Update: it’s back online now, reportedly after a number of phone calls.
The Grand Junction Sentinel had an endorsement of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter on its Web site this morning – a major coup for the Ritter campaign since Republican Bob Beauprez explicitly chose Janet Rowland as his running mate in order to shore up support on the Western Slope (Ritter also received the endorsement of The Montrose Daily Press today.
But if you want to see the endorsement online, you’ll have a hard time doing it. The endorsement has been removed from the Sentinel’s Web site. We don’t know where the endorsement went, but here’s what it used to say…
Colorado, West Slope best served by Bill Ritter
http://www.gjsentine…
Thursday, September 14, 2006
We noticed that both Bill Ritter and Bob Beauprez were wearing their cowboy boots when they trekked to Grand Junction last weekend to face off in the traditional, quadrennial gubernatorial debate sponsored by Club 20. Whew! Lucky for them. Had either one of the candidates been wearing anything so gauche as wingtips or penny loafers, they risked kissing the Western Slope vote good-bye.
Among the entertaining aspects of the political campaign season – at least with respect to stumping for votes on the Western Slope – is the degree to which candidates go in their efforts to convince voters that their cowboy boots really fit, that they really are the best person to represent all Coloradans and stand foursquare against all that is [ital]e-e-e-vil[endital] in the state’s political culture. We’re talking, of course, about big, bad Denver.
The Beauprez camp has sought to define Democrat Ritter as the big-city Denver guy while touting their ticket’s geographical diversity and self-proclaimed nexus with all of us hoi polloi out in the state’s hinterlands from Burlington and Grand Junction.
Well, we see little geographical distinction between a suburban Denver congressman like Beauprez and a former Denver district attorney like Ritter. In point of fact, on issue after issue of central importance to Western Slope voters and all Coloradans, Ritter is the substantially better candidate. And even though we have little doubt that GOP-friendly Mesa County will favor Beauprez come Nov. 7, we heartily endorse Ritter for governor.
We don’t hold it greatly against Beauprez that he was a staunch supporter of Referendum A two years ago, the $2-billion ballot question to build unspecified water projects throughout the state that failed to pass muster within any one of Colorado’s 64 counties. To be sure, as Denver’s district attorney, Ritter played no active opposition role against the misbegotten ballot question. What’s far more important than the candidates’ views regarding a two-year-old ballot question is the clarity of both men’s view about water development today.
While both candidates clearly understand that an adequate water supply for all areas of the state is an issue of transcendent importance, Ritter makes it quite clear that he doesn’t believe transmountain water diversions from the Western Slope should be the answer to the Front Range’s water supply problems. Beauprez’s position on transmountain water diversions is far more ambiguous than Ritter’s, something that is not greatly surprising given the GOP candidate’s natural inclination to support Referendum A.
Equally troubling is Beauprez’s clear-cut willingness to put the interests of the Bush administration’s domestic energy agenda, a legitimate enough concern as a public policy abstract, over the interests of the communities of Palisade and Grand Junction to keep their high-quality municipal watersheds free from natural gas drill rigs. Ritter, to his very great credit, has made it clear that, as governor, he would throw his support to Palisade and Grand Junction.
Really, now. On the issue of water alone, which candidate is the Front Range candidate and which guy is the statewide candidate? We think the answer is obvious.
Worrisome as Beauprez’s water positions are from a provincial West Slope perspective, we find them a study in logic compared to his willingness to co-sponsor legislation in Congress that, among other ill-considered provisions, proposed sharp reductions in the royalty payments paid by oil shale companies. Those revenues are crucial to help areas like Western Colorado accommodate all the many demands a burgeoning energy industry places on the public infrastructure. The same legislation sought to put oil shale development on a fast track, at a time when responsible companies like Shell Oil frequently say that they intend to be very deliberate in developing the company’s Mahogany Project in the Piceance Basin north of Rifle before making a commercial production decision late in this decade.
For his part, Ritter has taken a stance of clear opposition to the bill that Beauprez is so willing to co-sponsor with pedal-to-the-metal oil shale booster, Rep. Richard Pombo of California. (Is there political hay to reap by casting a Colorado congressman as the political soulmate of those ne’er-do-well, down-basin congressmen from California? Just wondering.)
We don’t believe that Ritter is correct on every single public-policy issue. We find it troubling that he is not willing to oppose a ballot question raising the statewide minimum wage to $6.85 an hour. We could support that. What’s crazy is putting the minimum wage in Colorado on automatic pilot by tying it to annual increases in inflation for every year thereafter.
