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.
Category: Elections
Charter schools, Cody Davis, Democrats, Elections, Good things about Mesa County, Grassroots advocacy, Housing, Human rights, Immigration, Local concerns, politics, Poverty, Worker advocacy
Former CMU Professor Tom Acker to run against Cody Davis for County Commissioner
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• •A Democrat has joined the race against Cody Davis for Mesa County Commissioner. Tom Acker is currently the only Democrat running for local office in Mesa County.
Acker was a professor of Spanish language at CMU for two decades. He is now a retired professor emeritus, an honorary title conferred upon him for his distinguished service to the academic community. He is a founding member of the award-winning Hispanic Affairs Project.
Originally from the east coast, in the 1980s Acker worked with refugees from the Mariel Boatlift, after over 125,000 Cubans piled into boats and headed for Florida after the Cuban government announced that anyone who wanted to leave the country was free to do so.
While he lived in Pennsylvania, Acker worked with a federally-funded agency to help farmers interact with agriculture workers.
Abortion, Activism, Democracy, Elections, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Health, Health care, Women
Help keep Colorado a free state
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Get up, get out and sign the petition to preserve reproductive freedom in Colorado! If you can’t get out, petition circulators will come to you. Get trained as a circulator at the office of Mesa County Democrats and get your friends, family and neighbors to sign! Do it soon. The deadline for signature gathering is the middle of next month.
Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom (CPRF) made an appearance last weekend in Grand Junction to boost the signature-gathering effort to get Initiative 89 on the ballot, the measure that would amend the state constitution to protect abortion from government interference.
Elections, politics
CD-3 candidate Adam Frisch holding meet and greet Wed., 2/28@Kannah Creek Brewery 5:30-6:30 p.m.
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• •Grab your chance to meet Adam Frisch, the leading candidate for the 3rd Congressional District seat, and the one who single-handedly chased Lauren Boebert out of our District for good.
Adam is hosting a Meet-and-Greet Wednesday, 2/28 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Kannah Creek Brewing Company, 1960 N. 12th St., Grand Junction. Adam advocates a climb-down from the “angertainment” politics we’ve had to endure in CD-3 for the last few years
and seeks instead to represent CD-3 in Congress in a more normal way, meaning he would actually represent and promote the needs of our district in the House instead of seeking fame and notoriety by constantly engaging in outrageous behavior. He also seeks to restore dignity to CD-3’s representation in Congress, while actually making progress towards solving problems in our District.
Conspiracy theories, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Election deniers, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Immigration, Intolerance, politics, Trump Insanity, Weird western slope stuff
Civil War & Feeding Migrants to Wolves: Western CO Congressional Forum Gets Extreme
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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.
Abortion, Activism, Democracy under threat, Elections, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Health care, Safety, Separation of Church and State
Signature-gathering effort for ballot initiative to guarantee abortion rights in CO kicks off 1/23 in Grand Junction
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• •The effort to get Amendment 89, a constitutional amendment to protect the right to an abortion from government interference in Colorado, onto the November ballot will kick off on Tuesday, January 23 at an event in Grand Junction from 6:00 – 8:00 pm at The Mesa Theater, 538 Main St, Grand Junction, CO 81501. Currently abortion is protected in Colorado, but only by a statutory law enacted in 2022 called the Reproductive Health Equity Act, which confers only weak protection that could easily be changed by a vote of Republicans trying to further restrict women’s rights.
Amendment 89 will assure that all Coloradans, regardless of occupation or source of health insurance, have access to reproductive healthcare. Currently, teachers, firefighters, other state and local public employees and people enrolled in state health insurance plans lack insurance coverage (pdf) for abortion care, an inequity that

Republicans are passing laws to restrict womens freedom in the U.S., leading to the need for states to pass constitutional amendments to guarantee women keep those hard-won rights.
Amendment 89 aims to address. As a constitutional amendment, Amendment 89 will also be a stronger buffer against future attempts by politicians in Colorado to limit abortion access in our state.
