Dave Schultheis pulls Brandy Williams endorsement

On his website, former state senator Dave Schultheis announced Thursday he was pulling his endorsement of Colorado Springs city council candidate Brandy Williams.

Essentially he said she just wasn’t conservative enough on social issues, this from a man who once said he hoped babies born to mothers with AIDS also had the disease as a way to punish the mothers.

She expressed empathy toward women who may need abortions and said the children of God need to love and respect each other. In Colorado Springs, those are fighting words.

From Schultheis’s web site:

As of today I have pulled my endorsement of Brandy Williams, candidate for Colorado Springs City Council Member At-large.

It is important to me that any candidate that I endorse be willing to answer questions on surveys in a clear, precise and principled manner such that voters can readily ascertain the views of the candidate. In a recent survey by CitizenLink, the answers given by Ms. Williams were disappointing in that they were vague, unclear, and did not address the questions in a precise manner. Granted, some of the questions were directed towards “controversial” social issues, however to many citizens these are at least as equally important as are fiscal issues. Elections of candidates in Colorado Springs are extremely important to the future of our great city. It is with regret that I found it necessary to pull my endorsement of Brandy Williams.
Posted by Senator Schultheis at 4:51 PM

Williams is one of 16 candidates for five at large seats. She has been endorsed by The Gazette and the Police Protective Association among other organizations.

On the survey Schultheis objected to, Williams answered the following questions as such:

2. Do you support or oppose extending the current benefits plan (including health insurance coverage) to include the same-sex domestic partners of city employees, as has been previously debated by the City Council?

I am in favor of the current benefits plan that the city is operating under at this very moment, and do not feel that now is the time for a health benefit discussion while our city is eroding financially.

5. Do you support or oppose the continuation of a city Human Relations Commission?

As a fourth generation native of Colorado Springs I decided to run for city council to serve the community that my family has called home for over a century. Thankfully during the first three months of the campaign I met wonderful people, and shared fantastic experiences. Now that I am in the final eight weeks, the gloves have come off so to speak. I am not saying the Human Relations Commission has all the answers, but we have work to do regarding the love and respect we should show to each other as fellow children of God.

7. Do you support or oppose elective abortions at city-owned medical facilities?

I recently met an individual whose wife had become pregnant and the baby was not in the uterus. In the fourth month they had to abort the baby to save the mother. Heartbreaking to say the least, who has the right to decide if the mother lives or dies?

Also on Schultheis’s web site:

I want you to know what I believe and that in the performance of my Senatorial duties my beliefs will not change, will not bend, and will not break. Furthermore, silence in the face of Leftist falsehoods is acquiescence. I want you to know that I will not be silent; that I will speak the truth in plain, straight words. I tell you now that I will be, as I have always been, faithful to my God and Country, to my State of Colorado and her citizens, to the wife that I love, our children and grandchildren. It is right and fitting that you the citizen should be my judge.

It is true, I admit, that often I am compelled by what I believe to stand my ground alone, to keep, protect and defend the principles I believe are right and good. We Americans now face unprecedented challenges that together we must and will overcome. Freedom and its Constitution after all, are not cheaply bought or easily kept. And yet we are still free Americans. We will together reap the good that Americans have done for all the peoples of this earth, for ourselves and our children. I believe that when it is right and just, we must and will together stand against the tide. May God keep safe this America and you, her citizen.

Williams did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Scot Kersgaard has been managing editor of a political newspaper, editor and co-owner of a ski town newspaper, executive editor of eight high-tech magazines (where he worked with current Apple CEO Tim Cook), deputy press secretary to a U.S. Senator, and an outdoors columnist at the Rocky Mountain News. He has an English degree from the University of Washington. He was awarded a fellowship to study internet journalism at the University of Maryland's Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. He was student body president in college. He spends his free time hiking and skiing.