Tag: gop primary
Indicted Colorado County Clerk And Election Denier Crushed In GOP Primary

Indicted Colorado County Clerk And Election Denier Crushed In GOP Primary

A right-wing conspiracy theorist who was indicted in March on criminal charges of tampering with voting machines to try to prove former President Donald Trump's lies of a stolen 2020 presidential election on Tuesday lost the Republican primary to run for secretary of state of Colorado, the person who oversees its elections.

With 95 percent of the vote counted, Tina Peters, the clerk and recorder of Mesa County, Colorado, was in third place, trailing the winner, fellow Republican Pam Anderson, 43.2 percent to 28.3 percent.

Peters and her deputy, Belinda Knisley, were indicted on March 8. Peters was indicted on seven felony charges and three misdemeanors, including identity theft, criminal impersonation, attempting to influence a public servant, and official misconduct after she allegedly helped an unauthorized person gain access to a room that housed Mesa County's election equipment in August 2021 and gave an unauthorized person passwords for the equipment.

Images of the voting machine data wound up being published by a Telegram social media account run by believers in the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles runs the U.S. government. The FBI said the QAnon movement is a domestic terror threat.

Peters had declared herself a candidate for Colorado secretary of state the previous month, challenging incumbent Democrat Jena Griswold, who had been investigating Peters at that point for seven months and released a statement in response to Peters' announcement that said, "Peters compromised voting equipment to try to prove conspiracies, costing Mesa County taxpayers nearly one million dollars. She works with election deniers, spreads lies about elections, was removed from overseeing the 2021 Mesa County election, and is under criminal investigation by a grand jury."

In response to a suit filed by Griswold, Mesa County District Judge Valerie Robison in May barred Peters from overseeing the 2022 midterm elections in the county because of the indictments, writing, "Based on the circumstances of this case … the Court determines that the Petitioners have met the burden of showing that Peters and Knisley have committed a neglect of duty and are unable to perform the duties of the Mesa County Designated Election Official."

Peters did not accept her primary defeat.

She told supporters Tuesday night, as results showed her trailing the Anderson by double digits, "We didn't lose, we just found evidence of more fraud. ... They're cheating and we'll prove it once again. ... It's not over. Keep the faith."

Peters was one of several Republican election deniers running for secretary of state positions in 2022. Not all of them have won.

In Nevada, Republicans nominated Jim Marchant, a Trump supporter who has pushed numerous baseless and antisemitic voter fraud conspiracies.

But Republican Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, one of the 147 congressional Republicans to vote against certifying President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory in January 2021, lost a primary bid for Georgia secretary of state in May. Hice, who was endorsed by Trump, was handily defeated by incumbent Republican Brad Raffensperger, who had rebuffed efforts by Trump to steal Georgia's Electoral College votes.

In Colorado, Peters isn't the only election denier to have lost Tuesday night.

Republican state Rep. Ron Hanks, a Peters supporter who attended the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington that preceded the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, lost his primary run for Senate.

Anderson will face Griswold in November.

Griswold, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination, has vowed to protect voting rights in Colorado.

Reprinted with permission from American Independent.

Christie Hammers Home Message, Nails Down Support Of Home Depot Cofounder

Christie Hammers Home Message, Nails Down Support Of Home Depot Cofounder

By Maddie Hanna, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

TRENTON, N.J. — As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie nears a decision on whether to run for president, he faces a likely crowded Republican primary field —  and competition for wealthy donors.

One billionaire, however, has made his allegiance to Christie clear.

“The American people are ready for the truth. I think one thing the governor demonstrates loud and clear is candor,” Ken Langone, a cofounder of Home Depot, said in a recent interview. “He has no trouble standing by his decisions and explaining why he made those decisions.”

The governor, who is scheduled to join other potential Republican presidential candidates this weekend in Iowa, has said his 2016 decision won’t be rushed by rivals.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney — who are perceived as competing with Christie for donors — have signaled possible bids, setting off speculation as to whether the New Jersey governor could raise enough money.

Langone — who said last week that he would host a dinner for Christie “sometime toward the end of the month” — has dismissed that idea.

“I am going to work my ass off to make sure Chris Christie never needs money,” he said in a Politico story last week.

Wealthy political backers like Langone have gained “undue and disproportionate influence on our elections,” said Fred Wertheimer, founder and president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit that advocates campaign-finance reform. “They become extremely important to presidential candidates.”

But while Langone may be able to convene donors on Christie’s behalf, “it’s not like one person can go out and put his or her finger on everybody,” former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said.

“People who have the capacity to give away a thousand dollars or more, in many cases a lot more, make up their own minds,” said Barbour, who met Langone in 1993 when Langone was finance chairman for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Still, Barbour said, Langone is “clearly an asset. And a big one.”

Langone, a former New York Stock Exchange director who runs a New York investment bank, Invemed Associates, has long been a Christie backer. In 2011, he convened a group of supporters — among them former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger — to urge Christie to run for president.

