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July 30, 2008 08:09 PM UTC

The Political Death of Josh Penry and Cory Gardner

  • 32 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

We wrote earlier this week about Republican Sen. Josh Penry’s bizarre comments about his plan to divert state money to speed up a section of I-70 in his district. Penry’s quote basically amounted to saying that he thinks voters would prefer to see an improved I-70 than to preserve their water resources.

The plan devised by Penry and fellow “wunderkind” Cory Gardner is basically an “earmark,” which is something that is normally reserved for members of congress and less often seen by state legislators. Whether it passes or fails – and it’s almost certainly going to fail – Penry and Gardner just irrevocably damaged their future political careers. For a quick primer, see how The Denver Post rips into their idea today:

Coloradans deserve reasonable solutions to our state’s transportation problems.

Instead, we’re left with either nothing, which has been the governor’s plan the past two years, or schemes, including this latest Republican plan that actually drains funds from Colorado water projects into a single pork-barrel project on Interstate 70. [Pols emphasis]

Yes, politicians who long promoted urban sprawl with the slogan “Drive until you qualify” (for a home loan) are now telling our embattled motorists to “Drive until you die of thirst.”

Unfortunately, the initiative’s sponsors, Republican state Reps. Cory Gardner of Yuma and Frank McNulty of Highlands Ranch, as well as the usually sensible Sen. Josh Penry of Grand Junction, already have turned in their petitions to the Colorado secretary of state. That office has not yet certified whether they met the necessary legal requirements.

We hope they fall short. But if Initiative 120 does make the ballot, we urge Coloradans to crush this return to the 19th century pork-barrel politics that once disgraced the Colorado legislature’s handling of state highway funds. [Pols emphasis]

In the bad old days, the legislature appropriated state highway funds with the same gay abandon Congress still does with federal highway funds – building bridges and roads to nowhere in home districts of powerful politicians while more pressing needs elsewhere were neglected.

Voters rebelled against that corrupt system and in 1952 created a state Highway Commission to fairly allocate road and bridge funds. The system has worked so well that, with minor changes, it is still operating today on a broader stage as the state Transportation Commission.

Now, Initiative 120’s backers want to bypass our constitution by earmarking new severance tax revenues to a single highway project in their districts. This is a doubly dumb idea. First, as earlier noted, it would actually rob money now earmarked for water needs to highway projects. Second, and worst of all, it would open up the highway fund to similar pork-barrel raids in the future.

This is a monumentally stupid idea, and Penry has only made it worse by making monumentally stupid quotes to follow it up. Penry and Gardner have long been touted as the GOP’s next great leaders, and both have been biding their time waiting for a bigger seat to open up. Penry’s rise has been delayed in part by John Salazar’s entrenched position in CD-3, while Gardner has faced the same problem with Marilyn Musgrave in CD-4. But neither may have much of a future after this debacle.

It wasn’t long ago that the disastrous Referendum A, otherwise known as the “steal the Western Slope’s water” plan, permanently damaged Republican bigwigs who unwisely supported it. But this idiotic creation from Penry and Gardner not only potentially harms water supplies, it opens them up to forever being labeled “pork barrel” legislators.

Neither Penry not Gardner can claim to be fiscal conservatives after this — not when they are willing to mortgage the future in a poor economic environment just to make some road improvements that only directly affect a small population. But perhaps most harmful is the “pork barrel” label that both will now be eternally stuck with. Colorado has a lean budget, and both of these boneheads thought it would be a good idea to start making earmarks??? And for what? To say that they made I-70 run a little faster?

Perhaps Penry and Gardner have been “rising stars” for so long that, to quote George Costanza, “they flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami.” They may both look back on this fall as the year that they lost any future chance at higher office.

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32 thoughts on “The Political Death of Josh Penry and Cory Gardner”

  2. but they certainly damaged their credibility.  If they continue, they will do permanent harm to their political futures. Again, this proposal epitomizes the intellectual and policy problems for the Republican Party.  The Republicans refuse to acknowledge and deal effectively with the real and pressing needs in policy areas like transportation because to do so would require an acknowledgement that additional tax revenues are needed to solve the problems; and the absolute Republican Party position is that no new taxes ever, no matter what the needs or the consequences of ignoring the issues.  Because of that stance, they have only two fall back positions. One is to advance these kind of proposals that in the end short change everyone and end up being nothing more than a ruse to try and fool the voters into believing they are addressing the issues.  The second one is to try and divert voters away from the pressing issues of society by focusing them on “god, guns, gays and abortion.”  Neither has worked for the Republican Party. The Republican Party was devasted in the 2004 and 2006 elections and at least figuratively in the Ref. “C” election in 2005 and yet they continue down the same path.      

      1. with John Elway and asked him to run for governor in 2010 but he turned him down and in the last few weeks he has made contact with U.S. Senator Wayne Allard and asked him to run.  Don’t know his response.  This indicates two things.  First, the Republican bench is empty and second because of that Mr. Wadhams has to look at either Republicans who presently hold statewide office or someone who already has statewide name ID, like John Elway.  

