August 15, 2009 06:38 PM UTC

Weld County's GOP-Owned Commission Obstructs Markey Town Hall

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• by: Colorado Pols

What the hell? As the Fort Collins Coloradoan reports:

Rep. Betsy Markey has scheduled her Greeley constituent meeting next week at Aims Community College after Weld County commissioners refused a request to use a county facility.

“When we give an organization or elected official permission to use our facilities, we have a rule that it has to be open to the public,” Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway said.

Markey’s Congress on Your Corner event Wednesday in Greeley is open to the public, but she plans to meet with groups of 15 to 20 people at a time. The room Markey wanted to use seats 120, and Weld County commissioners insisted she allow the room to fill to capacity.

“It’s been our policy for many years that when somebody reserves a room, anybody who shows up at the county building has access to that room,” Conway said. He acknowledged that Weld County has no written policy outlining that requirement but said they may now put it in writing. [Pols emphasis]

All five Weld County commissioners are Republicans, and Markey is a Democrat. Conway is a former chief of staff to Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and has contributed money to one of Markey’s Republican challengers, Cory Gardner…

Our view: it’s not common for one to see an official in either party openly abusing their official capacity for blatantly partisan purposes. This is pretty clearly such a case.

If the simple fact that all Weld County Commissioners are Republicans, including donors to Rep. Betsy Markey’s opponents, wasn’t enough to convince you that something is fishy about this denial–and we agree that officials are entitled to some benefit of the doubt in these situations–the Coloradoan continues:

Markey spokesman Ben Marter said she held a similar-style meeting in a Weld County facility in December, shortly before she took office, without the restrictions that commissioners wanted to impose for next week’s meeting. [Pols emphasis]

Well of course–there was no nationally-coordinated GOP strategy to disrupt town halls then! So much for our “benefit of the doubt,” that would seem to remove any.