December 17, 2025 • 35 mins
Heidi Ganahl fills in for Dan and weighs in on the 2026 governor's race, having served as the Republican nominee for the office in 2022. Brita Horn, Colorado GOP chair joins the program with an update on upcoming activities - including the state assembly - after Rep. Scott Bottoms (R-15), a current candidate for governor, called into question the fundraising efforts of the party.
Heidi also reveals a fun fact: Punk rocker Debora Iyall, lead singer of 80s new wave band 'Romeo Void,' is her sister-in-law. Ryan finds a couple of memorable songs from the group to play on the show.
Heidi also reveals a fun fact: Punk rocker Debora Iyall, lead singer of 80s new wave band 'Romeo Void,' is her sister-in-law. Ryan finds a couple of memorable songs from the group to play on the show.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Hello, Hello, it's been a little while, Ryan. I am
so glad of you.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Backed.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
This is Heidigan All filling in for Dan Caples today.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I remember you.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Damn it's been a year, Ryan.
Speaker 5 (00:26):
Dang, yeah, you see Dan, No, I forgot sorry, don't say.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The GV before it just damn, you're good.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Oh man, it's yeah. I haven't been able to be
on for a while. It's been really rough for our
family after getting through breast cancer this whole year. My
little brother, who was a door passed away very suddenly
on Halloween night, and it's just him and I were
the only siblings, and we're very close to my mom
(00:55):
and dad and his wife, and it has been devastating
for our family. And so I checked out for a
little bit. And it's been one of the roughest things
I've ever gone through in my life. And you know,
I just want to remind everybody how precious life is
and get I get reminded of this a lot in
my life. For whatever reason, the big Guy thinks that
(01:15):
I need to get smacked around every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And I've been through a lot over the years.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
But life is so precious, and especially during these holidays,
you know, forget the gifts. It's all about the people
in your life, your family, your loved ones, your friends.
They are so precious and it's so so important to
make them a priority in everything that you do. And
you know, it's just it's just a big reminder of that.
(01:41):
And as we're headed into Christmas in the holiday season
and Hanukah is going on, so yeah, that's it's been
a rough go of it. I'm sorry i haven't been
on in a while, but I'm glad to be back.
And boy, you know, Ryan, I was going to make
this a fun, fun show today, lots of Christmas talk, upbeat,
positive And.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Then you interviewed Scott Bottoms.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Why did I do that?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Oh my gosh, he went ballistic on me, like, I
don't know how I got in the mix of this.
I know a little bit of like why he thinks
I did. But there is a lot of a lot
of falsehoods flying around with everybody. But I have a
whole list of things he said that are like, what
the heck?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
That is ridiculous? So where do I even start?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Tis the season, Heidi, And what I'll do is we'll
play all Christmas songs coming back from breaks, so we'll
have that bass coup. But it's also the political season.
And as you alluded to, Scott Bottoms was on with
me here locally in Denver on six thirty k HOW
today and he did mention you by name, and he
did mention Britta Horn by name, and you both will
(02:45):
have your say during this program, you of course throughout
as the host, but then Britta Horn will be joining
us at four thirty six to respond to some of
the comments, which I've edited for you in SoundBite fashion,
and we'll get to some of those, hopefully in just
a little bit. But also I interviewed Victor Marx a
couple of days ago, and that's why Scott Bottoms reached
out to me, and he wanted to come on and
(03:05):
respond to what Victor said. So now, as I told you,
during just before we went on, Barb Kirkmeyer heard what
Scott Bottoms and what Victor Mark said and she'll be
coming on with me tomorrow, so we're.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Covering the bases.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Heidi, are you gonna put all twenty three candidates? Absolutely not,
but oh my goodness, I can't believe.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
There's not many.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
What I will do so just to kind of encapsulate
it for those that are just tuning in. Are not
as big as nerds about all this as you and
I are, And God bless you if that's the case,
and God love you because it's that season. But I've
had Sheriff Mike solon, I intend to have Senator Mark
Baisley on. I've had Greg Lopez on and have on
the regular. So all those candidates that'll be appearing in
(03:47):
a forum up in Greeley. That'll be Saturday, January tenth,
one thirty to three thirty pm. It is open to
the public, but tickets are free and they're going fast.
Steve Wells and Sheriff Steve Reems have set it up
there in Wild County and Mandy Connell and I will
be moderating this forum, so forum debate.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
They're going to give their takes on things.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Mandy and I are determined to ask very sharp, pointed
questions though to each of the candidates without fear or favor.
They've agreed to it, well five of the six anyway,
and we're looking forward to that vetting process that needs
to take place as we head toward the Assembly and
choose who's going to be on the primary ballot. So
that's a good summation I think of where we're at
right now.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Yeah, And I would remind everybody Ryan if people want
to get involved, engaged, the best place to do that
is in your neighborhood, like go to your precinct meetings,
which I believe are going to be Brittobionce. You can
probably tell us the second week of February. And it's
really really important if you want to have a say
and who our next governor is, who are next anything
is that you get involved, go to your precinct, that
(04:48):
your neighborhood level meetings and offer to be a delegate,
and then you can go to the county Assembly and
then you can offer to be a state delegate and
you can be one of the people who decides who
gets on at Assembly, which I think everyone's going through
except for Barb Kirkmeyer. She's my understanding is she's petitioning
on is that your understanding.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Yes, I believe so, but I'll confirm that with her tomorrow.
And I obviously can go through one of two processes,
the petitioning process or the assembly process, where you and
I both know it's.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
A free for all.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Now take us back in time, Heidi, because you went
through this directly, and you're a perfect person to ask
this of at the assembly.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You and and Greg Lope has made it on the ballot. Sure.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
And then, however, there was some controversy when it came
to Danielle Newscheiner.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Right, if I'm not mistaken, can.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
You get controversy in her own mind?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
What happened there?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
She thought that the votes were rigged and that she
should have made the ballot say.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It in a Trump voice and say it was totally rigged.
Did she do that? Because if so, then.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Maybe, But she said, I wasn't so huge. I can't
imitate him like you.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, that's you.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
It was imitating her imitating him, So I'll allow it.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Danielle. Oh my, Danielle. Danielle.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah, So I went through assembly and Greg did to
a lot of people did and or actually Danielle, I
can't remember who else was on the assembly lineup I've
blocked it from my memory. And then I also petitioned on,
so I did both, and it's it's a crazy world
we live in here in Colorado, and I understand why
(06:21):
candidates pick each or each way, but it looks like
Barb is going to petition on, which means you hire
a company typically to help you. And the biggest company
here in Colorado is Blitz, who's owned by Josh Penry
and his folks at seventy six Group. They that's part
of their that's a division of their company, and they
(06:42):
pretty much run politics for about twenty years in Colorado,
and I just don't think they've done a very good
job at all. So one of my questions for Barb
would be, how are you working with Penry, seventy six Group, Blitz.
You know, Bill Owens is tied into that with Advanced Colorado.
Like if we talk about establishment in Colorado, that is
(07:03):
the establishment. They have run Colorado politics for the last
two decades. And here we are, right so it's time
for some fresh blood, some new people to get involved,
not just in running, but in running campaigns and running
ballot initiatives and being on the front lines of fundraising
and doing things differently here because people don't come to
(07:24):
Colorado to work on campaigns because on the Republican side
we don't win, which if we don't win, that means
there's not a lot of donors excited to give, which
means there's not a lot of money to make.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
So you get like these folks.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Who are here and get all the business and do
all the fundraising and all the campaign management, and they
a lot of times milk candidates dry, especially the federal candidates.
Candidates for US Senate and Congress, make a lot of money.
