Recall Petitioners' Blissfully Unaware of Koch's Klan Connection

I was driving home a couple days ago, when I saw a pick up truck at a pull out with a "Gwen Lachelt Recall Petition" sign and an old gal with a clip board in hand.  Driving by I started thinking about why she was doing it, so I turned around and drove back to ask.  She had the basic boilerplate complaints. Gwen went to Washington D.C. to raise a stink about oil company Fracking and Methane leak regulations.   What's wrong with that, I ask?  She was fulfilling promises that helped get her elected by citizens like myself, there was nothing secret or inappropriate about it.  

There was no answer forthcoming, instead she continued to the next point of contention, the awful Draft Land Use Code.  Well, okay, but is that really a justification for starting a recall petition, which is normally reserved for extreme misconduct and dereliction of duty, not for differences of opinions.  Why is only one of three commissions who shared blame for the Draft Land Code disaster being attacked?  Incidentally, what about the reality that the Draft is being reworked and already much improved, thanks to the normal run of our democratic process.  Again, not much of a response, instead we moved on to her trump card.

(This time I get personal and finish this post with pictures of my current renovation project.

Yup, you guessed it, making excuses for my sporadic posting record.)

Can I retract my signature from the Lachelt Recall Petition? YES.

I’ve heard that some individuals who’ve signed the “Save”LaPlata Recall petition, have had second thoughts after learning more about what a contrived and deceptive petition it actually is. 

SaveLaPlataCounty.com's lack of openness regarding their funding is also causing unease among many.  For more details peruse the posts in these pages. 

I wrote our County Clerk asking about retracting one’s signature and she responded with the following helpful information.

Basically if you want to retract your signature from the contrived Lachelt Recall Petition, you simply have to write up a short request and get it to our County Clerk

(I)  Any signer may request that his or her name be stricken from the petition at any time prior to when the petition is deemed sufficient and the time for protest has passed by filing with the designated election official* a written request that his or her signature be stricken and delivering a copy of the request to at least one member of the committee**

(** That would be SaveLaPlataCounty.com).

* La Plata County Clerk & Recorder

Tiffany Parker

98 Everett St, Suite C

Durango, CO 81303

970-382-6294

970-259-5413 – fax

www.laplatacountyclerk.org

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TITLE 1 ELECTIONS

GENERAL, PRIMARY, RECALL, AND CONGRESSIONAL VACANCY ELECTIONS

Colorado Revised Statute – 1-12-108 (9)(d)(I)

¶ Breen LandUseCode Community Meeting - This Is What Democracy Looks Like !

The following column was written for the March issue of the FourCornersFreePress out of Cortez.  I usually try to wait until the column comes out before posting what I've written, but in light of a curious anonymous letter going around, I think Gail will understand me putting it up now.

This is an example of democracy in action, as opposed to anonymous letters meant to intimidate, which are nothing less than totalitarian tactics !

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Children of the Intellectual Enlightenment, liberals, progressives, seekers of objective facts and rational learning based on constructive debates, believers in our pluralistic society and our democratic way of government, please look around and take note. We are in deep trouble.

For decades while we’ve been distracted with our own concerns, the Koch brothers and friends have been busy spreading their tentacles ever deeper into USA’s election process and they are getting poised for a hostile take over bid this election season.

They are consolidating their forces and targeting liberal bastions for take down. Once targeted their strategy is to find a local issue that raises blood pressures. Then they feed anxious people their Libertarian Siren Song which is heavily dosed with contrived hostility and misinformation.

Here in Durango we have an example unfolding that I want to look at. First the set up. The Koch front group, Americans for Prosperity, opened a recruitment office, some would call it a brainwashing center, since they don’t listen. Like over the top evangelicals brimming with self-certainty, they tell you what to think, accept it or become a bad guy.

Then another outfit calling itself “SaveLaPlataCounty.com" pops up. Followed by yet another, this one calling itself the LaPlata Liberty Coalition which set up a blog and Facebook page boasting the wonderfully vague libertarian mission statement: “A Coalition of ‘We The People’ Working to Protect and Preserve the Historical and Constitutional Rights of the Citizens of La Plata County.”

What’s that even mean? Historically we had the Right to cruise local roads drinking beer and it wouldn’t bother anyone, but decades sneak by, landscapes that used to be wild and free, are full of homes and septic tanks and traffic and kids and all that jazz.

K.Francis: Big oil and gas behind county commissioner attacks - Nov. 17, 2017

There was a Durango Herald opinion piece that needs to be shared in this collection since it touches on SaveLaPlataCounty.com's pretense of being independent of American For Prosperity and the Koch network of stealth organizations masquerading as local groups.  I thank Ken for his permission to repost his Durango Herald column.

