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July 25, 2018 09:25 AM UTC

Oh Noes! KKKapleton Makes The New York Times

  • 37 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Joey Bunch at the Colorado Springs Gazette attempts to throw Walker Stapleton a lifeline, in a story today giving Stapleton a wide-open chance to respond to the New York Times report on his family’s history with the Ku Klux Klan–a chance Stapleton notably fails to take:

Colorado Politics has sought for months to have a discussion with Stapleton about his great-grandfather’s ties to the KKK. On Tuesday he said this:

“All reasonable people understand my great-grandfather died in 1950, about 25 years before I was even born. (I) am focusing on the future.”

That answer isn’t even close to sufficient, particularly after you watch the campaign video above in which Stapleton extolls his great-grandfather’s record as Mayor of Denver with no acknowledgement of Benjamin Stapleton’s leadership role in the KKK whatsoever. Though many would argue Stapleton’s Bush family cousins aren’t exactly a highlight either, Stapleton can’t campaign on his family history while ignoring its most controversial data point. Stapleton is never going to get a more friendly reporter or outlet. This was a chance to respond eloquently and take this whole line of attack off the table for Democrats, and Stapleton punted instead.

Maybe the Stapleton clan just don’t have an answer they’re comfortable saying out loud.

—–

Members of the Ku Klux Klan march in a parade on Larimer Street in Denver, 1926.
Credit: Western History/Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library

The Colorado political chattering class woke up this morning to a story in the New York Times that resurfaces a controversy Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton has tried mightily to avoid during his campaign for governor–his great grandfather Benjamin Stapleton’s avowedly (at least at first) pro-Ku Klux Klan administration as the mayor of Denver in the 1920s:

Mr. Stapleton, the candidate for governor, once embraced his great-grandfather, making Benjamin’s Stapleton’s civic work a top reason to elect him treasurer.

“My great-grandfather served five terms as Denver’s mayor in the 1920s, in the 1930s, in the 1940s,” he said in a 2009 campaign ad, ticking off the elder Stapleton’s accomplishments — building the airport, reinvigorating the park system. “I’m really proud of my family’s public service.”

But as residents have become more aware of his family’s ties to the Klan, Mr. Stapleton has had to tread more carefully, mostly dropping mentions of his great-grandfather from his campaign.

“It’s 100 years ago, 30 years before I was born,” he said when the Colorado Independent raised the issue recently. “If everybody started trying to apologize or explain what happened with ancestors of theirs who died 30 years before they were born, people would be doing a lot of explaining.”

You can watch the not-so-well produced video above in which Stapleton proudly invokes his great-grandfather’s service as Mayor of Denver. Benjamin Stapleton is the strongest historical tie that Walker Stapleton has to the state, key to his much-lampooned claim to be a “fourth-generation Coloradan” born in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The problem for Stapleton, of course, is that he can’t have this both ways. Stapleton can’t claim to be “really proud of my family’s public service,” specifically Ben Stapleton’s public service, without acknowledging that it wasn’t all City Beautiful and the former airport we still wish was open because it was way more convenient than driving to Kansas like we do today. To celebrate Ben Stapleton’s history without acknowledging that he was a key figure in the Ku Klux Klan’s dominance of local politics in the 1920s is to whitewash that history–and it’s wrong. Whether or not you support renaming the Stapleton neighborhood, collectively we have an obligation to be honest about this ugly history in the state we all call home.

And you know what? So does Walker Stapleton. This seems to be an issue that our ever-polite local political reporters have been dissuaded for whatever reason from covering, but fortunately the New York Times is not so easily browbeaten into submission by Stapleton’s PR guys.

It’s the one thing Walker Stapleton doesn’t want to talk about. That may be the biggest reason why we need to.

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37 thoughts on “Oh Noes! KKKapleton Makes The New York Times”

  3. I continue to wonder about Stapleton's definition of "Coloradoan."

    If it is birth & youth, his great-grandfather and he do not belong.

    If it is adult career & life choice, his grandfather and father do not belong.

    So, call him a 4th generation of half Coloradoans?

     

  4. How many Colorado voters read the New York Times? Of those voters, how many care about Stapleton's great grandfather? Keep flailing away, Democrats. You've got nothing!

    1. Um the New York Times is pretty well read MAGAt-anus.  I'm guessing a lot of Coloradoans read NYT.  Besides, if Stapleton weren't lying about stupid things like being a fourth generation Coloradoan and paying the History of Colorado museum to take Great-Grandpa Benny out of the KKK exhibit, then these wouldn't be issues.

      BTW, can you tell me how Trump sucking up to Putin and throwing the US intelligence community under the bus MAGAs?

      1. Thank you. Colorado Pols is determined to make a mountain out of every single molehill. A story in July in the New York Times is not worth a SINGLE Colorado vote.