They bring in a lot of money, and consultants typically
charge a commission on everything they do.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So one of the things.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I've been working on over the last couple of years
is the Road to Red project and finding ways to
get candidates and campaigns very inexpensive options that cut the
middleman out, like texting and direct mail and all the
things they need for their campaigns and data and more
like a co op arrangement where candidates pitch in together
to do these things.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And it's working out pretty well.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
We just worked on seven different school board races to
help them and with that approach and we wont some,
we lost some, but it's a new approach that we're
trying to basically make sure that every dollar is spent
on the actual race and not in the consultants' pockets.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
But I digress.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
So, if you go through the assembly process, Heidi, what
is the percentage of the vote in that venue that
you have to get to secure a place on the
ballot for governor?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Thirty percent?
Speaker 5 (08:44):
So if it's thirty you and Greg, let's say the
last time around, it is possible mathematically, though by a
narrow margin, most likely that three candidates could emerge and
appear on the primary ballot through the Assembly.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yes, okay, unlikely, but possible.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And so if Barb wanted to go through to petition
and go through Assembly, she would have to get ten
percent of the vote at the Assembly to get on
the ballot. If she did not, her petitions would be invalid.
She would not get on the primary ballot. So here's
what I think is happening, and then we can come
back after the break and talk more about this. I
think the consultants are trying to work with Marx and
(09:20):
Bottoms to help both so that they both get on
the ballot at Assembly and Kirkmeyer petitions on and then
Bottoms and Mark split the vote and Kirkmeyer gets the
primary win.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Interesting, my prediction, that's solid. Yes, I mean you're going
out there. You didn't like, you know, kind of dance around.
You're like, Nope, this is going to happen. Direct result.
There you go.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Well, I've seen how the sausage is made, Ryan, you are,
and I know how the consultants work, i know how
the campaigns work. I'm seeing how everybody's positioning right now.
And that's my prediction. So we're going to go to
a break, We're going to come back and afterwards, I'm
going to address many of these accusations that Scott Bottom's made.
This is Hidi canna All filling in for Dan Capless.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And now back to the Dankapless Show podcast.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
Hello.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Hello, it's Heidi Gannall filling in for Dan Capless with
my friend Ryan Schuling, who's helping me out.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Ryan, this is like your third show of the day.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I don't know what time it is.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
You're doing great, You're doing great. Congratulations on the new
time slot. I'm really excited for you.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Well deserved, appreciate it, but you got a promise to
come on with you from time to time.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I will wait, Oh I don't like those early.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
No, no, no, we'll go later in the morning, so like,
you know, eight o'clock, nine o'clock.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Hour or something like that.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Okay, that may Does that sound better? Yeah, it's a
little bit better.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Not great.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
But you're a night owl like me, aren't you? Totally?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I stay up till one two in the morning.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I used to. I won't know. Oh, I'm a little
sad about it.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Waits. You get old like me too.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
It's harder and harder, but then you just wake up
at three in the morning and work.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Well no, no, no, all right, Ryan, Yeah, I'm pretty
ticked off.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
I understand, Scott Bottoms. What are you even talking about?
I wrote some notes. I'm apparently broke. I'm interviewing for
five jobs.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
In Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
You did bring your tin coup in here.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
I got my tea at McDonald's instead of Starbucks.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh my god, I know.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And that I am.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I recruited Victor Marx so that I could slide in
and make money off of him because I wanted to.
After Barb didn't make it for the establishment, I was
going to put him as the establishment candidate, and I
didn't support Scott Bottoms because he's not part of the system.
So all of this is oh, and the last one
is I'm not conservative or I'm not conservative enough. Well,
(11:45):
I'm going to start with the five jobs in DC,
and then I broke. I talked a little bit about
my year so far, and the last couple of years
have been rough. Like I said, I've been fighting breast cancer.
I'm in the clear now. I'm very blessed they caught
it early. I'm good for this year, and I have
three kids that are in middle school and high school.
(12:06):
I'm not moving to Washington, DC, and I haven't been
interviewing for five jobs.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
That's ridiculous. I did help Ase.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Scholarships for a year after the governor's race, which is
an incredible nonprofit that helps kids get out of the
public school system under private schools, and I became kind
of an expert on education savings.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Accounts around the country.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
So I went and met with the Department of Education
several times and talked to them about helping them with
their messaging around school choice and helping them with governors
around the country because I know so many of them
but I wasn't going to move to d C.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I was going to do it from my lovely home
in Colorado. And speaking of that.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
If I'm not conservative, how did I get endorsed by
Sarah Sanders and Glenn Youngkin and Elis Stephonic and Clay
and Buck and Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Who I've known for many years? Also, I am not broke.
I'm fine. I'm very blessed. We are very blessed.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
And we've worked very very hard, my husband and I
as entrepreneurs, building our businesses, building.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Our network, and also giving back. One of our big.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Things that we teach our kids that we're doing in
our family is giving back. And one of the things
I did to give back after the governor's race was
launched Rocky Mountain Voice, which is a five oh one
C three. It's a charity, Scott, It's not a for
profit organization that I'm running into the ground and going
broke over.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
It's doing very well.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
We have amazing supporters and we are becoming the voice
of the conservative movement in Colorado. Because it's really really
difficult to get your message out as a candidate, which
he's going to.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Find out pretty quickly. So that's some of the stuff
he said.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
As far as me being part of the system, nothing
could be further than the truth. I rebuffed the system
after my race, and I did several podcasts on my
Unleashed Podcasts exposing everything I learned about the system, the
establishment in the conservative movement, and I believe that I'm
one of the only ones that's name names and help
(14:08):
people accountable and walked away from deals and arrangements after
I ran so that I didn't have to be part
of that establishment system in Colorado, because I do think
that's why we are where we are after twenty years
of them running everything here. There are some good people
that are considered establishment, but most of them are consultants
(14:30):
that have been around too long, that have taken advantage
of too many people and are still running candidate's races
here and it's not going well.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
So that's what I have to say about most of it.
I think. On recruiting Victor, that's not true at all.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
I ran into Victor at my South Metro Republican breakfast
club meeting that I do once a month. I took
on as president of the Arapaho Republican Club. It's now
called the South Metro Club. It's been around for I
think twenty years or so. Very blessed to be helping
with that club. And Victor came up to me and said, Hey,
I'm thinking about running for governor.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I was like, Wow, that's wild, that's cool Victor.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
I've known Victor a long time, mostly through Turning Point
in Charlie Kirk, and he put me on his podcast
when I was running for governor.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And Victor is very charismatic.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
He has an incredible following three million or so people
around the country. He has an incredible background, quite a story,
and he asked if I would give him a little
mentoring talk to him about how to do this and
keep him from making some of the same mistakes that
I've completely admitted.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
And talked about that I did.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
So I agreed, and now I'm not involved in the
campaign at all. I'm helping on the pack side with
just donor introductions because one of the most important things
that we need to do for these candidates is help
them raise money. If you don't have twenty five to
thirty to forty to fifty million dollars and you're running
for governor in Colorado, you're not going to make a difference.
(15:57):
You can't make a dent. And here's where it'll happen,
where you get into trouble. You think you're doing fine,
and your naivea think I was naive enough to think
I could outwork the money, and so here I go.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
I'm raising a.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Decent amount of money, putting some of my own money in,
and you can only raise fourteen hundred and fifty dollars
per donor, or you can put in as much as
you want. As a candidate, wh I was running against
Jared Polis, and the way the Democrats do it is
Polis put twelve million into his campaign fund, but then
he put another twenty or so million dollars into various nonprofits,
political nonprofits, and they do the work for him, doing flyers, ads,
(16:32):
door knocking, all of that. And so we put in
about thirty three million dollars. That's the money that we
could track through all these nonprofits, and we had about
three million in the campaign and then another two million
that a pack put out there for us that helped
a little bit, so about thirty five million to five million.
So one of the key messages I've been yelling from
(16:54):
the rooftops is you've got to raise money. You've got
to raise money. Because what happens is you're doing fine,
and then all of a sudden, ballots drop for the primary.
