Justice served for election denier who abused her office
Rep. Elise Stefanik met with President Trump in the Oval Office on Jan. 4
Please consider supporting The Front Page with a paid subscription: HERE
For every Rusty Bowers there are, unfortunately, 10 like Tina Peters.
You may even know a few.
Bowers was the Arizona speaker of the house who stood up to Donald Trump's attempt to flip the election results in Arizona and then was ostracized for doing the right thing. He relied on facts to guide his judgement and withstood political pressure from the highest levels of the federal government.
Peters was the Mesa County Clerk responsible with counting and auditing the election results in her county in Colorado like so many local election officials, but then embraced conspiracy theories perpetrated by the former president and his cohorts and engaged in a scheme to prove that the voting machines in her county were rigged by letting an outsider have access to a secure Dominion voting machine to prove there was election fraud.
It made her a celebrity in election-denier circles in Colorado and around the country.
The Colorado Sun reported that she became knows as "Hero Tina."
She appeared with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, spoke at conferences with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and was a regular guest on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast before he went to jail. She went on other right-wing podcasts asking for money for her legal defense right up until the day they took her to jail.
A 2022 documentary called "Selection Code" focused on her election breach.
During her trial this summer, testimony showed that the tentacles of her crime reached into other prominent election deniers like Rudy Giuliani and Michael Flynn.
Peters was convicted by a jury of her peers in August on seven counts, including four felonies, while the former president and his supporters continued to repeat the same lies with impunity.
“I don’t think anybody in this room would make a straight-faced argument that Mrs. Peters has demonstrated any respect for the law,” District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said Thursday while arguing for a maximum sentence. “Ms. Peters has made this community a joke. She's made respecting law enforcement a joke, made respecting court orders a joke. She's not accepted any responsibility and considers this a badge of honor.”
While embracing allegations of voter fraud, Peters facilitated repeated recounts of the vote in Mesa County that cost taxpayers $1.4 million.
At the sentencing on Thursday, Judge Matthew Barrett asked Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis what the results of the recounts were after a hand count and an election tally by a different voting machine company.
“I want to know, what was the difference?” Barrett asked.
“They were identical,” Davis said. “No material difference.”
“No material difference whatsoever,” Barrett repeated.
The 68-year-old Peters gave a lengthy and emotional statement in a plea to remain free. She said she still believed there was voter fraud and that Mesa County's voting machines had been replaced to eliminate the evidence of fraud.
“Just because you don’t acknowledge and you’re blind to the truth, it doesn’t mean that the truth is not there,” she said. "I'm not a criminal and I don't deserve to go into a prison..." She also told the judge she would be willing not to talk about elections anymore if he granted her probation instead of prison time.
"I really am remorseful," she said.
But the judge didn't buy it.
"Your lies are well documented, and these convictions are serious," Judge Barrett said. "I'm convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You're as defiant as a defendant as this Court has never seen.
"There are many things in my mind that are crystal clear about this case, you are no hero," Barrett added. "You abused your position, and you're a charlatan who used and is still using your prior position in office to peddle a snake oil that's been proven to be junk, time and time again."
Barrett then sentenced Peters to nine years in prison.
It's what every voter should know about the former president's claims of election fraud.
Yet, the day after the sentencing, the Mesa County Courthouse had to beef up security after multiple threats were made against the staff and judge.
Elise in Oval Office
One of our eagle-eyed readers pointed out that Elise Stefanik visited President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Jan. 4, 2021 - two days before the riot at the Capitol. The reader included the link to the White House visitor logs that Politico published. This was new information for me and I wondered what Rep. Stefanik and the president talked about that day. I could not find any references to her talking about it in the past.
Where is Elise?
Another reader pointed out that Elise Stefanik was appearing at a breakfast event in Corinth on Saturday morning.
The cost was $15 to attend, but the odd thing was that it was sponsored by the Corinth Republican Committee. Since the most recent change in Congressional boundaries, portions of Saratoga County - including Corinth - are no longer in Stefanik's district.
