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January 11, 2024 03:59 PM UTC

MAGA of the month: Andrew Sawusch and Miguel Zuniga

  • 23 Comments
  • by: Sara Loflin

The MAGA playbook lesson: When we can’t beat you by being a bully or being verbose charlatan, we will sue you – regardless of the will of the voters. All the better if you are a person of color. This is the MAGA definition of democracy: we can sue you and threaten you if we disagree.

I am publishing the information below of my own volition. The opinions below are my own, and do not represent my elected position as Mayor Pro Tem of Erie.

Let’s talk about the MAGA playbook. Throughout his career, Donald Trump has been a dogged entrepreneur in one particular tactic: the art of the temper tantrum. While some call it charisma, genius, leadership, etc., it is truly the worst of a white supremacist and colonialist ethic. The basic principal is this:

“Do what I want, and I will bury you with mountains of cheap, trashy praise that make you feel as though all of your hatred and resentment has paid off… even if you are materially worse off than when we started this relationship.”

“Don’t do what I want, and I will deny your opinion, humanity, and even the very notion that you count. What’s more, I will incite others to follow me in executing (sometimes violently) my temper tantrum singularly against you.”

From my Psychology 101 days, it is the worst form of indulgence of the id. At some other time I will rant about the MAGA movement and left extremists being two sides of the same coin and the worst cultural demonstration of privilege and stunted human development. But now the tactic has been explained.

In Erie, we have watched this dynamic play out in a microcosm.  

I was first elected to the Erie Board of trustees in March 2020. I was the only woman (and a woman of color) in a field of eleven people running for three trustee seats. A little over one month after I was sworn in to the Erie Board of Trustees, George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, and my friend Justin, emerged as a leader in our town, working to keep his kids safe. Our suburban little town hosted a march, with the support of our police department, of over 1,500 people, and Justin’s leadership has proven time and again to yield economic, public safety, and community benefits.

When (now) Mayor Brooks ran for mayor in 2022 (and since his win over Kelly Zuniga), Miguel Zuniga – a major Republican donor to failed GOP candidate Heidi Ganahl, husband of Mayor Brooks’ failed opponent and ousted planning commissioner Kelly Zuniga, and the Boulder County Republicans – has been working to energize local MAGA enthusiasts (such as Council Member Andrew Sawusch) to undermine Mayor Brooks and the will of Erie voters.

In November of 2022, Erie Voters elected a group of nine individuals to create a home rule charter. Mr. Sawusch spent much of 2022 (as an Erie Trustee) working to undermine the charter commission, regularly publicly arguing with Erie staff and attorneys. Then, planning commissioner, Kelly Zuniga did the same. In the November 2023 election, Erie voters voted to make Erie a home rule municipality and adopt the Erie charter. The transition section of the charter (Article 16.03), moves Erie municipal elections to November of even years and extends the term of existing council members until successors take office:

(2) The Mayor and new Council Members shall take office at the first regular meeting of the Town Council in 2025, following certification of the election, and they shall continue in office until their successors have been elected and take office.

Voters in Erie voted to adopt the home rule charter 58% to 42%, and because the attempts of Erie’s conservative extremists to misinform and mislead the public failed, Mr. Zuniga has decided to sue the Town of Erie and every individual member of the Town Council – wasting taxpayer dollars and ignoring the will of Erie voters.

Given that his law suit bares considerable overlap with statements made at charter commission hearings with Mr. Sawusch, we should all be curious whether Mr. Sawusch is advising this suit.

The lesson from the MAGA playbook: If I don’t like what you’re doing, I will use Google (or Republican lawyers) to sue you…that’s democracy.

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23 thoughts on “MAGA of the month: Andrew Sawusch and Miguel Zuniga”

  1. According to this article it seems that Zuniga's suit may have a leg to stand on (https://yellowscene.com/2024/01/05/lawsuit-accuses-erie-of-passing-unconstitutional-town-charter/)…

    Zuniga contended that extending the terms of these officials both violated his “constitutionally protected interest” as a Town of Erie voter and Article 7, Section 11 of the Colorado constitution, which states in part that “No law shall extend the term of any elected public officer after his election or appointment nor shall the salary of any elected public officer be increased or decreased during the term of office for which he was elected.”

    It sounds like Erie is trying to extend the term of public officers. I am curious how other governments have gone about changing when to have their elections. This sounds like an issue that has likely come up and been solved before by others.

    1. It was approved by the voters.

      Additionally, other municipalities have done similar transitions.
      Zuniga appears as if he is looking to take the parts of the Charter he likes, and have the parts that don’t serve him removed.