Ballots drop, and boy guess what, they help the opponent
of the candidate that they think is going to be
the toughest to beat. So no offense, Greg Lopez, but
they thought I was going to be tougher to beat,
so they put three million dollars into the primary to
(17:17):
help Greg win the race and be the more conservative candidate.
We had to spend a lot of our money that
we were saving for the general on our side to
win that primary. So we come out, we're bruised, we're battered,
we're broke, and they get us to say a lot
of things that didn't help us in the general. And
that's the tricks they pull. So then you go into
(17:38):
the general election and things are going pretty well. You're
raising some decent money, you're getting some hits on Fox
News or whatever. They wouldn't put me on or no,
Maria did, and so did the lor Ingram. But anyway,
all of a sudden ballads drop and my consultants, who
guess I had a consultant, the one who ran Glenn
Youngkin's race for Axiom. She was excellent and she was great.
(17:58):
She was very transparent about how they made money. I
made sure that and they were helpful. But here's what
she said to me. She goes, how do everything feels
great this summer? And all of a sudden, when ballots drop,
they're going to drop twenty million dollars worth of ADS
on your head and you're going to walk into every
room and there's going to be an AD on every TV.
And that's when the real money matters. We're going to
talk more about that after we talked to Britta. I'm
(18:20):
going to keep going on this because I want the
candidates to learn from my mistakes. This is how do
you get all filling in for Dan Kaplas up next
with Britta Horn.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
You don't miss Noah Well, Ryan, that warms my heart.
The Beach Boys were my brother's favorite band on the
entire earth.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
He started playing.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Beach Boys albums records when he was three years old.
He eventually became a sound engineer and mastered vinyl records,
but he also helped me start camp Bow Wow Yeah
he's the one who prompted me after my first husband
passed away to which is one of his dear friends too,
to get that going and help me found it. And
then he went on to live his own dream being
(19:17):
a sound engineer and married his awesome wife, Debora, who
was an eighties rock star. She was the lead singer
of Romeo Void.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, I didn't know that. Fun fat We'll have to
play never say Never later.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I'm going to do that next.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
That's Debora's big hit. They had a couple of hits.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Incredible. I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Yeah, so oh cool. My heart goes out to Debora.
But back to politics. You know, Scott, this is not
the way you win. You got to stay focused on
policy and having good solutions.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And victor two.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
I'm gonna have the conversation with both of them. And
you gotta raise money. My point before we went to
break was if we don't have a lot of money,
to fight back with messaging to the voters, because ads matter.
People don't pay attention. The average voters don't pay attention
until ballots drop. And you've got to have TV ads,
you've got to have flyers, you've gotta have radio ads,
You've got to have text messages, you've got to have
(20:08):
door knockers. All of that costs a lot of money.
And I didn't really have much of a pack to
help me or outside money, which is how the Democrats
do it. And so whoever's going to be the nominee
of against Bennett and Wiser has got to have a
war chest. And so the most important thing I can
do is make connections for our candidates to donors who
(20:30):
still believe in Colorado and want to invest in races here,
and there are a lot of them, but they're feeling deflated,
they're feeling sad. They want to be excited by someone.
And part of why I got behind Victor is because
there are a lot of people nationally who are excited
about Victor and who feel like he's the right guy
to tip things over in Colorado. And so I decided
(20:53):
to help on the donation side with Victor on the
pack side. I do think that we've got a laser
focus on the four congressional races. Ryan.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
We are in dire.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Need of support for those four candidates. The House is
going to be so important, and I was running the
numbers like on how we won twenty two versus twenty four.
CD three we lost like five points. CD four we
lost thirteen points. So we lost by more like thirteen
points more in twenty four than.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
We did in twenty two.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Now there's redistricting two, so that affected a little bit.
CD five we lost a few points, and CD eight's
a toss up.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
So we've got some real battles.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
For Gabe and Jeff Hurd and Jeff Crank and Lauren
that we have to pay attention to.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
So if one of the.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Governor candidates breaks through and raises a lot of money
and makes some noise and puts up a fight and
has a good war chest, then yes, we should put
resources behind them.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
But if they don't, if they're going to keep having
a food fight.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
As one of the Texters said, as a sixty year
old native of Colorado who grew up as a Conservative,
I also raise two daughters, I won't contribute to this batch.
This group of Republican candidates reminds me of the adolescent
angst of teenage girls I witnessed in high school. It's
sad to see my state keep trying to win on
the race to the bottom. So that's pretty depressing. But
(22:18):
I want to give you some hope. You guys, I
want to bring Britta Horn on the chair of the
Republican Party to talk about something. They're going well for
our party. The things that are turning around. The momentum
is changing a little bit. We've got some good opportunities
coming up. Britta, what say you?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Hey?
Speaker 7 (22:34):
Thanks for having us. Yes, we have so many cool
things going on. Let's just keep moving forward and be positive.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
It's hard to do that when there's people slinging mud
at you all day long.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I know you know the feeling.
Speaker 7 (22:46):
Please please, I don't know who they're dealing with. Let's
go on to better things. So, yes, we're going to
have an assembly. Heidi, thank you very much for letting
us put our press release out last Friday on Rocky
Mountain Voice. I mean, yes, we're having an assembly where
I can't tell you get because we're still looking so
we can unpack ab up the timeline. But we have
(23:07):
right now we locations and Heidi, you know how big
this state is. How many times we've circled the square state.
There are three different locations and somebody's going to have
to drive. But hopefully right this week we'll get a
contract on my desk that I can put a wet
signature on because we're definitely looking at location. How many
(23:28):
people we can have in it. Is it gonna have
the stage, is gonna have the microphones, We're gonna be
able to have parking? You know, because on Friday, the
day before, I got ahead. I got so ahead. I'm sorry,
I'm so excited about it. So it's gonna be on
a Saturday. Then somebody's gonna be in a Saturday. And
the way it's set up by the Secretary of State,
if either has to be Saturday March twenty seventh through
(23:49):
the third Saturday in April, which is the eighteenth. We
chose not to do the twenty seventh because other county
assemblies are going on it over and that's not cool.
Then April first weekend in April is Easter, so we
really only have those two Saturdays. But is that tenth
(24:09):
and eighteenth? Someone check me right?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Eleventh or eighteenth? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (24:13):
Yeah, And then so they got to be in those days,
and then on the Friday, we have to still have
a location or have a place that we can still
have all the multi county assemblies, So the single county
assemblies can go on in their area, you know what
I mean, in their county, but the multi county assemblies
are going to have to be gathered together the day
before and then after that we're going to have a big,
you know, centennial dinner. So we got lots of moving
(24:36):
parts and getting these things done.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Britta, How is fundraising going, not just for the party,
but for candidates, like for the congressional candidates, for the
people that are already ahead of the curve running incumbents running.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Across the state.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Are they feeling good about their efforts or are they
feeling you know, iffy.
Speaker 7 (24:56):
Well, it's just that everybody's you know, fundraising, fund raising
like really from the same pot, you know what I mean.
So we're all you know, working, you know, again for
each other and against each other. So it's like it's
an interesting conundrum to have. But I think I know
from the R and C when I first mount with
them in April that they were like, notes, hands down,
we are going to make sure we win three, four,
(25:17):
five and eight. You know, we want to have offices there,
we want to have regional directors there, we want to
have staff there. We have got to win those four
and as you know, as you said earlier, Gabe Evans
is the number one race in this country. They say
it's going to be one hundred million dollar race. So
everybody's fundraising. So as I'm doing all its fundraising and
talking to donors, not only do they want to you know,
(25:38):
max out with us, but they're saying we're maxing out
with all the congressionals, you know, making sure that everybody win.
So we're hearing that across. But you know, like you said,
it's still work, a work in progress, so everybody needs
to help fundraise and including fundraising for the same party.
