[00:01] Speaker 1: (circa 1950s music) Chuck and Julie, bringing you the truth, straight up.

[00:05] Speaker 2: I'm Julie Hayden and I'm working at -

[00:06] Speaker 1: An Emmy-winning former investigative reporter, a highly successful trial attorney, and publisher of a major Denver area newspaper. They've been partners as talk show hosts and in marriage, as parents for over 10 years, providing thought-provoking information, opinion, and entertainment live, local, and interactive. Everyone's voice is always welcome on The Chuck and Julie Show.

[00:34] Speaker 2: Hello, everybody. Welcome to The Chuck and Julie Grassroots Show, Truth Straight Up. I'm Julie Hayden. Chuck Bonniwell, my, uh, partner in crime and my husband, um, is wrapping up some stuff upstairs. He'll be down, um, shortly. But what a week (audio cuts out) in Colorado, um, for the grassroots, for grassroots Republicans. Um, I know Chuck talked with Randy about the, uh, the victory f- um, with the key, the judge ruling unconstitutional a key portion of the, uh, p- uh, law that requires us to participate in a semi-open primary, setting the way hopefully for an opt-out. But in an- an even bigger, um, victory, Eric Grossman, a grassroots warrior, um, was elected chair or vice chair. Chair. Vice Chair of the Colorado Republican Party, and he joins us now. Eric, so if you want to go ahead and unmute yourself and throw your picture up, that would be great. Um, so first off, welcome to the show. Congratulations. Um, thank you for your time again.

[01:32] Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on. Uh, in the end though, group effort, group win. Uh, this is a- a much bigger effort than just me. I just happened to stick my neck out there.

[01:41] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[01:41] Speaker 3: I think it's still attached.

[01:42] Speaker 2: Well, and you know, the vote wasn't, going into it, and Chuck and I were both, are bon- were bonus members, um, and we voted in the, um, e- in- in the election. Um, Brita once again didn't really allow people to comment. The chat section was off. Um, when they held the straw poll, she sort of said, um, and it wasn't even a straw poll, it was a straw draw and she, she rigged it so that her person- (laughs)

[02:05] Speaker 4: Yeah, it turned out okay.

[02:06] Speaker 2: (laughs) Yeah.

[02:07] Speaker 4: But we know that, uh, Eric Grossman loses. So you think he got the short straw, it means the other guy's got the better of it. No, no, uh, that means that, uh...

[02:17] Speaker 2: (laughs) But it was-

[02:17] Speaker 4: ... Eric goes first. All right.

[02:19] Speaker 2: In the end, it wasn't even close. I mean, you won by almost 60%. Um, and, um, you know, I guess what, what are your, just your general thoughts on the election and how things went the other night?

[02:32] Speaker 3: I mean, obviously, we got the outcome that we wanted. Um, so that's good. Um, but once again, you know, it's just, the whole reason why we've ended up in this position is, I mean, we can't even run a basic meeting as an organization. You know, uh, I think Alec's a good guy, but you know, he obviously hasn't played enough poker to, you know, hold up his hands and-

[02:53] Speaker 4: Yeah. (laughs)

[02:53] Speaker 3: ... you could actually see the first, the first time that it was longer here, you know.

[02:56] Speaker 4: Yes. Yes. Yes, that's right.

[02:58] Speaker 3: If the meeting would have been a little easier to raise your hand to get called on, I just would have volunteered to have gone first. I mean, the whole thing was just, good grief, man. I, again, I, as I've said many times, we're one of the 50 states of the union, and this is the best, you know, presentation product we have, and it's just, it's, it's embarrassing.

[03:16] Speaker 2: Let me explain that to people, 'cause that was pretty funny and somewhat indicative of Brita's entire (laughs) leadership. Um, so-

[03:23] Speaker 3: Right.

[03:23] Speaker 2: ... they, what they were gonna do is they were gonna have, to see who would speak first, 'cause they were-

[03:27] Speaker 4: Draw straws.

[03:28] Speaker 2: ... they were gonna sort of draw straws. So Alec, who's the executive assistant, had two pieces of paper, one longer than the other. And then he held them so you could see the top, but he also-

[03:37] Speaker 4: And the bottom.

[03:37] Speaker 2: ... (laughs) held them so you could see the bottom, so you could see which one was longer. (laughs)

[03:43] Speaker 3: Right.

[03:44] Speaker 4: Yes, that's right.

[03:44] Speaker 2: It would have been funny, except it wasn't funny.

[03:46] Speaker 4: But then it was, but then it didn't matter, 'cause it didn't matter if you had the straw, the long straw or the short straw, you were going first.

[03:52] Speaker 2: You were gonna go first anyway.

[03:54] Speaker 3: Right. I, that's definitely the way it came across. Whether they intended it that way, we don't know, but that's definitely the way it came across.

[04:01] Speaker 2: Well, let's have you talk a little bit about, okay, so the assembly is coming up this weekend. What do you want to accomplish here as vice chair, particularly in the short term here?

[04:11] Speaker 3: I mean, really, the same things that I, I said during the campaign. We have to get the organization to function as a professional entity. Uh, in terms of the assembly, I mean, there, as, as a professional event guy and a planner, there's no reason for me to overly inject myself. We're too close to it now. Whatever process they've got going on is what they have going on. I'm certainly going to attend and be available should I be needed. That really is the only role. Um, but at this point, whatever assembly they've got planned is the assembly that's gonna, that's gonna take place. Um, so moving on, beyond that, to answer your question, I mean, the next big item is gonna be the, the, uh, chairman's vote and how that's gonna look. Um, so I'm not overly gonna rock the boat, nor do I think anybody should between now and the end of this weekend.

[04:59] Speaker 3: Starting next week, though, uh, my plan is to send out an email to the, um, entire SEC and start to have the conversation of how this vote wants to take place. I promise you that my meeting is gonna run a lot better than the way the rest of this has gone.

[05:13] Speaker 2: Awesome.

[05:13] Speaker 3: That's, I mean, the proof is in success. And so I plan to succeed in that regard, and at least the meeting hopefully will run out and flow a lot better. And if we're gonna have a straw poll, that we do that before the meeting, not during the meeting, and waste everybody's time to find out who's gonna go first. I mean, that's just, good grief, that's absurd.

[05:28] Speaker 2: Well, you know, yeah, exactly. Particularly when you know who the candidates are. I mean, that's ridiculous.

[05:32] Speaker 3: Right.

[05:32] Speaker 2: What about, now have you heard from Brita? I mean, you're the new vice chair.

[05:35] Speaker 4: Yeah, congratulations. Let's work together for that short period of time.

[05:38] Speaker 2: I mean, her previous two chair, vice chairs resigned in disgust. But have you heard from her?

[05:43] Speaker 4: And who are our allies?

[05:44] Speaker 2: Right.

[05:44] Speaker 4: And you're on the other side of the aisle on this one.

[05:49] Speaker 3: Uh, there was an email that went out last night, and I, uh, I had planned on reaching out to Brita here today, Monday, but I ended up having to send a text last night because of something that came up and asked for her to get back to me. I, I haven't heard from her at all, no. Been crickets.

