Election for El Paso County GOP Chairman

We have a chance to pull our party out of the mud of Incompetence

I believe in the Israeli SF dictum of 'Friends bringing Friends,' so Ken Davis has my vote.

Some thoughts...

I first ran for 'Springs City Council in 2021 for District 2. There was seven of us on the ballot for Dist 2 and Randy Helms won. I had no clue what I was doing, and the El Paso GOP did not do squat. The reason was that city elections were supposed to be 'Oh So non-partisan.'

When Caucuses arrived in 2022, I was a precinct leader (Still am). I noticed that the El Paso County GOP Chair had her little favorites and made no bones about it. Bottom Line - none of her favorites made it past the primaries. She called people Rinos who were not her favorites. Like my pastor, I told her that the fruit of her leadership was division. Was very glad to read that Ken Davis’s leadership fruit will focus on Unity.

In 2023, I ran for City Council a second time for one of the three general seats. Once again, the El Paso County GOP did nothing. In this one, the three people who won were not Republicans or known conservatives by rank and file party members. They won because each received $70,000 in campaign contributions from the Developers. As a broke candidate with little money, I was not able to overcome the resources they threw at the election.

I find it interesting that in 2023, the Democratic Party had a Mayoral debate but only invited Yemi. El Paso County GOP had no money, no plan, and no one the Chair and her cronies thought was supportable. Yemi did not win so much as the El Paso county GOP surrendered.

Without vision, a people perish. Proverbs 29: 18.

That is VERY true of the El Paso County GOP to date.

Recommendations:

The Developers are brilliant business people and while making money is a priority, they do not have evil intent. Frankly, they are the only hope for building homes in Colorado Springs young families can afford. In 2023, of all the homes on the MLS list of homes for sale, none of them were homes young families could afford. I think our GOP county leadership should reach out to the Developers and woo them back to the party of freedom and business. Figure out together how to build homes across the city that young families can afford. Do not know what happened in the past between them and the current county GOP chair, but I saw multiple developers at our past several caucuses that I met in my campaigns. If they go to the trouble of going to our caucuses, then I think they are itching to get back involved in our party. They are smart, talented folks and potentially a BIG change to the positive. We need them to help us support candidates who are conservatives and Republicans. Encourage them to think more about young families, our city, and county than their wallets.

Same for the Realtors

Downtown is too lefty. Find businesses willing to put up posters and sponsor events. At one of Pres Trump's inaugural balls, there was a massive section of young people. The cover of the New Yorker only showed a section of white kids at that ball so they could make their DEI woke comments. In truth, that whole original picture had a massive quantity of all races of young people celebrating Trump's win. I REALLY believe we could do that downtown without going to Yemi's bar.

School Boards. I serve on the D20 District Accountability Committee. As Republicans, we need to be messaging to parents and kids in all school districts in El Paso County. Ask precinct leaders to step forward and teach about the constitution. Bring the developers along because they have the imagination and smarts to build homes young families can afford. School kids and those families would be the customers for those homes. Otherwise, we will have an aging, declining city.

Get involved EARLY in the next County Commissioner elections in 2026. Start sifting candidates and make firm Republican candidate recommendations to the Developers' and Realtors' groups.

Figure out how to press 63% of El Paso county voters into voting for the next Republican Candidate for governor. I spoke with Heidi Ganahl and Eli Bremer a long time about this. The GOP chair's favorite in 2022 (Lopez) was awesome but electable only to office in El Paso County. Heidi was the only one electable statewide. Though barely landing on the primary ballot at the 2022 caucus, Heidi beat the crap out of The GOP Chair's favorite in the statewide primary. In the main election against Polis, Heidi came nowhere close to receiving the percentage of vote Republicans must achieve in El Paso County to win the governor's office. As far as I could see, the El Paso County GOP had no leadership, no money, and no plan to 'get out the vote' for Heidi.

Bottom Line recommendation: Figure out how to win elections and get El Paso county voters, developers, realtors, and parents of school kids excited about GOP candidates.

A great resource worth reading would be John Suthers' last 'State of the City' speech.

Jay Inman - Smoking a cigar on a Blue-Sky Colorado day