Turns out it’s his legacy on parade
After attending three Park County MAGA Republican Central Committee candidate forums, truths have emerged, and the infested core has been revealed.
The Park County MAGA Republican Central Committee, headed by Chair Dave Wissel and seconded by 1st Vice-Chair Amy Mitchell, hand-picked the candidates for Sheriff, District 3 Commissioner, and Assessor who are running to receive the party’s nod on June 30 and the people’s nod on November 3, 2026.
The revelations I’ve had from attending three of the seven MAGA Republican forums are, I hope, insightful.
CYNDY WELD RUNNING FOR ASSESSOR
Let’s be honest. I don’t know if Cyndy Weld has even a scintilla of interest in being the assessor. Each and every time she’s been asked how she will change the assessor’s office if elected, she comes back with the same old, same old: she just wants to make sure the assessor staff is happy, and that assessments are fair and impartial.
I can’t help but envision a time when Wissel and Mitchell were handpicking candidates to run; no one showed any interest in running for assessor. It’s an absolutely thankless job, constantly between a rock and a hard place. (The hard place is Dave Wissel’s unhealthy, pathological animus toward the current assessor, Monica Jones, who ended his 38 years as the assessor in the 2018 Republican primary.) When Wissel and Mitchell reluctantly settled on Wallie “By Golly” to run for District 3 commissioner, his lovely wife, Cyndy, was mentioned as a contender for assessor. Nobody else wanted it, so Cyndy it would be. Whether she was happy about that is unknown. But, hey, it would give Wallie “By Golly” and her an opportunity to spend some quality time together on the campaign trail.
Cyndy Weld is obviously the most unqualified candidate on the MAGA roster. If she has an inkling of what being the assessor entails, I get the impression that she’s frightened to death of the implications.
WALLY “BY GOLLY” WELD FOR DISTRICT 3 COMMISSIONER
Rumor has it that Ahmet Sisic was Wissel’s and Mitchell’s first choice to run for the District 3 Commissioner chair. But, rumor has it, that Park County Administration personnel interjected themselves into the decision and said, no, Ahmet wants to be the sheriff.
Rumors aren’t reliable, though, and on the face of it, it appears that Wissel may have been grooming Wallie to run by finagling his appointment to the Center of Colorado Water Conservancy District Board as a director in the summer of 2024. Wallie could then claim that, yes, he has experience in quasi-governmental endeavors in Park County. Again, let’s be honest: Wallie’s geological background, coupled with his sports umpiring career and real estate dabblings, really doesn’t provide a whole lot of useful experience a commissioner should have.
And, besides that, has Wallie ever actually put down roots in Park County? He ran for District 2 Commissioner in the 2024 MAGA Republic primary but lost to Jason Gemmer. Rumor has it that he rented a room in Bailey to establish residency and run for that position. (Again, rumors are not reliable.) He owns property in Como in the Indian Mountain area, and he touts that fact on the campaign trail. His campaign site actually says, “As a 28-year resident of Indian Mountain,” which begs the question: did he have a little lapse in that 28-year Indian Mountain residency to rent that room in Bailey in order to run for the District 2 Commissioner chair? Curiously, at the MAGA Republican forum in Lake George, he said he loves Park County and “[he] wants to make this his home.” Any reasonable person would conclude that Park County is not his home and that, if he’s elected, he’ll move here.
I believe Wallie is 71 years old. Forgive me if I’ve observed at the forums that he acts like it. Actually, he acts much older, and one can’t help but wonder what he’ll be like at 74 or 75 when he finishes his first term, or 79 at the end of his second term?
There is speculation that Wissel is allowing Wallie to run because he, Wissel, has something up his sleeve; some intrigue that may play out during Wallie’s first term. Indeed, can we believe Wissel when he says he isn’t running this time because he wants to just float off to oblivion?
My perception is there is just something a little off about Wallie “By Golly’s” run for District 3 Commissioner.
