Betsy Markey Endorsed by Fort Collins Coloradoan

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by: Go Blue

(Go Betsy! A well thought out endorsement from the largest paper in her district. – promoted by DavidThi808)

After weighing the attributes each candidate brings to the table, the Coloradoan editorial board narrowly endorses Markey in this race.

As an incumbent, Markey has proved to be, for the most part, well reasoned in her decisions. Her motivation for voting for the health-care plan, including costs, benefits and long-term impact, were well thought out, although she stated her vote very late in the process. She voted against congressional raises. She advocates for a government pay-as-you-go budgeting law. However, we strongly disagree with her co-sponsorship of the Employee Free Choice Act, which essentially eliminates secret ballots for workers voting on forming unions.

We’d like to see her take a more centrist leadership role (she voted with Democrats 94 percent of the time). She touched on this opportunity when she participated in an effort to curb credit card companies from exploiting their positions prior to reforms taking place. Markey should spend more time in that leadership role than nervously gauging what will get her re-elected.

Betsy Markey, a well reasoned business-woman with real job creating experience and skills. Learn more at Betsy Markey for Congress.

As for her opponent, the Ed Board all but called him exactly what he is; nothing more than a hypocrite who has made a career out of being a politician.

Gardner is a formidable candidate, and he very well could come away with a win. The reluctance in choosing Gardner, though, is that he is riding an anti-big-government wave that doesn’t compel him to answer direct questions about how he expects to trim deficit spending and balance the budget beyond “looking for government waste.” The editorial board didn’t hear many solutions from him. Gardner’s business experience and agricultural background along with a law degree give him diverse experience in a diverse district. He would bring a strong presence and a cooperative approach. But we came away unclear as to what he would do specifically to get the economy rolling again.

Gardner’s new slogan, “If you vote for me I’ll prove I don’t have a clue!”

17 thoughts on “Betsy Markey Endorsed by Fort Collins Coloradoan”

Interlocken Loop says:

October 17, 2010 at 7:57 pm

538.com has Markey with an 86% chance of losing down from 88%. The same site also seems to show support for John Salazar gaining steadily.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.n…

And Ed Perlmutter does not seem to be at risk of losing.

I would hope the press will get after Ryan Frazier for falsely claiming his “business” has offices in Africa and Asia.

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Go Blue says:

October 17, 2010 at 9:14 pm

Something else that stood out in this endorsement was not just the Ed Board’s acknowledgment of the 3rd party candidates running, but recognizing Doug Aden (American Constitution Party) and Ken “Wasko” Waszkiewicz (Independent) actually give Coloradans a clear understanding of what their agenda is and would be in Congress. That’s something Gardner (Republibag) has failed to do or rather successfully hidden from the voters of CD-4.

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H-man says:

October 17, 2010 at 10:36 pm

Markey lost this race some time ago.

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1. Go Blue says:
  
  October 17, 2010 at 10:42 pm
  
  Markey has established herself as a conservative Democrat. She has worked hard for agricultural interests in the 4th and she has distanced herself from the president on several issues.
  
  … But she also has a clear understanding of the dangers of the tax-and-spend policy of Congress.
  
  “We have a huge problem in terms of our budget,” she said. “We are spending too much money.”
  
  I’d take that criticism any day of the week over being smacked by the Coloradoan as know-nothing like Gardner was today.
  
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  1. Libertad says:
    
    October 18, 2010 at 5:59 am
    
    Yet she co sponsors the termination of the secret ballot. She supports and passes cash for clunkers (costly bailout hurting the low income), Obamacare, ARRA (unsustainable bailout). She’s in lockstep with Obama-Pelosi so bad the liberal Denver Post had to turn to centrist and former Democrat Cory Gardner for its endorsement.
    
