President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
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20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
52%↑
48%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
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CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
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CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
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State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
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State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
April 04, 2008 08:24 PM UTC
22 Comments
That “Thanks Bob” commercial is now pretty ironic
great minds think alike
Scene: middle agged men in suits playing in a playground.
“Bob Shafer gave me your tax dollars for a substandard product: Thanks Bob”
“Bob Shafer overruled the denial of my contract for performace failure. Thanks Bob”
“Colorado holds students and teachers accountable, but not compnaies taking taxpayer money. Thanks Bob”
“Hey Bob another checks in the mail: I khow that’s the thanks you really want.”
A new commercial based on that should be cut post haste
Is Schaffer was pushing charter schools and this is what he was getting. Screwing school kids doesn’t sell well.
Even if Brennan is crooked, there was never any direction connection between him and Schaffer. Sure, Brennan gave to Schaffer’s campaign, but how many sleazebags have given to any number of candidates, Republican or Democrat, over the years?
This whole story was just guilt by association, trumped up by ProgressNowAction for a cheap political shot.
I don’t agree with Schaffer at all on the issues, and I’m not a Republican, and I don’t like charter schools, but this whole story-about-Schaffer’s-connections just stinks of lowball politics.
Sure no connection… except for all that moeny and suport he gave him. Thanks for clearing that up John!
The problem here is Schaffer didn’t ignorantly fall into this situation. Along with Big Oil man Alex Cranberg he’s the biggest proponnet of Charter Schools in Colorado who has strong ties to White Hat and Brennan.
It’s not guilt by association. It’s guilt by coordination.
Even if Brennan is crooked, there was never any direction connection between him and Schaffer. Sure, Brennan gave to Schaffer’s campaign, but how many sleazebags have given to any number of candidates, Republican or Democrat, over the years?
This whole story was just guilt by association, trumped up by ProgressNowAction for a cheap political shot.
I don’t agree with Schaffer at all on the issues, and I’m not a Republican, and I don’t like charter schools, but this whole story-about-Schaffer’s-connections just stinks of lowball politics.
Of these other pols who have taken money from crooks (and they certainly do exist on both sides of the aisle) how many of the pols cast a deciding vote that directly benefited the business of the donor?
It’s not as if Schaffer just took a contribution from a shady interest and that’s all there is to the story. He took a series of contributions from a shady interest and cast votes on the SBE to benefit said shady interest.
I agree that Schaffer should return the money, as is standard practice in politics when some controversy comes up. But Brennan donated to his campaign AFTER THE VOTE. Besides, Schaffer’s a longtime proponent of charter schools, and would have probably cast the same vote anyway.
Again, there’s no real connection here, just some bad PR and mismanaging on the part of Schaffer’s campaign.
Brennan also donated to Schaffer’s 2004 Senate campaign.
Brennan and Schaffer are apparently old friends as Brennan $2,000 to his SBE race in 2004.
Then we have the curious vote/$2300 donation in May and June of 2007 and another $6900 since. The issue of what came first – donation or vote – doesn’t matter at all. There is an appearance of impropriety, an appearance of a quid-pro-quo.
Someone on the SBE who has a history with a shady for-profit charter school outfit should disclose that past relationship before casting such a crucial vote.
We’re left with a situation where Schaffer was either engaging in improper conduct or was too clueless to realize how his conduct would appear.
Brennan gave to Schaffer’s 2004 Senate primary.
http://www.rockymountainnews.c…
A quick perusal of the secretary of state’s site also turns up donations to other paragons of Republican virtue including Bruce Benson, Bob Beauprez, and John Andrews.
The story will be how charter schools are another way for Republicans to pull money out for their cronys at the expense of children. That angle will really hurt.
Either he supports schools that may just be slush funds…
…Or he takes money from someone who promotes schools that may just be slush funds.
Either way, he looks bad.
Can you say “quid pro quo?”
But my latin was never very good.
I can, however, say “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”
For full disclosure, I am on the board of the “shaky” charter school referenced in this post.
The school serves students 16-21 who have dropped out of school for 60 days or more. 52 percent of the students are Latino, and 30 percent are African American. They come to us reading at the fifth grade level, 30 percent of the young men are on probation, and many of the young women have babies.
It is the ONLY school specifically serving this population in Denver. Despite the challenges they face, our students love the school and are determined to graduate and move on to better lives. In the past four years, more than 150 students have graduated.
Progress Now, or whatever the group is, fabricated the story that Schaffer was the key vote when the Colorado Board of Education remanded the decision to close the school back to DPS.
Despite our determined efforts, we believed the vote would go against us until Pamala Suckla (D) took a strong position in our support. I turned to two young Hispanic girls sitting next to me and said, “I think we may win this,” at which point they broke into tears. It was Suckla who provided those girls and our current group of 130 students the opportunity to fulfill their dreams.
DPS gave us another year and last month the school was renewed on a 6-1 vote by the Denver Public School Board.
In one of our board meetings we spoke briefly about trying to correct the public record but decided against it since it would seem like we were playing politics.
It is the board that controls the school and hires the management company that is run by David Brennan. The management company did exactly nothing during our efforts to appeal the closing of the school.
For those who would try to use our students — struggling young people — to beat Bob Schaffer — shame on you.
In the above post I wrote that Pamela Suckla had cast the deciding vote in keeping Life Skills Center open. My apologies, I meant Evie Hudak (D -Westminster).