June 28, 2013 07:31 AM UTC

Talk-radio war over Morse recall

• 4 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

If you choose National Public Radio over the rollicking and squirmy world of conservative talk radio, you may not know about the war brewing over how Republicans would pick a candidate to oppose Senate President John Morse, if a recall election takes place in the peaceful land of El Paso County.

Two Republicans, Jaxine Bubis and Bernie Herpin, want to take on Morse, which has left conservative talk radio hosts fighting over how to choose between the two.

KVOR talk-radio host Jeff Crank, along with Rep. Doug Lamborn, Sheriff Terry Maketa, Laura Carno, and Steve Schuck, signed a letter suggesting that the "duly elected Republican Central Committee of Senate District 11 decide which candidate shall be the best candidate to face the Democrat."

On KLZ's Grassroots Radio Colorado Wed., co-hosts Ken Clark and Jason Worley discussed the Crank, et al., letter on air, as well as former State Sen. Shawn Mitchell's Facebook reaction, which included the line that the Crank letter amounted to "the establishment telling the grass roots to get lost."

Worley said he doesn't "like the idea of the 'those-that-be' coming in with money and choosing who the person is going to be."

Co-host Ken Clark added that he thought Herpin would "just barely" be a better legislator than Morse.

Clark, who doubles as the Colorado Director of Freedom Works, told listeners that Crank, who doubles as a staffer for Americans for Prosperity, and Colorado GOP Ryan Call had initially refused to help in the Morse recall effort.

Clark: Jaxine Bubis was one of those people who was out there gathering signatures.  She gathered thousands of them herself, on her own. [Bigmedia note: Was she paid like many others?]  Okay?  She was part of that effort.  She was neck-deep in that effort.  She was making phone calls.  She was going door to door.  She was working on the recall effort….

Then you’ve got the Jeff Cranks of the world; you’ve got the Ryan Calls of the world. Everybody starts flooding El Paso County, running down there, going, “Oh! Me, too!  Me, too!  We’re going to put in our candidate.  Now that you guys did all the work, we’re going to put in our candidate.  We’re going to take this thing over, and you are going to vote for ours, because we say so!”

You know what, a lot of people are pissed off about that.  And it’s wrong!  In my opinion, there is no reason why the El Paso Republicans and the Colorado Republicans couldn’t get involved in that recall.  But they didn’t!   And Jeff Hays ran for cover.  He did not help with that recall effort.  Neither did Ryan Call.  So now, if they want to come in and put in their candidate, I’m crying – I’m saying, “Foul!” I’m saying, “Go back home! You didn’t start this!  We will finish it!”  That’s what I’m saying….

Worley:  Where was Jeff Crank?  I realize some of Crank’s allies came in at the last minute to help. understand that.   [Bigmedia note: Laura Carno's group paid over $55,000 for signature gathering, for example] Great.  Good news.  But the people who got it off the ground did it on their own.  And they didn’t get a whole lot of help.  So, it does kind of look like, “You know what?  You guys did all the heavy lifting.  Now we’ll come in and we’ll grandfather you.  We’ll grant you a candidate who we think can win.”  Now, you know what?  You didn’t get your hands dirty in the first place, so I do have a problem with that.  This is the same thing that pisses people off and gets them out of the Republican Party in the first place.

Clark:  Well, and I can tell you that the candidate that they’re working on, this Bernie Herpin, when he was a city councilman, you know, we’re talking train wreck.  We’re talking Waller. He’s worse than Waller. I mean, this guy is the – even the fact that he’s got an “R” next to his name.  My opinion, he was the only guy that said that Jeff Hays and Ryan Call could find out there that was willing to say, “Okay.  I’ll be your stooge….”

Worley:  You know what?  This grandstanding, this paternalism from the Republican Party here in Colorado, sucks!  And you know what?  I’m – for those who know me, they know I’ve been a Republican my whole life.  My grandfather would roll over in his grave if I [inaudible].  But you know what?  I’m damn close!  I am damn close!

The radio show then ended abruptly, and I found myself thinking, maybe these talk radio hosts, Crank, Clark, and Worley, should get together and urge the GOP to just drop the Morse recall campaign. Who knows if they'll survive it.