March 04, 2023 10:40 AM UTC

Wells Funds KNUS Hosts' Trip to El Paso, Suggests Feds Use Immigrants To Bolster Social Security

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Heidi Ganahl’s angel investor is moving on — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

When Colorado Republican mega-donor Steve Wells turns his attention to the immigration problems along the southern border, he concludes that “everything that’s going on is extremely intentional.”

What does this mean to Wells, who’s amassed a fortune from ranching and oil-and-gas-related activities in northern Colorado?

Among other thoughts, he baselessly believes the federal government could be purposefully using undocumented immigrants to line the pockets of the Social Security program, rather than solve immigration problems.

“One of the things I want the people out there to understand is that when you all of these people that are here illegally that are working, the majority of them do not get cash,” Wells told KNUS talk radio host George Brauchler last month. “You know, we’ve always heard that story. I have never met anybody that pays their employees cash that are illegal. But here’s what happens, George. These guys can go, when they come here, they can go get a Social Security card. If they go to your business, and you run that card and it’s a bad card, they just come back within an hour with another one. So then you hire them. They go to work. Understand these people, the 10 or 11 million, whatever that number is in this country, are paying into the Social Security system that are never going to gain from it, ever. So it’s not in the Fed’s best interest to tell them no. And to go away.”

Wells, who didn’t immediately return a call for comment, is fighting back, in part, by throwing money at right-wing radio station KNUS, according to Brauchler.

Broadcasting from El Paso last month, Brauchler thanked Wells for using his political group to pay for Brauchler’s trip to El Paso, where KNUS hosts delivered on-the-ground commentary and media stunts. Wells’ Independent Expenditure (IEC) group, Deep Colorado Wells also paid for fellow KNUS host Steffan Tubbs, former Denver ICE Field Director John Fabbricatore, and others to go to El Paso, according to Brauchler.

Deep Colorado Wells was established to “support conservative candidates that believe in restoring Colorado values and defeating Democrats that have destroyed our Colorado way of life,” according to campaign finance documents.

Wells spent millions of dollars opposing Gov. Jared Polis and supporting Republican Heidi Ganahl in a failed effort to score a GOP win in Colorado last election.

“We get to be here, though — you, me, Kelly, Steffan … we have Steve Wells to thank for this from the Colorado Undivided and for his particular IEC,” said Brauchler on Jan. 22. “The Deep Colorado Wells funded pretty much this entire operation for us to come down here [to El Paso]. That’s what a guy who has means can do. You can do other stuff. That’s why we have the website 710KNUS.com where you can find that banner, that Colorado Undivided banner, and go and sign the petition and shoot it around. You can actually do that from your couch.”

The partnership between Wells’ Deep Colorado Wells and KNUS is described on KNUS’ website as the “El Paso Project” and is named Colorado Undivided. “Colorado Undivided is presented by KNUS & sponsored by Deep Colorado Wells,” states the KNUS Website. The site displays the logos of both Deep Colorado Wells and KNUS, and also promotes a petition.

KNUS’ collaboration with Wells’ political group raises questions about whether the radio station is accepting money for candidate communications and should be considered a political entity itself, possibly running afoul of campaign finance laws.

As for solutions to Colorado’s broader problems, Wells’ ideas reflect those of other embattled Colorado Republicans who’ve said they want to focus on municipal and school board issues, instead of statewide politics.

“We need to look at city council members,” Wells told Brauchler, citing Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman who he says is doing some “really amazing things.” … “You know, people need to start going to their school board meetings here. … We’re going to start school boards, and I want to do that on a statewide level, trying to get people more involved. And if we can replace a couple members on these boards at a time, we’ll just start cleaning it up. I mean, it’s going to be a long process, and not telling everybody this is going to be easy. But I am telling you that if we don’t do it, who the hell will? I mean, we can’t keep continuing down this road we’re going down, now.”