ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)—Aspen Mayoral candidate Marilyn Marks, who came in second in the controversial instant runoff election in May 2009, has been working since then to literally void the election won by Mayor Mick Ireland—and not merely to ensure the integrity of “future elections” as the self-proclaimed citizen activist proclaims.
The revelations come as a result of documents presented by former City Councilor Jack Johnson to Aspen City Council for further action Monday night.
The vehicle for Marks’s moves behind the scene has been two members of the Election Commission (EC): attorney Chris Bryan and former Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Milias, a close political ally of Marks’s since her move to Aspen. In a series of electronic mail messages obtained by Johnson, her political foe, under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), Marks’s fingerprints are visible all over the machinations behind the scenes that all but excluded EC chair Kathryn Koch, the Aspen City Clerk.
“Marilyn was acting as the de facto chair of the Election Commission,” Johnson charges.
The emails show Marks’s and Milias’s bipartisan posture in public belied their private attempts to void the Mayoral election and thus open the door to the possibility of Marilyn Marks becoming Mayor—efforts detailed in the emails made public under state freedom of information laws.
In one email, dated September 11, 2009, and sent from Marks to Milias and then forwarded from Milias to Bryan, Marks wrote in the subject line of “voiding the election….” The two EC commissioners in fact continued throughout the summer to act at the direction of Marks, who stood to benefit the most from a reversal of the election she lost to Ireland, her political bête noir.
“Of course,” Milias wrote in a rare email to both Bryan and Koch, “an EC meeting is a public meeting—with citizens, the media and [City of Aspen Attorney John] Worcester/[City Attorney Jim] True included…..” But in fact the committee chaired by Koch barely met at all; meanwhile, Milias and Bryan, at the behest of Marks, were in constant communication. Behind the scenes, the two EC commissioners and the Mayoral candidate were never far from each other’s email.
Some examples from the CORA disclosures:
In one such email from Marks to Milias, dated June 1, 2009, Marks wrote “confidential” in the subject line and said: “I’d rather explain by phone.”
In an email dated August 21, 2009, Marks told Milias: “I inserted some comments in red. EM—I don’t mind if you share with Chris.”
The day before Milias told Marks in an email: “MM, do you have the info handy that can provide CB with the state legal history on the ballots being/remaining public. When I’m back @ my computer, I have it, but he is interested in this legislation that determined this.” She also emailed Bryan in referance to “our strategy.”
On August 31, 2009, Milias emailed Bryan to say: “CB—Just heard from MM—I’m glad you two spoke.”
In an email from Marks to Bryan, dated September 3, 2009, Marks suggested a Carbondale attorney to act as independent counsel. The same day, Marks emailed Bryan with the subject line “thoughts—shared with Elizabeth.”
On September 11, 2009, in yet another email to Milias, under the subject line “Request for Indemnification,” Marks wrote actual language to protect Bryan and Milias from lawsuits, beginning with the sentence: “As Election commissioners, we are aware of potential litigation and complaints concerning issues of the May 2009 election.”
Such excerpts represent a snapshot of the electronic correspondence that went on for months throughout Summer 2009, with Marks micro-managing multiple moves by Milias and Bryan on the Election Commission—and with no effort made to contact Koch, the chair of the EC, or to hold public meetings.
In public, Marks kept to the sentiment she had expressed to Bryan in May: “I feel that I have numerous solid grounds on which to challenge, but politically, I don’t want to do that. But the point is to make sure that the Election Commission is at least aware of these issues—for future elections and to answer any other candidate’s questions which might arise.”
In private, however, the emails now made available under CORA tell an entirely different story—the story of how a candidate who came in second worked relentlessly to overturn the results by bending a putatively independent and bipartisan Election Commission to her will.
Warning to readers: Not surprisingly, being simply a blog, there is a serious lack of journalistic integrity in the above article and the others related to it. Suggestive language has been selected from fragments of large numbers of emails obtained by Jack Johnson. Each has apparently been extracted for the single-minded purpose of embarrassing Marilyn Marks.
If you know Marilyn, you know she is not going to be embarrassed for the simple reason that her extensive and voluntary civic engagement since the election in May has actually been dedicated to the purpose of producing cleaner and more transparent future elections.
Regardless of our political differences, I happen to share that same goal of election quality with Marilyn. I am happy to be in a position to tell you she cares as much as I do about something almost everything else in life in one way or another depends on- elections.
