Tina Peters' comeback tests Polis' clemency gamble
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Tina Peters speaks during the Rocky Mountain Voice Freedom Festival in June in Castle Rock. Photo: Timothy Hurst/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters is considering a return to election administration three months after Gov. Jared Polis freed her from prison.
Why it matters: The convicted election denier's comeback threatens to turn a late-term clemency decision into a lasting liability for Polis, as he looks to cement his eight-year legacy and weighs his political future.
- The Democratic governor said in May that Peters had expressed contrition.
- Yes, but: Since her release, she's doubled down on conspiracy theories and could take her crusade into another election job.
Driving the news: Shasta County (California) clerk Clint Curtis said this month he offered Peters a job as assistant registrar of voters in the deep-red northern California county, where election conspiracy theories have taken root.
- Peters is "giving consideration" to the offer because "there most definitely has been monkey business in the way the election was handled," her attorney Peter Ticktin told Axios Denver in a statement Friday.
- California's Democratic senators raised "grave concerns" about Peters, while Gov. Gavin Newsom's office is investigating, the New York Times reports.
The big picture: Peters has ramped up election denial activism since Polis commuted the remainder of her nearly nine-year sentence.
- She spread more false claims about election security on Steve Bannon's podcast and met with President Trump in the Oval Office in late June to talk about "election integrity," Peters told the Atlantic.
- "Tina is one of the key voices leading the effort to get the invasive machines out of our election process," Ticktin told Axios Denver.
What they're saying: Peters' renewed campaign is giving fresh ammunition to those who warned Polis against freeing her.
- "Her stance on 'remorse' is despicable, and she's doing exactly what we told the governor she was going to do," La Plata County clerk Tiffany Lee told the Atlantic.
The other side: Polis said Peters' sentence was too "harsh" and denied that her release was part of any bargain with President Trump, who directly pressured him to free her as his administration cut federal funding and took other punitive actions against Colorado.
- "The Governor made an independent decision based on the clear facts of the case and application, nothing else," spokesperson Eric Maruyama told Axios Denver by email, adding that Trump's comments made granting clemency "more difficult politically."