March 7, 2024 • 21 mins
MY FRIEND KELLY MAHER IS FIRED UP I've known Kelly for years and if you follow Republican party politics in Colorado you've seen her work somewhere even if you didn't know it was hers. She and I were talking a few years ago about starting a podcast called "Politics Sucks And We Hate It" but instead, she's created a Super PAC with one goal in mind: get rid of the crazies running Colorado politics. And she's bipartisan, if you're nuts and in power, she's coming for you. She joins me today at 1 to discuss and will also be riding shotgun tonight for our KOAKast on our Facebook page. If you want to support these efforts you can do so here.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I started, literally started the weekon a barn burner of a tear.
I am so disgusted with the factthat Republicans have been tossed into the dustbin
here in Colorado, and the leadershipof the Republican Party is fully responsible at
this point, and I'm so firedup. I'm not going to take it
anymore. And then I called myfriend Kelly Maher about something totally unrelated,
(00:24):
and she goes, I'm done now, Kelly, I out of this on
the blog. But you and Iwere going to start a podcast called politics
Sucks and we hate it. That'sthe thing I don't right, we should.
I didn't think that there was anythingthat could actually get me out of
like the goat pasture and being amom and being this, and I retired
from politics and just frustrated as allget out on it. And then that
(00:51):
mail piece hit you were you wereon vacation, You're doing you're thing,
and I think I texted you.You didn't it, You got back in
all caps. Yeah, I hadno idea I could get this frustrated all
over again. I didn't know youwere going to say frustrated. There give
(01:11):
for listeners who are not familiar withyour background, because I think this is
important, right because when I seeKelly's a long time politico, You've been
part of the politics in Denver sinceyou were like a child almost, I
mean close. I so, whatyear is this? Where did we come
from? Who are we? Wherewe No? So I started in politics
(01:33):
really like high school, college,blah blah whatever. I went to college
down in Colorado Springs, UCCS homeup with the Mountain Lions, Go Mountain
Lions, and there I met somestate legislators. I started working at the
gold Dome of Sadness when I wasvery young, you know, a page
and a volunteer and the things thatyou do in college, and just progressed
(01:57):
from there. I worked for Congressmanbeau Pray. He won his congressional district
by one hundred and twenty one votesin two thousand and two. It was
the first time that Colorado had gottena seventh congressional district that was less than
a vote or third of a votefor precinct. He won that. Wow,
yeah, yep. And then Hfour was Bushenio four and Bob bau
(02:17):
Pray reelect six. And around thattime was when I started getting onto more
of the soft side of politics,although you know, I do like tons
of Republican political campaigns also working onkind of the softer side. I did
(02:37):
blogs I did. I was anew tracker. That's what I put on
my blog today. Say like,if you, if you are a Republican
or a right leaner in Colorado,you have seen Kelly's work, even if
you didn't know it was Kelly's work. Oh, I mean, just twenty
plus years of this right of andI got into politics. I studied economics
in college. I believe so deepin the free market and in individualism and
(03:04):
in the power of the individual tobring themselves up and everybody around them up.
And so I am, you know, lifelong. Since I knew what
my politics was, I was aRepublican and it was chosen, like I
chose it. I grew up ina household where my dad was a socialist
and my mom was a registered libertarian. So it was a thing that I
(03:28):
picked. I picked my tribe.I know why I'm a Republican. I
am really really comfortable in my Republicanskin. I am not necessarily as comfortable
in my political skin. Like Ihave a tough time, I have a
much easier time at pilates class orlike at my kids' school, talking about
why I believe in the free marketand why I believe in these principles much
(03:52):
more so than talking about professionalized politics, because my time in professionalized politics has
made me realize that crazy people andpeople of bad faith are ruining this for
all of us. And it's actuallybecome like a borderline embarrassing to tell people
that I'm in professional politics by virtueof who else is around? Right,
(04:15):
And you you actually tried to leave, You tried to leave, and then
they suck you back in, andthat's what happens. It is like the
mafia. It is like the HotelCalifornia. Right, this is I checked
out, I got some ghosts,I had some babies. Everything was great.
And then Dave Williams decided to usethe Colorado GOP official account and turn
(04:39):
it into a super pack for hiscongressional campaign down in the fifth congressional district.
