus who taught Spanish at CMU for two decades. He is running against Cody Davis for the District 1 county commissioner seat.

Janet Rowland says she’ll “fight for the truth” while having a history of being untruthful herself in the local media

Janet Rowland’s March 28 Instagram post touting her devotion to “the truth.”

County Commissioner Janet Rowland (R), in a campaign plug she posted March 28 on her VoteJanetRowland Instagram page, says she “will always fight for the truth, even when the media presents the facts in a way that distorts the truth.”

But even as Janet denigrates the local media as untruthful, we must remember an episode in 2007 when Janet deceived the public herself by using local media.

Making it worse is the fact that even after it was exposed, she’s never taken responsibility for it, or apologized for it.

Shortly after losing statewide election for lieutenant governor as Bob Beauprez’s running mate in 2006, while she was previously Mesa County Commissioner, Janet was a columnist for the Grand Junction Free Press, at the time a competing newspaper to the Daily Sentinel. She wrote several columns for the Free Press under her own name until one day a sharp reader spotted the fact that Janet had been lifting the text of her columns word for word from government pamphlets, and brought this to the attention of the Free Press’s editor.

Colorado’s abortion rights ballot measure surpasses its signature goal, putting it one step closer to being on the 2024 November Ballot

Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom announced that it has surpassed their campaign’s goal of collecting 185,000 signatures to put Ballot Initiative 89 on the November, 2024 ballot, putting Colorado voters are one step closer to seeing a constitutional amendment on the November 2024 ballot that will protect abortion from government interference. The announcement comes just a few days after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law banning abortion, a law that was enacted when Arizona was still a territory and long before American women had the right to vote.

The campaign needs 124,238 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, including 2% of the total registered electors in each of Colorado’s 35 state senate districts. As of now, the coalition has collected over 225,000 signatures of which 48,175 were collected by over a thousand volunteers, and has qualified in all 35 state senate districts.

The text of proposed Initiative 89 says:

“A change to the Colorado constitution recognizing the right to abortion, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting the state and local governments from denying, impeding, or discriminating against the exercise of that right, allowing abortion to be a covered service under health insurance plans for Colorado state and local government employees and enrollees in state and local governmental insurance programs.”

Jess Grennan, Campaign Director of Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, said “The news of Arizona’s near-total abortion ban ultimately

Jess Grennan

exposed just how vulnerable every state is, and will remain, without passing legislation that constitutionally secures the right to abortion. Ballot measures like Proposition 89 are our first line of defense against government overreach and our best tool to protect the freedom to make personal, private healthcare decisions — a right that should never depend on the source of one’s health insurance or who is in office, because a right without access is a right in name only.”

Current law is discriminatory

Because of a 1984 constitutional measure that barely passed, public employees and people on public insurance in Colorado are barred from having their health insurance cover abortion care. By establishing abortion as a constitutional right, Ballot Initiative #89 would remove that discrimination, providing access to teachers, firefighters, and other state employees who cannot currently get coverage for abortion care through their insurance. Private employers in Colorado are required to cover abortion in their insurance plans.

“Recent events have made it even more critical that we in Colorado restore what the Dobbs decision took away from us and secure abortion rights in the Colorado Constitution,” said Cobalt President Karen Middleton, Co-Chair of Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom. “As a fundamental, shared value, Coloradans trust people and their doctors, not politicians, to make decisions about abortion. That value has been reinforced in 2024 with the overwhelming enthusiasm for our ballot measure, as demonstrated by thousands of volunteers in every corner of the state collecting signatures. And we firmly believe that this energy and enthusiasm will carry us through to winning in November.”

Karen Middleton

“Abortion is legal in Colorado, but still not accessible for all pregnant people who need these services. Abortion may be legal in Colorado, and that’s due to our leadership passing the Reproductive Health Equity Act in 2022 to codify a person’s fundamental right to make reproductive health-care decisions, but statutory protections do not mean we are any safer from government interference than Arizona is,” said Dusti Gurule, President and CEO of the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) and Campaign Co-Chair. “This is why our community is fighting to enshrine abortion rights in the Colorado state constitution, along with the more than 225,000 Coloradans who have signed on to support this measure. Crossing the signature threshold is a critical step forward in securing a future where abortion rights are protected, respected, and accessible for all Coloradans, regardless of which elected or appointed official is in power.”

Dusti Gurule

 

In seismic shift for the local GOP, Tim Foster endorses Janet Rowland’s opponent, J.J. Fletcher, for county commissioner

Endorsement posted on the “JJ Fletcher for Mesa County Commissioner” campaign website

In what amounts to a subtle but seismic shift in local politics, former Colorado Mesa University (CMU) President Tim Foster publicly endorsed Janet Rowland’s opponent, J.J. Fletcher, for Mesa County commissioner, formally ending his years-long support for Rowland.