[06:04] Speaker 2: Well, fr- frankly, I mean, sh- she didn't communicate with the vice chairs that she picked, and that she liked, so-

[06:10] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[06:10] Speaker 2: ... so, so this isn't really a shock. Um-

[06:13] Speaker 3: I'm not, I'm not surprised. I mean, it is what it is. And, and that's why the no-confidence vote happened, and that's why we're, we are where we are, and, uh, here in, you know, a few weeks, we're, we're gonna fix that by electing a new chair. And that's how it should be.

[06:25] Speaker 2: You know, one of the things I thought, and let me ask you, y- you know, your opinion on this, is one of the reasons people elected Britta, who was clearly the establishment rhino candidate, is I think people thought that she might be able to have access to fundraising, right, and, and be able to do that. And as we've seen, the complete opposite is true. She's plunged the party some 200... more than $230,000 in debt. Do you think that played a factor? Do you think people now clearly see that this is, this was just a myth that the establishment had any access to donors?

[06:54] Speaker 5: It wasn't a myth that they just got abandoned.

[06:57] Speaker 2: No.

[06:57] Speaker 5: I mean, Anschutz and all the others are in for jungle primary and, you know, you can see it in John Caldera's columns. You can see it on, on, uh... oh, God. Whatever you, you think is, is an establishment, uh, whiny uni-party thing, they all want the jungle primary. Um, so Democrats do, the establishment Democrats, because Dianne DeGette got crushed in the assembly, uh, in Denver a couple weeks ago. Um, so they're all for that, and there'll be tons of money 'cause last time, uh, there was a huge amount of money spent, uh, by Ken Theory, um, and there'll be virtually no money spent the other side, but hopefully it'll come out the same way.

[07:39] Speaker 5: Uh, but it-

[07:39] Speaker 2: My question is, though, do you think that, that... I, I, again, I think people used to think that, and I think that people don't think that anymore. I don't, I, I don't know if you're the average Republican out there, you're like, w- why, why should we stick with the establishment? They don't seem to be able to get anything done and, in fact, do just the opposite.

[07:57] Speaker 3: I mean, I honestly have a different take on what happened a year ago.

[08:01] Speaker 2: Okay.

[08:01] Speaker 3: In my ru- rural Colorado chairman's view, as, as a chairman of a small county, it was, it, just like there's Trump derangement syndrome, there was Dave derangement syndrome.

[08:11] Speaker 2: Okay.

[08:11] Speaker 3: I think there was enough of an hatred against Dave Williams that they wanted anybody with Dave who had arose to the top, and she was the one that got put in. I, I, I never heard any prowess of her fundraising ability. Obviously, she proved that she couldn't do that, but when the election happened on the floor, as we were all casting ballots, it was really just an anti-Day sentiment, and that really came-

[08:32] Speaker 2: Huh.

[08:32] Speaker 3: ... also from the con- from the, uh, from the elected representatives. There, there's just... there's something that happens to people when they get into the state house. I- as a former mayor, um, I can tell you that there, there's some type of energy that gets excreted out of the Denver capital, and I, I've kind of cleaned it now. It's homogeneous government. I- everything just needs to be this homogeneous thing, whether you're Republican or a Democrat. We've got this little, you know, cabal of, of, of, uh, colleagues, and we're all elected officials, and we're all just gonna sort of tow this homogeneous company line. Dave didn't do that, and they hated him for it, and they got rid of him accordingly, and, and, uh, in the end, you know, their, their champion, uh, against Dave was Britta, and love or hate Dave, he at least ran a somewhat of a status quo party when you look back historically.

[09:20] Speaker 3: Historically, every chairman's raised a couple million dollars through the course of their tenure. We're never gonna even get close in the first year to even getting half of that. So, as much as they hated Dave, they almost kind of burnt the entity down, and now we're seeing that. We can't even run a meeting. So, it, it... there's gonna need to be some reorganization, and, and, and just in the simplistic, simplistic terms of can we just run a meeting, can we do the basic functions of the organization, we're gonna start there, and, and then see where we go after that.

[09:47] Speaker 5: Well, traditionally, for a lot of years, there was a, a, a donor class. It included the Coors family-

[09:52] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[09:53] Speaker 5: ... and particularly included, uh, Phil Anschutz and, and some others, and they largely funded a huge portion of the Republican one. Um, Dave, and I'll give him credit, a lot of credit, because I think he's the best chairman we've had, at least in my lifetime. Um, and, and he was able to rob from Peter to pa- Paul and come up with, with over $2 million. It's really a semi-miracle, to tell you the truth.

[10:20] Speaker 2: Yeah, without any of the big donors.

[10:21] Speaker 5: Without any of the big donors. Um, so as, as a practical matter, and I think, you know, y- you're judged, as everyone said, by who you get elected. Well, for the first time in years, we gained House seats. We stayed... even in the Senate, we gained House seats. So a- and all of those things, and he got Trump on the ballot, he did so many other things. He made mistakes, and he, he unnecessarily alienated people, uh, throughout. I'm not sure running for Congress and the chair was the most advantageous thing. But, but he was a... really, in a lot of ways, the smarte- smartest chair I've ever met, uh, on, on either party. Um, but now we've gotta try to... we've gotta try to move on, um, and, and elect a chair. And I... you know, I mean, it's gonna be some tough choices, uh, because I'm not sure what we can do with a conventional chair, 'cause I don't think anybody who's just a conventional person, uh, the Republican Party will raise any money.

[11:20] Speaker 5: Uh, it's-

[11:20] Speaker 2: Well-

[11:20] Speaker 5: ... just not, it's just not likely. Uh, but we've gotta try to get at least a party that doesn't hurt all the candidates.

[11:27] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[11:28] Speaker 5: And, and th-

[11:29] Speaker 3: Correct. Yeah.

[11:30] Speaker 5: Uh, so that's all... if you're a candidate and the party doesn't hurt you, you-

[11:34] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[11:34] Speaker 5: ... you should be happy. But that'll be... you know, and people have unrealistic expectations 'cause they, they, they choke the parties so no one can contribute to it. Uh, you have to do an IEC. Um, so it's, it's gonna be a tough, tough challenge for somebody to ver- do it, uh, for eight months, nine months, and, and I suppose you're...... you're in and will be re-elected, hopefully re-elected, uh, next March.

[12:00] Speaker 2: As vice chair-

[12:00] Speaker 5: So-

[12:00] Speaker 2: Well, you've made it clearly, clearly for that too. Yeah. You have no... You made it clear from the beginning, you're not interested in running for chair, you only do the vice-chair. And I think you bring up a really good point that, that under Brita, things deteriorated so badly, that step one is to, to hold, a-as you said, the first, after the assembly and that's not your baby, so, you know, and Brita's not even responding to you. Be curious to see if she even introduces you.

[12:23] Speaker 2: Um, but, um, um-

[12:25] Speaker 5: Okay.

[12:25] Speaker 2: ... but at first, let's hold a meeting and, you know, that's step one. And then, 'cause I've seen, you know, plans of, you know, that s- all these people have plans and I think yours is the most practical and it makes the most sense. That's first, figure out, and we know how to hold a meeting 'cause you've held meetings before, and do that, and that's the first step and then we build from there, right?

[12:45] Speaker 3: Yeah. The, the, the first successful moving forward component in my view is to get the chairman's vote in a meeting that everybody feels like (techno Fades Out)

[12:58] Speaker 5: Losing it a little bit on the audio.

