October 06, 2016 12:48 PM UTC

Rick Enstrom Just Makes Stuff Up

• 8 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Rick Enstrom, one of the principals at Colorado’s famous Enstrom Candies and a dabbling Colorado Republican political figure, launched an independent expenditure committee for the 2016 election cycle called the Better Jobs Coalition–a committee with the mission of supporting candidates who “support job creation through economic development policies based on low taxes and limited government.” Enstrom’s committee has been active in recent weeks in several key state legislative races supporting Republican candidates.

In Adams County’s Senate District 25, Enstrom’s group is pounding the pavement in support of GOP Rep. Kevin Priola, running against Jenise May for an open seat being vacated by term-limited Sen. Mary Hodge. We were forwarded this “walk piece” being hung from doorknobs in the district:

The piece makes a number of claims about votes allegedly taken by Rep. May, including voting in favor of House Bill 16-1388–legislation that would have restricted the use of criminal histories in the initial round of job interviews, known as the “ban the box” bill. Enstrom’s group falsely claims that this bill would “allow criminals to work in public schools,” when in truth the legislation specifically exempted any position that would be disqualified by a specific criminal conviction.

But taking one extra moment to think through this bogus claim and the citation supporting it, we realized there was a much more obvious problem:

We’re talking about a bill that was introduced in the 2016 session of the Colorado legislature.

Jenise May wasn’t even in the legislature in 2016. May served in the Colorado House from 2012-2014.

Between this and Mike Coffman’s disastrous week of fact-checking exposures, we think it’s reasonable to ask seriously if anyone on the right side of the aisle is interested in telling the truth this year. We struggle to recall a precedent for this level of, as Harry Truman once put it, “pure undiluted bullshit.”

Hopefully Rick Enstrom doesn’t get any in the candy.