Republican Committee Showdown!
Old Guard vs. The Citizens
PCP Ann Barthrop Saves the Day!

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
Gary Cooper’s performance in “High Noon” can’t compare to the showdown that happened last Thursday, October 26, 2023 at the Custer County Republican Central Committee’s (CCRCC) meeting at the Courthouse. The election contest for the Chair position of the CCRCC was the subject matter of the meeting and it took almost three hours to decide the winner. And that only happened because one person delivered a surprise knockout shot to the Old Guard that changed the game completely.
First a recap of how we got here. Last month the CCRCC Chair, Jordan Benson, suddenly resigned without giving any reason. Thus the Chair spot was open. Vice Chair, Chuck Steigerwalt called a special meeting for October 12th to elect a new Chair.
(Let’s go just a little deeper for a minute so the people who are not intimately involved in this drama can understand what is going on. The CCRCC is composed of elected county officials, a few internally elected CCRCC executive positions (like Chair and Treasurer) and CCRCC elected Precinct Committee Persons (PCP). Since Custer County has only three precincts due to its small size, and there are two PCP’s per precinct, we only have six total citizen PCP’s. Due to the small amount of non-elected people on the CCRCC, the elected officials, and their few homies on the CCRCC, have effectively controlled the CCRCC for a long time. Occasionally there is a blip such as when citizen Jack Canterbury got elected Chair a few years ago, but for the most part, the elected officials (the “inmates”) were running the asylum. In the vast majority of counties in Colorado, there are a lot more precincts, thus a lot more voting PCP’s which gives control of the Central Committees to the people, rather than the county’s elected officials. Which is how it should be. There is a push now to create more precincts but the “Old Guard” are more commonly used in the county, the “courthouse clique”, have been stonewalling this out of fear they will lose control.
Here in Happy Valley, the CCRCC Chair is the big plum so it is crucial to have “your person” in that spot. Recently, after Jack Canterbury’s term was up, the “Clique” elected a fellow traveler, county employee Jordan Benson as Chair. His short reign was a complete bust, and as stated previously, he recently resigned. So a new election was needed.)
At the October 12 meeting, out of nowhere, the Clique chose as their nominee for Chair probably the worst person in the whole county to get the job. Yup, non other than Jordy “Red Bug” Hedberg, editor of our local Pravda affiliate, the Tribune. Hedberg hates various county republicans and really hates conservative republicans.

Jordy refers to these folks as the “MAGA White Nationalists” and it is his mission to defeat these patriots. Hedberg has a history of anti-republican rhetoric and action and just registered as a republican this year. We reviewed his problematic behavior a few weeks ago so no need to repeat it. But with all the republicans in the county, you have to ask yourself, why did the Clique pick a guy who literally despises a majority of the republicans in the county? (We might not want to know the answer, patriots.)
But they did on October 12th, and voting-wise, it was going to be an eight to eight tie to elect him with all the Clique voting for Hedberg and the citizens block voting for Canterbury. But, before the vote, the Vice Chair, Chuck Steigerwalt, tried a totally dirty trick by trying to actually get a non Custer County elected official to vote for Hedberg but the foul move was thwarted by PCP Ann Barthrop who is highly knowledgeable of GOP rules requested that the issue be adjudicated at the State Republican Committee, so the vote was delayed until that ruling came. (It did come, and it was clear: What Steigerwalt tried to do was improper and against the rules. Period.)
With Hedberg taking a total beating after his nomination, the Clique desperately searched for another “establishment” candi-date and eventually got ex BOCC Commissioner and County Surveyor Kit Shy to run. So, prior to the October 26 meeting, we had two candidates, Shy and Canterbury.
The courtroom was packed again. Steigerwalt was again running the meeting. The pre-meeting informal vote count was again eight to eight.
After the opening items, Susan Steigerwalt nominated Kit Shy. (Who we like. He used to drop by the Sentinel for a beating now and then which was always fun.) Kit gave a speech centering around how the CCRCC has to get more involved in the community. The usual stuff.
