December 11, 2023 12:16 PM UTC

Boebert, Santos Make NYC Tabloids While Local MAGA Bites Back

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• by: Colorado Pols

In their endorsement last week of cornucopia of chaos Rep. Lauren Boebert’s GOP primary opponent, the Colorado Springs Gazette’s editorial board came full circle from their downright thirsty endorsement in 2020 in which they extolled Boebert’s “movie star looks” and “passion for freedom,” recognizing at long last that these attributes were not an effective substitute for competence:

Western Slope voters value statesmanship, moderation, diplomacy and soft-spoken strength — none of which defines their member of the House. They perceive Boebert as seeking celebrity status, [Pols emphasis] more than results, which they frown upon.

The Phil Anschutz-owned Gazette’s disowning of Boebert had the rare quality among their usually nutty editorials of being accurate and well-reasoned, but Wayne Laugesen and his colleagues at the Gazette will be disappointed if they read the New York Post’s Page Six gossip from the weekend in the Big Apple, where Rep. Boebert reportedly spent the weekend living large at least partly on the dime of indicted ex-Congressman George Santos:

George Santos is making so much dough on Cameo, he picked up the tab for his political pals on Saturday night.

The ousted pol was hanging with “ball of energy” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), and they were like “two peas in a pod” at the late-night party, we hear.

A source saw Santos — the New York Republican who was expelled from Congress this week after a scathing ethics report said he “blatantly stole” campaign funds and used them for OnlyFans and Botox — at the popular Beach Café on the Upper East Side…

Ex-Rep. Santos has indeed been making lots of Cameo videos, enough that the price has more than doubled for a short clip of Santos saying pretty much anything you want him to say as late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has been exploiting to the hilt. But rather than footing the bill for Boebert’s partying in NYC–no word on who handled child care for Boebert’s always-in-tow grandkid, which was once Santos’ job on the House floor–it seems to us that Santos should be saving all the money he’s making on Cameo right now on legal defense and eventual restitution to his victims.

But that’s a conversation for Sunday morning, not Saturday night.

Earlier on Saturday night, Boebert was seen in the company of former President Donald Trump himself (image above right) at The New York Young Republican Club, filming the former President while a violinist was serenading him. Now, if we were Trump, we would be less inclined to have either Santos or Boebert in our entourage, given the former President’s well-documented preference for, as Trump succinctly puts it, winners. While Boebert was living it up in New York City with her indicted felon friends, the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby tallied the growing number of endorsements piling up for Boebert’s opponent–and the MAGA loyalists organizing to defend Boebert:

[Barbora] Hurd’s [husband’s] campaign has been gaining a lot of traction since announcing his bid in August, earning him not only campaign dollars, but big-named Republican endorsements, including from such people as former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, former University of Colorado President Bruce Benson and former Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.

Those three, along with Davis and Daniel, made the “RINO Wall of Shame” list by the right-leaning group RINO Watch Colorado on Friday. That group purports to expose RINOs, which stands for Republicans In Name Only, calling itself a grassroots Republican organization that supports patriots.

Also on its list are former Gov. Bill Owens, former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, Delta County Commissioner Don Suppes, Rio Blanco Commissioner Ty Gates and former Colorado Mesa University President Tim Foster, all Republicans who are endorsing Hurd in the primary.

As for the Anschutz-owned Gazette?

The RINO group said the newspapers’ editorial board — both papers are owned by billionaire Phil Anschutz, a deep-pocketed GOP campaign donor — didn’t endorse Boebert because they “would rather lose CD3 to a Democrat than send a grassroots incumbent back to Congress.” [Pols emphasis]

What we have setting up here is a classic conflict between the comparatively normal “corporate wing” of the Colorado Republican Party and the MAGA-loyal grassroots. In recent months and especially since a certain handsy moment was caught on camera in September, Boebert has shed support from fellow Republicans nervous that she had lost her appeal. The pushback on this fickleness among corporate Republicans comes from the far-right grassroots voters who have been loyal to Boebert–and Trump–from the beginning, and in the end are not troubled enough by Boebert’s morality foibles to be dislodged.

Make no mistake, Boebert is doing herself no favors by continuing to voluntarily associate herself with Santos and Trump. What we’re saying is that these associations that could further endanger Boebert in the general election may not matter in a GOP primary dominated by Trump.

That hope, completely at odds with responsible voices in her district, is why Boebert is in Manhattan instead of Montrose.