October 01, 2025 03:02 PM UTC

Gang That Can't Rule Straight Spoils Wannabe Political Starlet's Debut

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post’s Nick Coltrain reports, Republicans in Colorado House District 14 got a few days ahead of themselves in convening to appoint a replacement for suddenly resigned House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, and by breaking the rule requiring ten days’ notice before doing the deed, they’ve imperiled the accession of gun rights advocate and mid-tier social media luminary Ava Flanell to the legislature:

State law requires vacancy committees to meet no fewer than 10 days after mailing a written notice to the committee members. The El Paso County GOP, however, notified committee members the day of Pugliese’s Sept. 15 resignation and held the selection a week later.

The ruling by the secretary of state’s office in effect nullifies the committee’s selection of Ava Flanell, a Second Amendment activist and podcast host, to finish Pugliese’s term. Flanell said she intends to seek the seat at the next vacancy committee on Oct. 11.

County GOP Chair Ken Davis said the original vacancy committee was abiding by the local bylaws, which required the party to fill a vacancy within 10 days. Members will now meet again to make sure they’ve “officially crossed every T and dotted every I” to pick Pugliese’s replacement, he said. The party will also update its bylaws to comply with state law…

As Jesse Paul reports for the Colorado Sun, HD-14 Republicans broke a couple of state laws in their rush to appoint Flanell to the House:

Republican Joshua Griffin, who sought the vacancy appointment but says he was blocked from participating in the contest, filed a complaint with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, alleging the selection was carried out illegally.

Griffin pointed out that the vacancy election happened less than 10 days after Pugliese resigned, which would appear to run afoul of a state law requiring that members of vacancy committees be notified by mail 10 days before a vacancy election happens.

Second, Griffin said that the meeting wasn’t livestreamed as required by a bipartisan state law passed by the legislature this year. Pugliese was one of the lead sponsors of the measure.

Considering how the Republican House Minority pulls every parliamentary trick in the book to obstruct the agenda of the legislature’s longstanding Democratic majority, fair is certainly fair in requiring them to follow the letter of the law in the already-controversial appointment process. And so even though House Republicans had already welcomed Flanell to the caucus after her now-undone appointment on September 22, now they’ll have to wait another week and a half to know if that’s really the case.

We do expect it will be, though, and the daughter of Colorado Springs’ infamous “Dragon Man” Mel Bernstein, who bills himself as the “most armed man in America,” will be the next colorful addition to the Colorado House Republican Minority’s wild and crazy caucus. Flanell was present at the state capitol this year for the debate over Senate Bill 25-003, the bill mandating additional training in order to purchase certain kinds of semi-automatic weapons–ironic in her opposition, since as a firearms instructor, this bill created a large new market for her services.

First, the alleged Party of “dotting every I and crossing every T,” especially when it comes to electing people to office, needs a do-over.