We only want a good Assembly. We really want to
have all these pieces, and the way we're going to
do that is from donations. So here's the plug. Just
(26:00):
go over to the website c o l ogp dot
org and donate and contribute help us out both in
twenty five and twenty six.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Hey, Ryan, can you play clip number eight where Scott
Bottoms talks about Britta and Britta. I'll let you respond
to this about fundraising for the Assembly.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Sorry, Ryan, am I putting you in a bad position?
Do do?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Do?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I'll play some elevator music Britta the claiming.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Now Heidi's bailing. I can explain that if you want
me to. And and bretda Horn is just trying to
use him. So so Victor sent out this message. He
actually called and left a message on my voicemail saying, Hey,
this state party can't afford to have assembly, can you
they need seventy thousand dollars? Can you get money from
(26:49):
your campaign? And so I send him this text. I
can show you the text. I thought, okay that this
is unethical, This isn't appropriate for him to ask that question.
And I specific have people that are given to me
that have said do not give to the state party.
And our state parties never had a problem raise money
up until now.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Okay, Britta, what say you is that? Is that accurate?
Speaker 7 (27:12):
Actually, all we have had so many candidates across the board,
not just governor candidates, all across the board has been
you know, really helping and they've been coming together nicely
and helping us whatever we want to help with. So
some are sending you know, information on strategy, some are
connecting contacting us and giving us information for other people
we could call out to get some money for the
assembly and for the party. And then also you know,
(27:33):
another candidate, but I don't want to say all their
names because they've been so helpful that it is so
you know, with solution oriented. Another candidate's even helping us
with another location for the assembly. They're like, hey, do
you check out this place? So you know, when we
have conversations with candidates and he has somebody that you know,
gets together with you and he's like, what can you
do to what can we do to help the party,
And I'm like, fundraise, fund raises us. Any candidate confirm
(27:56):
raised for the party, and they should since the Assembly
is going to matter for them. There's nothing, you know,
nothing else, and any statement to that contrary is contrary,
is just flat out inaccurate.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Well, I'm pretty and we have to go to break
in just a minute, so let's end.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Let's wrap on this.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Scott Bottoms accuses you and I of recruiting Victor Marx
to be a candidate so that we can fundraise off
of him apparently or make money off of him and
stop Bottoms from being governor because Barb Kirkmeyer couldn't do
the job she lost momentum.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Is there any truth to that? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (28:33):
The only only tis I heard earlier from here today
is that this is not how you run a campaign.
This is not how you win. You know, we definitely
have to follow let's say, the last, the very last,
you know, Reagan's eleven you know, commandment, thou show that
big ill of other Republicans, turn it around, look outside
the tent, and shoot outside the tent proverbally against you know,
(28:54):
against the other party. We need to start winning races,
and this is not how we're going to win.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Thank you, Breda, and I agree. There is no truth
whatsoever from my end to any of that. Scott, So
you're very mistaken. I don't know who's telling you that.
I know you're very close with Dave Williams and Darcy
and obviously they have some feelings about Britta and I
maybe that's where this is coming from. But we're going
to go to break. Thanks Britta for joining us and
giving us an update. Okay, Merry Christmas, take care. This
(29:22):
is how you can all filling in for Dan Kplas.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
We'll be right back after the break.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
And now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Ah, thanks Ryan, there it is. That is my sister
in law's big hit, Never Say Never. She was the
lead singer of Romeo Void. She's a sweetheart and she's
going through a really tough time now.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Patrick and her they had a real love story and
they're two puppy dogs.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
They're very very sad right now. So hugs to Deborah.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
That's a classic punk rocker from the eighties. That song very.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Well, it was a big deal.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
She's still very beloved, has a huge following and does
a lot of music still. My brothers was a drummer too,
and they had a band called the ratone three. They
moved to Raton, New Mexico to retire and had a
ball and just traveled around doing lots of you know, gigs.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
I guess they call them. I'm not a music person, but.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Anyway, Yeah, it's been a rough go, but loved Bora
and love her music.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
A Girl in Trouble was another big hit they had,
correct right.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
One thing that really bothers me is when people say
I'm not conservative or I'm not conservative enough. It's the
ten year anniversary of me running for regent at SU
and I'm the last elected Republicans statewide in Colorado. I'm
the last standing and I've had a lot of projects,
a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
I've done over the years.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
I started out in education helping Golden View Classical Academy
get started out there. It's a classical, great classical school
out in Golden and then I ended up trying to
open in a cent classical school up in Boulder and
went toe to toe with the Boulder Valley School District.
We had seven hundred kids ready to attend that school
and it got turned down. I chaired the efforts for
Amendments Y and Z that allowed us to do redistricting
(31:15):
in a more fair way, and I chaired Proposition CC
to protect Tabor. And then I was the board chair
for Job Creators Network, which is Bernie Marcus's organization that
helped fight for small businesses all over the country and
helped pass Trump's tax cuts in twenty seventeen, and also
fought the National Labor Relations Board. I co chaired no
(31:37):
on Proposition one thirteen, which was to protect the Electoral College.
I don't know if you remember that one the National
Popular Vote effort, and I have been on many boards
Common Sense Institute, which is a great think tank here.
I'm still on ACTA, which is the American Council for
Trustees and Alumni which is fighting hard in higher education.
Hank Brown was on the board with me there, and
(31:59):
I'm on the of American Conservation Coalition, which is an
amazing group of young people eighty thousand members across the
country that are getting fighting to get back the conversation
around the environment because we are truly the Party of Conservation,
the Party of Teddy Roosevelt. And then I'm very involved
with Turning Point and have been for over ten years.
(32:20):
I got to know Charlie when my daughter ran for
student body government at University of Oregon and we helped
Marcus get elected as one of the first conservative student
body leaders at See You Boulder, and just been.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Involved for a long time.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
And one of the positive things that I'm excited about
is helping to get chapters of Turning Point open at
high schools all over Colorado. We've got eighty plus chapters now,
high school chapters across Colorado. And then of course as
a regent, And I'm going to stop going on and
on in a minute, but i want this to be
recorded so Scott.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Can go through it and listen to it.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
And here why I've got my conservative credentials even though
I'm not running for anything. When I won that race
in twenty sixteen, I pulled off a miracle and beat
Alice Madden, who was one of the crafters of the Blueprint.
And I spent the next six years protecting free speech,
promoting civics education, starting the Free to Be Coalition, which is.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
A debate club.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
I put forward a resolution to allow for COVID exemptions,
I mean the vaccine exemptions. And I did a resolution
to stop the Confucius Institute, which is the Chinese infiltration
into the universities, all kinds of stuff. I chaired the
search committee for our Republican conservative president, Mark Kennedy, who
(33:35):
got in there until the Liberals flipped the board. So
you know, I'm very proud of everything I've done. I'm
proud of winning the nomination for governor in twenty two
I fought like crazy to win back our state along
with many many great people around Colorado who supported me
and helped me. And I tried to share the lessons
(33:56):
that I learned from that race so that the candidates
now can learn from what I went through.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Things I would have done differently.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
How not to trust the consulting class, how to how
to raise enough money so that you can actually win
here in Colorado. And I'm not going to ever apologize
for my conservative credentials. I think what happens is people
look at a couple issues like abortion or gun rights,
which I'm a huge Second Amendment supporter. My dad was
(34:24):
a police officer, I have my constill carry, I've been
shooting guns since I was a kid, and they put
a litmus test on everything right. But you can't lead
with a lot of these issues when you run in
a blue state. You've got to lead with things that
are going to bring people together. And my best advice
for you guys right now is to run on affordability. Affordability, affordability,
(34:45):
that is the most important issue, like on the front
lines right now.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Now.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
What's going to happen is and why Rocky Mountain Voice
was so important to launch, is that the liberal media
is going to twist what you say. You're going to
say I'm not going to talk about abortion in Colorado,
I'm not going to talk about trans I'm not going
to talk about any of the things that are controversial
so that I can win the unaffiliated voters.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
And the media is going to take one headline that you.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Said five years ago and plaster it all over Colorado,
and they've got millions of dollars to push that through
with dads, and then.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
You lose control of the narrative.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
So it's important that we have ways for you to
get your message out.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
This is how you get all filling in for Dan Kaplas.
