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November 03, 2009 08:12 PM UTC

Foot Shooting: It's Not Just for Republicans!

  • 35 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry has been actively shooting himself in the foot lately, but he’s not the only Colorado politician with that same talent.

A Pols reader sent us this newsletter from Democrat Cheri Jahn, who is running for Senate in SD-20 (Moe Keller is term-limited), and, well, let’s just say it opens up a wound you might have thought Jahn would have preferred closed:

Washington just doesn’t get it!  An amendment was added to the Health Reform bill that would drastically increase the cost of medications for many Americans. I was outraged when I read the news. This amendment would extend brand-name prescription drug exclusivity from five years to twelve years, and in the process block affordable generics from being developed. Working families and our elderly would be hit especially hard with the increased costs of their medications if this amendment isn’t stripped from the House version of the Health Care Reform Bill.

Too many Coloradans can’t afford to pay the premium prices on brand name medication just to fatten the wallets of the big pharmaceutical corporation executives. We need to be working to make prescriptions MORE affordable – not less! In the Colorado State House I worked to do just that, and in the State Senate I’ll keep fighting to make sure that everybody can afford the medications they need to stay healthy. [Pols emphasis]

That’s all well and good, except that Jahn’s vote essentially killed a prescription drug reform bill when she was in the State House in 2006:

The state House on Tuesday rejected a key Democratic measure to lower the cost of prescription drugs for some uninsured Coloradans.

The 35-30 defeat of House Bill 1100 raises doubts about whether Democrats will be able to deliver on their promise to provide discounted drugs to the uninsured…

…Democrats had planned to send both Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1100 to Owens with the hope that at least one would become law. But the leadership lost support for House Bill 1100 when pharmacies, HMOs and a business coalition joined lobbying forces against it.

Democratic Speaker Pro Tempore Cheri Jahn said she opposed the bill because not all the groups affected were involved in the negotiations.

Besides, she said, the bill offered discounts that are already available in the private market.

“I do not think it’s fair to ask one industry to pay for the bill – pharmacies,” she said. [Pols emphasis]

Whoops!

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35 thoughts on “Foot Shooting: It’s Not Just for Republicans!”

  1. This primary in SD-20 seems like a no-brainer. Why do we have so many Dems in the state legislature who say one thing to various industries like PhRMA and payday lending lobbyists, but another thing to their constituents and supporters?

    1. But if I’m reading her newsletter correctly, in the first paragraph it looks like she’s complaining about potential cuts to Medicare Advantage–what is essentially a huge subsidized giveaway to prescription drug companies.

      So we have her fighting for drug companies on two fronts–in the state legislature as an elected official and as an activist trying to sway the health care debate in Washington.

        1. The district is split evenly between D’s R’s and U’s.  Moe Keller won the district in 2002 by 187 votes.  The composition of the district has remained steady since 2002.

            1. And Bernie Buescher won twice with a 2-1 Republican advantage in HD 55.  This is still very much a competitive district.  As usual in Colorado, it depends very much on how the independents split.

                1. Despite a few bad votes, she was very popular in her district.  She used to be a… I can’t remember the phrase, but when something bad happens to a child, like if daddy kills mommy right in front of their son, a nice lady shows up to deal with those first emotions.  Very tough job.  The vast majority of her bills related to that experience.  

                  A quick search of bills she sponsored or co-sponsored in ’08 (really any year) brings up foster care, victim’s rights, seniors, etc.  You could argue that these votes also relate to those people, but that’s not my point.  I am suggesting there’s a lot of goodwill toward her.  Generally, she did good work.

                  1. is synonymous with the phrase about the mind of a serial killer making the best police officer.