[13:00] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[13:01] Speaker 2: Hey, Eric, they're, they're saying your audio, if you can hear, your audio sounds distorted.

[13:06] Speaker 3: My bad.

[13:06] Speaker 2: Okay. That's okay. Th- th- that's t- modern techni- it's AI.

[13:09] Speaker 3: Try again (techno fakes noise)

[13:13] Speaker 2: Let's see.

[13:14] Speaker 3: Is that better? Unplug and replug.

[13:17] Speaker 5: Plug and unplug. Plug, unplug and replug.

[13:20] Speaker 3: Yeah, let me unplug it and then it should be fine.

[13:23] Speaker 2: That's what I always do, turn it on and then off again. Then, then bang it.

[13:27] Speaker 5: Yeah, then give it a smack.

[13:29] Speaker 2: Oh, you know what? I bet his, his video is frozen. Oh, there we go. Nope. Okay.

[13:35] Speaker 3: All right. Let's try again. How's that?

[13:37] Speaker 2: Oh, perfect.

[13:37] Speaker 5: Yay.

[13:38] Speaker 2: Okay. You were saying about the whole-

[13:40] Speaker 3: Well, so yeah, I, I... Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for the, uh, uh, the chat, uh, tech support there.

[13:46] Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.

[13:46] Speaker 3: Um, I've got to, I've got to upgrade my game and get a better headset. In any event, um, the, my whole campaign was about not over-promising and under-delivering and I, and I... It's one of the most frustrating aspects of politics to me is that, oh yeah, these candidates get out there and oh yeah, we're gonna get 12 people elected and we're, we're gonna increase our numbers this much. I mean, we can't even run a meeting. Uh, uh, what kind of promises can you really make? So again, step one, we got to pour a new foundation for this organization before we start putting up studs and putting up walls. And I think first step is making the chairman's vote meeting run well, and I'm very committed to doing that. And if we succeed in that, that will be a stepping stone that will just, you know, layer upon itself and, and we can try to reestablish some trust.

[14:27] Speaker 3: Um, so, uh, my expectations are very simple and to your point, yeah, I'm not trying to over-promise and under-deliver, it's just, it's, it, wh- that doesn't make any sense. I don't get why people do that, but that's the political game that we find ourselves in sometimes.

[14:40] Speaker 2: Well, what I like is that you said you'll talk to the SCC members and see what kind of meeting do they want to have, right? You're not issuing an edict saying it's going to be this kind of meeting or that kind of meeting. It's like, let's just talk to the members who, I think Brita seemed to forget, the SCC, they are the ruling body, right? Not the chair, not the vice-chair. So you seem to be acknowledging step one remarkably well right out of the gate.

[15:04] Speaker 3: Well, I, I'm also in a position where I'm, I'm, I'm here, you know, I'm not running for the chair. I'm the vice-chair. And, uh, somebody has to be the sane person in the room to say, "Well, why don't we ask the people what they want to do?" And obviously there's a wide variety of ideas out there. You know, uh, for the rural person that has to drive here a long way, Zoom is, is meaningful. But if we can't do that, then why keep trying that? I definitely agree with in-person meetings. I, I, I certainly want that too. But we also need adequate representation. We need to get the most people to the mo- to, you know, to the meeting to cast a vote. So I'm gonna just throw a couple of ideas out there. We'll get some input. In the end, I'll make a decision and we'll run a good meeting. Th- that much I promise you, no matter h- which format we choose. But I'm gonna definitely bring it up to the body, who... Let's have that argument before the call goes out.

[15:52] Speaker 3: And I think that that wo- you know, and technically from the way I read it, you know, eh, the call can go out once the vacancy occurs. And I, I'm already researching that so that we're ready to make that happen and pull the trigger and try to re-establish some trust with two factions who can't get along in making sure that the meeting is successful. I think that's, that, that's about the most we can hope for. And I think we shouldn't try to do any more or any less.

[16:18] Speaker 2: That... Well, that's good. And, you know, I guess you're gonna too, is, is Russ Andrews is staying on as secretary as far as we know?

[16:24] Speaker 3: That's my understanding. Yeah.

[16:25] Speaker 2: Okay.

[16:25] Speaker 3: He has definitely communicated to me that he's not resigning.

[16:28] Speaker 2: So, and... 'cause one of the first things you're gonna have the challenge is, is 'cause I was an SCC member and now I'm not, because that all switches again on Saturday, right? At the assembly. So yeah, you're gonna have to... Ro- am I right? You have to do a whole new email list and things like that too, which is always fun to do, right? Or do you think-

[16:45] Speaker 3: Um, I, well, I don't think we, I don't think the SCC part changes 'cause I think that's the reorg process, right? So then that was established-

[16:52] Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Yes, yes, yes.

[16:52] Speaker 3: ... a year ago. So I think the voting block stays the same. Uh, but hopefully-

[16:57] Speaker 5: We should find that out, (techno fakes noise)

[16:57] Speaker 3: ... we can, hopefully we can, you know, produce a better outcome in terms of how it flows and not waste everybody's time. And it shouldn't take three, three and a half hours of credential people. I mean, good grief.

[17:06] Speaker 2: No. No. And that was-

[17:08] Speaker 3: It's weird.

[17:08] Speaker 2: Yes, that was re- that's the trouble with, with something like Zoom and, and you're right, there is no easy answer because you're right, if you, if, if you were to say, you want to hold it in Steamboat, right? Well, that's inconvenient for us. But if hold-

[17:21] Speaker 5: Well, I have to tell-

[17:21] Speaker 2: But if you're holding it in Westminster, well, I mean, it, it's inconvenient for them. Right? Um, and so I, I understand what they're saying, but yet there has to be... It shouldn't... Well, I'm going to have to say this though, when the grassroots people had their meeting, it only took 10 minutes to get credentialed. What they need to have, I believe, are probably more people who know what they're doing. Just an observation.

[17:39] Speaker 5: That's always- always helps. But, but it's a practical matter. There, there's a real drawback. There has to be for key meetings, in-person meetings. I mean, I think being able to talk to people, being able to touch, and it's a huge difference than being on a Zoom where you're kind of sitting there in an easy chair, just kind of going to sleep. Um, the one problem with in-person meetings we've had a long time is proxies.... because it really perverts the, the system. It's who can get proxies from people, not who can show up, and I think we gotta get rid of, uh, proxies for in-person meetings. You show up, you vote.

[18:15] Speaker 5: You don't, you don't, because often with people holding li- and in the past, there have been meetings literally where I think, uh-

[18:23] Speaker 2: There were more proxies than people. (laughs)

[18:24] Speaker 5: No, there were like 288 proxies that, uh, Cory Gardner held for one meeting. Uh, so basically, he could dictate the meeting any way he wanted to. Um, I, I think proxies have to go. Um, if you wanna get elected to the state ex- uh, central committee, you should be able to commit to, to do it. If you don't, then have somebody else show up. And it shouldn't be an unduly burden 'cause I think occasionally for some of these things, Zoom meetings are fine, but it can't be for everything. Um, and I think the main drawback, and I don't know how you feel about it, but I, I've watched all the effort is to crook the number of proxies you can get, and then, you know, deny the other people their proxies. And it's a whole game we've been running, the establishment's been running for years. If you, you know, if you're gonna go on the state central committee, you gotta show up for the one meeting or two meetings all year they have. And if you don't want to, let somebody else run.

