Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Ex-official shakes up Otero meeting

New Mexico’s most notorious cowboy is still shaking things up.

A raucous Otero County Commission meeting was brought to a stop and the room was cleared after ousted Commissioner Couy Griffin took the public comment period to criticize the woman who was appointed to finish his term, calling her a “loser.”

Griffin, the founder of Cowboys for Trump, was removed from his commission seat in September after Judge Francis Mathew in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe found Griffin violated a clause in the 14th Amendment that disqualifies anyone from holding public office if they’ve committed an insurrection against the government. Griffin was convicted of a misdemeanor for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol, which Griffin attended and encouraged the pro-Trump mob.

Couy Griffin

Griffin on Thursday was met with applause when he introduced himself as “the duly elected and legitimate county commissioner of District 2,” according to a recording of the meeting posted to Otero County’s YouTube page.

Wearing his trademark cowboy hat and “Cowboys for Trump” dress shirt and bringing along a coffee mug championing the former president, Griffin turned his attention to Commissioner Stephanie DuBois, who was appointed to the seat by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

“Looking up here at you Stephanie in this seat is a total disgrace,” Griffin said. “Every time you’ve run for office you’ve lost. So the governor appoints a loser into this seat.”

DuBois was shake and upset.

“I am not a loser,” she retorted. “You’re a criminal. Shut up.”

“You’re not a voice for the people of Otero County,” Griffin said. “You’re a voice of the radical, progressive-left loser Democrat Michelle (Lujan) Grisham.”

Commissioner Vickie Marquardt called for the room to be cleared as a smattering of both applause and heckles broke out for Griffin.

“I will not be abused in public,” DuBois responded.

Griffin continued talking and the Otero County sheriff took his microphone and ordered Griffin out of the room.

“Now you get tough. Now you’re a tough guy,” Griffin told the sheriff before the recording of the meeting was paused as people were shuffling out.

When the meeting resumed, Griffin was called back to the microphone to finish his remarks.

He asked that the other commissioners consider that DuBois wasn’t elected when she places items on the agenda.

The former elected official then said he was only removed from office because of Judge Mathew’s “fraudulent” ruling. He criticized his former colleagues and the sheriff for not standing by him. He said they were getting bad advice from RB Nichols, the county attorney.

Nichols “has done nothing but give bad advice and lay down for the federal government since he’s been sitting in that seat,” Griffin said. “And we have to fight right now. Our country is under attack like it’s never been. And the most critical and instrumental place is on the local county level.”

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