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Francis: Big oil and gas behind county commissioner attacks

Ken Francis  |  Nov. 17, 2017  |  Durango Herald  |  https://durangoherald.com/articles/195280

I read with interest Matt Dempsey’s column (Herald, Oct. 28) attacking La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt and misconstruing as an apology her well-reasoned explanation of her nonprofit work (Herald, Oct. 14).

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Note: Matt Dempsey is another example of the convoluted connections between SaveLaPlataCounty.com and the Koch machine - check out his bio at the end of this article.

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Dempsey, the opinion editor of Western Energy Alliance’s “Western Wire,” condemns Lachelt’s dual role as public official and executive director of the nonprofit Western Leaders Network.

Masquerading as the ethics police, Dempsey demands the network disclose the source of its funding. As a nonprofit organization, the organization is legally required by the IRS to annually and publicly disclose its funding.

Yet Dempsey’s moral code does not seem to apply to Western Energy Alliance. For example, the Alliance invited a rather unique Washington political consultant, Richard Berman, to speak at its 2014 annual meeting. Berman’s signature move is to launch smear campaigns against his clients’ opponents – such as environmentalists – through nonprofit front groups that are insulated from having to disclose donors.

Kochs' Weaponized Philanthropy Machine - MapLight.org - 2018

I fear most don’t have any conception of what’s been happening so far as the Koch machine’s hostile takeover bid on our government, with its many tentacled infiltration of local politics as exemplified by the malicious and deceptive Lachelt Recall Petition - and if you think about it, there's something downright totalitarian leaning about the multilayered smarmy operation.

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Koch-Linked Dark Money Organization Seals 2016 Tax Return Section From Public Scrutiny

Margaret Sessa-Hawkins and Andrew Perez | January 17, 2018 | Maplight.org

https://maplight.org/story/koch-linked-dark-money-organization-seals-2016-tax-return-section-from-public-scrutiny/

A conservative dark money organization linked to billionaire libertarian brothers Charles and David Koch is refusing to disclose information about the size of its donations, defying IRS regulations that govern the tax-exempt entities.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the flagship political organization of the Koch brothers, spent at least $13 million to help elect Republicans during the 2016 election. It raised almost $64 million in contributions, according to its tax return.

The organization, however, last week formally rejected MapLight’s request to release a redacted section of its annual tax return that lists any donations of more than $5,000. MapLight, a Berkeley, Calif.-based money in politics watchdog, has filed a formal complaint with the Internal Revenue Service.

“AFP is secretly influencing our government and elections through more than $60 million in dark money and refusing to comply with even the minimal transparency law still applicable,” said Daniel G. Newman, president and co-founder of MapLight. “Americans have a right to information about the efforts to influence our political process by unelected, anonymous billionaires.”

¶ SaveLaPlataCounty's "Facts" Tainted by Koch's DarkMoney Tentacles

Examining the fundamental deception being foisted on us by “SaveLaPlataCounty” and the 

Koch DarkMoney funded web they are a part of.  

   

(click on image for clearer view)

To begin with, isn’t their summary title a bit hysterical? 

La Plata County doesn’t need saving.  Look around at our country, we are amongst the luckiest people in America, in the world.  What La Plata needs saving from is a ruthless, contrived campaign intent on injecting misunderstanding and divisiveness into local politics.

Second, they repeat idealistic sounding phrases, but show little concern for accurately representing facts, their own, or their opponent’s actual position.  Their narrative breaths contempt for environmental problems and safety regulations that benefit all of us, along with all who are concerned with those issues.  

Third, there’s nothing homespun or grassroots about SaveLaPlataCounty.com or their recall effort.  It is part of a national strategy to make end runs around “liberal” bastions of our country, and eject us from what they feel entitled to.  “All of it!”

Please consider the four references "SaveLaPlataCounty.com/the-recall-effort/" provides for supporting evidence of their claims.  Look at them.  None contain specific evidence or charges.  Instead they are agenda driven ‘news’ articles of carefully crafted word-salad.  Full of insinuations, attitude, but nothing solid except for links to Koch’s DarkMoney octopus and a distain for environmental safety standards. 

1, 3)  Western Wire Reports

Facing Recall, New Questions Emerge For Lachelt Ahead Of COGCC Hearing”

  -  By Michael Sandoval, February 12, 2018

Ethics Questions Continue To Swirl Around La Plata County Commissioner

  -  By Michael Sandoval, July 17, 2017

Western Wire is a project of Western Energy Alliance, a non-profit regional oil and natural gas association based in Denver, Colo., and active across 13 states. (http://westernwire.net/about/)

Michael J. Sandoval is a contract Energy Policy Associate Analyst for the Independence Institute.  Before that an investigative reporter for The Heritage Foundation and he is a 2013 graduate of the Koch Associate Program.   (https://i2i.org/about/our-people/michael-sandoval/)

Speaking of transparency, do you know who Western Energy Alliance is?

