Freda Poundstone: Maes is “a snake-oil salesman”

Republican power broker Freda Poundstone doesn’t expect to get back the money she gave gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes. But she wishes now that she could retrieve the support she lent him.

At 83, Poundstone carries the cachet of decades spent lobbying at the State Capitol and eight years as an advisor and strategist for President Ronald Reagan. She’s been mayor of Greenwood Village and was architect of the “Poundstone Amendment” to the Colorado Constitution that barred Denver from annexing suburban areas without the permission of their residents.

Poundstone is a conservative’s conservative, and that, she said, trumps money as her reason for withdrawing her support for Maes.

“My principles mean more to me than anything else, that’s why I started out supporting (Maes),” she said. “He represented himself as a true conservative.”    - More -