THURSDAY UPDATE: The Grand Junction Sentinel's Charles Ashby:
Suppes said the town long has had a policy of allowing town trustees to use town hall for personal reasons as long as no taxpayer dollars are spent.
“Under town policy, board members can use town hall free of charge,” he said. “We all have a key to town hall, and as long as we don’t have to have somebody open or close, there is no policy against it.”
But Donovan said this is about state law, not local policies.
“The rules that I operate under are not to use any of my professional assets to run for a public office,” Donovan said. “I don’t know what the letter of the law says, but my interpretation of the color of the law is, if you’re a public official, you don’t use any of those assets to run for another office. You can’t use the power of an office to influence voters. It’s not just about tax dollars.”
—–
When we last left Republican Don Suppes, the Orchard City mayor running for the open seat in SD-5, he and his campaign were still trying to add to their list of reasons why his Twitter account would be linking to a white supremacist website (It was hacked! It was identity theft! It was a rogue staffer!)
We already know that Suppes isn't very good at 1) the Internet, and 2) messaging. Now we can add 3) posing for pictures, and 4) following the law.
According to a complaint submitted to the Trustees of the Town of Orchard City (Suppes-Complaint PDF), Suppes has been using the Orchard City Town Hall as a campaign office. That's right, the Mayor of Orchard City is using the Town Hall as part of his campaign for a State Senate seat.
It doesn't appear as though Suppes' campaign finance records include reimbursements to Orchard City for using its Town Hall, which is such an obvious violation of the law that Suppes should be disqualified from the SD-5 race just for being so inexcusably stupid. But if you think that's dumb, wait 'til you see how the violation was uncovered…
…Hey, there's Don Suppes himself, grinning away in a photo taken in front of a table full of campaign literature and next to a giant poster that proclaims "Town of Orchard City!" What could go wrong? And what are the odds that Suppes' campaign has been using other town property for his campaign (quick, somebody destroy the photocopier!)
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IOKIYAR. Simple as that. "Don't do as we do, do as we say. Rules are for fools. Taxes are for the little people. Sue me."
Suppes is campaigning as mayor of a town that really isn't. Orchard City is a water company. Towns usually come with a post office and a zip code. Orchard City has neither, nor does it have a fire department, not even a volunteer one, or a police department. It is simply a legal entity created to manage the water system that serves three real towns, small ones, but real towns with post offices and such – Eckert, Cory and Austin.
It also serves to give little people a little, tiny bit of power by electing a board and a mayor. Like Suppes.
Maybe that will be the Suppes' campaign defense. "This isn't really a town!"
Drag out the pretzel meme again. Love it, he can't really be in trouble because it's a fake town he has been campaigning as being the mayor of…
These guys have no lower limits do they?
so he should get fake votes and he can be a fake state senator
Eckert, Cory and Austin? Never heard of them. I doubt they're real towns, either.
Here's the intro to the wiki entry on Eckert, OTD. Cory and Austin are similar. Eckert, Colorado is a small unincorporated community within the boundaries of the incorporated town of Orchard City in Delta County, Colorado, United States. There is a U.S. Post Office in Eckert, the ZIP Code for which is 81418.[2]
Please tell us you're joking.
Isn't Gessler going to be looking for clients soon?
at the candidate forum in Lake Suppes was pretty offensive to most present, even some Rs. In fact, a professional lady I know who moved here a year ago and has NEVER voted for a D is going ot vote for Donovan and Hamner because Suppes and Irvine were so offensive
I wish I had better checked the status of Orchard City months ago. I'm a bit disappointed that the Dem state party has let this get by
Please review the candidate's website: http://www.donsuppes.com/about-sd5/ . The candidate's site says there aren't websites for Hinsdale and Lake counties. A simple Google search reveals otherwise. Does he even live where he says he lives? http://www.hinsdalecountycolorado.us/ http://www.lakecountyco.com/
Hmmmmmm……
somehow I added an extra character to the URL: http://www.donsuppes.com/about-sd5
In case he decides to change that, I had it saved to the internet Archive's "wayback" machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.donsuppes.com/about-sd5
Has modster been banned or something. Where's his explanation as to why this is perfectly OK and we're beating a dead horse?
I suspect Moddy is out convincing voters to support the Democratic candidates, because if screwballs like him support Boopray, Con Man, etc., voters will naturally want to vote against whatever crazies he likes. 😉
Eckert an Austin are just north of HWY 92, after you cross the Gunnison. If you go south at Eckert, you go into Peach Valley and access to Gunnison Gorge NCA an wilderness, If you go north, you connect back up with HWY 65 an head over Grand Mesa.
Suppes excuse is simple:
This photo was taken within 100 yards of Orchard City Town Hall…
http://tigerphotography.smugmug.com/MyBackYard-2/Scenery/i-GBKxP9x/A