[19:21] Speaker 5: Um, and I think, uh, you know, who knows? Maybe it's during this interim period, we can make a recommend and have a few changes that really make sense. But, but we're having an assembly coming up. Quite frankly, it's, it's a weird assembly, and, and there's been a huge hubbub about who is gonna be, uh, the gubernatorial candidate, um, with Joe Altman's come in and out, Victor Marks, um, and Scott Bottoms, and then, uh, you know, a cast of characters, um, a lot of them good people, but have no real chance. But notwithstanding that, I know their names. I don't know any of the names for AG. I mean, I've gotta go study it 'cause I'm, I'm, uh, you know, I'm, I'll be voting on 'em Saturday. I don't know who's running for secretary other than Jimmy Sangenberger.

[20:09] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[20:09] Speaker 5: And nobody who hates, uh, Tina Peters like Jimmy Sangenberger is gonna get my vote. Um, and now we have the third one who's the treasurer. Well, it's, the reason why is because nobody has a chance in Colorado, no Republican has a chance to win state-wide election.

[20:27] Speaker 2: Well, no, you're talking to the new vice-chair, Chuck, so-

[20:28] Speaker 5: I don't care.

[20:29] Speaker 2: ... don't be such a downer. (laughs) Don't be-

[20:30] Speaker 5: Again, I don't care.

[20:31] Speaker 2: Don't be such a downer. (laughs)

[20:33] Speaker 5: I don't care who the vice-chair is.

[20:34] Speaker 2: Just kidding.

[20:34] Speaker 5: No, no. No two legs to talk, remember?

[20:35] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[20:36] Speaker 5: Um, and, and, uh, so we, we've, we've gotta, we've gotta walk before we run, and, and for me anyway, the only one, the thing that divides the establishment, um, and the grassroots, the basic one, uh, is not pro-life, uh, is not pro-gun, it's not any of those. It's how we choose our nominees. Do we choose them, uh, in a, in a semi-open primary that the Republicans, uh, who are allied with Demers- Democrats force down our throats? Um, and, and so we always get, you know, uh, you always get the Joe Adairs, and you always get the ones the rest of the party... Barb Kirchmeyer. I mean, I don't... She's not going to the assembly because she doesn't have the support there, but she'll go and get Democratic votes, and then how do you have a party in which all your candidates are led by others?

[21:33] Speaker 2: Well, in that case, you support the opt-out, right?

[21:36] Speaker 3: I do. I think we can't do any worse than we're doing, so we should-

[21:40] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[21:40] Speaker 3: ... try something out.

[21:41] Speaker 2: Yeah.

[21:41] Speaker 5: Yeah, but again, the thing is-

[21:42] Speaker 3: But, but it's been brought up recently that we, we do have to, uh, consider how that's going to function in practicality. And I think there needs, needs to be a group that's gonna get together and, and-

[21:51] Speaker 2: Right.

[21:51] Speaker 3: ... and sort of flush that out for, um, for the, uh, uh, recent ruling that came out. But I wanna backtrack if I could. You threw a lot out there, Chuck, and I wanna go back to something that, um, is pretty evident to me, which is we've gotta change the culture of the Republican Party in this state. You know, when you run for an office, you need to show up and ca- cast a vote. And if you can't do it, then let somebody else do it.

[22:14] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[22:14] Speaker 3: Um, we wouldn't like it if our congressional representatives were not in Washington, DC when the votes take place, when they're out campaigning instead of showing up in Washington to cast their vote. The same should apply here. I, I, I recognize that we got a rural state. I live in a rural area. I know how hard it is to get to Denver, to cast a vote. But we've gotta start looking at ourselves in the mirror and point the finger inward and not outward, that we're kind of our own worst enemy, and that we're not totally participating in the process either, which then opens the door for all these types of shenanigans you were talking about. The, the gamesmanship of proxies versus not proxies, and who can show up to the meeting and who can't. And that's an internal problem that we have culturally, and we- and I think part of it is that we've lost the culture of a winning team. We don't know how to win anymore, and instead, we just sit around and bicker amongst ourselves.

[23:04] Speaker 3: And that aspect's gotta change. And the one thing that I hope will be, uh, demonstrably obvious in the next 10 months is we're gonna find out, at least, 'cause I'm gonna push this hard, who, how can we get along for the, for the next 10 months and identify the people that even if we don't agree on topics or, and, and policies, who can we get along with between now and November, and who we can't? And the people that are just doing nothing but just throwing mud and rabble-rousers, and who can't actually s- show up to the table and get along, maybe those are the people that maybe not be involved in leadership. Because if you're just gonna only tout your side of the, uh, the civil war equation, however you wanna put it, and you're not gonna really, really willing to work with the other side, those people need to be identified, and we need to find a working group of people that can move this party forward so that we can change the culture and come back to a winning team.

[23:52] Speaker 3: But right now, to me, that's one of the biggest problems we have, and then it leads to all these shenanigans that you alluded to, you know, several points back.

[23:59] Speaker 2: That's a good point, and you're a perfect example of that because Russ Andrews, who is the, the secretary, and you, uh, have not been besties, right? But the two of you have been able to, and you've talked about that, w- work together. And I think you're right. Certain policy issues can be debated later. D- do you know what I mean? Uh, it's like that-

[24:15] Speaker 3: After November.

[24:16] Speaker 2: Right. Let's be able, let's-

[24:18] Speaker 5: But once again, it's ne- the big divide is not on the policy issues. It really isn't. Uh, it's how we lift our, our-

[24:25] Speaker 2: Well, that's a policy.

[24:25] Speaker 5: No, it's not a policy. It's, it's an-

[24:27] Speaker 3: Well, the opt out I think, well, we could maybe not include it as a policy, but it, it's the biggest elephant in the room, let's be honest.

[24:34] Speaker 5: It is. Yes.

[24:35] Speaker 2: Yes. Yes.

[24:35] Speaker 5: You solve that one, and I don't care what the internal group comes up with, as long as it's Republicans voting in the Republican primary.

[24:44] Speaker 3: Right.

[24:45] Speaker 5: If it's every o- every Republican, then that's great. If it's a caucus, uh, an assembly, that's great to me. But as long as the Republicans are, are electing Republicans, well, you know, the, the grassroots will win some, they'll lose some, and that's fine. Um-

[25:00] Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's Republicans.

[25:01] Speaker 5: But, but it can't-

[25:01] Speaker 2: I mean-

[25:01] Speaker 5: But it can't be that, that, that, uh, that Democratic-leaning unaffiliates decide that, "No, we love Barb Kirkmeyer the nest, best." You know, if quite frankly, Barb Kirkmeyer, uh, were, were, won the assembly, I'd support her. I'd vote for her, uh, in, in the general election. But she's avoided it and she, she's gonna let the unaffiliates do. Um, and, and we have Gabe Evans. Now, I can't stand Gabe in a lot of ways 'cause he's for open borders, but at least he won the assembly. He won the assembly fair and square, got 85% of the votes. So as much as I don't like, uh, Gabe Evans, I'm voting for him and I, you know, I'll do whatever I can to get him elected 'cause he went through the process and, and he's, he's the one that, in fact, um, deserves, uh, the party's support. But as long as they go running to Democrats, who are the unaffiliated, Democratic-leaning unaffiliates, you're never gonna get grassroots like myself ever to support them.

