August 08, 2010 09:01 PM UTC

Breaking:"bipartisan investigation" for CO-Sen Michael Bennet's Derivative Swap

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• by: wade norris

From Kos:

Michael Bennet “f*cked sh*t up”

.

Those were Markos’ words for Michael Bennet after this Friday’s New York Times investigation  of  Michael Bennet’s investment into a ‘risky’ derivative swap by as Superintendent of Denver Public Schools. IF he clears the primary, this will gift wrap a Senate seat for Republicans.

The Bennet campaign has deflected questions about this investigation for months and Bennet ran for re-election knowing this was a liability.

Now, the Chair of the State Budget committee (Democrat Representative Mark Ferrandino) is calling for a bi-partisan audit by both the Colorado State House and Senate of this investment.


Initial reports reveal that Denver Public Schools has lost 25 million dollars from Michael Bennet’s decision as Superintendent.

Listen here to Progressive Talk show host Mario Solis-Marich’s interview of Rep. Ferrandino about the investigation.

Representative Ferrandino is exactly the person to call for this audit. In addition to his position on the Joint Budget Committee, he has served as a budget analyst for the Clinton and Bush Administrations – specifically working on the interest rate for the National Debt.

Rep. Ferrandino:

We are going to ask members of both parties and both chambers to do an audit of the investment because this has bigger implications than just DPS (Denver Public Schools), because of the recent merger of DPS and PERA (Colorado’s Public Employees Retirement Association), because if (the investment) was done wrong, this could have an impact not just on Denver, not just the kids in Denver, but the State as a whole.  Even in good (economic) times we should not be investing in derivative swaps with taxpayer dollars.

One possible solution Rep. Ferrandino suggests is that Superintendent Boasberg should negotiate with JP Morgan to forgive the 81 million penalty fee for withdrawing from the investment – although that seems somewhat unlikely to happen.

There has been a concerted effort with plenty of conflicts of interests by current Superintendent, and lifelong friend of Michael Bennet, Tom Boasberg and the School Board President, Theresa Pena (and current Bennet campaign treasurer) to avoid talk about this risky investment and discredit anyone who brings up auditing the investment – including the 3 out of 7 School board members who have been calling for an investigation.

But, the campaign can no longer deny these people’s claims now that it is being covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and Markos of Daily Kos. From Markos:

“This “exotic deal”, akin to a variable interest rate mortgage, has now cost the Denver school system $25 million more than originally planned, and getting out of the deal would cost the district another $81 million in termination fees.

But no one could’ve predicted! (That’s really Bennet’s defense.)”

With an ongoing bi-partisan audit of this swap looming ahead,

the Republicans will have a hammer to wield against Michael Bennet.

(Liberal! Risky investment! Taxpayer’s money!)

(As of now, the leading candidate is Ken Buck – who does not believe in abortion even in the case of incest or rape)

Republican Ken Buck as Senator will be a disaster for Colorado.

Even worse, Colorado is one of the swing states that could decide the balance of power in the Senate. And the Republicans will most certainly take advantage of this issue and defeat Michael Bennet in the General.

For the sake of holding on this seat for Democratic party,

Democrats must call on Michael Bennet to step down from the primary.

Democrats still have a chance to hold on to the seat by backing his primary opponent Andrew Romanoff.

I first met Andrew Romanoff in 2000, and I have seen him personally working for democrats in the 2004, 2006 and 2008 elections. I have not always agreed with some of his centrist policies, however supporting Andrew Romanoff is not about liking or disliking a candidate, it’s about having the

best chance for Democrats to hold this Senate Seat and stopping a Right wing Republican from taking Colorado backwards.

Visit here for the complete story of the cover-up by current Superintendent Tom Boasberg, other conflicts of interests, paybacks from JP Morgan to Bennet’s campaign,  and the collective effort of the Denver Post and Political Blog Colorado Pols to cover up this story.

(it’s quite a trip)