March 17, 2022 02:59 PM UTC

Oh No You Didn't: House Committee Chair Calls Out Heidi Ganahl

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• by: Colorado Pols

FRIDAY UPDATE: The response from Heidi Ganahl’s communications director Lexi Swearingen is one for the books:

She never said she spoke or appeared.

So what you’re saying is, she literally phoned it in! That’s sure to go over well with Greg Lopez and the crowd who waited for hours to testify. Another unforced error from Two-Sidey Heidi that makes her look either fake or foolish (or both, really).

Remember, these were Ganahl’s EXACT words: “I testified on the bill this week, and I am disgusted and heartbroken.” Nobody would assume anything other than what Ganahl wanted the audience to assume: That she had testified in person.

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Colorado Newsline’s Sara Wilson reports on another Republican gubernatorial primary forum hosted Tuesday night by the El Paso County Republican Women, which featured another rush by all candidates present to prove their right-wing bonafides, including assurances that each of them is the most anti-choicest of all the anti-choice anti-choicers on the stage:

Candidates…faced a question about abortion, and they all described themselves as “pro-life” in their answers. The Colorado House of Representatives passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act on March 14 to codify reproductive rights, including abortion, into law. Ganahl and Lopez said they spoke during public testimony at a committee hearing against the bill. [Pols emphasis]

“I am disgusted and heartbroken that we are going to have one of the most radical legislative pieces of abortion bills in the country here in Colorado,” Ganahl said. She has been quiet so far on the campaign trail about her anti-abortion stance but made similar comments during a March 8 candidate forum in Douglas County.

“This is not what the people of Colorado want,” she said Tuesday. “As a mom, I know that other moms are not OK with this. I don’t think they understand what is going on at the Capitol right now, and I agree that we should absolutely put this forward to the voters.”

The full video from Tuesday night’s forum was posted by Danielle Neuschwanger’s campaign. After minor candidate Greg Lopez talks at length about waiting for hours among the crowds to testify against House Bill 22-1279, the Reproductive Health Equity Act codifying abortion rights ahead of the expected repeal of Roe v. Wade, at about 1:18:50 Ganahl says she also testified before the House Health and Insurance Committee:

And I testified on the bill this week, and I am disgusted and heartbroken…

There’s just one problem: Rep. Susan Lontine, chair of the House Health and Insurance Committee where public testimony in the House was taken, says Ganahl never testified or even set foot in the overcrowded Colorado State Capitol that day:

As Chair of the committee that heard #HB1279 @heidiganahl didn’t testify or even show up to the hearing, check the witness lists for yourselves #CoPolitics https://t.co/mpgqX1JhCi

— Susan Lontine (@LontineHD1) March 17, 2022

Unlike Heidi Ganahl, let’s be honest for a moment: given the paltry crowds Ganahl has been drawing on the campaign trail, if we worked for her campaign we would have legitimately encouraged her to show up to that hearing and spend as many hours as possible ingratiating herself with the large crowd in attendance–a bigger crowd than any Ganahl herself has ever managed to attract. That would have been more productive for Ganahl’s campaign in real terms than however she spent her time that day.

Bullshitting prospective supporters about doing so, on the other hand, ingratiates no one.