News Miner 4

Notes on the Republican assembly, right to repair, sabotage voting, the Aurora police chief, armed citizens, dinosaur elves, and more.

Welcome to my fourth “News Minor” for Pickaxe. I hope you also caught my previous article, “Why Colorado Should Not Refelonize Fentanyl Possession.” And check out my other ‘Stack, Self in Society.

Republicans Go Full QAnon

Never go full QAnon!

Colorado Republicans held their state assembly April 9. The results were not pretty, as election conspiracy mongers dominated. (As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I remain a registered Republican, despite my severe misgivings about today’s party.)

Peters and the Governor’s Race

Chase Woodruff reports,

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, an election denier who’s been indicted by a grand jury for allegedly helping QAnon conspiracy theorists access secure election equipment, takes the top ballot line in the GOP primary for Colorado Secretary of State with 60.57% of the assembly vote.

Thankfully, Pam Anderson, who rejects election conspiracy mongering, petitioned onto the primary ballot.

What does Peters have to do with the governor’s race, you ask?

Supposedly Heidi Ganahl is the frontrunner Republican candidate for governor. But Greg Lopez captured more assembly support after he preemptively promised to pardon Peters should he win and should Peters find herself in need of a pardon.

Kyle Clark summarizes:

Complicating Colorado Republicans’ effort to make crime a central issue in 2022 is the fact that their top line candidate for Governor says he’ll pardon their top line candidate for Secretary of State if she’s convicted of felonies for tampering with voting systems.

Lopez has other problems. He has made anti-gay remarks. And, the Colorado Sun reports:

In 1993, he and his wife were both cited in a domestic violence incident in which he was accused of pushing his wife, who was 6 months pregnant, to the floor and kicking her after she hit him on the top of his head. The Denver Post reported in 1994 that both Lopez and his wife pleaded guilty to a single charge of harassment.

And then there is this:

In October 2020, Lopez settled a lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors alleging that after he left the Small Business Administration, where he was the Colorado district director from 2008 to 2014, Lopez violated federal law by attempting to improperly influence actions of the agency. Prosecutors alleged Lopez “attempted to influence the SBA’s handling of its loan guarantee” to Morreale Hotels, which was owned by Lopez’s friend.

If you thought Republicans couldn’t get any crazier, you would be very wrong. Chase Woodruff reports:

A sitting Colorado state representative [Patrick Neville] just seconded the gubernatorial nomination of a far-right conspiracy theorist [Joe Oltmann] who in December publicly called for Democratic Gov. Jared Polis to be hanged.

Oltmann declined the nomination and urged “people to vote for fellow election conspiracy theorists Ron Hanks and Tina Peters” (in Jesse Aaron Paul’s words).

As Heidi Beedle reports, Oltmann has been heavily involved in regional Republican politics.

A silver lining is that conspiracy monger and one-time drunk driver Danielle Neuschwanger narrowly lost out. But she did not concede, claiming . . . you’ll never guess . . . election fraud:

Due to numerous delegates reporting fraudulent behavior during the vote today I will not be conceding until I have had ample time to investigate their claims. Their concerns deserve to be addressed. Our movement is NOT stopping!

She threatened to sue over the results.

Ganahl, who earned 32% of the delegate vote, needed only 10% to guarantee her spot on the ballot, as she also petitioned on. There is a strange rule making it harder to go through petition and assembly than through either independently (hat tip Megan Verlee): “Candidates may petition on to the primary election ballot. No candidate, however, who attempted and failed to receive at least 10% of the vote at the party assembly may utilize the petition process to access the primary election ballot.”

The Senate Race

Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate race, the Sun reports:

Ron Hanks . . . beat out five other candidates to secure the top line on the Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate as delegates at the Colorado GOP’s state assembly embraced his spread of baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election being stolen.

The only other person left standing in that race is political unknown Joe O’Dea, who petitioned onto the primary ballot.

The real winners of the Republican assembly were Governor Jared Polis and Senator Michael Bennet, who will face opponents who are at best weak and and at worst deranged. The negative ads practically write themselves.