When Christie opted not to enter the 2012 race, Langone threw his support to Romney.

But he remained enthusiastic about Christie. Days after the George Washington Bridge scandal broke last January, Langone hosted the governor and donors at his house in Palm Beach, Fla.

A prolific donor to political and philanthropic causes, Langone said his fund-raising for national campaigns ramped up in 1988, when he was asked to help raise money in New York for the campaign of President George H.W. Bush.

“I love America, and I want America to be great,” he said of his fund-raising.

He said he doesn’t ask politicians who receive his donations to support his business interests: “I can take care of myself. I don’t need the government.”

Asked about donations he’s made over the years to a political action committee created by Home Depot’s board of directors — $80,000, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics — Langone said the committee was “designed to address onerous regulations that stifle us from growing and hiring people.”

Langone acknowledges efforts to influence — and reward — politicians on other causes. After New York Sen. Chuck Schumer helped secure federal money for New York University Langone Medical Center after Hurricane Sandy, Langone raised money for the Democratic lawmaker.

“Here was an opportunity for us to support somebody who did for his constituents what he was elected to do,” Langone said. “There’s nothing in that for me personally.”

The leader of a group of Republicans who endorsed Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election, Langone said he backs Cuomo largely because the governor supports charter schools.

“I have no trouble aggressively soliciting politicians to help us fix the public school system, which is broken in America right now,” Langone said.

Christie has supported school-choice policies. In his “State of the State” address last week, he again advocated for a bill to enable certain low-income children to attend nonpublic or out-of-district schools, a measure that has failed to advance in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

The governor has been quieter lately on another topic where Langone is vocal: immigration reform.

Describing a scenario with children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants, Langone said, “What do you do, send the parents back and say, put the kids in a foster home? … You’ve got to figure out a way to deal with the reality.”

Langone has also made his views known on hydraulic fracturing, which he favors; entitlement programs, which he says need to be reformed (“It’s absolutely absurd for a man of my means to get a $2,400 check from the government every month”); and the debate over income inequality.

Regarding the inequality debate, Langone told Politico last year: “If you go back to 1933, with different words, this is what Hitler was saying in Germany. You don’t survive as a society if you encourage and thrive on envy or jealousy.”

The remarks drew criticism, and Langone issued a statement: “If my choice of words was inappropriate — and they well may have been that — I extend my profound apologies to anyone and everyone who I may have offended.”

Langone said he doesn’t expect Christie to share his views. “This ideological litmus test is a nightmare,” he said.

But he said Christie “has the capacity to listen and reflect on what he hears and adjust his thinking. Now, all you can do is hope you get a day in court with somebody.”

Langone said the dinner he will host for Christie this month would not be a fund-raiser: “He’s running for nothing. How can I raise money for him?”

Instead, “I want people to meet him, get to know him, be able to probe his mind, how he feels about things,” Langone said.

Stan Hubbard, a billionaire Minnesota broadcast executive who attended Langone’s event for Christie in Florida last year, described Langone as “a very persuasive person” who “gets people together by picking up the phone and calling his friends.”

Hubbard, who met Langone 20 years ago through a business deal, said he and Langone have stayed in touch, and “we mention Christie from time to time.”

“We mention Gov. (Scott) Walker. We mention Jeb Bush. He hasn’t kept in touch just about Chris Christie,” Hubbard said.

Langone “really believes” in Christie,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Photo: Peter Stevens via Flickr

Jeb Could Ruin Hillary’s Political Run

Jeb Could Ruin Hillary’s Political Run

If you’re Hillary Clinton, you pinched yourself last week to awake from a strange and wondrous dream. Except it wasn’t a dream.

Mitt Romney really has been calling up rich conservative donors to tell them he wants to run for president — again.

If you’re Hillary Clinton, you broke into a wide grin that stayed on your face all day, because the news seemed too good to be true. Mitt Romney is seriously going to try one more time?

“Thank you, God,” is what Hillary was thinking.

Not because Mitt Romney is likely to become the Republican nominee in 2016, but rather because he’ll be competing for the same mainstream primary voters and the same big money that Jeb Bush is chasing.

And anybody who can get in Jeb’s way makes life easier for Hillary.

Jeb is definitely not whom she wants to face in the election. Among potential GOP candidates he’s currently the only one who could beat her in Florida — and it’s practically impossible to win the White House without winning Florida.

Just ask Romney. Or John McCain, John Kerry, Al Gore and Bob Dole.

The last presidential candidate to take the Sunshine State but lose the national election was Jeb Bush’s father back in 1992.

If you’re Hillary, you’re nervous about Jeb because he remains well liked in Florida although he hasn’t campaigned for office in more than a decade.

Hillary is sharp enough to know that Jeb got to be governor — and was easily re-elected — by drawing thousands of crossover votes from Florida Democrats. She would rather not test the durability of his popularity in Florida, or nationally.

