“People want to be introduced to the winners, not the losers.”
– anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce, who declined an interview today to talk about why the self-proclaimed Reform Team, a slate of at-large City Council candidates that Bruce recruited, lost in Tuesday’s election.
“Maybe we’ll meet at the hotdog stand somewhere. We can’t meet somewhere lavish. That’s not our platform.”
— at-large City Council candidate Ed Bircham said when asked where the self-proclaimed Reform Team will be meeting on election night if the slate of candidates led by activist Douglas Bruce wins election.
If they lose, Bircham said the group will hide out at home.
“We won’t be anywhere if we lose,” he said.
Douglas Bruce
Councilman Scott Hente was telling the truth.
On Wednesday, Douglas Bruce accused Hente of violating the law by sending a political email to city employees are work.
The email, which Hente sent from his private email address, encouraged voters not to vote for Bruce or any other member of the self-proclaimed Reform Team.
“There are some excellent choices for Mayor and for the open positions on Council. Unfortunately, there is a group of Council candidates – a self-proclaimed slate — that if elected, will devastate the City,” Hente wrote.
“This group consists of Douglas Bruce, Ed Bircham, Richard Bruce, Helen Collins, and Gretchen Kasameyer. In the actual words of their organizer, their real intent is to Destroy Colorado Springs.”
Bruce didn’t have any proof that Hente violated the law but challenged the news media to look into the allegations, which Hente denied.
Despite some criticism — one elected official called me “a patsy for Doug Bruce” — The Gazette took up the challenge.
The Gazette asked the public communications departments of the city government, Memorial Health System and Colorado Springs Utilities to search their computer databases for emails that were sent to city employees from Hente’s private email account on March 16.
The review revealed that Hente didn’t send the March 16 email to city employees at work.
“Here’s the exact quote from the IS colleague who coordinated the search: ‘According to our email filter server (Iron Port), we did not receive anything from that address on that date,’” Memorial spokeswoman Cari Davis said.
John Leavitt, a spokesman for the city, and Steve Berry, a spokesman for Utilities, gave similar responses.
Davis, Leavitt and Berry all provided reports to prove that there had been a search.
“I get everything from the Nigerian prime minister who is going to give me 10 million bucks to somebody promising me an improved sex life, so I can’t stop people from sending me e-mails to my city e-mail… I was going to ask Jan Martin one day if she gets the Viagra e-mails.”
– Councilman Scott Hente, who faced unsupported accusations by Douglas Bruce that he had sent an e-mail to city employees at work March 16 encouraging them not to vote for Bruce and the other members of the self-proclaimed Reform Team.
Hente denies the allegations, saying he sent the e-mail to only private e-mail addresses but not to any government e-mail addresses.
Hente went on to say that he received an e-mail at his government e-mail address from a Bruce supporter about four or five days ago referencing the March 16 e-mail, but he said he didn’t respond because “that would have been inappropriate.”
Douglas Bruce at today's press conference
Councilman Scott Hente rebuffed accusations lodged today by at-large City Council candidate Douglas Bruce that he sent an e-mail to city employees at work encouraging them not to vote for Bruce and other members of the self-proclaimed Reform Team.
“I used my private e-mail to send an e-mail to other private e-mails,” Hente said. “I went back – I wanted to be sure – so I went back and checked twice. I did not send them to any city or utility or Memorial e-mail address.”
However, Hente said his e-mail list included private e-mail addresses of city employees who work for the city, Colorado Springs Utilities and Memorial Health System.
“All I did was exercise my First Amendment rights,” he said. “It seems to me that (Bruce is) upset that somebody else has the audacity to exercise their First Amendment right.”
But Hente, who has refused to release his work e-mails in the past, said he wouldn’t share the list of e-mail addresses with the news media to prove he’s telling the truth.
“Absolutely not,” he said.
So, Councilman Hente, we’re all just supposed to believe you?
“I’ve never lied to you guys yet,” he responded. “I’m not going to start now.”
