Recall effort offers taste of real grassroots politics: messy, passionate, and not beholden to anybody
Neither is the Weld County GOP.
Political experts and insiders say it’s a waste of time, at best, and foolhardy at worst.
Fueled by a mixture of fear, anger and animosity toward what many call liberal overreach following Democrats being swept into power at all levels of Colorado state government, nearly 30,000 residents have joined a Facebook page and professed their support for a Polis recall.
Others might not see it the same way, particularly when one of the leaders of an effort to recall Colorado’s gay, Jewish governor has a history of sharing anti-semitic posts on Facebook and another once argued Hitler was good to the German people.
Kyle Saunders is a political science professor at Colorado State University, and he credits this kind of movement — absent big-name political insiders or the Republican Party’s blessing — to a rise in populism worldwide, which has been accompanied by more distrust than ever in societal institutions.
He’s seen grassroots movements before. Is this one?
“This might be what it looks like in 2019,” Saunders said. “In the world of social media, anybody can start a page or put together a cause. That being said, (30,000 followers) on Facebook is nothing to sneeze at.”
Even with a common goal, there is friction. Facebook posts have been removed, pleas for professional discourse ignored and, most recently, Good lost his moderator privileges with the Facebook group and was banished entirely from it after financial disagreements with a page administrator.
Welcome to real-life, grassroots politics. Welcome to 2019 Colorado.
It started with a Facebook page.
Well, it started with a name change to an existing Facebook page. The page itself was started in November 2014, and has gone through five name changes, including Recall Hickenlooper 2017 and Keeping Colorado Officials Accountable. The page had little more than 1,000 members before Polis took office.
Now, the Recall Governor Jared Polis page, a closed Facebook group, is nearly 30,000 members strong after adopting that name.
He also once posted that Hitler was good to the German people, and “its time america has someone american.” Donnelly hasn’t responded to a Facebook message seeking comment.
Along with Donnelly, there are four other administrators for the page and another 10 moderators, and any member approved by those folks is welcome to post.
With new Democrat-sponsored bills popping up in the state Legislature every day, and new reasons to be angry, the page is littered with posts to the point that some on the site have called for focus, or professionalism or…something resembling an organized recall effort.
But there’s no submission here, only freedom. Will that and the mutual goal of recalling Polis be enough to do it — to gather 631,266 signatures in a two-month span, to do something that’s never been done in Colorado, to recall a sitting Colorado governor?
Total recall
July 8 — Signature
gathering operation for a gubernatorial recall can begin, but not
before the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office approves the petition
format for circulation.
631,266 — Number of signatures required to put Gov. Jared Polis on the ballot for a recall. But that’s the number of valid signatures. Studies show anywhere from 20-50 percent of total signatures gathered could be deemed invalid in a given petition drive, meaning recall proponents will need far more total signatures than 631,000 to ensure they hit the mark.
60 — Number of days recall proponents have to collect and turn in signatures after the petition format is approved.
631,266 — Number of signatures required to put Gov. Jared Polis on the ballot for a recall. But that’s the number of valid signatures. Studies show anywhere from 20-50 percent of total signatures gathered could be deemed invalid in a given petition drive, meaning recall proponents will need far more total signatures than 631,000 to ensure they hit the mark.
60 — Number of days recall proponents have to collect and turn in signatures after the petition format is approved.
Good, once a moderator for the page and an unofficial spokesman for the effort, has had those privileges revoked, and was banned from the page altogether after apparent disagreements with Donnelly. Good said it comes down to control for Donnelly, who asked Good to turn over money he raised via his Resist Polis PAC.
The Recall Polis Facebook page distanced itself from Good in the past couple of days, following an effort by Good to get the others to sign a memorandum of understanding.
In a post to the page Saturday, Donnelly said the Resist Polis PAC “has chosen not to work with us,” but he still encouraged people to reach out to the Resist Polis PAC to make inquiries.
“We believe that division is a strategy which the opposition commonly uses,” Donnelly said in the post. “We intend to stay the course and ask you (to) stay strong and united as The People of Colorado along with us to achieve our common objective to recall Jared Polis.”
So is there an official group? According to Donnelly, it’s the OFFICIAL RECALL COLORADO GOVERNOR JARED POLIS issue committee. There’s an associated Go Fund Me page with a $2.5 million goal. It has raised about $2,000 since it was created Wednesday.
Then there’s the OFFICIAL RECALL ELECTION COMMITTEE, which would discuss potential candidates for election to take Polis’ place should a recall be successful.
Judy Spady is officially involved with both committees, and she’s also an admin for the Facebook group, earning that title following Good’s exodus.
Spady’s public Facebook page is rife with anti-semitic posts, including a post from September 2017 saying “Israel did 9/11,” and another that credits the western world with creating radical Islam to “use fear to push the Jew World Order.”
