Republican Christine Mastin has been getting some press lately in her bid to unseat Daniel Kagan in the traditionally Democratic HD3. Reporter Lynn Bartels of the Denver newspaper has penned a series of positive pieces on Mastin, including Mastin’s serving as the mouthpiece of the GOP’s cosmetic outreach to Latino voters. Such efforts, we continue to believe, are not going to be viewed as successful in the larger context of of the de facto GOP ticket (Tom Tancredo), but Mastin easily makes a better spokesperson than the other candidates in the Bartels article, such as Edgar “Juan-a-be-the-Luchador” Antillon.
But we were taken aback by this bit we were forwarded from Mastin’s answer to the standard candidate questionnaire in the Denver paper:
I care about the issues facing HD 3; my opponent cares about sheepherders on the Western Slope.
Here’s the thing: Mastin is referencing a bill Kagan ran this year to address labor abuses against Peruvian sheepherders brought to Colorado on guest worker visas. News reports showed how the workers were paid minimal wages, lived in shabby conditions without running water, and were kept without access to food–while their employers held their passports.
You’d think Mastin would get this since she’s an immigration lawyer of Chilean descent. At the very least, she should exhibit a fraction of the sympathy for those guest workers as she does for her clients, for whom she files appeals against deportation by the billable hour? You think?
Mastin is one of the favored candidates recruited by Frank McNulty, who as you’ve read has an awesome moral compass. At least that’s a part of this that makes sense.
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She gets rich off of people fighting deportation, and this is what she thinks of her clients.
What a total, supreme jerk.
The videos that brought the problem to the attention of the Legislature were shot by a good friend of my daughter, Mesa State student Jake Carpenter. I was happy (and surprised) that it passed the House but was disappointed that it was PI’d in the Senate.
http://www.coloradofarmworkers…
Rancher J. Paul Brown (R) running for HD59 pays his Peruvian workers less than $4/hour so he won’t help sheepherders much if he gets elected.
http://archive.durangoherald.c…
And he probably deducts food, clothing, and lost sheep.
per the link
are pretty devastating. Thanks for providing those.
I get that some of the conditions are going to be rough because these guys are in the middle of nowhere, but the fact that if they get injured, they are immediately fired for it ought to disturb anyone.
No cell phones allowed so they can contact their families. They work 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week and their salary is below the US poverty level. $8,640 a year as a Peruvian sheepherder, US poverty line is $10,400 a year–disgusting abuse of an entire group of people that have no say over their own livelihood.
And they aren’t allowed to read or keep a copy of the contract they signed? Man, what does that tell you?
The Republican Party cares about illegal immigration, until they actually have to pay a living salary to someone. And people wonder why I’m pro union.
If they worked 20 days a month and 8 hours a day it would equal $4/hour…but we know they work longer hours and more days for that $650.
Even though they may sleep, they are still responsible for the herd. That makes the wages $1.11 an hour.
Kagan showed a lot of courage by carrying that Bill – good for him
Yes, I’m a minority
But you don’t have to be a minority to be upsetted by such language