We'll be back after the break with more
This is Dan Capless and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Hello, Hello, it's been a little while, Ryan. I am
so glad of you.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Backed.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
This is Heidigan All filling in for Dan Caples today.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I remember you.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Damn it's been a year, Ryan.
Speaker 5 (00:26):
Dang, yeah, you see Dan, No, I forgot sorry, don't say.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The GV before it just damn, you're good.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Oh man, it's yeah. I haven't been able to be
on for a while. It's been really rough for our
family after getting through breast cancer this whole year. My
little brother, who was a door passed away very suddenly
on Halloween night, and it's just him and I were
the only siblings, and we're very close to my mom
(00:55):
and dad and his wife, and it has been devastating
for our family. And so I checked out for a
little bit. And it's been one of the roughest things
I've ever gone through in my life. And you know,
I just want to remind everybody how precious life is
and get I get reminded of this a lot in
my life. For whatever reason, the big Guy thinks that
(01:15):
I need to get smacked around every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
And I've been through a lot over the years.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
But life is so precious, and especially during these holidays,
you know, forget the gifts. It's all about the people
in your life, your family, your loved ones, your friends.
They are so precious and it's so so important to
make them a priority in everything that you do. And
you know, it's just it's just a big reminder of that.
(01:41):
And as we're headed into Christmas in the holiday season
and Hanukah is going on, so yeah, that's it's been
a rough go of it. I'm sorry i haven't been
on in a while, but I'm glad to be back.
And boy, you know, Ryan, I was going to make
this a fun, fun show today, lots of Christmas talk, upbeat,
positive And.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Then you interviewed Scott Bottoms.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Why did I do that?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Oh my gosh, he went ballistic on me, like, I
don't know how I got in the mix of this.
I know a little bit of like why he thinks
I did. But there is a lot of a lot
of falsehoods flying around with everybody. But I have a
whole list of things he said that are like, what
the heck?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
That is ridiculous? So where do I even start?
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Tis the season, Heidi, And what I'll do is we'll
play all Christmas songs coming back from breaks, so we'll
have that bass coup. But it's also the political season.
And as you alluded to, Scott Bottoms was on with
me here locally in Denver on six thirty k HOW
today and he did mention you by name, and he
did mention Britta Horn by name, and you both will
(02:45):
have your say during this program, you of course throughout
as the host, but then Britta Horn will be joining
us at four thirty six to respond to some of
the comments, which I've edited for you in SoundBite fashion,
and we'll get to some of those, hopefully in just
a little bit. But also I interviewed Victor Marx a
couple of days ago, and that's why Scott Bottoms reached
out to me, and he wanted to come on and
(03:05):
respond to what Victor said. So now, as I told you,
during just before we went on, Barb Kirkmeyer heard what
Scott Bottoms and what Victor Mark said and she'll be
coming on with me tomorrow, so we're.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Covering the bases.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Heidi, are you gonna put all twenty three candidates? Absolutely not,
but oh my goodness, I can't believe.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
There's not many.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
What I will do so just to kind of encapsulate
it for those that are just tuning in. Are not
as big as nerds about all this as you and
I are, And God bless you if that's the case,
and God love you because it's that season. But I've
had Sheriff Mike solon, I intend to have Senator Mark
Baisley on. I've had Greg Lopez on and have on
the regular. So all those candidates that'll be appearing in
(03:47):
a forum up in Greeley. That'll be Saturday, January tenth,
one thirty to three thirty pm. It is open to
the public, but tickets are free and they're going fast.
Steve Wells and Sheriff Steve Reems have set it up
there in Wild County and Mandy Connell and I will
be moderating this forum, so forum debate.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
They're going to give their takes on things.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
Mandy and I are determined to ask very sharp, pointed
questions though to each of the candidates without fear or favor.
They've agreed to it, well five of the six anyway,
and we're looking forward to that vetting process that needs
to take place as we head toward the Assembly and
choose who's going to be on the primary ballot. So
that's a good summation I think of where we're at
right now.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Yeah, And I would remind everybody Ryan if people want
to get involved, engaged, the best place to do that
is in your neighborhood, like go to your precinct meetings,
which I believe are going to be Brittobionce. You can
probably tell us the second week of February. And it's
really really important if you want to have a say
and who our next governor is, who are next anything
is that you get involved, go to your precinct, that
(04:48):
your neighborhood level meetings and offer to be a delegate,
and then you can go to the county Assembly and
then you can offer to be a state delegate and
you can be one of the people who decides who
gets on at Assembly, which I think everyone's going through
except for Barb Kirkmeyer. She's my understanding is she's petitioning
on is that your understanding.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
Yes, I believe so, but I'll confirm that with her tomorrow.
And I obviously can go through one of two processes,
the petitioning process or the assembly process, where you and
I both know it's.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
A free for all.
Speaker 6 (05:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Now take us back in time, Heidi, because you went
through this directly, and you're a perfect person to ask
this of at the assembly.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You and and Greg Lope has made it on the ballot. Sure.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
And then, however, there was some controversy when it came
to Danielle Newscheiner.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Right, if I'm not mistaken, can.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
You get controversy in her own mind?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
What happened there?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
She thought that the votes were rigged and that she
should have made the ballot say.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
It in a Trump voice and say it was totally rigged.
Did she do that? Because if so, then.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Maybe, But she said, I wasn't so huge. I can't
imitate him like you.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, that's you.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
It was imitating her imitating him, So I'll allow it.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Yeah, that's pretty much it. Danielle. Oh my, Danielle. Danielle.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah, So I went through assembly and Greg did to
a lot of people did and or actually Danielle, I
can't remember who else was on the assembly lineup I've
blocked it from my memory. And then I also petitioned on,
so I did both, and it's it's a crazy world
we live in here in Colorado, and I understand why
(06:21):
candidates pick each or each way, but it looks like
Barb is going to petition on, which means you hire
a company typically to help you. And the biggest company
here in Colorado is Blitz, who's owned by Josh Penry
and his folks at seventy six Group. They that's part
of their that's a division of their company, and they
(06:42):
pretty much run politics for about twenty years in Colorado,
and I just don't think they've done a very good
job at all. So one of my questions for Barb
would be, how are you working with Penry, seventy six Group, Blitz.
You know, Bill Owens is tied into that with Advanced Colorado.
Like if we talk about establishment in Colorado, that is
(07:03):
the establishment. They have run Colorado politics for the last
two decades. And here we are, right so it's time
for some fresh blood, some new people to get involved,
not just in running, but in running campaigns and running
ballot initiatives and being on the front lines of fundraising
and doing things differently here because people don't come to
(07:24):
Colorado to work on campaigns because on the Republican side
we don't win, which if we don't win, that means
there's not a lot of donors excited to give, which
means there's not a lot of money to make.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
So you get like these folks.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Who are here and get all the business and do
all the fundraising and all the campaign management, and they
a lot of times milk candidates dry, especially the federal candidates.
Candidates for US Senate and Congress, make a lot of money.
They bring in a lot of money, and consultants typically
charge a commission on everything they do.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
So one of the things.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I've been working on over the last couple of years
is the Road to Red project and finding ways to
get candidates and campaigns very inexpensive options that cut the
middleman out, like texting and direct mail and all the
things they need for their campaigns and data and more
like a co op arrangement where candidates pitch in together
to do these things.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
And it's working out pretty well.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
We just worked on seven different school board races to
help them and with that approach and we wont some,
we lost some, but it's a new approach that we're
trying to basically make sure that every dollar is spent
on the actual race and not in the consultants' pockets.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
But I digress.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
So, if you go through the assembly process, Heidi, what
is the percentage of the vote in that venue that
you have to get to secure a place on the
ballot for governor?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Thirty percent?
