On Wednesday, our friends over at "The Fix" listed their opinion on the "Ten Best Canididates of 2010." Not all of the Top Ten were winning candidates, such as Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello:
Perriello drew loads of national attention during his first two years in office as an unapologetic supporter of President Obama's agenda despite the Republican-leaning nature of the district -- Virginia's 5th -- that he represented. That approach led to an assumption that he would be crushed by state Sen. Robert Hurt (R) on Nov. 2. But, through a combination of massive fundraising and sheer will -- not to mention a last minute campaign visit from President Obama -- Perriello went into election day with a real chance. He ultimately lost the race but his four-point margin was smaller than almost anyone expected and set him up as a potential statewide candidate in future elections. [Pols emphasis]
This got us thinking about something we briefly touched on in our "Winners and Losers" of the 2010 Elections: Which Colorado candidates who lost in 2010 performed well enough that they could still be called "Winners" overall? [More after the jump...]
Yesterday we suggested a scenario for a "Colorado Political Draft," with the ongoing NFL Draft as inspiration. We gave you our Top Five, and let you suggest your own draft choices.
Today, we're taking a look at the "Sleeper Picks." These are the picks that a team makes in the NFL Draft that initially have you scratching your head because you've never heard of them; but then the more you think about it, and the more you hear about the player and the rationale, the more you start to really like the selection.
With that in mind, check out our "Sleeper Picks" after the jump. For a refresher on the "guidelines" under which our picks are being made, check out yesterday's post.
Will Shafroth, who lost last year's three-way Democratic primary in CD-2 to Jared Polis, has picked up a new job. As The Colorado Independent reports:
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday afternoon that fourth-generation Colorado resident Will Shafroth, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress last summer, will be the department's deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. A few weeks ago Salazar nominated another Colorado politician as Shafroth's boss, naming former Senate candidate and one-time U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland as his assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.
In my discussion of the 3 candidates running for CD-2 I stated that all three are really good candidates and that we would be happy with any of the three. In that discussion I said the following about Will Shafroth:
Will is Mark Udall redux. Will will perform the blocking & tackling of being an effective representative for our district. He will do the most for our district and the residents here from bringing home the bacon to constituent services. And he clearly will concentrate on environmental issues. It doesn't get the spotlight but this is exactly the job we need most representatives performing.
The statement is still true. But it's no longer a compliment. Mark Udall has shown that he is willing to take any position, pander any issue, and piss all over the constitution to get elected. His most recent "indistinguishable from a wing-nut Republican" action was his vote for the FISA legislation.
Anyone remember Gilligan's Island? Even a group as clueless as that was focused on getting off the island. You're stuck on a deserted island - primary focus is getting off the damn island.Why is that so hard to figure out?
Ok, the 3 amigos were asked the standard Daily Camera question "If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want with you?" And the answers range from poor to excellent.
Jared Polis publicized seven years' worth of tax returns Thursday, a day after his major Democratic rivals in the 2nd Congressional District race made similar disclosures.
Joan Fitz-Gerald and Will Shafroth, who released their tax returns Wednesday, said they did so in large part to prompt their wealthy opponent to open the books on his income and tax information.
Polis' returns show five years -- from 2001 to 2005 -- during which the Internet entrepreneur paid no taxes. He showed a net loss of income for four of those five years.
The returns also show a couple of years when he posted a total of more than $120 million in adjusted gross income and more than $18.4 million in taxes paid.
Polis, 32, said the discrepancy in tax and income data over the seven years is primarily based on whether he was developing companies -- which would often operate at a loss in their initial years -- or selling a company.
"In my business career, I only make significant money when I sell a company," Polis said Thursday.
Two years ago, Liberty Media Inc. bought Provide Commerce Inc., which operated Polis-founded ProFlowers.com. The sale was valued at $477 million, $116 million of which went to Polis.
Polis said in many of the years he didn't owe taxes, he was reporting income losses -- in 2005 his losses reached $2.6 million -- as he tried to bring companies he helped found into the black.