[26:02] Speaker 5: So a- and let's face it, uh, some of the, the moderates will not support some of the grassroots. Well, great. Be a Democrat. I mean, w- the one thing we've got is that we're not this far away from taking over the state. (laughs) We are this way from taking over the state.

[26:20] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[26:21] Speaker 2: It's-

[26:21] Speaker 3: Yeah. If, if we can't agree on that, then we have no found- foundational agreement.

[26:24] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[26:24] Speaker 3: That's 100% correct.

[26:26] Speaker 2: Well, Eric, let me give you, 'cause we, we, I don't wanna take all your whole day 'cause I know you've got stuff going on, but, uh, does any final last thoughts or words kind of on the, on the election, on your election and heading on into the assembly?

[26:39] Speaker 3: Gosh. You know, I think Chuck just nailed it, that we are this far apart. We, we have some serious issues. Um, but I think we're only gonna tackle them one step at a time and success will then help sort of heal some of these wounds and get us back to an operational professional standard. And it's just gonna be one thing at a time. And, and, um, again, uh, as soon as the assembly's over, I'm gonna put it out to the, to the body that let's start thinking about what kind of meeting we wanna have for the chair's vote, so that it can be a trusted outcome and have the body sort of weigh in on, on how that wants to look. Um, I certainly have my ideas about it. Um, I've already reached out to a couple of venues where I think we could hold an in-person meeting, um, since I'm probably gonna be the one running it. Um, and I wanna have some comfort level in being able to do that at, at a, at a high enough level.

[27:26] Speaker 3: Um, but in the end, I, I, I kinda want to have the argument about the meeting before the call goes out. That's the strategy. Let's have a pressure release.

[27:35] Speaker 2: What? Oh.

[27:38] Speaker 5: We lost you.

[27:38] Speaker 2: All right. We lost you again. Hey, listen, we'll let you go, but, uh, that was great. Just thank you for your time. Congratulations again.

[27:45] Speaker 5: Thank you.

[27:45] Speaker 2: We are so glad to have you in that spot.

[27:46] Speaker 5: All right.

[27:47] Speaker 2: So thank you for, for ta- for taking it on. All right.

[27:51] Speaker 5: All right.

[27:51] Speaker 3: Well, appreciate you. I'll see you later.

[27:52] Speaker 2: Okay. Thank you.

[27:53] Speaker 5: Okay.

[27:53] Speaker 2: Eric Grossman there, the new vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

[27:56] Speaker 5: He'll make a great one. He'll make a great one.

[27:57] Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. I think he will be. Um, and, and yeah, I think we can, as you said, get it, (laughs) get to the point-

[28:02] Speaker 5: I don't know that we can.

[28:02] Speaker 2: ... where we can hold a meeting.

[28:03] Speaker 5: Well, maybe not a meeting.

[28:04] Speaker 2: (laughs) Baby steps. Baby steps. Baby steps. You know, Jacob had talked about... But so we keep moving on, there are other things we wanna talk about too, but real quick, Jacob mentioned that the, um, um, I, I, I think this is a CNN guy, right? That the congressional-

[28:17] Speaker 5: Sure.

[28:17] Speaker 2: ... Democrats numbers are not very good. They're even, even worse among all voters. Yeah, I think, you know, people are just-

[28:23] Speaker 5: But notwithstanding that, the, the, the, um, what do they call it? Generic vote, um, the Democrats are ahead by six points. That's a huge number.

[28:34] Speaker 2: Yeah.

[28:35] Speaker 5: That's a huge number.

[28:36] Speaker 2: I mean, the midterms on one hand, they're coming up quicker than we know and yet on the other hand, they're a, a long way away, so.

[28:41] Speaker 5: Yeah, they're both.

[28:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, and you're gonna see, and, and I just anymore and, you know. Here's the thing. I think if, if I'm a Democrat, I think you still are worried because the problem they have is they're not, they, they still are so tone-deaf and they're not speaking to the average voter. They're on the wrong side of almost every issue and, um, they, they, they'd seem, you know, immune, or not immune, but just it, it's impossible for them to fix that. So we'll see. But yeah, I saw that same poll there too. Hey, why don't you talk a little bit about, um, 'cause I just find this kind of, find this interesting. Trump on Iran. So now he's saying that if Iran doesn't agree to some sort of ceasef- they had like some 10 things they wanted all of which were insane. Um, that Tuesday, it wasn't clear what he was gonna do, but he's not changing the deadline, right?

[29:27] Speaker 5: Well, he's gonna bomb all the bridges, take out all the production facilities and maybe go after the desalination plants, which would, you know, maybe cause a massive exodus from Iran. Who knows?

[29:38] Speaker 2: Right.

[29:38] Speaker 5: At least the desalinization plants 'cause then they wouldn't get any water for people and they'd have to go somewhere, but, uh, you know, Donald's running a weird war as far as I can tell.

[29:48] Speaker 2: Well, I don't see how you can have a normal war with Iran. Right? I mean-

[29:51] Speaker 5: Well, you, you don't say every other day, "We're gonna end this in a week."

[29:54] Speaker 2: Oh, yes.

[29:55] Speaker 5: I mean, you keep on saying, "You got 'til tomorrow." And then tomorrow comes-

[29:58] Speaker 2: Right.

[29:59] Speaker 5: ... and they go, "Screw you."

[29:59] Speaker 2: Well, and here's what's gonna happen is Iran will be like, "Okay, we'll negotiate." But I think you had a good point. We were talking about this earlier. Iran, they, they don't want to... They would rather lose.... gloriously than surrender, right? They, they don't-

[30:12] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[30:12] Speaker 2: ... they don't wanna surrender. I mean, and, and it's not-

[30:14] Speaker 5: They killed all their leaders.

[30:16] Speaker 2: Right. W- and they killed all their own pe-

[30:17] Speaker 5: I mean, Israel.

[30:17] Speaker 2: Well, and they killed all their own people, so-

[30:19] Speaker 5: Well, yeah. It's... Yeah, they don't care.

[30:21] Speaker 2: Anyone who complains about the blown-up bridges, they'll kill. (laughs)

[30:24] Speaker 5: Right.

[30:24] Speaker 2: So, it's, it's like, it's not, it's not like they care. It's... They're not like your typical, I guess, you know, sort of Western democratic-

[30:30] Speaker 5: Self-interested-

[30:31] Speaker 2: Yeah, leader.

[30:32] Speaker 5: ... corruption.

[30:33] Speaker 2: Well, well, no, but what I mean is at, at, at a certain level, you know, s- in the Western, they have to answer to a certain extent to voters. But Iran does that, they don't, right? And so I think that-

[30:42] Speaker 5: They can have people (overlapping)

[30:42] Speaker 2: ... if you're Trump... Well, yeah, but I mean, well, but I think y- you know, if you're Iran, I, and I, I mean, if I can sit here and realize they're not gonna negotiate. They, they don't want to negotiate. They want to, like I said, they're happy to die gloriously because they have all the rest of the time of the universe to take, right, if they don't win this battle and then there's the next battle. I mean, they've been fighting this battle forever.

