The Colorado State Open Thread is designed to be a place for all those with an interest in, experience (good or bad) in or just having heard the name of our colorful state to come, learn some things and to share your thoughts and interests. Please put your comments down below. I also always appreciate your own (or otherwise not tied up by royalties) photos from any subject around Colorado. Please send any you would like to have used for our photo challenge series to me at Colotim2010 @ gmail.com and I’ll be delighted to use them as soon as I receive them.
A few of you were successful in identifying last week’s picture as the main dining room of the Buckhorn Exchange, just off a light rail stop on the D, E or H lines in Denver.
While many are just the heads of animals, there are some full bodies of some of the non-consumable creatures, like a fox, a bear (well, that can be consumed, but I’ve not heard good things about that) and some small creatures. IIRC, there are also a couple of critters like the one in the top photo. A visitor should make sure to go upstairs as well. They have a dining room that has a big, long historic bar up there and seating more like a parlor than a dining room. I think there is also some outside seating for when the weather is nice.
I do wish to clarify, I did not hunt that creature. The only shooting of animals I have ever done is with cameras. It might be different if I were very, very hungry, but I just don’t think I could ever look at a creature and choose to end its life. I haven’t even been fishing except for deep sea fishing in decades, and even then it has been a few years since. My hunting and gathering is at Safeway or Kings rather than in the woods. I do not have issues with people who hunt for food purposes — they help keep populations in check and they provide fees for the budget of the state Parks and Wildlife agency. I do protest against those who hunt trophies and leave the carcass behind — I’m sure the ones in the photos above were consumed for food. My sister and mother gave me that mounted creature because I’ve always been fond of them.
If you’d like to know more about the creatures in the photo, you can read the article in the High Country News. Most of the article talks about Wyoming and that may be where most of them are found, but I have it on good authority that they’re also found in Colorado. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Moving on to the party meetings, there were lots of results to both cheer about and cringe about in our purplish state. We have been moving towards the blue side of the spectrum in recent years, but the deeply red corners of the state are not going to go without a fight.
I am going to put up information for the Democrat and Republican parties. I’m pretty much going to ignore the Libertarian party because they have nobody currently in state or higher office and the other parties in the state (Green, Unity Party, etc) haven’t got updated websites newer than 2021.
From the Democratic party meetings, the results were decided upon with very little competition left:
Secretary of State
Jena Griswold
State Treasurer
Dave Young
Attorney General
Phil Weiser
State Board of Education
Kathy Plomer
US Congress
Michael Bennet
Congressional District Assembly Results
Colorado District 1
Diana DeGette for United States Congress
Wanda James for CU Regent
Johnnie Nguyen for CU Regent
Colorado District 2
Joe Neguse for US Congress (town meeting tonight over telephone)
Colorado District 3
Sol Sandoval for US Congress
Colorado District 4
Ike McCorkle for US Congress
Jack Barrington for CU Regent
Colorado District 5
David Torres for US Congress
Michael Colombe for US Congress
Joseph Shelton for State Board of Education
Ronald Casados for CU Regent
Colorado District 6
Jason Crow for US Congress
Rebecca McClellan for State Board of Education
Colorado District 7
Brittany Pettersen for US Congress
Colorado District 8
Yadira Caraveo for US Congress
Yolanda Ortega for CU Regent
Rosanna Reyes for CU Regent
Rhonda Solis for State Board of Education
I was not able to find such a nice, neat list for the Republicans, in part because they have a number of people running for most of their elections in the June 28th primary. Instead, I WAS able to find plenty of news articles describing the main Republican candidates and how horrible they may be:
From the Colorado Sun newspaper — Littwin: The Big Lie is the big winner at the Colorado GOP assembly:
As you’d expect, the Big Lie is now officially on the Colorado GOP primary ballot. And, just to be sure you don’t miss it, it will be displayed as prominently as possible, on the top line in races across the ticket.
It will get the top line in the race for U.S. senator, courtesy of Big Lie supporter Ron Hanks.
And the top line in the race for governor, courtesy of Big Lie supporter Greg Lopez.
And, yes — of course — the top line in the race for secretary of state, courtesy of the one and only, much-indicted, MyPillow guy protege, Tina Peters.
From the Denver Post (Subscription):
Election deniers received the support of the Colorado Republican Party faithful on Saturday as delegates voted to put candidates such as indicted secretary of state candidate Tina Peters and U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks on the GOP primary ballot.
