May 16, 2012 07:11 PM UTC

Fisticuffs at Mesa County Republican Meeting

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• by: Konola

(Like the Taiwan legislature, except with cowboy hats – promoted by Colorado Pols)

I’ve been reading about fights breaking out at GOP conventions and thinking that the GOP needs to sign up for anger management therapy.

Most of the fighting seems to be between Ron Paul supporters and Mitt Romney supporters. According to the Daily Paul website, “In Oklahoma, in a scene that has been called “contention at the convention”, a Romney supporter (believed to be almost 80-years-old) punched a Ron Paul supporter in the head. Police were called after the punch was thrown over a disagreement on a vote.”

Grand Junction isn’t immune. I was told that a fight broke out at a recent Grand Junction Republican meeting (May 9.) Evidently two factions of the party were fighting over who would be the spokesperson for the Romney campaign locally.  According to my source, Grand Junction police were called to break up a fist fight between Jerry Huntsinger (author and civil war re-enactor) and Garry Brewer (husband of Barbara Brewer, Mesa County Assessor). Evidently Marjorie Haun and Jennifer Baily were witnesses to the fisticuffs.

I filed a Colorado Open Records Act request to get the police report with the Grand Junction police department. The response I received was that the altercation took place outside of the city limits, so I would have to file a request with the county sheriff. I’ll eventually get around to doing that, but it may be a while.

I’ve been getting whiffs of anger within the local GOP membership from responses to comments I’ve made at the Sentinel’s online edition. There are a couple of names that keep showing up in the E-mail letters to the editor: Kevin McCarney and Marjorie Haun, and they also frequently dispute anything I have to say in my comments.

From what I’ve figured out, the main-stream Republicans want to claim ownership of the Tea Party. The Mesa County GOP and Western Slope Conservative Alliance (WSCA) have inter-locking boards. Many of the executives of the GOP are also executives of WSCA, which is claiming to be the local Tea Party. GJResult/Tea Party, claims to be the original Tea Party and is accusing WSCA of identity theft.

So, from what I’ve pieced together so far, there are four groups within the local GOP-the camp that includes Brewer, the camp that includes Huntsinger, the camp that controls WSCA, and members of GJResult/Tea Party who have not yet renounced their GOP affiliation.

For the record, I am officially a member of GJResult, by virtue of signing up to receive information from them at their website. That caused a bit of a dust up between the GJResult president and bully Kevin McCarney, 2nd Vice Chair of the local GOP and officer of WSCA. McCarney doesn’t think that liberals should be allowed to talk to conservatives. I’ve met McCarney-he seems the type to result to fisticuffs.

In the meanwhile I have a report due at the Secretary of State’s office for the Mesa County Democratic Party. DEMS don’t always agree, but I’ve yet to see anybody throw a punch, even when it comes to money!