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Hillary Clinton coming to Aspen next week

Jason Auslander
The Aspen Times
Hillary Clinton arrives at the Rifle airport last August after attending an exclusive fundraising event at the Hurst home in Aspen.
Ryan Hoffman/Rifle Citizen Telegram |

It looks like Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will be in the Aspen area Aug. 2 for a fundraiser.

Mike Kraemer, Pitkin County senior planner, told county commissioners Tuesday his office received a permit application late last week for a Clinton fundraiser Aug. 2 at Aspen Valley Ranch in Woody Creek.

The “Hillary Victory Fund dinner” would take place from 5 to 8 p.m. on the agricultural facility parcel of the ranch and host about 85 guests in a tent constructed on the property, according to the permit application. Donation levels will be $10,000, $33,400 and $50,000, the application states.



The Hillary Victory Fund is a joint fundraising committee that benefits Clinton’s presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and 38 state Democratic parties, including Colorado, according to Clinton’s website. Clinton’s campaign receives the first $2,700 individual or $5,000 PAC donation, while the DNC gets the next $33,400 from an individual or $15,000 from a PAC, and the state parties get up to another $10,000 from individuals or $5,000 from PACs, according to the website.

Kraemer said he was bringing the issue to commissioners Tuesday because of a 2011 county board resolution forbidding commercial or public events from being held at the ranch house on the agricultural portion of the property. Commissioner Patti Clapper said she was fine with the event being held in the tent on the property instead.

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Security is to be handled by the U.S. Secret Service, according to the application.

Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo, who has previously criticized having to provide security to political candidates who come to town for private events, said Tuesday that the Secret Service has not yet contacted him about providing security for the event. However, he said it’s not unusual for the agency to contact him a few days before such an event.

Nonetheless, Alex Burchetta, director of operations for the Sheriff’s Office, said officials have decided to activate the county’s emergency management team in case something happens to turn the event “from small to big.” He also said he hopes the impacts to the public of Clinton’s visit will be minimal and that it shouldn’t be as noticeable as Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this month.

Blanca O’Leary, Pitkin County’s sole superdelegate who’s committed her support to Clinton, said Tuesday from the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that she hadn’t heard of the Aspen event. She said she knew an area fundraising event was being planned but didn’t think it had been finalized.

Still, she said that if such an event were held, she expects Clinton to attend.

A spokesperson for Clinton’s Colorado campaign did not return an email Tuesday seeking comment about the Aspen fundraiser. A phone message left for Karim Souki, who’s listed on the application as the primary contact for the event, also was not returned Tuesday.

Delegates to the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday nominated Clinton as the party’s first female candidate for president.


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