Speaker 5 (08:44):
So if it's thirty you and Greg, let's say the
last time around, it is possible mathematically, though by a
narrow margin, most likely that three candidates could emerge and
appear on the primary ballot through the Assembly.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yes, okay, unlikely, but possible.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
And so if Barb wanted to go through to petition
and go through Assembly, she would have to get ten
percent of the vote at the Assembly to get on
the ballot. If she did not, her petitions would be invalid.
She would not get on the primary ballot. So here's
what I think is happening, and then we can come
back after the break and talk more about this. I
think the consultants are trying to work with Marx and
(09:20):
Bottoms to help both so that they both get on
the ballot at Assembly and Kirkmeyer petitions on and then
Bottoms and Mark split the vote and Kirkmeyer gets the
primary win.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
Interesting, my prediction, that's solid. Yes, I mean you're going
out there. You didn't like, you know, kind of dance around.
You're like, Nope, this is going to happen. Direct result.
There you go.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Well, I've seen how the sausage is made, Ryan, you are,
and I know how the consultants work, i know how
the campaigns work. I'm seeing how everybody's positioning right now.
And that's my prediction. So we're going to go to
a break, We're going to come back and afterwards, I'm
going to address many of these accusations that Scott Bottom's made.
This is Hidi canna All filling in for Dan Capless.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
And now back to the Dankapless Show podcast.
Speaker 6 (10:07):
Hello.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Hello, it's Heidi Gannall filling in for Dan Capless with
my friend Ryan Schuling, who's helping me out.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Ryan, this is like your third show of the day.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I don't know what time it is.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
You're doing great, You're doing great. Congratulations on the new
time slot. I'm really excited for you.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
Well deserved, appreciate it, but you got a promise to
come on with you from time to time.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I will wait, Oh I don't like those early.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
No, no, no, we'll go later in the morning, so like,
you know, eight o'clock, nine o'clock.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Hour or something like that.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Okay, that may Does that sound better? Yeah, it's a
little bit better.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Not great.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
But you're a night owl like me, aren't you? Totally?
Speaker 3 (10:40):
I stay up till one two in the morning.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
I used to. I won't know. Oh, I'm a little
sad about it.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Waits. You get old like me too.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
It's harder and harder, but then you just wake up
at three in the morning and work.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
Well no, no, no, all right, Ryan, Yeah, I'm pretty
ticked off.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
I understand, Scott Bottoms. What are you even talking about?
I wrote some notes. I'm apparently broke. I'm interviewing for
five jobs.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
In Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
You did bring your tin coup in here.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
I got my tea at McDonald's instead of Starbucks.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh my god, I know.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And that I am.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I recruited Victor Marx so that I could slide in
and make money off of him because I wanted to.
After Barb didn't make it for the establishment, I was
going to put him as the establishment candidate, and I
didn't support Scott Bottoms because he's not part of the system.
So all of this is oh, and the last one
is I'm not conservative or I'm not conservative enough. Well,
(11:45):
I'm going to start with the five jobs in DC,
and then I broke. I talked a little bit about
my year so far, and the last couple of years
have been rough. Like I said, I've been fighting breast cancer.
I'm in the clear now. I'm very blessed they caught
it early. I'm good for this year, and I have
three kids that are in middle school and high school.
(12:06):
I'm not moving to Washington, DC, and I haven't been
interviewing for five jobs.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
That's ridiculous. I did help Ase.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Scholarships for a year after the governor's race, which is
an incredible nonprofit that helps kids get out of the
public school system under private schools, and I became kind
of an expert on education savings.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Accounts around the country.
Speaker 4 (12:24):
So I went and met with the Department of Education
several times and talked to them about helping them with
their messaging around school choice and helping them with governors
around the country because I know so many of them
but I wasn't going to move to d C.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
I was going to do it from my lovely home
in Colorado. And speaking of that.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
If I'm not conservative, how did I get endorsed by
Sarah Sanders and Glenn Youngkin and Elis Stephonic and Clay
and Buck and Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Who I've known for many years? Also, I am not broke.
I'm fine. I'm very blessed. We are very blessed.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
And we've worked very very hard, my husband and I
as entrepreneurs, building our businesses, building.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Our network, and also giving back. One of our big.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Things that we teach our kids that we're doing in
our family is giving back. And one of the things
I did to give back after the governor's race was
launched Rocky Mountain Voice, which is a five oh one
C three. It's a charity, Scott, It's not a for
profit organization that I'm running into the ground and going
broke over.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
It's doing very well.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
We have amazing supporters and we are becoming the voice
of the conservative movement in Colorado. Because it's really really
difficult to get your message out as a candidate, which
he's going to.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Find out pretty quickly. So that's some of the stuff
he said.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
As far as me being part of the system, nothing
could be further than the truth. I rebuffed the system
after my race, and I did several podcasts on my
Unleashed Podcasts exposing everything I learned about the system, the
establishment in the conservative movement, and I believe that I'm
one of the only ones that's name names and help
(14:08):
people accountable and walked away from deals and arrangements after
I ran so that I didn't have to be part
of that establishment system in Colorado, because I do think
that's why we are where we are after twenty years
of them running everything here. There are some good people
that are considered establishment, but most of them are consultants
(14:30):
that have been around too long, that have taken advantage
of too many people and are still running candidate's races
here and it's not going well.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
So that's what I have to say about most of it.
I think. On recruiting Victor, that's not true at all.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
I ran into Victor at my South Metro Republican breakfast
club meeting that I do once a month. I took
on as president of the Arapaho Republican Club. It's now
called the South Metro Club. It's been around for I
think twenty years or so. Very blessed to be helping
with that club. And Victor came up to me and said, Hey,
I'm thinking about running for governor.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I was like, Wow, that's wild, that's cool Victor.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
I've known Victor a long time, mostly through Turning Point
in Charlie Kirk, and he put me on his podcast
when I was running for governor.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And Victor is very charismatic.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
He has an incredible following three million or so people
around the country. He has an incredible background, quite a story,
and he asked if I would give him a little
mentoring talk to him about how to do this and
keep him from making some of the same mistakes that
I've completely admitted.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
And talked about that I did.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
So I agreed, and now I'm not involved in the
campaign at all. I'm helping on the pack side with
just donor introductions because one of the most important things
that we need to do for these candidates is help
them raise money. If you don't have twenty five to
thirty to forty to fifty million dollars and you're running
for governor in Colorado, you're not going to make a difference.
(15:57):
You can't make a dent. And here's where it'll happen,
where you get into trouble. You think you're doing fine,
and your naivea think I was naive enough to think
I could outwork the money, and so here I go.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
I'm raising a.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Decent amount of money, putting some of my own money in,
and you can only raise fourteen hundred and fifty dollars
per donor, or you can put in as much as
you want. As a candidate, wh I was running against
Jared Polis, and the way the Democrats do it is
Polis put twelve million into his campaign fund, but then
he put another twenty or so million dollars into various nonprofits,
political nonprofits, and they do the work for him, doing flyers, ads,
(16:32):
door knocking, all of that. And so we put in
about thirty three million dollars. That's the money that we
could track through all these nonprofits, and we had about
three million in the campaign and then another two million
that a pack put out there for us that helped
a little bit, so about thirty five million to five million.
So one of the key messages I've been yelling from
(16:54):
the rooftops is you've got to raise money. You've got
to raise money. Because what happens is you're doing fine,
and then all of a sudden, ballots drop for the primary.
Ballots drop, and boy guess what, they help the opponent
of the candidate that they think is going to be
the toughest to beat. So no offense, Greg Lopez, but
they thought I was going to be tougher to beat,
so they put three million dollars into the primary to
(17:17):
help Greg win the race and be the more conservative candidate.
