In 2013, a year or so before we moved from Colorado to here in North Carolina, Michael Bloomberg blasted into Colorado and poured millions of dollars into the pockets of state legislators who advocated gun control. He wanted them to pass laws to effect gun control.
A small group of citizens decided to use constitutional recall to remove the three most vulnerable gun control advocates from office. One, John Morse, was a former Police Chief of Fountain, CO; another, Angela Giron, was a Latino state senator from a heavily Hispanic district; and, the third, Evie Hudak, was a retired school teacher.
All were Democrats serving state senate terms of four years each.
Petitions for recall were circulated, resulting in two recall elections being held on Sept. 10, 2013. Morse, the former police chief, had the audacity to file for election to another seat– IN THE EVENT THAT HE WAS RECALLED. A lawsuit took his name off the ballot (as it should have). Morse lost his recall election (51% to 49%) and was replaced by someone who vowed to overturn his prior gun control votes.
Giron, the Latino lady, lost by an even bigger margin. It wasn’t even close. She lost 56% to 44%.
After the success of those first two recall elections, the group of citizens working to remove the gun control senators focused on my district in the metro Denver area. I happily joined in their efforts. Our target was Hudak, the retired school teacher. (Just wish I could tell you the dirty tricks she pulled during the recall. Disgusting!)
To initiate the recall of Hudak, we needed around 19,600 valid signatures. Our goal was 23,000 to be sure we had the required amount should some signatures be duplicates. When we collected the required valid signatures, Gov. Hickenlooper knew he had a problem.
Rather than allowing a third recall election, Hickenlooper forced Hudak to resign from her seat in the legislature. This was done so the governor could appoint Hudak’s gun control campaign manager as her replacement.
Surprise! About six months later, there was a general election and Hudak’s replacement was defeated by the hard-working woman who had co-chaired the recall groups! I acted as a spokesman one time when the New York Times wanted a comment from our group.
Serving on the recall campaign was a privilege. People outside of our district wanted to sign the petition, but couldn’t. Many told me, “God bless you for doing this” while I was making calls to get people to sign the petitions. Others brought food and drink so we ate very well.
One local high school kid rode his bike by our headquarters and said: “I’m going home to get a gun and come back to kill you!” Fortunately for him, he didn’t come back as many of the recall workers had concealed carry permits!
There is something about having recall – and knowing it works – for keeping legislators focused on doing the people’s business. It was obvious the three Colorado state senators did not want to represent their constituents appropriately.
Gordon is a frequent contributor to The County Compass
