Lawsuit Alleged GOP Senate Candidate and CEO Joe O’Dea Discriminated Against Workers
“Johnson claimed she was told that the company ‘need(ed) to get rid of these old sick people’”
GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s treatment of workers at his business Concrete Express is being scrutinized as he calls himself “The Boss” and touts his business in campaign ads.
A lawsuit, that has not been previously reported, from former Concrete Express employee Barbara Johnson alleges that O’Dea discriminated against workers based on age and disability. According to the lawsuit, O’Dea “asked the General Superintendent if the ‘old guys were a liability’ and then became determined to “make [elderly workers] disappear.”
O’Dea then allegedly targeted Johnson after she was diagnosed with cancer and terminated her employment. Johnson claimed O’Dea went further and blocked her from receiving unemployment benefits.
O’Dea claims that he’ll defend workers, however this disturbing report from Colorado Newsline raises serious questions about his true record and sends a clear message to voters that he won’t be a voice for working people.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea’s construction company last year settled a lawsuit brought by a former employee who alleged a pattern of age and disability discrimination, federal court records show.
Barbara Johnson of Loveland, who worked as a human resources manager for O’Dea’s Concrete Express Inc. for five years beginning in 2011, sued the company in U.S. District Court of Colorado in 2019.
Johnson alleged that she had her bonuses reduced and faced a hostile work environment following a cancer diagnosis in 2014. She further accused O’Dea and other CEI executives of dissuading employees from filing workers’ compensation claims and terminating older employees, a pattern she said she was pressured into facilitating in her role as HR manager prior to being fired in December 2015.
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O’Dea, a first-time candidate, has made his private-sector experience a centerpiece of his pitch to Colorado voters ahead of the June 28 Republican primary, in which he faces far-right state Rep. Ron Hanks, and a potential general-election matchup against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in November. “He’s not a politician — people call him ‘The Boss,’” boasts one O’Dea campaign ad.
In her lawsuit, Johnson alleged that when she raised the issue of potentially illegal terminations of older workers to CEI leadership, O’Dea not only ignored her concerns but said the firings served to bring down the company’s insurance premiums.
“O’Dea asked the General Superintendent if the ‘old guys were a liability.’ The General Superintendent replied, ‘Yes,’” Johnson’s lawsuit alleged. “O’Dea told the General Superintendent to take care of it and ‘make it disappear.’ Johnson told O’Dea that she did not want to participate in the illegal activities but O’Dea made Johnson process the terminations.”
Read more in Colorado Newsline.
GOP Senate Candidates on Abortion
The Supreme Court’s leaked draft majority opinion on overturning Roe confirms what a majority of Coloradans already know – if elected, Republicans will stop at nothing to strip away reproductive rights including abortion.
GOP Senate candidates on abortion:
Ron Hanks:
Sponsored an extreme bill to abolish all abortion access in Colorado.
Labeled himself as a “defende[r] of the unborn” in his campaign launch video.
Joe O’Dea:
Opposes Colorado’s law that guarantees the right to an abortion.
“Ron Hanks and Joe O’Dea are enemies of abortion rights and their extreme views go against the majority of Coloradans. Their embrace of anti choice views disqualify them from serving in the U.S. Senate.”
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O’Dea Stumbles in Desperate Attempt to Catch Up to Leading Far-right Candidate Ron Hanks
Roll Call: GOP Senate candidate touts military support with image of Russian jets
Colorado Times Recorder: Senate Candidate O’Dea Opposes CO Law Protecting the Right to an Abortion
First-time GOP Senate candidate Joe O’Dea is stumbling through the primary trying to keep up with far-right frontrunner Ron Hanks.
O’Dea’s incompetence was on full display when he tried to compare his support of the military with Air Force veteran Ron Hanks. However, Roll Call reported that his TV ad used what military experts confirmed to be Russian jets. O’Dea’s managed to insult Colorado veterans and military families in one fell swoop.
O’Dea stumbled again at a campaign meet and greet where he confirmed that he opposes a recent Colorado law that protects a woman’s right to an abortion. O’Dea’s opposition to protecting women’s healthcare, including the right to an abortion, is more evidence that this primary will be a race to the right that leaves the eventual nominee battered and out of step with Colorado voters.
Read excerpts below:
Roll Call: GOP Senate candidate touts military support with image of Russian jets
Colorado Republican Senate candidate Joe O’Dea promises to “support the police and military,” in a television ad that featured footage of a half-dozen planes flying in formation against a backdrop of fluffy, white clouds.
Only, those weren’t American planes. Three experts on military aviation, after viewing the ad, concluded independently that the aircraft used in the ad by a Republican vying to challenge Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet are a mix of Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets — possibly flying in a Russian military parade.
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“Claiming to support our troops over footage of Russian fighter jets is a slap in the face to Colorado veterans, service members, and military families — not to mention the height of political negligence,” Yoo said.
Read more in Roll Call.
Colorado Times Recorder: Senate Candidate O’Dea Opposes CO Law Protecting the Right to an Abortion
Appearing at a campaign stop at the Copper Rail Bar and Grill in Brighton on Wednesday, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, who will be competing against election conspiracist and insurrectionist Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Cañon City) in the June 28 primary, denounced Colorado’s newly passed law that guarantees the right to an abortion in state statute.
“Well, actually, if [Roe v. Wade] gets overturned, it’s going to push it to the states,” said O’Dea in response to a question about what kind of legislation he would support around abortion. “And this bill [Reproductive Health Equity Act] that just came through at our gold dome, that Polis signed a couple of weeks ago, to me, it’s reckless, it approves third-term abortions, and I’m not in favor of that. So it’s going to be a local-level issue.”
