{"id":31498,"date":"2023-09-24T01:30:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T07:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rocky-mountain-values-hosts-protest-against-lauren-boebert-ahead-of-possible-government-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:42:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:42:05","slug":"rocky-mountain-values-hosts-protest-against-lauren-boebert-ahead-of-possible-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/rocky-mountain-values-hosts-protest-against-lauren-boebert-ahead-of-possible-government-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocky Mountain Values hosts protest against Lauren Boebert ahead of possible government shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"About
About 20 protesters gathered in Buckley Park on Saturday evening to protest U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert for holding up congressional funding bills necessary to fund the federal government. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

About 20 people gathered in Buckley Park on Saturday evening to protest U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert\u2019s involvement in a possible federal government shutdown that will occur if Congress fails to pass funding legislation.<\/p>\n

The protest, hosted by Rocky Mountain Values and supported by Indivisible Durango, was originally scheduled to take place at the Sky Ute Casino in Ignacio where Boebert was scheduled to attend the La Plata County Republicans\u2019 annual Lincoln Day Dinner.<\/p>\n

But the Southern Ute Tribe contacted Rocky Mountain Values and asked the group to respect the tribe\u2019s sovereignty, Harrison Wendt, a Durango activist, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided that was totally a valid request and we want to respect sovereignty and not protest on their land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Boebert and U.S. Rep Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was slated to make a guest appearance at the Lincoln Day Dinner, decided to skip the major fundraiser, Wendt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoebert and Gaetz stayed in (Washington) D.C. They\u2019re not even in La Plata County right now. She put out a video today on some news organization where she said, \u2018I\u2019m here to serve my constituents and not perform political theater,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cBut unfortunately, the GOPers spent hundreds, hundreds of dollars to see Matt Gaetz and Boebert. And now they won\u2019t be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the La Plata County Republican Party\u2019s webpage for the Lincoln Day Dinner, the entry fee was $100 per person and $1,000 to reserve a table. The webpage still listed Boebert and Gaetz as featured guest speakers as of 7 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Durango Herald <\/em>called Boebert\u2019s Durango and Washington, D.C., Congressional offices for comment about her decision not to attend the dinner, but did not immediately receive a response.<\/p>\n

In an episode of The War Room with Stephen Bannon published Saturday morning, Boebert said, \u201cI have put my life on hold to come here (to Washington, D.C.) and provide results for the American people; to hold this administration accountable; to deliver on the promises I made; to govern on behalf of my constituents and millions of Americans throughout the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said that she is \u201cnot here for the political show, the political theater. As Matt Gaetz calls it, the failure theater of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attendees at Saturday\u2019s protest were concerned about a looming government shutdown Boebert and a handful of her Republican colleagues are threatening in Congress.<\/p>\n

They also voiced concerns about another scandal, in which Boebert and Democrat-supporting Quinn Gallagher were caught on security footage groping and fondling each other before being escorted out of a production of \u201cBeetlejuice: The Musical\u201d on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen somebody like (Boebert) can do what she did inside a theater and vote the way she\u2019s voted, which is constantly against children \u2013 feeding children, meals for children, it\u2019s time like we stop living like boobs and voting for this woman,\u201d protester Heather Pierson said.<\/p>\n

Pierson, who attended the protest wearing a black-and-white striped suit portraying the character \u201cBeetlejuice,\u201d said extremist Republicans in Congress have \u201chijacked our government.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Republicans who aren\u2019t standing up to Boebert and her colleagues are just as guilty as the Republicans threatening a government shutdown. She also said people who aren\u2019t voting in elections are guilty for the country\u2019s predicament as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ones who are on the fence are just as guilty,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s the same for people who aren\u2019t voting right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nora
Nora Massiaon and a man who declined to identify himself attended a protest hosted by Rocky Mountain Values on Saturday. The protest was about a possible federal government shutdown that will take effect Oct. 1 if the Congress cannot pass vital federal funding measures. (Christian Burney\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Nora Massiaon, another protester, said she\u2019s \u201cfed up\u201d with Boebert and the Republican Party. She called Boebert a hypocrite for preaching traditional family values to her constituents and then getting groped in a theater where families are present.<\/p>\n

On the possible government shutdown, she said it\u2019s appalling that Congress had all this time to reach a deal on funding measures, but a few Republicans, including Boebert, are holding Congress \u201chostage.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said the ramifications of a shutdown to educators and veterans are scary, and the shutdown is uncalled for.<\/p>\n

\u201cColoradan towns lose tourism dollars from our national parks being closed,\u201d Wendt said of a shutdown. \u201cColorado veterans will lose services. Colorado farmers loans will not get processed. And Colorado families who are struggling will not get financial support.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Boebert is more concerned about \u201cpolitical theater\u201d than she is about taking care of her constituents in Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be so they can cut critical programs and drive their ridiculous impeachment agenda,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know this is what Boebert is fighting for, and it\u2019s not for funding our government and taking care of the needs of everyone in CD3 and our entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Boebert wants to gut and privatize Medicare and was one of 15 Republicans to vote against the PACT Act, a bill to expand veteran benefits.<\/p>\n

During the last government shutdown in 2018, when former President Donald Trump demanded funding for a wall along the United States\u2019 southern border, Wendt said federal employees based in Durango, whom he knew through work colleagues, couldn\u2019t afford their mortgages because they weren\u2019t getting paychecks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this is going to happen again,\u201d he said. \u201cOur BLM firefighters, they won\u2019t be paid. They\u2019ll probably still have to work but won\u2019t be getting paid. \u2026 The last five government shutdowns have happened under a GOP-led House. If that doesn\u2019t say everything we need to know, I don\u2019t know what does.\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Reps. Boebert, Matt Gaetz skip Republican Lincoln Day Dinner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[364,950,28,265,367],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-community","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-politics","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81463,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31498\/revisions\/81463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31498"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}