A self-styled Machiavellian Player
Park County’s County Manager, Lucas Meyer, is being sued by Sheriff Tom McGraw, Undersheriff Steve Spodyak, and Mrs. Spodyak. The Denver 7 report explains it all:
I don’t think Lucas Meyer, the County Manager for Park County, would object if we describe him as uber-MAGA, dedicated to ideological Christian evangelicalism, peppered with a hefty dose of the four principles of the Knights Templar Oath:
Be without fear in the face of your enemies.
Be brave and upright that God may love thee.
Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death.
Safeguard the helpless, and do no wrong.
He is a Knight Templar, by the way. My perception of him, though, will forever harken back to a moment in 2024—while actively maneuvering for the position of county manager—when he stepped to the podium during a Board of County Commissioners quasi-judicial meeting to declare he provided “service and leadership in the military during Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for anyone who digests that statement—”service and leadership in the military during Operation Iraqi Freedom”—to conclude anything other than that Meyer was a soldier on the front lines in Iraq during that nasty conflict when we were all looking for Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps that was Meyer’s intent when he said it? Perhaps Kimberly Gregory, Head Accountable of the South Park Outsiders, assumed that as well.
We’d all be wrong.
Meyer’s military service (Army) began in June 2006. It ended in October 2008, when Meyer was granted a non-combat-related disability discharge.
The official dates for Operation Iraqi Freedom’s major combat operations were March 2002, with major combat operations ending on May 1, 2003, when George W. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished”. The official ending date of all operations in Iraq was 2011, nine years later.
Nearly everyone in the military at that time was awarded the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal/Ribbon and the National Defense Service Medal/Ribbon. Only those who served in-country, in Iraq, on the front lines, or in support of those on the front lines, but still in-country, received the Iraq Campaign Medal.
Should we inquire of Meyer if he was issued the Iraq Campaign Medal? But, on second thought, weren’t all major combat operations completed in Iraq before Meyer entered the military?
The truth is, as Meyer himself documents, that while he says he was “providing service and leadership in the military during Operation Iraqi Freedom,” his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was Radiologist Specialist, a position he claims he held at Fort Carson. Yet, he further claims he was an Environmental Compliance Officer at Fort Polk, Louisiana, the base where he was discharged from the Army. His MOS does not reflect that, but hey… My MOS in the Army was as a trumpet player/musician. I’ve never played a trumpet in my life, and I didn’t in the Army. Perhaps he was on a temporary duty assignment while his disability claim was being processed? I don’t know.
What I do know is that his application for the position of county manager was, in my opinion, outrageously bloated, substituting quantity for substance. I also know that when he claimed to have “…provid[ed] service and leadership in the military during Operation Iraqi Freedom,” he was intentionally stealing the valor of those who were actually in-country on the front lines in Iraq. I believe he did this to wrap himself in a false flag, an attempt to enhance his bona fides with what is essentially a smokescreen no one would question; the act of a man pushing an empty envelope. Indeed, what combat leadership did he provide while serving as an E4 Radiologist Specialist?
I believe Meyer perceives himself as a player who does not shy from Machiavellian machinations when it comes to his own self-interests, tinged with the ideological claptrap of both MAGA and the Knights Templar. His accusations against Sheriff McGraw and Undersheriff Spodyak directly relate to his determination to see Ahmet Susic and Gary Rhoads step into the sheriff’s office in November. While sharing his Park County administration area with Susic’s wife, Karen, he’s certainly close to their campaign.
As I said, Meyer perceives himself as a player. This was first demonstrated in October 2024 when his most ardent supporter and protector, Commissioner Amy Mitchell, was running for her second term against Robb Green, a Democrat. Meyer stepped to the podium during the public comment section of the BOCC meeting. He proceeded to articulate in his halting manner the most outrageously absurd song and dance intended to influence the election.
What half-wit would, first of all, believe a Democrat would deny Mitchell a second term? Although Green did very well in the election, 4,970 votes against Mitchell’s 6,779 votes, predictably, given the nature of Park County, the Republican, Mitchell, won. Second, what intellectual pipsqueak would not understand that unless both Democratic candidates (Jack Hansell ran against Jason Gemmer with about the same vote tallies on election day), the prospect of Dick Elsner becoming county manager was a fool’s dream? Not to mention, Elsner had previously stated there was no way, no how he would consider the position. The MAGA majority on the BOCC would never consider Elsner for the position.
Yet, Meyer took to the podium as the player he perceives himself to be, certainly apeing a Machiavellian tenet—”Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception”—and manufactured the ludicrous scenario he described in the video, cautioning with the seriousness of a noir B-actor, that a conspiracy is afoot.
So too, I suspect Meyer has been working diligently as the player he perceives himself to be, to spread whatever dirt he can to assure his preferred candidate for sheriff, Ahmet Susic, and his sidekick, Gary Rhoads, prevail against Steve Spodyak come November.
I’m reminded of one of the best examples of what MAGA believes to be acceptable in manipulating elections. As I see it, Commissioner Amy Mitchell is Meyer’s most ardent supporter, and Meyer is not above emulating Mitchell’s intrigues. The first video describes Mitchell’s attempt to interject Meyer into the Clerk and Recorder’s responsibility to conduct elections in Park County. The second video describes Mitchell’s scheme to control Park County elections by manipulating the Clerk and Recorder’s budget.
I find no integrity in politicians and public functionaries who behave as Meyer, Mitchell, and Wissel do week in, week out. Jason Gemmer? Well, he just goes along to get along on the BOCC.
Additional material on Meyer and the Knights Templar is here.