I have been a citizen volunteer on the case of deficient election law, rules and practices longer than Marilyn- and Aspen’s unique and in some ways visionary May 5 election more than caught my eye. The result of my interest will be a study of the election to be presented here: http://aspenelectionreview.blogspot.com
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but the conclusions of pure fantasy drawn from this Halloweenish blogomaniacal witch hunt are grotesque by which I mean far from accurate.
Marilyn Marks has written a response to City Council about Jack Johnson’s conclusions from his open records research here: http://theredant.squarespace.com/red-ant-blog/2009/10/25/aspen-may-2009-election-matters.html
Anyone who wishes to discuss this topic with someone who has credible factual knowledge, please simply call me, Harvie Branscomb. I am a progressively liberal Democrat with 30 year’s experience as a denizen of unincorporated Eagle County in the area wistfully referred to as El Jebel. My phone number is 9631369. I am not interested in any kind of dialog with anonymous posters here on this blog. Use the phone. Thanks.
Discerning readers are urged to hit “Back,” go to the home page, and click on Mitzi Rapkin’s excellent report on this story on Aspen Public Radio.
I would also urge people to read the emails and draw their own conclusions.
I am disappointed that a person of Harvie Brascomb’s stature and integrity would choose to shoot the messenger. Have you read the emails, Harvey? There is no way to read the CORA emails and not come to the obvious conclusion that Marilyn Marks was driving an Election Commission led by her campaign treasurer to overturn the results.
If you have read them, then I challenge you right here, right now, to “cherry pick” the emails and the information that tells a differenct story and exonerates the Marks-Milias election cabal.
I would also love to know you justify the exclusion of the third member of the Election Commission, Kathryn Koch, from all these inappropriate Marks-Milias-Bryan communications.
If you’re right and we’re wrong about all this, all you have to do is go to the emails to prove it. Should be a snap. If you can’t do that, then I will find it hard to take anything you say seriously.
Perhaps this is the time for Paul Menter to step into the breach in your stead. Or perhaps Don Davidson.
Best, Con Man!
PS Forgive me, but I also have to point out that as Marilyn’s designated auditor, you stood to gain from her machinations and thus are not exactly a disinterested party yourself.
Marilyn Marks sent this email to a local Aspen reporter in refutation of two Post Time Media stories, including the one above:
ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)—Aspen Mayoral candidate Marilyn Marks, who came in second in the controversial instant runoff election in May 2009, has been working since then to literally void the election [obviously false] won by Mayor Mick Ireland—and not merely to ensure the integrity of “future elections” as the self-proclaimed citizen activist proclaims. {even my lawsuit to preserve and release public records states that I do NOT seek to void the election because of the non-secret ballot problems.]
The revelations come as a result of documents presented [there were no documents presented] by former City Councilor Jack Johnson to Aspen City Council for further action Monday night.
The vehicle for Marks’s moves behind the scene has been two members of the Election Commission (EC): attorney Chris Bryan and former Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Milias, a close political ally of Marks’s since her move to Aspen. In a series of electronic mail messages obtained by Johnson, her political foe, under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), Marks’s fingerprints are visible all over the machinations[there were no machinations] behind the scenes that all but excluded EC chair Kathryn Koch, the Aspen City Clerk.
“Marilyn was acting as the de facto chair of the Election Commission,” Johnson charges.
The emails show Marks’s and Milias’s bipartisan posture in public belied their private attempts to void the Mayoral election [there has be no such effort or intent] and thus open the door to the possibility of Marilyn Marks becoming Mayor—efforts [absolutely no such efforts ever existed. I chose to forego any opportunity for an election contest in May.]detailed in the emails made public under state freedom of information laws. [blatantly false]
In one email, dated September 11, 2009, and sent from Marks to Milias and then forwarded from Milias to Bryan, Marks wrote in the subject line of “voiding the election….” The two EC commissioners in fact continued throughout the summer to act at the direction of Marks,[obviously false] who stood to benefit the most from a reversal of the election she lost to Ireland, her political bête noir.
“Of course,” Milias wrote in a rare email to both Bryan and Koch, “an EC meeting is a public meeting—with citizens, the media and [City of Aspen Attorney John] Worcester/[City Attorney Jim] True included…..” But in fact the committee chaired by Koch barely met at all; meanwhile, Milias and Bryan, at the behest of Marks, were in constant communication.[false. They had very little communication to my knowledge.] Behind the scenes, the two EC commissioners and the Mayoral candidate were never far from each other’s email. [I had very infrequent emails with Chris, which regardless, are totally legitimate.]
