Speaker 1: She is the chief kitten herder of the Colorado Republican Party.
Speaker 2: Bretta Horne, welcome back to the show, having me Mandy.
Speaker 1: So, Okay, so since last week spoke Bretta, so much
Speaker 1: has happened now. I talked about the fact that a
Speaker 1: week ago Saturday, I'm minding my own beeswax, just you know,
Speaker 1: going through my day, and all of a sudden, my
Speaker 1: phone starts lighting up with text messages from people saying,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I just came from the State Assembly.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what happened. I think we opted out,
Speaker 1: but I'm not sure. I have no idea. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask you to tell my listeners what happened
Speaker 1: in that meeting, and then we'll get to the Secretary
Speaker 1: of State's office in just a second. So what happened
Speaker 1: in that meeting?
Speaker 2: Britta?
Speaker 3: Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 4: So we had a meeting and it was the five
Speaker 4: hundred and you know, three people. It's the State Central Committee,
Speaker 4: which is from the sixty four counties, three people from
Speaker 4: each one on the chair of the vice the secretary,
Speaker 4: and then bonus members based on whether or not the
Speaker 4: population of that of that county. So it's five hundred,
Speaker 4: a handful of people, and we all got together to
Speaker 4: go over just really the opt out vote, whether we're
Speaker 4: going to vote on or not. We had a couple
Speaker 4: of items laid over because they were table from the
Speaker 4: meeting before, and it just like we went in there
Speaker 4: with the understanding that we have to have this vote
Speaker 4: per law, and we had had it between it was
Speaker 4: August fifteenth and October first, So we picked the twenty
Speaker 4: seventh in so September and we decided, you know, you
Speaker 4: have to have this vote, and by law you need
Speaker 4: to have seventy five percent to want to do it
Speaker 4: of that body to opt out of the primary, and
Speaker 4: opting out means that there would be no paper ballots
Speaker 4: to anybody, and that just these five hundred people and
Speaker 4: then PCPs precinct chair people, that's a whole other rabbit
Speaker 4: trail would go to have assemblies or conventions next spring
Speaker 4: and only vote for one person for each seat within
Speaker 4: that district, that community, that county, that and then and
Speaker 4: then we'd have to have a big one for the
Speaker 4: whole the state seats, no petitioning on, no paper blots
Speaker 4: going to any of the nine hundred thousand plus Republicans,
Speaker 4: and obviously the independence in Colorado, nothing going.
Speaker 3: Over to.
Speaker 4: Military overseas, nothing, It would just be decided by that
Speaker 4: small percentage.
Speaker 1: And let me just I'm gonna I want to drive
Speaker 1: this point home because there is a big, old, fat
Speaker 1: misconception that if the Republican Party opted out of the primary,
Speaker 1: the open primary, that they would somehow be able to
Speaker 1: hold another primary and let all of the nine hundred
Speaker 1: thousand plus Republicans that are registered here vote on our candidates.
Speaker 1: And I keep telling people to your point what you
Speaker 1: just said, all this would do if we opt out
Speaker 1: of the primaries, it would put the power of choosing
Speaker 1: the general election candidates in the hands of a very
Speaker 1: small group of people. So would essentially disenfranchise about nine
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five thousand Republicans.
Speaker 2: It would take away our ability to.
Speaker 1: Choose our candidate, and in doing so, it's very reminiscent
Speaker 1: of the way Kamala Harris became the candidate for the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party because I said, I said the other day,
Speaker 1: I'm like, we still don't know who decided that. At
Speaker 1: least we'd know the people that were choosing our candidates.
Speaker 1: But then I'll let you continue. I just want to
Speaker 1: reiterate that point. We would not have a primary. We
Speaker 1: would have a small group of party insiders who work
Speaker 1: very hard for the party. I don't want to in
Speaker 1: any way, shape or form, you know, denigrate the work.
Speaker 2: That they do.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to concede my primary vote to
Speaker 1: five hundred people in change or six hundred, whatever the
Speaker 1: number is. So go ahead and tell me what happened next.
Speaker 3: So we had we had to go.
Speaker 4: We had it as our first item, after all the
Speaker 4: you know, the minutes, We kept the rules of the
Speaker 4: last time, you know, we do all the things, and
Speaker 4: it was next, and then there was just that's when
Speaker 4: it started that they wanted to have these things that
Speaker 4: we were laying over first and not this vote and
Speaker 4: put that second.
Speaker 3: So we had to go through all those pieces and.
Speaker 4: It just was It was very rowdy, and it was
Speaker 4: very loud, and people were acting as they would and
Speaker 4: so it just took a lot.
Speaker 3: It was a lot of confusion, a lot of chaos.
Speaker 3: It was clumsy.
Speaker 4: We got through it to the point where we had
Speaker 4: to leave the building because we only had it for
Speaker 4: X number of hours and our security of the Captain
Speaker 4: of the police force it like it's time to go.
