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February 11, 2022 10:29 AM UTC

Good Kicks, Bad Bills, And Hangings: An Evening With FEC United

  • 30 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
“Raging” Rep. Ron Hanks (R).

Chase Woodruff of Colorado Newsline reports this morning on an “emergency meeting” that took place last night in Castle Rock, organized by the militia-fortified conservative activist group FEC United. Last night’s meeting featured a number of Colorado Republicans who, like a majority of the Republican rank-and-file, believe as an article of faith–faith being necessary due to the complete lack of evidence–that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Fresh from turning herself in on obstruction charges as the multi-agency investigation into her alleged misconduct, tampering with election equipment, and possible wire fraud grinds on, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters defended her behavior this week, which allegedly included playing keep-away with an iPad wanted by investigators followed by trying to kick uniformed cops called to intervene:

Peters arrived at Friday’s event, held at The Rock Church, to a standing ovation from the assembled crowd. She said she was still dressed in the same clothes she wore when she turned herself in to be booked on misdemeanor charges of obstructing a peace officer and obstructing government operations at the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office earlier on Thursday.

“When you do the right thing, you don’t have to be ashamed,” said Peters, who was seen to attempt to kick a police officer in a video of the Feb. 8 incident. “I won’t back down. They don’t like that.” [Pols emphasis]

Heidi Ganahl and Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters.

We’ll agree that cops do not generally appreciate being kicked–though like we said yesterday, it’s likely that this misdemeanor charge will be the lesser of Peters’ legal troubles soon enough. Moving on to U.S. Senate and 2020 election denier with extreme prejudice candidate Ron Hanks:

Hanks drew cheers when he boasted to the crowd Thursday of going “to the Capitol” on Jan. 6, 2020. The first-term state lawmaker launched his Senate challenge against incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet with a video ad featuring the explosion of a simulated Dominion voting machine.

Polling has consistently shown that more than three-quarters of Republican voters continue to believe the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. Hanks, who won two early straw polls in a crowded field of GOP Senate candidates, said that his campaign is gaining “remarkable” momentum.

“I’m the only Senate candidate talking about election integrity,” Hanks said. “And the reality is, that’s what people want to talk about.” [Pols emphasis]

Hanks, who once predicted “foreign intelligence” would stop Joe Biden from taking office and that the failed Arizona audit would prove “Trump won” right up to the moment it didn’t, also reportedly has a slate of so-called “election reform bills” ready for 2023 in the Colorado legislature in the event Republicans retake the majority. Never mind that Rep. Hanks will almost certainly not himself be serving in the Colorado House in 2023:

Joining Clerk Peters and Rep. Ron Hanks for we think is the first time ever for all three on the same stage was none other than John Eastman, the former CU “conservative affirmative action” professor and attorney who wrote the plan to overturn the 2020 elections that was thankfully rejected by Vice President Mike Pence–and has two-facedly defended and condemned his plan since then depending on the audience:

Eastman decried the “attacks” that he and others in the election-conspiracist movement have experienced, and told the crowd that they are facing “pure evil.” He again raised the oft-discussed possibility of a legal challenge to Colorado’s open-primary law, which allows unaffiliated voters to choose to vote in either party’s primary election. Eastman solicited donations to a legal fund that will bankroll the case and said the lawsuit would be filed “next week.”

The open-primary law, Eastman said, “is guaranteed to let the establishment control who the party nominates, and prevent you all from taking back control of your destiny.”

The question of whether unaffiliated voters should be allowed to participate in a Republican primary as Colorado law provides for today is vexatious within the GOP, who put down an attempt to opt-out through procedural means last fall. If Eastman were to prevail in a lawsuit to exclude unaffiliated voters, the result could be life-saving for far-right candidates from the legislature to Lauren Boebert. Eastman’s continued meddling in Colorado politics even after losing his teaching responsibilities at CU for his role in the January 6th coup plot means he’s a continuing headache for Colorado Republicans–especially gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, one of Eastman’s stoutest defenders until she decided questions about 2020 were too divisive to answer.

Finally, we are obliged to note that this “emergency meeting” featured another round of death threats against Gov. Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold–perhaps vague enough to not be actionable, but unmistakable in their intent:

Just before Peters’ arrival, prominent election conspiracist Shawn Smith — who works with the U.S. Election Integrity Plan and is an ally of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell — rallied the crowd against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, whom he accused of being complicit in election fraud.

As the crowd chanted “Lock her up,” Smith said that he believed in “due process” and “justice.”

“I think if you’re involved in election fraud, then you deserve to hang,” he said to applause and shouts of agreement from the crowd. “Sometimes the old ways are the best ways.