Some examples from the CORA disclosures:
In one such email from Marks to Milias, dated June 1, 2009, Marks wrote “confidential” in the subject line and said: “I’d rather explain by phone.”[yes, it is a complex math concept I was to attempt to explain, which I didn’t think I could do by email!]
In an email dated August 21, 2009, Marks told Milias: “I inserted some comments in red. EM—I don’t mind if you share with Chris.”
The day before Milias told Marks in an email: “MM, do you have the info handy that can provide CB with the state legal history on the ballots being/remaining public. When I’m back @ my computer, I have it, but he is interested in this legislation that determined this.” She also emailed Bryan in referance to “our strategy.” [the requested details of this legislation had been previously provided to Koch, True and Worcester in June. I sent to Milias and Bryan afterward at this request.]
On August 31, 2009, Milias emailed Bryan to say: “CB—Just heard from MM—I’m glad you two spoke.”
In an email from Marks to Bryan, dated September 3, 2009, Marks suggested a Carbondale attorney to act as independent counsel.[to my knowledge, he was never contacted.] The same day, Marks emailed Bryan with the subject line “thoughts—shared with Elizabeth.”
On September 11, 2009, in yet another email to Milias, under the subject line “Request for Indemnification,” Marks wrote actual language to protect Bryan and Milias from lawsuits, beginning with the sentence: “As Election commissioners, we are aware of potential litigation and complaints concerning issues of the May 2009 election.”
Such excerpts represent a snapshot of the electronic correspondence that went on for months throughout Summer 2009, with Marks micro-managing multiple moves by Milias and Bryan on the Election Commission[obviously I had no management of their decisions, or actions]—and with no effort made to contact Koch,[untrue, I copied Koch on almost all election commission business, although as a private citizen, I can communicate with any official or subset that I choose] the chair of the EC, or to hold public meetings.[false. I asked many times for public meetings of the EC.]
In public, Marks kept to the sentiment she had expressed to Bryan in May: “I feel that I have numerous solid grounds on which to challenge, but politically, I don’t want to do that. But the point is to make sure that the Election Commission is at least aware of these issues—for future elections and to answer any other candidate’s questions which might arise.”
In private, however, the emails now made available under CORA tell an entirely different story—the story of how a candidate who came in second worked relentlessly to overturn the results[false—as no effort has been made do overturn the results.] by bending a putatively independent and bipartisan Election Commission to her will. [what suggestion is there that I either asked or they did anything even remotely questionable?]
Johnson Promises Trouble Ahead For Marks, Milias
October 26th, 2009 at 05:59pm Post Staff 43
POST TIME NEWS–Former City Councilor Jack Johnson made significant trouble for citizen activist Marilyn Marks and her crony Elizabeth Milias Monday night by delivering 79 pages worth of documents [no documents were delivered other than his written speech] detailing–ironically–irregularities and even illegal tactics [none exist] in Marks’s pursuit of justice or at least clarity when it comes to Aspen’s mayoral election.
Johnson is charging Marks with being “the de facto chairman” of the Aspen election commission of which Milias is a member.
Johnson has tangled with Marks before, when he was an Aspen City Councilor vocal in his criticism of Marks’s attempts to subject the Council to close scrutiny, including video on GrassRoots TV of Council proceedings. Her drumbeat of criticism against Johnson has been turned on its head as the former City Councilor accuses Marks and Milias of wrongdoing.
Marks has two problems: (1) she was runnerup in the election and thus stands to gain politically if the instant run-off election is somehow overturned or found to be bogus;[obviously not, since there is no election contest.] and (2) she and her historical ally Milias–a member of the Aspen election commission–are closely associated and thus subject to election laws. Any association between the M&Ms in the context of Aspen elections would require equitable treatment of all involved. [this is a problem??}
As you can see from above, the M&M (Marks & Milias) obfuscation operation has been hard at work. As you can also see Marilyn likes to violate copyright laws with her own harebrained annotations. In tribute to such a technique, I hereby add IN CAPS my own annotations in Marilyn’s voice to her annotations of the Post Time News story:
[Marilyn Marks sent this email to a local Aspen reporter in refutation of two Post Time Media stories, including the one above:]
ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)—Aspen Mayoral candidate [I WAS NOT EVER REALLY A CANDIDATE; I WAS MERELY DOING IT FOR THE GOOD OF ASPEN AND ALL MY SECOND-HOMER FRIENDS, NOT JUST THE ONES WITH THE FACELIFTS] Marilyn Marks, who came in second [OBVIOUSLY I WON OR WHY WOULD I BE WASTING MY LIFE ON THIS? HUH?] in the controversial instant runoff election in May 2009, has been working since then to literally void the election [obviously false] [I SAID "VOIDING" THE ELECTION, NOT "VOID"]won by Mayor Mick Ireland [HE DID NOT REALLY WIN, THE SONUVABITCH]—and not merely to ensure the integrity of “future elections” as the self-proclaimed citizen activist proclaims. [I AM NOT SELF-PROCLAIMED; EVERYBODY ABOVE A CERTAIN INCOME LEVEL PROCLAIMS ME] {even my lawsuit to preserve and release public records states that I do NOT seek to void the election because of the non-secret ballot problems.]