And I am back. I'm back, Mandy, I am furious,
and I am back because I havespent twenty years of my life dedicating myself
to being a Republican. And itis I cannot describe without an FCC fine
(05:04):
how disgusting it is to me thathe has taken all of the money of
the sweet people who are sending himfifty dollars a year, and he is
buying mail, and he is usingthe state party to pay or his own
(05:26):
candidacy. It is gross, itis wrong. And I am here and
he can put me on the RhinoExposed website or whatever it is that I
don't care. I'm the most heavilyarmed, pro life, small government rhino
there is. And you know what, for all rhinos, no one is
(05:46):
exact. Bring it, Dave Williams, I am sick of this. Well,
let me just say this because youknow, not every one of my
listening audience is a Republican, sonot every one of my listening audience understands.
And this is the point I wasmaking on money. If you look
at what's happening right now under theGold Dome, some of the bills that
are being discussed. I just gotsent audio I haven't had a chance to
(06:06):
listen to it of testimony yesterday thatis laying the groundwork for safe injection sites
here in Colorado. So the stuffthat is happening at the Capitol that is
going to continue to destroy the stateof Colorado if we don't have a functioning
opposition party that has enough people inthe legislature to stop it. Forget majority,
(06:28):
like we're so far away from evendreaming of any kind of Republican majority,
But we've got to have a staunchopposition to stop the worst of what's
happening right now, because if wedon't, the Democrats have the ability to
do whatever they want and they don'tgive a rats ask what people like me
and you think, And I thinkthere's a lot of independence in this audience
who agree with us on a lotof issues, maybe not all the issues,
(06:50):
who need to be just as concernedabout the lack of a functioning Republican
party in opposition. Look, thisis and you and I have talked about
this over and over again, rightthere are This is not no longer to
me just about the left versus rightright. This is about the good versus
bad faith people. And I thinkthat whether you're on the left or the
(07:15):
right, you're a Democrat, you'reRepublican, you're in the middle. These
people of bad faith who are init for themselves, who are building their
personal brands. Whether you're talking aboutElizabeth Epps and Tim Hernandez and the Democratic
Socialists. They are doing damage aswell to the Democrats, and they are
(07:35):
pulling the Democrats. And there aresome middle of the road Democrats that they
are forcing, and they are pullingthe same way that the people on the
It's not even right. It's justthe people of bad faith, right,
both parties. And so what youhave is you have like two dogs that
(07:56):
are basically helicopters being wagged by theirtails. Yeah, both sides. Yeah,
and I'm sick of it. Well, and let's talk about what you're
doing though, because somebody just saidthis, just tuned in. Who is
this? I'm going to back tothe max. So let's talk about because
you're not running. She's not runningfor office, Nope. She has created
a super pack with a specific purpose. And if you saw the photo that
(08:18):
went with today's blog, the specificpurpose of this is to just get the
crazy out of politics. And todo that you have to get the crazies
on both sides out of the game. Yeah. Well, but the first
place for me is Dave Williams.Yeah, that's it, Like like he
he is this precedent of taking overthe Republican Party, and then turning it
(08:43):
all into his shadow campaign and notjust a culled the personality. But for
those of us who have spent aa now at this point a majority of
my lifetime trying to ensure that theRepublican Party was a thing of morals and
integrity values of a like like whenDave Williams and the rest of everybody who
(09:11):
was running for State Party chair,I got several calls from people saying,
do would you run for State Partychair? And the answer is absolutely not.
It's a terrible job and I'm notinterested in what in that entire what
it requires and what it requires isyour job as this as the state chair.
It's the case to raise money andraise money, yep, and raise
(09:33):
money and get yelled at yep,yep. That's the job. And so
I thought, okay, well,you know what Dave Williams will figure out
because of this this whole like conspiracy. You know that the State Party is
bad and na da da da dah, and all these people who were who
were just fighting inside of the tentand trying to set the tent on fire,
I describe it. You know,for those of us who were in
(09:54):
professionalized politics and we're trying to buildmajorities like it was like we were trying
to build a front porch on ourhouse and we had these people like Dave
Williams coming in the back door witha flamethrower trying to burn it all down.
