Gessler, scott SoS
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Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) is on the way down, with only a slim chance of regaining the votes needed to keep her U.S. House seat.
The Daily Beast reported Friday morning that Boebert is crying fraud.
Boebert's campaign announced late Thursday that they fully intend to investigate “unusual voting patterns” as the margin widens between her and her Democratic challenger Eileen Laubacher.
An estimated 12,000 ballots remain to be counted as of late Thursday evening. Most of those ballots are from Arapahoe County. Only 85 percent of the county's votes are reported. Arapahoe County supported Laubacher overwhelmingly (60.9 percent) to Boebert's 35.8 percent.
According to NBC News, Boebert must win 61.4 percent of the remaining vote to overtake Laubacher, with the latter ahead by 0.9 percent. That is outside the mandated recount percentage. Boebert is running out of ballots to make up the deficit. Her strongest source of Republican votes is largely finished.
Boebert is ready to claim the election was rigged. Boebert left her district (Colorado 3rd District) after winning there by just 551 votes. The Fourth District was supposed to be more Republican friendly, but it wasn't just a blue wave; it was a blue tsunami.
Boebert's campaign lawyer, Scott Gessler, told Mediaite in a statement that they're seeing a strange voting pattern. Indeed, Republicans have faced those unusual numbers across the country.
“We are investigating some very unusual voting patterns and expect this election to head to a recount, one way or another,” Gessler said.
“A significant number of votes remain outstanding in the race. We are fighting for every vote and will continue to ensure every legal vote is counted. Since election night, ballot returns have been trending in Congresswoman Boebert’s direction, consistently lowering the margin under one percentage point," he said.
The 2026 election saw massive turnout that was largely anti-Republican. That "unusual voting pattern" didn't happen only in Boebert's district. The entire country took the step to oppose Republicans and President Donald Trump.
No wrongdoing has been cited as evidence by Gessler or anyone else. There were no specifics about what counties the campaign thinks saw unusual activity.
Local anchor Kyle Clark reported that Laubacher's lead fell from about 2.2 percent to 0.65 percent, over the course of the counting. It has since expanded to 0.9 percent. That describes movement in the reported results, not, by itself, evidence of wrongdoing.
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1126 Scott Gessler - Wikipedia not much talk clone brochure/
Scott Gessler is an American politician and the former Secretary of State of Colorado, having served from 2011 to 2015. He is a former business owner and elections attorney. Gessler is a member of the Republican Party. Gessler is also a veteran of the United States Army.
Early life, education, and early career
Scott Gessler was born in Detroit, Michigan, his parents moved many times during his childhood but settled in a small suburb outside of Chicago, Illinois. He attended public schools and graduated from Riverside-Brookfield High School in 1983.[citation^^ ^^needed]^ After high school, Gessler attended Yale University, where he obtained his bachelor's degree, he would continue to the University of Michigan Law School where he received his Juris Doctor.[1]^ Gessler later received an MBA at Northwestern University,[2]^ after doing so, he began his career as a federal prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and served as a reservist in the United States Army for sixteen years.[3]^ After Gessler briefly served overseas in the Army, he re-located to Denver, Colorado where he began working for a small law practice, where he specialized in election law. In 2002, Gessler fought against gerrymandering in Colorado House and Senate districts. In 2004, he argued the successful case before the state supreme court keeping presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the Colorado ballot.
Personal life
Scott Gessler is married to his wife Kristi, together they have a daughter and a son. Currently they reside in Denver.[4]
Military career
As a U.S. Army Reservist; his first assignment was at the 10th Military Law Center in Prince George's County, Maryland. Gessler continued his military service, joining the 12th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Following the deactivation of 12th Group, Scott joined the 415th Civil Affairs Battalion in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Within months that unit deployed to Bosnia, where Scott served as a Civil Affairs Officer at British Division Headquarters and later as the officer in charge of a Civil Military Cooperation Center. He remained in the Army Reserves, drilling with the 407th Civil Affairs Battalion in Arden Hills, Minnesota. He received an honorable discharge at the rank of Major.[citation^^ ^^needed]
Political career
When Gessler announced his candidacy for Colorado Secretary of State in late 2009, he did not face any opposition in the Republican party primary elections. In the general election, Gessler challenged Bernie Buescher, the Democratic incumbent[5]^ and Amanda Campbell, who was a member of the Constitution Party. Gessler won the election with 49.52% of the vote.[6]
In 2011, Secretary of State Gessler filed an order requiring that Denver County not mail ballots to those who did not vote in 2010 and failed to respond to numerous mailings from the county clerks. Though counties had never mailed to these inactive voters for statewide November elections, both Pueblo and Denver, which are heavily Democratic counties, decided this would be the first time they would mail to inactive voters. This caused some to accuse Gessler of making the order for political reasons.[7][8][9]
In the lead-up to the 2012 elections, Gessler sent letters to voters who also showed proof of non-citizenship at their recent driver's license application. The letter asked the registered voters to confirm their citizenship. Many non-citizens voluntarily removed themselves from the rolls. Although Gessler never removed or threatened to remove anyone from the voter rolls, many liberal groups complained of his efforts to purge voters. He countered the criticisms of the campaign by saying his office "had spent $1.1m registering Colorado voters, an initiative which netted more Democrats than Republicans, and that the state's electoral roll was cleaner than ever. He compared his campaign to installing fire alarms. 'Even if a building has no history of fires, it's something you do.'"[10]
Ethics investigation
An investigation and hearing conducted by the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission resulted in a unanimous 5–0 vote finding that Gessler violated the state discretionary fund statute by spending roughly $2000 in government money on travel surrounding a political event, the Republican National Lawyers Association meeting in Sarasota, Florida, in August 2012.[11][12]
Gessler appealed the findings in court; however, a Denver District Court judge ruled in favor of the Commission and ultimately found Gessler guilty.[13]^ Gessler appealed again claiming the Commission had no jurisdiction. This was easy to do since the State of Colorado would ultimately pay the fees of both lawyers which eventually totaled over $515,000. He lost again and this time appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which refused to hear his appeal. He finally paid the State of Colorado the fine plus fees of $1,514.88.[14]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Scott Gessler | 852,818 | |
| Democratic | Bernie Buescher | 755,522 | |
| Constitution | Amanda Campbell | 113,756 | |
| Total votes | 1,722,096 | 100 |
Governor's race
In 2013 Gessler announced he would seek the Republican nomination for Governor of Colorado. For much of the campaign Gessler was considered the front-runner being endorsed by Congressman Bob Schaffer, State Senator George Rivera, State Representatives Clarice Navarro, Lois Landgraf, and over fifty County Commissioners, Sheriffs, Mayors and City Councilors. In March 2014, Gessler won the Colorado Republican Caucus Straw poll with 31% of the vote, compared to Bob Beauprez's 22% and Tom Tancredo's 15% of the vote. As the race continued Bob Beauprez poured hundreds of thousands of dollars from his personal fortune into his campaign and emerged the winner of the primary election. Gessler immediately endorsed Bob Beauprez in the general election and embarked on a statewide tour to convince his supporters to vote for Beauprez. Gessler hired RedRock Strategies and Rory McShane to oversee the campaign.
Donald Trump 2020 campaign
Gessler was an attorney on Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign.[15]^ During the campaign, he suggested that the 2020 elections were stolen by Democrats and falsely claimed there was election fraud.[16][17]
Chair of Colorado Republican Party race
Gessler ran for chair of the Colorado Republican Party in 2021. During the campaign, he falsely suggested that the 2020 elections were stolen by Democrats and falsely claimed there was election fraud.[15][18]
References...
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he did not fight?
king of dark $: "I tend to be a free-speech absolutest.... We as humans, as Americans, have God-given rights to speak our mind," Gessler said at a University of Denver panel on campaign finance. "When you restrict people, and government shouldn't do that...you are violating the First Amendment and you're harming our society greatly."
...
"Amendment 65 is entirely symbolic, and because it's symbolic, it really didn't spur much of a debate," he said, adding, "I wasn't a fan of it."
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ah:
An initiative aimed at stopping the influence of corporate spending on political campaigns will be on the November ballot in Colorado, though even if it passes, it won’t have any binding legal effect.
Secretary of State Scott Gessler on Wednesday certified the initiative as Amendment 65 for the November ballot, finding that proponents, who had submitted 182,113 signatures had the requisite 86,105 valid signatures of registered voters to make the ballot.
The ballot measure instructs Colorado’s congressional delegation to propose and support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would reverse the Citizens United decision in 2010 that held corporations and unions could spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns. Such an amendment to the U.S. Constitution could put limits on political spending by corporations and unions.
The ballot measure also instructs the Colorado legislature to ratify the amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and 37 other states would have to do the same to add the amendment to the nation’s founding document.
But no ballot measure can actually make Colorado’s congressional delegation or state legislature propose or support anything, so Amendment 65 would really be nothing other than a symbolic encouragement.
denver post
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Former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler never shied from the spotlight while in office, but he’s kept a lower profile since returning to private practice. He recently:{}
It turns out he’s also been working on another project- an under-the-radar effort to mobilize grassroots conservatives called The Colorado Alliance. Its stated goal: “build an army to defend our state.” So what does he have to show for it?
