‘Garrison Ortiz and Eppie Griego are not Democrats,’ Pueblo County Democrats say

The executive committee of the Pueblo County Democratic Party censured two of the county’s highest-ranking elected officials and removed them from the party's central committee over their endorsement of the Republican candidate for county commissioner, Zach Swearingen.

“Garrison Ortiz and Eppie Griego are not Democrats. They are not Democrats in spirit or practice. Their endorsement of the Republican candidate for county commissioner was not born of concern for their community or their party. Rather, it is product of arrogance, ambition and self-interest,” a written statement from the party’s executive committee says.

Censuring Ortiz and Griego does not eject them from the party or have any legal implications, but does condemn their actions and remove them from the local party’s central committee.

Swearingen will face Democrat Roxanne “Roxy” Pignanelli in November. Pignanelli has been endorsed by the current Democratic commissioner in District 3, Chris Wiseman, who did not seek reelection after one term to spend more time with family.

Wiseman won against Swearingen in November 2018 with 53% of the vote.

Ortiz defended his endorsement of Swearingen in a statement he issued in response to the censure.

“I have heard countless times throughout my tenure that the public would like elected officials to work more collaboratively putting community first, regardless of political affiliation. This is what that looks like in practice,” Ortiz said. “The endorsement was simply done in a spirit of finding ways to work together.”

Griego declined to comment for this article.

Catch up:Democratic Pueblo County commissioners endorse Republican candidate Zach Swearingen

Swearingen said in a statement to the Chieftain that he has gotten “nothing but positive comments” from people across the political spectrum about Ortiz and Griego “standing up for what they believe is best for Pueblo County,” and that “assumptions were made” in the Democrats’ statement without anybody reaching out to him.

“I truly believe that people are sick of this division in politics,” Swearingen said. “I encourage voters to do their own research about candidates and politics as a whole. I find this to be a distraction, where the focus should be on choosing the best candidate for this position.”

Pignanelli told the Chieftain that it is “unfortunate that we find ourselves in this situation”, but said that as a lifelong Democrat, she trusted that the party's actions aligned with its values, mission and rules.

“I have always believed that as a individual who values children and working families in Pueblo, Colorado — and my work has shown this — that I would be an exceptional, hardworking partner to the existing commissioners … I only hope that the voters will see their way to electing an individual whose values are high and whose experience can be trusted.”

Past competition within Pueblo Democrat ranks cited

The statement from the Democrats said that Ortiz and Griego “bamboozled the Democrats of Pueblo County by touting their Democratic values” and are “hand-picking a Republican to sit next to you on the Board of County Commissioners because you believe he will ensure that your egos are stroked and your legacy preserved.”

“There is no Democratic value in endorsing an anti-choice candidate who would oversee the budget of our Pueblo County Health Department. It is not a core Democratic value to endorse a candidate that supports the anti-labor platform of the Republican party,” the statement says. “No, the Ortiz and Griego endorsements of a Republican candidate who was already rejected by the voters of Pueblo County in (2018), were a betrayal of Democratic values and the Democrats and unaffiliated voters that worked so hard to elect these two men.”

Swearingen did not address his stance on abortion rights or labor unions and had not responded to a request for clarification from the Chieftain prior to publication.

Ortiz said that the “disheartening” statement “from a very small subset of the party” aligned with the narrative from the primary election campaign in 2020, when Abel Tapia challenged him. Ortiz won with 64% of the vote.

Mary Beth Corsentino, the chairperson of Pueblo Democrats, said that the party’s executive committee is elected to represent the central committee, which consists of approximately 200 local Democrats, including elected officials and precinct chairs.

Convening everyone for a time-sensitive matter would have been logistically challenging for this time-sensitive situation, Corsentino said.

Corsentino also said that she did not give any “credibility” to Ortiz comparing the censure to his 2020 primary election. She noted that some people were still “angry” that he challenged incumbent Liane “Buffie” McFadyn in 2016.

Ortiz and Griego publicly endorsed Swearingen at his campaign kickoff party on July 7 in the spirit of bipartisan collaboration, they said at the time. Swearingen said that the country is not as divided as people like to think and pointed to the endorsements from Ortiz and Griego as an example of that.

The Democratic letter cites reporting from the Chieftain about Ortiz’s statements at the launch event.

“Ortiz and Griego’s suggestion that their support for the Republican was because he is the ‘best candidate for the job’ at a minimum is confusing and more accurately dishonest. … The Republican is not the best candidate for the job; he is the best candidate to fuel and validate Garrison Ortiz’s personal agenda,” the statement says.

Impact of endorsement yet to be seen

Ortiz said that he is “incredibly proud” of the work that has been done so far and touted his work pushing the new jail, boulevard extension and streamlining business permits.

“Transformational projects such as these require significant cooperation and support from all areas of the community,” Ortiz said.

The cross-party endorsements from Ortiz and Griego may have a limited effect in the November election, said Ryan Strickler, an assistant professor of political science at Colorado State University Pueblo who specializes in political psychology and partisan polarization.

Local and state politics tend to be less divisive than at the national level, Strickler noted, but national themes are trickling into local races that are traditionally nonpartisan.

“We're in such a time where politics is so polarized, and it's so nationalized, that even in local elections often the voters are responding to the party signal, or the D or R beside the name,” Strickler said. “It's unfortunate, but that's kind of where we’re at in modern polarized politics.”

Note: a quote from the Democratic party statement said that voters rejected Zach Swearingen in 2020, but the correct year of 2018 has been inserted with parenthesis.

Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Chieftain. Her email is awinfrey@gannett.com and can be reached on Twitter @annalynnfrey.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo County Democrats censure Garrison Ortiz and Eppie Griego