And that's the only way that heknows how to raise money or get
support is by burning down the entiretent for everybody else. And as long
(10:18):
as the incentive is to raise moneythrough destruction and through loss, that will
continue. And that is an excellentpoint. And this has been my beef
for the longest time. Although Ithink Taylor Rhoades is sort of righting the
ship at Rocky Mountain Gun Owners underthe previous leadership at RMGO, there's a
(10:39):
lot of things about it. Themore they lost, the more money they
made. Yeah, And that seemsto be the strategy that is being employed
by David Williams. And my beefwith David Williams is I have yet to
see a mailer attacking Democrats. Oh, I have yet to see a mailer
attacking anyone from the other party.No, he has aimed entirely within the
(11:00):
tent, and that is his goalbecause that's all he knows and now he
has taken the entire weight of thestate Republican Party and he has aimed it
at his own congressional race, somethingthat was just inconceivable. Well, I
posted on Monday a story with thepicture of the mailer that we're talking about
that people don't listen every day.The mailer that we're discussing was a mailer
(11:24):
sent out by the GOP ostensibly,which means David Williams. And it was
a mailer attacking two things. NumberOne, it attacked the Colorado Springs Gazette
as not being trumpy enough, eventhough what to your point, Yeah,
the Colorado Springs Gazette was the onlymajor newspaper in Colorado in twenty twenty who
(11:45):
endorsed Donald Trump over Joe Biden.So he attacked the Colorado Springs Gazette,
and he attacked Jeff Crank, oneof his opponents. Now, the reality
is he attacked the Colorado Springs Gazettebecause they endorsed Jeff Crank. That's it.
And the reason we know this wasa pure her campaign at is where
did he send the mailor, Kelly, Oh, he sent it to El
Paso County man. Where else?Oh, I don't know anybody else who
(12:09):
got it elsewhere in the state.So weird, right, so weird.
This is Kelly Maher by the way, political friend of mine and now the
creator of Restoring Standards Pack. Andpeople are already asking on the blog on
the text line how to donate.Yeah, great, go to Restoring standards
pack dot com. And I alreadyput a link on the blog to this.
There's an address to it. Yeah, this is the out This is
(12:30):
the outlet that I have been lookingfor. And this was all coincidental,
Like I had not talked to Kellybefore I had my little meltdown on Monday.
But I think there are so manypeople out there who have reached their
limit who are just saying this isthe thing for me. And this really
stuck in my craw. One ofthe big issues for me with my dad
when I was younger. Okay,so my dad was like rock ribbed Republican.
(12:52):
Right. The biggest fight my dadand I ever had was after the
Bob Dole speech at the ninety fourmention, Right, I mean like we
had a barn burner of how wouldfight out? Oh shut up right now?
Anyway, I love being but wewe you know, my dad and
I had conversations about politics all thetime, and my dad always said,
(13:16):
you know, I'm a Republican becauseI believe in law and order. I
believe in that there's a system thatthat has to be adhered to in order
to have a civilization and a civilizedsociety. And I've always thought to myself
that that is what the Republicans didso much better than the Democratic Party.
And and in Colorado we have aDemocratic Party that seems wedded to the notion
(13:37):
that if you are a criminal,it's not your fault, and you need
to have compassion, and you needto get a check when you get out
of jail, or what other crappystuff they're trying to do right now.
But then when you have leadership thatliterally wipes his butt with the bylaws of
the party, that is, thelaw and order and the rule following party,
what do you do with that?Look? And this is the thing
(13:58):
is, I've had so many peoplecome to me and say, well,
can't we can't we get him outof his chair? Isn't this gonna like?
And the answer is his approach tothis has been to so winnow the
people who are left, whether it'sthe central Committee or the Executive Committee,
And I would bet that who showsup for caucus is going to be so
(14:20):
small, right as compared to thepast, that he has so reduced the
number of people like it's a it'sa private organization, it is. It
is a self governing organization. Andso I am really interested though, to
know if any of the people whohave given money to the State Republican Party
(14:41):
in the last year, including butnot limited to the fact that Nikki Hayley
paid her extortion fee because of DaveWilliams's impotence at being able to raise money.
Yeah, if she knew that shewas going to be paying for a
mailer attacking herself, right, Yes, do you think that Dave Williams gates
(15:03):
to all of the donors of theGOPN was like, Actually, what I'd
like to do is send out mailersinto my own race in order to try
to bolster me. Unbelievable. Thisperson just asked Mandy how much money and
time will be wasted by Colorado Republicansled by Dave Williams trying to have Jennah
Griswold recalled. Now, I agreethat Jennah Griswold has politicized an office that
(15:26):
should be absolutely non political. ButI'm at the point now where we calls
are such a waste of time.Well, and so this goes this actually
goes back to this is a supergood question that speaks to a larger issue,
which is why isn't the Republican Partystanding up to Dave Williams. And
the answer is there's almost nobody leftright, and those who are left are
(15:50):
and question him either quit or getkicked out. But additionally, same thing
on the Jenna Griswold front right,Like, if we had a viable Republican
Party that wasn't running to lose,yeah, we would be able to put
somebody forth and talk about these issues. And Jenna Griswold has a ton of
(16:11):
them, like almost immediately upon takingoffice, the core of Request showed that
she was running her press releases yeaby planned parenthood. There is plenty to
talk about what Jenna Griswold is doingwrong, But because we don't have a
viable alternative in this state, wecan't beat her. And so I am
(16:36):
looking straight at Dave Williams and straightat the fifth Congressional District, because he
needs to know that this is notthe way that people get to Congress.