AHMET SUSIC FOR SHERIFF AND HIS SIDEKICK GARY RHOADS FOR UNDERSHERIFF
Not long ago, there was a social media discussion about Ahmet Susic, the MAGA Republican candidate for Park County sheriff. One inquiring mind wondered if he was Muslim—given his name—and, if so, she would never vote for him because of that. I don’t recall if I actually posted, or just thought: “No, he’s Bosnian. And, though over 50% of Bosnians are Muslim, Susic is a Mormon.”
It shouldn’t matter anyway.
What should matter, though, is the kind of claims Susic and Rhoads make about their experience and fitness to be Park County’s sheriff and undersheriff.
By the way, Susic named Rhoads his undersheriff at the commencement of his campaign. Statute 30-10-504 prescribes that the general election winner name an undersheriff as soon as possible after the election. While Susic/Rhoads supporters claim naming the undersheriff during the campaign provides transparency, we can only surmise that attaching Rhoads’ name to Susic’s campaign was a very deliberate maneuver to assure folks didn’t make assumptions about this strangely named candidate no one had ever heard of, and would be comforted that a good ol’ boy from the neighborhood, Rhoads, was this guy’s sidekick.
Susic says he was the chief of police in Blue River, Colorado, where he oversaw the establishment of a police department, something he believes qualifies him to be sheriff of Park County.
The Blue River Police Department consists of 4 officers patrolling 2.5 miles in Summit County. It serves a population of fewer than 1,000 people and has a budget of around $400,000.00.
The Park County Sheriff’s Office employs 85 personnel, patrols 2,200 square miles, serves a population of about 18,000, and operates on a budget of about $5.8 million.
Comparing apples to oranges? More like watermelons to raisins.
If Susic’s passion is police administration, why is he still a sergeant after more than 20 years in law enforcement? And Rhoads? Why, after nineteen years with the Colorado State Patrol, did he rise only to the rank of sergeant?
Administrative positions in law enforcement begin at the rank of lieutenant, a step above sergeant.
Susic’s sidekick, Rhoads, was terminated by the Colorado State Patrol in 2010 for cause. A settlement was reached between Rhoads and the state personnel board in August of 2010. Still, the settlement didn’t stipulate his reinstatement to his position with the state patrol.
Considering that the position of Undersheriff is where all policy promulgated by the sheriff is put into practice, and where the nitty-gritty of the administration of the sheriff’s department is centered, the fact that Rhoads has never held a law enforcement administrative position is troubling.
After watching Susic perform–and that’s what I perceive it to be, a performance–at the MAGA Republic forums, my impression is he is or has been schooled on knee-jerk MAGA flashpoints. Drug and child trafficking, besides the 2nd Amendment, were peppered throughout his performances. He even said he would not enforce a statute passed by the Colorado Legislature; then, in subsequent forums, apparently realizing that refusing to enforce Colorado’s duly enacted laws would violate his oath of office, he softened his stance somewhat. I’ve noticed that he floats a number of bright ideas he would implement if he were to be elected, but inevitably, when those bright ideas are scrutinized against the reality of Park County, you realize that very little thought went into the bright ideas and, alas, they’re not so bright after all.
It is also my impression that Susic and Rhoads have a posse that follows them to every forum, Evangelical Christians who, for a reason I’m sure has been discussed amongst them, identify Susic and Rhoads as more than just political candidates. Divinely inspired? Perhaps. And, at each forum, the posse busily writes questions and solicits questions from their ilk. No wonder Amy Mitchell, the outrageously biased moderator at these forums, directs question after question to Steve Spodyak, the sitting undersheriff and Susic’s opponent.
Wissel’s legacy before he takes his trip off into oblivion is to provide the county with a MAGA infestation of candidates for political office that mirrors his and Mitchell’s ideological claptrap that necessarily limits the exercise of democratic principles within the county’s personnel infrastructure, hired or elected; a kind of platform for him and Mitchell, no matter where Wissel happens to be, that will assure his legacy continues.