Speaker 4: So we never had the vote. So unbeknownst to what
Speaker 4: people are trying to say and trying to trick everybody
Speaker 4: and with their with their wordsmithing, it didn't happen. We
Speaker 4: didn't have the vote. We had to vote over another
Speaker 4: item that was laid over from the Assembly a year
Speaker 4: and a half ago down Plublo, and they were trying
Speaker 4: to change the minutia of that, trying to change that
Speaker 4: into from a controversy and I know we're going down
Speaker 4: the rabbit trail a controversy into a resolution and try
Speaker 4: to get that to be the vote, and it can't.
Speaker 4: You have to have the vote there and seventy five percent,
Speaker 4: So let's say vote.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about what happened that year ago in Pueblo,
Speaker 1: because there was a vote opped out of the primary.
Speaker 1: But the language, the statutory language in the Colorado bill
Speaker 1: about open primaries says, do you have to have seventy
Speaker 1: five percent of the state Central Committee? Right, not seventy
Speaker 1: five percent of the people who are present. Seventy five
Speaker 1: percent of the state Central Committee have to vote to
Speaker 1: op out of the primary. Did that happen in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four.
Speaker 4: No, that wasn't and that was a state Assembly, not
Speaker 4: the State Central Committee.
Speaker 3: So that was thousands of people. I don't remember, three.
Speaker 4: And a half, maybe four thousands, And it was a
Speaker 4: controversy trying to turn into a resolution and having people
Speaker 4: stand up and.
Speaker 3: They weren't even the people that should be voting.
Speaker 4: And to turn that around into something else, and it
Speaker 4: just was because it was an even year.
Speaker 3: We can only do these.
Speaker 4: Odd years during certain days. So we had to straight
Speaker 4: up have that vote. That vote didn't happen, that other
Speaker 4: one voted, you know, we voted on whether that was
Speaker 4: true or not or we're going to apply for it.
Speaker 4: And we did a role called vote and only forty
Speaker 4: four percent of that.
Speaker 3: Five hundred people total.
Speaker 4: Pass what wanted it, So it didn't pass because you
Speaker 4: need seventy five percent.
Speaker 3: So it again it was never there. There's no there there.
Speaker 2: So they didn't follow this statue yet.
Speaker 4: Rule of law, follow the rules, and they did the
Speaker 4: seventy five percent of the those present and in proxy
Speaker 4: that's how we got that five hundred number.
Speaker 3: Did not vote at seventy five percent level.
Speaker 1: Okay, So what was given to the Secretary of State's
Speaker 1: office after the meeting, because this is where it gets
Speaker 1: really ridiculous and interesting.
Speaker 4: So there was one of those other pieces laid over
Speaker 4: was that a person and myself, you know, does this
Speaker 4: body want us to jointly go together and turn in
Speaker 4: the results. Somebody went ahead and did that on their own.
Speaker 3: C seed me.
Speaker 4: Was not joint as I read it, read it or
Speaker 4: my are you know the party read it? You know,
Speaker 4: the GOP State Central Committee, the whole group together of us,
Speaker 4: the executive board, did not even executive just the electeds.
Speaker 4: They swore that that that what happened and that nothing
Speaker 4: could be further from the truth.
Speaker 1: So we had to they said that we affirmed they
Speaker 1: opt out and this Britta, why this is also frustrated
Speaker 1: And then you basically the same information. Look, we didn't
Speaker 1: opt out on anything to the secretary. And you're just
Speaker 1: waiting to hear from Jennick Grisweld's office now about what.
Speaker 3: Oh no, we heard from him last week. Oh no, no, no,
Speaker 3: we heard from him last week. The office. So the
Speaker 3: chief of staffputy chief of staff.
Speaker 4: And their legal counsel, senior league counsel. We managed to
Speaker 4: get a phone call with them of the staff and
Speaker 4: they said thank.
Speaker 3: You very much for following rule of law. We agree
Speaker 3: with you.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that's been put to bed. And the reason
Speaker 2: that this, well, I mean in my mind.
Speaker 1: That's been put to bed, but obviously that's not the
Speaker 1: mind of some members of the Republican Party, which brings
Speaker 1: me to my second point that I want to talk
Speaker 1: about really quickly on the blog. Today, I have some
Speaker 1: really interesting polling from.
Speaker 2: From Forbes and Forbes. The headline on Forbes dot.
Speaker 1: Com is, well, maybe if I can get to the headline,
Speaker 1: new polls show Bluesteak Colorado is in play for Republicans.
Speaker 1: I saw that and I thought to myself, but are
Speaker 1: Republicans going to be able to capitalize on it?
Speaker 2: So, Britta, I am not fond it.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, when you go look at
Speaker 1: my cartoon that I made for today that I put
Speaker 1: on my social media to promote the blog, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: proud of it. And the likeness of you is just
Speaker 1: a rough likeness. I didn't really drill down, but you know,
Speaker 1: I captured the hair and all that. So well, we
Speaker 1: have some people represented on that cartoon and they've created
Speaker 1: a faction of the Republican Party that is very very
Speaker 1: very persistent about opting out of the primaries. Now we
Speaker 1: already have a lawsuit going on right now, correct about
Speaker 1: opting out of the primaries, about changing the law, which
Speaker 1: is what I think needs to happen, right.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, So that one is over Proposition one eight for
Speaker 4: years ago, and that was already done two years ago
Speaker 4: that they were going to do do it. There's a
Speaker 4: group of people that are saying, and we believe this
Speaker 4: as GOPS, that it's it's in our belief it's unconstitutional
Speaker 4: for a certain group to get two ballots a Democrat
Speaker 4: and Republican ballot.