"I founded several high-growth companies, and we would manage those for growth rather than for profit," he said. "When I make money, I pay taxes. When I don't make money, I don't."
Is Polis legally correct here? Maybe, but it sure looks terrible. The ads write themselves: "Jared Polis, millionaire, doesn't pay taxes."
Given the harm that will come from this disclosure, it probably would have made more sense for the Polis campaign to refuse to open up his books. He still would have taken a hit, but it wouldn't have been as bad. "Polis Refuses to Disclose Tax Records" is better than "Polis Doesn't Pay Taxes."
BOULDER, CO - Today Will Shafroth announced he has raised more than $279,710 in the first quarter of 2008, bringing his
total raised to $1,020,247.
"It's been another great quarter for this campaign. No question about it, Coloradans are hungry for change and looking for
something more than politics as usual," said Shafroth.
Update: I have the various results I am aware of here. Anyone who knows additional numbers, please email me.
Ok, we had the convention, what does it all mean? This is what I see as the major items, after sleeping on it.
First off, the Boulder Democratic party is incredibly well run. I can't say enough how impressed I am with how smoothly the whole thing ran. Major kudos to Deb Gardner and her entire crew. You did the impossible and made it look easy. (Deb Gardner for governor in 2014?)
Here is what I think is the biggest data point from yesterday - well over 90% of the attendees are not party activists. Everyone was talking about how 95% had never attended a county convention before but Claire Levy was in that group and I think we have to count her as an activist. The important data point is that most of these people probably could not have named the 3 amigos. They were there to vote for Obama or Clinton and the rest was other stuff they were also asked to do.
Which means, having the party base on your side was good for maybe 5% of the vote. In fact, not everyone there will bother to vote in the August primary. But I think it is reasonable to say that the results are a good indicator of how a primary vote would play out if it was held today. So let's drop the "candidate X had an insider advantage" because that wasn't worth much.
The CO-2 race, to this point, has basically been a Joan Fitz-Gerald - Jared Polis battle, with Will Shafroth seemingly content to wait it out on the sidelines.
Today Shafroth entered the fray more publicly with an attack on Polis. As the Rocky Mountain News reports:
Congressional candidate Will Shafroth plans to file a formal election complaint against rival Jared Polis this week, charging various campaign finance violations.
Shafroth said Polis' campaign records lack "transparency," which he finds bothersome because Polis was chief backer of Amendment 41, an ethics amendment voters approved in 2006...
...Shafroth plans to file his complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Among his charges is that Polis failed to disclose the occupations or employers of 42 donors who contributed nearly $50,000.
Polis is the ninth-worst House candidate in the nation for disclosing occupation information, according to opensecrets.org, which calls itself a guide to money in U.S. elections. His compliance rate, however, is 88.2 percent.
"I'm not saying we're all perfect," Shafroth said. "In each campaign you'll have a few donors (whose occupations) have not been identified. But this is not four or five people, and this is money donated months ago."
This is yet another example of the Polis campaign needlessly opening themselves up for criticism, but more than anything we see this attack as a signal from Shafroth's campaign that it is time to get their boy a little more press.
Shafroth is raising good money and avoiding the Fitz-Gerald/Polis battle in a manner that allows him to avoid much of the mudslinging, but the downside to that approach is that it doesn't help him get recognized--and Shafroth is a virtual unknown among average voters. We've heard rumors for a long time that Shafroth's name ID numbers are dismal, and today's attack may be the first of many efforts to try to change that.
UPDATE:Today's reports clarify that only one candidate benefits from Polis' triggering the "Millionaire's Amendment." Joan Fitz-Gerald, who sent out the release below blasting Polis, actually raised too much money to qualify for the exemption.
Will Shafroth can now circle back with his maxed-out donors for more money, but at this point Fitz-Gerald can't. We did a quick (and very sloppy) count of donors who had maxed out to Shafroth, and we came up with well more than 100. Even if Shafroth only gets 50 of them to up their donations to the new max, he'll quickly raise more than $200,000.