Next, Alan Avery nominated Jack Canterbury. Jack gave a nice speech saying when he was Chair a lot more people came to the CCRCC meetings than before and more people from the county attended the Republican State Assembly.
The meeting was then opened for Public Comment. Len Arrigo dived into the county’s audit disaster for a bit. Surprisingly, Hedberg was there, and of course attacked conservative Jack Canterbury for signing the recall petition for the disgraced Commissioner Tom Flower (who is Hedberg’s homie). Various people then spoke for and against the candidates.
Finally, after a long time, the secret vote was held. Again, it was an eight to eight tie.
Based on observations (as this was supposed to be a “secret ballot”), The following people probably voted for Shy (and presumably would have voted for Hedberg on October 12th): Virginia Trujillo, Kevin Day, Sandra Atterbury, Chuck Steigerwalt, Kelley Camper, Susan Steigerwalt and JD Heinrich (via proxy).
Again, based on observations, the following people probably voted for Canterbury: Dawn Ramsdell, Rich Smith (via proxy) , Brad Baltzly, Nikita Phillips, Alan Avery, Bill Canda (via proxy), Lucas Epp and Ann Barthrop.
The floor was then opened for more comments. Gaye Lynn Murdoch had a whole bunch of endorsements for Canterbury from various state republican big shots and read one line from each endorsement.
A second vote was held. Still a tie. Frustration was mounting.
Then a third vote. Still a tie.
More discussion took place. Finally, real estate broker owner and former county commissioner, Bob Senderhauf rose to speak. After a few comments, Bob looked around the room and addressed Steigerwalt and said, ‘let the people speak’ and asked that everybody in the courtroom who supported Canterbury to please stand up. Virtually the entire courtroom stood up except for a few. He then asked those who support Shy please stand. The Clique eight rose and a just a handful of attendees. The PEOPLE wanted Canterbury.
Dismayed, Steigerwalt asked each candidate if they would withdraw and both said no.
Suddenly, PCP Ann Barthrop stood up and stunned the crowd with a vote ruling analysis that eventually swung the tie. Ann said she had done an extensive study on voting rules for county committees, and the state republican bylaw/rule, Article 3, Section A states that the local committees must follow the “order of rules” and at this point, this election is at the end of the order and that is Robert’s Rules of Order. And, Robert’s Rules says a presiding officer (here, Steigerwalt) CAN NOT VOTE TO CREATE A TIE VOTE. (But he can vote to eliminate a tie.) Steigerwalt asked where is your documentation? Ann grabbed a whole stack of papers and said here it is and do you want to read it? That was a no go for Steigerwalt.
All Hades then broke loose. Susan Steigerwalt had a major fit. People were yelling. The usual republican love fest…
Finally, Ann asked Steigerwalt to recuse himself and then have another vote. There then was some public discussion. Matt “Swamp Fox” Miles, backed up Ann re the tie vote issue saying Steigerwalt can’t vote to create a tie.
A lady asked to have a ten minute recess as this was going on now for over two hours. The recess was granted. (Folks, there was a LOT of politicking going on in those ten minutes. A LOT. The room was buzzing.)
After the recess, Steigerwalt finally did the right thing and announced he was going to recuse himself from the next vote. The vote was held and it was eight for Canterbury and seven for Shy. So Canterbury was elected as the new Chair.
After the vote was announced, the crowd erupted in an euphoric roar.
Hopefully the CCRCC will get their act together, clean house, establish more precincts and get rid of the horrible proxy vote rule they have (one should be there to vote, period). And most importantly, give us GOOD CANDIDATES to vote for. People who are qualified and have the experience to run a small 90 person employee operation. We don’t need ex government employees who only know how the inefficient public sector works. We need candidates with private enterprise or military experience who know how to run an organization and understand that it is “our peoples’ money running this” and not “other peoples’ money.” We need LEADERS, not bureaucrats.
Good luck Jack and the Citizens. And especially Ann Barthrop.
A job well done. Thanks from all of us.