Meet the Libertarian Mayor of a Thriving Colorado City Who Owns 'A Castle, a Strip Club, and a Church

(Photo: Mayor Mike Dunafon/Facebook)

Mayor Mike Dunafon of Glendale, Colorado "has made it in a way you could achieve only in America," according to conservative radio host Dana Loesch.

"He owns a castle, he owns a strip club, and he owns a church -- oh and he's also the mayor," she remarked while filling in on The Glenn Beck Program Thursday.

A former football player in the NFL, Dunafon has one of the most unique stories you'll probably ever hear, particularly when it comes to how he got involved in politics.

After sailing in the British Virgin Islands for over a decade, Dunafon came back to the United States where he met his fiancé.  She had started a wildly popular strip club in the "crumbling little place" of Glendale called "Shotgun Willie's," which the city was trying to shut down both to take her land, Dunafon said, and because it had become so successful that people gave directions to Glendale City Hall by pointing them to Shotgun Willie's.

The mayor at the time said he'd rather see the 300 women on welfare, despite the fact that they wanted to keep their jobs, Dunafon remarked.

Outraged by the government's apparent violation of his fiancé's liberties, Dunafon decided to run for office.  He had 31 days before the next election and went door to door with strippers and beer registering voters.

"We beat them by a landslide and we had a city to run," he recalled.  "So we cut the city staff in half, we took the city bond rating from a BB to AA-... And now nobody knows that Shotgun's is even in Glendale -- we're Rugbytown USA."

Glendale now has a world-class athletic center and rugby team, despite their population of under 5,000 residents.

"Everything we do has to be based on a philosophy or a principle," Dunafon said.  "For instance, next month we're taking a law off the books that precludes pool tables from bars in Glendale.  Now this was an obscure law we didn't know existed."

But imagine, he said, if someone else was running the city and wanted to punish a bar owner.  Americans have seen that the United States government is not above targeting and punishing its own citizens.

To highlight the issues with having countless laws, Dunafon said they're going to arrest a local bar owner, put her in handcuffs and a dunce cap -- "she's wonderful, she's a libertarian," he added -- then they're going to rescind the law and let her go.

"Why don't we deregulate our lives? How many laws do we need?" he asked.  "If we can be expected to act like reasonable, civilized people to one another, then very few laws are needed."

Loesch concluded the segment with praise for the mayor, saying she'll be keeping her eye on him in the hope he runs for governor.

Check out more from the fascinating interview, below:

Complimentary Clip from TheBlaze TV

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