President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
80%↑
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(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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(R) Jeff Hurd
(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%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
50%
50%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
March 19, 2009 07:17 PM UTC
55 Comments
Is this the same Sam Cassidy who formerly was a State Senator from southwest Colorado? The seat currently held by Jim Isgar?
And I assume this George Brown is not the former Lt. Guv under Dick Lamm.
I saw this comment on another site and I’m also posting it in Johne’s diary.
was also Lt. Governor for a time under Romer.
He then headed up CACI.
That could also be a reason some people think he is a Republican.
and my response
I’m not sure why you think I’m deceiving anyone. I wasn’t being inadvertent. I said what I said on purpose.
My point is that a moderate guy who’s run a chamber of commerce, and an oil exploration sounds like a republican. But more to the point, this isn’t the kind of guy a liberal district in Denver should have. Maybe SW Colorado, but not Denver.
Here’s part of his resume:
Rutt Bridges, almost-candidate for governor in 2006 and one of the “four horsemen” who funded the Dem takeover of the legislature is an oil and gas man. Some people sugarcoat it as “software”, but his software was for seismic data processing, an application that exists exclusively in the oil business. He sold his business to Landmark Graphics, now a subsidiary of Halliburton. He was president of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, an O&G (and mining) industry professional group.
Any Dems too pure to associate with oil and gas people should give the legislature back to the Republicans 😉
Note that I’m not saying Cassidy is the best candidate, just that oil and gas associations are not unheard of for Colorado Democrats.
I can think of several that gave much more that are never mentioned in the same breath (Chris Findlater comes to mind).
The point is that this is not a statewide race or garfield county–it is a race for an interior urban house district.
I am sure Cassidy is a fine man and a good Democrat, but he is not reflective of his district.
This session we have already seen what some head scratching votes by Democrats against the interests of their constituents, because they are to the right of their district and possibly eying higher office.
I don’t know how much money Rutt gave, but he was certainly prominently mentioned in media reports. He’s definitely a centrist, but a Democratic centrist. Should O&G connections, a priori, exclude someone from consideration?
Come to think of it, unless you’re going to exclude all capitalists from candidacy for Democratic offices, I don’t know why you’re picking on oil. Capitalism and traditional socialism destroy nature, as nature is not “productive”. Wind farm developers want to put windmills on the last unplowed prairie in Kansas. If we paint the towers green, does it make it OK? Do the birds and bats that windmills puree willingly sacrifice themselves for the greater good? And tell me again how destroying habitat with wind and solar farms is nicer than destroying habitat with oil wells and rising sea levels due to global warming?
Unless you’re living in an unelectrified, unwatered compound in Montana and posting via carrier pigeon, I am not sure where this opposition to energy development comes from.
No of Lt Guv Brown–he passed a few years ago.
Does the vacancy appointment require an outright majority or just a plurality?
With this many hats in the ring, the meeting could be a circus.
If it requires a majority, do they continue to do votes until someone wins, or do they take the top two vote getters and hold one more vote to determine the winner.
The officers of the district have worked out a system of run offs that include up to 3 stages if necessary to determine a winner. Once someone gets a majority, the voting will stop.
T.R. Reid would be unbelievable as a State Legislator — literally. When he realizes how much it will cramp his style what with Amendment 41 & 27 restrictions, I’d guess he’ll probably drop out. Given that, Silverstein looks pretty good, I’ve worked with him in JeffCO & find him very sharp, funny and a total policy wonk. He’d be a great Rep.
I think TakeBacktheHouse (Silverstein) would be a great rep. He has networked with a wide variety of folks for years and has worked hard for the progressive movement.
I heard the Jeffco Dems were very unhappy with the work Aaron Silverstein did in 2006 when they hired him.
Who is usually unhappy with everybody.
Sam Cassidy was Lt. Governor under Governor Roy Romer. Western Slope moderate. Hardly a conservative, might be a good ambassador to business and the oil and gas industry. Haven’t made my choice, but let’s have a little thoughtfulness here….
Wow. On the internets!
