March 07, 2024 10:39 AM UTC

Now Colorado House Republicans Want to Impeach Jena Griswold

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• by: Colorado Pols

Is there any idea that is just too stupid and ridiculous for Colorado House Republicans to attempt?

We can now definitively answer that question with a resounding “No.”

On Wednesday, the micro-minority caucus of House Republicans drafted a letter demanding that Democrats in the House bring their resolution to the floor to impeach Secretary of State Jena Griswold. You can read the entire thing here (Griswold Impeachment Letter), but we’ll include the relevant text below. The letter is signed by 17 of the 19 House GOP members (not included are Reps. Rod Bockenfield and Stephanie Luck, presumably because they are both out of the Capitol for personal medical reasons). It is written on the stationary of State Rep. Ryan Armagost, which is why the tense starts out in “first person”:

Dear Speaker McCluskie:

On behalf of myself and my colleagues, we believe it is imperative that the Resolution, Articles of Impeachment for Secretary of State Jena Griswold, put forward by Minority Leader Pugliese and myself, be scheduled during this pivotal time. Since being elected, the Secretary of State has used her position as a platform for her partisan political ideology and has proven herself unfit for this elected position.

The Secretary of State has consistently been criticized for her lack of transparency and questionable bias. Her partisan political beliefs are constantly the subject of her communication to the state indicating her lack of respect for facilitating unbiased and fair elections. The Secretary of State’s request for the removal of a Presidential Candidate from a primary ballot, on the basis of accusations and personal feelings, demonstrates a lack of professionalism and integrity.

The Secretary of State’s effort to remove a Presidential Candidate from the ballot, recently ruled unconstitutional by a unanimous vote of the U.S. Supreme Court, would have silenced the voice of Coloradans statewide, thus displaying a direct threat to Coloradans’ freedom of speech. Minority Leader Pugliese and I submitted this Resolution on February 8th and it has yet to be scheduled for the floor. We, the undersigned members of the House of Representatives, implore you to add this Resolution to the House schedule immediately.

The letter itself is mostly English, but the claims are nonsense.  Saying that Griswold sought to remove Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado “on the basis of accusations and personal feelings” is patently stupid. It’s not like Griswold herself just decided that Trump couldn’t be on the ballot in Colorado.

Anyone who has paid any attention to the story of Donald Trump’s ballot access problems knows that multiple different courts heard a case that made it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. None of the courts disagreed that Trump did, in fact, lead an insurrection against the United States. The ruling to keep Trump on the ballot was based on an opinion from SCOTUS that Congress must create a process for enforcement of the 14th Amendment.

That case, by the way, is Donald J. Trump v. Norma Anderson…the longtime former Colorado REPUBLICAN lawmaker.

Following Monday’s surprise SCOTUS ruling that keeps Trump on the ballot in every state, Colorado Republicans started jawing about starting a recall campaign against Griswold. Despite their zeal, Republicans know that they won’t get anywhere with a recall. Beginning in 2019, Republicans tried to recall Griswold, Gov. Jared Polis, State Sen. Tom Sullivan, and pretty much every Democrat with a pulse. None of those recall attempts went anywhere, with one particular effort resulting in an infamous embarrassment that featured two guys delivering four petition signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office in a couple of Budweiser boxes.

Trying to impeach Griswold now is a silly political stunt that has as much of a chance at succeeding as Ken DeGraaf making a logical argument about something. But let’s play out the string and answer some questions:

♦ Do Democrats have any responsibility to put this resolution up for a vote?

Nope. House Speaker Julie McCluskie can, and probably will, just ignore this nonsense. But it might be worth taking Republicans up on their demand just to let them make (further) fools of themselves on the House Floor.

♦ Is it actually possible for the state legislature to impeach someone?

Probably? Colorado’s Constitution (Article XIII) outlines the process for impeachment of a public official. The House has the exclusive power to impeach by a simple majority (33 votes), after which the impeachment is tried in the Senate. Two-thirds of the Senate (24 votes) would need to vote YES in order to impeach. Secretary of State James Carr was impeached (in the House) in 1935, one year after being elected, because of allegations of bribery in connection with — among other offenses — his office’s use of liquor licensing and taxation methods. Carr resigned before the matter proceeded to the Senate.

♦ Why did virtually the entire GOP caucus sign onto this letter?

Who the hell knows? There is NO chance that Griswold will be impeached. Some Republicans probably felt compelled to do something for Dear Leader Trump, while others were likely too afraid to say no. This is a particularly odd decision for someone like Rep. Gabe-ish Evans (R-Adams County), who is running for Congress in a competitive district in CO-08; maybe this helps Evans win a Republican Primary, but it will be an anchor around his neck in a General Election.

♦ Is this the dumbest thing that House Republicans have done?

For this week, yes. But never underestimate the ability of the House GOP to dig itself into a deeper political hole.