Republican activists in Senate District 13 are coming to a shopping center near you to collect 18,000 signatures by the Nov. 8 deadline and hold a special recall election to boot party-switching Kevin Priola from office.
When Priola abandoned the GOP last month, he had two years left to serve in his term.
Great day to walk for Republican candidates AND recall Democrat Kevin Priola. Voters very unhappy about his vote to decriminalize fentanyl and his work to bring drug injection sites to Colorado. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/bU2vJCZrVy
— Kristi Burton Brown (@ColoradoKbb) September 10, 2022
Republicans are anxious to get rid of him, because the senator had a bad habit of siding with Democrats on controversial bills.
The recall effort led by organizers Jeff Sloan and Louisa Anderson is supported by Advance Colorado Action, which executive director Michael Fields says has already raised $130,000 for the effort.
On the petition, Sloan and Anderson cite Priola’s voting record as grounds for the recall, while Priola claims his voting record is misrepresented and he points fingers at Fields and his organization as having “deep pockets,” and being “deceptive.”
“These hyper-partisan political insiders are wasting hundreds of thousands of your taxpayer money on a special election to punish me for serving you as an independent voice,” Priola said. “Get the facts about special interests that fear the independence of my voice in the legislature.”
Sloan said that couldn’t be farther from the truth. If Priola truly wanted to be an independent, he would have unaffiliated instead of becoming a Democrat.
Priola’s supporters aren’t even trying to defend his voting record.
Instead, Democrats have taken a cue from Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters by claiming the recall election process is not safe because signing petitions exposes their public information to the, uhm, Secretary of State’s office.
We’re fairly certain that Interfering with an election by spreading maliciously false information is a crime. Someone should probably look into that.
The Dems are really providing a compelling defense of Priola’s voting record. Desperation starting day 1. #copolitics #coleg pic.twitter.com/SBGmcn4Ftl
— Michael Fields (@MichaelCLFields) September 10, 2022