Buentello triggers GOP criticism after using Republican candidate signs for target practice
Bri Buentello, the recently elected chair of the Pueblo County Democratic Party, has apologized for a photo that Colorado state GOP Chair Kristi Burton Brown posted on Twitter Sunday afternoon.
The photo shows Buentello holding up a rifle and a target affixed to a yard sign from the campaign of Stephen Varela, the 2022 Republican candidate for Colorado Senate District 3 who was defeated in that race by Buentello's husband, Nick Hinrichsen.
Buentello was recently shooting target practice with her family near Cañon City and used recycled yard signs for targets, she said in a text to the Chieftain. She said that using the signs “was in poor taste and a mistake” and added that she has reached out to Varela to apologize.
Varela was recently appointed to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District on the state board of education. He is the only serving board member with school-age children.
Meet the @coloradodems’ new Chairwoman for Pueblo County. Also a former Dem Rep and wife of a current CO State Senator.
If a Republican posed like this, you’d call it incitement of violence and condemn it instantly. Does the same standard apply to your own? #copolitics pic.twitter.com/Q3W5r6qRAm— Kristi Burton Brown (@ColoradoKbb) February 12, 2023
Former state Rep. Bri Buentello chosen to lead Pueblo Democrats as party chair
Buentello represented House District 47, which included parts of Pueblo, Otero and Fremont counties before redistricting, as a Democrat from 2019-2021. She is married to Hinrichsen, the Democratic state senator serving Senate District 3 at the general assembly.
Both Varela and Hinrichsen are military veterans.
Buentello, along with some Pueblo-area Democratic legislators, voted with Republicans against a controversial red flag bill in 2019.
Pueblo County GOP elects new leaders; former treasurer candidate Gray named party chair
Burton Brown has been the chair of the Colorado Republican party for the past two years but is not seeking an additional term.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com or on Twitter, @annalynnfrey.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Democrats chair apologizes for shooting GOP candidate's signs