AG, Treasurer, Congress

Still, as GOP chair Kristi Burton Brown pointed out, a couple of strong Republican candidates face no primary opposition, district attorney John Kellner in the AG race, and Lang Sias in the race for treasurer. Kellner in particular is a strong candidate, although he may get dragged down by higher-profile candidates.

There is a spot of bad news regarding Kellner, as Erik Maulbetsch reports for the leftist Colorado Times Recorder:

Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney John Kellner, the Colorado GOP’s lone candidate for attorney general, faces an ethics complaint for his decision not to charge a former Douglas County undersheriff and campaign donor with misconduct despite a finding of probable cause by investigators.

And there was an absolutely bizarre turn of events at the assembly involving Kellner. Kyle Clark reports:

This is bonkers. Colorado Republicans had one AG candidate [Kellner]. But then a random guy accused him of not supporting election conspiracy theories and that random guy got 40% of the Assembly vote to make the ballot. Except it turns out he isn’t a Republican.

In the Congressional races, Bob Lewis took top line against incumbent Ken Buck, and Dave Williams took top line against incumbent Doug Lamborn. The base is restless. Don Coram has promised to petition his way onto the ballot against incumbent (and agitator) Lauren Boebert.

Voting, Guns, Media, Jesus

A few other details about the assembly are worth mentioning.

Amidst all the election conspiracy mongering came this, Saja Hindi reports:

A motion by a delegate to switch from electronic voting to paper failed twice, with GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown telling delegates there would be no way they could finish before midnight when they lose the building.

This year Republicans chose a “facility that would not hold our delegates to anti-freedom vaccine and mask requirements” (in the words of Brown) rather than a facility that let delegates bear arms. See Michael Lund’s report.

Republicans continue to needlessly alienate news reporters. Chase Woodruff reports:

Newsline was denied access to the Colorado GOP state assembly yesterday. Pressed for an explanation, party leadership repeatedly sent identical statements calling us a “partisan Democrat organization” but refusing to point to any specific issues with our coverage.

I Tweeted to Republican leaders:

Newsline is ideologically left, yes, but it is also a serious news organization with excellent reporting. It is not “partisan Democrat.” If you can’t deal with critical reporting you don’t deserve power.

On the God front, one speaker said conservatives would turn Colorado “red with the blood of Jesus,” Andrew Kenney reports.

The upshot is that Republicans are doing almost everything in their power to prevent a Red Wave from coming to Colorado. The party’s base is dominated by self-induced insanity.

Right to Repair Bill

In my new column for Complete Colorado, I argue that a so-called “right to repair” bill ”constitutes a violation of individual rights, not a protection of them.” I argue:

No one has a “right” to “require” other people to use their property in some particular way. Rights properly conceived are boundaries that prevent people from initiating force against others. HB 1031 initiates force and seeks to compel others to act contrary to their independent judgment. . . .

Offhand I can think of three reasons why a manufacturer might not want to provide repair parts and materials to third parties. They may be worried about others performing shoddy repairs, stealing their intellectual property, or costing them money that would then have to be made up in higher up-front product costs.

Read the entire article.

Sabotage Voting

One thing I don’t like about Colorado’s partly-open primaries is that they invite “sabotage voting.” In response to a remark by Ross Kaminsky, I wrote (lightly edited):

There’s little of interest going on in Colorado Democratic primaries, but a lot of important GOP primaries. So this opens the possibility of “sabotage voting” in the primaries by Democrat-friendly unaffiliated voters. This is one reason I really dislike the status quo.

To reiterate, I don’t think government should be involved in party primaries at all. I have nothing against government primaries per se, so long as government blinds itself to party affiliation and the only goal is the winnow the field. If parties want to run their own primaries, fine. But, if we have approval voting (vote for as many candidates as you want) or ranked voting, we don’t need government primaries. Government should just have fair ballot-access rules that apply equally to all comers, regardless of party. If parties want to limit who among their members can run, that’s their business.

Aurora Fires Its Police Chief

Aurora fired its chief of police, Vanessa Wilson. Why? My sense is she was pushed out because she was too friendly toward reform. Consider this line deep in the Denver Post article on the topic by Elise Schmelzer and Saja Hindi: “During her tenure, Wilson publicly fired at least a dozen police officers for wrongdoing.” Many officers have expressed disapproval of Wilson, and, with departures, the department has had trouble filling its ranks. (Note: Boulder also has lost officers, as has Denver.)