Gessler’s been using this group to sporadically communicate with (and raise money from) conservative Coloradans for the two plus years since it was founded a week after Trump’s election.He’s using it to support another statewide effort to overturn a vote- repealing the bill passed by the legislature and signed by the Governor that will would add Colorado to those states awarding their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.
Gessler, a Republican, didn’t found the Colorado Alliance by himself. He listed a partner on his federal filing documents: Ben Engen.
Engen, who also runs Constellation Political Consulting, made news this week for comments he made during a recall training in Buena Vista. Video of his instructions to strategically schedule a recall election to “blindside” voters, hopefully lowering turnout as much as possible, was posted on Facebook by those he was training.
According to the Colorado Alliance website, its mission is:
“holding liberal officeholders accountable, mobilizing voters and activists, and helping restore common sense policies to our state. We are building an army to defend our state and invite you to join the movement.”
So far, however, the “army” appears to be little more than a website, email list and a bank account.
[pix]
Colorado Alliance website image of the Glen Canyon Dam Recreation Area in Arizona.
Besides a prominent donation button and a biography of Gessler himself, the only link on the site is to a four-page memo summarizing the results of a 2018 election postmortem. The site says the research is based upon “1,500 survey responses, and interviews [with] over two dozen political readers…we believe this is the deepest and most thorough post-election analysis ever done by conservatives in Colorado.”
Asked to describe the group and its work, Gessler gave the following summary of the Colorado Alliance, which is a so-called “527” political organization operating independently from the campaigns of political candidates:
“We’re a conservative grassroots group. We reached out to people who have been active in conservative or Republican efforts in the past, both supporters of my campaigns and others. We work to keep people informed, to mobilize people for efforts. For example on the national popular vote [repeal effort] we aren’t collecting signatures, but we distributed information about how to sign the petition if they want to do it.
For the report, we reached out in two emails with a very extensive survey asking for feedback [on the 2018 election]. We supplemented those results with conversations with candidates and political operatives and donors, as a way to do an analysis and post-mortem to get a sense of where conservative leanings are among the activist base. We asked whether President Trump’s policies should have been stressed more or less by Republican candidates.”
The resulting memo offers three conclusions:
A large number of grass-roots respondents recognize that we face systemic problems and a lack of infrastructure level.
While many pollsters tell us we should be quick to blame Donald Trump, that view might not be entirely accurate… Colorado Republicans will have to figure out how to approach the President, in a way that retains conservative support yet minimizes losses among those who dislike Trump.
Colorado Republicans have fallen behind in voter registration.
The proposed solution to solve the voter registration gap is simple: meet them where they’re at. The memo states:
Democrats and Colorado liberal organizations maintain full time voter registration efforts, targeting liberal neighborhoods and events likely to attract Democrat-leaning voters. Republicans and conservatives must do the same, but at events likely to attract conservative voters, such as gun shows, country music concerts, Christian music concerts, etc. These are cost effective ways to register conservative voters, and Republicans continue to miss the boat.
The memo also promises that “by early February we hope to publish the most authoritative analysis ever done by Conservatives in Colorado.”
During his phone interview, Gessler promised he would share the full report with Colorado Times Recorder, but never replied to subsequent email and phone requests.
Gessler has since used his platform to let supporters to know that he wouldn’t run for chair of the Colorado Republican Party, to remind them that he was Trump campaign lawyer in 2016, and to again ask for donations.
Gessler launched the Colorado Alliance in 2016 with $10,000 from auto dealer Terry Stevinson, and another $5,000 from EIS Solutions’ charter school advocacy project “Ready Colorado.” The Douglas County GOP and a handful of other donors chipped in $1,000 each. Of the nearly $23,000 raised in 2016, Gessler paid StoneBrook Staffing about $13,000 for “Post-Election Calls and Voter Canvassing.”
The committee then went dormant–at least as far as fundraising and spending–for nearly two years, until late last year, when campaign finance filings show donations once again coming in, including $500 from Pete Coors.
Overall the Colorado Alliance has reported raising just over $35,000 and spending just over $23,000 since its creation.
Besides the 2018 election report and the website and promoting the group itself, there isn’t much visible activity from the Colorado Alliance. Gessler acknowledged that the group wasn’t really looking for media attention. If he’s indeed building an army, he’s doing it very quietly.
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Colorado Independent Ethics Commission on Monday mulled whether to file a complaint with the state's attorney disciplinary board against former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, or turning him over to a state collections agency.
The fine of $1,514.88 was assessed against Gessler in 2013 after the commission found he had violated the state's ethics law in using state funds to pay for travel to a partisan event.
Dino Ioannides, the commission's executive director, told the commission Monday that "we have repeatedly tried to get Mr. Gessler's counsel to pay the penalty affirmed by Colorado Supreme Court. Gessler's counsel has stopped communicating with us, and there's no indication that penalty has been paid."
The commission's legal counsel, Gina Cannan, told the board that the commission could obtain a judgment against Gessler and then refer it to state collections. She also noted that Gessler has been sent a demand letter for payment.
But Commissioner Bill Leone said he disagreed with another round of court costs. "We shouldn't have to sue and get a judgment. Gessler is an attorney who is in contempt of a finding by an administrative agency and finalized through the courts. We would report it to the disciplinary board."
The commission will decide which action to take next month. Gessler did not respond to a request for comment.
Gessler, an attorney who specializes in elections law, served a single term as secretary of state from 2011 to 2015. He was slapped with an ethics complaint filed by Colorado Ethics Watch in 2012, tied to travel he made to Sarasota, Florida, in August 2012, for a meeting of the Republican National Lawyers Association.
The day after the two-day seminar ended, on Aug. 26, Gessler went to the Republican National Convention in Tampa. According to court documents, the cost of Gessler’s airfare and lodging to the lawyers’ seminar was $1,278.90. Gessler paid for it out of a discretionary fund within his office. He also directed his staff to give him any money left over in the discretionary account, about $117.99. He did not provide receipts for those funds.
The Ethics Commission ruled on the Ethics Watch complaint in January 2013 that Gessler’s trip was for partisan political purposes and that his acceptance of the remaining discretionary money without providing receipts was for personal use.
A Denver District Court judge put the fine on hold pending resolution of all legal appeals.
In May 2013, according to the Colorado Independent, Gessler paid back the cost of travel to the Secretary of State's Office. The fine levied by the Ethics Commission takes that payment into account.
Gessler's legal case has cost Colorado taxpayers at least $515,000 because the state paid for both sides: for the attorneys for Gessler, and for a member of the state attorney general's staff to represent the Ethics Commission. That includes a recent $12,500 paid to the attorneys representing Gessler in his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
RELATED: Taxpayers pay for both sides of Gessler ethics lawsuit, but how much?
The Ethics Commission on Monday also solidified its plan to move forward with a complaint against former Secretary of State Wayne Williams. The commission plans to hold hearings on the Williams complaint on April 22.
No date has been set for two complaints against former Gov. John Hickenlooper.
The former deals with Williams' bar association dues and continuing legal education credits in 2018.
Two complaints against the former governor pertain to travel on private jets and the cost of a conference in Bilderberg, Italy, in 2018.
Representatives for both Williams and Hickenlooper have called the respective claims political stunts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Gessler
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Political party: Republican
Early life, education, and ... · Personal life · Government · Ethics investigation
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Mar 18, 2019 -The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission on Monday mulled whether to file a complaint with the state's attorney disciplinary board against former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, or turning him over to a state collections agency. ... The commission's legal counsel, Gina Cannan ...
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Jun 5, 2018 -Press conference at the State Capitol: L to R-Secretary of State Scott Gessler joined state Representative Chris Holbert (R-Parker) to discuss ...
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ati longmont shires
abandoned plan, law firm did not want to release client names
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Scott Gessler calls for fewer limits on campaign finance -- to protect free speech
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 AT 9:02 A.M. BY SAM LEVIN
Restrictions on campaign finance are ultimately violations of free speech rights and do little to foster fair elections.
At least that's the argument of Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who, in a speech yesterday, said he would like to see fewer limitations on campaign finance, arguing that reform efforts generally have failed.
"I tend to be a free-speech absolutest.... We as humans, as Americans, have God-given rights to speak our mind," Gessler said at a University of Denver panel on campaign finance. "When you restrict people, and government shouldn't do that...you are violating the First Amendment and you're harming our society greatly."
He added, "And practically, I don't think it works."
This speech from Gessler, a Republican and Colorado's chief election officer, was delivered just weeks after the close of the presidential election, which resulted in millions of dollars spent in this key swing state.
The comments also come on the heels of Colorado voters overwhelmingly passing Amendment 65 -- a measure that calls for Colorado's congressional delegation to support limits on spending at the federal level. This measure -- which was overshadowed by Colorado's successful pot measure -- is symbolic, since governments can't restrict political spending at the state level.