You don't get to come in andtake over our party and aim it towards
yourself and get to Congress. Well, let me just as somebody said,
is Dave William's better than the Dopponent. You guys, there's a primary,
(16:57):
and there's much letter Canada dy DaveWilliams race is not It is so
statistically unlikely that there is going tobe a D that is viable in the
fifth this year. So who winsthe primary wins the race. Yeah,
almost almost assuredly. And you know, Jeff Crank, he is from what
(17:18):
I've seen, pretty much the leaderat this point. I know that Dave
Williams is probably everything he does isscreaming for a Trump endorsement, like everything,
all the boot licking that he's doing, all of the let's go Brandon
nonsense, trying to get on theballot with that, it's just about getting
a Trump endorsement. But didn't hekind of get booted off the Trump campaign.
So in twenty sixteen he was partof the crew that walked out on
(17:41):
Donald Trump at the convention. Intwenty twenty, he was he was kicked
out of his volunteer position for tryingto use the influence and the name of
the Trump campaign to curry favor withhis friends. Huh. So weird.
Yeah, and now he's looking forthe endorsement. So weird, weird,
(18:02):
Yeah, so so so weird.Okay, here we go, guys,
this is what we need you todo. Kelly's out there beating the bushes
talking to traditional donors and you know, there are some big money donors in
this state, but everybody's kind ofsitting on the sidelines a little bit,
not just with Kellyan. Fundraising isimpossible right now. And what I'd like
you to do, and I'm doingit. I'm making a donation. I
(18:23):
want all of us to It doesn'tmatter if it's five dollars, it doesn't
matter if it's ten dollars, onehundred dollars, whatever, make a donation
to say this is this has gotto stop. And there's enough people out
there that this can become a movementbecause this is incredibly important, I mean
incredibly important. And if I fearthat Colorado is going to be utterly and
(18:47):
completely lost without a functioning opposition RepublicanParty, and I mean quick fasting in
a hurry, lost. There's thisis you can't sleep on this. Well
and additionally, I mean if youlook at the Capitol and you go down
to the gold Dome of sadness,right, like, the fight is now
on the Democrat side. It's likewithin who on the Democrat side can be
(19:12):
peeled off and be rational? Andhow can they fight their their crazy ways
the lunacy of their own party,right, And so I am really interested
in and we have talked about this, like this race is June twenty fifth,
right, like this is and ballotsdrop the first week in June.
(19:33):
And by the way, it's reallyimportant to note that I am not coordinating
within a candidate or candidate committee becauseof the pack. Yeah, but this
race is June twenty fifth, andwe all need to start having a conversation
about how we put kind of thesemore objective matrices on this good faith versus
(19:55):
bad faith conversation, and how westart to purge these people of bad faith
from the Republican side and also fromthe Democrat side. Well, I put
it a little bit differently, andKelly and I talked about this the other
day. I look at it likethis, that that matrix is not just
a left right matrix, but atthe there's an y axis on that matrix.
(20:17):
And for me, the bottom ofthat why access is people who have
a sermon's heart, who are inthis race because they believe they can make
a difference, they can represent theideals of the people in their district.
They're gonna go there. They don'tneed this, you know what I mean,
They don't need it. And thenon the other end of that spectrum
is your Instagram politicians, people whoare doing it to build their brand and
get their following, and they don'tcare about what happens to the people in
(20:38):
their district. They're just there toenrich themselves. Well, and that's why
I question whether or not Dave Williamsis even really that big of a fan
of Trump or if he's just usinghim as a vehicle for himself. Well,
I mean, deeds not words,right right, right, So there
you go, deeds not words.Go to the Mandy Connell page, mandy'sblog
dot com, or just go torestore bring Standards dot com to make a
(21:02):
donation. And Kelly tonight will bewith me for the KOA cast. Look
at our camera setup and everything.This is so much fun. I cannot
wait, i'd better go do somethingwith my I'm gonna take a shower,
and I'm gonna go take a shower, and I'm gonna look presentable when we
get back. Thank you for comingin, Thank you for the farm fresh
eggs there. Dear, happy tobe here. I'll see you tonight.