Bruce accused Hente of breaking the law by sending out a political e-mail to city employees. Bruce called a press conference to level the accusations.
“If it’s going out on city computers, if he’s using his city computer to send it, if it’s received on city computers, if it’s going to city employee official e-mail addresses, that’s all illegal,” Bruce said before the press conference.
In the e-mail, Hente said he was trying to reach as many city employees as possible, which Bruce took as proof that Hente had sent the e-mail to city e-mail addressess.
“The voters this year have to not only decide on a new Mayor, but seven of the nine Council positions,” Hente wrote in the March 16 e-mail.
“There are some excellent choices for Mayor and for the open positions on Council. Unfortunately, there is a group of Council candidates – a self-proclaimed slate – that if elected, will devastate the City. This group consists of Douglas Bruce, Ed Bircham, Richard Bruce, Helen Collins, and Gretchen Kasameyer. In the actual words of their organizer, their real intent is to Destroy Colorado Springs,” he wrote.
Bruce called the e-mail an abuse of power.
But when pressed by a reporter to provide proof that Hente had sent it to city employees at work, Bruce said it wasn’t his responsibility.
“It isn’t up to me to prove beyond a reasonable doubt something that (Hente) has actively concealed,” he said. “I’m trying to get the media to cooperate to get the information so this is your chance to be Woodward and Bernstein, so why don’t you take it?”
Fair enough, Mr. Bruce, an open-records request will be filed with the city shortly.
“Would you shut up!?! Would you shut up?!?”
– Douglas Bruce told me after I tried repeatedly to ask a question during his press conference today outside the City Administration Building.
Bruce called the press conference because of an e-mail allegedly sent by Councilman Scott Hente in which Hente encourages voters to vote for anybody but the self-proclaimed Reform Team, a slate of at-large City Council candidates led by Bruce.
“I feel I must reach out to as many of our city employees and residents as possible,” the e-mail states, prompting Bruce to accuse Hente of violating campaign laws by sending an e-mail to city employees at work.
If the e-mail was sent by Hente, he didn’t use his city e-mail account, and the recipients of the e-mail are undisclosed, so I was trying to ask Bruce whether or not he could prove his allegations.
He couldn’t.
“I’m trying to get you to contact Scott Hente (and ask him) why he made his recipient list undisclosed and will he release it or allow somebody else to retrieve it if he’s already tried to erase it,” Bruce told a group of reporters.
Joel Crank, Jeff Crank's son
UPDATE: This blog post has been updated with a new photo, which is the photo that Jeff Crank sent to Douglas Bruce in a recent e-mail.
When Douglas Bruce said he was the victim of “a classic hit piece,” some people said it was a classic example of the pot calling the kettle black.
Take, for example, Bruce’s involvement in the race for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District in 2006.
Using his own money, Bruce sent out a mailer to district delegates and alternates blasting, among others, candidate Jeff Crank.
The mailer came back to bite Bruce in this election, but more on that later.
In the mailer, Bruce labeled Crank a has-been, calling him a “Former congressional staff aide. Former vice-president of the city Chamber of Commerce. Former registered lobbyist. Former talk show host. Currently unemployed ‘consultant.’”
Wait, it gets better.
“Jeff named his son Joel,” Bruce wrote in the mailer. “Congressman JOEL Hefley reciprocated, naming Jeff as his heir.”
For Crank, the allegation about his son, who is now 13 years old, was “despicable and indefensible,” according to an e-mail obtained today by The Gazette.
By now, everybody knows that Bruce recruited four candidates to run as a slate in the April election.
But before Ed Bircham, Richard Bruce, Helen Collins and Gretchen Kasameyer signed on to the so-called Reform Team, Douglas Bruce turned to Crank for help in finding candidates who would run with him, according to the e-mail.
Crank flatly rejected the request and reminded Bruce about the 2006 mailer attacking Crank.
“I want to refer you to the attached document – a mail piece that you sent out in 2006 attacking me for not being a fiscal conservative,” Crank wrote in the e-mail to Bruce.