As we reported, more than 70 percent of residents in Colorado from counties across the state voted in favor of A65, and its proponents say the message against excessive spending in politics is clear.
But Gessler, who has gotten a lot of attention this election cycle for his controversial anti-fraud iniaitives, says efforts to limit campaign spending have been unsuccessful. The more governments try to restrict this kind of spending, he believes, the more they will be interfering with basic constitutional rights.
"The world we live in is the one shaped by campaign finance regulations," said Gessler, who has taught election law at the University of Colorado and the University of Denver. "In Colorado...the people who have supported campaign finance regulations have gotten almost everything they wanted."
He was referring to Amendment 27, which passed in 2002 with the stated aim of curbing special interests in elections. The measure sets limits on contributions to candidates and was designed to encourage more candidates to run by restricting the extent to which corporations can influence races.
"Campaign finance regulation [is], in my view, very intensive, sometimes very intrusive," Gessler said. "And...in many ways, on its own terms, it has failed as a system.... It has created harms and costs here that have distorted our political process in a way that does not serve democracy well."
Continue for more from Gessler's speech and response from his critics. Gessler said that while supporters of campaign finance regulations want to fight corruption, get big money out of politics and curb outrageous spending, he feels limitations have had many negative consequences.
He noted that many groups and candidates have been forced to pay major fines in penalties due to late filings -- around $1.8 million total from December 2010 through last month in Colorado.
Gessler argued that regulations haven't helped candidates focus on people instead of money, as some have hoped. "We have such small dollar limits that candidates spend a huge, inordinate amount of time because they have to fill an ocean one teaspoonful at a time."
Another of Gessler's arguments: Regulations have hurt smaller groups that struggle with the complicated processes required of them while allowing wealthy outside organizations to pour money into races and have a huge impact on elections. As a result, he thinks the actual candidates and the political parties have less influence in their own races.
In short, government should just stay out of the way, Gessler said.
He told us in an interview after the speech, "It's restricted candidates and restricted parties so heavily that they don't have the resources to do much of anything."
When we asked Gessler about the passage of Amendment 65, he dismissed the initiative.
"Amendment 65 is entirely symbolic, and because it's symbolic, it really didn't spur much of a debate," he said, adding, "I wasn't a fan of it."
Unsurprisingly, Danny Katz, director of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group, a statewide advocacy group and one of the proponents of 65, told us he fundamentally disagreed with Gessler's arguments.
"This concept that the size of your pocket should determine the amount of speech you have seems wrong to me," he said. "Money does not equal speech. If it did, then those with the deepest pockets would have more speech, would be entitled to more speech."
In regard to Gessler's comment that independent groups are having more influence because candidates are facing overly harsh restrictions, Katz replied, "If you're gonna have limits on candidates, but you're worried that they're then...not able to match the power of these outsiders, then limit the money and power of these outsiders."
He added, "Colorado spoke this last election.... We don't think our democracy works best when a few individuals have million dollar megaphones."
More from our Politics archive: "Amendment 64: John Hickenlooper setting up broad task force regarding marijuana measure"
http://www.westword.com/news/scott-gessler-calls-for-fewer-limits-on-campaign-finance-to-protect-free-speech-5830056
==
col for change see eco growth
==
==
sued over limit on $ for signature gather initiative?
may 2012
https://casetext.com/case/**independence-inst**-v-gessler
sen maj fund
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/indus.php?cycle=2012&cmte=C00368431
==
Official PAC Name:
SENATE MAJORITY FUND
Location: PHOENIX, AZ 85064
Industry:Leadership PACs; Republican leadership PAC
Treasurer: RAGAN, ASHLEY MRS.
FEC Committee ID: C00368431
(Look upactual documents filedat the FEC)
FROM
Target State Victory Fund $50,000
National Republican Senatorial Cmte $30,000
Romney Victory $30,000
National Republican Congressional Cmte $30,000
Republican National Cmte $15,000
Friends of the Majority $5,000
Republican State Cmte of Massachusetts $4,545
National Assn of Real Estate Investment Trusts $1,000
Contributors to this PAC
Total
American Dental Assn $5,000
National Assn of Home Builders $5,000
American Bankers Assn $5,000
General Electric $5,000
ACA International $5,000
UBS Americas $5,000
United Parcel Service $5,000
New York Life Insurance $5,000
Koch Industries $5,000
California Dairies Inc $5,000
Abbott Laboratories $3,000
FedEx Express $2,500
Kroger Co $2,500
Godaddy.com $2,500
Fidelity Investments $2,500
Capital One Financial $2,000
Guardian Life Insurance $2,000
HDR Inc $2,000
Food Marketing Institute $1,709
Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America $1,000
Salt River Valley Water User's Assn $1,000
Ryder System $1,000
Associated Builders & Contractors $1,000
American Trucking Assns $1,000
Blue Cross & Blue Shield Assn $1,000
American Fidelity Corp $1,000
Hy-Vee Inc $1,000
National Roofing Contractors Assn $1,000
Automotive Free International Trade PAC $1,000
Amgen Inc $1,000
National Assn of Real Estate Investment Trusts $1,000
America's Health Insurance Plans $1,000
AT&T Inc $1,000
BOSPAC $1,000
Physician Hospitals of America $1,000
Vanguard Group $1,000
Rite Aid Corp $-1,000
Republican Party of Massachusetts $-4,545
*Based on data released by the FEC on March 25, 2013
==
2012
Adams, Kirk (R-AZ) $10,000
Gosar, Paul (R-AZ) $10,000
Kelly, Jesse (R-AZ) $5,000
McSally, Martha (R-AZ) $15,000
Mercer, Gabriela Saucedo (R-AZ) $5,000
Paton, Jonathan (R-AZ) $10,000
Quayle, Ben (R-AZ) $5,000
Ryan, Paul (R-WI) $5,000
Senate
Total to Democrats: $0
Total to Republicans: $205,000
Recipient
Total
Allen, George (R-VA) $10,000
Barrasso, John A (R-WY) $10,000
Berg, Rick (R-ND) $5,000
Brown, Scott (R-MA) $5,000
Corker, Bob (R-TN) $10,000
Cruz, Ted (R-TX) $5,000
Fischer, Deb (R-NE) $10,000
Flake, Jeff (R-AZ) $10,000
Hatch, Orrin G (R-UT) $10,000
Heller, Dean (R-NV) $10,000
Hoekstra, Peter (R-MI) $5,000
Kyrillos, Joe (R-NJ) $5,000
Lemieux, George S (R-FL) $5,000
Lingle, Linda (R-HI) $10,000
Lugar, Richard G (R-IN) $5,000
Mack, Connie (R-FL) $10,000
Mandel, Josh (R-OH) $10,000
McMahon, Linda (R-CT) $5,000
Mourdock, Richard E (R-IN) $10,000
Rehberg, Denny (R-MT) $10,000
Smith, Tom (R-PA) $5,000
Snowe, Olympia (R-ME) $5,000
Summers, Charlie (R-ME) $10,000
Thompson, Tommy G (R-WI) $5,000
Wicker, Roger (R-MS) $10,000
Wilson, Heather A (R-NM) $10,00
==
==
August 2004 – Present (10 years 2 months)Greater Denver Area
The attorneys at Hackstaff Law Group combine extensive experience in several areas, while understanding that clients' needs often span several distinct practice areas. Accordingly, we combine in-depth expertise with a multi-disciplinary approach. This enables us to anticipate client needs and develop creative solutions. For example, our attorneys regularly integrate transactional expertise with in-depth tax planning. Likewise, we ensure that our public policy litigation efforts mesh with our clients' public relations or political requirements.
1993 – 2004 (11 years)
Jensen Byrne Parsons Ruh and Tilton P.C.
1983 – 1991 (8 years)
J.D.,Law
1980 – 1983
==
1/14
http://www.coloradoindependent.com/145495/gop-rising-star-navarro-ratzlaff-knows-about-voter-access-and-election-integrity
voter ID
ENVER– The Colorado legislative session opens Wednesday but what’s promising to be a heated 2014 lawmaker election season is already well underway.
Lawmaker Clarice Navarro-Ratzlaff represents one of the state’s most competitive districts, House District 47. She held a fundraiser cocktail party tonight at the Warwick Hotel here that surely attracted many of the state’s top Republican politicos. The list likely includes Secretary of State Scott Gessler. The two are friendly. Navarro-Ratzlaff endorsed him for governor this summer, and Gessler sent out a tweet earlier in the day recruiting fundraiser attendees. It’s a safe bet the two worked together to fire up the Warwick cocktail crowd by talking about the need to guard against voter fraud. It wouldn’t be the first time they worked together to stoke heat around an issue that galvanizes Republican voters in the state.
Gessler and Navarro-Ratzlaff were the exclusive sources for a 2012 version of what has become a fairly regular series of headline-grabbing but loosely reported election-integrity stories pushed by the right-wing blogosphere to bolster arguments that laws that encourage voting by making it easier to cast ballots — like those that allow for same-day registration and universal mail-in ballots — should be repealed and replaced with stricter voter ID laws.