It would be ideal for her if the Republicans nominated a Tea Party hothead, thus alienating millions of American voters except for the cranky old white people who listen to Rush Limbaugh.

If that happened, Hillary could put her campaign on autopilot. She’d win in a landslide.

If you are her, you pray for the GOP to completely lose its marbles and choose somebody like Rick Santorum or Ted Cruz. This would be such a slam dunk that Hillary Democrats dare not mention the possibility for fear of jinxing it.

A race against even Romney could also be a breeze, though the odds are slim that the Republicans will give him another shot. Still, anything can happen in the primaries, especially since these knuckleheads insist on starting in Iowa, which demographically resembles Finland more than it does the United States.

If you’re Hillary, things were looking super solid for 2016 until Jeb started making moves like he was going to run. Now what do you do?

You had counted on locking up the huge Hispanic vote, yet here’s a Republican who speaks fluent Spanish and openly favors a more compassionate immigration policy than his party espouses. This will be a problem.

If Jeb were more like Romney, you could depend on him to flip-flop and retreat to an extreme position that would drive away Latino voters in droves. So far, though, Jeb hasn’t backed down.

While Sen. Marco Rubio and other possible GOP candidates are still whining about same-sex marriage, Jeb has wisely thrown in the towel and says it’s time to respect all sides of the debate, wishing the best for the couples now marrying.

If you’re Hillary, you want to pull your hair out. You never planned on running against a Republican who respected gays and lesbians. It’s not fair!

If Jeb sustains this tolerant tone, Hillary will be forced to devise a new attack strategy.

You can’t really slam him just for being another Bush without getting slammed yourself for being another Clinton. The fact that Bill is dear friends with Jeb’s dad, the elder George, also complicates that formula.

Nor can you slop any blame on Jeb for invading Iraq because that was his brother’s call — and you voted for it yourself as a senator. You totally fell for all that crap about weapons of mass destruction.

So scratch Bush fatigue off the list of campaign issues. Ditto for Iraq.

On education, Jeb supports the Common Core curriculum in defiance of the GOP’s right wing, eliminating another potential weapon from Hillary’s debate arsenal.

If you are her, you’re left hoping with all your soul that Romney muddies the center of the Republican Party, and saps prime attention and heavy money away from Jeb.

You can also hope that the Tea Party screamers bash Jeb so relentlessly during the primary season that his momentum is blunted. It’s not impossible for him to be overtaken by a more beatable candidate, which is to say any other candidate.

Even better, if you’re Hillary you are hoping that Jeb loses his spine, backpedals from these semi-reasonable positions and soon starts sounding like all his rivals.

It would be your dream scenario — Jeb morphs into Mitt, and together they morph into the woodwork. Without Jeb topping the GOP ticket, you’re golden in Florida and so is the path to the presidency.

Carl Hiaasen is a columnist for The Miami Herald. Readers may write to him at: 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132.

AFP Photo/Jim Watson

Christie Sinks To Embarrassing New Low In 2016 Poll

Christie Sinks To Embarrassing New Low In 2016 Poll

Since shortly after the 2012 presidential election, New Jersey governor Chris Christie has made it very clear that he plans to run for the White House in 2016. But according to a new survey, Republicans would rather he stay in the Garden State.

That’s the takeaway from a CBS News poll, released Sunday, which asks Americans who they would — and would not — like to see run for president.

Republicans are intrigued by several potential candidates. They agree 59 to 26 percent that Mitt Romney should launch a third presidential bid — a much warmer reception than he’s received from party insiders — and 50 to 27 percent that former Florida governor Jeb Bush should try to become the third member of his family to win the White House. Former Arkansas governor and Fox News host Mike Huckabee also polls well, with 40 percent wanting him to run and 29 percent hoping he declines.

But Republicans are much more sour on Christie: Just 29 percent want to see him join the race, while 44 percent disagree. Only former Alaska governor Sarah Palin polls worse, with 59 percent urging her to stay out of the race and 30 percent hoping she jumps in.

Considering that Christie has been traveling the country in a highly publicized shadow campaign, while Palin has been filling her days with impeachment calls and incomprehensible rambling, that’s not a great sign.

It’s not just national Republicans who aren’t crazy about a potential Christie campaign; his own constituents don’t seem very enthused by the idea, either. A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll released last week found that 47 percent of New Jersey voters disapprove of Christie’s job performance, compared to just 39 percent who approve. Furthermore, voters agreed 53 to 32 percent that Christie is more concerned with running for president than being governor, and an overwhelming 72 percent said that Christie’s gubernatorial decisions are influenced by his presidential ambitions.

Previous polls have found likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton walloping Christie in New Jersey in a hypothetical presidential matchup.

According to the CBS poll, Democrats are much more excited for a Clinton campaign than Republicans are about Christie; 85 percent of Democrats want Clinton to run for president, while just 11 percent want her to pass on the race.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr