Former El Paso County GOP Officer Calls for State Sen. Hisey’s Resignation

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

State Sen. Dennis Hisey (R-Colo Springs, Fountain, Denver, Colo Spgs, Fountain)

A former El Paso County Republican Party officer is calling on his party’s leaders to demand the resignation of one of their own: state Sen. Dennis Hisey (R-Fountain).

In an open letter to the party chair for Senate District 11 (SD11) and Colorado Republican Party Chair Kristi Burton Brown, John Pitchford, a state delegate and precinct leader who served as El Paso County GOP treasurer from Nov. 2019 until last October, cited recent news reports that Hisey doesn’t live in the district he’s running to represent.

Pitchford also claims that the Republican Party has known about this issue since last October, writing, “[W]ithin the GOP we have discussed Senator Hisey’s residency issue ever since the redistricting process was completed.”

This issue is already front and center for voters in SD11; their current senator, Democrat Pete Lee, faces a class 5 felony charge for the very same allegation.

Last week, as reported by the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Ethics Institute (CEI) asked Colorado Springs District Attorney Michael Allen to investigate whether Hisey actually resides in the house at which he is registered to vote. CEI submitted a private investigator’s report that concludes that Hisey spends the majority of his time at his previous residence (where his wife still lives), rather than at the address appearing on his voter registration.

Reached for comment, El Paso County GOP Chair Vickie Tonkins says the party will wait for the facts to come out before taking a position on whether Hisey should resign.

“We do not take positions until we know the truth and see the facts,” says Tonkins. “Facts and truth should always be first.”

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In Declining to Charge a Donor, GOP AG Hopeful Kellner Didn’t Mention Campaign Cash

(Rule 1: always mention the cash — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

18th Judicial DA John Kellner is running to be the GOP nominee for Colorado Attorney General

Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney John Kellner, the Colorado GOP’s lone candidate for attorney general, faces an ethics complaint for his decision not to charge a former Douglas County undersheriff and campaign donor with misconduct despite a finding of probable cause by investigators.

The misconduct in question involves Kluth’s directing an employee to delete sensitive records from her personnel file prior to running for Douglas County sheriff.

Kellner’s decision not to file charges was first reported by 9News last month. 

“Based on a thorough review of the investigative findings in this case, we have probable cause to believe Holly Nicholson-Kluth committed the crime of Official Misconduct in the First Degree and Official Misconduct in the Second Degree,” reads the JeffCo Sheriff case report. “These acts were all found to have been committed in 2019 during Nicholson-Kluth’s tenure with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, specifically while she was serving in the capacity of Undersheriff.”

The ethics complaint filed with the state’s Independent Ethics Committee (IEC) by progressive advocacy group ProgressNow Colorado notes that former Undersheriff Holly Kluth, made two donations totaling $350 to Kellner’s DA campaign in 2020. Colorado law caps the maximum contribution to a non-statewide campaign at $400, the lowest amount in the nation.

“I submitted a letter this morning to the Colorado Supreme Court requesting an investigation of District Attorney John Kellner, for violating the rules of professional conduct as well as for prosecutorial misconduct for his failure to disclose his conflicts of interest when he refused to prosecute his high-profile campaign donor,” stated Sara Loflin, Executive Director of ProgressNow Colorado.

Loflin’s complaint raises the previously unreported issue of campaign donations from Kluth, whose intention to run for Douglas County sheriff was already public at the time of the investigation, to Kellner, who was already running to replace his term-limited boss, George Brauchler, as DA for the Eighteen District.

Kellner’s office gave two reasons for dealing to charge Kluth: First it noted that the statute of limitations had already expired, given that the alleged crimes took place in April 2019 and that circumstances needed to invoke the “discovery” exception to the time limit don’t exist. Secondly, it assessed the evidence to be “insufficient to support a reasonable likelihood of success at trial.”

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5th Congressional District Forum

Last night, the Colorado Springs Women’s Republican Club sponsored a candidate forum for 5th Congressional District Candidates.  General Bentley Rayburn and Jeff Crank attended.

Much like my recent post about the county assembly, I would like to offer some general information followed by what I view as the winners and losers of the debate/forum.

The forum was held in a smaller sized room in the basement of the Colorado Springs City Hall building.  The Women’s Republican club ran their meeting efficiently and got to the forum rather quickly.  There was a fair amount of people there; club members, people visiting as prospects to join, and some supporters of General Rayburn.  We had time for about half a dozen questions, with Gen. Rayburn and Mr. Crank taking turns answering the questions.

After about an hour, another group arrived to use the room and the debate ended rather abruptly without Gen. Rayburn not being able to answer one of the questions.  But when a police officer says “you have one minute to vacate the room”, everyone tends to listen….

On to the winners and losers!

Winners:

Jeff Crank:  Answers were concise and knowledgeable.  Mr. Crank is a good speaker, and the crowd seemed relatively friendly.  Mr. Crank didn’t score any knockout punches, but he really didn’t need to.  He re-enforced his conservative credentials to the crowd, which was probably the most important goal of the night.

General Bentley Rayburn:  This was my first time seeing Gen. Rayburn speak in person, and I have to say he did a good job.  His answers weren’t as detailed as Mr. Crank’s, but he gave my favorite line of the night.  While talking about alternative energy, Gen. Rayburn said “We need to let the private sector develop the technology.  When we leave it to the government, we get corn fuel.”  Overall Gen. Rayburn was able to interject some humor into his answers, which is no easy task to accomplish when talking about dry subjects.  He did a good job.

Colorado Springs Women’s Republican Club:  Good turn out, candidate’s attention; a structured forum that went off without too much of a hitch equals some good bragging rights.  

Strict time limits: We were in and out in about an hour and a half.  Granted, a large part of that had to do with the cop telling everyone to “get out” depriving Gen. Rayburn of an opportunity to answer the last question, but even he didn’t seem to mind too much.  Debates are nice, but being able to do something afterwards is really nice!

Losers:

Doug Lamborn:  Generally speaking, an incumbent that refuses to debate challengers isn’t something to take note of.  But Congressman Lamborn doesn’t have the luxury of taking the typical incumbent track to re-election.  One thing that last night reinforced is that both Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn are credible challengers, so avoiding them is coming across as weakness on the part of Congressman Lamborn.  Aside from that, both Gen. Rayburn and Mr. Crank took multiple shots at Congressman Lamborn last night, and no one was there to answer on his behalf.  Ouch.

Follow Up Questions:  There were a couple times last night when it would have been nice to ask a clarifying question regarding some answers.  But the structure of the forum nor the moderator had much wiggle room for that kind of flexibility.  Maybe next time.

The Departments of Education and Commerce and the IRS: When asked which programs they would eliminate and why, both lists were pretty much the same: the Department of Education, the Department of Commerce, and the IRS.  Whether you like these departments or not, they certainly got no love from that crowd last night.

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