Are you wondering how to vote in the Tuesday, November 7, 2023 Coordinated Election? Are you sweating about where you’re going to find the time to research all the candidates and ballot measures?
Relax.
AnneLandmanBlog has done all the work for you.
Category: Elections
Election deniers, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Mesa County Republican Party, politics, Scams, Tina Peters
9News reports Tina Peters fined $15,400 for campaign finance violation while running for Mesa County Clerk
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Marshall Zelinger of 9News’ Next with Kyle Clark reported on Friday, October 6, 2023 that an administrative law judge has fined Republican former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters $15,400 for soliciting donations to run for re-election as Mesa County Clerk without having first filed the necessary paperwork with the state that requires she report all the money she raised and spent on her campaign. The $15.4k fine pertains to Tina’s campaign for Clerk that she dropped out of in 2022 to run for Colorado Secretary of State instead.
Colorado Public Radio has published additonal information on Tina Peters’ campaign finance fine here: Former Mesa Clerk Tina Peters fined for failing to register reelection campaign, by Bente Berkeland, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2023
Andrea Haitz, Angela Lema, Education, Elections, Safety, Willie Jones
District 51 School Board candidate rundown for the November 7, 2023 election
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For this article, information was taken from Colorado Tracer (the state’s campaign finance disclosure website), Little Sis (a free database that tracks key relationships between politicians, business leaders, lobbyists, financiers, and their affiliated institutions), the subscription background check site Truthfinder.com, Zillow.com, the archives of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the subscription newspaper archive Newspapers.com, the candidates’ own social media accounts and campaign websites if they have them, and the social media pages of other people and groups in Mesa County where the candidates might have posted, or where they might have been mentioned.
I would urge readers to particularly look at which candidates have hired professional agents and campaign consultants, who they’ve hired to do these jobs, and which candidates are serving as their own registered agents and managing their own campaigns.
The candidates running for the two open seats on District 51 School Board in 2023 are:
District A: José Luis Chavéz, CynDee Skalla and Jessica Hearn
District B: Barbara Evanson and Cindy Enos Martinez
Charter schools, Children, Cindy Ficklin, Education, Elections, Liberals, Secularism, Separation of Church and State
Drinking Liberally hosts Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross & D-51 School Board candidate Darren Cook
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Drinking Liberally is a non-partisan social group that holds get-togethers in town at food and drink establishments while hosting guest speakers. The event focuses on protection of our civil liberties, like freedom from government and corporate overreach (for example denying workers the right to organize, denying women the right to access abortions and preventing transgender people access to medical care). On Tuesday, May 23, the event was held at Edgewater Brewery at 905 Struthers, by the Colorado River.
The packed crowd included notable conservatives like Tom Keenan and Cindy Ficklin, members of the far right wing group, Stand for the Constitution. The event featured two Speakers: newly-elected Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross and Darren Cook, former longtime D-51 teacher who is running for D-51 School Board.
Activism, Andrea Haitz, Education, Elections, Ethics, Extremism
Text of the Petition to Recall District 51 School Board President Andrea Haitz
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Andrea Haitz, District 51 School Board President
Some people have asked where they can read the text of the petition to recall District 51 School Board President Andrea Haitz.
You can read the entire petition here.
The petition is available for signing every day from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon at Lincoln Park. The table with circulators and petitions will either be at 12th and Teller by the Barn, or at 12th and Gunnison.
Andrea Haitz, Children, Education, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, Grassroots advocacy, politics
New website up for the effort to recall D-51 School Board President Andrea Haitz
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Click the image to go to the new website for the Andrea Haitz recall effort
The public can now keep track of the effort to recall School District 51’s Board President Andrea Haitz by going to SignForKids.com, where people can find out where to sign petitions, get trained in how to gather signatures, donate to the effort or volunteer to help. The organizers need to gather 15,000 valid signatures of registered voters within the next two months.
The website states the public’s grievances against Haitz:
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Andrea Haitz was elected to the District 51 Board in 2021, promising transparency.
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Instead, Haitz has turned local control of school dollars over to extremist organizations, turned fundamental parts of her job over to expensive lawyers, denied student pleas for mental health services, and used her office for family political gain.
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The biggest decisions at District 51 are now being turned over to outside interests and fringe extremists who don’t represent Mesa County families.
Andrea Haitz, Education, Elections, Ethics, politics
Darren Cook gives his take on the D-51 Board majority’s recent decision to send only lawyers to represent the District in negotiations with D-51 teachers
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Darren Cook (Photo: CO Education Association via Twitter, 2015)
Note: This is a guest post by Darren Cook, a former longtime District 51 middle School teacher and former President of the Mesa Valley Education Association, which represents public school teachers. Darren started a website and blog to give the public his take on decisions being made by the current District 51 School Board majority. Darren is running to replace controversial current school board member Andrea Haitz in the upcoming recall election.
