What Qualifies Dennis Anderson to Judge Anyone?

by Sean M. Pond

Dennis Anderson has spent years using the Montrose Daily Press to attack the intelligence, character, courage, sanity, and fitness for office of people he does not like.

He has called me a self-centered narcissist, a jellyfish, delusional, paranoid, thin skinned, fragile, a fearmongering demagogue, and a conflict entrepreneur. He has mocked my intelligence, suggested I have attention deficit disorder, claimed my facts processor is broken, portrayed me as unfit for office, and dismissed me as a Senate wannabe.

Those are not policy arguments. They are personal attacks. Before Anderson judges my intelligence, mental health, qualifications, family, or life, he should answer one question.

What qualifies him?

Anderson is not a doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, or mental health professional. Dennis Anderson diagnosing anyone would be like walking into a hardware store and asking the employee mixing paint to administer an immunization. That is, in fact, Anderson’s background.

His published biographies identify no college degree, journalism degree, formal journalism education, medical training, psychological training, or relevant professional certification. He worked in retail for 19 years, including at Ace Hardware in Montrose, Colorado. He literally went from stocking shelves, sweeping floors, mixing paint, and selling nails to selling media and eventually being given a publisher’s title.

That title gives him a platform. It does not qualify him to judge anyone’s intelligence, mental health, character, or fitness for office.

Anderson did not create the Montrose Daily Press, build it with his own money, or risk his home, savings, credit, and future on it. I could find no public record of him starting a business, carrying the financial risk of ownership, employing hundreds of people, or making payroll with his own money.

Since Anderson attacks my intelligence and qualifications, let us compare records.

I served in the United States Navy, reached E5 in only four years, and completed many deployments, including service in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Shield. I led a division while I was still a young man and earned the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist qualification.

I later worked in radiological health and safety for the Department of Energy at UMTRA, Rocky Flats Building 771, and Idaho National Laboratory’s Test Area North. I completed the Department of Energy Radiological Control Technician examinations and oral boards every year, along with the NRRPT process.

Passing those examinations required a high level of technical intelligence and proficiency in mathematics, atomic and nuclear physics, radiation measurement, dosimetry, contamination control, exposure calculations, and emergency response. I had to understand complex scientific information, apply it correctly, defend my reasoning before an oral board, and make calm decisions that protected workers from hazards they could not see.

In my next career, I entered the oil and gas industry. I worked my way up from the drilling rig floor, attended Drilling Fluids Engineering School, and qualified as a drilling fluids engineer.

Not everyone can do that work. It requires chemistry, hydraulics, pressure calculations, density, viscosity, solids control, wellbore stability, circulation, and well control. A bad calculation or panicked decision can destroy equipment, cost millions of dollars, injure workers, or take a life. You must understand the science, recognize changing conditions, calculate the consequences, and make the correct decision under pressure.

I then started a company at my living room table and grew it into a $20 million corporation. Over the life of that company, I employed hundreds of people, created jobs, negotiated contracts, bought equipment, served customers, carried the financial risk, made payroll, and signed the front of the checks.

I accepted public office, took an oath, faced rooms filled with angry liberal political activists, and made difficult decisions. I have never missed a roll call vote during my entire time as commissioner. That record is public and verifiable.

Anderson has tried to leave readers with the opposite impression. That is not a difference of opinion. It is false. When a publisher ignores a public record and prints something the record directly contradicts, he is not informing his readers. He is misleading them.

I also entered the race for the United States Senate as a complete political outsider. I was unknown statewide and had no established political machine behind me. In only four months, I traveled to all 64 Colorado counties, raised money, built support, battled the state establishment and its gatekeepers, and earned 23% of the vote at the Republican State Assembly.

That was no easy feat. An unknown outsider entered a statewide race and earned nearly one quarter of the assembly vote in four months. Anderson tried to belittle that accomplishment by calling me a Senate wannabe.

Ask yourself, what has Dennis Anderson ever done that is remotely comparable?

After everything I have studied, tested for, qualified for, built, risked, and accomplished, Anderson calls me stupid, unstable, thin skinned, a jellyfish, and unfit for office.

His accusations are not supported by my record. They are contradicted by it.

His attacks follow a predictable political line. He targets Republicans, conservatives, independent voices, and people who challenge the local establishment. I have not seen him direct the same sustained personal attacks at Democrats or liberals.

He has gone after Scott Mijares, Michael Badagliacco, David White, Monty George, Representative Larry Don Suckla, the Montrose County Republican Central Committee, members of the Montrose City Council, conservative school board members, Republican candidates, business owners, and conservative citizens.

These are people who built businesses, created jobs, risked their own money, faced voters, and served their communities. David White served on two city councils, served as mayor of Montrose, and completed two terms as a county commissioner. Larry Don Suckla is a businessman, rancher, landowner, former two term county commissioner, Colorado Counties Inc. Commissioner of the Year, and the elected representative for House District 58.

Anderson’s management record deserves the same examination he gives everyone else. He was sent to Alaska to oversee the Mat Su Valley Frontiersman, the Anchorage Press, and Arctic Warrior. The Anchorage Press later closed and employees lost their jobs. The Frontiersman was sold and moved to digital only publication.

Under Dennis Anderson’s management, the Montrose Daily Press declined and was ultimately sold to Grand Junction Media, the company behind the Daily Sentinel. From where I sit, that is another failure.

Anderson calls me a conflict entrepreneur. I ask readers to stop and consider who repeatedly creates the conflict and drama in Montrose County.

Who turns political disagreements into personal insults? Who questions people’s intelligence and mental stability? Who uses a newspaper to provoke people and then condemns them when they respond?

Dennis Anderson does.

If Anderson can convince readers that someone is stupid, unstable, narcissistic, or unfit, he never has to address that person’s argument. He attacks reputations because it is easier than debating facts.

Dennis Anderson is not qualified to appoint himself the political voice of Montrose County. What office has he held? When has he placed his name on a ballot, faced voters, participated in a political debate, cast a public vote, or answered directly to citizens affected by his decisions?

I can find no record that he has done any of those things.

From where I sit, Anderson is not a political authority. He is a liberal political activist using a publisher’s title to attack conservative officials, Republican candidates, independent voices, and citizens who challenge the local establishment.

His employers should decide whether his personal attacks, amateur psychological diagnoses, political activism, and public bullying represent their standards, and whether he still deserves the position they gave him.



What qualifies Dennis Anderson to judge any of us?

Nothing!

He has built his public identity by attacking, dividing, and demoralizing the people whose communities, businesses, institutions, and way of life his newspaper claims to serve.

Dennis Anderson is the problem and an enemy of the people.