GRAND JUNCTION | A Grand Junction businessman is paying for automated telephone calls urging voters to tell a Republican state legislative candidate to step down because of questions about his job as an officer and a bankruptcy filing.

The Grand Junction Sentinel reports Tuesday (https://goo.gl/kvgID ) that Alex Chaffetz paid $400 to call 6,000 voters in Mesa County. The calls tell voters to ask candidate Jared Wright to drop out so Republicans can choose another candidate before ballots are printed by Sept. 14.

Chaffetz says voters wouldn’t have picked Wright if they’d known that he left his job as a Fruita officer because an internal investigation revealed dishonesty and a bankruptcy filing. Wright had called for fiscal conservatism at the Colorado Legislature.

Wright did not respond to the newspaper for comment.

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Information from: The Daily Sentinel, https://www.gjsentinel.com