Channel 5 KOAA in Pueblo reported that some voters in the county had received duplicate ballots. It later came out that double ballots went out to roughly 200 of the county’s 60,000 registered voters.
“I think this really underscores the need to have measures — and these are things I’ve been pushing for a while — to make sure we’ve got accurate voter rolls,” Gessler told the station. “So this is a really disturbing systemic issue that’s going on in Pueblo now and we need to get to the bottom of this very quickly.”
Navarro-Ratzlaff said she was one of the voters who received two ballots.
“It makes you question how valid each election is, and elections are very important to the state of Colorado and Pueblo in general,” she told viewers. “So it’s very concerning.”
Meanwhile, her husband, Jace Ratzlaff, a longtime Republican politico — a former staffer for Republican U.S. Reps Marilyn Musgrave and Bob Schaffer (Schaffer helped run Coloradans for Change, a 2006 SuperPac, with Gessler) — pushed the fact that she got two ballots out to conservative blogs Colorado Peak Politics and Revealing Politics. He said they’d be “turning the ballots over to SOS [Gessler].”
KOAA didn’t report that Navarro-Ratzlaff was running for the statehouse in a competitive swing district that year. And Navarro-Ratzlaff didn’t tell viewers that the reason she received two ballots was because she had registered undertwo different names in a two-week period after moving to Pueblo the year before.
According to Bent and Pueblo county documents reviewed by the Independent, Navarro-Ratzlaff registered on September 30, 2011, asClarice Yvette Navarro, her maiden name, and on October 14, 2011, asClarice Yvette Ratzlaff, her married name.
Asked about the story this past November, Navarro-Ratzlaff seemed hazy on the details. She was prepping for a fundraiser that night, but told the Independent that she didn’t ever register twice or under different names. She said she had to re-register when she moved to Pueblo and she did, using her drivers license. She said her drivers license bears her married name and that she has been married for ten years, so what other name would she use?She said she still doesn’t know why she received two ballots, one under her maiden name and one under her married name.
“I have no idea. I can’t explain it,” she said.
Bent County Clerk Patti Nickell said these kinds of mistakes happen regularly and that the system is designed to catch them, partly by keeping detailed voter registration histories.
“She moved and she changed her name. People are often distracted when filling out the forms,” she said.
At the time of the KOAA story, Gessler and Pueblo Clerk Gilbert Ortiz were engaged in a high-profile court battle that was part of the ideological war pitting voting rights against voter fraud in the state. Ortiz, the Democrat, wanted to mail ballots to all registered voters and Gessler, the Republican, sued to stop him from sending them to so-called inactive voters.
In a later interview with KOAA on the story, Ortiz took the same kind of long view as did Nickell last month with the Independent, offering a counter to Gessler’s claims that the duplicate ballots were part of a “disturbing systemic issue.”
“There is always the possibility statewide that a person can be registered again in a different county,” he told KOAA. He said voters have to re-register when they change their name or address or party affiliation — all of which Navarro-Ratzlaff has done — but that the system records those changes and works to catch mistakes. “We look back into their history… two different ballots won’t be counted. That’s not going to happen. We’ll catch that.”
In fact, Pueblo County did catch the duplicate ballot error in 2012. The registrations of the voters who received them were updated.
That would seem to be the end of the story, but there’s an incidental post script.
In reviewing Navarro-Ratzlaff’s registration history, Clerk Nickell pointed out that, in 2001, the now-lawmaker also registered twice. She first registered on October 11 but, apparently fearing she may have missed the official registration deadline, took the time to “emergency register” on November 6, which was Election Day that year. In other words, Navarro-Ratzlaff had taken advantage of the “same-day registration” that her party — led by Gessler — now decries as a recipe for fraud. The county clerks and Democratic lawmakers who proposed to make same-day registration the law of the state and succeeded in doing so last year defended it against attacks precisely by pointing out that same-day registration has been an unproblematic valued option made available to voters in Colorado for years.
col indep
==
### CO: Secretary of State Gessler's plan to moonlight as private **...**
www.coloradoindependent.com/.../secretary-o...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:V6EDY-A1snQJ:www.coloradoindependent.com/72540/secretary-of-state-gesslers-plan-to-moonlight-as-private-attorney-sounds-ethics-alarms+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:V6EDY-A1snQJ:www.coloradoindependent.com/72540/secretary-of-state-gesslers-plan-to-moonlight-as-private-attorney-sounds-ethics-alarms+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler is no stranger to political controversy. He hasrepresented a long line of conservative advocacy and attack groups and in that role has become the public face of partisan causes. Indeed, his name and the law firm he founded virtually stand for a branch of Colorado politics that seeks to limit government restrictions on and oversight of campaign financing. He has done battle repeatedly with laws the secretary of state is charged to enforce and now he is secretary of state. His election victory put government watchdog groups on high alert. News coming today, a little more than a week since he was sworn into office, that Gessler plans to keep working part-time as an attorney for his former firm even while serving as secretary of state has set conflict-of-interest alarm bells ringing in watchdog offices.
In an interview with the Denver Business Journal, Gessler acknowledged that his plan to moonlight as a contract attorney with the Hackstaff Law Group, formerly Hackstaff and Gessler LLC, [ATI liar] would certainly raise ethical questions but that he needed the money. He said his first priority would be to serve the state but that the public-servant $68,500-a-year salary that came with the office amounted to a major pay cut and he still had to provide for his family.
“My first duty is to the state of Colorado. Anything else I do, I’m going to have to make sure it in no way conflicts,” he told the Journal.
Making sure that any work he does for Hackstaff doesn’t conflict with the work he has sworn to do for the people of Colorado, however, may amount to another full-time job.
The secretary of state oversees and administers laws, codes, regulations that cover a vast array of vital and contested areas of activity, including lobbying, elections, campaign finance, voter registration, ballot initiative title setting and petition verification, some gambling as well as business, nonprofit and charitable practice and licensing. The list is long.
Gessler’s former law partner Jim Hackstaff bought Gessler out of the firm the day before Gessler became secretary of state. Hackstaff told the Journal that the ongoing part-time contract he signed with Gessler, which goes into effect in March, contains a provision stating that Gessler and the firm would “ensure that no conflict exists with Gessler’s state duties” and “specifically cited such areas as election law, nonprofit representation and business registration matters.”
Hackstaff said he “knows Gessler well enough to know he’ll be very conservative” in the projects he chooses to work on in order to steer clear of conflicts of interest.
Former Secretary of State Bernie Buescher, who has accepted a job as the deputy attorney general responsible for advising the secretary of state, said he couldn’t comment on Gessler’s plan to moonlight because commenting would be “inappropriate.”
Attorney General John Suthers, who is tasked to work with Gessler to help him avoid Hackstaff-related conflicts of interest, said attorney-client privileges prevent him from speaking on the topic.
This legally proscribed silence is a big problem and points to the bigger problem going forward, according to Luis Toro, director of government watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch and a man who has argued cases against Gessler in the past. The public is being forced to simply accept that the secretary of state will be acting in good faith without any way to really ask questions or get answers to confirm that’s the case, he said.
“Assuming it’s feasible for [Gessler and Hackstaff] to carve out areas of law for [Gessler] to practice that don’t present a conflict with his responsibilities as secretary of state, how is the public supposed to monitor that? That [challenge] is inconsistent with the idea of public oversight of public officials.”
Toro points to the ethics questions that two years ago plagued Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera surrounding a deal that included a $53 million city contract to develop a new headquarters for the U. S. Olympic Committee. Because the Colorado Springs mayor position was, in effect, a part-time job, Rivera continued to work as a broker. His business clients included developers bidding for the Olympics project. He later said his problems with the case were compounded by the fact that he couldn’t break confidentiality agreements.
Toro said that in fact Colorado’s Personnel Board makes strict rules governing outside employment for state workers. As secretary of state, Gessler will have to sign off on those for his staff and they likely will apply to Gessler as well. Toro said that, in the end, Gessler may just decide to look for other ways to make side-cash given the “ethical minefield” his plan to moonlight for Hackstaff already seems to be laying out before him.
“Maybe he’ll just be, you know, ‘mea culpa.’ You just got to give him a chance to say ‘This isn’t going to work. Let’s avoid this whole can of worms. I’ll focus on doing the best job I can as secretary of state.’”
===
Just over a year into office, Colorado's Secretary of State Scott Gessler has likely made the headlines more than all previous Colorado secretaries combined.
Gessler raised eyebrows in 2011 when heinstructed county clerks not to mail ballots to registered (but inactive) citizens in their counties. He based his decision on a belief the practice allowed nearly 5,000 non-citizens to vote in Colorado's 2010 election - a figure as-yet unsubstantiated and potentially closer to zero.
While some clerks fell in line and followed Gessler's directive, others didn't -- pointing out that Gessler's orders would prevent legitimate voters from participating, including members of the armed forces who hadn't been around to vote in 2010.
