September 15, 2011 05:35 PM UTC

Quick! Hide The Dunk Tank!

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• by: Colorado Pols

Bob Moore of the Fort Collins Coloradoan updates the latest developments in the story of Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s controversial upcoming fundraiser for Larimer County Republicans.

Who seem to be reacting poorly to the controversy.

The Larimer County Republican Party, criticized by a variety of groups for scheduling a fundraiser with the state’s chief elections officer to help pay off a $15,700 campaign finance fine, has responded by moving the event to a private location and barring the media.

“As you may have read, we originally planned a more public event, but as usual the media in its unrelenting desire to malign Republicans has made a circus of the event and that is the reason for our change of venue,” [Pols emphasis] Larimer GOP Chairman Tom Lucero said in an email Wednesday to party members, which he shared with the Coloradoan…

The party earlier this month scheduled a Sept. 22 fundraiser in a Fort Collins park to help pay off the fine. Gessler was to appear in a dunking booth, with GOP members paying $10 a throw in an effort to dunk him.

The dunking booth has been scratched, but Gessler will be the featured speaker that day at a private home. Suggested donation is $20.

We love that Lucero says the media made a circus of this event. Um, you were the one who brought in the dunk tank. A dunk tank doesn’t generally lend itself to a tea and crumpets fundraiser.

But since they’ve scrapped the dunk tank, this would render moot the question of whether Democrats get to dunk Gessler too. It seems as though the idea of Secretary of State Gessler in a dunk tank was meant to mollify the obvious criticism here, that Gessler making a colossal joke of campaign finance law by helping the LCRP raise money to pay the fines his own office assessed–and dramatically lowered. Because, you know, they were going to dunk him to “take out their frustrations” over the fine!

It’s not just you. It’s one of the more ridiculous things we’ve ever heard, too.

And the problem is, losing the dunk tank and “barring the media” from a fundraiser still starring Gessler, and still intended to cover fines levied by his office…doesn’t actually help anything. It just makes the media even more interested about what you’re trying to hide.