July 14, 2022 02:00 PM UTC

The Colorado Republican Party Might Be Drunk

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: It gets worse. Of course it does.

According to a press release from the non-partisan Colorado District Attorney’s Council:

The Colorado District Attorneys’ Council and the remaining 21 district attorneys are dedicated to ensuring that all criminal matters pending in this jurisdiction are handled in a professional manner and that all victims of crime are kept informed of developments in their cases and treated with dignity and respect during this transition. Therefore, CDAC and many of the state’s district attorney’s offices are volunteering prosecutors and systemic support to the Attorney General in order to further facilitate this appointment. [Pols emphasis] In doing so, the state’s prosecutors endeavor to guarantee and maintain the safety of the citizens of the 12th Judicial District and the ongoing integrity of criminal justice system and all criminal cases pending in the jurisdiction.

In short, KBB and the Colorado GOP thought they knew the law better than the Colorado District Attorney’s Council (which, by the way, includes John Kellner, the Republican candidate for Attorney General).

—–

Last week we took note of a press release issued by the State GOP that was marketed as “52 ways” that Gov. Jared Polis had made Republicans sad. Why 52? We couldn’t tell you – particularly since many of the listed grievances were repeated several times. But the most inexplicable part of this particular press release was this: It listed about a dozen noteworthy accomplishments for Polis, including a $900 million property tax reduction; tax relief for farmers and ranchers; and reduced fees for driver’s licenses, business registrations, and state park passes.

Today, the Colorado GOP tried again to take a dig at Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser that was both obviously incorrect and a terrible message to boot. [Warning: This story will get sad at the end] 

The statement in this multi-colored, randomly-capitalized press release is attributed to Colorado Republican Party Chairperson Kristi Burton Brown (KBB), a former militia leader whose legal qualifications come from an online law school in California called the Oak Brook College of Law and Government. Oak Brook College might be a fine school, but it probably won’t be highlighting KBB’s legal theories anytime soon. 

Before we delve into how and why KBB completely misread Colorado law in crafting this missive, we should also remind you that this is the same KBB who presided over a State Party Assembly in April in which the top vote-getter for Attorney General was a guy who was neither a licensed attorney in Colorado OR a registered Republican voter; KBB and friends didn’t figure out that Stanley Thorne was unqualified to be the GOP nominee for Attorney General until AFTER he out-polled Arapahoe County-ish District Attorney John Kellner – a major embarrassment for a candidate who had been selected by establishment Republicans to challenge Weiser in 2022. 

Now, back to the press release above. On Wednesday, the District Attorney in the 12th Judicial District resigned from his position following multiple complaints and a recall attempt.

As The Denver Post reported:

San Luis Valley District Attorney Alonzo Payne resigned Wednesday, a day after Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser found Payne systemically violated crime victims’ rights.

The embattled top prosecutor in the 12th Judicial District was also facing a recall effort led by the city of Alamosa and backed by residents who were upset with his style of prosecution, professionalism and treatment of victims.

The immediate problem with Payne’s resignation is that it leaves the people of the 12th Judicial District, an area that includes six counties, without a local prosecutor until a new candidate can be elected. That’s why Gov. Polis appointed Attorney General Phil Weiser to serve as interim district attorney until another temporary DA can be found (the Governor’s office is accepting applications for the job). 

This appointment ruffled a bunch of Republican feathers, apparently, which led to today’s press release alleging that Weiser is ineligible to serve as a temporary district attorney. Here’s the first part of KBB’s statement in all of its run-on sentence glory:

“The qualifications are clear for those who want to be a District Attorney in Colorado, sadly Polis has failed to follow the law and instead chose Phil Weiser, who is ineligible to serve as the appointed DA for the 12th Judicial District. The DA of a judicial district must be a ‘qualified elector of the judicial district at the time of their election or appointment and reside in the district throughout their term in office.’ Weiser does not live in the San Luis Valley, is not a qualified elector of the 12th Judicial District, and presumably will not be able to reside in the district throughout his time in that position.”

Now here’s the kicker:

“…we would expect that either [Weiser] or the governor’s lawyers would have read the law prior to announcing this ineligible appointment.” [Pols emphasis]

If you’re going to make such a bold statement, you damn well better be able to back it up, right? 

Right?

Or not. Apparently, KBB and her friends at the Colorado GOP were looking at the wrong section of the law.

The Attorney General of Colorado and lawyers for the Governor’s office checked this out before making any announcement, as you would expect. According to Colorado Revised Statutes 24-31-101(1)(b), the Colorado Attorney General:

Shall appear for the state and prosecute and defend all actions and proceedings, civil and criminal, in which the state is a party or is interested when required to do so by the governor; [Pols emphasis]

Whoops!

As it turns out, the same person who didn’t bother to check the eligibility of her own party’s candidates also doesn’t know how to use a basic legal reference. What KBB cited in her statement are the requirements for a CANDIDATE seeking the office of district attorney in Colorado. As you may know, Weiser is running for re-election as Attorney General in 2022. He is not running for the office of district attorney in the 12th Judicial District, so KBB’s argument is entirely irrelevant. 

Even if the GOP press release weren’t COMPLETELY WRONG, the message they were sending was still grotesquely out of touch. The people of the 12th Judicial District need a prosecutor, pronto. Weiser’s office is just assisting temporarily, which is not uncommon. As the Executive Order explains:

The Twelfth Judicial District is currently suffering staffing shortages and a backlog of cases, to the peril of the community and the justice system. It is imperative to ensure the Office of the District Attorney in the Twelfth Judicial District is properly managed and all criminal actions are prosecuted appropriately.

This was bad for the GOP and KBB…and then it got worse.

We were just about to finish up this post when we caught another tweet from KBB, in which she claims that Gov. Polis “pulled back his appointment” of Weiser:

This is NOT true.

Polis did no such thing, so what is KBB talking about? One day after sending out her incorrect press release, KBB went back and MIS-read the original Executive Order so that she could falsely claim that Polis had changed his mind. This is the document that KBB claims as proof of her argument. You should read it yourself – it’s only a few paragraphs long.

There is nothing at all in this document that would support an allegation that Polis had changed his EO. We couldn’t figure out what KBB was talking about until we saw the following interaction on Twitter:

This was perplexing. We re-read the tweets a couple of times…and then we figured it out. It’s not good.

Wait for it…

The EO doesn’t say “State Prosecutor.” It says “the State’s Prosecutor.” 

It would seem that KBB thought she read “State Prosecutor” and thought to herself, ‘Hey, self, I don’t think that is an official government position.’ From here she somehow made the leap that this meant Polis was no longer appointing Weiser as a temporary district attorney, because a “State Prosecutor” is a different thing entirely. Also, at no point along the way did KBB apparently notice that she was reading the same initial EO dated July 13, 2022 (note: today is not July 13).

We should consider revising our headline. If the Colorado Republican Party is not drunk…perhaps it should be.