On February 8, I, Wayne Bryant — write-in candidate for Sheriff — attempted to attend the Archuleta County Republican Women’s meeting, and for the first time was denied entry. Chair Veronica Medina advised me that Unaffiliated persons will no longer be allowed to attend, or comment.
I recently put out an article titled ‘Fragrant Corruption’, addressing a fishy situation in our county administration. The Pagosa Daily Post published it; the SUN declined to print it unless I paid. It got a lot of hits and caused quite the stir.
I asked Veronica — as she was trying to avoid me while telling many of us we were not welcome — whether my article ruffled some feathers. She replied, “Yes.” I then asked why we were being kept out, and she replied that on February 2 at the end of the Republican Central Committee meeting, Sheriff Valdez and former Undersheriff (now County Manager) Derek Woodman were served federal summons. Well, this serving in a public venue apparently irritated our Sheriff and his cronies. As a result, the party of ‘We the People’ will no longer allow Us, the People, to attend.
Earlier this summer, before I decided to run for Sheriff, Marilyn Harris invited me to attend a meeting, one of many happening throughout the state, in which several top-ranking Republicans were trying to rally the troops because the amount of voters registered as Unaffiliated now outnumber both Democrats and Republicans combined. They were trying to determine the cause of this concerning trend.
I stood up and answered their question: “You abandoned us. You no longer represent our conservative Christian values.” I said, “Look around, all these Republican elected representatives in this room no longer represent us. You allow them to do as they please and don’t hold them accountable for violating our rights, and you wonder why people are leaving the two-party system.” Several people cheered.
Later, Marilyn said, “Well we have got to do something to bring them back.”
She is absolutely correct because the corruption in Archuleta County is out of control. So that’s when I decided to run for Sheriff and named our committee “Americans Against Fraud & Corruption”. I chose to run as Unaffiliated, knowing I then wouldn’t have to play the caucus game, which is corrupt in itself.
Since then ‘We the People’ have exposed many crimes of corruption in our county. Many people are now stepping up and fighting to take our county back, including by serving corrupt public officers in public venues. If this ruffles a few feathers, then so be it. Yes, we are doing something; something that the Republicans should have done long ago by putting a stop to it. These elected officials are RINOs and the Republican Party should stop supporting them. Enough is enough.
The Unaffiliated voters are stepping up and the Republicans should be welcoming us in for doing what they refused to do. If they want to win us back, the answer is not segregation. The answer is to unite along with us and embody Constitutional Christian values.
Wayne Bryant
Archuleta County
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