I know it would fun to have a blogger in the House to validate all of this foolishness, but maybe instead we should think about what would be best for the district, or the state.
That would be thoughtful. Nice job, libgirl, and thanks.
to act like what they claim and that won’t happen because they are far too busy disqualifying anyone that doesn’t pass their purity tests. Which is why I don’t bother to read Square State and haven’t in over a year. Waste of time. If I want to read a bunch of self righteous partisan hacks preach to the choir, I’d rather read the real thing–Daily Kos–than waste time at the DKLite Zone. I just blog at DKos.
I like variety of opinion, something not allowed at S2.
I didn’t realize that expecting Democratic candidates who wish to represent safe Democratic seats to actually hold values consistent with the Democratic Party was some sort of “purity test.”
Your accusation is pure nonsense. Cassidy holds center-right views and he’s entitled to those. However we shouldn’t be placing people with those views into safe Denver seats. It’s not only un-democratic to ignore the composition of the district it’s short-sighted politically, if you’re a Democrat. This is party politics 101 folks.
I’m an Independent and I would like to see someone in this seat that best represents the interests of all Coloradans not just those in Denver.
No offense but tough shit. It’s not a statewide seat. It’s a Denver seat and its a Democratic vacancy committee. They’re picking someone to represent HD3, not run for governor.
but tough shit to you. It may not be a statewide seat but he votes on things that affect me and that affect everyone in this state. It ain’t all about you. Sorry to break it to you, honey.
And frankly, I would like to see Aaron win so again, another sanctimonious fuck preaching to the choir. I wonder when you folks will ever learn how to communicate. I’m guessing never.
It ain’t all about you either.
How do you cope during general elections? All of these county commissioners, state legsilators, mayors and the like running for offices in 64 counties and they don’t all represent you exactly like how you want. Instead they represent their constituents!? The horror!
Why are you so offended by representtive democracy?
Learn to read.
I don’t care who runs for mayor or country commissioner because they represent their city or their county, not mine. Do you actually not realize that House Reps vote on issues every single day that affect the entire state? Surely you can’t be this ignorant, can you?
State legislators represent the state, thus the name state legislators. Got it, genius?
How’s that for a “middle of the road” approach. A legislator is absolutely accountable to their district primarily. Statewide, sure for the good of all. But if it’s the district’s bridges that are falling down, then they’re gonna vote for that Transportation money and not care much if Saguache doesn’t need road repairs. The reason we have State representatives from all over the state is so everyone’s interests end up getting served. It’s the 51 votes that take care of statewide concerns, not a single Rep serving their district.
Well, I’ve read and re-read your posts on this thread and all I can say is you don’t seem to understand representational democracy.
As an ex-resident of HD3 – which includes parts of Arapahoe County – not just a part of Denver, I want someone to represent ME. Not you, you get your own rep.
You insinuate that a rep can’t make decisions for the good of CO. That’s crapola. Now, if there was to be a huge non-polluting job creating government giant doo-hickey and it’s either in Englewood or Grand Junction, I would expect an HD3 rep to vote for the former location. As I would expect yours if it was for your backyard.
But thanks for weighing in Parsing. Always nice to hear your unique perspective.
after reading this whole thread and seeing how posessive some people suddenly are of their state representatives and insistant that no one from outside their district express an opinion , I am reminded of just a couple of weeks ago when we were all chimining in about how terrible Sen. Schultheis and Renfroe were with their ignorant, bigotted statements. Not sure who here lives in their district, but I doubt that all of us who commented do (I don’t as my moniker indicates).
Further, I would hazard a guess that many of us have donated cash to candidates who do not represent us in Denver or Washington DC (I know I have….Jared Polis’ and Betsy Markey’s campaigns benefitted from my wallet…so did Al Franken’s).
It is absurd to imply that political candidates or office holders (for or in legislative offices especially) exist in a vacuum and are beholden only to the voting constituency within their districts.
This is in essence a Democratic party issue and one of the downsides of being an independent (I was one for a few years) is your opinion doesn’t matter in Democratic party issues.