Speaker 3: So we figured that it's unconstitutional.
Speaker 4: We don't know anywhere in the world that gets to
Speaker 4: do that that a certain group gets two ballots, it
Speaker 4: has to turn in one that has a militia. A
Speaker 4: lot of other reasons why that's a I believe it's
Speaker 4: a bad idea. We can talk about another time.
Speaker 3: So it's supposed to be going to the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4: And so there's groups of people working on that with
Speaker 4: Claremont Institute to take that to the Supreme Court, going
Speaker 4: as this constitutional.
Speaker 3: Are not constitutional because.
Speaker 4: Back in twenty fifteen before I think we all remember it,
Speaker 4: I remember it. If an independent wanted to be a
Speaker 4: part of the primary process, they just had to do
Speaker 4: what you can do in Colorado, same day, voteric younger
Speaker 4: registration and get that ballot, decide and then change back.
Speaker 4: You know, shenanigans have been going on for years of
Speaker 4: that happening before eight. So that's where we are heavy
Speaker 4: that lawsuit. I'm not we will not hear an answer
Speaker 4: for the twenty sixth election.
Speaker 3: Right this is the game that we.
Speaker 1: Have in front of us, and that's it, Britta.
Speaker 3: We have to play the game that's in front of it.
Speaker 3: Were the rules, Yeah, we can't take a football to
Speaker 3: a tennis netch, No, we got tennis.
Speaker 1: We've got to play the game as the rules are written.
Speaker 1: Right now, And know that this lawsuit is working its
Speaker 1: way through, and I realize it's very frustrating, and I
Speaker 1: realize it takes forever, and I realized that I get it.
Speaker 1: I understand all of those frustrations. But but what's happening
Speaker 1: right now with this divisiveness in the Republican Party is
Speaker 1: we're about to snatch defeat from potential jaws of victory.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've just got to get We've got
Speaker 1: to restore some balance to the legislature more than anything.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and we're not going to let this faction. We're
Speaker 3: not gonna let this small, the small part of the
Speaker 3: greater picture to win the bigger picture. We're finding other
Speaker 3: groups to work with.
Speaker 4: We're finding very conservative groups to work with, other organizations.
Speaker 3: We're within the party. You still have a lot of
Speaker 3: people that want to win.
Speaker 4: We want to win, and the only way to win
Speaker 4: is to put more you know, points on the board
Speaker 4: we have.
Speaker 3: That's the only way. So we have to reach out
Speaker 3: to them. And I'm just going to share with.
Speaker 4: You what I've seen the best part of this job
Speaker 4: right now. And I know there's a lot of good things,
Speaker 4: and I love all of it, and I love getting
Speaker 4: up in the morning and hitting the ground running and
Speaker 4: let's go is sadly, Sadly the Republican nine to eleven
Speaker 4: was nine ten when Charlie.
Speaker 3: Kirk was murdered.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 4: Daily, we are getting people coming into the party. They're
Speaker 4: coming through you know, reaching out to us through X you.
Speaker 3: Know, individually, our website.
Speaker 4: We're just getting people constantly coming in and I get
Speaker 4: to take every one of those calls, call them, talk
Speaker 4: to them, find where they want to be, what do
Speaker 4: they want to do. It's people that are getting off
Speaker 4: the fence and finally know that they're conservatives.
Speaker 3: They're the gen z z's.
Speaker 4: That are really happy to be around. I was even
Speaker 4: talking to a high schooler yesterday and the high.
Speaker 3: Schooler was going, what can I do? And I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna show his naghbors.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he'll be sixteen this week and I'm like, go
Speaker 4: to go do your pre registration to be sixteen, and
Speaker 4: I'm gonna find you a can I help with with
Speaker 4: school board And I'm gonna find you a group that
Speaker 4: you can work with high school you know, conservatives and
Speaker 4: through turning.
Speaker 3: Point, we're just gonna plug everybody in. That's how big.
Speaker 4: Everyone's looking for community, everybody's looking for relationship and.
Speaker 3: We all need to win.
Speaker 2: Amen to that.
Speaker 1: Brenda Horne, chairman of the Colorado GOP. Chief Kitten Hurder
Speaker 1: of the Colorado GOP. I do not enview you that
Speaker 1: job at all. Thank you for making time for me today.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Don't forget to hit the donate button over at Colorado
Speaker 4: gop dot org.
Speaker 1: Very good. Thanks, Brenda's that's what you do when you
Speaker 1: are the actual chair of a political party.
Speaker 2: You remind people to hit the donate button.