Bad behavior, Christian nationalism, Conspiracy theories, Crazy Republicans, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Democracy under threat, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Generic idiocy, Lies, Religion, Republicans violating laws, Tina Peters, Trump Insanity, Vile Republicans
Tina Peters remains defiant, now portrays her criminal case as war on Christians
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• •Many defendants who are facing an imminent trial on criminal charges might start showing remorse and contrition, but not former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.
In a rambling 27 minute interview on rumble.com on “The Matthew Dark Show” on December 13, former Mesa county Clerk Tina Peters continues to be defiant, insisting publicly that she did nothing wrong or illegal as Clerk when she copied voting machine hard drives and exposed the information at an election denier conference. She says what she did was required as part of her job, that she’s a whistleblower, what she did was “totally legal” and she’s being persecuted politically just because she’s trying to “tell the truth.”
At 6:09 in the video, she says her legal battles have nothing to do with Democrats or Republicans, and says,
“They’re coming after Christians. They’re coming after our Constitution. And when I say ‘they,’ these are global elitists that want to take down America because they cannot do what they want to do for a one world government until they do that.”
Abortion, Activism, Elections, Freedom under threat
CO Ballot Initiative #89 seeks to enshrine abortion rights in Colorado’s Constitution
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• •Western Colorado is organizing to protect abortion rights, for real.
In 2022, Colorado enacted a statute to protect access to contraception and abortion, but because it’s just a statute, Republicans can still try to undermine the law by introducing bills and ballot measures to try to limit abortion access. So groups that support reproductive freedom are working to put Initiative #89 on the 2024 state ballot.
Bad behavior, Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Democracy under threat, Election deniers, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Extremism, Inept Republicans, Republicans violating laws, Scams, Tina Peters
Tina Peters sues to overturn her $15,400 campaign finance violation fine
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• •Tina Peters filed a lawsuit (pdf) November 8 against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold to overturn the $15,400 campaign finance violation fine an administrative law judge levied against her on October 4, 2023, claiming the fine is “unfair” and that it has “irreparably injured” her.
The Court fined her for soliciting donations to run for re-election as Mesa County Clerk in 2021-2022 without having first filed the necessary paperwork with the state that requires she report the money she raised and spent on her campaign. The fine pertained to Tina’s campaign for County Clerk that she dropped out of in 2022 to run for Colorado Secretary of State instead. Tina lost the primary election for that seat to her Republican competitor by 14 percentage points, but she is telling people in interviews that she won that election.
Elections, Good Republicans, Local concerns
People reporting difficulty accessing ballot drop-off box at the Clifton DMV on election day (today)
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• •People are reporting that construction, roped off areas and the construction workers’ vehicles are inhibiting access and causing traffic jams at the ballot drop-off box at the Clifton DMV at 3225 I-70 Business Loop, Unit A2, in Clifton. Concerns are for the ability of disabled or other-enabled people to be able to reach the box, trip and fall hazards for those stepping over the areas under construction to reach the box, traffic congestion and some people are concerned about possible voter suppression.
New Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross was notified of the situation, said she just noticed it on her cameras as well and was headed to Clifton immediately to address the situation.
Christian nationalism, Dangerous Republicans, Education, Elections, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Local concerns, politics, Religion, Separation of Church and State
D-51 School Board candidate Barbara Evanson wants to teach creationism alongside science in public schools
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• •“I feel like we need to be teaching both ends of the spectrum when we’re teaching things in school as well….What I mean by that is if we’re teaching the Big Bang Theory then we need to teach creationism as well.” — Barbara Evanson
On October 31, the Colorado Times Recorder highlighted a locally-made video interview with District 51 School Board candidate Barbara Evanson in which Evanson says that if schools teach what is scientifically known about the origins of the universe, then they should also have to teach creationism alongside that information so kids can decide on their own what’s true.