      1. Well a court will determine that right? Either way this is a good thing and has nothing to do with "MAGA", Whatever that means. 

         

        If Erie wins, it's proving the elected served within their power. If Erie loses, it shows democracy is still well and alive and a special election really isn't that big of a deal. 

         

        Right?

      2. Yeah since other municipalities have done this, accidentally extending terms of elected officials seems like a mistake that should be easy to avoid.

        I'm not attributing malice towards anyone involved since I don't know anyone involved and have no stake in this story. From what I can tell, it seems like Sawusch and Zuniga don't like the new charter cuz reasons and they're attempting to use a technicality to make it go away.

        I hope the courts are able to help get it figured out.

  2. Disgusting misrepresentation of the situation at hand clearly conveyed from a grotesque and mentally compromised viewpoint of some ludicrous claim of white supremacy. The mere fact that you suggest a citizen challenging your authority over an electoral blunder as wrong reveals your authoritarian intent. 

     

    You are a disgrace of not only a leader, but a human being.

    1. Wait, what? 
      That was an amazing word salad, but I personally have no idea whom Eriestrong is mad at, or what Eriestrong's issues are…with the article? The author. The subjects? .?

      1. Go away bot. These types of extremist politicians try to discredit their opposition and pull the blanket over those none the wiser to create an unchallenged authoritarian environment where they get what they want without challenge. Sarah here has been an outspoken opponent of sawusch since day 1 because he asks questions. He is bipartisan, and he actually cares about the town. All of the sudden he's magically a maga racist, just as this constituent whom filed the lawsuit is?

        No.

        Sarah is an individual who's mentally disturbed and is affecting real constituents lives and couldn't give a crap about them. She represents people and shouldn't have the capacity to after proving how downright compromised she is in this article.

        1. 1. kwtree is not a bot.

          2.So far, it seems your MO is to attack the mayors' sanity and ethics, I'm surprised you haven't tried to kick her dog.

          3. Since everyone else in this story has a name, how about yours?

          4. Your grammar is pretty weak. You are a Republican…amirite?

          1. 4. Your grammar is pretty weak. You are a Republican…amirite?

            Dumb as dog shit? Check.

            Righteously indignant? Check.

            Entitlement mentality? Check.

            Exceptionally bad at English? Check.

            Yessir, plenty of indicia of 2024 Republicanism on display here.

          3. I'm not the one rampantly accusing people of racism and colonialism for simply believing an electoral law was violated. 

             

            Once again, that's a sign of mental incapacitation 

        2. Thanks, Duke. Not a bot. But I'm home with CoVID and time on my hands, and you tweaked my curiousity about what the issues are in Erie.

          So looks like the issues are the same as in many Colorado towns:

          Lack of affordable housing.

          How to develop sustainably.

          How to maintain public health.

          How to keep clean water. ( Fracking in Erie would seem to literally undermine those last two goals). 

          Andrew Sawusch may or may not be a MAGA, but he is a graduate of CU's Leeds School of Business, known for its pro-fracking misinformation. Sawusch also seems to be naively trusting in oil and gas developers to have the public's interests at heart. He says that municipalities may regulate within their borders, but has apparently spent his time as trustee advocating against Erie home rule. Curious. 

          He strongly opposes Erie's current moratorium on new permitting for oil and gas extraction. 

          So my take on Sawusch is that he is a corporate, rather than a MAGA Republican, also known as an old-fashioned oil and gas shill. 

  3. If the current board knew what they were doing and got rid of the incompetent law firm representing them this wouldn’t be an issue. What should have happened was the measure and candidates would be on the same ballot, just like the charter commission. Maybe instead of crying racism admit you screwed up for once? I bet if you stop just pushing radical agendas without any knowledge of the law and trusting the morons advising you the complaints would stop, regardless of anyone’s race. The town should fire their law firm and sue them. They screwed this up in multiple municipalities. Also re: playbook, please remind me which group has been throwing countless lawsuits at Trump frivolously?

    1. re: "Countless lawsuits against Trump frivolously"

      In 2016, USA Today did a deep dive into candidate Trump's lawsuits — finding over 4,000, more than 5 other well-known real estate developers in New York COMBINED.

      "After the 2020 United States presidential election, the campaign for incumbent President Donald Trump and others filed and lost 62 lawsuits contesting election processes, vote counting, and the vote certification process in 9 states " They won ONE … confirming that some ballots that arrived late (which hadn't been counted) shouldn't be counted.

