Stapleton Withdraws Gov. Petition Signatures Alleging 'Fraud'

DENVER, CO -- Saying his campaign had been a victim of a dishonest campaign petition circulating company that "engaged in fraudulent conduct when gathering signatures in support of my candidacy for Governor," GOP candidate Walker Stapleton withdrew his petition signatures Tuesday from the secretary of state's office and said he would attempt to get on the June 26 primary ballot through Saturday's the GOP assembly process.

Stapleton blamed the Kennedy Enterprises, LLC, a Colorado Springs-based firm that also collected signatures for 'Springs Congressman Doug Lamborn and GOP Treasurer candidate Polly Lawrence. Stapleton said the company hired circulators who did not live in Colorado and were not registered to vote, as required by law.

But Dan Kennedy, proprietor of Kennedy Enterprises said he did not know until recently that some of the signatures were obtained by unqualified circulators.

A secretly recorded phone conversation with a Pueblo circulator named Daniel Velasquez, who said he was from Miami, came to light last month.

"Most of my people can't even register to vote because they're all felons. You know, most of them," Velasquez told Dustin Olson, of Kennedy Enterprises competitor the Signature Gathering Company. "That's just me being honest with you. If you want to work with me, you're going to get those [signature] numbers, you're going to work with a whole bunch of rowdy individuals. You know, a whole bunch of rowdy individuals from the hood."

Olsen's firm gathered signatures for Stapleton competitor, GOP candidate Doug Robinson, who filed a complaint with the secretary of state's office about possible shady tactics in the Stapleton campaign.

The secretary of state’s office certified April 6 that Stapleton’s campaign had gathered the 10,500 valid signatures needed to make the ballot.

Although Velasquez gathered signatures, his name was not on any petition, violating state law that every petition signature must be witnessed by a notary-confirmed circulator, Stapleton claimed.

Stapleton's campaign had previously asked to intervene in a Tuesday hearing for Lamborn, whose petition signatures (also collected by Kennedy Enterprises circulators) were also challenged. With Stapleton withdrawing his own petitions, political observers believed Lamborn's defense of his own signatures was undermined.

Stapleton, who is considered the front-runner, must get the support of 30 percent of GOP delegates at the April 14 Assembly meeting in Boulder to get on the ballot without signatures. Along with Robinson, Victor Mitchell, has submitted petitions for a place on the ballot.

Here is the text of the letter Stapleton submitted to the Secretary of State's office:

Last night my campaign learned that Kennedy Enterprises, LLC, the signature gathering firm we retained to conduct and manage our petition gathering process, engaged in fraudulent conduct when gathering signatures in support of my candidacy for Governor. Specifically, Kennedy Enterprises employed a “trainee circulator” by the name of Daniel Velasquez and allowed this individual to circulate petitions which were then executed by another circulator as though that circulator – and not Mr. Velasquez – had circulated them.

Kennedy Enterprises repeatedly lied to my campaign when we asked them about news reports alleging this conduct weeks ago. Until last night, Dan Kennedy and those working for him insisted that no such individual had ever worked for Kennedy Enterprises. Worse than lying to my campaign, they lied to your office when your office specifically asked about these news reports.

Because I can now have absolutely no confidence in the representations of Kennedy Enterprises as to the conduct of our petition campaign, I must request that your office reject all signatures we submitted and withdraw the Statement of Sufficiency you issued to my campaign last Friday. While I know that the signatures on the petitions were independently verified by your office as those of real Colorado republicans [sic], I cannot and will not allow my name to go onto the primary election ballot in this manner.
Both I and my campaign team hope that your office will conduct an investigation into Kennedy Enterprises. We stand ready to assist in any way we can.
Sincerely,
Walker Stapleton

Dan Kennedy, president of Kennedy Enterprises, LLC responded by email Tuesday night:

My firm, Kennedy Enterprises LLC has operated in Colorado for 24 years, serving dozens of clients with the utmost integrity, while doing our very best to assure each and every one of our independent contractors collect signatures according to all the laws. Most of the folks on both side of the political isle can attest to this fact!

Concerning this particular occasion:

Approximately a month ago the Stapleton campaign inquired of me regarding a particular situation. Directly after that conversation I relayed this inquiry to the appropriate subcontractor of Kennedy Enterprises who researched this and reported information to me which I believed to be true and I passed on that information to the Stapleton campaign and the Colorado Secretary of State.

Last night (April 9, 2018) when presented with some new information from the Stapleton campaign I inquired again to the subcontractor who, again looked into this matter and reported to me that I had previously been misled. I immediately reported this new information to the Stapleton campaign.

Therefore, I have not and did not lie to any of my clients or the Colorado Secretary of State at any time.

And to the best of my knowledge the signatures collected on the Stapleton campaign we're all collected lawfully.

I hold the Stapleton campaign, as well as all of my clients with the utmost regard and regret this apparent misunderstanding.

Image via Walker Stapleton campaign website