        2. Here's the thing moddy, I frequent the righty blog redstate because it's good to read a wide range of opinion. They all love to rail on the non-Fox media, but they never quote Fox News. No, they quote the NYT and WaPo. They know that these are the 2 most important sources of news in this country (sorry, Pols). 

  5. Those wanting to learn more about Walker Stapleton's ever-distancing relationship with his hooded great-grandfather should read the great reporting by CTR's Madeleine Schmidt:

    http://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2018/04/stapleton-isnt-talking-great-grandfathers-political-legacy-anymore/8718/

    http://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2018/04/stapleton-kkk-past-paying-off-history-museum/8585/

    http://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2018/06/walker-stapleton-responds-familys-kkk-connections-100-years-ago/9899/  

  6. At the risk of sounding pedantic, but as a damn-near native, It's Coloradan. That Staplegun doesn’t know that, gives the lie to his claim to be a native.The Coloradoan is a newspaper in Fort Collins and has no other acceptable application (and even that's wrong).

    1. Yeah.  What happened to all those racist Democrats?  They became Republicans.  Today's Democrats wouldn't recognize the likes of Ben Stapleton in their ranks.

      Got a picture of a squirrel to post?

        2. Boy I wonder which party all the brown and black people will vote for. The one which is primarily composed of brown and black people, or the one calling for the brown and black people to be rounded up and thrown out of the country…

            1. You mean the Republican racists that the KKK now identifies with? 

              They just won't vote. 

              Which may be why all those racists are winning

              And Negev can continue to celebrate the rise of racist power, exclusively in the Republican party. 

              1. I'm not celebrating the rise of the racist Republican party; I hold equally distaste for both parties, however I would just bring to light you should be lamenting your parties failure to remedy the plight of the disenfranchised while they are oppressed by your enemy. The Republicans do not have to win a race debate, you do. 

                1. No. You're just moving the goal posts.  First by bringing up Ben Stapleton's status as a (Pre-Civil Rights) Dem.  When that didn't work, you turned to concern trolling.  Dems need to engage many disenfranchised groups.

                  But we aren't trying to have it both ways with racism.  You guys are.

                  1. So you're fine with the fact that Pre-Civil Rights Dems can and have changed from racist clansmen to advocates of civil rights, but Walker is bound to racism because his great grandfather was? Barack Obama's ancestors owned slaves, does that make him a racist?

                    1. Nope. 

                      But you're fine with moving the goal posts so you can concern-troll away from the topic of this post.

                    2. The topic of this post is why Walker Stapleton did not highlight the role of his great grandfather in the KKK in his campaign media?

                      Why would he? 

                      When Chelsea gets on the podium for her political aspiration speech are you expecting her to include that her dad got head in the oval office?

                      Show me that Walker Stapleton is a racist. I don't even like the guy and I'm standing up for him this post is so dumb. 

                  1. Hey, Negev is just following the lead of the NRA — it doesn't matter if the flag is Red as long as the money is green!

                    Plant red flags all across the world, on the Kremlin and the White House alike!

                3. To say you hold both parties in equal distaste is to cast your lot with the Fascist Trump administration, Negev.  For evil to win it is only necessary for good people to do nothing.  I stand with Winston Churchill who, after Hitler invaded Russia, said, "If Hitler or Donald Trump invaded Hell, the least I would do is to make a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."

                  1. Pretty much.  Negev is celebrating people becoming disaffected and not voting. And traditionally Dem leaning demographics who may have some legitimate grievances with the Powers that Be in the Party.  And trying to paper over it by saying "They both suck".

                    The way I see it, the Dems have their flaws, and it can alienate people they need.  But I will take the flawed Dems over the evil fascist Republicans any day.

                     

                    1. Again, not celebrating. Just letting you know how bad you are fucking this up. Trump is a abhorrent dimwit. In politics you don't have to be the best, just better than the competition.

                       

      3. Oh, thanks for that news flash, Nutter — Since you seem to be up on the latest, is the rumor true that Sherman invaded Atlanta?  Glad Fox News keeps you informed of the latest happenings!

    3. Negev, you're missing the point. Stapleton bragged about his lineage to his KKK ancestor. That's what makes it fair game. And I suspect there's a portait of the old goat on a wall somewhere in Connecticut. 

      2. The Stapleton/ Bush / Walker clan did keep naming their male progeny after Klanpappy Benjamin. .  There's Benjamin F Stapleton the Klansman and Denver Mayor, Benjamin F Stapleton Jr, the philanthropist and banker, and Benjamin Stapleton III is a New York financier, currently overseer of the Stapleton family charity and tax shelter, the Harmes Fishback trust.

        Ben Stapleton III , in his role as administrator of the family charity, was the one who tripled the donations to the Colorado History Museum to get them to scrub all references to the Klannish ways of his grandpappy.

        So it looks as though the extended family is very proud of Klanpappy Ben.

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