April 15, 2025 01:39 PM UTC

Colorado Libertarians Offer Lesson in How Not to do Anything

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Libertarian Party has a long way to go in order to achieve any real political relevance in our state. About 37,000 Coloradans are registered as “Libertarians,” which accounts for about 0.009 percent of the state’s 4.1 million active voters.

The recent actions of the CLP’s leadership probably won’t move those numbers any higher.

As Seth Klamann reports for The Denver Post:

The head of the Libertarian Party of Colorado repeatedly used anti-gay slurs last week in an exchange with a person who criticized the party’s social media presence, according to copies of the messages reviewed by The Denver Post.

The party’s chairwoman, Hannah Goodman, sent the slurs Friday after a commenter privately messaged the party’s Facebook account to criticize what he saw as its “asinine” postings. After an initial exchange that included the commenter sarcastically highlighting the party’s lack of electoral success, Goodman — replying through the party’s official account — defended her party’s achievements and repeatedly referred to the commenter using an anti-gay slur.

She also repeatedly referred to him using a slur for people with intellectual disabilities.

Goodman continued using the slurs after the commenter said he planned to take the messages to the media. The party confirmed in a statement Saturday that Goodman, a congressional candidate last year, sent the messages. In a subsequent email exchange in which the commenter asked party leadership for an apology, Goodman told the commenter that she had authored the messages through the party’s Facebook account.

Believe it or not, things actually got worse from here — after CLP Chairperson Hannah Goodman erroneously claimed “there is no such thing as bad press.” This, friends, is very “bad press.”

The CLP brain trust tried to spin this story in a different direction…which just ended up coming back around again to bite them in the ass:

Goodman did not return a message seeking comment Friday. On Saturday, the party’s executive director, James Wiley, sent The Post a seven-page statement that defended the party’s political relevance, touted the success of a recent social media posting on the party’s Facebook page, and further criticized the commenter.

Wiley referred to a meme produced by Goodman as an “artistic work product” that, Wiley wrote, had prompted the initial criticism from the commenter.

As any good public relations professional will (not) tell you, the best way to respond to an ugly situation created by your own leader is to issue a seven-page statement claiming that any offensive comments were merely an “artistic work product.” But if you do go this route in your attempt to clean up a messy situation, definitely don’t conclude with this:

Wiley confirmed that Goodman wrote the messages and said he stood by them. He concluded the statement by calling the commenter another slur and quoting a character from the animated show “South Park.”

Gah!

Welp, at least the Post reporter spelled everyone’s names correctly!