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2. Gypsy Chief says:
  
  October 18, 2010 at 9:55 am
  
  Sorry H-man, not so. DLOF wrote a very good analysis of Markey’s chances – his comment was published on September 14 and I will not repeat it here. With Markey we got what we thought we were going to get; at least I did. She has been described as a ‘conservative’ Democrat. Well, she had a 70% rating by Americans for Democratic Action in 2009. For example, she voted no on HR 2868 (11/6/2009) which allocated $900 million for DHS and EPA studies of chemical plant safety and community water supply safety. To me this looks like a boondoggle – I’m glad she voted no. I’m glad she voted no on HR 2847 (6/8/2009) regarding denial of funds to close Gitmo, legislation sponsored by Jerry Lewis [R-CA-41]. We need to close Guantanamo Bay prison. So, a 70% rating by this group. MM would have been close to 0%. But Markey is no Diana DeGette. I really think she represents the mood of the 4th CD. Can she win? It’s all up to the ground game now. As late as today I heard from Emily’s List – Women Vote! effort. They seem to think she is viable. The Coloradoan endorsement helps. That’s what this thread is about, yes?
  
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bjwilson83 says:

October 17, 2010 at 10:46 pm

I’m shocked, shocked I tell ya!

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1. Libertad says:
  
  October 18, 2010 at 6:00 am
  
  Who’da thunk it.
  
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abraham says:

October 18, 2010 at 3:30 am

Just an FYI update. The Chieftain endorsed Gardner and Salazar.

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1. Voyageur says:
  
  October 18, 2010 at 3:37 am
  
  1-Chieftain is normally Republican, so a nod to the Democrat helps.
  
  2-Pueblo is in Salazar’s district. Not very many people in the 4th actually read the chieftain.
  
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  1. abraham says:
    
    October 18, 2010 at 5:37 pm
    
    The Chieftain has the best coverage of water issues in the State – unlike the Denver Post that seems to think that there are no water issues to report on. I’m pretty sure that the folks down the Arkansas River read the Chieftain regularly.
    
    And, the Chieftain was all over the Army’s move on Pinon Canyon, and I know that the people down in SE Colorado followed those stories.
    
    I thought it was an interesting endorsement since Markey had been OK on the Pinon Canyon issue. Salazar’s endorsement was hardly a surprise – that’s mostly about the Conduit.
    
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  2. onebigrepublican says:
    
    October 18, 2010 at 6:01 pm
    
    Is the main source of daily news for the Eastern Plains. It is a key endorsement!
    
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    1. ace41 says:
      
      October 18, 2010 at 6:36 pm
      
      Because the Eastern Plains are such a swing part of the district. Come out of your hole…the Plains make Up less than 10% of the electorate in the 4th.
      
      Any Republican that does not start and end the election with close to 70% of the vote on the Plains is in big trouble.
      
      The whole game is the counties of the Front Range. And that is exactly where the Coloradoan’s endorsement will matter.
      
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      1. onebigrepublican says:
        
        October 18, 2010 at 6:53 pm
        
        that when you are trying to mitigate the damages that third party candidates can do in a race like this…IT MATTERS.
        
        Come out of your hole…the third party candidates can cause a loss for Gardner. If he can win with wide margins across the Eastern Plains he can win this election.
        
        As much as you would like to think that the world revolves around the front range, in a race such as this the Eastern Plains matter, and they matter big time!
        
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        ace41 says:
        
        October 18, 2010 at 7:12 pm
        
        Sorry but again, the Eastern Plains math does not matter much in the overall vote scheme of the fourth. Markey lost the Plains in big numbers in 2008 and still won the district by 12 points.
        
        So no…sorry but they don’t.
        
        And the third party votes will come from Places like Weld because, again, even if voters on the plains went for the third party people…they don’t have enough votes to move the dial very far in the district overall.
        
        But hey…if you Republicans want to spend your time worrying about Eastern Plains voters, be my guest. The Dems will be happy to let you do that.
        
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    2. Voyageur says:
      
      October 18, 2010 at 10:45 pm
      
      There are dailies in Lamar and Sterling that are more important. But overall, 86 percent of the votes in cd4 last time came in just three counties: Larimer, Weld, and Boulder.
      
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tallport says:

October 18, 2010 at 8:02 am

I am so tired of hearing about the “right to a secret ballot”. That is such a line of idiot feed. This issue is not as critical as it is made out to be, but I would ask the newspaper to name one other organization that requires a secret ballot election to join. Ballots are used in the election of people and not to join groups. Corporations use the current system to prevent unions from forming. They know it and we know and anybody who contends otherwise is just plain wrong.

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