The revelations [REVELATIONS ARE IN THE BIBLE NOT IN A BLOG EXCEPT THE RED ANT] come as a result of documents presented [there were no documents presented] [THEY WERE EMAILS, STUPID] by former City Councilor Jack Johnson to Aspen City Council for further action Monday night. [IT WAS OBVIOUSLY NOT MONDAY NIGHT BUT MONDAY EVENING]
The vehicle [THERE WAS NO CAR INVOLVED] for Marks’s moves behind the scene has been two members of the Election Commission (EC): attorney Chris Bryan and former Pentagon spokesperson Elizabeth Milias, a close political ally of Marks’s [I ACTUALLY HATE HER BECAUSE SHE'S YOUNGER AND BETTER LOOKING] since her move to Aspen. In a series of electronic mail messages obtained by Johnson, her political foe [I HATE HIM TOO], under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), Marks’s fingerprints are visible [THERE WERE NO FINGERPRINTS TAKEN] all over the machinations[there were no machinations] behind the scenes that all but excluded EC chair Kathryn Koch, the Aspen City Clerk.
“Marilyn was acting as the de facto chair of the Election Commission,” Johnson charges.
The emails show Marks’s and Milias’s bipartisan posture in public belied their private attempts to void the Mayoral election [there has be no such effort or intent] [I SAID "VOIDING" NOT VOID] and thus open the door [BLATANTLY FALSE--THERE WAS NO DOOR INVOLVED] to the possibility of Marilyn Marks becoming Mayor [I ALREADY AM MAYOR, JUST ASK ME]—efforts [absolutely no such efforts ever existed. I chose to forego any opportunity for an election contest in May.]detailed in the emails made public under state freedom of information laws. [blatantly false] [I SURE HOPE NOBODY READS THEM]
In one email, dated September 11, 2009, and sent from Marks to Milias and then forwarded from Milias to Bryan [THIS IS THE ONLY TRUE THING IN THIS STORY], Marks wrote in the subject line of “voiding the election….” The two EC commissioners in fact continued throughout the summer to act at the direction of Marks,[obviously false] [SURE HOPE NOBODY READS THE EMAILS] who stood to benefit the most from a reversal of the election she lost to Ireland, her political bête noir. [I TOLD YOU I WON THE ELECTION]
“Of course,” Milias wrote in a rare email to both Bryan and Koch, “an EC meeting is a public meeting—with citizens, the media and [City of Aspen Attorney John] Worcester/[City Attorney Jim] True included…..” But in fact the committee chaired by Koch barely met at all; meanwhile, Milias and Bryan, at the behest of Marks, were in constant communication.[false. They had very little communication to my knowledge.] [SURE HOPE NOBODY READS THE EMAILS] Behind the scenes, the two EC commissioners and the Mayoral candidate were never far from each other’s email. [I had very infrequent emails with Chris, which regardless, are totally legitimate.] [AS LONG AS NOBODY REALIZES I'M THE ONE WHO STOOD GAIN FROM SUCKING UP TO THE EC]
Some examples from the CORA disclosures:
In one such email from Marks to Milias, dated June 1, 2009, Marks wrote “confidential” in the subject line and said: “I’d rather explain by phone.”[yes, it is a complex math concept I was to attempt to explain, which I didn’t think I could do by email!] [ALL MY COMMUNICATIONS WITH EVERYBODY ARE APPROPRIATE BECAUSE i AM ALWAYS DRESSED APPROPRIATELY]
In an email dated August 21, 2009, Marks told Milias: “I inserted some comments in red. EM—I don’t mind if you share with Chris.” [OKAY SO THIS IS TRUE--I ALWAYS TELL ELIZABETH WHAT TO DO.]