Supporting Stefanik
If you are curious about the list of local elected officials - past and present - who have endorsed Elise Stefanik and by association telling lies to the public.
If they are running for re-election this year, they need to be asked why they support someone like Stefanik who repeatedly lies.
Lies and more lies
Substack columnist Heather Cox Richardson weighed in on the stream of lies from Republicans this week and it is clearly getting worse the closer the election gets. She wrote:
"The firehose of lies is designed to make it impossible for voters to figure out the truth. The technique is designed so that eventually voters give up trying to engage, conclude everyone is lying, throw up their hands, and stop voting. Holding on to facts combats the effects of the storm of lies."
Where is Paula?
Paula Collins, the Democrat running against Elise Stefanik, will be appearing at Crandall Library tonight at 6 p.m. for a Q&A session with citizens.
The event will be hosted by former Essex County district attorney Julie Garcia.
Jean Lapper will also be on hand to deliver a view remarks in support of Proposition 1 - the equal rights amendment - on the New York ballot this year.
Endorsements
As more and more newspapers pass at making political endorsements - afraid it might cost them revenues - it was encouraging to see this information come out of New York City.
A who's who of New York journalists are launching something called the "New York Editorial Board."
They will interview candidates for higher office and continue the tradition of newspaper endorsements.
In August, the New York Times editorial board announced it will no longer endorse candidates in local elections where they are more desperately needed than in well-publicized national elections.
We need something like that here in the Glens Falls region.
Boss weighs in
My musical soulmate, Bruce Springsteen, made his own video endorsement this week. Here is part of what he said:
"Perhaps not since the Civil War has this great country felt as politically, emotionally and spiritually divided as it does at this moment," Springsteen said in a web video. But "it doesn't have to be this way. The common values, the shared stories that make this a great and united nation, are waiting to be rediscovered and retold once again."
He endorsed Kamala Harris.
Spooky month
Over the past year, more than one person has regaled me with a spooky story about being alone in the DeLong House in Glens Falls.
Have they seen dead people?
I don't know.
Last year, paranormal experts came to the Chapman Museum to see if they could detect any spirits.
Bill Powers, the founder of GrimReaper Paranormal, will be speaking on Zoom about the results of their investigation surrounding the paranormal at the Chapman on Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.
Powers will reveal their "eerie" findings for the first time and reveal if the Chapman is haunted.
I have already signed up. Here is the link:
Walking tours
The Chapman Museum will also have haunted walking tours of downtown Glens Falls on Friday, Oct. 11 and Friday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m.
The 45-minute walking tour will feature spooky stories and tales about other haunted houses downtown.
When the tour is over, there will be a fire pit and refreshments back at the Chapman Museum.
The tour is $15. You can register by calling 518 793-2826.
Hooping in Lithuania
Joe Girard III, the Glens Falls native and greatest scorer in New York high school basketball history, started his pro career in the Lithuania Basketball League this past week.
Unfortunately, his Nevezis team lost all three games.
Girard has scored, 26, 11 and 19 points in the three games.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Ken wrote: "If you are curious about the list of local elected officials - past and present - who have endorsed Elise Stefanik and by association telling lies to the public."
Upton Sinclair: “It is difficult to get a man [or woman] to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
The one thing that I can't fathom, and so many brush aside, is that right now, kids are waking up with their Mom or Dad in jail, in prison, for the simple reason that they believed the lie that the election was rigged. Men are waking up in jail cells because they believed him, and he's sleeping in his own bed in complete luxury. And Elise called them hostages, and Trump says he'll pardon them, and not from compassion for them but for political gain for himself. When we see what is going on in the southeast hurricane recovery, the selfless dedication of thousands and then we hear the folks denigrating the effort to recover and bring life and services back to normal. They do so for political gain, I am beyond my ability to understand how far some of us have fallen from the sense of decency and honor our lives require, a basic central trust is destroyed. Unfortunately there are forces in the world working very had to destroy that trust.