March 07, 2022 12:37 PM UTC

Silly Sweeping Statements Starring Heidi Ganahl

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• by: Colorado Pols

Although standards are not what they once were in the post-Trump era, one of the hallmarks of an undisciplined campaign is a reliance on overbroad statements about issues that tend to reveal more ignorance about the subject at hand than anything else. In recent weeks, gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl’s call to “end all mandates except FREEDOM” prompted quite a bit of head-scratching from anyone who actually sat down for as moment to make sense of what she’s saying. Are we just talking about COVID vaccinations or is this about all childhood vaccines? Is this about more than vaccines?

Even if we’re just talking about vaccinations, as recently as a few years ago Republicans and Democrats with any credibility agreed that vaccine mandates for children attending school make sense. Taking Ganahl at her word, she’s way outside what has been the mainstream for most of our lives.

Along with the ambiguous call to “mandate freedom” in Ganahl’s stump speeches, there’s another line we’ve heard a couple of times now (most recently in Grand Junction this weekend, audio below) that, while it might sound appealing in friendly confines, fares poorly under scrutiny:

GANAHL: And I will Day One roll back every single executive order that [Polis] has signed–over 500 of them. [Pols emphasis]

This is very close to what Ganahl said to right-wing AM radio host Mandy “Half Breed” Connell on KOA radio last week, so it’s definitely a rehearsed line:

CONNELL: What would you do if you were elected governor? Like, what would be your strategy Day One?

GANAHL: Well, Jared Polis does a lot of his dirty work through boards and commissions and through executive orders so that he doesn’t have, so he can be kind of hands off so I would repeal every executive order I possibly could, which there’s over 500 right now that he’s put in place. [Pols emphasis]

CONNELL: What?!

GANAHL: Yes.

First of all, most of the emergency executive orders from the COVID-19 pandemic, which are by far the most contentious, are already expired with the end of the state of emergency. So in those cases there’s literally nothing to repeal. Dozens more of the executive orders Ganahl promised to “roll back” are natural disaster declarations for fires, floods, and avalanches across the state. How would that even work, and what kind of harm would that do to the affected victims? Among others, Ganahl just vowed to repeal Gov. Polis’ executive order granting tribal authorities access to law enforcement databases for child welfare, multiple orders promoting election cybersecurity, and expanding rural broadband. Are these really issues that Ganahl wants to go on the record opposing?

Finally, let’s not forget Executive Order D2022-011, Colorado’s Response to and Condemnation of Russia’s Unlawful Ukrainian Invasion. Unless Heidi Ganahl tells us differently, we have no choice but to conclude that the GOP’s candidate for governor of Colorado is calling for the repeal of the state’s condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That’s national news–and unless you’re Vladimir Putin it’s not the good kind.

As we’ve been saying patiently to politicos on both sides for so many years, words mean things. And when silly sweeping statements come round to bite you in the backside like an ill-mannered chihuahua, there’s no one to blame but yourself.

This is what an unserious campaign looks like.