President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) J. Sonnenberg

(R) Ted Harvey

20%↑

15%↑

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

(R) Doug Bruce

20%

20%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

40%↑

20%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
October 03, 2018 10:09 AM UTC

The Unkindest Cut: Son Endorses Dad's Opponent in HD-25

  • 4 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
HD-25 candidate Steve Szutenbach (R).

Westword’s Paige Yowell reports on a new twist in the race to replace disgraced GOP Rep. Tim Leonard in House District 25. Leonard, as readers know, made the decision to not run for re-election after an embarrassing failed attempt to cut his child support obligations because of his duties as a part-time legislator.

The replacement Republican candidate in the HD-25 race, Steve Szutenbach, has some family trouble of his own! We wrote in late July about the children of HD-47 candidate Don Bendell coming forward to call Bendell out as a “deadbeat dad.” In September, a positively brutal ad in an Arizona congressional race made national news, in which siblings of Rep. Paul Gosar denounce their brother and enthusiastically endorse his opponent. The situation in HD-25 is remarkably similar:

After Tim Leonard, the Republican candidate running for re-election in the district, stepped down in August following some complications with his divorce, a Republican committee appointed Steve Szutenbach of Evergreen to oppose [Democrat Lisa] Cutter. As soon as the candidate’s son found out that his dad was running, Stephen Szutenbach says he donated $50 to Cutter’s campaign. (Yes, their names are the same but spelled differently, and, yes, it’s a hassle, Stephen Szutenbach says.)

“My father’s political positions on things like gay marriage are very antithetical to my political position and my own life,” says Szutenbach, who is gay and married his long-term partner in 2016. [Pols emphasis]

Ouch. And then Szutenbach the Younger really starts dishing:

Stephen Szutenbach says his father never had guns when he was growing up. But when President Barack Obama was elected to his first term, his father began buying up guns and ammunition, almost like they were tokens required to prove he was a real Republican.

“It was so much hysteria at the time, and he bought into it,” he says.

It’s been a constant in American history that certain segments of the population have reactions to political events are are…grossly disproportionate to those events. A recent and very good example of this phenomenon would be Republicans hoarding guns and ammunition after the election of Barack Obama as President in 2008. It’s a free country, and people can buy whatever they want for whatever reason–but given that there was in the end no need to hoard guns to protect the nation from President Obama, voters may want to keep this example of Szutenbach’s temperament in mind.

From Bendell to Szutenbach–not to mention Walker Stapleton’s KKK great-grandpa–troubled family ties are tripping up Colorado Republicans to a considerable extent in 2018.

Comments

4 thoughts on “The Unkindest Cut: Son Endorses Dad’s Opponent in HD-25

    1. I disagree. Guns and ammo are tools to accomplish a purpose, usually to make someone or something dead.

      But I like venison sausage and tenderloins as much as the next person, and appreciate the fact that the Allies won WWII (and some other wars which I don't want to get into at the moment). I like that our cops are armed better (usually) than the criminals, which is not true in most Central American countries. (Thanks, gun lobby). l've even plinked a target or six full of holes, and had fun doing it.

      But guns and ammo have been pumped up so much by the right wing in this country, mostly purely for the profit of gun-making industry, that those humble, utilitarian purposes  have been conflated into a bizarre comic-book superhero patriotism. This has been done mostly by overt or covert racism and fear of all of the Darker People coming to Take Your Stuff.

      And the gun lobby is still trying to expand new markets, which they can only do by a) increasing fear about the Taking Your Stuff thing and b) conflating gun ownership with new and more far-fetched abstract ideas, like Freedom for Women. You've seen Negev promote this on this blog – that females owning and using more guns is somehow a replacement for having ownership and control of our very own means of reproduction in our own bodies.

      Now, I could walk 1/4 mile to the hardware store down the block and buy blocks of pink 22 ammunition, to make me feel feminine and fresh while I load my target plinker. But I know that this will not replace the hard-won rights to contraception and abortion. No matter what the Laura Carnos and Negevs of the world try to tell me.

       

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

210 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!