ASHE IN AMERICA

Saturday morning, as the Colorado Republican Party’s Assembly and Convention was getting underway, Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown prepared to unilaterally select winners and losers.

And not just in the Governor’s race.

freedom of the press is out of fashion 

Remember back in 2013 when the Obama Administration attempted to delegitimize Fox News and the DC press collectively protested the obvious First Amendment violations?

I remember being proud of journalism that day. It was a good day. Sadly, it didn’t last.

Clearly, Kristi Burton Brown was channeling Obama on Saturday, as Colorado Newsline reported that their reporters were refused entry into the Republican event. Last I checked, the First Amendment applied equally to leftists, no matter how vile their authoritarian viewpoints. 

The party assemblies are where candidates are selected for the ballot. It’s right smack in the middle of the public interest and, no matter how much Republican leadership doesn’t want leftists up in their business (I get it), it’s an unwelcome precedent for the Republican party to disallow certain news outlets into their convention. 

To better understand the circumstances, I reached out to Newsline Editor Quentin Young. You will remember Young from when he labeled me the fifth “most dangerous election denier in Colorado” — for which he won an award (yes, really).

According to Young, the reason provided in writing by Colorado GOP Executive Director Joe Jackson was, “It’s pretty simple, we choose to decline credentials to partisan Democrat organizations who are funded by foreign billionaires attempting to intervene in our elections.”

While the last thing I ever expected to do is defend the commie press, this is a slippery standard. Are all you Republicans (screaming about censorship) cool with Chairwoman Brown and Director Jackson selectively suspending the First Amendment rights of journalists during statewide civic proceedings?

If so, who’s next? Unfunded, unaffiliated bloggers that openly criticize Republican authoritarianism? 

Yikes.

brown attempts to disqualify thorne

Chairwoman Brown was also deciding the outcome of the Attorney General race. In a letter sent to delegates after the event, Brown stated:

“…the second-place candidate on the Attorney General ballot has been disqualified. He was not a registered Republican at the time of the race, which is required — instead, he was registered as an Unaffiliated. All votes cast for him must be disqualified, unfortunately those delegates’ votes were stolen with false information.”

Kristi Burton Brown, CO GOP Chairwoman

According to Stanley Thorne, the aforementioned second place candidate who took over 40% of the vote despite being nominated from the floor, his party affiliation was changed without his consent. 

Before calling Thorne a conspiracy theorist, remember that a key finding from the Colorado Canvassing Report was that people in all four canvassed counties experienced their party affiliation changing without their consent. I personally know several voters who experienced this.

According to Holly at Altitude, she was almost disqualified from being an Election Judge in 2020 because her affiliation changed multiple times without her consent. She kept having to change it back, and no explanation was ever provided for why this happened.

A voter’s party affiliation changing without their authorization is a violation of CRS 1-2-218.5: “The declaration of affiliation of each registered elector shall remain as recorded in the registration record until the elector changes or withdraws his or her affiliation.” 

According to page 11 of the report, “The most significant portion of issues…was attributable to election law violations. Issues in this category included…unauthorized party affiliation changes.”

In a message from Stanley Thorne to the Colorado Republican Party National Committeeman, he declared:

“It is [sic] come to my attention that Kristi Burton Brown and Priscilla Rahn appeared on the George Brauchler radio show this morning and announced that the CO Attorney General race with John Kellner is uncontested…the basis of that announcement is that I am not a registered Republican voter.”

Stanley Thorne, Candidate for CO Attorney General

More on The George Show episode with Chairwoman Brown and Vice Chairwoman Rahn is coming up. I didn’t know this Brauchler guy existed before today. It was a simpler time.

Thorne’s message continued: 

“No one from CO GOP has contacted me about this issue…In light of the fact that CO GOP officially received my contact information on April 9, 2022, it strikes me as grossly inappropriate for legal conclusions to be made public about my eligibility by Kristi Burton Brown and Priscilla Rahn without any inquiry to me as to the facts about my Republican Party affiliation.”

Stanley Thorne, Candidate for CO Attorney General

He’s not wrong. Despite the now obviously inauthentic calls for unity from Republican leadership on Saturday, Stanley Thorne was belittled and demeaned by Brauchler, Brown and Rahn. And now we know that, despite being a well respected attorney who Chairwoman Brown was friendly with, no one reached out to him to discuss the issues.

Rather, they went on a podcast and the Vice Chair called him and the people who nominated him, “Judas” – during Holy Week. 

I’m loving the unity.

Jesus wept.

Thorne’s account continues, and it begins to sound like Holly’s experience:

“I will be filing a notice and request for CO GOP investigation of the fact that my voter registration affiliation on the CO Secretary of State website was changed by an unknown person from Republican to unaffiliated. As soon as I discovered that on April 9, 2022, I corrected it at 11:47 PM (documented by Colorado Secretary of State certificate in hand). This morning I discovered that an unknown person has changed my April 9, 2022 correction of Republican affiliation back to unaffiliated.  As soon as I discovered that on April 11, 2022, I corrected it at 10:21 AM (documented by Colorado Secretary of State certificate in hand).”

