Category: Inept Republicans

Board of Public Health & county commissioners violated state public health law with their new intergovernmental agreement

Stephen D. Daniels, new Chair of the Mesa County Board of Public Health,  violated Colorado Title 25 by giving control over the health department’s budget to the elected county commissioners. No provision in the state public health law permits that.

When the Mesa County Commissioners had the Board of Health (BOH) sign their new Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), the commissioners, County Attorney Todd Starr and all 7 members of the new BOH all either knowingly or unknowingly violated Colorado Revised Statute Title 25, Article 1, Part 5(k).

Tina Peters sues to overturn her $15,400 campaign finance violation fine

Tina Peters in a November 2, 2023 video posted on YouTube

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.

Republican Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis publicly pulls his support for Rep. Lauren Boebert. Better late than never, Cody, but come on…

Commissioner Cody Davis’ Facebook post from yesterday, saying he can no longer support Lauren Boebert

In a remarkable show of common sense unusual in a Mesa County Republican, County Commissioner Cody Davis yesterday posted on his Facebook page that “I can no longer support Lauren Boebert for Congress, and here’s why. Our voters in Mesa County and along the West Slope deserve leaders and representatives who uphold our values.”

He continued, “How can I criticize Democrats for their moral shortcomings if I’m blind to the shortcomings of my own side?”

Okay, great, Cody. Better late than never to emerge as the most rational member of the Board of Mesa County Commissioners.

But it’s worth noting that Commissioner Davis didn’t yank his support for Boebert last July after she trashed a lapel pin representing a child who was massacred at the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

He didn’t pull his support for her after she lied to her constituents about missing the debt ceiling vote last June.

He didn’t criticize Boebert after she mocked the tragic death of a young woman who was accidentally killed on a movie set by Alec Baldwin with a prop gun that had been loaded with a live round instead of a blank.

Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland vs. former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters: Lots of similarities

When their behaviors as elected officials are compared, Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland and former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters have more in common than people may realize:

Chart of Janet vs. Tina

Rep. Lauren Boebert misses vote on debt ceiling bill

For all her railing against the debt ceiling bill, Colorado’s 3rd District House Representative Lauren Boebert missed voting on the bill entirely on Wednesday night. The vote passed by an overwhelmingly bipartisan margin of 314-117. The Senate passed the bill this morning by a vote of 63-36. The bill had to pass before Monday to avoid a potentially catastrophic, historic federal government default on paying debts the nation has already incurred.

Boebert had vowed to vote “no” on the bill, saying “Our base didn’t volunteer, door knock and fight so hard to get us the majority for this kind of compromise deal with Joe Biden. Our voters deserve better than this. We work for them. You can count me as a NO on this deal. We can do better.”

Boebert draws ridicule of western Colorado on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert’s joke portraying her district as a redneck hillbilly paradise drew embarrassment to western Colorado nationally on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert in Colbert’s monologue on February 2, 2023. The Late Show is broadcast nationally.

Former G.J. Chamber of Commerce CEO Diane Schwenke to run for G.J. City Council

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.

Lauren Boebert doesn’t understand what “wanton killing” is

Everybody is talking about how, while reading a passage from the Bible, Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert mixed up “wanton” and “wonton,” jokingly admitting that she didn’t understand what “wanton killing” was.

Remember that point in the Club 20 debate between Boebert and her opponent Adam Frisch, where Frisch asked Boebert why she didn’t attend the Club 20 Steak Fry, an event to honor the candidates participating in the debates?

Boebert answered Frisch by curtly saying, “Dinners aren’t my thing.”

What  she didn’t want people to know was that she wasn’t at the steak fry that night because she was across the state in Woodland Park, preaching at the Truth and Liberty Coalition’s “From Vision to Victory” conference at Charis Bible College, hosted by faith healer Andrew Wommack.