[31:03] Speaker 5: Well, Trump said, you know, they have no air force and they have no navy. Uh, well, quite frankly, the Taliban didn't have any air force and they had no need for a navy, and yet they drove us out of Afghanistan and we were hanging on to airplane-

[31:19] Speaker 2: Yeah.

[31:19] Speaker 5: ... cargo bays. I mean, so you don't need a navy. Uh, you don't need an air force.

[31:24] Speaker 2: Well, not yet.

[31:24] Speaker 5: Uh, and, and he, and they're gonna have to. They don't want to. Certainly, there's no appetite in United States for, for a ground offensive 'cause that's the only thing that'll take 'em out. That is the only thing that'll take 'em out. And in between time, you can kill, we can blow up their production, but they know that if they give up power, there'll be lots of retribution. You can guarantee if you're a mullah some place, there won't be a, "Oh, you guys were so much fun."

[31:50] Speaker 2: "You guys were good." (laughs)

[31:51] Speaker 5: "Yeah, you guys were so much fun for that 40 years. Really, you must've enjoyed to be around for 40, 50 years."

[31:57] Speaker 2: No, y- yeah, uh, so-

[31:58] Speaker 5: Um, so they're gonna, you know, he keeps on going, "You better give up." They go, "Fuck you."

[32:02] Speaker 2: But there's a part of me that would, you know, rather just say, there, there's not gonna be a nice, pleasant way to end this, so that it just ended. It needs to end it quickly. But interestingly, Trump is also s- saying, and some of the media people are all freaking out about this. So, somebody apparently... Well, the, the rescue mission w- just seemed like, you know, that's gonna be a movie here in the next like three days, I think, right?

[32:22] Speaker 5: Right. Right.

[32:22] Speaker 2: I mean, it was astonishing. Um, and Trump was saying, though, that somebody leaked that there was that second pilot that was still missing and stranded, um, to a media organization. And Trump is like, "We are gonna lean on the media organization to tell us who leaked it. Then we're gonna call it a national security issue," um, and lean on the media organization and figure out, you know, where the leak came from.

[32:44] Speaker 5: Well, that could... You know, the media organization, if they have any gonads or anything, he'll tell him to stick it, and then he'll say, "We'll bomb your family," or something. Um, but it-

[32:54] Speaker 2: Well, see, because there's... But here's what's interesting, though. So, I was trying to figure out... I was trying to do, to back time it to see where did it first come out, and it seems like that the first... So, there's a difference between... And that they're kind of playing word games. Initially, the reports were one was rescued and one was missing, and, and then the missing became stranded, right?

[33:13] Speaker 5: Mm-hmm.

[33:13] Speaker 2: But I think some... I think they're kind of p- you know. Um, s- but initially, it seems like the first reports were actually, um, in Israeli media on ch- on, on Channel 12, and there was another Israeli journalist who reported, and then The New York Times and then everybody else then picked it up fairly rapidly.

[33:29] Speaker 5: Yeah, okay. So, I don't know who he's threatening.

[33:30] Speaker 2: Um, yeah. Well, uh, he threatened the leaker, is who he's threatening. Somebody-

[33:35] Speaker 5: Which leaker?

[33:35] Speaker 2: Right.

[33:36] Speaker 5: Is it Israeli leaker?

[33:37] Speaker 2: A- and that's what's unclear. Israel is now-

[33:39] Speaker 5: Isn't he gonna threaten the Israeli-

[33:40] Speaker 2: Israel is now denying that anyone there leaked, so, I mean, I don't know. Um, but it is kind of... The way as a, just so I can tell you as a reporter that some- like that, there would've had to have been... You know, I always would get... When, when the police... When you get a story, it's gonna be, "They're gonna find the leak." And it's like, a lot of times, it's not like there's one person who calls you up and says, "Uh, guess what, Julie? This, this, this." You know, massive international story, right? There's typically, and maybe it did here, but it typically doesn't work that way. A lot of times, there are a lot of different sources, and a lot of times, it's the... A media, a reporter putting information together, right? You know, reading between the lines and trying to confirm stuff. So, I would just say to the President, I like the fact that he's like threatening people who are leaking 'cause he's like... Obviously, that made the whole thing that much more dangerous, right?

[34:28] Speaker 2: Um, but, but it's not-

[34:29] Speaker 5: What if they-

[34:29] Speaker 2: ... it's not, it's not as if they're gonna find-

[34:31] Speaker 5: ... they might quit threatening and do? You know, if you find the leaker, find the leaker, but quit threatening everybody. I, I'm getting... And I'm a big Trump supporter. I'm getting tired of the threats. "We're gonna get the leaker or we'll kill everybody." You know, find the leaker then. Don't keep on telling us what you're gonna do. Do it.

[34:47] Speaker 2: Well, I think he's trying to do it.

[34:49] Speaker 5: Well, he's not. He's threatening everybody, and maybe, maybe the media organizations will give him up. I don't think New York Times is. They can't, right?

[34:56] Speaker 2: I don't think... Yeah, no, The New York Times, uh, it, it... From everything I could see, and this could be wrong, it seems as if the initial reports were coming out of Israel. Um-

[35:05] Speaker 5: Well, he's not gonna get Israel to do it.

[35:06] Speaker 2: And... No. Uh, no, I don't think so. Um, uh, you know, and who knows, maybe Isr- well, uh, the, the whole thing is, uh, interesting. Let me put it that way. But I'm just saying sort of just, I just wanna say, as a reporter, it- it's generally not like one person leaked the information. And it's not even like a media organization and a story this big, that could so obviously be proven wrong, would go with that, right?

[35:30] Speaker 2: So-

[35:30] Speaker 5: I don't know.

[35:30] Speaker 2: So, uh, all I'm saying is it's probably-

[35:32] Speaker 5: They're welcome to investigate.

[35:32] Speaker 2: ... kind of, to your point-

[35:33] Speaker 5: They're welcome to investigate 'cause they want a lot of other things.

[35:34] Speaker 2: No, well, but, I mean, well, yeah. But to your point, though, I mean, it's probably more complicated than, than-

[35:40] Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm sure it is.

[35:40] Speaker 2: And Trump should watch that. But, um, but it is... We'll, we'll see what happens tomorrow, you know. I don't know. Um, um, 'cause as you say, it's pretty easy for Is- for Iran to say, "Okay, now we're negotiating." You know what I mean?

[35:51] Speaker 5: Well, they, they, they appear not to. They constantly tell, you know, "Kill us all."

[35:56] Speaker 2: No, they sit down. They keep negotiates. They're kind of like, "Ukraine."

[35:58] Speaker 5: But who, who is negotiating? They keep on saying, "We're negotiating," and then they say, "You're not negotiating 'cause we're not agreeing to it."... and then who's we? We don't know negotiators.

[36:07] Speaker 2: Rubio was meeting with people he (overlapping dialogue)

[36:09] Speaker 5: Rubio hasn't killed anybody. I mean, they've killed all their negotiators.

[36:13] Speaker 2: No, but that's not my point. My point is, somebody is speaking for Iran and-

[36:16] Speaker 5: Somebody's claiming to speak for Iran.