This all triggered a lawsuit, Pueblo County Clerk Bo Ortiz and Denver's Clerk Debra Johnson both ended up on Rachel Maddow, and U.S. Representatives concluded Gessler's orders were "likely to disenfranchise eligible voters and should be condemned." Johnson and Ortiz won the suit and sent ballots to registered-inactive voters, but the larger issue of voter registration remained unsolved.
Fast-forward a couple months to the middle of Colorado's legislative session. Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose and Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, craft the bi-partisan **Senate Bill 12-109** to set standards for the proper maintenance of voter registration lists. Despite passing out of the Senate 24-10, the bill died Wednesday in a Republican-controlled House committee on a party-line vote. Gessler had testified against the legislation.
Democrats hailed the bill's defeat as proof Gessler's interest isn't in voters having access to state-wide uniform ballots (as he claimed in the lawsuit), but in having control over who actually gets a ballot. A press-release from state Democratic Party Chair Rick Palacio goes one step further, hinting at a recall effort:
Colorado's Republican Leader Scott Gessler has once again prioritized his partisan agenda above the rights of Coloradans to vote. If Scott Gessler is unwilling to fulfill his duties as a non-partisan election officer, the people of Colorado should consider all avenues necessary to remove him as Secretary of State.
Is this an instance of election-year posturing, or do the Democrats really intend to attempt a recall? Regardless of the difficulty of such an undertaking, Colorado Pols argues "it's time to recognize how serious a threat to "small-d" democracy Gessler really is."
Gessler's public information officer, Rich Coolidge, declined to comment on Palacio's statement to The Denver Post, labeling it "vitriol from the left."
Either way, we're inclined to agree with Bob Loevy, a political science professor emeritus at Colorado College. “Getting sued is very much part of the job,” he told 5280 in their April 2012 feature on Gessler. “And both political parties in Colorado have become very litigious. There’s much more readiness on the part of the political parties to sue and see if the court will find things to their liking.”
http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=7767089
Scott Gessler, Republican candidate for Colorado Secretary of State
Scott Gessler, the Republican Party’s ever-so-slick choice to run for Secretary of State this November has a dossier that only an authoritarian father-party could love.
While moaning and groaning, ranting and raving, over the influence of soft (527) money, he is up to his neck inside these organizations.
The 527 designation applies to political organizations that have tax-exempt status under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Service code. They are organized and operated “primarily for the purpose of directly or indirectly accepting contributions or making expenditures” with the intent of influencing the “selection, nomination, election, or appointment of any individual to Federal, State, or local public office or office in a political organization, or the election of Presidential electors.”
Gessler’s group, Coloradans for Changeis a 527 that took at least one massive donation of $125,000 from the **Senate Majority Fund** and another donation of $100,872 from the **Colorado Leadership Fund**. Both groups were defendants in a lawsuit by Colorado Ethics Watch for sponsoring unethical campaign ads and skirting campaign finance laws.
Money, however, appears to flow both ways with some of these 527s. On two occasions funds flowed from Coloradans for Change to the Colorado Leadership Fund, in one instance for $46,125. Might this be a case of “political money laundering” or are we merely talking about political incest? And where Scott Gessler is concerned, there’s certainly a lot of the latter going on.
Gessler is also the man behind the curtain for Colorado Conservative Voters, a 527 whose purpose is “to education Colorado citizens about issues, officeholders, and political candidates that further conservative values.”
And if all this 527 hypocrisy isn’t enough, he’s rubbing questionable elbows with a guy named Scott Shires, also connected to Coloradans for Change and the Senate Majority Fund.
Shires, along with Scott Gessler, is also listed as Western Tradition Partnership’s registered agent.Western Tradition Partnership is registered with the IRS as a nonprofit501c4. According to Luis Toro, general counsel for Colorado Ethics Watch, these nonprofit groups have come to replace 527 organizations as the favored shell for political contributions. They became popular after 527s faced greater disclosure requirements at the state and national level.
Gessler joined this shell game with Western Skies Coalition and Coloradans for Economic Growth, both of which have had complaints filed with the IRS presenting evidence that these organizations might have spent more of their total resources on actions that influence elections in Colorado rather than on social welfare activities, in violation of their federal tax-exempt status.
Shires, the Republican operative and front man for many 527s, has a history of violating campaign reporting regulations.Shires has also been indicted on an alleged money laundering scheme to hide an illegal gambling operation.
Scott Shires is behind yet another 527, the Colorado League of Taxpayers who attacked Longmontcouncil candidate Richard Juday in a January 2008 mailer. A similar event occurred in Garfield County. Colorado Ethics Watch sued Shires for campaign violations in that case and he was fined in excess of $7,000.
So these two “Scotts” are joined at the political hips. Both Republican operatives. Both of whom appear to have never met an election law for which they didn’t have contempt.
Flying further under the radar are Gessler’s other political bedfellows. He’s allied with Coalition for a Conservative Majority (founded byTom DeLay,who has been indicted on felony conspiracy and money-laundering charges) and he is a frequent “guest” at rightwing reactionary groups, such as the Tea Party.[santos?]
Scott Gessler has the political gall to think we should make him Colorado’s next Secretary of State, the position that guarantees the security and legitimacy of our elections. No way, Mr. Gessler. You aren’t qualified. It’s a matter of trust. It’s a matter of common sense. It’s a matter of integrity
==
American Tradition Partnership again targets Longmont
October 22, 2011
With now-Secretary of State Scott Gessler as lead attorney, in 2009 Western Tradition Partnership filed suit against Longmont’s Fair Campaign Practices Act. Western Tradition Partnership also funded the Longmont Leadership Committee who conducted a political campaign that unabashedly lied in order to oust certain council members in 2009 and replace them with members who would promote their radical agenda and who would consistently vote their rabid anti-environmentalism and their absolutism on property rights.
After Bryan Baum, mayor, and his majority won the 2009 election, they directed that the Campaign Practices Act lawsuit be settled, andGessler was paid $68,500. Following that the Campaign Practices Act had much, if not most, of its transparency removed. Only 19 words were changed because of the lawsuit. The rest of the changes were instituted because the Baum majority wanted those changes.They were dutifully following the Republican playbook which opposes campaign contribution restrictions and transparency.
Western Tradition Partnership renamed itself American Tradition Partnership. Even though they are a 501c4 and can’t officially endorse candidates, they have thus far sent out two mailers — one that essentially endorses Bryan Baum and Heath Carroll (at-large) and the other against Sean McCoy and Sarah Levison.
Contrary to the assertion in the mailer, American Tradition Partnership is NOT a local organization. They were organized first in the state of Montana by two Republican state legislators. They later registered in Colorado. However, I have no doubt that there are members of our community, who have had and likely will have business before the city, who have chosen this avenue to contribute sums in excess of the $200/per person candidate campaign limit and to keep those contributions secret.
Under their previous name, Western (now American) Tradition Partnership was taken before the Montana Political Practices Commission for their campaign practices and attacks against Democratic candidates in Montana for the same practices that WTP used in Longmont in 2009 through the Longmont Leadership Committee.
The Montana Political Practices Commission in its ruling effectively called the organization “corrupt.” The Commission heard testimony from a former employee of Western Tradition Partnership that indicated that the organization promotes itself by telling contributors that their identities will never be known and that some of WTP’s contributions had origins in foreign countries, a violation of U.S. law.
Why all the interest in Longmont from an organization such as American Tradition Partnership?
In Western Tradition Partnership’s 2008 IRS “990” filing , Western Tradition Partnership had $665,725 in contributions. That was their first year in existence and the only documentation located to date. These contributions clearly come from the oil, gas and coal industries whose interests are the first priorities of Western/American Tradition Partnership and ultimately motivate other political activities.
During the first decade of the 21st century, Colorado’s state government shifted Democratic after a long history of being Republican. This change did not facilitate the interests of American Tradition Partnership. Longmont, a community that Republicans had consistently counted on as a Republican stronghold, was moving Democratic as well. In order for Republicans to retake control of state government, Longmont needed to be recaptured.
TOP Operating Oil/Gas Drill Sites
Because of advancements in oil and gas extraction technology, it is now possible to retrieve oil and gas that was previously uneconomical to recover. These techniques include directional and horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Colorado is among those states that have many of these deposits. The Wattenberg field is the 10th largest gas field and 13th largest oil field in the nation. It may come as a surprise that some of these deposits are under property owned by the City of Longmont. At least 54 of the identified wells are at the edge of or under Union Reservoir itself!
There is a confluence of interest between the supporters of American Tradition Partnership and the developers, builders and real estate interests in Longmont. And, of course, the Baum majority has an unequivocal ideological alliance with both the anti-environmental and property rights positions of this radical organization.
Citizens and voters of Longmont are losing control of their community. It has become a pawn in the political games, games by those with large sums of money at their disposal and who will stop at nothing to accomplish their goals. Ignore what is happening in Longmont at your peril.
