August 21, 2012 04:30 PM UTC

Nudging Jared Wright Out

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• by: Colorado Pols

As reported by the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby today, here’s the complete text of a robocall that went out to 6,000 voters in HD-54, the House district sought by Republican ex-Fruita police officer Jared Wright–now jeopardized by a scandal over Wright’s “chronic tardiness,” dishonesty about said tardiness, and a questionable personal bankruptcy.

This is Alex Chaffetz asking you to call Jared Wright, our Republican candidate for House District 54. Please call Jared at 639-0149 and ask him to withdraw from the race immediately so the Republican Party has time to legally name a new candidate.

We should be focused on defeating Barack Obama, but instead Jared Wright continues to embarrass our party on the front page of The Daily Sentinel. His unethical behavior as a policeman and his unwillingness to take responsibility for his own actions speak volumes about his inability to represent us in Denver.

The Sentinel’s editorial asking Jared Wright to step down was spot on. And the facts regarding his personal bankruptcy prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jared Wright has no business managing an $18 billion Colorado state budget.

The fact is Jared Wright racked up tens of thousands of dollars in personal debt, then stiffed local businesses because he couldn’t pay his own bills. $40,000 for three cars including a Prius? $6,000 for jewelry? He even owed a thousand dollars for a tanning salon membership

I’m not a candidate, but I do live in House District 54. I’ve asked Jared Wright directly to step down and I’m asking you to call him right now to do the same. Call Jared at 639-0149. That’s 639-0149.

There’s still time for our Republican Party to select a candidate we can proudly support as our representative. There’s still time for Jared Wright to do the right thing and step down.

I’m Alex Chaffetz and I personally paid for this message because we need a proven, trustworthy representative at the state capital. That ain’t Jared Wright.

The robocall from prominent local Republican Alex Chaffetz, brother of Utah’s Rep. Jason Chaffetz, comes following another report in the Sentinel this past weekend on the belated response from local Republicans to this growing scandal. From that story:

“The Mesa County Republican Party, the Delta County Republican Party and the HD54 Central Committee cannot overturn the results (of) these elections,” officials from the three wrote in a statement. “Jared Wright won his elections and won them with wide margins.

“That being said, most of us were unpleasantly surprised when details of Mr. Wright’s work record and personal bankruptcy became public. It is unfortunate the voters did not have this information before the elections took place.”

With some parallels to the situation faced by embattled GOP U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin, it’s an open question as to how long Wright can last without the support of his party. It’s different for Wright in that he faces only token opposition from an unknown Libertarian candidate, but it’s clear now that Wright isn’t going to Denver next January with the backing of…well, much of anyone. We haven’t heard from former Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry about this yet, and we would expect to given Penry’s widely-acknowledged role in helping select Wright.

Sometimes you’ve got to come to grips with these things in your own time.

But be mindful of deadlines when you do.