Red flags indicate Daniel is a Tina Peters-linked choice for Mesa County Commissioner

Left to right: activist Sherronna Bishop, “No-Work-Clerk” Tina Peters and Bobbie Daniel, from a 2018 YouTube video Daniel made to endorse Tina Peters for County Clerk. Daniel said Tina had “a wealth of knowledge” and assured us we’d be “in really good hands ” if Tina became our Clerk and Recorder. We know how that turned out, and Daniel hasn’t yet apologized to Mesa County citizens for her disastrous endorsement.

Republican Mesa County Commissioner candidate Bobbie Daniel is showing all the signs that she’ll be yet another potentially disastrous elected official in the vein of Tina Peters if she gets elected as county commissioner.

There are a number of reasons why. The first is her remarkably poor judgment:

Bobbie Daniel endorsed Tina Peters for Clerk.

Tina Peters has a history of promoting unsubstantiated health claims and multi-level marketing schemes

On an archived copy of her old website, Tina Peters wrote that she was involved in a car accident in 2010 in which she incurred a brain injury. Shortly after that, in 2011, she started promoting products made by Nikken, a multi-level marketing company that manufactures and sells unproven health remedies like health magnets, water and air purifiers, shoe inserts, and supplements with names like “Jade Greenzymes,” by making vague claims that they can improve chronic conditions like neuropathy, fibromyalgia, high blood pressure, autism and diabetes.

In October, 2011, Tina started a Twitter account, @BHealthyNow, that she used to promote work-from-home, get-rich-quick schemes, network marketing including Nikken and its products, and on which she made far-out right wing political claims, like that President Obama’s presidency was “illegal” and Obama was “a Muslim.”

Highlights of Wyoming Republican primary debate. Note, this is not a Saturday Night Live episode.


The above is a 2 minute video synopsis of a Republican primary debate among candidates running for Wyoming’s at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, currently held by Liz Cheney. These are actual answers from actual Republicans to questions the moderator posed during a “lightning round.” The debate was broadcast on Wyoming PBS and can be viewed on CSPAN.

This is only one state away.

If you can stomach it, you can watch the full debate here.

The Mesa County GOP needs to apologize for creating, aiding and abetting the Tina Peters debacle

Mesa County GOP Chair Kevin McCarney defends Tina Peters at a “Stand for the Constitution” meeting at Appleton Christian Church in Grand Junction in September, 2021. Tina Peters’ wild, egregious election-lie fiasco has embarrassed Mesa County on a national scale. 

It was clear back in 2018 when she was elected that Tina Peters was unqualified to be Mesa County Clerk and Recorder. She had had zero experience in government or in the Clerk’s office, had never worked in public administration or worked on an election in any capacity.

At the time, the qualifications between the two candidates for County Clerk couldn’t have been more stark:

It’s happening! Tina Peters: The Movie

Screen shot of the 2 minute, 15 second movie trailer for “Selection Code,” made by Lara Logan and financed by My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell

Get out the popcorn, Mesa County.

A new “documentary” movie is coming out July 16 that tells the story of embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’ efforts to convince people that massive election fraud occurred in Mesa County’s voting machines.

In reality, a recent months-long, thorough investigation into allegations of voting machine problems by Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein and his team, the results of which were presented to the Mesa County Commissioners and the public last week, reveal that was not the case. The evidence revealed beyond a doubt that human action by a member of Peters’ own Elections Department staff, who was trying to remedy a frozen computer screen, was at the heart of Peters’ accusations, and the investigation found the County’s vote tabulating machines worked appropriately and counted ballots accurately.

How to register as an Unaffiliated voter so you can vote against awful Republican candidates in the June primary

Lauren Boebert is the extremist candidate running for re-election as House Rep. from CD-3. If you’ve had enough of her, follow the instructions below to vote against her in the primary election on June 28th. Her opponent is former CO State Senator Don Coram, who, while still a Republican, is a far better choice.

While many had hoped redistricting would make Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District more competitive, it ended up doing the opposite. It increased Republicans’ advantage by an additional nine points.

This result is not lost on beleaguered CD-3 voters who, over the last two years, have been deeply embarrassed by extremist Republican elected officials like rabidly-right wing House Rep. Lauren Boebert and election-denier-to-the-point-of-insanity Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, both of whom, in addition to behaving terribly and in some cases denying voters their honest services, have also been exploiting their offices to rake in millions of dollars from like-minded, loony far-right wingers across the country who think they’re terrific.