Multiple candidates, delegates and attendees delivered a clear message at the event: They still don’t trust Colorado’s elections or the results of the 2020 presidential election.
That’s despite evidence pointing to the security of the state’s election systems and assurances from county clerks, including Republicans, that Coloradans can be confident in how their votes were counted.
From Colorado Newsline:
Candidates for the Republican primary
Saturday’s Republican assembly was delayed by nearly an hour as long lines of delegates, volunteers and other attendees waited to pass through security at the Broadmoor World Arena.
Inside the venue over the course of the day, any expectation that election conspiracists would be frustrated were dashed. Governor candidate Greg Lopez, U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks, and secretary of state candidate Tina Peters all came away with the most support of delegates. Lopez has expressed doubt about the 2020 presidential election; Hanks, a state representative, repeatedly advances conspiracy theories about the election and crossed police lines during the Jan. 6 insurrection; and Peters, the Mesa County clerk and recorder, was indicted by a grand jury for her alleged role in an election security breach in her own office.
I hope I don’t violate fair use — this is pretty much the results, and not original writing.
Votes from the 3,749 assembled delegates narrowed down the field of candidates for five statewide races.
- Onetime Parker mayor Greg Lopez took the top ballot line in the primary for governor. He will run against University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl, an entrepreneur who is Colorado’s only remaining statewide GOP elected official.
- Indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters won 62% of the assembly vote to secure the the top ballot line in the secretary of state primary. She will face little-known Yuma County candidate Mike O’Donnell and former Jefferson County clerk Pam Anderson.
- John Kellner, district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, will face Stanley Thorne, a conservative lawyer, in the primary for attorney general.
- Former state Rep. Lang Sias of Arvada is the party’s lone candidate for state treasurer.
- In the U.S. Senate race, state Rep. Ron Hanks of Cañon City was the only candidate to meet the 30% threshold required to qualify for the primary ballot through the assembly process. He will face Denver construction executive Joe O’Dea, who qualified through petitions, in the June primary.
Republicans also chose their nominees for congressional primaries in a series of district assemblies prior to Saturday. No Republican candidates are running in the 1st, 2nd and 6th Congressional Districts.
- In the 3rd Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert made the ballot via assembly. State Rep. Don Coram plans to qualify through petition signatures, which have not yet been validated.
- In the 4th Congressional District, Bob Lewis, a real estate broker from Elbert County, took the top spot in the assembly nominating process with 62% support, setting up a primary challenge against four-term incumbent Rep. Ken Buck.
- In the 5th Congressional District, state Rep. Dave Williams secured the top ballot line in his primary challenge against eight-term incumbent Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn.
- In the 7th Congressional District, Erik Aadland won the top ballot line with 63% of the assembly vote. He will face Laurel Imer and Tim Reichert in the primary. Brad Dempsey and Carl Anderson have submitted petition signatures which have not yet been validated.
- In the new 8th Congressional District, Weld County Commissioner Lori Saine won the top ballot line via the assembly, and will face state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann and Army veteran Tyler Allcorn in the primary.
Also, per Colorado Newsline from 3/31/2022, for Mesa County Republican’s county caucus:
Republicans who gathered at the Mesa County party assembly on Saturday in Grand Junction had the opportunity to vote on 46 proposed resolutions. One of the resolutions proposed supporting the “registration and regulation of journalism to protect against the Marxist agenda.”
...
Another example of a resolution originating in Mesa County states: “The Republican Party supports the 2nd Amendment, and supports the private ownership of AR-15s, 30-round magazines, and semi-automatic weapons.”
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Three resolutions on Mesa County’s ballot would change the voting process:
- “The Republican Party supports the abolition of automatic voter registration.”
- “The Republican Party supports eliminating computerized voting systems in Colorado.”
- “The Republican Party supports the abolition of mail-in voting, reducing or eliminating early in-person voting, and requiring that all votes be cast in person on paper ballots after state-issued ID has been shown at a polling location (exceptions only for military members, or those physically disabled who present written justification).”
The last resolution on the Mesa County ballot proposes: “The Republican Party opposes socialist & communist policies and tyranny, and publicly denounces Democrats & the Democrat Party as communists.”
I recently read that over half the voting population of Mesa County is not originally from Mesa County. That doesn’t mean they aren’t from Colorado, but please, can we just send them back to wherever they came from, including Tina Peters?
Anyway, the comments section is open for your contribution. The floor is yours...