Claudette Konola
 
I’ve been reading about fights breaking out at GOP conventions and thinking that the GOP needs to sign up for anger management therapy.

Most of the fighting seems to be between Ron Paul supporters and Mitch Romney supporters. According to the Daily Paul website, “In Oklahoma, in a scene that has been called "contention at the convention", a Romney supporter (believed to be almost 80-years-old) punched a Ron Paul supporter in the head. Police were called after the punch was thrown over a disagreement on a vote.”

Grand Junction isn’t immune. I was told that a fight broke out at a recent Grand Junction Republican meeting (May 9.) Evidently two factions of the party were fighting over who would be the spokesperson for the Romney campaign locally.  According to my source, Grand Junction police were called to break up a fist fight between Jerry Huntsinger (author and civil war re-enactor) and Garry Brewer (husband of Barbara Brewer, Mesa County Assessor). Evidently Marjorie Haun and Jennifer Baily were witnesses to the fisticuffs.

I filed a Colorado Open Records Act request to get the police report with the Grand Junction police department. The response I received was that the altercation took place outside of the city limits, so I would have to file a request with the county sheriff. I’ll eventually get around to doing that, but it may be a while.

I’ve been getting whiffs of anger within the local GOP membership from responses to comments I’ve made at the Sentinel’s online edition. There are a couple of names that keep showing up in the E-mail letters to the editor: Kevin McCarney and Marjorie Haun, and they also frequently dispute anything I have to say in my comments. From what I’ve figured out, the main-stream Republicans want to claim ownership of the Tea Party. The Mesa County GOP and Western Slope Conservative Alliance (WSCA) have inter-locking boards. Many of the executives of the GOP are also executives of WSCA, which is claiming to be the local Tea Party. GJResult/Tea Party, claims to be the original Tea Party and is accusing WSCA of identity theft.

So, from what I’ve pieced together so far, there are four groups within the local GOP—the camp that includes Brewer, the camp that includes Huntsinger, the camp that controls WSCA, and members of GJResult/Tea Party who have not yet renounced their GOP affiliation. For the record, I am officially a member of GJResult, by virtue of signing up to receive information from them at their website. That caused a bit of a dust up between the GJResult president and bully Kevin McCarney, 2nd Vice Chair of the local GOP and officer of WSCA. McCarney doesn’t think that liberals should be allowed to talk to conservatives. I’ve met McCarney—he seems the type to result to fisticuffs.

In the meanwhile I have a report due at the Secretary of State’s office for the Mesa County Democratic Party. DEMS don’t always agree, but I’ve yet to see anybody throw a punch, even when it comes to money!

Homework

Daily Paul Blog

Link to Video of OK News Report

Link to GJResult website

Link to WSCA website

Link to Mesa County Republicans Website
 
 
Last week Arn McConnell wrote a letter to the editor of the Sentinel in response to a letter Kelly Sloan wrote about TABOR.  American Patriot didn’t like the word Tea Party linked to Kelly Sloan or to Americans for Prosperity. He made his point by posting a comment at this blog. (See Comments at “Scott Tipton is Toast,” posted on June 30.)

So, American Patriot, you are right. Democrats are clueless about who is in and who is out when it comes to the Tea Party. It does give me some comfort that the local Tea Party does not claim Americans for Prosperity (A Koch Brother’s Production), or Kelly Sloan (a Canadian participating in American politics, albeit one who is working on becoming a citizen,) or Scott Tipton (who IS toast.) I’m not so wild about the thought that the local Tea Party endorsed an angry man in the GOP primaries, or that despite their claims of Democrats as members they seem to vote for the eventual GOP candidate regardless of primary endorsement.

From the perspective of the local Democratic Party, of which I am an officer, if you call yourself a member of the Tea Party, you are a member of the Tea Party, even if that membership is questioned by other Tea Party members. Speaking of membership, the Tea Party is not a political party in the sense that they field candidates, they only endorse candidates. They are not recognized in the state of Colorado as a “party.” They appear to be part of the Republican Party. And it isn’t just me thinking that, Utah people think so too (see link below.)

American Patriot, I do appreciate your continuing efforts to educate Democrats about the real motives of the Tea Party. I applaud your efforts to educate the public about Koch Brothers using their wholly owned subsidiary Americans for Prosperity to pay for busses full of protestors in Grand Junction and insurance on some conservative events. I hope you will continue to enlighten me and my readers, but for now I can’t see any daylight between Scott Tipton’s votes and the rhetoric of the Tea Party.

I will say that the local Tea Party did show some daylight between them and the Republican Party when Craig Meis abused his power as a county commissioner. Grand Junction needs a voice that challenges elected officials. There aren’t enough Democrats to do that, so keep up the good work, American Patriot. But don’t expect many Democrats to rush to join the Tea Party—we don’t think hating government is patriotic and we don’t want to drown government in any bathtub. (Some of us even think that Konola was a better candidate than King. Maybe that’s an ego thing.)

P.S. If you’ve missed me lately it is because I’ve been gardening in South Dakota and then soaking in my turn of the last century claw footed bathtub.

Homework

July 1 Sentinel Letters to the Editor

http://gjresult.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=886 ßGJresult 2010 endorsements

Tea Party in Utah

Craig Meis Defiant After Tea Party Calls for Resignation