May 07, 2013 08:26 AM UTC

Kennedy/Andrasik Exposé Shakes Up Morse Recall Attempt

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• by: Colorado Pols

The local Colorado Springs media appears to have finally become aware that something is not quite right in the "grassroots" signature drive to place a recall of Colorado Senate President John Morse on the Senate District 11 ballot this fall. A scathing new report last night from NBC affiliate News 5's Jacqui Heinrich puts key questions about the "grassroots" nature of this paid petition effort to rest–and corroborates Kennedy Enterprises' shady history as laid out to voters in radio ads and robocalls this weekend.

The recall effort is targeting those leaders who showed the strongest support for gun control bills, with Senate President John Morse seemingly at the top of the list. His camp is fighting back with a counter-campaign opposing the recall effort, and while it's clear what both sides are trying to do, it's not clear who is behind the recall campaign.

"This is what we do for a living. We travel around the country, we go from city to city, state to state, we put issues and candidates on the ballot for basically anybody who has money," a man who identifies himself as Tracy Taylor can be heard saying on an undercover video El Paso County Democrats say was taken at a training session for signature gatherers at Kennedy Enterprises. They're group that was hired to gather signatures to support recalling Senate President John Morse. In the past few weeks their workers have been seen gathering signatures outside grocery stores and in neighborhoods around Colorado Springs.

"It's absolutely legal, it's just unethical," Kathleen Ricker, Party Chair for the El Paso County Democrats told News 5…

Though Kennedy Enterprises didn't answer News 5's inquiries as to whether they did background checks on current employees, we did confirm the company faced allegations that they did hire criminals including at least one sex offender that was going door to door on a petition issue back in 2008.

As for the organization at least nominally running the show here? Meet Nick Andrasik, gentle viewers!

As it turns out, Kennedy Enterprises was hired by the Basic Freedom Defense Fund, run by Nick Andrasik. Andrasik has been in the news recently for using unsavory language on his blog to describe some pro-gun control politicians– something recall supporters think could distract from the overall message of the campaign. But since B.F.D.F. is a 501C4 organization, Andrasik doesn't have to disclose who is donating money to the cause, although some out-of-staters have announced online that they're funding it.

It's a big relief to see this story, as the facts of this paid recall effort against Sen. Morse and possibly others in retaliation for the passage of gun safety legislation this year have been pretty seriously misrepresented up to now. This story from News 5 captures everything we've been talking about for weeks: from the distasteful and marginal nature of the original organizers complete with Andrasik's overworking the "c-word" describing female legislators, to the mercenary frankness of "consultant" Tracy Taylor at Kennedy Enterprises.

Will it make a difference? That can't be determined yet of course, and Heinrich's report certainly notes that there are plenty of locals willing to complain about Sen. Morse, on and off camera. But opponents of this recall attempt needed to show that their claims about shady, potentially criminal unscreened petition gatherers are not baseless. Furthermore, the above photo of the hirsute Mr. Andrasik entranced by his giant phallic pistol, as shown to thousands of Colorado Springs viewers last night along with his offensive choice of words, isn't going to help the average well-adjusted adult voter find common ground with this recall effort.