“Western Energy Alliance: The Voice of the Industry in the West - focuses on federal legislative, regulatory, environmental, public lands and other policy issues. We represent the voice of the Western oil and natural gas industry in a variety of ways.” 

https://www.westernenergyalliance.org/alliance/who-we-are/staff 

          https://ballotpedia.org/Western_Energy_Alliance

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00426569

  

The Coors-funded Independence Institute is a free-market, libertarian think tank based in Denver, Colorado. The non-profit is a member of the State Policy Network. 

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Independence_Institute

2)  Free Range Report Depicts Lachelt’s Lobbying Activities

By Marjorie Haun  |  http://freerangereport.com/index.php/about/

The author Marjorie Haun has written for American Thinker, the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, Watchdog.org, and Colorado Peak Politics…

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Thinker

          https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/american-thinker/

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heritage_Action_for_America

          https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Family_Foundations

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Heritage_Foundation

watchdog org

Watchdogorg is a project of the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, a non-profit organization dedicated to the principles of transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility.  (As part of our 501(c)3, non-profit mission, which is where the DarkMoney is)

Franklin Center Top Donor Is Right-

Joe Strupp   |   February 22, 2013

https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2013/02/22/franklin-center-top-donor-is-right-wings-dark-m/192770

Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity  -  Background

https://www.desmogblog.com/franklin-centre-government-and-public-integrity

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Franklin_Center_for_Government_and_Public_Integrity

3)  Colorado Peak Politics Article

“RECALL! Environmental Whacko Faces the Ax By Voters”

February 9, 2018   |  Colorado’s Conservative Bully Pulpit

poor job performance  -  A LIE !  -  https://gwenlachelt.com/commission-record/

double-dipping  -  A LIE !  -  https://durangoherald.com/articles/207192 

“No substance to the Lachelt recall effort”

repeatedly leveraged our public office for her private gain  -  A LIE !  -  https://durangoherald.com/articles/208122

“Recall effort: Blaming unpopularity of land use code on Gwen Lachelt alone is misguided”

That article is pure biased angry inflammatory bullying.  Venom filled words, but in the end very little substance and what there was of that was misrepresented.  This is precisely the kind of emotional vitriol that destroys the democratic civility we depend on to keep our society functioning.  Exactly what the oligarchs want, this cynical recall attempt is doing their bidding.        

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Gwen has been working for her constituents !  I copied this from 

https://gwenlachelt.com/commission-record/

Gwen Lachelt’s Work as La Plata County Commissioner, So Far:

• Re-ignited the Comprehensive Plan conversation and pursuit with the Planning Commission

• I supported the creation of the La Plata County Water Advisory Commission to aide the county both in planning for, and protecting, our waters.

• I sponsored the Public Lands Resolution, which passed unanimously, calling for maintaining federal ownership of our public lands.

• I advocated strongly in DC for passage of the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act, critical to our tourism industry.

• I supported convening a Fiscal Sustainability Steering Committee to help the commissioners plan for the county’s financial future.

• I led the county in developing strong state air quality standards and the nation’s first rule controlling methane emissions from oil and gas operations.

• I testified in Washington DC in support of the BLM’s Venting and Flaring Rule to reduce emissions and protect the US Treasury.

• I served as co-chair of Hickenlooper’s Oil & Gas Task Force and fought hard to maintain the authority of local governments to regulate O&G operations.

• I have been serving on the boards of San Juan Basin Health and Housing Solutions for the Southwest.

• I advocate daily for diversifying our economy so we are not so dependent on any single industry.

• I’ve worked with residents and local businesses to strengthen our local foods economy, support community garden projects, and promote sound food policy by creating the Herbicide Carryover Working Group to educate growers and the community about the risks certain herbicides pose to gardens and farms in our region.

• I promoted the first community solar garden development on the Boys & Girls Club rooftop.

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Bonus, a couple peeks inside their master plan.

Follow the Money: Koch Brothers Back Pruitt to Head EPA  

By Elliott Negin | January 30, 2017

https://www.ecowatch.com/koch-brothers-pruitt-epa-2225721522.html

The two dozen nonprofit groups and Senate committee members defending Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump's nominee for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, have at least two things in common.

Like Pruitt, they're climate science deniers. And, like Pruitt, most of them are funded by Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who own the coal, oil and gas conglomerate Koch Industries.

