Dealergate rears its ugly head in Colorado: Dealers up in arms over new Chrysler franchises awarded in their old locations

Last May, a scandal erupted that was quickly dubbed "Dealergate". It involved nearly 800 Chrysler dealerships that were forcibly closed by government officials, many under bizarre circumstances. An analysis showed that dealers who had contributed significant sums to Democrats had little chance of having a dealership revoked, while heavy GOP contributors were almost certain to have their franchises terminated.

...despite the claim that each dealership was evaluated at the individual market level, at least four major, connected Democrat contributors will end up with more dealerships in the aggregate than when they started.

These four "Democrat" dealer groups own 40 Chrysler dealerships. One of those owners is already in all sorts of legal and financial hot water with suppliers and customers. He's not exactly a candidate most screening processes would keep. Yet they will likely end up with 42 dealerships after the shuffling... And their competition is gutted in every single market! Strange!

And, oddly enough, the Car Czar's wife is a former Democrat fundraiser... not just an Obama fundraiser. She knows exactly who to cultivate, you might say... Geez, what are the odds of that happening in forty different locations?

Today The Denver Post reported that area dealers whose franchises were terminated are really ticked off.

Chrysler's move to award new Colorado franchises after shutting down existing dealers is drawing fire... A handful of Colorado Chrysler dealerships that received shutdown notices last year have seen their territory awarded to competitors before they had a chance to appeal their closures.

The dealers said Chrysler's actions violate the intent of a recent federal law that gives the franchises the right to file for arbitration over their shutdowns... Phil Long lost its Chrysler and Jeep franchises last year after the automaker filed for bankruptcy protection. The dealership in January filed for arbitration, but Feb. 12 — before the appeal could be heard — Chrysler awarded a new franchise to AutoNation, which operates a dealership one block from Phil Long's South Wads worth location.

Fynes said Phil Long's loss of the Chrysler brands and the conversion to used-car sales has caused a revenue loss of about 75 percent...

Another Colorado dealer, Yale King of King Auto Group in Longmont, lost his Jeep franchise last year and recently saw it re-awarded to a competitor 3 miles away.

AutoNation's PAC donated over $10,000 to Democrats in 2008.

Maybe that's what President Obama meant by "green" collar jobs.