Technorati Tags: American Tradition Partnership, Bryan Baum, longmont, longmont politics, oil and gas drilling at Union Reservoir, TOP Operating, union reservoir, Wattenberg Field, Western Tradition Partnership
http://www.freerangelongmont.com/2011/10/22/american-tradition-partnership-targets-longmont/
local fracking ordinance:
Our Longmont, others act to protect fracking ban
March 12, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11, 2013
CONTACTS:
Kaye Fissinger, 303-678-7267 (Our Longmont)
Michael Bellmont, 303-678-9470 (Our Longmont)
Bruce Baizel, 970-903-5326 (Earthworks)
Shane Davis, 303-717-4462 (Sierra Club)
Sam Schabacker, 720-295-1036 (Food & Water Watch)
Coalition Acts to Protect City of Longmont’s Ban on Dangerous Hydraulic Fracturing
LONGMONT, CO – Today, a coalition of community, public health, consumer and environmental organizations filed a motion in the Weld County District Court to intervene in the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s lawsuit that seeks to invalidate Longmont’s ban of the oil and gas practice known as “fracking” and related surface activities, such as storage of toxic post-fracking fluids. This ban was instituted by the citizens of Longmont in an amendment to the City Charter, Article XVI , the Longmont Public Health, Safety and Wellness Act.
The people of Longmont by an overwhelming vote of 60% (more than 25,000 people), voted in the November, 2012 election to amend the City Charter to ban fracking, affirming their intention “to protect themselves from the harms associated with hydraulic fracturing, including threats to public health and safety, property damage and diminished property values, poor air quality, destruction of landscape, and pollution of drinking and surface water.” This historic ballot measure was spearheaded by Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont (Our Longmont).
“We are taking this action because we hope to affirm the rights of citizens and communities to guarantee a safe and healthy environment for themselves and future generations,” said Michael Harris, Director of the University Of Denver Sturm College Of Law Environmental Law Clinic. He continued, “We are honored to represent Our Longmont, Food & Water Watch, the Sierra Club and Earthworks.”
The Colorado Constitution confers on all individuals certain inalienable rights. These rights are expressed in the Colorado Oil and Gas Act, which requires that oil and gas resources be extracted in a “manner consistent with the protection of public health, safety and welfare.”
“The extraction process of hydraulic fracturing has not been proven to be safe,” said Kaye Fissinger, managing member of Our Longmont. “Further, the State of Colorado has created a situation where the commission that oversees the oil and gas industry has an inherent conflict of interest. It cannot simultaneously foster the development of oil and gas and protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens.”
“The dangerous, toxic practice of fracking has been a matter of grave importance to the people of Longmont since October of 2011,” said Michael Bellmont, spokesperson for Our Longmont. “To assure the protection of those in our community, Our Longmont undertook a petition drive to place the charter amendment on the ballot. In November, our citizens exercised their rights to self-determination, also guaranteed under Article XX of Colorado’s Constitution. In light of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s attack, it is necessary that citizens participate in the judicial process to guarantee our constitutionally protected rights. It is for this reason Our Longmont and others have moved to intervene,” Bellmont said.
Food & Water Watch provided invaluable assistance to Our Longmont throughout the effort to qualify and pass Longmont’s charter amendment. Sam Schabacker, Mountain West Regional Director for the organization, said, “We were delighted to be able to help the citizens of Longmont prohibit the dangerous industrial practice of hydraulic fracking and are pleased to be able to continue to support them. We have every confidence that the courts will reject the claims of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and preserve Longmont’s constitutional and home rule rights.”
According to Eric E. Huber, Senor Managing Attorney for the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program, “This lawsuit could have a precedential effect throughout Colorado as other communities work to pass similar prohibitions on fracking and the disposal of its waste products within their boundaries.”
Bruce Baizel, Director of Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project, said, “The citizens of Longmont took this action because they don’t trust state regulators to protect them. Rather than sue communities acting to protect their public health, industry and the state should be addressing legitimate community concerns by putting the public’s health before industry profits.”
Our Health, Our Future, Our Longmont, is a group of concerned citizens from throughout Longmont. We believe that Longmont has a constitutional right to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of our community. Our goal is to preserve the quality of life in our exceptional city. By so doing we will preserve our economic vitality, our home values, our water, parks, wildlife, lakes, trails, streams, open space, and recreational areas for ourselves and future generations. www.ourlongmont.org,
Food & Water Watch is a consumer organization that advocates for common sense policies that will result in healthy, safe food and access to safe and affordable drinking water. It’s essential that these shared resources be regulated in the public interest rather than for private gain. www.foodandwaterwater.org,
Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization with more than 2.1 million members and supporters nationwide, including 160 members in the City of Longmont. In addition to creating opportunities for people of all ages, levels and locations to have meaningful outdoor experiences, the Sierra Club works to safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying and litigation. http://rmc.sierraclub.org
For 25 years, Earthworks has been dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the impacts of irresponsible mineral and energy development while seeking sustainable solutions. http://www.earthworksaction.org.
Technorati Tags: Bruce Baizel, City of Longmont, Colorado Constitution, Colorado Oil and Gas Commmission, Denver University Environmental Law Clinic, Earthwork's Oil and Gas Accountability Project, Earthworks, Eric E. Huber, Food & Water Watch, fracking, fracking ban, fracking flowback, fracking produced water, hydraulic fracturing, Kaye Fissinger, longmont, Longmont ballot measure, Longmont charter amendment, Longmont Charter Amendment Article XVI, Longmont City Charter, Longmont lawsuit, Longmont lawsuit intervenors, Longmont Public Halth Safety and Wellness Act, Michael Bellmont, Michael Harris, oil and gas drilling, oil and gas industry, Our Health Our Future Our Longmont, Sam Schabacker, Shane Davis, Sierra Club, Sierra Club Environmental Law Program, Sierra Club Rocky Mountain Chapter, Sturm College of Law
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Scott Gessler
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Gessler Files Suit Against Hickenlooper To Set Recall Election Date
Posted 07.15.2013 | Denver
Read More: John Morse Recall, Secretary of State, Scott Gessler, Denver News, Colorado Recall Elections, Recall Elections, Angela Giron Recall, Denver Colorado, John Hickenlooper, Colorado, Denver News
Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler filed suit against Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper late Sunday in a move meant to force the governor to ...
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A Defiant Secretary of State Says "Ethics Commission Is Part of the Left"
Jason Salzman | Posted 06.19.2013 | Denver
Read More: Knus, Scott Gessler, Jimmy Sengenberger, Sally Hopper, Denver News
Jason Salzman
Sally Hopper, a Republican-appointee on the ethics commission, joined the unanimous vote against Gessler but was quoted in The Denver Post as saying, "a mountain was made of a molehill."
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Wadhams Wants Non-Alienating GOP Candidates, Like Gessler?
Jason Salzman | Posted 06.17.2013 | Denver
Read More: Dick Wadhams, Scott Gessler, Art's Place, Art Carlson, Hank Brown, Denver News
Jason Salzman
If I were host Carlson, I would have asked Wadhams if substantive changes, even itsy bitsy ones, are required by GOP candidates to avoid the alienation trap.
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Note the Smoke Coming From the Pants of Scott Gessler
Jason Salzman | Posted 07.30.2013 | Denver
Read More: Knus, Scott Gessler, John Hickenlooper, Tom Tancredo, Denver News
Jason Salzman
If he enters the race for governor, you hope journalists will report the smoke that's so often seen rising from Scott Gessler's pants. Let's hope that the fumes won't choke the other candidates, like Tom Tancredo and Gov. John Hickenlooper.
If you're a reporter, and you've been covering Secretary of State Scott Gessler, it's been a tough few years, because he plays so fast and so loose with the facts. (See, for example, Gessler on voter fraud and illegal voters!).
So I pity the poor reporters assigned to chase Gessler around on the campaign trail, if he decides to run for governor, because I can only imagine the pitfalls they'll hit as they try to fact-check the would-be Governor Honey Badger.
You can see it coming, as Gessler contemplates his gubernatorial run.
On KNUS' Kelley and Company,for example, May 24, Gessler said that one of his major considerations, as he considers whether to run for governor, is to assess what's left for him to accomplish as Secretary of State.
Gessler: "What have I done at the Secretary of State's Office? What else is there left to do? Have we been able to accomplish a lot of what we wanted? To a large extent the answer there is yes."
Gessler's first goal as secretary of state, you recall, was tomoonlightfor his former law firm, so he could make more money. He failed there, after it became obvious that no one would tolerate such brazen conflict-of-interest by the Secretary of State.
In a 9News YourShow debateprior to being elected, when listing his goals if elected Secretary of State, Gessler referred first to his plan to institute photo identification in Colorado. This never happened.
Next from Gessler's lips on YourShow was his opposition to same-day voter registration, which is now law.
It's not hard to find more Gessler failures. He filed a slew of lawsuits, including a big oneto stop ballots from being sent to registered voters who missed just one election, and guess what? He lost most of his lawsuitsat god-knows-what public expense.
He made several unsuccessful attempts to change campaign finance rules. Chief among them was his effort, which was ruled unconstitutional, to raise the threshold from $200 to $5,000 for an issue committee to report contributions and expenditures. He also tried to change the definition of a 527 committee so that most or all of them would not be required to report financial information.