Neither Spady, nor the registered agent, Juli-Andra Fuentes, returned phone messages or emails seeking comment.
Good likewise distanced himself and his Resist Polis PAC from Spady and Donnelly.
“You probably understand why I’ve tried to paint a clean line between (the committees),” Good said. “One will survive and make this recall succeed; the other is a liability.”
Good’s PAC has been around since July of 2018, and has gone through a couple of changes in purpose. Right now, the purpose is opposing the re-election of Polis, including orchestrating a recall effort and “mobilizing the grassroots of Colorado.”
It’s also got the benefit of being linked to recallpolis.com, a landing page for donations to Good’s PAC.
Even before the overt friction, when he was still a page moderator, Good wasn’t complimentary of the other committee.
“Those who have formed the (other) committee have done very little to make me believe they have a clue what they’re doing, and are even quite confused about what the committee can and cannot do,” Good said. “Any contributions to that are a roll of the dice.”
There’s some evidence for Good’s point, apart from Spady’s Facebook posts. It took the Official Recall Governor Jared Polis committee four tries to get its registration right, including three amendments.
Among the problems, the group misspelled Glendale as “Glandale,” in its first attempt, changed banks and then switched to a P.O. box address.
“I see the phrase ‘growing pains’ going around in the chats often,” Good said via email before the group kicked him out. “There are still big personalities within the walls of the recall page, and I’m just watching while they try to sort it out. But I’m also moving forward with my own ideas and people like what they’re seeing.”
Still, there’s no strong evidence Good is ready for the heavy lifting of fundraising for a recall effort of this magnitude.
He runs a fundraising consulting firm called Growing Our Own Destiny, but has never had a client, and his only known political experience involved a political action committee that spent tens of thousands trying to defeat Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., in the 2018 GOP primary.
Good said he didn’t run the Clean Up Congress PAC at the time, and took over only after the 2018 primary because he liked the name.
In a phone interview Saturday, Good said most of his past political work has been behind the scenes.
Good’s Resist Polis PAC, which was established in July 2018 ostensibly to prevent Polis from winning the governor’s race, raised just $500 during the run-up to the November election.
Good has an explanation.
“I didn’t put any effort into it last year,” he said. “It was clear the grassroots really just didn’t care to fight for freedom in the governor’s race.”
Good said the PAC has raised well over $10,000 recently, “and we haven’t started actively fundraising yet.”
The next contribution report for the groups is April 5.
Gubernatorial recalls
The
history of gubernatorial recall elections in the United States is
short, according to research from Rutgers University. Recall efforts
that fail to make the ballot are a different story. Most of those have
taken place in California, where Californians have tried to recall every
governor since 1968, succeeding once. As for official gubernatorial
recall elections, there have been just three. Check out the results
below:
1921
State: North Dakota
Governor: Lynn Frazier
Outcome: Recalled
2003
State: California
Governor: Gary Davis
Outcome: Recalled
2012
State: Wisconsin
Governor: Scott Walker
Outcome: Retained office
1921
State: North Dakota
Governor: Lynn Frazier
Outcome: Recalled
2003
State: California
Governor: Gary Davis
Outcome: Recalled
2012
State: Wisconsin
Governor: Scott Walker
Outcome: Retained office
Good disagreed with the number, saying there are no political insiders with large salaries to pay, and there’s a large volunteer base for collecting signatures. Still, he acknowledged they’ll have to pay for some signatures, but he estimated costs at $1.25 per signature instead.
As for political insiders — some help — Good said he has no intention of bringing them in, at least not now.
“I know a lot of people are now and will continue to scoff at this recall effort,” Good said. “It’s a shame to see the cynicism circulating already. Maybe they feel left out? They can email me and offer me advice as much as they want, but if they think they’re going to wind up with the money of these hard working Coloradans in their bank account just for sharing their opinion, they’ve got another thing coming.”
Even if paid signature gatherers are used, the effort would take an incredible number of volunteers and volunteer hours.
“Social network activism is nice for identity and to bolster people’s sense of belonging, but transitioning that to the real world is somewhat difficult,” Saunders said. “Are they psyched up and organized enough to go door-to-door?
If the group isn’t successful, it likely wouldn’t be seen as a big failure. After all, nobody else in modern times — grassroots or otherwise — has successfully gotten a gubernatorial recall on the ballot in Colorado. And it’s happened only three times in the nation’s history.
For Saunders, even a failed effort isn’t necessarily in vain. “This is also about any sort of visibility, and the political damage that can be inflicted,” he said. “It may not result in a recall, but it brings people together to oppose Polis (for re-election). That’s where it’s interesting to me that this is going around the party. Populism and being disaffected with political parties — this idea that citizens have to do this is really interesting.”
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