On Friday, the Mesa Valley Education Association shocked the teachers of District 51 by announcing that for the first time in forty years, the Board of Education will not directly negotiate with teachers. Instead, they will be represented by two lawyers, David Price and Tammy Eret.
In my twenty-three-year career with D51, I was part of the teachers’ negotiation team for seventeen of those. We brought eight to ten teachers, paying attention to having representation from each instructional level, content, and area of expertise. D51 administration brought a similarly representative team, with administrators from each level, the Chief Financial Officer, Executive Director of Human Resources, and Superintendent as key parts of their team. And, of course, all five Board members were there. Always.
Elections, Greg Haitz, politics
City of Grand Junction election results, 2023
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Below are the results of the April 4, 2023 City of Grand Junction election. These are marked on the City’s website as the final election results. There will be a ballot curing period of 8 days following which the official final results will be viewable by going to this link on the City’s website.
Referred Measure 1A is the Community Recreation Center and 1B was to lengthen the lease on a parcel of City-owned land.
Winners of seats on City Council are Cody Kennedy, Jason Nguyen and Scott Beilfuss, and incumbent Anna Stout skated to re-election running unopposed.
The Community Recreation Center measure passed by almost 4,000 votes. Voters also passed the measure to lengthen the lease on City-owned property.
Economics, Elections, Housing, Local scut, politics
Local Business owner weighs in on rec center, affordable housing, the workforce, development
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Octopus Coffee on Horizon Drive
Alexis Bauer owns Octopus Coffee on Horizon Drive. Last week she emailed me to talk about the proposed community recreation center on the upcoming April ballot. (We differed on what we think about it. I am for it). As we got into a longer conversation, Alexis sent a follow-up email in which she offered a variety of insights from her standpoint as a western slope resident and local business owner. She talked not only about the Rec Center, but also other issues facing Grand Junction, like the housing shortage, the cost of doing business, her experience with the local workforce, City Council’s recent approval of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and what it portends for the City, the buzz she hears from customers, and more.
I found Alexis’s insights interesting and felt they deserved a wider forum, so with her permission I am sharing her email to me below, edited slightly for clarity, in hopes others find it enlightening as well.
Andrea Haitz, Conservatives, Elections, Ethics, Propaganda
D-51 School Board President Andrea Haitz violates School Board Ethics Code
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Andrea Haitz’s Feb. 15 mass email violates an ethics rule that says school board members must refrain from using their board positions for partisan gain
District 51 School Board President Andrea Haitz violated the School Board’s ethics rules by sending out an overtly partisan, political mass email February 15, 2023 using her position as School Board President to promote her husband Greg’s bid to get a seat on Grand Junction City Council this April.
Andrea Haitz
Haitz wrote,
I am writing to you today because, despite our victory, the LEFT is still here seeking majorities in local government to make Grand Junction the Denver of the Western Slope.
We can put a stop to this by voting for conservatives in the April 4th Grand Junction City Council Election like my husband, Greg Haitz, who is running for District B. [Underlining emphasis in original.]
Haitz’s email violated Mesa County Valley School District 51’s Code of Ethics for School Board Members (pdf), Policy BCB-E, which says school board members will
Avoid being placed in a position of conflict of interest and refrain from using my board position for personal or partisan gain.
City of Grand Junction, Diane Schwenke, Elections, Grand Junction Chamber, Greg Haitz, Mesa County Republican Party, politics, Public health, Quackery, Scams
Grand Junction City Council candidate rundown 2023
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For this article, I drew from publicly available sources, including the candidates’ own websites and social media accounts, newspaper articles, the candidates’ financial disclosure statements filed with the City of Grand Junction, background-checks done on TruthFinder.com, and public records requests to the Grand Junction Police Department (GJPD) for records of any contact the candidates had with local law enforcement agencies. I felt the law enforcement piece was necessary after seeing Mesa County voters elect people to public office who were later involved in theft, falsifying time cards, embezzlement, assault, plagiarism, DUI, double-dipping, election tampering and other offenses.
These City Council candidates are asking voters to hire them for a job. City taxpayers pay their salaries. The candidates should be background-checked.
Conservatives, Dangerous Republicans, Democracy under threat, Election deniers, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, Republican lies, Scams, Trump Insanity
Fox Network hosts privately ridiculed Trump’s election fraud lie while continuing to pump the lie out to viewers
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Mesa County’s many, many supporters of Donald Trump (pdf) must be super-bummed this week to find out Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch has acknowledged that Fox News anchors Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and others knowingly lied to them by repeating Donald Trump’s fraudulent statements that the 2020 general election was “rigged” and he actually won.