The day before Milias told Marks in an email: “MM, do you have the info handy that can provide CB with the state legal history on the ballots being/remaining public. When I’m back @ my computer, I have it, but he is interested in this legislation that determined this.” She also emailed Bryan in referance to “our strategy.” [BLATANTLY FALSE EXCEPT FOR THE PART THAT'S TURE] [the requested details of this legislation had been previously provided to Koch, True and Worcester in June. I sent to Milias and Bryan afterward at this request.] [BECAUSE THEY ARE IDIOTS AND i WAS ONLY TRYING TO HELP THEM MAKE ME MAYOR]
On August 31, 2009, Milias emailed Bryan to say: “CB—Just heard from MM—I’m glad you two spoke.” [I GIVE ELIZABETH ALL HER BEST LINES]
In an email from Marks to Bryan, dated September 3, 2009, Marks suggested a Carbondale attorney to act as independent counsel. [BLATANTLY TRUE] [to my knowledge, he was never contacted.] The same day, Marks emailed Bryan with the subject line “thoughts—shared with Elizabeth.” [SHARING IS CARING. THAT'S WHY I SHARE SO MUCH OF MYSELF WITH THE CITY OF ASPEN]
On September 11, 2009, in yet another email to Milias, under the subject line “Request for Indemnification,” Marks wrote actual language to protect Bryan and Milias from lawsuits, beginning with the sentence: “As Election commissioners, we are aware of potential litigation and complaints concerning issues of the May 2009 election.” [OOPS, WELL, SO I DID THAT. JUST TRYING TO PROTECT MY PEEPS]
Such excerpts represent a snapshot of the electronic correspondence that went on for months throughout Summer 2009, [OKAY, SO IT DID] with Marks micro-managing multiple moves by Milias and Bryan [SOMEBODY HAD TO DO IT FOR THEM THE WAY I DO IT FOR THE CITY] on the Election Commission[obviously I had no management of their decisions, or actions]—and with no effort made to contact Koch,[untrue, [I TOLD ELIZABETH TO DO THIS, TOO]I copied Koch [IT WAS A XEROX] on almost all election commission business, although as a private citizen, I can communicate with any official or subset that I choose] [OR ANY OF MY GENTLEMAN CALLERS SHOULD I SO CHOOSE] the chair of the EC, or to hold public meetings.[false. I asked many times for public meetings of the EC.] [EVEN IF IT WAS EM THAT I WAS TELLING WHAT TO DO]
In public, Marks kept to the sentiment she had expressed to Bryan in May: “I feel that I have numerous solid grounds on which to challenge, but politically, I don’t want to do that. But the point is to make sure that the Election Commission is at least aware of these issues—for future elections and to answer any other candidate’s questions which might arise.” [OKAY SO I WAS LYING THROUGH MY TEETH]
In private, however, the emails now made available under CORA tell an entirely different story—the story of how a candidate who came in second worked relentlessly to overturn the results [I SAID "VOIDING" NOT "VOID"] [false—as no effort has been made do overturn the results.] by bending a putatively independent and bipartisan Election Commission [NEVER SAID THEY WERE] to her will. [what suggestion is there that I either asked or they did anything even remotely questionable?] [SURE HOPE YOU DON'T READ THE EMAILS]
All best, Michael!
All best Michael? I’ll take the richly baited hook.
Thanks for treating me to a surprise photo and on the home page no less! I am honored. Does that make me a celeb now? One more question. Since you call me a Post blogger does that mean I can write what ever I want?
Here is a suggestion for you: put your mug shot up so we can all see if you are a real liberal or a real man. In either case I’ll be enjoying an inner smile when I see you in person.
I hope there is an award waiting for you for best of blogomania. You have actually broken new ground for the concept of sophomoric in your CAPS TEXT of above comment #4.
Over 24 hours and counting- zero phone calls so far.
Harvie
Thanks for the kudos, Harvie. Of course there could be nothing sophmoric about Marilyn Dearest. The maturity of a mature women maturely applied to every situation.
If we ever meet in person I’ll tell you about what M&M are like behind the masks. You can’t even imagine.
As for the photos, Aspen Post is unfortunately lousy with pictures of me–at least a couple dozen–deployed when I can’t find better art. What you will find is actually two pictures of me used over and over.
All best, Michael!
PS Didn’t know your were privy to my phone. I think they call that liberal thought control.
5 days later- I have received zero phone calls in response to my offer to clarify the misinformation and misdirection contained here. See Comment #1.