“Despite the obvious lies about me personally- too many lies and falsehoods to mention- there is one particular claim that is, frankly, despicable and indefensible. Your indecent attack on my son and his name,” Crank wrote.
“Doug, my son, Joel, was 8 years old at the time. How insensitive and unfortunate that you would think it is alright to bring my 8-year-old son into a political campaign,” Crank wrote.
“I’ve attached a picture of him during that campaign so that, perhaps, you can look into his eyes and understand how wrong it was for you to do that. I had the pleasure of meeting your mother once and, although you don’t have a son, a political attack on your mom would have been just as disgraceful and would have drawn an immediate rebuke from me. If there is any decency at all in you, perhaps you will understand.
“If there isn’t that decency, then I will continue to have no desire to work with you on any project in the future.”
A newly formed 527 political committee is going after Douglas Bruce and two other City Council candidates that Bruce recruited to run for office as a slate.
The Save Colorado Springs Now political committee, based in Arvada, is being led by Debbie Wamsley, who used to be the chief of staff at the Colorado AFL-CIO.
“At this point in time, I cannot say anything more, but thanks for the call,” Wamsley, the political committee’s registered agent, said in a brief telephone interview Monday before hanging up.
Read more about Wamsley by clicking here.
Save Colorado Springs Now has a website that features only a homepage.
“Save Colorado Springs Now is a group of concerned Colorado Springs citizens who believe that the City of Colorado Springs deserves policies and programs that serve to create economic opportunity, preserve the financial integrity of the city and improve the national and statewide reputation of the City,” the website state. “Save Colorado Springs Now was organized to advance a business oriented, prosperity-driven agenda in the City and educate the general public about the issues relevant to City governance.”
The group is behind a flyer that portrays Bruce and “his cronies” Ed Bircham and Richard Bruce as a curse on Colorado Springs. The three are part of a slate of candidates calling themselves the Reform Team. The two other members are Helen Collins and Gretchen Kasameyer.
“Don’t let Doug Bruce, Ed Bricham and R. Bruce drag us down again,” according to the flyer, which includes pictures of the three men in a sinking ship.
“With Bruce, Bircham & Bruce … we’re pretty much sunk.”
The flyer, which one of Bircham’s employees received at home last week, promotes three other council candidates: incumbent Jan Martin and Merv Bennett and Tim Leigh.
All three have received campaign contributions from two powerful employee groups: the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association and the Colorado Springs Professional Firefighters.
“Preserve our jobs, our economic growth and our city’s reputation with Jan Martin, Merv Bennett and Tim Leigh,” the flyer states.
“With Martin, Bennett & Leigh, Colorado Springs will steam ahead.”
Martin said she didn’t know anything about the group.
“Oh my goodness gracious,” Martin said after she saw the flyer.
“I guess it’s just open season for campaigning,” she said.
“I’m glad I’m on the right side of the ship, though,” she added, laughing.
For Douglas Bruce, the flier is no laughing matter.
“That’s a classic hit piece,” he said.
“It’s just another smear job,” he added. “What more do you want in terms of dirty politics?”
Two mayoral hopefuls and 10 City Council candidates are scheduled to speak tonight at the Colorado Springs Medical Cannabis Council‘s monthly networking event.
“Candidates will have a chance to speak about their campaign goals, and of course, the hot topic of medical marijuana in Colorado Springs,” Jessica Hogan, the council’s spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
The event, which starts at 6:30 p.m., is at the Warehouse Restaurant and Gallery, 25 W. Cimarron.
It’s free and open to the public.
The two mayoral candidates scheduled to attend are Councilman Tom Gallagher, who spearheaded a medical marijuana task force along with Councilman Sean Paige, and businessman Richard Skorman.
The council candidates scheduled to attend are Paige, David Jensen, Michael Merrifield, Tony Carpenter, Dawn Lloyd and the so-called Reform Team: Ed Bircham, Douglas Bruce, Richard Bruce, Helen Collins and Gretchen Kasameyer.
“We invited everyone, so hopefully more will attend tonight,” Hogan said.