Murdoch acknowledged under oath in a deposition in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox Network, that Fox News hosts knowingly lied to viewers by endorsing false election fraud claims while at the same time they were privately ridiculing such claims. Murdoch further admitted he should have ordered Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who were lying to the public about the election, off the air, but didn’t.
CMU, Conservatives, Democracy under threat, Domestic terrorism, Election deniers, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, John Marshall, Lauren Boebert
Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall attends State of the Union speech with an insurrection supporter
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CMU President John Marshall poses, smiling, with Lauren Boebert, who helped spread lies about the election and supported the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on Twitter
Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall attended President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union speech in Washington, D.C. on February 7 at the invitation of far right wing extremist House Rep. Lauren Boebert, who spread lies about the 2020 election and supported the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
City of Grand Junction, Conservatives, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Diane Schwenke, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Inept Republicans, Republican incompetence, Rose Pugliese, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Former G.J. Chamber of Commerce CEO Diane Schwenke to run for G.J. City Council
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Longtime Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce President Diane Schwenke
The former longtime CEO of the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce, Diane Schwenke, has announced she will be running for the at-large seat on Grand Junction City Council in 2023.
Yes, THAT Diane Schwenke.
The one who endorsed convicted felony embezzler Steve King for state Senate in 2012.
The one who endorsed Ray Scott as a replacement for convicted felon Steve King. In 2018, Scott double-billed both his legislative and campaign expense accounts for over $1,000 in Uber rides, effectively doubling his personal reimbursements. He was also sued by the ACLU for blocking constituents from his official social media accounts, costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
The same Diane Schwenke who endorsed Laura Bradford for Colorado House of Representatives in 2012. Bradford was pulled over by Denver police for driving under the influence of alcohol during her first and only term in the House. She quit after that term.
The same Diane Schwenke who endorsed Rose Pugliese for County Commissioner. Pugliese worked to kill the Riverfront Trail System by gutting all funding for it, circulated a petition to force D-51 teachers to stop teaching kids about climate change, and also stumped for the disastrous Tina Peters to be elected County Clerk.
Activism, Elections, Lauren Boebert
Lauren Boebert sued for libel and slander
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David Wheeler
David B. Wheeler of American Muckrakers Political Action Committee (PAC), filed a defamation lawsuit (pdf) against Lauren Boebert in North Carolina on October 5.
Wheeler, who operates the nonprofit PAC, alleges Boebert made false statements about him on national radio and TV news shows in retaliation for his opposing her re-election by releasing factual information about her to the press and media. Wheeler states his PAC suffered a 92% decrease in revenue after Boebert made the false statements about him.
Among other things, Wheeler says Boebert defamed him on the nationally-broadcast Sean Hannity show, saying he had called her a “drug addict” and a “prostitute,” and that Wheeler had made death threats against her. Wheeler says none of that is true.
City of Grand Junction, Election deniers, Elections, politics
AnneLandmanBlog Voter Guide, 2022 Mid-term Election, Grand Junction & Mesa County
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Are you wondering how to vote in the Tuesday, November 8, 2022 mid-term General Election? Are you sweating over where you’re going to find all the time you need to research all the candidates and ballot measures?
Relax.
AnneLandmanBlog has done all the work for you.
Dangerous Republicans, Elections, Insurrection, Lauren Boebert, Media, politics, Propaganda
What does “freedom” really mean to Rep. Lauren Boebert?
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Lauren Boebert
The following letter is reprinted with permission from The Daily Sentinel. It appeared on their editorial page on 9/6/2022:
There are a several billboards around town that have a photo of Representative Boebert highlighting the word FREEDOM. Exactly what does she mean? Does she mean President Roosevelt’s four freedoms – – freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom from want, and freedom from fear? Does she mean that we are free to worship or not worship as we see fit, without the government using our tax dollars to support a church or forcing us to believe a specific religious doctrine? Does she mean that we are free to speak in the public square without threats of violence? Does she want Americans to earn a living wage? Does she want her fellow citizens to be able to afford healthcare, housing, clean water, and healthy food? Does she believe that medications should be affordable, and that Big Pharma should not gouge diabetics for insulin? Finally, does she believe school kids should not live in fear of a mass murderer entering their school?
Activism, Bobbie Daniel, Democrats, Election deniers, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Lauren Boebert, Mesa County Democratic Party, politics, Republican lies, Tina Peters
Want to help defeat extremist Republican candidates in Mesa County? Pitch in Saturday, 9/10, to help elect rational candidates in November
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This political map shows how the Grand Valley vote has changed since the 2016 election. Every single area on the valley floor has trended towards being more Democratic. If we can keep the trend going, we can finally stop electing embarrassing, unethical, unqualified, costly and irrational candidates who lie and commit crimes while in office, like Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.
Mesa County Democrats will gather for a big canvassing event September 10th and are asking everyone’s help to get the word out about which state and local candidates belong to the only remaining political party that deals in reality.