July 30, 2012 04:28 PM UTC

Canadians For Prosperity, Anyone?

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby:

The man who has been the Mesa County director of Americans for Prosperity since 2009 is Canadian, has benefited from government-issued food stamps and has an undetermined residency status.

That’s ironic even to Kelly Sloan, the Grand Junction resident who, until recently, wrote a newspaper column touting the group’s ideals of smaller government and legal immigration, and its opposition to such government programs as food stamps…

[AFP state director Jeff] Crank said he’s asked Kelly for documents that show his residency status but has yet to see anything.

Still, Crank said his group would never hire a Canadian or anyone else who isn’t a citizen of the United States.

This story takes some amusing twists. Canadian citizen Kelly Sloan has been the “volunteer” director of the Mesa chapter of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, but when it comes time to actually pay a director, that won’t do–even though according to Sloan he can legally work in the U.S. But if Jeff Crank wouldn’t “hire” somebody to work for AFP who’s not an American citizen, why would he let a noncitizen be the “volunteer” director for three years?

Apparently this came to a head after Mr. Sloan’s wife posted remarks on Facebook indicating that Sloan was “dragging his feet” on his citizenship paperwork. A July 13 post claimed the family was also relying on food stamps. Needless to say, the thought of a noncitizen on food stamps is enough to set the blood of Mesa County conservatives (and AFP members generally) to boil.

Despite all of this hubbub, Jeff Crank says of Sloan, “as a volunteer, we’ll support anyone who supports our mission.” The possibility of a flood of illegal immigrants showing up at Crank’s office to volunteer for Americans for Prosperity, you’ve got to admit, is kind of intriguing!