        1. He’d be behind in the polls in the first three quarters of 2010, but he’d come from behind to beat Bill Ritter in the last week of the campaign. Then as soon as he got into office, he’d get sacked by the media, and people would start calling for Gary Kubiak to be Governor.

        2. would Allard want to be governor? Harder to be a potted plant in the governor’s chair. It’s truly surprising Wadhams would even think that’s a possibility.

          The only other serious possibilities are current and former presidents of CU (Brown and Benson), but they’re both in their 70s and don’t want the headache.

          There’s gotta be an up-and-comer on some city council, or, failing that, a planning commission somewhere. Keep looking, Dick! Keep looking!

  4. by Josh to try and attack Ritter’s Smarter Colorado campaign (ending the oil and gas tax subsidy) so he can set himself up for a 2010 run at Governor.  Cory wants to create statewide name recognition so he can fill his war chest in 2010 and neither thought long and hard about the true implication of dealing with anything water releated.  Add in the fact that besides stealing money from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, their proposal take energy assistance money from low-income families, all this is an idea that kills careers (ask Walcher about how Ref. A did him in).

    A couple of suprising things about this is that Penry is usually fairly politically astute.  However, in this case the state GOP and oil and gas industry comletely bamboozled him and may have effectively ruined his career for higher office anytime in the near future.  The other suprising or at least disappoiting thing is the fact that the GJ Sentinel has handled this whole fiasco with kid gloves and essentially given Penry a pass.  I wish Orbanek was still at the helm and there was at least some semblance of balance and objectivity at the Western Slope’s largest newspaper.

    1. Would Silbernagel even have a job if he couldn’t editorialize about God, Guns and Gays?  Lord forbid that he would write about subjects the people of Colorado really care about.  The editorial page is by far the Daily Sentinel’s weakest link.  And as the newspaper informed us today, their plans for a shiny new building have been thrown on the scrap heap.  Economic reasons, they tell us.  Maybe if they got an editorial page editor with some semblance of intelligence and balance, they might get their circulation up and be able to afford that dream building.

      1. I don’t doubt your analysis of the Daily Sentinel’s editorial page, but that’s a novel approach to falling newspaper profits. Hardly anyone reads the Op-Ed pages, good or bad, and they have zero effect on circulation (beyond the slight negative effect of a handful of cancelled subscriptions every year — regardless of the paper’s outlook, they’ll always piss someone off).

  5. How is an I-70 revamp pork barreling exactly?  According to the editorial, anyone representing a district in the vicinity of denver, the eastern plains or the west slope is bringing home the pork.  Ummmm, that’s pretty much 70% of Colorado.  I-70 is the center of tourism, commerce and transport in the state.  When Romer pitched his silly idea on I-70 EVERYONE had a say in it, which shows EVERYONE is affected by I-70 issues.  Hardly a district specific project worthy of pork status.

    Second, this is over $100 million and some change.  Ritter’s commission said we need $30 billion.  This issue is irrelevant in reality.

    Third, I guarantee this will lose in the same margin of error as Ritter’s oil and gas proposal.  Is that his political death as well?

    1. I sincerely doubt that Penry’s idea actually ends up seeing the light of day and I will actually be suprised if the Smarter Colorado Initative loses.  Somehow most voters actually support bringing in more money to locally impacted communities, providing for affordable education opportunities, creating new energy solutions and protecting wildlife habitat.  If that means getting rid of a huge tax break that the most profitable and rapacious industry on earth has enjoyed for the past 30 years, so be it.

      That said, we all know the hydrocarbon mafia is going to spill even more money into fighting this (at least $3.6 million to date).  

  6. I didn’t think Penry was a dumb guy, but wow.  What a nincompoop!  Did he not pay attention during the last three election cycles, where any Western Slope politician who even thought about supporting Ref. A got their ass handed to them?

    Josh, take a look at history, bud.  To answer your (stupid) rhetorical question about Dept. of Natural Resources vs. I-70 – yes, people in this state really will choose water!  Duh!  I thought that everyone from the West Slope already knew that, and only Denver-centric morons ignored it – at their own peril.

    Penry, scream “I’m not dead yet!” all you want, but you’re not fooling anyone.

    1. Penry can’t hear you with all of those oil executives and lobbyist around him kissing his a$$… and Gardner is to busy trying to undermine Musgrave to pay attention to anything else.  

  7. Better Roads Now

    No Tolls – No New Taxes

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 31, 2008

    CLUB 20 AND THE COLORADO RETAIL COUNCIL

    ENDORSE TRANSPORTATION INITIATIVE

    Denver – The Colorado Retail Council and the Western Slope’s pre-eminent policy organization, Club 20, are weighing in to support Amendment 52, a proposal for this November’s ballot that would invest state energy dollars in congestion relief, giving priority to the massive needs along the I-70 corridor without tolls and without raising taxes.  

    The announcement is the first of a slate of endorsements from leading Colorado organizations that the Better Roads Now Committee will be releasing in the coming weeks.