And we admit to a fondness for checks and balances in government and are persuaded by arguments that if Coloradans choose to elect Ritter while keeping both houses under majority control Ritter’s fellow party members, we do so at our own risk. Well, Colorado survived the depredations of an entirely GOP-dominated legislature and executive branch of government before the 2004 election quite nicely, thank you. The state will survive quite nicely under a Gov. Bill Ritter as well.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: spaceman2021
IN: Closing Federal Center in Lakewood Would be Economic Disaster
BY: JohnNorthofDenver
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Duke Cox
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Powerful Pear
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Powerful Pear
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: Powerful Pear
IN: Closing Federal Center in Lakewood Would be Economic Disaster
BY: Ben Folds5
IN: Closing Federal Center in Lakewood Would be Economic Disaster
BY: Conserv. Head Banger
IN: Closing Federal Center in Lakewood Would be Economic Disaster
BY: Ben Folds5
IN: Weekend Open Thread
BY: SSG_Dan
IN: Closing Federal Center in Lakewood Would be Economic Disaster
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
Why did they pull the endorsement? Your headline should read SENTINEL PULL ENDORSEMENT FOR RITTER. Perhaps they are embarrassed they endorsed the wrong guy.
Call the Sentinel and they will explain to you that they are endorsing Ritter, but the story was meant for either Friday’s or the Weekend edition.
“Where is Bob? I bet he’s in D.C. making some pretty bad votes, against Colorado” which is what I would say if I were SyBiL’s alter ego.
They could have posted the endorsement 4 months ago. They just needed to formalize it with a pretend editorial board. I bet they wrote it a few weeks ago.
Who next? I hope they at least endorse one Republican this year!
As for who is speaking for Sybil. We are many! My old handel used to be Ward Rocks!
I wonder if Sybil can rotate her head 360 degrees while vomiting and spewing out obscenities?
…they just accidently published it early due to an over-eager intern. Montrose Press also endorsed Ritter today. I can’t see many newspapers endorsing Beauprez, except maybe the Gazette and the Greeley Tribune. But then again, the latter will also endorse Jim Resiberg and GJ’s own Sentinel already endorsed Buescher. Dems are headed towards a trifecta…
It’s always the over-eager intern’s fault isn’t it?
Wasn’t it the over-zealous intern in North Carolina that lied “for” Rep. David Balmer about his entire resume?
Or, was it Ed Jones’ intern that lied for him when he claimed to have a college degree?
Or, was it Beauprez’s intern who lied for him he claimed to have been “for..I mean against… I mean for….I mean against Ref A”?
http://www.workingfo…
ROFL ! Made my day.
So let me get this straight, first Ritter gets the endorsement because he knows western water and western energy. Then the GJ Sentinal gives Beauprez an atomic body slam on the same issues. If I were Beauprez I would go back to being a Denver banker. No one forces you to wear Tony Lamas in your corner office at the bank.
BWB could finally put his college degree to work…
You know, Mike Shanahan was a physical education major too. To Shanahan’s credit, he applied his major to his current job. I’ve got the Broncos set up as my fantasy football defense – so I appreciate a mind that uses the physical education training to help out the team.
What exactly does Beauprez’s physical education training help us with? How to run away from embarassing statements even faster… 70% faster?
I do root for ANY team that plays the Broncos.
I love it at work when the Donkeys lose. Nice and peaceful quiet. HE HE
is a fake. No red blooded Colorado Republican would EVER admit to dissing the donkeys.
taste of Monday’s game out of his mouth
Look for the Rocky Mountain News to endorse Ritter soon.
then the Post, the Gazette, the Coloradoan, the Tribune, and on and on the list will go.
P.S. way to go Alan Philip and the Trailhead Group for pissing off every news group in the state. That’s the way to win over the minds of the readers!
Check out the Longmont Times-Call today.
It appears as though Suthers couldn’t critize his fellow, former district attorney Bill Ritter. With Suther’s race all but decided, maybe he hasn’t focused using the Republican smear messaging that has been used by BB and Trailhead. With the Western Slope endorsements today and now signs of momentum, its seems like BB is thinking seriously about Gigi’s new backdoor, get-out-of-the-race rules.
http://www.longmontf…
rather, ‘no signs of momentum’
would bail? I just don’t see it – unless his “ulcer” were back in the picture.
The endorsement is back online.
http://www.gjsentine…
Time to take down the “sort of” statement.
The National Journal HOTLINE pretty much called the governor’s race today: Say Governor Ritter.
With them losing optimism now as well, we’ll see RNC and RGA walking away by Monday.
http://ads.nationalj…
… the first politician of any party who’s gutsy enough to say: “You know what? I don’t LIKE cowboy boots. I’m not a cowboy. I don’t know how to ride a horse. Cowboy boots have a big frickin’ heel that’s good for nothing except latching onto a stirrup. They’ve got a sharp pointy toe that’s good for nothing except poking some poor animal in the ribs.
“And you know what, you lawyers out there? Your wingtips stink as well. All those millions of little holes do is collect dirt and leftover shoe polish.
(And if the candidate’s a woman – or rather out-there guy…) “And don’t get me started on those ridiculous stiletto heels. All they do is get caught in street grates and pavement cracks.
“I prefer Hush Puppies! With nice, soft soles.
“And I’m not afraid to say it. America needs to hear the truth.”
Especially with jeans. Having sold shoes, and copiers for that matter, I can say that I like to wear eccos when I am on my feet all day. They are very comfortable. But for going out I prefer Gordon Rush.
This message approved by Mr. Toodles,