If we were choosing a statewide race or other race where a Democrat would have to appeal to independent and moderate Republicans in order to win, the Democrats would consider that when picking the Democratic candidate.
This is precisely what happened when Democrats pick Ken Salazar over Mike Miles, even though many of the Democrats picking Salazar were more liberal and had politics closer to Miles.
This is a liberal district, with few to no jobs tied to oil & gas, having a progressive as opposed to a center right representative is not an unreasonable thing to ask.
No one is Threatening Joe Rice or Wes McKinley with expulsion, we understand they represent their districts as Democrats in a different way than someone should in the interior urban districts.
I used to be a Democrat. Hell, I was a Senate District Director for the County Party. And some of the rude and sanctimonious shit I am reading in this thread by the party faithful is exactly why I left.
Ironic isn’t it that I don’t have any say about who I would like to see in this seat but these motherfuckers have no problem hitting me up for my time and my dime when their re-election campaigns roll around.
If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. Now, if you like playing in a second comment section of the Denver Post, that’s just fine with me.
Thanks for proving my point.
there isn’t any conversation to generate any heat.
how right you are.
There could be a real progressive blog in Colorado, not accountable to the scraps left behind in the constant ebb and flow of the money for the “permanent progressive infrastructure” but interested in real dialogue and debate.
There is (and certainly was) some talent over there through the years but what is that that crap about trolls and sockpuppets begone?
Besides, what a troll or a sockpuppet is in the mind of johne depends on how full his diaper is.
Cassidy headed up a task force on Telecommunications that produced a lengthy report of recommendations for Telecom policy going into (then) the 21st Century. IIRC it was sometime in the mid 90s
There’s plenty of room for business friendly Democrats who represent swing districts. This isn’t a swing district and it’s not unreasonable to ask the vacancy committee to select a candidate who is actually represenative of the district.
per DPOD.
Or are you in 6? If you live on my side of the park then I’m a little disappointed, but understand.
my life. I’m not fit enough to walk the district for weeks. Fundraising isn’t fun. I need to work at a day job that doesn’t permit a five months vacation that includes tax season (paid or unpaid) to pay the mortgage. There are people running who are competent, so I don’t feel a civic duty to avoid disaster by running.
But, I do live in HD 3. I’m Anne’s precinct committee person (we both live in 302) as well as her professional colleague.
“Undisclaimed ‘concern troll’ sock puppet for McGihon’s unsuccessful Amendment 41 lawsuit.”
Sorry, but it’s true. And after the way she behaved in the leadership scrum last November she will not be widely missed.
Those concerns are entirely mine, and don’t count as trolling in my book. Amendment 41 has problems, and I have plenty of good company in believing that. I’ve argued that since it came on the ballot, and continue to believe it is a bad approach. I’ve made every effort to be evenhanded in writing about it. Even strong supporters of the validity of Amendment 41 as they intend it to read now agree that it is ill drafted.
I’ve blogged about the issue in my own right.
I’ve also disclosed the extent of my connections to Anne, and her connections in turn to the lawsuit, when writing about Amendment 41 more than once and have never used any inside information to write about it.
is that like OPP?
Also, didn’t Watters run for city council recently?
it was kinda funny
He’s not the murder mystery Stephen White is he?
…this seat has a revolving door feel to it.
HD2 and HD3 are right next to each other and have historically seen a lot of vacancy elections. They are partially overlapped by SD31 which enters that same dynamic.
All 3 of the current legislators in these district got there originally by vacancy. I am pretty sure all of their predecessors did too (not so sure about HD3). Anything further back than that I would have to research.
Isn’t this the district represented by the venerable Wayne Knox, who has the distinction of the longest tenure in the state House in Colorado history? He left when term limits took effect but had held the seat since the early ’70s, and also served a term or two in the ’60s. He’s a lobbyist for the Colorado Senior Lobby these days. (Since he repped the district through three rounds of redistricting, he might not have been in HD 3 all four decades, the number might have changed.)
Before term limits, vacancy elections were typically to replace someone who ran and won another office, and occasionally when a legislator died in office. Now they are much more common place.