                    Cheri Jahn is not only a moron, she’s a bully and a sell-out. Most Dem legislators hate her because she’s so oddly boorish. She’s fake. Her whole shtick is fake. The single mother-thing, the “small business”-thing, my assessment is that she hijacks social issues to push forward her agenda of unsustainable development and sell-outery. Look at her Q3 finance report. It’s all lobbyists, special interests (including a group that seeks to get everyone health coverage, by forcing people to buy it), development, oil and gas, Coca-Cola (???wtf), and of course, “business”. She’s a miserable, mean-spirited jackass. She can’t answer simple questions about how to get the state revenue. Nobody really likes her. She would not be able to work with other Dems.

  6. Andrew Romanoff has taken the unusual step of taking time from his own campaign to lend support to Cheri Jahn. Cheri was a very conservative Democratic member of the House where she served for eight years.

  7. If you dig into Jahn’s record, you’ll find lots of instances in which she’s not been the most reliable Democrat. Here are a couple more examples:

    Vouchers:

    On a stroke of Gov. Bill Owens’ pen Wednesday, Colorado became the first state in the nation to adopt a school voucher law since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld vouchers last year….The final legislative votes for the bill were 18-17 in the Senate and 36-28 in the House. Only two Democrats — Sen. Bob Hagedorn of Aurora and Rep. Cheri Jahn of Wheat Ridge — voted for HB1160. Republicans provided the other 52 votes for it. (“Colorado Governor Signs School Voucher Bill,” The Pueblo Chieftain April 17, 2003.)

    Successfully fought to let big box retailers drive mom and pop gas stations business by selling cut-rate gas:

    A ranking Democratic lawmaker plans to ask the Colorado House today to completely reject changes the Senate made to her measure to allow grocers to sell gasoline at below cost. After much deliberation earlier this month, the Senate tacked an amendment to exempt rural parts of the state from Rep. Cheri Jahn’s measure to allow major stores in the state to continue to offer lower gas prices for customers who purchase a certain amount of groceries. While rural senators said HB1208 gave an unfair advantage to such “big-box” chains as King Soopers and Wal-Mart, their urban counterparts said the amendment goes too far. Jahn, a Wheat Ridge Democrat who also is the deputy House speaker, said the amendment needs to be stripped out of the bill. (“Lawmaker attacks changes in gas discount bill,” The Pueblo Chieftain (Colorado) March 21, 2007)

    The House rejected a Senate plan Wednesday to exempt rural towns from a bill that would let retailers sell gasoline below cost. The hard-line move to strip the amendment and adhere to the House version leaves the Senate with only two options – accept the measure or kill it. “As usual, we had it right in the House,” said Rep. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, before representatives voted 63-1 to stick with the original proposal. It was the latest round in a long-running battle over allowing grocery stores and other big retailers to lure customers with below cost gasoline after a judge ruled the discounts violated the 1937 Unfair Practices Act. (“Discount-gas debate refueled Amendment Loses The House strips a plan to bar lower rates for fuel in rural towns. The Senate can pass the bill as is or kill it,” The Denver Post March 22, 2007.”

    1. The main postulation of this thread was you can’t have a [DEM] candidate unless all the boxes are checked – even on moderate view on something (say, [Gas at grocery stores]) unleashes the Beasts of the party Faithful.

      -SSG Dan (mostly)

      2. we get to have it on this example. She is so bad and so mean, I think if you knew her, she would rub you the wrong way too (but you wouldn’t really want her to rub you.)

        1. If you look at her record, associations, and financial backers, you’ll see that it’s all at odds with who she purports to be in her campaign lit. Once SD 20 starts smelling the Orwell, she’s done. People out there are hungry for reliable Dems, and Jahn can’t deliver on that. No reason to bring up the sharp elbows.  

      1. Long time active in the party (might have been state vice chair).  Former RTD board.  Lost to Sue Shaffer by 29 votes in the H24 primary last year.

        Politically, I put Dave in the principaled liberal pragmatist category.  He says he wants to have a heart like Ted Kennedy and a head like Governor Ralph Carr.

        For those that don’t know Carr was the Republican governor of Colorado during WWII who spoke out for the civil rights of Japanese Americans, saved the state from bankruptcy and modernized the state bureaucracy.  

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