    “Groups from across the state are endorsing Amendment 52, and support from a powerhouse like Club 20 shows that people are excited about it,” said state Representative Cory Gardner, R-Yuma.  “With high gas prices and the economic downturn hurting many Coloradans, we must do all we can to maximize existing revenues to make a down-payment on our transportation funding crisis.”

    Amendment 52 is an innovative plan to reprioritize oil and gas revenues to tackle Colorado’s critical road and bridge challenges without tolls or new taxes.  The initiative would maintain severance tax funding for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) at the 2007-08 level and allow the DNR budget to grow with inflation, while allocating oil and gas revenue above that level to fund improvements of I-70.  DNR funding from severance tax revenue has grown phenomenally in recent years, jumping from just over $16 million in 2003 to more than $85 million in the current fiscal year.

    “Amendment 52 provides a meaningful solution to our critical transportation infrastructure needs without putting an unfair burden on the backs of local communities,” said Reeves Brown, Executive Director of Club 20, a coalition of Western Colorado counties, businesses, communities, and individuals, acting as “the Voice of the Western Slope.”

    “Moving goods, services and people safely and efficiently across Colorado is critical to our ability to build economic growth and to provide good jobs for Colorado families,” said state Representative Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch.  “The Colorado Retail Council knows first-hand how important I-70 is and I’m glad they’re on board to start fixing the problem.”  

    The Colorado Retail Council is a non-profit organization founded in 1966 that is dedicated to promoting and supporting state policies that encourage economic growth and profitable retail growth.

    The Amendment gives priority to easing congestion on I-70, an arterial roadway vital to the state’s economy.  The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce estimates that I-70 congestion costs Colorado’s economy more than $800 million each year, according to a 2007 report.  Further, as a major highway spanning the entire state, I-70 affects all state transportation funding.  Amendment 52 does not dictate the solution for I-70, but rather would provide funding for the plan developed by the Colorado Department of Transportation and local communities.

    In January 2008, Governor Bill Ritter said of funding transportation, “We have an imperative to take action now.  It is incumbent upon every Coloradan to recognize the importance of reaching consensus and working together to create a 21st century transportation system.”

    “Bill Ritter is right.  We need to get to work now fixing Interstate 70,” said state Senator Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction.  “Enough debate, enough chatter, enough political symposia — let’s pass Amendment 52 and make a down payment on fixing the Interstate 70 quagmire.”

    30

    Paid for by Better Roads Now Issue Committee – P.O. Box 40262 – Denver, CO 80204

    http://www.betterroadsnow.com

     

    1. This proposal is being touted as one that will solve the transportation problems along I-70, apparently from the Kansas border to the Utah border.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  This initiative would divert $106 million dollars of severance tax monies away from water projects over a four year period to the I-70 corridor.

      Now lets look at reality. The new interchange proposed for the intersection of I-25 and the U.S. 34 east of Loveland, Colorado will cost $100 million alone.  Every mile of interstate highway built or reconstructed costs $10 million per mile. Therefore, this proposal could rebuild ten miles of the 400+ miles of I-70 that cross Colorado.  Which ones? In addition, the raised portion of I-70 that runs east from the intersection of I-25 and I-70 needs to be completely rebuilt and the cost will be in excess of $600 million.

      This is a simple ruse to try and convince the people that the very real needs of our our transportation system are being addressed and, of course, while still falling in line with the Republican mantra that it can all be done without raising additional revenues (taxes).  This entire proposal is nothing but a mirage.  As the examples above make clear, it does not address the transportation needs of Colorado.  Not even close.        

    2. Gee, I guess when you are entirely funded by out of state hydrocarbon companies it is easy to throw their money away.  How much did you get, Pols?  Don’t anybody tell this Republican facade group that they can post here for free.

      Who is it that is actually paying for this ruse?  According to SOS site, they are:

      1.  PLAINS EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION COMPANY, Houston,TX   $100,000.00

      2.  BERRY PETROLEUM COMPANY  BAKERSFIELD, CA                       $100,000.00  

      3.  OCCIDENTAL OIL AND GAS CORPORATION  LOS ANGELES, CA     $100,000.00

      Not a single donor from Colorado reported.  Evidently Josh Penry, Cory Gardner and Frank McNutty do not want to spend any Colorado Republican money on this feint.  I wonder why?  

      They have already laid out $162,427.58 for Professional Petition Circulators to get the signatures these out-of-state interests want.  If Josh “junior Tony Soprano” Penry thinks he can sell out Colorado water interests to his out-of-state puppet masters, he has another think coming.

      1. In other words Senator Penry and Rep. Gardner are sponsoring this so the oil and gas companies can have road improvements so they can make more money.

        1. These companies who rake in huge profits from Colorado’s natural resources do not want to see Governor Ritter’s proposal to make them pay their fair share passed.  I don’t think they give a shit about Colorado roads.  They will tear them up with their heavy traffic at the expense of Colorado taxpayers.  And Penry’s attempt to sell out our water interests to these out of state companies in an effort to make sure they do not have to pay their fair share just shows who it is that Penry represents.  It is certainly not the people of Colorado.

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