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August 01, 2019 01:27 PM UTC

Donors to "Official" Recall Polis Group Want Their Money Back

  • 21 Comments
  • by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

From Colorado Times Recorder intern Noah Zucker:

Across Colorado, the conservative movement to recall Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has been divided for weeks. Now, supporters of one of the groups promising to remove the governor believe they’ve been cheated out of their donations.

Recall discussions started on social media soon after Polis took office. In the ensuing months, the initial “Recall Polis” effort split into two groups: “Resist Polis PAC Recall” and the “Official Recall Colorado Governor Jared Polis.” The word “official” in the second group’s name doesn’t denote any formal standing. It’s simply what they decided to call themselves.

On July 8, the Resist Polis group filed a recall petition with the Secretary of State and, upon approval, launched a signature gathering effort. Over 631,000 valid signatures from registered Colorado voters must be collected in 60 days to successfully put the gubernatorial recall on the ballot.

“Does anyone know how to get our money back from the fraud group if we donated?” Taylor Winters asked in the Resist Polis PAC Recall Facebook group last week.

Winters, a member of the Resist Polis PAC group, said that Shane Donnelly, who runs the “official” Recall Polis Facebook group, “took people’s money [and] did nothing with it,” before refusing “to cooperate for a common goal” with the rest of the recall movement.

Another commenter accused Donnelly of collecting over $100,000 in donations to support the Polis recall effort and then leaving the state.

Donnelly’s committee has yet to begin its signature drive. The “official” campaign’s board chair told the Colorado Sun last month that it won’t start gathering signatures until it believes it has the resources to succeed. As reported by the Sun’s Sandra Fish:

Juli-Andra Fuentes, who leads the Official Recall committee, confirmed the current situation. She said she estimates it will take at least $4.4 million, and her group won’t initiate the recall process until it has more money, enough volunteers and a candidate to replace Polis.

Since issuing that statement, the Facebook page for Donnelly’s group has gone quiet, even turning off comments on old posts. Now some of his former supporters are asking the Resist group about getting their money back.

The Recall Polis fundraising effort used to be housed in a single Facebook page, but after a dispute between two of the men running it – Shane Donnelly and Tom Good – the fundraising effort was split.

Good started his own page – which everyone in the comment seemed to regard as legitimate – while Donnelly kept control of the “official” page.

It is members of the Resist Polis PAC Recall Facebook group who are complaining.

Both groups had campaign finance complaints filed against them last month, each of which have since been dismissed. It does not appear that any of the Resist Polis PAC members who want their previous donations to the “official” recall group returned to them has filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s office against Donnelly’s group yet.

Screenshot of campaign finance complaints against each recall group, Secretary of State website

Secretary of State spokesperson Serena Woods says the office hasn’t received any formal complaints regarding recall groups beyond the two that have already been dismissed. \

“We encourage anyone who has concerns to file a complaint with our office, which will allow our campaign finance team to look into any committee activity that isn’t above board,” said Woods.

Woods also directed people to TRACER, the SOS public campaign finance disclosure database.

“Anyone who wants to give money to a campaign, can go to TRACER to look up the entity that’s asking for money,” Woods explained. “There, you can see the committee’s purpose, leadership and what it’s spending its money on.”

Some commenters cautioned against making public accusations of fraud without presenting evidence.

“I think we should hold off on accusations until we can VERIFY,” one commenter said. “This in-fighting does NOTHING but distract from the effort to recall this POS.”

Winters messaged Donnelly’s personal Facebook, receiving a reply with what looked like a generic response containing directions for filing a refund.

A Facebook message sent to Donnelley’s personal account seeking comment was not returned.

Other refund-seeking donors say they have been blocked by the page in question.

Although this most recent recall movement is relatively fresh for most Colorado Republicans, Donnelly’s Facebook page is not. First created in 2014, it was renamed three years later with the intent of recalling then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat. It wasn’t changed to “Recall Colorado Governor Jared Polis” until February of this year. A month later, a Greeley Tribune reporter found posts by page administrators that were anti-Semitic, if not outright sympathetic to Nazism.

With the page essentially inactive since its last post on July 21, former supporters are left wondering whether their donations were well-spent.

In that final post, board chair Juli-Andra Fuentes insisted the effort is still ongoing and blamed the Resist Polis PAC for “hijacking” the recall and “poisoning” its chances of success.