[36:18] Speaker 2: Right, exactly.

[36:19] Speaker 5: And right now, they've got a lot of international revolutionary, Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders that it's, it's a diaspora of people who can speak for 'em, 'cause they've killed the main leaders.

[36:30] Speaker 2: Right.

[36:31] Speaker 5: So it's, you know, "I speak." "Well, I speak." "No, I speak."

[36:33] Speaker 2: It's kinda, yeah, it's like, it's like negotiating with gang members.

[36:36] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.

[36:36] Speaker 2: Right? Where it's like, "Well, are you in charge?" "I am today," you know?

[36:39] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[36:39] Speaker 2: "Until, until something happens to me and then until Bill comes along and says he is."

[36:43] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[36:43] Speaker 2: Um, so do you wanna, um, the other thing too, I just wanted to briefly kind of go back to the assembly. We'll talk a little bit more about this probably on Wednesday.

[36:51] Speaker 5: A lot, Wednesday.

[36:52] Speaker 2: Yeah. Just-

[36:52] Speaker 5: Check all the people who have no idea who they are.

[36:55] Speaker 2: Who the candidates are.

[36:55] Speaker 5: Running for treasurer, secretary, and attorney general.

[36:58] Speaker 2: But I do agree with you. I think one of the-

[37:00] Speaker 5: Looks like we got Jacob-

[37:00] Speaker 2: Jacob wants to raise his hand. Okay. Hey, Jacob, go ahead and unmute yourself.

[37:04] Speaker 6: The New York Times is still reeling from last Sunday's, uh, editorial that the NATO stands for North American Treaty (overlapping dialogue)

[37:14] Speaker 5: Oh, Lord.

[37:14] Speaker 6: ... as it was, uh, reported.

[37:14] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[37:15] Speaker 6: Right now, that right now, they are just beating up on Mr. Erlanger-

[37:19] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[37:19] Speaker 6: ... for writing that headline.

[37:21] Speaker 2: Well, Jacob-

[37:21] Speaker 6: How many hands did, how many eyes did that go by that, that, that they didn't catch it?

[37:26] Speaker 5: Well, I, I, I'm a publisher of a newspaper and the reporter does not write the headline.

[37:31] Speaker 2: Yeah.

[37:31] Speaker 5: Uh, the internals, the editors write the headline. Usually the first paragraph too. Uh, so Erlanger-

[37:37] Speaker 6: Right.

[37:37] Speaker 5: ... probably didn't write the headline.

[37:38] Speaker 2: But hopefully, if you're a reporter, you would at least look at your... But I'm, so a TV reporter-

[37:42] Speaker 5: Well, sometimes they don't even know.

[37:43] Speaker 2: But I would look at, I would look at the intro that they wrote.

[37:46] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.

[37:47] Speaker 2: Jacob. Well, sorry. Well, Jacob, explain to folks what you're talking about. People may not, 'cause I saw this too. This is pretty funny.

[37:51] Speaker 6: Okay. I think it was last, not this Sun- yesterday, but a week ago, there was an editorial by a man named Erlanger and he wrote, NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and he wrote it out as North American Treaty Organization. And then it has to go to the editor and the other editor and the publisher and they all have to check these headlines, and not one of them caught the mistake.

[38:14] Speaker 2: No. (laughs) And yet they're the ones who are gonna jump up and down about Trump getting out of NATO and they don't even know what it is.

[38:21] Speaker 6: Right.

[38:21] Speaker 2: Right? (laughs)

[38:22] Speaker 6: That's right. They're the paper of, what do they call them? The paper of-

[38:26] Speaker 5: Paper.

[38:26] Speaker 6: ... authority.

[38:27] Speaker 5: Paper, paper.

[38:27] Speaker 6: Yeah. (laughs) Not anymore.

[38:30] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[38:30] Speaker 5: Not too much. Not too-

[38:31] Speaker 2: Jacob, thank you. That's very good. That, I saw that too. That was-

[38:33] Speaker 6: I just wanted to say, I just wanted to say, I mean, I guess this is an old story, but Boasberg is telling the, uh, justice department or whatever, to return the fines of a lot of the J6 people that were, um, that were pardoned by Trump. So, he might be changing his mind a little bit. If, I, I'll tell you something. I, I don't think AOC is gonna win.

[38:57] Speaker 2: No?

[38:57] Speaker 6: I don't know. I have friends that... Nope. I think that there, there's a lot of money going towards whoever the Republic, if she wins the primary, the pri-, the Republican candidate's getting a lot more money than she is.

[39:09] Speaker 2: Wow. Well, you know, New York is such a mess right now, right? It's-

[39:13] Speaker 6: Yeah.

[39:13] Speaker 2: ... uh, you know-

[39:14] Speaker 6: Yes.

[39:14] Speaker 2: ... people are fleeing, um, and so you, you, it could be right. That would be really interesting.

[39:19] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[39:20] Speaker 6: And Calif- and California has that, uh, Save America Act on their ballot for November, so that's gonna drag out a lot of Republicans. They've even saying that Hilton, that, that, I think Hilton's the Democrat.

[39:34] Speaker 2: Right.

[39:34] Speaker 6: And they're projecting him to lose.

[39:37] Speaker 2: Huh?

[39:37] Speaker 6: Even the Dems are projecting.

[39:38] Speaker 2: Hilton's-

[39:39] Speaker 5: Well here, here, here's the thing, Carl. They've got, they've got the jungle primary that, that Anschutz and others so much want us to have.

[39:46] Speaker 6: Uh-huh.

[39:46] Speaker 5: So you've got eight or nine Democrats and two Republicans. You come out for the general election, whoever the two top vote-getters are, um, and if the two Democrats, and it's two Democrats, that's been a lot of time. This time, 'cause there's so many Democrats, the top two are Republicans. One being Steve Hilton, who's a Fox voice and so forth, and Trump and, and I don't know who advises him sometimes. Trump endorsed Steve Hilton. Hilton.

[40:16] Speaker 5: Steve Hilton, yeah

[40:16] Speaker 2: Yeah.

[40:17] Speaker 5: And, and that's a huge, um, strategic mistake 'cause it makes the number two guy more likely not to make the ballot. Hilton only has a chance-

[40:29] Speaker 2: No.

[40:29] Speaker 5: ... if the second guy makes the ballot. And so whoever said, "Oh, yeah. Let's just, let's just, uh, um, endorse Steve Hilton 'cause you like him." You know, if you like him, then don't endorse him.

[40:42] Speaker 2: (laughs) Well, I, I thought-

[40:42] Speaker 5: You know? I mean, how much are you willing to take?

[40:45] Speaker 2: I thought I read that Hilton didn't ask him to endorse him. No, but (overlapping dialogue)

[40:47] Speaker 5: Of course they wouldn't, they wouldn't endorse him. Somebody told Trump, "Oh, don't you like Hilton?" He went, "Sure." Without somebody seeing, that'd be the dumbest thing.

[40:54] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[40:54] Speaker 5: You know, there are all these people sometimes you hear, "I'll tell you what. I'll do whatever you want. I'll endorse you if you want me to. I'll oppose you if you want me to. Either way, it'll bring you more votes." But somebody told him to do the dumbest thing he could do, uh, for Steve Hilton, which is-

[41:09] Speaker 2: (laughs)

[41:10] Speaker 5: ... you know, increase Hilton's votes and decrease the second guy's votes, who's a sheriff in some county.