I'll bring the popcorn.
I started, literally started the weekon a barn burner of a tear.
I am so disgusted with the factthat Republicans have been tossed into the dustbin
here in Colorado, and the leadershipof the Republican Party is fully responsible at
this point, and I'm so firedup. I'm not going to take it
anymore. And then I called myfriend Kelly Maher about something totally unrelated,
(00:24):
and she goes, I'm done now, Kelly, I out of this on
the blog. But you and Iwere going to start a podcast called politics
Sucks and we hate it. That'sthe thing I don't right, we should.
I didn't think that there was anythingthat could actually get me out of
like the goat pasture and being amom and being this, and I retired
from politics and just frustrated as allget out on it. And then that
(00:51):
mail piece hit you were you wereon vacation, You're doing you're thing,
and I think I texted you.You didn't it, You got back in
all caps. Yeah, I hadno idea I could get this frustrated all
over again. I didn't know youwere going to say frustrated. There give
(01:11):
for listeners who are not familiar withyour background, because I think this is
important, right because when I seeKelly's a long time politico, You've been
part of the politics in Denver sinceyou were like a child almost, I
mean close. I so, whatyear is this? Where did we come
from? Who are we? Wherewe No? So I started in politics
(01:33):
really like high school, college,blah blah whatever. I went to college
down in Colorado Springs, UCCS homeup with the Mountain Lions, Go Mountain
Lions, and there I met somestate legislators. I started working at the
gold Dome of Sadness when I wasvery young, you know, a page
and a volunteer and the things thatyou do in college, and just progressed
(01:57):
from there. I worked for Congressmanbeau Pray. He won his congressional district
by one hundred and twenty one votesin two thousand and two. It was
the first time that Colorado had gottena seventh congressional district that was less than
a vote or third of a votefor precinct. He won that. Wow,
yeah, yep. And then Hfour was Bushenio four and Bob bau
(02:17):
Pray reelect six. And around thattime was when I started getting onto more
of the soft side of politics,although you know, I do like tons
of Republican political campaigns also working onkind of the softer side. I did
(02:37):
blogs I did. I was anew tracker. That's what I put on
my blog today. Say like,if you, if you are a Republican
or a right leaner in Colorado,you have seen Kelly's work, even if
you didn't know it was Kelly's work. Oh, I mean, just twenty
plus years of this right of andI got into politics. I studied economics
in college. I believe so deepin the free market and in individualism and
(03:04):
in the power of the individual tobring themselves up and everybody around them up.
And so I am, you know, lifelong. Since I knew what
my politics was, I was aRepublican and it was chosen, like I
chose it. I grew up ina household where my dad was a socialist
and my mom was a registered libertarian. So it was a thing that I
(03:28):
picked. I picked my tribe.I know why I'm a Republican. I
am really really comfortable in my Republicanskin. I am not necessarily as comfortable
in my political skin. Like Ihave a tough time, I have a
much easier time at pilates class orlike at my kids' school, talking about
why I believe in the free marketand why I believe in these principles much
(03:52):
more so than talking about professionalized politics, because my time in professionalized politics has
made me realize that crazy people andpeople of bad faith are ruining this for
all of us. And it's actuallybecome like a borderline embarrassing to tell people
that I'm in professional politics by virtueof who else is around? Right,
(04:15):
And you you actually tried to leave, You tried to leave, and then
they suck you back in, andthat's what happens. It is like the
mafia. It is like the HotelCalifornia. Right, this is I checked
out, I got some ghosts,I had some babies. Everything was great.
And then Dave Williams decided to usethe Colorado GOP official account and turn
(04:39):
it into a super pack for hiscongressional campaign down in the fifth congressional district.
And I am back. I'm back, Mandy, I am furious,
and I am back because I havespent twenty years of my life dedicating myself
to being a Republican. And itis I cannot describe without an FCC fine
(05:04):
how disgusting it is to me thathe has taken all of the money of
the sweet people who are sending himfifty dollars a year, and he is
buying mail, and he is usingthe state party to pay or his own
(05:26):
candidacy. It is gross, itis wrong. And I am here and
he can put me on the RhinoExposed website or whatever it is that I
don't care. I'm the most heavilyarmed, pro life, small government rhino
there is. And you know what, for all rhinos, no one is
(05:46):
exact. Bring it, Dave Williams, I am sick of this. Well,
let me just say this because youknow, not every one of my
listening audience is a Republican, sonot every one of my listening audience understands.