Stanley Thorne, Candidate for CO Attorney General

This message was accompanied by documented evidence of his claims.

Interestingly, while Thorne’s message was circulated early afternoon on Monday, the Chairwoman’s message wasn’t sent until nearly 8:45PM Monday – meaning she knew about and ignored Thorne’s contention. 

The lie isn’t surprising considering she also lied to the 3,772 delegates about the availability of paper ballots, on which she was briefed multiple times (prior to all the lying).

If you tell a lie to 3,772 people in person, in an effort to affect their votes, does it qualify as a “big lie”?

Asking for a friend.

stop, or i’ll tell my dad!

Back to the radio show, the most shocking revelation came around minute 38:00 when Chairwoman Brown claimed, without evidence or specific details, that Danielle Neuschwanger’s husband threatened to beat up her father. 

Her father is Mike Burton, a former member of UADF and FEC, the current Republican Chair of both SD35 and HD56, and the Sergeant at Arms for Saturday’s proceedings. Both Danielle and her husband Jarid deny Brown’s claims.

I spoke with the Neuschwangers on Monday evening and, according to their account, it was Mike Burton that got physical with Jarid Neuschwanger while his wife was conversing with Burton’s daughter.  

According to Jarid, “He grabbed my arm and said, ‘You better watch what the fuck you’re doing.’ I replied, ‘I know what you did yesterday to another woman, and if you touch me or my wife one more time I will put you in the fucking ground.’”

Unlike Brown, Danielle and Jarid provided video of the interaction which appears to confirm that Mike Burton came up behind the couple unprovoked and grabbed Jarid’s arm. The dialogue between the two men is inaudible.

The occurrence that Jarid referred to from “yesterday” was the HD18 assembly where, according to multiple sources, Mike Burton physically accosted delegate Melissa Goodall by twisting her arm. The interaction was not recorded however, in the video below, you can see Goodall with Burton in a heated discussion following the alleged event.

The only physical interaction that I witnessed on Saturday was from Chairwoman Brown when Danielle approached her on stage. From my vantage point, Danielle appeared to grab the microphone and Brown appeared to slap away her arm. 

When I asked her about this, Danielle explained that she was trying to cover the microphone so she could explain the issues that delegates were reporting without the microphone amplifying their exchange. Brown indeed slapped away her arm. 

you can come in the tent, but sit down and shut up

Danielle was reasoned and collected as she recounted how it took 15 minutes for the results of the Governor race to be submitted, triple the time of the other races, without explanation. She shared how her campaign’s designated observer was not allowed into the Teller committee room until the counting was complete. She claims Ganahl and Lopez observers were present in the room the whole time, but her campaign received a different standard.  

Add this to all the issues I reported Monday about the clickers, and you begin to understand why delegates and candidates are upset.

Had I only listened to Brown, Rahn, and Brauchler – a man who makes uncomfortable references to bathhouses, likes being considered a “country club republican,” and doesn’t understand what we mean when we say “establishment” – I would come away believing that Neuschwanger and her supporters downed a fifth of whiskey and went all Jerry Springer on the assembly stage. 

Priscilla Rahn was clutching her pearls the hardest, declaring that integrity-focused delegates made a “mockery of the process,” and that she “lost trust in the process” because of a “misuse of floor nominations.” She said the “lack of decorum lacked integrity” and that she had “never seen anything like this.” 

Why would anyone join a party where the “leaders” are so fragile?

#proudlyunaffiliated

I personally think Rahn was still reeling from bombing her speech on Saturday after trying to get the audience to sing along with her weak attempt at Aretha Franklin’s “Think (Freedom).”

But, sure, maybe it’s the decorum thing.

Establishment Republicans love to talk about decorum.

It’s integrity where they struggle

Forget all the authoritarianism and stripping away of our fundamental rights that has happened during Brown’s tenure as Chair; the important thing is that we all remain respectful during the slow march to the gulag. 

At least 61% of Saturday’s delegates voted for election integrity. And the response of the Chairwoman and Vice Chairwoman is to demean that majority and threaten to change the rules to limit their impact.

Brown whined about wanting to be the “big tent party” where they “let everyone have a chance.” But her reaction to the people engaging in the process, 30% of them first time delegates, makes one wonder if that is what she really wants? 

It’s worth mentioning that the Chair of the “big tent party” removed the floor microphones prior to the start of the assembly. According to staff from multiple campaigns who were hanging signs and setting up tables, the floor microphones were present in front of the stage on Friday night.

And Saturday morning they were gone. 

The tent is big, and you can come in. Just don’t expect to be heard. 

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I will stay on this story, so subscribe if you don’t want to miss out. 

Danielle Neuschwanger will join Joe Oltmann and I on Conservative Daily, Tuesday April 12 at 5PM MT. Join us on Rumble @ConservativeDaily, smash the Rumble button, and join us in the chat! 

If you miss me between posts, come hang with me on Telegram @asheinamerica.