U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Janak Joshi
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Michael Bennet
(D) Phil Weiser
60%↑
50%↓
Att. General
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(D) Jena Griswold
(D) M. Dougherty
(D) David Seligman
50%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) A. Gonzalez
(D) J. Danielson
(R) Sheri Davis
50%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(D) Jeff Bridges
(R) Kevin Grantham
40%
40%
30%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(D) Milat Kiros
90%
10%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(R) H. Scheppelman
(D) Alex Kelloff
70%
30%
10%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Trisha Calvarese
(D) Eileen Laubacher
90%
20%
20%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Jessica Killin
70%
30%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Manny Rutinel
(D) Shannon Bird
45%↓
30%
30%
30%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
October 14, 2009 08:43 PM UTC
29 Comments
will come back to haunt him at every turn this next year. Penry is much like the caveman in Geico ads. Everywhere he turns, he will see signs pointing out what a liar he is.
It is funny that you mention the geico caveman in referrence to Penry. I have often thought that myself.
n/t
Penry is too use to getting away with his misstatements (lies?) in Mesa County with notable exceptions by Ralphie and Bill Grant’s columns. Goes to show he’s not ready for prime time.
…that this blog defends government secrecy.
By comparison, the city of Denver released a full list of budget cuts proposed by city departments. This is a normal part of the budget process. Full disclosure, in-depth debate and ultimate compromise. This is how it is supposed to work.
You should be calling Ritter out on his lack of transparency and ridiculous legalistic skirting of open records laws.
Yeah maybe Ritter should’ve just handed “republican leaders” all the info he has about the next round of cuts so Josh can get a head start running around the state whining about it. Nobody trusts the R’s, and they shouldn’t.
Do Josh and his buddies think the Governor was born yesterday ?
Because they didn’t want to take the heat.
They still don’t want to take the heat. They just want to give it. Hypocrites like Penry like to go around saying they want to cut the size of government. Then they want to whine about every cut that’s made.
This was a purely political request and the Ritter administration was within the law to deny it.
since you are new here I will cut you some slack.
The open records law does not mean what you think it means. Ritter has acted appropriately, the GOP has acknowledged they have no right to peer into the executive branch’s internal thoughts on how to address the budget crisis.
Penry, as Senate minority leader, is free to get raw data from these departments and make up his own list of cuts. Penry’s caterwauling is so obviously calculated to either 1. get “dirt” so he can simply argue against what Ritter ends up doing or 2. claim the Ritter employed a closed process when the Ritter administration properly says “sorry, its not appropriate to share my staffs analysis before we have made any decisions on what the executive branch’s plan is”. Penry has his own branch of government that he can appropriately ask these questions of (though he should refrain from inappropriately using their email lists).
Ah so I am in the presence of Colorado’s self-proclaimed political cognoscenti.
The AP article cited above says:
Why isn’t the public entitled to receive “candid, unvarnished” information from state departments?
Why can’t Republican lawmakers be privy to “candid, unvarnished recommendations”?
We’re all involved in making “critical decisions,” such as who to vote for for governor.
Bloggers should be demanding the “candid, unvarnished” facts, not defending Ritter’s spin.
But you left that part out of your quote.
from Colorado Open Records law, go for it. But until you can accomplish that, those records aren’t subject to CORA. There’s nothing “legalistic” about it, it’s a substantial and frequently invoked part of the law.
Rarely challenged. Roundly defended by those with something to hide.
The cuts will be public. When they’re announced.
Exactly. Ask Trey Rogers. Why so secretive about candid, unvarnished information?
And with good reason. It’s not a part of CORA with a lot of wiggle room.
Again, if you want work product freely available, lobby to change the law. Until then, whine about something you can actually accomplish.
Since the GOP leadership is acknowledging, if not exactly defending, the governor’s invocation of the work product exemption, does that mean they have something to hide too?
You ask: “…does that mean they have something to hide too?”
Possibly. That’s my point. Why are you and others here so willing and happy to defend government officials’ lack of candor and transparency, especially at such a crucial time, on such a crucial topic?