We had to spend a lot of our money that
we were saving for the general on our side to
win that primary. So we come out, we're bruised, we're battered,
we're broke, and they get us to say a lot
of things that didn't help us in the general. And
that's the tricks they pull. So then you go into
(17:38):
the general election and things are going pretty well. You're
raising some decent money, you're getting some hits on Fox
News or whatever. They wouldn't put me on or no,
Maria did, and so did the lor Ingram. But anyway,
all of a sudden ballads drop and my consultants, who
guess I had a consultant, the one who ran Glenn
Youngkin's race for Axiom. She was excellent and she was great.
(17:58):
She was very transparent about how they made money. I
made sure that and they were helpful. But here's what
she said to me. She goes, how do everything feels
great this summer? And all of a sudden, when ballots drop,
they're going to drop twenty million dollars worth of ADS
on your head and you're going to walk into every
room and there's going to be an AD on every TV.
And that's when the real money matters. We're going to
talk more about that after we talked to Britta. I'm
(18:20):
going to keep going on this because I want the
candidates to learn from my mistakes. This is how do
you get all filling in for Dan Kaplas up next
with Britta Horn.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
You don't miss Noah Well, Ryan, that warms my heart.
The Beach Boys were my brother's favorite band on the
entire earth.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
He started playing.
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Beach Boys albums records when he was three years old.
He eventually became a sound engineer and mastered vinyl records,
but he also helped me start camp Bow Wow Yeah
he's the one who prompted me after my first husband
passed away to which is one of his dear friends too,
to get that going and help me found it. And
then he went on to live his own dream being
(19:17):
a sound engineer and married his awesome wife, Debora, who
was an eighties rock star. She was the lead singer
of Romeo Void.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, I didn't know that. Fun fat We'll have to
play never say Never later.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I'm going to do that next.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
That's Debora's big hit. They had a couple of hits.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Incredible. I didn't know that.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Yeah, so oh cool. My heart goes out to Debora.
But back to politics. You know, Scott, this is not
the way you win. You got to stay focused on
policy and having good solutions.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
And victor two.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
I'm gonna have the conversation with both of them. And
you gotta raise money. My point before we went to
break was if we don't have a lot of money,
to fight back with messaging to the voters, because ads matter.
People don't pay attention. The average voters don't pay attention
until ballots drop. And you've got to have TV ads,
you've got to have flyers, you've gotta have radio ads,
You've got to have text messages, you've got to have
(20:08):
door knockers. All of that costs a lot of money.
And I didn't really have much of a pack to
help me or outside money, which is how the Democrats
do it. And so whoever's going to be the nominee
of against Bennett and Wiser has got to have a
war chest. And so the most important thing I can
do is make connections for our candidates to donors who
(20:30):
still believe in Colorado and want to invest in races here,
and there are a lot of them, but they're feeling deflated,
they're feeling sad. They want to be excited by someone.
And part of why I got behind Victor is because
there are a lot of people nationally who are excited
about Victor and who feel like he's the right guy
to tip things over in Colorado. And so I decided
(20:53):
to help on the donation side with Victor on the
pack side. I do think that we've got a laser
focus on the four congressional races. Ryan.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
We are in dire.
Speaker 4 (21:05):
Need of support for those four candidates. The House is
going to be so important, and I was running the
numbers like on how we won twenty two versus twenty four.
CD three we lost like five points. CD four we
lost thirteen points. So we lost by more like thirteen
points more in twenty four than.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
We did in twenty two.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Now there's redistricting two, so that affected a little bit.
CD five we lost a few points, and CD eight's
a toss up.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
So we've got some real battles.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
For Gabe and Jeff Hurd and Jeff Crank and Lauren
that we have to pay attention to.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
So if one of the.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
Governor candidates breaks through and raises a lot of money
and makes some noise and puts up a fight and
has a good war chest, then yes, we should put
resources behind them.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
But if they don't, if they're going to keep having
a food fight.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
As one of the Texters said, as a sixty year
old native of Colorado who grew up as a Conservative,
I also raise two daughters, I won't contribute to this batch.
This group of Republican candidates reminds me of the adolescent
angst of teenage girls I witnessed in high school. It's
sad to see my state keep trying to win on
the race to the bottom. So that's pretty depressing. But
(22:18):
I want to give you some hope. You guys, I
want to bring Britta Horn on the chair of the
Republican Party to talk about something. They're going well for
our party. The things that are turning around. The momentum
is changing a little bit. We've got some good opportunities
coming up. Britta, what say you?
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Hey?
Speaker 7 (22:34):
Thanks for having us. Yes, we have so many cool
things going on. Let's just keep moving forward and be positive.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
It's hard to do that when there's people slinging mud
at you all day long.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
I know you know the feeling.
Speaker 7 (22:46):
Please please, I don't know who they're dealing with. Let's
go on to better things. So, yes, we're going to
have an assembly. Heidi, thank you very much for letting
us put our press release out last Friday on Rocky
Mountain Voice. I mean, yes, we're having an assembly where
I can't tell you get because we're still looking so
we can unpack ab up the timeline. But we have
(23:07):
right now we locations and Heidi, you know how big
this state is. How many times we've circled the square state.
There are three different locations and somebody's going to have
to drive. But hopefully right this week we'll get a
contract on my desk that I can put a wet
signature on because we're definitely looking at location. How many
(23:28):
people we can have in it. Is it gonna have
the stage, is gonna have the microphones, We're gonna be
able to have parking? You know, because on Friday, the
day before, I got ahead. I got so ahead. I'm sorry,
I'm so excited about it. So it's gonna be on
a Saturday. Then somebody's gonna be in a Saturday. And
the way it's set up by the Secretary of State,
if either has to be Saturday March twenty seventh through
(23:49):
the third Saturday in April, which is the eighteenth. We
chose not to do the twenty seventh because other county
assemblies are going on it over and that's not cool.
Then April first weekend in April is Easter, so we
really only have those two Saturdays. But is that tenth
(24:09):
and eighteenth? Someone check me right?
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Eleventh or eighteenth? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (24:13):
Yeah, And then so they got to be in those days,
and then on the Friday, we have to still have
a location or have a place that we can still
have all the multi county assemblies, So the single county
assemblies can go on in their area, you know what
I mean, in their county, but the multi county assemblies
are going to have to be gathered together the day
before and then after that we're going to have a big,
you know, centennial dinner. So we got lots of moving
(24:36):
parts and getting these things done.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
Britta, How is fundraising going, not just for the party,
but for candidates, like for the congressional candidates, for the
people that are already ahead of the curve running incumbents running.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Across the state.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
Are they feeling good about their efforts or are they
feeling you know, iffy.
Speaker 7 (24:56):
Well, it's just that everybody's you know, fundraising, fund raising
like really from the same pot, you know what I mean.
So we're all you know, working, you know, again for
each other and against each other. So it's like it's
an interesting conundrum to have. But I think I know
from the R and C when I first mount with
them in April that they were like, notes, hands down,
we are going to make sure we win three, four,
(25:17):
five and eight. You know, we want to have offices there,
we want to have regional directors there, we want to
have staff there. We have got to win those four
and as you know, as you said earlier, Gabe Evans
is the number one race in this country. They say
it's going to be one hundred million dollar race. So
everybody's fundraising. So as I'm doing all its fundraising and
talking to donors, not only do they want to you know,
(25:38):
max out with us, but they're saying we're maxing out
with all the congressionals, you know, making sure that everybody win.
So we're hearing that across. But you know, like you said,
it's still work, a work in progress, so everybody needs
to help fundraise and including fundraising for the same party.
We only want a good Assembly. We really want to
have all these pieces, and the way we're going to
do that is from donations. So here's the plug. Just
(26:00):
go over to the website c o l ogp dot
org and donate and contribute help us out both in
twenty five and twenty six.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Hey, Ryan, can you play clip number eight where Scott
Bottoms talks about Britta and Britta. I'll let you respond
to this about fundraising for the Assembly.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Sorry, Ryan, am I putting you in a bad position?
