The Curious Case of the Missing Colorado Delegate

by Crista Huff

On Saturday, April 9, 2016, a man named Larry from Douglas County, CO slandered Douglas County (CO) Republicans on Facebook. In that Facebook post, Larry claimed that he went to his neighborhood caucus meeting on March 1st, at which a precinct captain named Jan Morgan had threatened him about being a Trump supporter, with the implication that Trump supporters would not be allowed to be delegates to the April 9th State Republican Assembly.

Larry then claimed that he indeed had attempted to attend the State Republican Assembly on April 9th, but was cheated out of his delegate position. Hundreds of people initially read his story, which then quickly spread across America.

Larry was my Facebook “friend”, although I knew very little about him, other than the details of an aggressive encounter he’d recently posted about. After quizzing him about his delegate problem, and offering to assist, and doing research, here is the response I sent to him, via a private Facebook message:

Larry, I looked into your delegate problem today. I spoke at length with somebody knowledgeable on this topic.

In fact, you did not check in with your District 3 Captain at any point during County Assembly, nor did you sit with the District 3 delegates. (While it is technically possible that you might have checked in at the front desk — we will have that evidence in a few days — it is clear that you never attempted to sit with the delegates from your District, because they did not know that you were in attendance.)

I learned that this “Jan Morgan” person is not a precinct person in District 3, and might not exist at all. That explains why I could not find her on the Douglas County Central Committee list.

I learned that you were not present at the point, during County Assembly, when District 3 delegates gathered to elect delegates to go to the State Assembly. I learned that everybody from District 3 who wanted to go to the State Assembly was successfully elected as a delegate; and that there were no alternates, because there was not an abundance of people interested in going.

I spoke directly with the woman who supervised that election and filled out the subsequent paperwork. You were not present. What’s more, in keeping with normal County Assembly procedures, nobody was required to announce their favorite POTUS candidate.

In addition, I asked you to give me a factual written testimony, so that I could help you get to the bottom of this problem, and hold somebody accountable. You did not do so, which tells me that you are far more interested in drama than you are interested in problem-solving.

I frankly do not believe your story.

I will be unfriending you now. I’m sure you found it amusing to slander Douglas County Republicans today. It’s unfortunate that you did that, but I am confident that what goes around comes around. I will not, therefore, worry about this any further.

I then attempted to “unfriend” Larry, only to discover that he had already unfriended ME, prior to my sending him that message. Why would a man, for whom I was doing helpful research, unfriend me? One possible explanation would be that he knew what I would also discover: that his story had likely been fabricated.

Additionally, at some point on April 10th, Larry blocked me on Facebook.

On Sunday, April 10th, quite a variety of Douglas County caucus attendees, delegates, and Republican Party volunteers were interviewed, to determine exactly what took place. The paper trail was examined, from Larry’s caucus meeting, and from the Douglas County Assembly. None of the gentleman’s story holds water. In fact, not only did he NOT attend the Douglas County Assembly, which he would have had to attend in order to be elected as a delegate to the subsequent State Republican Assembly, but he apparently had a great caucus experience.

Larry’s March 1st Facebook post portrays a man who attended his March 1st neighborhood caucus and felt triumphant at the positive response he generated for Presidential candidate Donald Trump. At caucus, he was elected as a delegate to the Douglas County Assembly, which would take place on March 19th. Larry subsequently failed to attend the Douglas County Assembly. 

Larry’s brief political hobby began and ended on March 1st, of his own volition. He squandered his elected position as a delegate to the Douglas County Assembly, and he squandered his opportunity to be elected as a delegate to the State Republican Assembly.

Not only is his entire story apparently false, but by accepting a delegate position at caucus, then failing to fulfill his delegate responsibilities at the Douglas County Assembly, Larry prevented other people at his caucus from winning that coveted delegate position and fulfilling their personal goals of being voting delegates during the 2016 Presidential campaign season in Colorado.

I don’t know which is more egregious: Larry’s apparent betrayal of the facts, or his betrayal of his neighbors at caucus.

Gear up, America. It’s only April. We have six more months of political shenanigans ahead of us.

* * * * *

Crista Huff is a stock market expert and a conservative political activist. She is the Chief Analyst at Smart Investing in Turbulent Times; owner/operator of Goodfellow LLC, an outperforming stock market website; and she works with End Global Governance and issues groups to defeat Fast Track trade promotion authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Send questions and comments to [email protected].