To combat western Colorado trend of electing obviously unqualified, crass, shallow-thinking, extremist, far right Q-Anon conspiracists who exploit their positions to cash in personally, many CD-3 electors have re-registered as unaffiliated voters so they can vote the Republican ballot in the June primary and have at least some say who will run for office in the November general election. In effect, they are becoming Republicans for the primary election so they can vote for the least obnoxious, offensive Republicans, to try and push the worst of them off the ballot completely before the fall general election.

Like Enstrom Candies? You might want to re-think that. They’re one of Boebert’s biggest donors.

Enstrom Candies is Lauren Boebert’s 4th biggest donor. Source: OpenSecrets.org

How OpenSecrets.org computes donations from an entity.

GovTrack officially lists Colorado House Representative Lauren Boebert as a participant in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. She has had zero accomplishments while in office. Instead, to cover that up, she lied to her constituents and took credit for

Enstrom Candies, a favorite coffee shop, ice cream shop and candy factory in downtown Grand Junction, is Boebert’s 4th biggest donor

accomplishments achieved by Democrats. She supports Putin and Russia with her votes. She embarrassed all of Colorado with her shocking outbursts at the 2021 State of the Union address by President Biden, shouting out loud at him while he was talking about his deceased son. She openly insulted a group of Jews who were visiting the U.S. Capitol. She made homophobic comments about Transportation Secretary Pete Butigieg about his taking parental leave to care for his two newborn twins.  Boebert made bigoted jokes to intentionally disparage a Democratic colleague. She challenged a wheelchair-bound House colleague to a sprint. She mocked the death of a 42 year old cinematographer who was accidentally killed on the set of a movie by a firearm. Boebert wants government to take orders from the church. She has openly promoted the white supremacist myth of “replacement theory” that is leading to more mass shootings in the U.S. She voted against a bill to help Americans get easier access to baby formula.

Just how much are taxpayers paying Tina Peters and Belinda Knisely not to do their jobs?

Tina Peters

Everyone wants to know just how much Mesa County taxpayers are shelling out in salary and benefits to indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisely for not doing their jobs while they obey conditions of their bond to stay away from their workplace and co-workers. During all this time of not going to work, they have continued to collect paychecks.

Thanks to the County, we’ve got the figures.

Between August 10, 2021 and April 22, 2022, Knisely collected a total of $71,524.14 in salary and benefits including health and disability insurance, and Tina collected a total of $83,958.88 for a grand total paid to the pair since August 10, 2021 of $155,483.02.

Belinda Knisely

The two are indicted on multiple felony charges related to election tampering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tina Peters claims she was “framed” with the ballots left in the ballot box from the 2019 election


Speaking to members of the Jefferson County Republican Men’s Club on February 21, 2022 (video), Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters claimed that she was “framed” when election workers found “429 ballots” uncollected in a ballot box from the 2019 election.

The ballots were discovered when election workers went to empty the box for the 2020 election, but Peters refused to petition a judge to open and count them and include them in the final vote tally from the 2019 election. In her talk, Peters also got the number of uncounted ballots wrong. 574 ballots were discovered left in the ballot box, not 429.

Peters claimed without evidence that “they stuffed the ballot box with 479 ballots” in order to “take over my office” and said it was part of an effort to “take over the western slope.”

Rep. Boebert embarrasses western Colorado again with shocking outburst at State of the Union


Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert once again roundly embarrassed her western Colorado constituents nationally with her continuing over-the-top bad behavior, this time by shouting at President Biden during his first State of the Union speech on March 1 as he began to talk about his deceased son, Beau, who died at age 46 from brain cancer in 2015. Biden raised the issue of members of the military who, like his son, had “ended up in flag-draped coffins” after being exposed to toxic burn pits in the military. As Biden mentioned the soldiers who had died, Boebert yelled out “You put them there. Thirteen of them!” apparently referencing the explosion carried out by an Isis bomber at the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan last August that killed 13 American service members.