“I’m not endorsing violence, I’m saying when you put your hand on a hot stove, you get burned,” Smith continued. “And you ought to see it coming. That’s what happens to tyrants.”

There’s been debate in the legislature this past week about a request by Griswold’s office to provide additional security. Last night appears to have supplied some of the best justification yet for approving that request without delay.

Despite the profound difficulty Colorado Republican Party chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown has admitting it, doubly odd since she was once the leader of FEC United, the sentiments expressed last night are fully consistent with the views of a majority of Republicans. It’s impossible for Republicans to “move on” from 2020 when a majority of their own are determined to relitigate 2020 as many times as necessary until they get the outcome they want–President Trump restored to office by constitutional or other means. With the violence of January 6th, 2021 being recast as “legitimate political discourse,” it’s time to recognize that the rules have changed.

They’re telling us who they are, and they’re telling us what they’ll do the moment they have the power.

We sincerely hope voters are paying attention.

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30 thoughts on “Good Kicks, Bad Bills, And Hangings: An Evening With FEC United”

  1. Can somebody with a law degree explain to me what these people have to say in order to get charged with making threats? What are the magic words? I have a feeling these assholes making the almost death threats know how far they can go and tread right up to the line.

    They have free speech but society also has an obligation to protect ourselves. Where do we draw the line?

    1. Undoubtedly Elliot will be along eventually (unable to reply in the reply box, however) to help us all understand the multitude of definitions involved in “legitimate political discourse” and “freedom of religion” (since all this yee-hawin’ took place on the consecrated and sanctified ground of Rock Nutter Church)???

    1. Please don’t let my admittedly over-the-top digs lead you to think that I do not believe you’re a genuinely good person of principle.

      Some of those principles may be a little goofy (wink), but they’re never without basis, and you’ve clearly given them thoughtful consideration.

      I too have (and had) friends who are astonishingly divorced from reality on issues — and who want to make my unwillingness to agree with them on their chosen line-in-the-sand issue some kind of misguided personal loyalty test. I try not to consider them as “lost,” as I’m now, from my current vantage, not entirely certain they were ever “there” (as geniune friends). They apparently wanted, or needed, me to be a service for validation — not a friend.

  7. "I think if you're involved in election fraud, then you deserve to hang…."

    Will he begin with Trump? It seems rather clear that Trump tried to steal the Arizona election.

  8. Republican coups boys still pushing treason as red states suppress the votes of millions based on race…. and republicans want to destroy our voting rights here if they get power. I don’t like dems but republicans in control is frightening.
    I like Karen Breslin the only progressive dem in colorado running against corp dems like Michael Bennet. She gets my support.

    3. Denise…

      You give yourself away too easily. Nothing says “alt-right” like bad grammar and general ignorance. In the context of your comment, both Republican and Democrat should be capitalized. You are referring to the political parties. In this usage, they are proper nouns.

      If you are a direct human user, learn to speak English a little better before you meddle. If you are the designer of an algorithm, you need to revisit your project.

      In the Weekend Thread, you refer to the Senator as ” right wing”. “Stuffed-shirt aristocrat”, I’ll buy.

      Right wing?…nope.

      You are trying too hard…be more subtle…just a friendly tip.

  9. If you think what “Denise” wrote above is bad, take a look at her candidate’s page that kwtree linked. And who seeks a U.S. Senate seat as their first public office?

    1. Based on the current status, the Senate seeker with "first public office" includes at least a couple of the Republicans who announced and got onto the Big Line.  And of course, Michael Bennet and Karen Breslin, the Democratic candidates. 

      Joining Bennet as a Senator who held no prior elected political office:  Senators Ayotte, Collins, Cruz, Johnson, Kelly, Lee, Ossoff, Paul, Tuberville, Warnock, Warren. [and I may have missed some].

       

      1. Bennet was Denver school supt.  It’s not an elective office but it’s a public one.

        And Cruz was Satan’s succubus, which I think is an elected office in helldevil

        2. Several of the Senators I mentioned had public jobs … Ayotte was an appointed AG, Cruz was a clerk and a Solicitor General, Lee was a clerk and may have been on an AG's staff, Kelly was a aviator and astronaut, … 

          But the question was who runs for Senate as their first campaign —

      2. Strike Bennet from that list. He didn’t run for Senate the first time. Hick chose him to replace Ken Salazar when he went to the Obama administration.

      3. Ossoff's first elected office may have been the Senate, but his first race was for the House.

        Most of these names came from somewhere, whether largely behind the scenes, or as some kind of public figure, known in political circles prior to first becoming a Senator.

        I know little of Breslin beyond what she has on her website and FB page.

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