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In a race that could decide which party controls the Colorado state senate, Republican state senate candidate Don Suppes is fending off accusations that his campaign tweeted out a link to a neo-Confederate website that denigrates gay people, women, and African-Americans, and complains that white people can’t use the N-word.
Colorado Democrats are circulating this screenshot of the tweet, dated May 26, in which the Suppes campaign shares a link to the website SuthenBoy.com, with the words, “Interesting read…”
Suppes, through a campaign spokesman, at first claimed the Twitter account was hacked. After this story published, he sent Mother Jones an email explaining that a staffer, whom he wouldn’t name but says has been fired, ran the @DanSuppes2014 account, which has been deactivated.
SuthenBoy.com’s author goes by the name Gen. Robert E. Lee. A Confederate flag adorns the top of the site, and the site’s tagline is, “The Old South’s Gonna Rise Again.” On the day the Suppes campaign’s Twitter account posted the link, the blog entry displayed on the website’s home page was titled “Islam’s Threat To America: An Unintended Consequence Of Cultural Marxism.” In the post, Gen. Lee calls Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton “vermin.” “Muslims are demanding and receiving far more special treatment than other minorities,” he adds. “Broadly speaking there is very little difference between the ultimate goal of Cultural Marxism and Islam.”
The author derides multiculturalism and progressivism as “euphemisms for Marxism” and defines political correctness as “an anti-Western hate filled ideology designed to divide and conquer by using man’s natural divisions, e.g., color, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation to foment, nurture and magnify strife between the groups. Their grain of commonality is disdain for the White male who is considered to epitomize evil.”
Tirades about political correctness are typical on SuthenBoy.com. In a February 25 post, Gen. Lee complained about his inability to use certain words: “Homosexuals are now gay or folks with an alternative life style. Using the ‘N’ word uttered by a White is a societal taboo. Thug is considered offensive to blacks, regardless of how appropriate.”
“Critical Theory ‘studies’ are the breeding ground of Political Correctness,” the author writes in an earlier post. “Included therein are: black studies; feminist studies; Muslim studies; gay studies; lesbian studies; transgender studies; Indian studies; and every other marginal group that claims to be oppressed or the subject of discrimination.”
Suppes is the two-term mayor of the 3,100-person town of Orchard City and runs a heating and cooling business. Democrats are also circulating a video of Suppes claiming that members of the US Senate were supporting UN plans to control parts of the United States. Suppes goes on to describe a plaque he saw on his vacation to Mexico bearing the number 21—the plaque is proof, he implies, that the UN has used “Agenda 21,” a non-binding resolution that encourages sustainable growth, to encroach on sovereign nations; conservatives often describe Agenda 21 as a plan to evict US residents from rural communities and turn that land back into wilderness. “I do my homework,” says Suppes. “If that makes me a conspiracy theorist, I’m sorry.”
Suppes is facing Democrat Kerry Donovan in the race for central Colorado’s sprawling fifth Senate district. They are vying to replace a term-limited Democrat, and the outcome of the race may decide which party has a majority in the chamber. Colorado’s state senate is now split along party lines 18-17, with Democrats controlling the majority. Democrats currently hold the state House by a comfortable margin, and the incumbent Democratic governor is locked in a tight reelection battle. Suppes enjoys strong support from the state’s Republican leaders, including the backing of political action committee that expects to spend $3 to $5 million on a handful of competitive state Senate races.
Suppes’ campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Update Sept. 23, 2014 at 3:30 pm: In an email to Mother Jones, Suppes confirms that his campaign reported unauthorized activity on the @DonSuppes2014 Twitter account. Suppes adds that he has taken steps recommended for victims of identity theft.
Suppes also notes that he did not manage his campaign’s Twitter account. “The campaign Twitter account had been managed by a staffer who has since been terminated,” Suppes writes. “No authorization was ever granted to comment on articles. I had never heard of Southernboy and only recently investigated the bizarre postings which were of great concern to me.”