In his crusade to save us from people voting illegally, he unintentionally proved, to the few who might have wondered, that there is no significant problem with noncitizen voting in Colorado.
Gessler now says on KNUS that his "record of achievement" includes a successful 2012 election and better services for Colorado business.
Even giving him this, which was arguably forced on him, you'd have to give Gessler a "pants-on-fire" rating for saying "to a large extent" he's accomplished what he set out to do as Secretary of State.
If he enters the race for governor, you hope journalists will report the smoke that's so often seen rising from Gessler's pants. Let's hope that the fumes won't choke the other candidates, like Tom Tancredo and Gov. John Hickenlooper.
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Gessler Pays Back Travel Cash, Seeks End To Ethics Flap
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 05.24.2013 | Denver
Read More: Denver News, Scott Gessler, Gessler Travel Bill, Denver Colorado, Colorado Secretary of State, Gessler Ethics Investigation, Colorado, Gessler Investigation, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler on Monday cut a personal check to the Department of State f...
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Gessler Taps Auditor To Examine Spending At Heart Of Ethics Complaint
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 05.22.2013 | Denver
Read More: Colorado Republicans, Colorado Politics, Scott Gessler Ethics, Scott Gessler, Colorado Secretary of State, Scott Gessler Investigation, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler appears to have had himself audited. In a witness list h...
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Governor Gessler?
Posted 05.17.2013 | Denver
Read More: Voter Purge, Colorado Republicans, Video, Colorado Politics, Scott Gessler Governor Run, Denver News, Scott Gessler, Scott Gessler Scandals, Voter Fraud, Colorado Noncitizens Voting, Colorado Voter Purge, Colorado Secretary of State, Colorado, Denver News
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler is the latest Republican rumored to be interested in challenging Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper in 20...
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Columnist Can't Cite Evidence That Election-Day Registration Favors Dems
Jason Salzman | Posted 07.06.2013 | Denver
Read More: Mark Hillman, John Andrews, Scott Gessler, Election Day Registration, Same-Day Voter Registration, Denver Post, Denver News
Jason Salzman
John Andrews believes election-day registration favors Democrats, and my point that there no evidence to support his position didn't seem to bother him at all.
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Election Reform Bill: It's Scott Gessler vs. 75 Percent Of County Clerks
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 05.01.2013 | Denver
Read More: Election Reform, Colorado Politics, Election Reform Bill Colorado, Denver Colorado, Denver News, Scott Gessler, Colorado Secretary of State, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. DENVER — Colorado’s Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler arrived late to testify at the Se...
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Colorado Bill Would Allow Dead People To Vote, Group Warns
The Huffington Post | Will Wrigley | Posted 04.24.2013 | Politics
Read More: Colorado Voter Bill, HuffPolitics Blog, Colorado Politics, Scott Gessler, Citizens for Free and Fair Elections, Voting Rights, Photoshopped Colorado Flier, Photoshopped Colorado Mailer, Colorado Voting Bill, Colorado Mailer, Politics News
A conservative Colorado political organization sent photoshopped mailers warning that "felons, illegal aliens" and the dead could vote under a voting ...
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Why Not Do Better in Colorado Elections?
Jason Salzman | Posted 06.15.2013 | Denver
Read More: Scott Gessler, Steve Kelley, Colorado Voting, Colorado Voter Registration, Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Scott Gessler Colorado Voter Registration, Colorado Election Legislation, Denver News
Jason Salzman
What are we if don't do everything possible, within safety constraints, to make our elections wide open to every citizen who wants to vote?
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Reassessing Colorado's Turnout
Michael P. McDonald | Posted 06.14.2013 | Politics
Read More: Colorado, 2012 Elections, Scott Gessler, Voter Turnout, Colorado Voters Turnout, 2012 Election, Election 2012, Pollster Analysis, Politics News
Michael P. McDonald
As Colorado policymakers consider reforms, I urge them to listen to their local election administrators since they know best how to efficiently run elections to serve their voters.
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Why Colorado Lags In The Race To Clean Up Elections
Denver iJournal | David O. Williams | Posted 03.28.2013 | Denver
Read More: Video, American Tradition Partnership, Colorado Politics, Dark Money in Politics, Scott Gessler, Trace Act, Denver News, Western Tradition Partnership, Colorado Secretary of State, Colorado, Dark Money, Denver News
From Denver iJournal's David O. Williams. Colorado’s Democrat-dominated state legislature is hammering out new laws on everything from guns to ci...
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Ethics Commission Poised To OK Gessler Defense Fund
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 01.30.2013 | Denver
Read More: Colorado Republicans, Denver Colorado, Scott Gessler, Denver News, Colorado Secretary of State, Colorado, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. Draft documents drawn up by Colorado Independent Ethics Commission suggest members will allow Secreta...
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Spent About $8,000 On Letters To Suspected Noncitizens
AP | Posted 03.16.2013 | Denver
Read More: Video, Colorado Politics, Colorado Voter Registration, Scott Gessler, Denver News, Noncitizen Voters, Voter Fraud, Colorado Voter Purge, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Colorado Secretary of State, Scott Gessler Colorado Voter Purge, Denver News
DENVER -- Colorado Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler is defending his search for noncitizens registered to vote and says the voting system r...
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Supportive Of Gessler's Personal Criminal Defense Fund?
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 03.15.2013 | Denver
Read More: Colorado Republicans, Attorney General John Suthers, Colorado Politics, Scott Gessler, Denver News, Gessler Defense Fund, Gessler Criminal Defense Fund, Gessler-Travel-Expenses, Colorado Attorney General, John Suthers, Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Colorado AG, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. Colorado Attorney General John Suthers' office this week made what's sure to be a controversial deci...
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Gessler To Be Investigated By Ethics Commission
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 01.08.2013 | Denver
Read More: Colorado Republicans, Video, Colorado Politics, Denver News, Gop Voter Suppression, Scott Gessler, Gessler Travel Expenses, Voter ID Laws, Denver Colorado, Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression, Colorado Secretary of State, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. The Colorado Independent Ethics Commission yesterday unanimously voted to investigate Secretary of St...
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Post-Election Analysis: Change the Game in Colorado
Peg Perl | Posted 02.09.2013 | Denver
Read More: 2012 Colorado Election, Colorado Voter Purge, Colorado Voters, 2012 Presidential Election, Scott Gessler, 2012 Election, Colorado Swing State, Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Denver News
Peg Perl
As a much-hyped swing state, Colorado is on the brink of a constant cycle of struggles over control of elections subject to national scrutiny.
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DU Citizen Panel Wades Into Campaign-Finance Swamplands
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 11.30.2012 | Denver
Read More: Video, Colorado Politics, Campaign Finance Reform, Denver News, Political Speech, Scott Gessler, University of Denver, Political Ads, Mark Grueskin, Denver Colorado, Colorado Secretary of State, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. DENVER– The University of Denver’s “strategic issues panel of accomplished citizens” tasked w...
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Gessler Under Investigation By State Ethics Commission
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 11.06.2012 | Denver
Read More: Colorado Republicans, Video, Colorado Politics, Denver News, Gop Voter Suppression, Scott Gessler, Voter ID Laws, Denver Colorado, Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression, Colorado Secretary of State, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. Hours before Election Day, the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission has announced it is launching a...
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Gessler Says 300 More Noncitizens Found On Colo. Voter Rolls
AP | IVAN MORENO | Posted 10.24.2012 | Denver
Read More: Illegal Voters, Voter Purge, Colorado Politics, 2012 Presidential Election, Denver News, Scott Gessler, Noncitizen Voters, Denver Colorado, Colorado Voter Purge, Colorado Secretary of State, Video, Denver News
DENVER -- There are 300 more suspected noncitizens on Colorado's voter rolls, Secretary of State Gessler announced Tuesday in the latest chapter of a ...
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Coors Was Against Abortion, Even for Rape and Incest, Before He Was for It
Jason Salzman | Posted 12.23.2012 | Denver
Read More: 9news, Joe Coors, Scott Gessler, Brandon Rittiman, Ken Buck, Joe Coors Abortion, Personhood Amendments, Joe Coors Personhood, Denver News
Jason Salzman
How did Joe Coors come around to endorsing (and donating to) the personhood amendment? And even if he's not supporting the personhood amendment this time, why has his abortion position, changed?
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Gessler Dismisses $1,400 Payment to Himself as "Penny Ante"
Jason Salzman | Posted 12.22.2012 | Denver
Read More: Knus, Scott Gessler, Steve Kelley, Denver News
Jason Salzman
Secretary of State Gessler told KNUS that the issues involved with him using his office's discretionary funds to give himself what amounted to a $1,400 bonus are "petty stuff" and the Denver Post is on a "jihad" against him.