Aurora police are having problems, no doubt. A “project update briefing by PRI Management Group found 2,511 police reports were waiting to be entered into the department’s records management system as of March 11,” reports the Post.

Regardless of Wilson’s firing, the department remains under a “consent decree” reached with the attorney general’s office. Former district attorney George Brauchler is not a fan of that decree, by the way. He argues it was based largely on “observations of ‘statistically significant racial disparities’ that are less than those observed in Denver, Boulder and nearly everywhere else.” (Brauchler also discusses the PRI report.)

Whatever the comparisons, the Aurora department clearly has problems. Aurora police killed Elijah McClain. An officer was “arrested on felony charges after a video showed him using his pistol to beat a man he was attempting to arrest, choking him and threatening to kill him.” Based on a flimsy pretext, officers pulled a black woman and four children from a car and forced them to lay belly-down on hot asphalt. See also the attorney general’s report on the department.

State legislators who represent Aurora condemned the firing of Wilson, as did McClain’s mother. The Aurora Sentinel points out that the CEO of PRI hardly is an objective observer. That paper editorializes that Wilson’s firing is a “political hit job.”

My take: We should demand that police do their jobs—find and arrest rights-violating criminals and seek to break up crime—while themselves respecting people’s rights. Properly, these two aims are not at odds; they are mutually reinforcing aspects of good police work. I hope that Wilson’s firing is not a sign that Aurora police will crack down on crimes except those committed by Aurora police officers.

Armed Civilians

Among the resolutions Colorado Republicans considered is one that states in part:

Recent events in Ukraine and other places around the world have shown an undeniable requirement for citizens to be armed and trained in the uses of arms, and . . . an unarmed population is truly defenseless to aggressors at every level.

Sounds right to me. But the left-leaning Times Recorder was not impressed. James O’Rourke writes:

It is unclear whether the writers of this resolution think that Ukraine’s geopolitical position is comparable to that of the U.S.; whether the U.S. is at risk of being invaded; or who they think could potentially be ‘aggressors.’

My reply: Obviously Ukraine’s situation right now is not remotely comparable to that of the U.S. Obviously the U.S. currently has the most powerful military in the world and is not at risk of invasion anytime soon. But times change. China and Russia have been collaborating. People on the left justifiably believe that the U.S. nearly suffered a coup. Decline of the U.S. in coming decades certainly is not impossible. If people lose their (legally recognized) right to bear arms, they are not likely to get it back. So long-term thinking in this matter is reasonable.

Dinosaur Elves

Here is the story of the “dinosaur elves” as related by my six-year-old, who recently attended camp at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The artist painted little elves in the dinosaur paintings. The museum threatened to fire him if it drew one more elf. So he drew his last elf waiving goodbye. I have no idea how much of that story is true. But there definitely are elves.

Quick Takes

Bullcrap: Recently Rep. Lauren Boebert Tweeted, “I’m a mother of four boys. The Far Left seriously needs to cut this grooming bullcrap out because us parents have SERIOUSLY had enough!” But, as Bill Kristol points out, Boebert might want to mind the “bullcrap” closer to home (more here).

Open Primaries: “Federal judge dismisses Republicans’ lawsuit to block unaffiliated voter participation in primaries.” I think that’s the wrong decision, and I think we need much more fundamental election reform.

TABOR Suit: Conservatives are suing over last year’s SB260, which imposes fees on gas, deliveries, and ride shares, on grounds that it violates the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Colorado Sun has the story.

Chinatown Riot: “Denver will apologize . . . to early Chinese immigrants and their descendants for its role in an anti-Chinese riot in 1880 that left one person dead and led to the destruction of the city’s Chinatown,” reports Esteban L. Hernandez. This riot was one of the worst moments of Colorado history.

Republican Sanity: Good for GOP Senator Kevin Priola, who, in response to a recent election-conspiracy rally, said, “I’ve honestly been horrified by the accusations of a stolen election. It’s intended to destabilize our systems.”

Avian Flu: “Avian flu’s arrival in Colorado closes Denver Zoo bird exhibits,” notes the Denver Post.