      His current legal situation is 4 criminal cases (hardly "countless") — one NY state case concerning corporate activity BEFORE he became President, one GA case alleging a conspiracy to oppose the Georgia election results, and two federal cases.  The first already has convictions for the corporation and an officer of the corporation  The second already has guilty pleas from some involved in the conspiracy. 3 & 4 have yet to come to trial.

      There also are some civil cases in process — again, not especially frivolous.  The one starting next week is defamation — similar to claims already established in a case that has a $5 million dollar judgment (scarcely "frivolous").

      So, the post-Presidential score I see is Trump & campaign 60 cases, not-Trump forces from multiple jurisdictions and individuals less than 10.

  4. We are honored to feature on this humble blog the fictitious antihero of George Orwell’s 1984, the illustrious Winston Smith Are you being suppressed, Winston dear? Are you a victim of the Thought Police?

    You do keep moving the goal posts, Winston. In your first post, Mayor Loflin was “mentally disturbed”, creating an “unchallenged authoritarian environment”, and “compromised”. Then you alleged that I’m a bot, for merely seeking clarification about the target of your ire; now, in your last post, you claimed that the law firm representing the Board is incompetent and should be fired- also, that they should have had candidates  on the home rule measure.?

    Then out of right field, you drag in Trump and his 60 lawsuits and 91 indictments, which you claim are all “frivolous”. So maybe Mayor Loflin is correct about you being a MAGA, after all.

     

     

    2. I suppose it would be incomprehensible to you that someone else has a dissenting opinion as in your mind it’s only one person. Yet alas, I am not the same individual as the bloke above. Nice try through. My only assertion is the board and the town’s legal representation (Hoffmann, Parker, Wilson & Carberry, P.C) are incompetent and quickly cry racism whenever it’s exposed they did something wrong. It is a fact that the ballot was handled wrong and it’s so ironic because they literally did the same sort of ballot in the prior election. Should the town form a charter commission yes/no. Vote for your commission members.  The following ballot should have been – should the town adopt the charter commission yes/no. Vote for your council members. The same legal firm messed this up in multiple municipalities. You can’t just go extending terms willy nilly. That is what the issue is here. There was a proper way to handle this and it was obviously botched. There will need to be a special election now.

      Re: MAGA. I thought it was hilarious to assert suing people was a MAGA tactic when they’re the ones being sued. You can read into that however you want. Please show me one instance of “MAGA” suing someone though. Mr Sawusch is hardly Republican let alone MAGA.

      1. There are 6 MAGA lawsuits on their way to the Supreme Court now. MAGA is defined as furthering the personality cult and goals of Donald Trump, including trying to re-elect him ( so he can stay out of prison). 

        There are many more less consequential cases out there. MAGA cases tend to get dismissed because they are ludicrous, However, your case against Erie, attemptingto overturn the will of Erie voters, does fit the MAGA criteria. These lawsuits are distinguished by their contempt for voters, election rules, and the rule of law. 
         

      2. Tina Peters is MAGA through and through, and has a whole series of suits. The ones I recall are

        • against the District 25 Attorney, & Merrick Garland,
        • to try to get a recount of a substantial loss
        • to try to keep her role as an election official in 2021 … and again in 2022

        She also had a whole series of frivolous appeals to the Mesa County Commission, claimed her arrest involved excessive violence, claimed there was an improper search of her home, and requested extensive variations in her release conditions.

        Are those enough to clarify that MAGA folks file suits?  Or should we list the 60+ election cases in 2020 and 2021.  Or the extensive efforts by the losing trio of Republicans in Arizona?

  5. Glad to see the "antimaga"  yellow scene crew is righteously strong to defend their mentally ill representation. 

     

     

    We see you through. All of you. And inside you're ugly.

    1. So many questions…

      what is a "yellow scene crew"?

      Do you consider anyone who disagrees with you to be mentally ill? That's a scary point of view.

      are you aware that everyone is kind of ugly and bloody and squishy inside? That is if they're alive.What kind of x-ray equipment can you use on a blog anyway?

      but thanks for saying that you're going to see us through. Yeah. That's nice.

       

    2. If your intent is to get folks to side with Sawusch and Zuniga, you're doing a very bad job at it. If you're just gonna jump in and start throwing elbows, no one is going to want to listen to you. I don't want to listen to you.

      You jump in here claiming everyone around is incompent and mentally ill and authoritarian for no reason sure seems like you're projecting. Hell, you even insulted Yellow Scene Magazine when it was their article that I read that gave me context about this issue and showed that the lawsuit may have some legs.

      If you want to defend the lawsuit then I suggest treating people like people and not just instantly throwing insults around for no reason. If you just want to call people stupid and crazy for no reason then please take it somewhere else.

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