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Gessler Under Fire For Taxpayer Expensed Travel Tab
The Colorado Independent | John Tomasic | Posted 10.16.2012 | Denver
Read More: Colorado Ethics Watch, Colorado Politics, Video, Denver News, Scott Gessler, Secretary of State Colorado, Gessler Travel Bill, Denver Colorado, Voter Fraud, Voter Suppression, Gessler Expenses, Denver News
From The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic. Luis Toro, director of left-leaning government watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch, said on Monday t...
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Denver Post Is Central Casting's "Liberal Mainstream Media?"
Jason Salzman | Posted 12.10.2012 | Denver
Read More: C Pac, Scott Gessler, Denver Post, Voter Purge, Voter Fraud, Liberal Media, Scott Gessler Denver Post, Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, Denver News
Jason Salzman
You may have heard that Secretary of State Scott Gessler said last week that the "left" doesn't care about voter fraud. But he also said that he likes to "tease" that the Denver Post is the embodiment of the "liberal mainstream media."
Schwartz, a Democrat, said late last week she still hasn’t determined whether to file a formal complaint with current Secretary of State Bernie Buescher’s office regarding themailers sent out by Western Tradition Partnership(WTP) depicting her as Donald Trump. But she said she will pursue tougher disclosure laws in the next legislative session.
“We absolutely need to do everything we can at the state level,” Schwartz said. “It’s probably one of my top priorities to go and see how we can put in place some controls, and then the irony is to have Scott Gessler come in and be in office when he is apparently part of the problem.”
The Western Tradition Partnership Education Fund was registered on Oct. 13 by Mario Daniel Nicolais II of the Hackstaff Gessler law firm in Denver. No electioneering communication report in Schwartz’s successful state Senate bid was filed, and the group lists no contributions or expenditures during that time period.
Western Tradition Partnership sent out the mailers, with Schwartz’s face on Donald Trumps body and the tagline “You’re Fired!” in late September or early October, and then commented on her reaction on their website on Oct. 4. By Colorado law, anyone spending more than $1,000 to do any electioneering communication within 60 days of a general election must report it to the secretary of state’s office.
Buescher spokesman Rich Coolidge confirmed no such report comes up under Schwartz’s name, which also is required.
“I didn’t see any Western Tradition Partnership come up as a result of that search,” Coolidge said. “If you do any independent expenditures or electioneering communications, you need to flag that box either on your reports or just come into our system and do that.”
The secretary of state’s office is not empowered to file its own enforcement actions, needing a candidate or an outside group to file a formal complaint. Coolidge said late last week no such complaint had been filed. If one is, it will be forwarded to an administrative law judge for a ruling.
Luis Toro, director of Colorado Ethics Watch, said his organization also is weighing whether to file a complaint in the case. He declined to discuss the specifics of the Schwartz case, but did say Gessler’s connection to it is not surprising.
“His career [as a Republican attorney for conservative political groups] has been chipping away at these disclosure laws and chipping away at campaign finance laws and arguing that the First Amendment means that corporations can spend unlimited money to influence elections without disclosure,” Toro said.
Gessler defended Republican operative Scott Shires — who first registered Western Tradition Partnership as a Colorado nonprofit in 2008 — in a case in which Shires failed to file electioneering communications reports for a group called the Colorado League of Taxpayers.
That group campaigned on behalf of pro-oil and gas Republicans in the 2008 Garfield County commissioner’s race.A judge fined the Colorado League of Taxpayers more than $7,000 in that case, and the fine – still unpaid – now tallies more than $8,000.
Toro says that unpaid fine is more significant than a much-publicized $528,500 tab for a Gessler-registered group called the Colorado Independent Auto Dealers Association, which was fined for failing to file required reports for nearly three years.
“When you put it in comparison to the Colorado League of Taxpayers, where they just didn’t register at all and they just jumped in with both feet and were influencing the election and got fined $7,100, that’s actually a pretty big fine in a litigated campaign finance case,” Toro said.
For instance, the record fine for a litigated campaign finance case is the $17,500 levied against Republican Dan Maes in the recent gubernatorial race.
Gessler would not comment specifically on his connections to Western Tradition Partnership, the Schwartz case or the Colorado League of Taxpayers and its unpaid fine.
“I generally do not comment on client matters, past or present,” Gessler said in an email. “You’ll have to keep trying those respective organizations.”
Western Tradition Partnership Executive Director Donald Ferguson did not return a call requesting comment. Shires hasn’t returned numerous calls and emails requesting comment on his unpaid fine.
“With respect to me being ‘linked’ to 527’s, you may be aware that I am an attorney,” Gessler added. “As such, I represent clients. Some of my clients are occasionally accused of violating Colorado’s reporting requirements. I represent them in those matters. Ergo, a ‘link’”
Schwartz said outside corporate influence and lack of disclosure “strikes at the heart of our democracy.”
“That whole thing, ‘all politics are local,’ well, maybe that’s not the case anymore since the Supreme Court [Citizens United] decision came in,” Schwartz said. “Maybe it’s ‘all politics are who has the biggest war chest.’ You can come in and impact races that typically weren’t played in. The commissioner’s race in Garfield Countywas a perfect example. It just totally blew away the competition in terms of basic resources.”
Schwartz added she’ll do everything in her power to increase the consequences for scofflaw groups like the ones connected to Gessler.
“I don’t care what office you hold,” she said. “You need to be held to the same standard everyone else in the state is, and if the penalties are not stiff enough or the consequences are not stiff enough, then we need to go after that.”
It’s been nearly eight months since formerGarfield County Judge Steve Carter says he was ambushed by oil and gas money in his unsuccessful bid for county commissioner, but the Democrat is clearly still seething about what he considers a “stolen election.”
“If somebody parks in your parking place, you can call the police department and they’ll come and investigate it and give the guy a ticket. But if someone steals an election, the way it’s set up right now, neither the attorney general, the secretary of state, the local [district attorney] or the local police department have the power to investigate it, and I think that should be changed,” Carter said in an interview.
Formal complaints about illegal electioneering by so-called 527 political committees or nonprofits are typically left up to the losing candidate — who may or may not have the resources to pursue a complaint — and usually are filed after the fact.
“A crime is committed when somebody does those things and fails to disclose where they’re getting their money — the kind of political things that [Republican operative] Scott Shires’ group did,” Carter said. “However, unless somebody like Colorado Ethics Watch spends the time, money and effort to file a formal complaint, nobody will do anything.”
A judge in April fined Shires and his Aurora-based Colorado League of Taxpayers $7,150 for failing to file an electioneering communications report for money it spent to influence the race, which pitted two Democrats seeking more control over natural gas drilling against Republicans running on pro-drilling platforms. Garfield County is a hot-bed of natural gas production, with more than 5,000 active wells at one point last year.
At least five other groups, both 527s — named for a section of the federal tax code and not bound by traditional fund-raising limits that govern other political groups — and 501(c)4 nonprofits, spent heavily on that 2008 race. Carter and fellow Democrat Stephen Bershenyi said they were the subject of last-minute lies and personal attacks about past business dealings and political positions.
It was an unprecedented flurry of outside spending for a local race — including some money from liberal environmental groups — and some observers are worried it set a new standard for election spending on the Western Slope.
“Industry decided they had a candidate that they already owned that they were going to protect at any cost and they wanted to make sure stayed in place, and they spared basically no expense to get that done,” said Bershenyi, referring to incumbent Republican John Martin. “I’ve been told by reliable sources who shall remain anonymous that industry spent well over $100,000 making sure that happened.”
Martin fairly firmly denounced the attack ads, fake newspapers and other tactics targeting the Democrats, saying he didn’t need the help, didn’t appreciate the outside influence — by either the industry or environmentalists — and preferred to run on his record and the issues.
But in an April interview, he also predicted such tactics are here to stay, and that groups on both sides of the energy debate will spend heavily in the 2010 election.
“All of that is going to come to light, and you’ll have many, many arguments, and should we say accusations, as well as explanations in the political arena from the governor to the locals in two years,” Martin said.
Bershenyi, a blacksmith and artist who grew up in Glenwood Springs, ran unopposed and won an at-large city council seat in his hometown in April. He said he learned a lot from his run against Martin and now has a much thicker political skin, but he wants to focus on city government before considering running for commissioner again in 2012.
“What you saw in that race was probably something unprecedented in terms of it never having been seen in a local race like this,” Bershenyi said. “County commissioner races in Garfield County have traditionally been races about issues, races about voting records and direction, and not about personality, and this was a radical departure from that.”
Carter, a Rifle attorney, said he won’t run again in 2012, hoping instead a younger candidate steps into the fray. He doesn’t blame his 2008 Republican opponent, Rifle High School Dean of Students Mike Samson, for the industry tactics, but feels bad for the oil and gas workers who were lured to the polls by false promises on Election Day.
“The workers were all told that if these two guys get elected you’ll be laid off tomorrow, and as a result, not just in my election but also in Bershenyi’s, it was a complete turnaround,” Carter said, referring to early returns and absentee ballots that had both Democrats leading. “So they voted the way they were told and they got laid off anyway.”
A slowdown in natural gas drilling, brought on by the recession and declining commodity prices, has led the laying off of hundreds of contract workers across the Western Slope since the 2008 election.
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