As readers know, this weekend’s annual Colorado Republican Party fundraising gala will feature as its keynote speaker infamous serial election denier and Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, one of the most ardent supporters of ex-President Donald Trump who argues to this day that both Trump’s re-election in 2020 and her own loss in last year’s Arizona gubernatorial race were the products of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.
Like we said when Kari Lake was announced by fellow “Ultra MAGA” election denialist and Colorado GOP chairman Dave “Let’s Go Brandon” Williams as the keynote in late September, choosing Lake to headline the state party’s fundraising gala lashes the Colorado GOP even more tightly to the “Big Lie”–not just that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, but that all elections going forward that don’t go the GOP’s way are ipso facto illegitimate. This mindset has a way of altering one’s theory of engagement with the democratic process in, to deliberately understate it, troubling ways.
Perhaps the best evidence for this embrace of electoral unreality by the state party is a mutual admiration video from mid-October of Lake with indicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is facing trial on multiple felonies stemming from her failed attempt to prove election equipment in her charge was somehow compromised in a way that proved the election had been stolen from Trump:
After Dave Williams took control of the Colorado Republican Party last March, Tina Peters was reportedly set to accept a position in the party related to “election integrity,” and Williams spoke highly of Peters’ ability to marshal the resources of powerful friends like Mike “MyPillow Guy” Lindell. Williams soon backed away from Peters as her legal troubles deepened with self-inflicted complications related to her attempts to obstruct and disrupt court proceedings. And Mike Lindell is broke.
We’re not sure what to say now that the party’s upcoming keynote speaker has embraced Tina Peters as a champion of “election integrity.” Peters has managed to repeatedly push back the start of her criminal trial, but at some point in the foreseeable future Peters will either have to defend her actions in court or accept whatever mercy prosecutors might still be inclined to offer after Peters’ subordinates flipped and agreed to testify against her for more lenient sentences. In the criminal case playing out in Georgia, Peters would be a low-level conspirator making a plea deal–but in Peters’ Mesa County case, she’s the defendant at the top.
The fictional universe of the “Big Lie” will hit the wall of the justice system in Tina Peters’ case just as it is hitting the wall in Georgia. By trying to reshape the GOP primary process to benefit fringe candidates and now headlining the nation’s biggest election deniers, Colorado Republicans are effectively disengaging from the democratic process as we know it. They’ve become a political movement for whom democracy is an impediment.
Historically, that seldom ends well.
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Losers gotta have their own convention to celebrate their "victories".
WTF is up with the parrot.
It's resting…
It's pining for the fjords.
Is Tina ever going to prison/jail?
Right after Ken Paxton goes to trial in his 2016 fraud case.
At least Paxton's state trial is finally set: April 15, 2024. But you're wrong: Tina is set for February 9, 2024, so she'll beat Paxton in the race.
Thanks for the update.
Well, that settles it! Today's GOP is the Pro-Crime Party.
Kari Lake as keynote? What a stark statement on how hopeless the Colorado Reeps consider their own electoral situation in the state, that they have to look to this loser for inspiration and shovel their hard-grifted money to her instead of anyone actually from Colorado.
This kind of shenanigans isn't winning them the appreciation of moderate or independent voters, that's for sure. Considering how utterly weak the party is in the state, you would think they would avoid associating with the kind of people that can't even win elections in swing states, so expecting this to somehow translate into electoral success in blue Colorado seems like a sick joke.
Also, the state GOP is throwing away more money than they are receiving (which isn't much to begin with) so you would think they would use all that limited time and resources to help in-state Republicans, potential candidates or help spotlight competent Republicans. There's literally no Republican in Colorado right now with statewide recognition other than the trailer trash that represents CD3, who isn't even popular in her own district. Cory Gardner went on to get handily defeated, Heidi Gahl went on to lose by a landslide. The party has no viable people. I can't imagine Colorado Republicans even know what they are supposed to be, much less what they want others to think.