Creationism is the religious belief that God created the universe. It is a wholly religious construct with no scientific proof behind it,
The idea of mandating creationism be taught in public schools alongside scientific information has been declared by U.S. courts to be illegal.
Children, Conservatives, Dangerous Republicans, Democracy, Education, Elections, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Local concerns, politics, Weird western slope stuff
D-51 School Board candidate Barbara Evanson says she wants to ban “a ton” of material from school libraries
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• •In this excerpt from an interview with “Ruth” and “Lisa” (who do not provide their last names) posted on a YouTube account named “MesaCountyCompass” on October 8, 2023, “District 51 School Board candidate Barbara Evanson says she would ban “a ton of material” from school libraries that she feels is inappropriate.
Activism, Children, Christian nationalism, Conservatives, Education, Elections, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Homophobia, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Mesa County, politics, Propaganda, Separation of Church and State
Woodland Park-based Christian nationalist group working to influence Mesa County District 51 School Board election
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Truth & Liberty Coalition fliers seek to influence the local school board election by focusing on right wing culture war issues. The fliers were placed at La Milpa Tortilleria on 30 Road.
High-quality, multi-colored, bilingual fliers created by the front range Christian dominionist group Truth & Liberty Coalition are showing up at businesses around town. The fliers use right wing culture war rhetoric targeting gay and transgender students in an attempt to influence the outcome of the November 7 District 51 School Board election. The fliers appear to endorse CynDee Skalla, Jessica Hearns and Barbara Evanson.
The fliers were found at La Milpa Tortilla Factory in Grand Junction and are bilingual in English and Spanish.
Dangerous Republicans, Education, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Local concerns, Mesa County Republican Party, politics, Propaganda, Republican incompetence
“Stand for the Constitution,” which still supports Tina Peters, is working to get Evanson & Skalla elected to D-51 School Board
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A slide shown at a mid-October, 2023 Stand for the Constitution meeting that indicates the group still supports criminally-indicted, election denier Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. The same group is supporting Evanson and Skalla for D-51 School District Board.
It seems like Mesa County never seems to learn from its past mistakes.
Stand for The Constitution (SFTC), the local extremist group that pushed to get Tina Peters elected County Clerk in 2018, that continued to support Peters even after her loss of 574 of ballots in 2019 and even after her indictments on multiple felony criminal charges related to election tampering, is now working to get Barbara Evanson and CynDee Skalla elected to the District 51 School Board in the November 7, 2023 election.
Stand for the Constitution also backed the three conservative school board members Haitz, Lema and Jones who have brought rancor, questionable ethics, uncertainty, disruption and hatred to the school board.
Bad behavior, Conservatives, Election deniers, Elections, Ethics, politics, Republicans violating laws, Scams, Tina Peters
Tina Peters takes the 5th Amendment repeatedly in deposition about soliciting illegal campaign contributions
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• •On September 29, Colorado Administrative Law Judge Timothy Nemecheck fined former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters $15,400 for illegally soliciting and accepting contributions to a 2022 re-election campaign for county clerk without first registering as a candidate with the State.
The fine was the end result of two campaign finance complaints filed in 2021 by Scott Beilfuss, who is now a Grand Junction City Councilman. The first complaint was dated August 16, 2021. Beilfuss wrote a single sentence:
“Tina Peters flew up to Mr. Pillows cybersymposium on a private plane provided to her and is staying as a guest of the Pillow foundation in a clear violation of accepting gift laws.”
Conservatives, Elections, Equal rights, Ethics, Extremism, Freedom under threat, Harassment, Hate, Homophobia, Human rights, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Local business, Local concerns, Safety, Violence
School Board candidate forum cancelled after threat of violence posted on Facebook
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A school board candidate forum that was planned for last evening, Monday, October 16, was cancelled abruptly the day of the event after the venue hosting the event, Good Judy’s Bar & Club downtown, received a violent threat on Facebook.
Democracy, Education, Elections, politics
AnneLandmanBlog Voter guide, November 7, 2023 election
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• •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.
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