I’m not going to be condescending. But if you want to have a dialog, you have to do better than “Doh.”
You have made an accusation–that the Governor is hiding something. You have repeated it several times, without backing it up.
Back it up with facts we can test, or simply fuck off.
Repeating the same shit over and over does not convince anyone of anything.
Oh, Ralphie, you amuse. You defend the government’s “right” to keep secrets from you, me and the rest of the public. Then you say there’s a burden on me to somehow gain access to information that you insist should be kept secret.
Freakin’ hilarious, son.
This is one of those “When did you stop beating your wife accusations”. Innuendo with no facts is usually called bullshit around here Skip. The Republicans drove the state government into the ground with their preoccupation with social issues like gay marriage and abortion then they complain that they don’t get to Monday morning quarterback Ritters efforts to balance the budget. What a silly argument from someone who obviously has “something” to hide.
You kids are like a broken record over here. You think that that “not being Republican” is the same as being righteous and justified.
The issue is transparency. If you can’t stand up for transparency when your own team is charge, you’re just sucking smoke.
It’s public information, isn’t it?
He’s running for PUBLIC office, isn’t he?
How else will we know what he’s really going to do as governor, unless we can read his campaign staffers’ email?
I don’t care if there’s an exemption for campaign work in the law. There’s something Penry is HIDING and I don’t LIKE it.
Is it because he hates black people? And if so, now that this allegation of Penry’s racism is going around on a prominent blog, shouldn’t he address it?
Why don’t YOU want HIM to address IT? What is he hiding? What are YOU hiding? What are he and you hiding together? Or separately?
Dear boy, you don’t seem to understand the difference between public employees whose salaries are paid by you and me, and private employees whose salaries are not paid by you and me.
Right there, folks, is the disease of the left. They don’t see any difference between public and private, and are incapable of protecting either sphere.
BTW, Ritter’s staff failed for three years to meet conflict of interest disclosure requirements.
What is this blog? A clubhouse for people who admire the aroma of their own flatus?
We have a lot of people around here who are in love with their own words, but that’s a little unusual. That might be the most ironic thing I’ve ever seen, even more so than 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.
As for calling me “boy,” that’s a little bit out of nowhere, isn’t it? Is that what you learned in Mississippi arguing with the help?
I’m a teacher, and my salary is paid by the state. That doesn’t mean you get to read my emails. On the other hand, if I’m paid by a private company but am contracted by the state to write the results of a study, you DO get to read that. Content is what matters, not your paycheck.
Ah, now I see the source of your confusion: you don’t know anything.
trying to argue that Penry and the other Republicans aren’t out to politicize cutting state government. Downsizing government has been a Republican red meat staple and now they want to get in on the glory. Skippy is dippy on the transparency thing because he proudly voted for George Bush twice which is probably what he is trying to hide. Ritter plays by the rules but doesn’t want to be a patsy for the Republicans and poor dippy Skippy cries foul. What a fool of an argument.
aside from Skip being “dippy on the transparency thing,” transparent government is the default position in Colorado, and it doesn’t matter what the motivations are for wanting to see public records. In this case, CORA plainly exempts the documents Republican leaders sought, but the fact they wanted the records to make political hay has no bearing on whether the records are open, nor should it.
It’s a place where if you’re going to accuse someone of wrongdoing, you should be prepared to back up your allegations with facts.
It was clear you didn’t understand CORA, but I didn’t take that as an opportunity to try to educate you. My sincere apologies.
I am not an expert on CORA, but I am an attorney and I understand work product.
As to the substance of your reply. Penry has no right to see the working documents of Ritter’s staff just as Ritter has no right to see the working documents of the Senate minority office.
Penry is free to get his own raw data from departments through the nonpartisan legislative office and have is staff come up with its own recommendations. That isn’t spin: its fact.
Now is that fair being that the governor has a big staff and legislators have little ones? No, but that is a separate and unrelated issue that has more to do with the problems of a part time legislature.