WASHINGTON — Right-wing extremists and their Republican allies have filed yet another anti-democratic recall petition in Colorado, this time targeting Senate President Leroy Garcia, who won election last year with nearly 75 percent of the vote.
“Colorado Republicans are sore losers,” said Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee press secretary Matt Harringer. “We’ve already stopped one recall in its tracks and we’re going to fight to defend every Democrat they target with these anti-democratic recalls.”
Leveraging expertise learned from defeated GOP recall campaigns in Nevada, the DLCC has invested heavily in Colorado to support grassroots “decline-to-sign” campaigns to stop the recalls before they can even get on the ballot. Organizers already gave up on a recall targeting Tom Sullivan earlier this summer, and the DLCC and state partners are continuing to protect duly-elected legislators from similar desperate ploys.
News of the recall against Garcia comes on the heels of similar efforts against Senators Brittany Pettersen (SD-22) and Pete Lee (SD-11), both of whom won election last year by hefty margins. Canvassers in those districts have already knocked on more than 63,000 doors to stop the recalls, far outstripping middling Republican efforts to gather petitions.
Democrats hold a 19-16 majority in the Colorado Senate after landslide victories in 2018 propelled them to control of the General Assembly for the first time since 2014.
“Colorado Republicans are desperate and out of touch — no recall campaigns will change that,” Harringer said. “We’re going to stop these anti-democratic ploys and keep the legislature blue in 2020 because Democrats are working on the actual issues, not political games.”
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