Do do?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Do?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
I'll play some elevator music Britta the claiming.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Now Heidi's bailing. I can explain that if you want
me to. And and bretda Horn is just trying to
use him. So so Victor sent out this message. He
actually called and left a message on my voicemail saying, Hey,
this state party can't afford to have assembly, can you
they need seventy thousand dollars? Can you get money from
(26:49):
your campaign? And so I send him this text. I
can show you the text. I thought, okay that this
is unethical, This isn't appropriate for him to ask that question.
And I specific have people that are given to me
that have said do not give to the state party.
And our state parties never had a problem raise money
up until now.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Okay, Britta, what say you is that? Is that accurate?
Speaker 7 (27:12):
Actually, all we have had so many candidates across the board,
not just governor candidates, all across the board has been
you know, really helping and they've been coming together nicely
and helping us whatever we want to help with. So
some are sending you know, information on strategy, some are
connecting contacting us and giving us information for other people
we could call out to get some money for the
assembly and for the party. And then also you know,
(27:33):
another candidate, but I don't want to say all their
names because they've been so helpful that it is so
you know, with solution oriented. Another candidate's even helping us
with another location for the assembly. They're like, hey, do
you check out this place? So you know, when we
have conversations with candidates and he has somebody that you know,
gets together with you and he's like, what can you
do to what can we do to help the party,
And I'm like, fundraise, fund raises us. Any candidate confirm
(27:56):
raised for the party, and they should since the Assembly
is going to matter for them. There's nothing, you know,
nothing else, and any statement to that contrary is contrary,
is just flat out inaccurate.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Well, I'm pretty and we have to go to break
in just a minute, so let's end.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Let's wrap on this.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Scott Bottoms accuses you and I of recruiting Victor Marx
to be a candidate so that we can fundraise off
of him apparently or make money off of him and
stop Bottoms from being governor because Barb Kirkmeyer couldn't do
the job she lost momentum.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Is there any truth to that? Yeah?
Speaker 7 (28:33):
The only only tis I heard earlier from here today
is that this is not how you run a campaign.
This is not how you win. You know, we definitely
have to follow let's say, the last, the very last,
you know, Reagan's eleven you know, commandment, thou show that
big ill of other Republicans, turn it around, look outside
the tent, and shoot outside the tent proverbally against you know,
(28:54):
against the other party. We need to start winning races,
and this is not how we're going to win.
Speaker 4 (28:59):
Thank you, Breda, and I agree. There is no truth
whatsoever from my end to any of that. Scott, So
you're very mistaken. I don't know who's telling you that.
I know you're very close with Dave Williams and Darcy
and obviously they have some feelings about Britta and I
maybe that's where this is coming from. But we're going
to go to break. Thanks Britta for joining us and
giving us an update. Okay, Merry Christmas, take care. This
(29:22):
is how you can all filling in for Dan Kplas.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
We'll be right back after the break.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
And now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Ah, thanks Ryan, there it is. That is my sister
in law's big hit, Never Say Never. She was the
lead singer of Romeo Void. She's a sweetheart and she's
going through a really tough time now.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Patrick and her they had a real love story and
they're two puppy dogs.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
They're very very sad right now. So hugs to Deborah.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
That's a classic punk rocker from the eighties. That song very.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Well, it was a big deal.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
She's still very beloved, has a huge following and does
a lot of music still. My brothers was a drummer too,
and they had a band called the ratone three. They
moved to Raton, New Mexico to retire and had a
ball and just traveled around doing lots of you know, gigs.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
I guess they call them. I'm not a music person, but.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Anyway, Yeah, it's been a rough go, but loved Bora
and love her music.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
A Girl in Trouble was another big hit they had,
correct right.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
One thing that really bothers me is when people say
I'm not conservative or I'm not conservative enough. It's the
ten year anniversary of me running for regent at SU
and I'm the last elected Republicans statewide in Colorado. I'm
the last standing and I've had a lot of projects,
a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
I've done over the years.
Speaker 4 (30:52):
I started out in education helping Golden View Classical Academy
get started out there. It's a classical, great classical school
out in Golden and then I ended up trying to
open in a cent classical school up in Boulder and
went toe to toe with the Boulder Valley School District.
We had seven hundred kids ready to attend that school
and it got turned down. I chaired the efforts for
Amendments Y and Z that allowed us to do redistricting
(31:15):
in a more fair way, and I chaired Proposition CC
to protect Tabor. And then I was the board chair
for Job Creators Network, which is Bernie Marcus's organization that
helped fight for small businesses all over the country and
helped pass Trump's tax cuts in twenty seventeen, and also
fought the National Labor Relations Board. I co chaired no
(31:37):
on Proposition one thirteen, which was to protect the Electoral College.
I don't know if you remember that one the National
Popular Vote effort, and I have been on many boards
Common Sense Institute, which is a great think tank here.
I'm still on ACTA, which is the American Council for
Trustees and Alumni which is fighting hard in higher education.
Hank Brown was on the board with me there, and
(31:59):
I'm on the of American Conservation Coalition, which is an
amazing group of young people eighty thousand members across the
country that are getting fighting to get back the conversation
around the environment because we are truly the Party of Conservation,
the Party of Teddy Roosevelt. And then I'm very involved
with Turning Point and have been for over ten years.
(32:20):
I got to know Charlie when my daughter ran for
student body government at University of Oregon and we helped
Marcus get elected as one of the first conservative student
body leaders at See You Boulder, and just been.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Involved for a long time.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
And one of the positive things that I'm excited about
is helping to get chapters of Turning Point open at
high schools all over Colorado. We've got eighty plus chapters now,
high school chapters across Colorado. And then of course as
a regent, And I'm going to stop going on and
on in a minute, but i want this to be
recorded so Scott.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Can go through it and listen to it.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
And here why I've got my conservative credentials even though
I'm not running for anything. When I won that race
in twenty sixteen, I pulled off a miracle and beat
Alice Madden, who was one of the crafters of the Blueprint.
And I spent the next six years protecting free speech,
promoting civics education, starting the Free to Be Coalition, which is.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
A debate club.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
I put forward a resolution to allow for COVID exemptions,
I mean the vaccine exemptions. And I did a resolution
to stop the Confucius Institute, which is the Chinese infiltration
into the universities, all kinds of stuff. I chaired the
search committee for our Republican conservative president, Mark Kennedy, who
(33:35):
got in there until the Liberals flipped the board. So
you know, I'm very proud of everything I've done. I'm
proud of winning the nomination for governor in twenty two
I fought like crazy to win back our state along
with many many great people around Colorado who supported me
and helped me. And I tried to share the lessons
(33:56):
that I learned from that race so that the candidates
now can learn from what I went through.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Things I would have done differently.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
How not to trust the consulting class, how to how
to raise enough money so that you can actually win
here in Colorado. And I'm not going to ever apologize
for my conservative credentials. I think what happens is people
look at a couple issues like abortion or gun rights,
which I'm a huge Second Amendment supporter. My dad was
(34:24):
a police officer, I have my constill carry, I've been
shooting guns since I was a kid, and they put
a litmus test on everything right. But you can't lead
with a lot of these issues when you run in
a blue state. You've got to lead with things that
are going to bring people together. And my best advice
for you guys right now is to run on affordability. Affordability, affordability,
(34:45):
that is the most important issue, like on the front
lines right now.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Now.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
What's going to happen is and why Rocky Mountain Voice
was so important to launch, is that the liberal media
is going to twist what you say. You're going to
say I'm not going to talk about abortion in Colorado,
I'm not going to talk about trans I'm not going
to talk about any of the things that are controversial
so that I can win the unaffiliated voters.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
And the media is going to take one headline that you.
Speaker 4 (35:10):
Said five years ago and plaster it all over Colorado,
and they've got millions of dollars to push that through
with dads, and then.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
You lose control of the narrative.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
So it's important that we have ways for you to
get your message out.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
This is how you get all filling in for Dan Kaplas.
We'll be back after the break with more
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The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!