[41:16] Speaker 2: Oh.

[41:16] Speaker 5: Really dumb.

[41:17] Speaker 2: Hey, Jacob.

[41:18] Speaker 5: Really dumb.

[41:18] Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you for that.

[41:19] Speaker 6: Okay. Okay, bye-bye.

[41:20] Speaker 2: And, and if everybody was here and, and wants to look on chat. Yeah, Thomas, thank you. Thomas found the headline. North American Treaty Organization without America. Yeah, and first, it's a snarky one too. What's, they're trying to be, they're trying to be snarky about it too.

[41:32] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[41:32] Speaker 2: Which makes it even worse, so. Um, all right. But, and so back to the assembly. I think one of the, um, obviously, and we'll talk more about this, like you said, on Wednesday, I think the key race is gonna be... And, and here there is a very clear sort of philosophical difference. You got Bob Kirkmeyer on the one hand, who wants to, wants open primaries, she wants jungle primaries. Um, with, you know, I, I don't think she's gonna win anyway. I think she, I think she might win the primary.

[41:58] Speaker 6: Yeah.

[41:58] Speaker 2: You've got Scott Bottoms, who's sort of your grassroots guy. Not sort of, he is your grassroots guy, who's opposed to it. And then you've got Victor Marx, who I have not been able to get any answer from anybody in exactly what Victor Marx's position is on the opt-out, which I think has been part of the problem people have complained about Victor Marx. It's hard to get an answer on any of his-

[42:15] Speaker 5: Maybe I can tell you.

[42:16] Speaker 2: ... actual, any of his policies. No. Um, and I guess one could argue, well, as, you know, governor, um, I... But that's gonna be interesting to see, um, how that, how that comes out. Y- you know what I mean?

[42:28] Speaker 5: Well, I'm feeling sorry for Victor Marx. I listened to, to our friend, uh, Peter Boyle's show on Saturday. All they did was beat up-... on Peter Marks and on-

[42:36] Speaker 2: Victor.

[42:36] Speaker 5: ... Victor Marks, and all I wanted to do was, was kind of, uh, vote for Victor Marks after hearing all these cuck sucking, um, uniparty squishes, all saying, "You can't vote for him," including Barb Kirkmeyer and John Brooking and, and all these other ones. But, still, I'm not gonna vote for somebody who isn't for the opt-out. I'm just not going to.

[42:58] Speaker 2: Right.

[42:58] Speaker 5: And, and otherwise, I might vote... I like Scott Filins but I might vote with somebody they all hate so much but, uh, I will not vote for somebody who will not tell me-

[43:07] Speaker 2: Will not, not say-

[43:07] Speaker 5: ... that.

[43:07] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, a- and answer the question. That's sort of a key question.

[43:10] Speaker 5: It is the only question, in fact.

[43:11] Speaker 2: (laughs) It, it's, it's... Well, but, I mean, it... other people there are bigger questions but it's, it... You're right, it, it's-

[43:16] Speaker 5: Now I can answer it.

[43:16] Speaker 2: ... it's a key question, so-

[43:18] Speaker 5: Right.

[43:18] Speaker 2: ... um, anyway, so that'll be my thing. Anything else?

[43:21] Speaker 5: Uh, is there anything else? Yeah, I mean, I wanna talk about where are we gonna find people to, uh, uh, run for, for secretary, for treasurer? I mean, I think this time we've got a chance because, quite frankly, the Democratic, the one who's now the Secretary of State, really is in trouble, um, but w- we have such belief that we can't take any statewide position, we're not getting anybody prominent, um, so...

[43:48] Speaker 2: Or anybody with money, so...

[43:49] Speaker 5: Well, nobody has money.

[43:50] Speaker 2: I mean we can go-

[43:51] Speaker 5: They have zero money, yeah.

[43:52] Speaker 2: We can go back to what Eric Grossman said, is, I, I think, you know, you do baby steps and you go to the Ted Trimpas Blueprint Colorado, right? The Blueprint Colorado didn't come out and say, "We're gonna take the governorship." Blueprint Colorado came out and said, "We're gonna identify, you know, seats in the legislature-"

[44:07] Speaker 5: One seat.

[44:07] Speaker 2: "... in the city."

[44:07] Speaker 5: They started out with one seat.

[44:09] Speaker 2: Right, in the-

[44:10] Speaker 5: And, and that would be... and I'll give credit to, once again, Dave Williams. He picked out a few seats in the House and did whatever he could for those ones they could possibly take and they took them.

[44:21] Speaker 2: Right.

[44:21] Speaker 5: I mean, the constantly say, well, you know, even the haters of Dave Williams say, "Well, he, you know, he increased the number of votes. Oh, well, you know, that doesn't really matter." Oh, okay. It's the only thing that matters.

[44:32] Speaker 2: But I think if you do that, and like Eric said, and you start up, first you start up by running a decent meeting, right?

[44:37] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah that's step one, you're right. Yeah, you're right.

[44:38] Speaker 2: First you start up by having, having a professional organization so people can trust it, and then you go to what you said, first, do no harm. Don't be a party that actually hurts your candidates-

[44:46] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[44:46] Speaker 2: ... but then you pick out a few races, and, and up and down the thing, like the Democrats, they started city council, they started county s- county clerk's offices, that kind... You ki- pick races that you think you can win and, and you're not gonna turn it around overnight, right? We didn't get here overnight, we're not gonna turn it around overnight, and you build slowly and, uh, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm not giving up-

[45:04] Speaker 5: Well, one of the, one of the things that Britta said that was incredibly stupid as she made her campaign, you hear Republican, "We're gonna contest every election, we're gonna run everything, we're everybody..." And you kinda go, you don't have the luxury. Find a few, pick off a few, defend those you have to defend.

[45:21] Speaker 2: Yeah.

[45:21] Speaker 5: If you can do that but, but, you know, endlessly going into races we can't win, including here in Adams County, is worthless.

[45:28] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

[45:29] Speaker 5: It's absolutely worthless. Yes, you can put a placeholder in there so they have to spend some money to make sure their candidate wins, but other than that, spend your time where you can win and that's what Blueprint Colorado, they started with one race. Can we make a difference in one race? And they said how they did it, uh, but, yeah, and then, then-

[45:47] Speaker 2: And then they turn around and then they get to t- then... I mean, I think people will donate to the party, um, and to a candidate-

[45:52] Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah.

[45:52] Speaker 2: ... if they think they can-

[45:53] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[45:53] Speaker 2: ... if they think they can win, so, um, all right. Well, we'll see. That'll do it for us today.

[45:57] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[45:57] Speaker 2: We will... um, and once I kind of do it more of a preview, um, and again, thank you to Eric Grossman. Thank you for being here too.

[46:03] Speaker 5: Yeah.

[46:03] Speaker 2: Um, and-

[46:03] Speaker 5: All right.

[46:03] Speaker 2: ... and everything in Zoom and the great guys at BBS, and we will see you on Wednesday.

[46:07] Speaker 5: Bye-bye, everybody.