Author Archives: Jason Salzman

A Colorado Republican, scheduled to deliver a lunchtime lecture Wednesday on how to be an “Effective Republican in an Unaffiliated World,” is facing criticism from a fellow Republican who says she isn’t qualified to lecture on the topic due to her own ineffective leadership.

Kristina Cook and Tamra Farah, both Republican leaders in Colorado, are set to deliver the speech tomorrow to the Douglas County Republican Women, a political group.

The lecture drew national attention in Newsweek after Cook, who’s chair of the Denver Republican Party, tweeted, “I Bet MLK Wishes He’d Had A Sniper by his Side That Day,” prompting Bernice King to tweet that her father would not have wanted a “gun battle on his behalf.” Cook later thanked Bernice King for helping Cook understand King’s “father’s perspective.”

Jeff Krump, a former state house GOP candidate and former vice chair of the Denver Republican Party, blasted Cook, saying he hasn’t seen “any evidence” that she’d be an “effective leader as a Republican woman.”

Krump, who served with Cook when she was second vice chair of the Denver GOP last year, said Cook has “no track record as a political leader.”

“She was not an effective leader when I worked with her,” said Krump, saying Cook resigned abruptly in 2017 from her positions as vice chair and then treasurer of the Denver Republican Party, after struggling with her duties in both volunteer jobs, according to Krump.

Cook, who was elected chair of the Denver Republicans in 2018, said she resigned as treasurer because “a situation developed that created a conflict between my profession as a CPA and my volunteer position as treasurer.”

“After departing as Denver GOP treasurer, I made a study of what needed to be done to make the Denver GOP successful – primary among those being a refocusing on our community and the perseverance and pioneering spirit of Republican values that we are focused on encouraging within our community,” wrote Cook via email. “It is those lessons that I bring with me into the chairmanship. I believe the entire situation prepared me to be an even more effective Republican and Republican chair than I otherwise would have been, and those are the lessons I want to share in my presentation tomorrow.”

Cook’s co-presenter, Farah, resigned suddenly earlier this month as the leader of El Paso’s Republican Party, less than ten days before their biggest fundraiser of the year, amid allegations that leading donors refused to work with her. 

The selection of Farah’s replacement subsequently triggered accusations foul play, documented in detail on KNUS 710-AM’s Chuck and Julie Show toady. Listen here.

As of yesterday, 112 indicated on Facebook that they were “interested” in the lecture by Cook and Farah, which will take place at the Lone Tree Golf Club and Hotel, and six people plan to attend, including Casper Stockham, who’s running in a primary to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow.

Boulder Democrat Angelika Schroeder joined Republicans on Colorado’s Board of Education today in a 4-3 vote granting a charter school’s request for a waiver from Colorado’s new sex-ed law, which requires comprehensive instruction covering LGBT health, consent, and more.

Democrats gained a majority on the board in 2016, with the election of Rebecca McClellan representing Denver suburbs surround Aurora. 

But Schroeder rejected arguments from fellow Democrats to reject–or at least declare unnecessary–the sex-ed waiver for Liberty Common, a Ft. Collins charter school led by former Republican Congressman Bob Schaffer, who insists his school has no plans to teach sex ed.

The Board’s lawyer also counseled against granting the waiver.

Liberty Common became the first public school to be granted a waiver, which is allowed under an updated sex-ed law that cleared the Legislature last year and was later signed by Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO).

Liberty Common stated that it needed the waiver, not because it wanted to teach sex ed but because sex-related topics came up in discussion of “Greek mythology, “Renaissance Art,” and science.

But state Rep. Susan Lontine (D-Denver), one of the sponsors of last year’s sex-ed legislation, told the Board in a letter that Liberty Common’s sex-related discussions in those courses were clearly allowed under the new law.

Lontine wrote that “based on [Liberty Common’s] application as presented, that a waiver is not needed.”

“Again, human sexuality instruction is defined as lessons on abstinence or sexual activity in the context of student health or healthy relationships,” wrote Lontine.

After the vote, Elizabeth Hinkley of the ACLU of Colorado urged the board to issue a written opinion clarifying that Liberty Common didn’t need the waiver based on its reasons for requesting it.

“We request that the Board issue a written opinion with their decision to grant the waiver,” Hinkley said. “As the Board’s legal counsel advised, the Board has the option to provide a written opinion clarifying that, although the waiver was granted, the type of instruction proposed by Liberty is not human sexuality instruction, and therefore a waiver from CRS 22-1-128 is not required. Other similarly situated schools will look to the Board’s decision as guidance. Absent this clarifying opinion, the Board’s decision will cause more confusion for the reasons stated by their own legal counsel.”

RELATED: Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers Are Teaching Sex Ed in Colorado Schools. Will a New Law Stop Them?

Liberty Common’s justification for the waiver, submitted to the board, states that the school instructs on sexuality “only within the domain of science.”

But the waiver application states that “sweeping definitions” of concepts like “healthy relationships” have “overbroad applicability,” meaning the school’s discussions in subjects like Greek mythology could be considered sexual education and could run them afoul with the law.

“We bristle at the notion of a new curricular mandate coming from the state Capitol under any terms, and this one in particular is onerous for a variety of reasons,” Schaffer, a longtime champion of conservative causes in Colorado, has said.

CORRECTION: This post was corrected to state that State Board Member Angelika Schroeder, not Valentina (Val) Flores, voted for the waiver. 

A leader of the effort to recall a Pueblo Democrat, who’s the leader of the Colorado Senate, got some simple but tough questions from KOA radio hosts Aug. 21.

Appearing on the station’s Good Morning Colorado show, recall organizer Susan Carr said Colorado State Sen. Leroy Garcia (D-Pueblo) isn’t representing his district, in part because he voted for tightening safety and environmental regulations on the oil and gas industry.

But under questioning, Carr admitted that Garcia is doing what you’d expect a Democrat in his position to do, once elected to office.

KOA HOST MARTY LENZ: Susan, did you vote for Leroy Garcia?

CARR: No, I didn’t.

LENZ: Okay. And this is why I ask this question, because, to me, from [the perspective of] a recall effort, I can understand if you and other people on this petition voted for him, and you’re like, “Wait a second! We voted for this guy, and he’s not doing what we asked him to do.” But the fact that you didn’t vote for him, and he’s doing things that are opposite or counter to what you believe, to me, the recall effort is like, well, elections have consequences, right? So if you don’t like him, you vote him out of office instead of trying to do a recall.

CARR: Sure, and I would understand that. It’s just that the people here in Senate District 3 simply don’t think that he’s up there in Denver doing what he was elected to do.

LENZ: But he won with a pretty overwhelming majority, in that area.

CARR: Yes, he did.

CO-HOST APRIL ZESBAUGH: And he’s doing what a Democrat would probably do in that office, right?

CARR: Yes, he is.