And this is the point I wasmaking on money. If you look
at what's happening right now under theGold Dome, some of the bills that
are being discussed. I just gotsent audio I haven't had a chance to
(06:06):
listen to it of testimony yesterday thatis laying the groundwork for safe injection sites
here in Colorado. So the stuffthat is happening at the Capitol that is
going to continue to destroy the stateof Colorado if we don't have a functioning
opposition party that has enough people inthe legislature to stop it. Forget majority,
(06:28):
like we're so far away from evendreaming of any kind of Republican majority,
But we've got to have a staunchopposition to stop the worst of what's
happening right now, because if wedon't, the Democrats have the ability to
do whatever they want and they don'tgive a rats ask what people like me
and you think, And I thinkthere's a lot of independence in this audience
who agree with us on a lotof issues, maybe not all the issues,
(06:50):
who need to be just as concernedabout the lack of a functioning Republican
party in opposition. Look, thisis and you and I have talked about
this over and over again, rightthere are This is not no longer to
me just about the left versus rightright. This is about the good versus
bad faith people. And I thinkthat whether you're on the left or the
(07:15):
right, you're a Democrat, you'reRepublican, you're in the middle. These
people of bad faith who are init for themselves, who are building their
personal brands. Whether you're talking aboutElizabeth Epps and Tim Hernandez and the Democratic
Socialists. They are doing damage aswell to the Democrats, and they are
(07:35):
pulling the Democrats. And there aresome middle of the road Democrats that they
are forcing, and they are pullingthe same way that the people on the
It's not even right. It's justthe people of bad faith, right,
both parties. And so what youhave is you have like two dogs that
(07:56):
are basically helicopters being wagged by theirtails. Yeah, both sides. Yeah,
and I'm sick of it. Well, and let's talk about what you're
doing though, because somebody just saidthis, just tuned in. Who is
this? I'm going to back tothe max. So let's talk about because
you're not running. She's not runningfor office, Nope. She has created
a super pack with a specific purpose. And if you saw the photo that
(08:18):
went with today's blog, the specificpurpose of this is to just get the
crazy out of politics. And todo that you have to get the crazies
on both sides out of the game. Yeah. Well, but the first
place for me is Dave Williams.Yeah, that's it, Like like he
he is this precedent of taking overthe Republican Party, and then turning it
(08:43):
all into his shadow campaign and notjust a culled the personality. But for
those of us who have spent aa now at this point a majority of
my lifetime trying to ensure that theRepublican Party was a thing of morals and
integrity values of a like like whenDave Williams and the rest of everybody who
(09:11):
was running for State Party chair,I got several calls from people saying,
do would you run for State Partychair? And the answer is absolutely not.
It's a terrible job and I'm notinterested in what in that entire what
it requires and what it requires isyour job as this as the state chair.
It's the case to raise money andraise money, yep, and raise
(09:33):
money and get yelled at yep,yep. That's the job. And so
I thought, okay, well,you know what Dave Williams will figure out
because of this this whole like conspiracy. You know that the State Party is
bad and na da da da dah, and all these people who were who
were just fighting inside of the tentand trying to set the tent on fire,
I describe it. You know,for those of us who were in
(09:54):
professionalized politics and we're trying to buildmajorities like it was like we were trying
to build a front porch on ourhouse and we had these people like Dave
Williams coming in the back door witha flamethrower trying to burn it all down.
And that's the only way that heknows how to raise money or get
support is by burning down the entiretent for everybody else. And as long
(10:18):
as the incentive is to raise moneythrough destruction and through loss, that will
continue. And that is an excellentpoint. And this has been my beef
for the longest time. Although Ithink Taylor Rhoades is sort of righting the
ship at Rocky Mountain Gun Owners underthe previous leadership at RMGO, there's a
(10:39):
lot of things about it. Themore they lost, the more money they
made. Yeah, And that seemsto be the strategy that is being employed
by David Williams. And my beefwith David Williams is I have yet to
see a mailer attacking Democrats. Oh, I have yet to see a mailer
attacking anyone from the other party.No, he has aimed entirely within the
(11:00):
tent, and that is his goalbecause that's all he knows and now he
has taken the entire weight of thestate Republican Party and he has aimed it
at his own congressional race, somethingthat was just inconceivable. Well, I
posted on Monday a story with thepicture of the mailer that we're talking about
that people don't listen every day.The mailer that we're discussing was a mailer
(11:24):
sent out by the GOP ostensibly,which means David Williams. And it was
a mailer attacking two things. NumberOne, it attacked the Colorado Springs Gazette
as not being trumpy enough, eventhough what to your point, Yeah,
the Colorado Springs Gazette was the onlymajor newspaper in Colorado in twenty twenty who
(11:45):
endorsed Donald Trump over Joe Biden.So he attacked the Colorado Springs Gazette,
and he attacked Jeff Crank, oneof his opponents. Now, the reality
is he attacked the Colorado Springs Gazettebecause they endorsed Jeff Crank. That's it.