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“Joe O’Dea’s opposition to the Reproductive Health Equity Act means he does not agree with the vast majority of Coloradans on abortion access and reproductive rights, at a time when the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade and take those rights away. O’Dea’s opposition to RHEA and abortion rights are disqualifying for anyone running for elected office in Colorado.”
Read more in the Colorado Times Recorder.
GOP Senate Candidate Ron Hanks Brags He Would Repeal ACA
“More than 500,000 Coloradans have gained access to health care coverage through Medicaid expansion”
In new audio reported by the Colorado Times Recorder, leading GOP Senate candidate and insurrectionist Ron Hanks said that he would vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which could strip health care coverage from more than 500,000 Coloradans.
Hanks is wooing extreme conservatives by pledging to get rid of the ACA and Joe O’ Dea will have to answer for the Republican agenda.
“Coloradans, especially those who rely on the Affordable Care Act, are seeing how right wing extremist Ron Hanks is bragging about how he would strip away their health care coverage and spike their costs. Now the spotlight turns to O’Dea, who will be forced to defend his party’s agenda of overturning the ACA and making health care less affordable for hardworking Coloradans.” – Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson Nico Delgado
Read more from the Colorado Times Recorder:
U.S. Senate candidate and state Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Cañon City) says he would vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) if he was elected to be Colorado’s next senator.
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Hanks is a QAnon and election-fraud conspiracy theorist. He crossed police barriers while attending the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Last year, as a member of Colorado’s House of Representatives, Hanks made racist comments downplaying the Three/Fifths Compromise.
As of earlier this month, Hanks is one of two Republican nominees on the GOP primary ballot for U.S. Senate hoping to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO).
Bennet voted in support of the ACA in 2009, his first year in the U.S. Senate, and has repeatedly defended Obamacare during his time in office. Bennet applauded the U.S. Supreme Court for upholding the ACA in 2021. In 2019, he introduced legislation to expand the program.
Since the implementation of the ACA, Colorado has received approximately $10 billion in federal funds to pay for coverage under Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion provision, according to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which administrates the state’s public health care programs.
More than 500,000 Coloradans have gained access to health care coverage through Medicaid expansion. If the ACA were completely repealed health care experts claim that most of those Coloradans would become uninsured.
GOP Senate Candidates Silent on Republican Tax Plan
As Coloradans are filing on Tax Day and many are seeing new benefits from tax credits provided by the American Rescue Plan, they should be aware that next year’s Tax Day could be different if Republicans take the majority and enact their unpopular agenda.
“Ron Hanks and Joe O’Dea would act as a rubber stamp for the Republican Party’s agenda to raise taxes and end Medicare and Social Security as we know it. Colorado can’t afford Ron Hanks, Joe O’Dea, or the Republican Party’s disastrous agenda.” – Colorado Democratic Party Spokesperson Nico Delgado
NRSC Chair Rick Scott came to Colorado last week to double down on the Republican agenda that would raise taxes on lower income Americans and seniors and sunset Social Security and Medicare. There are an estimated 939,000 Coloradans who depend on Medicare, 916,000 who depend on Social Security, and 26% of Coloradans who would see a tax increase under this plan.
The agenda that was meant to rally Republican candidates has proven to be an electoral liability. According to the Washington Post, GOP Senators are furious with Rick Scott and “they chastised him in round-robin fashion for the unnecessary headache he had created.”
Majority of GOP Grassroots Voters Back Insurrectionist Ron Hanks
Hanks takes top spot on Republican primary ballot for Senate
Insurrectionist and U.S. Senate candidate Ron Hanks cleared a field of several well funded candidates and won with 38.96% of the delegate vote. Election denial was at the center of the Colorado GOP’s chaotic state assembly where Hanks, along with other election conspiracy theory candidates, rode that wave to victory.
Hanks and wealthy CEO Joe O’Dea, who petitioned on to the ballot via signatures, will be the only two Republican candidates for Senate. The primary will take place on June 28th.
Watch CBS Denver’s reporting on the GOP state assembly below:
Read more in the Associated Press, Vice News, Denver Post, Colorado Sun, Colorado Politics, Colorado Newsline, CPR News, Axios Denver, CBS Denver, KRDO Colorado Springs
What They’re Saying:
Jesse Paul, Colorado Sun: “The thread that carried across the 2022 Colorado Republican state assembly was election denialism, from calls to abandon electronic voting for delegates, to the candidates selected and the party platform that was adopted. #copolitics”
Nick Riccardi, AP: “Skepticism about the election/’election integrity’ has been the biggest applause line for just about everyone at the CO GOP Assembly”
Quentin Young, Colorado Newsline: “Now there is no doubt. The election-denial faction of the Colorado Republican Party has the most momentum. Conspiracist candidates are in the lead. Moderating forces in the party establishment have lost control of the narrative. What does this mean for the state?”
Trish Zornio, Colorado Sun Columnist: The @cologop is in complete shambles. Their “best” candidates for Secretary of State, U.S. Senate and Gov are extreme conspiracy theorists who deny 2020 election results. It’s embarrassing, and bad for democracy.
Heidi Beedle, Colorado Times Recorder: “I’m not at all surprised that Ron Hanks won. This has largely been a one-issue primary for the Republicans. Ron Hanks has been leading the charge on that in Colorado. The fact that it is overwhelmingly nonsense from grifters and bad actors shouldn’t be concerning, right?”
Sara Loflin, Progress Now Colorado: “‘Colorado Republicans are once again indisputably the party of Donald Trump, Ron Hanks, and Tina Peters. Hanks and Peters can no longer be dismissed as ‘fringe’ when they represent the views of a majority of Republicans’”
MORE: Read what Coloradans are saying about Hanks in letters to the editor in Mountain Jackpot, CS Indy, Longmont Times Call, and the Greeley Tribune.