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[Thread 1/] And at the local level GOP radicalisation continues: https://www.coloradopolitics.com/news/el-paso-county-republicans-up-in-arms-in-advance-of-local-party-elections/article_995fd2e8-6585-11eb-9934-bbaf9b55148c.html [paywall thread has it ]to provide security at the county GOP's meeting Saturday, when hundreds of Republicans are expected to gather at a Colorado Springs church to elect party officers.
2/ The head of the United American Defense Force, however, said Tuesday that El Paso County GOP chair Vickie Tonkins had no business saying the group would be involved with the political party and could have exposed his organization to legal jeopardy.
3/ "I don't know what they’re doing, but it seems the GOP is totally screwed up and they’re using our organization as a tool to do something, and I don’t like it," John "Tig" Tiegen, the founder and president of UADF, told Colorado Politics.
4/ Tonkins said in an email to CO Politics that her notice that UADF would serve as sergeant-at-arms at Sat's election — prompting complaints from local Rep's that she had enlisted an "armed militia" to patrol the meeting — had been "tentative & subject to change"
5/ and called the whole fuss a "non-story." Meanwhile, local Rep leaders say they're concerned Tonkins has been stacking the deck in favor of her own re-election by improperly adding newcomers — including Democrats and unaffiliated voters — to the party's central committee list.
6/ When state Rep. Tim Geitner, R-Colorado Springs, and party volunteers showed up to examine documents related to the list on Jan. 30 at party headquarters, the county party treasurer, John Pitchford, called police, claiming the lawmaker and volunteers were trespassing.
7/ No charges were filed the investigating officer determined no crime had been committed but the incident is only the latest controversy to rock the county GOP, still reeling after El Paso Cty voters delivered the worst results for a Rep pres candidate in more than 1/2 century.
8/ As Sat's chair election approaches between Tonkins & challenger Peggy Littleton, a former county commissioner & member of the State Board of Education, county GOP stalwarts say they're worried the party election won't be conducted fairly
9/It appears to be an attempt to steal the election & it’s my hope that saner heads will prevail, CO Spngs City Councilman Wayne Williams, a former CO sec of state, told CO Politics. Tonkins rebuffed suggestion the upcoming party election would be conducted improperly in any way
10/All eligible members will be properly credentialed & seated for the meeting she said in an email. The pty’s central cmte made up of precinct leaders, district officers & elected officials meets in odd-numbered yrs to elect the county GOP's ch, vice ch & sec to 2-year terms
11/ The recent brouhaha began to take shape on 1/24, when an organization affiliated w/UADF, conservative political group FEC United the initials stand for community pillars faith, education and commerce — distributed a message urging members to enlist as precinct leaders
12/ ...ahead of El Paso County GOP's 2/6 reorg meeting "to help us clean up the local Rep Party and help preserve the Republic!" At the meeting, the post said, "we have the opportunity to vote out the corrupt RINOs, install anti-corruption / pro-Constitution leadership,"
13/ using a common acronym for "Republicans in Name Only." The post said Tonkins & Pitchford, the appointed treasurer, have led the charge for the past 2 years in the El Paso County GOP! and urged those interested to go to county GOP headquarters that afternoon to fill positions.
14/ A Colorado Springs Republican and FEC member who attended the meeting and asked not to be identified due to safety concerns said Tonkins and Pitchford "pulled individual after individual into the office and signed them up for precinct leader positions all day."
15/ As word got around that Tonkins was adding members to the central committee ahead of the party officer elections, some El Paso County officers and executive committee members cried foul, maintaining that pty bylaws require at least 2 elected county officers to sign off
16/ on vacancy appointments. The other 2-elected officers the vice-chair and secretary said they hadn't been involved in filling any vacancies w/Tonkins. (Pitchford, who fills an appointed position, isn't eligible to sign off on vacancy appointments, according to party bylaws.)
17/ "While I appreciate you trying to get volunteers to sign up, your approach in reaching to outside groups like FEC using party resources to control the outcome of an upcoming election is illegal and a misuse of county resources!"
18/ El Paso County GOP vice chair Wendy Miller wrote Tonkins in an email obtained by Colorado Politics. "This is not an equal playing field for the other candidates that are competing."
19/ Williams, who oversaw statewide elections as secretary of state and ran El Paso County elections during a term as county clerk, said he was concerned that Tonkins was appointing precinct leader and other central committee members contrary to the rules.
She has this interesting view that everyone’s out to get her," he said. The Rep Pty has never gone with the executive-order strategy of universal fiats. Unfortunately, our current chair is behaving like Mr. Biden and trying to issue rules and procedures regardless
21/ of what the bylaws provide. ..Late last week, Tonkins issued an agenda labeled "updated - tentative" for the Feb. 6 reorganization that listed UADF as the meeting's sergeant-at-arms.
22/ [I]t's my understanding that our county chair will have armed militia at our central committee meeting," a member of the county party's executive committee wrote to U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, the state GOP chair, in an email obtained by Colorado Politics.
23/ This is an attempt at causing fear, intimidation & voter suppression. This is NOT what Rep's are about. I can imagine the turnout will be reduced because people won't want to attend an event guarded by the militia hired/solicited by our chair, 1 of the cnty chair candidates."
24/ Appealing to Buck for help, the executive committee member added: "This is potentially a disaster. Do we really want our name dragged through the local mud, again?"
Another member of the executive committee, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation,
Another member of the executive committee, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation,
25/ told Colorado Politics that Tonkins has been riling her supporters into a frenzy by linking her re-election as chair to unfounded concerns widely shared by Republicans that the 2020 presidential election was riddled with fraud.
26/ "Vickie has been saying she’s going to use her opportunity as chair to push out Dominion and clean up the voter rolls, none of which are party duties, but I think she’s definitely trying to whip up some anger," the executive committee member said,
referring to Dominion Voting Systems. The Denver-based voting equipment manufacturer is suing Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani for $1.3 billion apiece, claiming defamation over baseless claims they made about the company's role in the 2020 election.
28/ "I’m very fearful that the combination of having that militia group there & having the rhetoric we’re seeing could turn ugly," the GOP official said. "We’ve got people super-intimidated, people calling saying, 'Is this going to be safe?'
29/ People are going to be wearing bullet-proof vests to the party meeting. This goes beyond party squabbles. This isn’t party squabbles."
30/ El Paso County Commissioner Carrie Geitner, a member of the county party executive committee and a veteran of clashes with Tonkins, said she called Buck on the afternoon of Jan. 30 to describe the brewing situation and ask for his help.
31/ "I asked Ken Buck to intervene, assure the central committee that their votes would be counted, and the process would be aboveboard. He answered by hanging up the phone on me and turning his back on us all," Geitner told Colorado Politics in a text message.
32/ "It is up to the elected officials in this county to get our house put back in order. Leaders must stand up and do what is right for the future of the Republican Party."
33/ Fangonilo, executive director of the Colorado GOP, told Colorado Politics on Tuesday that the state party can't get involved with the county party's election the way some Republicans have requested.
34/ "Ultimately, the state party, frankly, doesn’t have authority to get involved until a party controversy is filed," he said, referring to a formal complaint about party proceedings that can be considered by a state GOP governing board.
35/ "Ideally, these things can be handled at the local level. Get along, work it out, please handle it locally."