Koch's Marriage with BigTobacco-1993-Citizens for a Sound Economy-Jeff Nesbit 

Adapted from Poison Tea: How Big Oil and Big Tobacco Invented the Tea Party and Captured the GOP, copyright © 2016 by Jeff Nesbit

https://americansforkochsprosperity.blogspot.com/2018/02/big-tobacco-koch-citizens-sound-economy.html

History is important, and its amazing how much history Koch’s Americans for Prosperity has.  Here I share some details from Jeff Nesbit who wrote: Poison Tea: How Big Oil and Big Tobacco Invented the Tea Party and Captured the GOP, which is followed by tips and links to 10 other articles about various aspects of this long running strategic campaign aimed at an ultimate hostile take-over of our United State of American’s government of the people, by the people and for the people, by a few wealthier than god oligarchs. 

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This is a personal unaffiliated effort to educate neighbors regarding Americans for (Kochs) Prosperity

citizenschallenge at gmail

Commissioner Lachelt Recall Is Unfair - L.T. - 2/15/18

Yesterday I read a good Letter To The Editor of the Pine River Times that nicely explains the upset that I, and many others, are feeling towards this contrived Recall Petition.  Today I called the author and she gave me permission to reprint it and include her name.  More thoughtful letters to the editors of local papers would be good.

Commissioner Lachelt recall is unfair

Feb. 15, 2018  | pinerivertimes.com/articles/52457-commissioner-lachelt-recall-is-unfair

The majority of La Plata county voters did not vote for our current president. And we hear constantly from his supporters that we should deal with it and get over it. 

Yet it is these same people who now mount a recall against Commissioner Gwen Lachelt, duly elected in 2016 in a fair open election. Duly elected! And these people of the recall won't do what they tell everyone else to do, accept results, deal with it and get over it. 

Gwen has done what she told this community she would do. She did not misrepresent any of her positions or beliefs; and people said, this is who we want as commissioner. We want a commissioner who has worked for years to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for their impacts. We want someone who will oppose a polluting industry, and now that industry wants her gone. We want someone who will fight for clean air and public health, who will not cave to pressures to shut up and sit down like a good woman should, who will be our voice in Denver and DC. 

Gwen Lachelt is under assault and by any measure, La Plata County is under assault (see Jonathan Romeo's Jan. 30 (Durango) Herald article on Americans for Prosperity). 

It is up to the people who supported Gwen in 2016 to support her now. She has been there for you and now you need to be there for her. This recall is totally wrong and must be opposed.

Liza Tregillus

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¶ SaveLaPlataCounty's Recall Petition Examined - dirty tricks in action.

Save La Plata County’s Petition Language - Take a closer look at what’s being circulated by http://savelaplatacounty.com/the-recall-effort.  See if you don't agree it's a bunch of deceptive handwaving?  Please help discuss this malicious political deception aimed at robbing us of our duly elected County Commissioner!  Here I make a study out of the complete text of the Recall Petition, I have not altered any words from their Recall Petition, but I do address their claims and deceptions.

      Save La Plata County (from what?)

Recall Petition

We need commissioners who represent our interests above their own, and who govern with accountability and transparency.  (Of course!  Don't we all)  Commissioner Lachelt has not done that.  (False, look at the support rallying around her.)  She has repeatedly leveraged our public office for her private gain by appearing before the U.S. Congress and other federal government entities to advocate and advance her and her employer’s political and policy agendas under the guise of her role as our commissioner.  (False, she has been advocating for issues that we elected her to advocate for.  Those interests include protecting this environment that is our life support system!  Whether oil interests like it or not.)  Her county commissioner meeting attendance record further demonstrates where her allegiance lies. Her 2017 attendance record was much lower than any other commissioner.  (False, 91% v 95%.) 

We can and should expect our commissioners to act ethically (We should be able to demand the same of their opponents!) and not to take actions that undermine the public’s trust in our local government.  (Lachelt has never done such a thing.  No evidence of wrong doing presented - beyond advocating for a healthy environment*, that is. Why has that become an impeachable offense?).  As a result of Commissioner Lachelt’s actions,  (Nowhere is specific misconduct presented.)  the county has been required to investigate ethics complaints filed against her and to seek out ethics advice from at least one other county.  (Malicious misrepresentation of the facts.  This same group filed and pushed that frivolous complaint which was dismissed at every level it was looked at.  Now they resurrect it yet again.  Pure dirty politics in action!)  

For all these reasons, and more, we believe Commissioner Lachelt has acted in ways that have undermined the public’s trust  

(This perspective leaves  >2/3s of crowd out of frame, taken Feb 15, 2018 at Eno, Durango.)