A page administrator turned off comments on the post. Since then the vast majority of recall conversations are taking place on the Resist Polis PAC pages.

Steve Moore, a Mesa County Republican and conservative activist, had more insight.

“I think everyone has a valid right to question them,” he said, “although I don’t think you will find answers.”

Moore encouraged people “to go after the board,” but told them to “tread lightly” as to avoid alienating the group’s thousands of followers.

“The board is a joke but the members are very good people,” he said. “Continue to get the recall message out and be willing to attract those members.”

Ultimately, it seems unlikely that unhappy donors will receive refunds, a conclusion summarized by commenter Nancy Pallozzi, a former candidate for Colorado House District 28 in Lakewood who is heavily involved in the active recall movement:

“By law you can ask for your money back.” said Pallozzi on Facebook. “Whether you get it, is another thing.”

Erik Maulbetsch contributed to this post, which first appeared on the Colorado Times Recorder.

Comments

21 thoughts on “Donors to “Official” Recall Polis Group Want Their Money Back

  1. Fluffy should be along any minute now in his cum-stained dress telling us all that this is a just another example of overreach.

    So Nancy "I'm not Pelosi" Pallozzi isn't showing much loving for the donors. I'm sure that won't deter them from giving money to her in her crusade against Brittany Petterson.

    A fool and his money soon go separate ways…..

    1. They don't have a count yet, at least for the members. Apparently they are claiming OpSec and a need to know. They believe the opposition (Polis) will use that count and start a counter campaign. It's all very hush hush. Top Secret. Kind of a "We have a count but we're not going to tell you how we're doing but just keep standing on the sidewalk in front of Cabelas in 100 degree heat."  It's been pointed out to them that if Polis wanted to fight them he could drop a hundred K in a media blast and blow them out of the water. In the meantime the posts on Resist FB page are full of sound and fury…..yeah…you got it. 

       

      1. For amusement I'm watching some of the Facebook feeds from Wray-ites.  Hey!  I'll be sitting at a picnic bench at the park across from the hospital over lunch break!  Stop by! Hey! I'll be at the car wash from 5-7!  See me there!  Hey! Catch me at the rubber ducky race and lets get this POS recalled! (all with an occasional F* Yeah!! as a response).  

        <sigh>

        1. The Amway effect is starting to set in. They've signed their family, neighbors, friends of neighbors, gotten all of the to carry petitions and they're running out of people to sign. It's got a ponzi feel to it. There is a lot of "I'll drive to wherever you are if you'll sign my petition." A lot of them haven't gotten their visa statement and haven't realized they spent the grocery money on gas. They're still not revealing numbers because…….derp. 

        1. He won't….. If by some fluke, they actually got the requisite signatures, he will dump $40 million of his own money into the campaign.

          Every dollar which the recall proponents raise and spend on the recall is one dollar less going to Cory Gardner's re-election, or to the campaign of whichever clown runs against Jason Crow.

          1. But if Polis has to spend another $40 million of his own money just to stay in office, he'd be down to his last $350,000,000!

            At that rate, the Repubs will break him in 2130 or so.

    1. Just send it to me, general delivery — Larkspur, CO.

      I’ll see it gets to them.

       

      PS.  Don’t worry about filling it out, I’ll take care of that too.

      PPS. You’re welcome.

      PPPS.  Tell everyone else you know.

    1. Pfruit seems to be in a sleep cycle that maximizes his Twitler Toilet Time.  You shouldn’t expect a response until o’dark-thirty tomorrow morning. 

  2. The deadline to qualify for September debate is Aug. 28. So far, just eight have qualified:

    Biden, Bernie, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O'Roarke.  If ten or fewer quality, it will be a one night debate.

     

    Juliàn Castro and the idiot who wants to pay you $1,000 a month of taxpayer money for your vote claim be close with 130,000 unique donors, the minimum needed, and 3 of the four polls needed with 2 pct or more.

    1. The more things change, the more they stay the same…..

      As for the "idiot who wants to pay you $1,000 a month of taxpayer money," when I was in high school, there was a man who ran for president who promised to give $1,000 per year to every man, woman and child in the US if elected president. That man was George McGovern who managed to parlay that $1,000 per year payment promise into 37% of the popular vote while carrying both Massachusetts and DC in the Electoral College.

      I'm glad to see Yang has adjusted for inflation.

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