JUSTIN MCCARTHY WANTS BIG MONEY OUT OF GOVERNMENT

BRECKENRIDGE - Justin McCarthy is convinced big money, big corporations and
big government are out to get the common man, and as a Green Party county
commissioner candidate, he wants to change the way business is done.

"Sometimes what's news isn't always in the newspaper," McCarthy told a
group of about 20 at Mountain Java. "We're trying to get the word out about
what's really going on."

McCarthy faces incumbent Gary Lindstrom, an unaffiliated independent
candidate, in the Nov. 5 election. Lindstrom is the county commissioner in
District 1 and represents the Upper Blue Valley. Voting is at-large.

To support his platform, McCarthy held a meeting Tuesday night featuring
two people who claim the police, county commissioners and local judges are
merely puppets in a game played by the rich to keep working people in their
place.

Marijuana Case

One of those people is Fred Hopson, a Park County man arrested two years
ago for allegedly growing and selling marijuana. Hopson, who almost died
after a fall nearly six years ago, used to suffer debilitating headaches
from the head injuries he incurred in the accident. To alleviate the pain,
he smoked pot.

Hopson said he believes an informer from Summit County told Summit County
Drug Task Force officials that he was selling the drug. Police then raided
- - and later seized - his home, and for two years fabricated evidence and
dragged Hopson through the courts, he said. In the interim, he obtained a
medical marijuana card from the state, allowing him to smoke pot for his
headaches.

"I don't see why they wanted me so badly," he said. "I don't see why the
government does this to us. I'm not a bad person; I just have problems with
headaches. I figured if I never told anyone I smoked pot, I'd never be
found out."

The charges against Hopson were dismissed earlier this year.

Water Rights Case

Halena Lewis is another victim of government-supported harassment, McCarthy
said.

Lewis lives in Spring Creek Ranch north of Heeney and claims developers,
with the support of county commissioners and local judges, have managed to
steal the subdivision's water rights.

According to Lewis, the original developer of the subdivision recorded with
the county most, but not all, of the water rights in the Planned Unit
Development. He later went bankrupt. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., which
held the note, foreclosed on the property and later sold it to Nelson and
Catherine Lane. Before the deal could be closed, Lewis said, the Lanes were
asked if they wanted to change an agreement that would allow them to share
in the water rights. They didn't, Lewis said.

The Lanes dug numerous wells, she said, and then pursued the water rights
owned by Spring Creek Ranch.

"Thus began the path of harassment, intimidation, coercion and threats from
the deep-pocketed robber baron Lanes and their hired-gun attorneys," Lewis
said, adding that the Lanes tried more than two dozen times to amend the
agreement to show the homeowners had given up their water rights.

The Lanes later sold their land - and the Spring Creek water rights - to
Elk Dance/Shadow Creek.

"The rich get richer by stealing from the working class," she said. "The
rich use their political connections and hired-gun attorneys to invalidate
court rulings and law to strip citizens of their supposedly
constitutionally protected rights. The rich bulldoze over compliant
bureaucrats and politicians to ensure they get what they want. The
bureaucrats and politicians in Summit County have aided and abetted these
rich robber barons in this multimillion-dollar water rights theft."

The issue ended up in court, where, Lewis said, Judge David Lass validated
the theft of the water rights. She questioned his authority to make
decisions on water issues other than "quiet title" lawsuits. The Lanes, she
noted, later sold their property for $17 million - more than $15 million
more than the original purchase price, primarily because of the value of
the water.

"If our current bureaucrats and politicians can't or won't protect us, then
it's time for change," she said. "We need clear, strong leaders who will
hold these aristocratic robber barons and corrupt corporations accountable
for their patently illegal conduct."

"Our civil liberties are at risk in this county," McCarthy said. "These
people aren't the only people. As a working class people, we are losing our
sense of community."

Other other issues, McCarthy supports clean water, affordable housing and
county home rule that allows citizens to put initiatives on the ballot. He
is lobbying against golf development on the Frisco Peninsula Recreation
Area and Jones Gulch in Keystone, using contaminated water from the Snake
River for snowmaking at Arapahoe Basin and allowing nuclear waste to be
transported through Colorado on its way to Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

"It's hard to get things done with the three most powerful guys in the
county running things," he said, referring to the county commissioners. "We
have an elitist group of people calling the shots for everyone else. They'd
rather you not vote; they'd rather you not register to vote. They'd rather
you just let them do their business."