| If you read the latest edition of the Montrose Mirror — I'm sorry. It contained more nonsensical and "We're all victims" letters to the editor, as well as David White's odd opinion piece. He tried to whitewash the current Montrose County Commissioner situation by saying dysfunctional behavior is the norm. This was true, at least during White's time as commissioner. Don't believe me? Google is your friend. Do your research. White has now twice tried to put me down because I once managed a local hardware store. Apparently, he believes I was mixing paint one day and the next day someone hit me over the head, kidnapped me and then named me publisher of the Montrose Daily Press. The truth is — of course, truth really doesn't seem to matter to White — I have 39 years of business management experience in two different industries, retail and media. In those 39 years I have a lot of accomplishments, including turning around two different operations in two industries that were losing six figures. Within 12 months I and the employees I worked with turned them into six figure-plus profit operations. The first one I was able to accomplish when I was just 31 years old. White twice now has poked at the tasks that hardware store employees do as if they're beneath him. I suppose White and I come from a different philosophy of business management. You bet I cut keys, mixed paint and offered personal customer service. I come from the school of thought that no task is too small for management and working side by side with my teammates is simply good management. Maybe White fancies himself an executive. White announced a while back on his LinkedIn account that he has a new position with the Montrose Mirror. He's a Freelance Political Commentator ( he forgot fictional) & Consultant. Heck, congratulations, David! Speaking of the Mirror, publisher/owner Caitlin Sweitzer called into our home office to declare that the Montrose Daily Press is a trainwreck and that I'm ruining the paper. Sounds like someone is cracking in the environment that she's enabled and has gone unchallenged for sometime. My only regret is that I didn't speak up sooner. White and others have described the Montrose Daily Press as failing. We're far from it and our team keeps stacking success upon success. Thanks for your concern, but we're good. When it comes to Montrose County news, Commissioner Sean Pond announced on his official Montrose County District 3 Commissioner Sean Pond Facebook page that he is your source for Montrose County news and — wait for it — there's no spin. You get to hear it directly from the source. When a politician tells you that they'll shoot it straight without spinning it, up your dosage of Dramamine because motion sickness will set in soon. Pond barked up the wrong tree when he declared that we buried the story of Commissioner Sue Hansen's change of political affiliation from Republican to Unaffiliated. Not sure if it's wise for Pond to criticize a fellow commissioner for her change of party affiliation. Pond didn't register as a Republican until March 6 of last year. Mijares wasn't a Republican until February 12, also in 2024. We published the story regarding Hansen's political switch as a standalone story, placed it on the front page, above the fold, right-hand read. It can't get any more visible than that. The story was posted on our website and shared through our newsletter and shared on social media. I know Pond's feelings are a bit hurt with my opinion pieces, but challenging our stalwart journalist Katharhynn Heidelberg and her 20 years of unbiased reporting is like walking into the ring with Mike Tyson, and not the 60-year-old version, but Tyson in his prime. Talk about a rookie mistake. Pond, White and others have criticized me for coming to the defense of Hansen and her decision. Not sure when that happened. Hansen can carry her own against these lightweights. Monty George, who criticized Hansen at the last BOCC meeting and pointed to her as the source of the chaos (nice try, Monty) has blown a golden opportunity to let the public know the local party is putting their dysfunctional past behind them. He should follow the lead of newly-elected Republican state chair Brita Horn, who is saying the state party is going to flush the past and move on. Instead, George decided to double down by proclaiming the local party is responsible for Hansen's success. Yes, the central committee did select Hansen to fill Glen Davis's commission seat, but George and others claim that the Republican Party pushed her through in the subsequent elections. Her first race was a primary against former Olathe Mayor Rob Smith. Hansen won, but I'm not sure how the party propelled her in that race since they're supposed to stay neutral. Then the next three races she ran unopposed. Take a bow Republicans, you literally helped her defeat nobody. Personally, I would like to see Montrose have a strong Republican Party organizationally but a lot of good people have walked away, not necessarily from the party so much, although some have, but from the chaos of the local party. George can get his beak tweaked all he wants, but recognizing the problem is a part of leadership, implementing a solution is the other part. Last Saturday there was the 'Hands off' rally. Nearly 1,500 people showed up to protest the Trump administration and their layoffs of federal employees. It's safe to say most of them were registered Democrats. In Montrose County there were 3,960 registered Democrats at the end of March. That's up 2.4% from March of last year. Republicans weigh in at 12,370, up 2.6% from last year. That's an impressive advantage. The unaffiliated voters are 14,713, and they're growing at a faster clip than both parties, up 7.1%. Do you think the Montrose Republicans can organize 1,500 folks to show up for a rally? Not with responses like that, which was sent out by the strategy and planning chair last week. Who's that? That would be David White. They just can't shake him. The strategy? He sent an email stating it was probably too late to have a counter protest, but maybe they could do some reconnaissance. Huh? What would that look like? White and George in camo and binoculars? Would the conversation go like this? "Look at them, Monty, they're singing, chanting and dancing?" "I see that, David — the audacity! Do you think we could sing and dance?" "No, Monty, that would show joy. People wouldn't recognize us!" George and the central committee circulated an email after Chad Dunlap and I criticized them for their treatment of Chad's dad, Rick, during the last primary. Again, they claimed they got their candidates elected. Remember the numbers I shared earlier? Again, in the primaries the party is supposedly neutral. They pushed candidate Ron Hanks over Jeff Hurd. They'll deny it. But Hanks was their guy. Now, they cling to Hurd like Buddy the Elf clings to Santa Claus: "They know him"' If Hanks would have won and it wasn't really close district wide as it was in Montrose, Adam Frisch, the Democrat, would have beat him. They pushed Larry Don Suckla over Mark Roeber. After the floor speech Suckla gave concerning SB-003, Danielle Pond posted that she and Sean were in tears watching his speech. I'll do them one better, I cry every time I watch Suckla try to legislate. It's been a rough first year for him. But that's a topic for another post. What will the 2026 primaries look like for the Montrose Republicans? They have an opportunity to redeem themselves by letting the candidates fend for themselves. Will they? They'll have to rid themselves of some destructive influences from within first. Dennis Anderson is publisher of the Montrose Daily Press and Delta County Independent.
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