And the reason we know this wasa pure her campaign at is where
did he send the mailor, Kelly, Oh, he sent it to El
Paso County man. Where else?Oh, I don't know anybody else who
(12:09):
got it elsewhere in the state.So weird, right, so weird.
This is Kelly Maher by the way, political friend of mine and now the
creator of Restoring Standards Pack. Andpeople are already asking on the blog on
the text line how to donate.Yeah, great, go to Restoring standards
pack dot com. And I alreadyput a link on the blog to this.
There's an address to it. Yeah, this is the out This is
(12:30):
the outlet that I have been lookingfor. And this was all coincidental,
Like I had not talked to Kellybefore I had my little meltdown on Monday.
But I think there are so manypeople out there who have reached their
limit who are just saying this isthe thing for me. And this really
stuck in my craw. One ofthe big issues for me with my dad
when I was younger. Okay,so my dad was like rock ribbed Republican.
(12:52):
Right. The biggest fight my dadand I ever had was after the
Bob Dole speech at the ninety fourmention, Right, I mean like we
had a barn burner of how wouldfight out? Oh shut up right now?
Anyway, I love being but wewe you know, my dad and
I had conversations about politics all thetime, and my dad always said,
(13:16):
you know, I'm a Republican becauseI believe in law and order. I
believe in that there's a system thatthat has to be adhered to in order
to have a civilization and a civilizedsociety. And I've always thought to myself
that that is what the Republicans didso much better than the Democratic Party.
And and in Colorado we have aDemocratic Party that seems wedded to the notion
(13:37):
that if you are a criminal,it's not your fault, and you need
to have compassion, and you needto get a check when you get out
of jail, or what other crappystuff they're trying to do right now.
But then when you have leadership thatliterally wipes his butt with the bylaws of
the party, that is, thelaw and order and the rule following party,
what do you do with that?Look? And this is the thing
(13:58):
is, I've had so many peoplecome to me and say, well,
can't we can't we get him outof his chair? Isn't this gonna like?
And the answer is his approach tothis has been to so winnow the
people who are left, whether it'sthe central Committee or the Executive Committee,
And I would bet that who showsup for caucus is going to be so
(14:20):
small, right as compared to thepast, that he has so reduced the
number of people like it's a it'sa private organization, it is. It
is a self governing organization. Andso I am really interested though, to
know if any of the people whohave given money to the State Republican Party
(14:41):
in the last year, including butnot limited to the fact that Nikki Hayley
paid her extortion fee because of DaveWilliams's impotence at being able to raise money.
Yeah, if she knew that shewas going to be paying for a
mailer attacking herself, right, Yes, do you think that Dave Williams gates
(15:03):
to all of the donors of theGOPN was like, Actually, what I'd
like to do is send out mailersinto my own race in order to try
to bolster me. Unbelievable. Thisperson just asked Mandy how much money and
time will be wasted by Colorado Republicansled by Dave Williams trying to have Jennah
Griswold recalled. Now, I agreethat Jennah Griswold has politicized an office that
(15:26):
should be absolutely non political. ButI'm at the point now where we calls
are such a waste of time.Well, and so this goes this actually
goes back to this is a supergood question that speaks to a larger issue,
which is why isn't the Republican Partystanding up to Dave Williams. And
the answer is there's almost nobody leftright, and those who are left are
(15:50):
and question him either quit or getkicked out. But additionally, same thing
on the Jenna Griswold front right,Like, if we had a viable Republican
Party that wasn't running to lose,yeah, we would be able to put
somebody forth and talk about these issues. And Jenna Griswold has a ton of
(16:11):
them, like almost immediately upon takingoffice, the core of Request showed that
she was running her press releases yeaby planned parenthood. There is plenty to
talk about what Jenna Griswold is doingwrong, But because we don't have a
viable alternative in this state, wecan't beat her. And so I am
(16:36):
looking straight at Dave Williams and straightat the fifth Congressional District, because he
needs to know that this is notthe way that people get to Congress.
