Pueblo County Clerk Lionized on National Television

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by: Colorado Pols

We didn’t want this interview from Monday night’s Rachel Maddow Show (excerpt below) to escape mention. In Colorado, we have a huge number of public servants, both elected and appointed (or simply hired) who work their entire career without ever rising to any kind of prominence–certainly not a moment where something you do becomes a major news story, and your career has a chance to ascend beyond any plans you previously had entertained.

And then you stand up to your Secretary of State over voting rights:

And suddenly, you are lowly Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert Ortiz…on national television. We included a little under two minutes of Maddow’s lead-in on the subject of voting rights, because, well, it’s fairly riveting. Ortiz contrasts with that by deferring questions about politics, but relating his “excitement” over Scott Gessler’s court defeat last Friday which enabled Ortiz to send ballots to “inactive” voters and the remainder of his deployed military.

Which comes across pretty well, honestly. And despite Ortiz’s deference on the politics of all this, we have to say that the image of Ortiz bounding out of court to order his staff to immediately send ballots to deployed military ought to be worth, well, a promotion someday. It’s better political capital than Congressman Doug Lamborn ever earned.

8 thoughts on “Pueblo County Clerk Lionized on National Television”

Aristotle says:

October 13, 2011 at 3:22 am

Congratulations to Mr. Ortiz. That’s a nice bit of recognition.

Also, wanted to get the first comment in before A-GOP came in with some weak spin about how Ortiz was breaking the law, and how St. Scott walks on water. Maybe how anything praised on Maddow is actually a mark of how wrong it is. Just some slanted bullshit that’s now going to be further down the thread.

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BlueCat says:

October 13, 2011 at 3:53 am

Debra Johnson, Denver County Clerk, being the braver more deserving one, don’t worry. She appeared and was honored on the Rachel Maddow Show first.

Also I challenge anyone to fault Ms. Maddow on her accuracy and fact checking or unfailing courtesy to all guests, including those few conservatives who are willing to venture off their home turf and appear on her show.

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Carolannie says:

October 13, 2011 at 4:14 am

Debra Johnson was the real stand up gal who did the right thing, and Ortiz was mostly a blow hard who initially deferred to Gessler while bitching and moaning, why on earth do we memorialize Ortiz? Might it be because….well,,,because…he’s a man?

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1. Colorado Pols says:
  
  October 13, 2011 at 5:46 am
  
  Clerk Johnson was interviewed last week, and we did cover it:
  
  http://coloradopols.com/showDi…
  
  Noting this interview with Ortiz is certainly not meant to slight Clerk Johnson, who has received considerable press attention as the principal defendant in Gessler’s case. It’s fair to note that what we said here applies to the Denver clerk as well, but low-level elected officials in Pueblo are if anything even more obscure than Denver. Leaping from that level of obscurity to cable news is something we found interesting.
  
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  1. DavidThi808 says:
    
    October 13, 2011 at 6:49 am
    
    I think both have done an outstanding job.
    
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  2. Aristotle says:
    
    October 13, 2011 at 5:37 pm
    
    that Carolannie was being presumptuous? Maybe even an ax grinder? Heaven forbid!
    
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Tom says:

October 13, 2011 at 1:35 pm

I’ve been watching Maddow’s coverage and I’m pretty sure she hasn’t mentioned Gessler’s name at all. Invariably, she refers to “the Colorado Secretary of State.”

It’s awesome that she’s denying Gessler a clip that he can use in a re-election campaign.

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1. Dan Willis says:
  
  October 13, 2011 at 4:25 pm
  
  On the night she interviewed Debra Johnson, she not only named him, she showed his picture.
  
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