You don't get to come in andtake over our party and aim it towards
yourself and get to Congress. Well, let me just as somebody said,
is Dave William's better than the Dopponent. You guys, there's a primary,
(16:57):
and there's much letter Canada dy DaveWilliams race is not It is so
statistically unlikely that there is going tobe a D that is viable in the
fifth this year. So who winsthe primary wins the race. Yeah,
almost almost assuredly. And you know, Jeff Crank, he is from what
(17:18):
I've seen, pretty much the leaderat this point. I know that Dave
Williams is probably everything he does isscreaming for a Trump endorsement, like everything,
all the boot licking that he's doing, all of the let's go Brandon
nonsense, trying to get on theballot with that, it's just about getting
a Trump endorsement. But didn't hekind of get booted off the Trump campaign.
So in twenty sixteen he was partof the crew that walked out on
(17:41):
Donald Trump at the convention. Intwenty twenty, he was he was kicked
out of his volunteer position for tryingto use the influence and the name of
the Trump campaign to curry favor withhis friends. Huh. So weird.
Yeah, and now he's looking forthe endorsement. So weird, weird,
(18:02):
Yeah, so so so weird.Okay, here we go, guys,
this is what we need you todo. Kelly's out there beating the bushes
talking to traditional donors and you know, there are some big money donors in
this state, but everybody's kind ofsitting on the sidelines a little bit,
not just with Kellyan. Fundraising isimpossible right now. And what I'd like
you to do, and I'm doingit. I'm making a donation. I
(18:23):
want all of us to It doesn'tmatter if it's five dollars, it doesn't
matter if it's ten dollars, onehundred dollars, whatever, make a donation
to say this is this has gotto stop. And there's enough people out
there that this can become a movementbecause this is incredibly important, I mean
incredibly important. And if I fearthat Colorado is going to be utterly and
(18:47):
completely lost without a functioning opposition RepublicanParty, and I mean quick fasting in
a hurry, lost. There's thisis you can't sleep on this. Well
and additionally, I mean if youlook at the Capitol and you go down
to the gold Dome of sadness,right, like, the fight is now
on the Democrat side. It's likewithin who on the Democrat side can be
(19:12):
peeled off and be rational? Andhow can they fight their their crazy ways
the lunacy of their own party,right, And so I am really interested
in and we have talked about this, like this race is June twenty fifth,
right, like this is and ballotsdrop the first week in June.
(19:33):
And by the way, it's reallyimportant to note that I am not coordinating
within a candidate or candidate committee becauseof the pack. Yeah, but this
race is June twenty fifth, andwe all need to start having a conversation
about how we put kind of thesemore objective matrices on this good faith versus
(19:55):
bad faith conversation, and how westart to purge these people of bad faith
from the Republican side and also fromthe Democrat side. Well, I put
it a little bit differently, andKelly and I talked about this the other
day. I look at it likethis, that that matrix is not just
a left right matrix, but atthe there's an y axis on that matrix.
(20:17):
And for me, the bottom ofthat why access is people who have
a sermon's heart, who are inthis race because they believe they can make
a difference, they can represent theideals of the people in their district.
They're gonna go there. They don'tneed this, you know what I mean,
They don't need it. And thenon the other end of that spectrum
is your Instagram politicians, people whoare doing it to build their brand and
get their following, and they don'tcare about what happens to the people in
(20:38):
their district. They're just there toenrich themselves. Well, and that's why
I question whether or not Dave Williamsis even really that big of a fan
of Trump or if he's just usinghim as a vehicle for himself. Well,
I mean, deeds not words,right right, right, So there
you go, deeds not words.Go to the Mandy Connell page, mandy'sblog
dot com, or just go torestore bring Standards dot com to make a
(21:02):
donation. And Kelly tonight will bewith me for the KOA cast. Look
at our camera setup and everything.This is so much fun. I cannot
wait, i'd better go do somethingwith my I'm gonna take a shower,
and I'm gonna go take a shower, and I'm gonna look presentable when we
get back. Thank you for comingin, Thank you for the farm fresh
eggs there. Dear, happy tobe here. I'll see you tonight.
I'll bring the popcorn.
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