February 05, 2017 08:38 AM UTC

Teachers Keep Up The Pressure On Cory Gardner

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

As CBS4 reports–the stretch of Skyline Park next to Sen. Cory Gardner’s downtown Denver offices in the Chase Bank building is turning into a semi-permanent protest zone, with another large protest yesterday of teachers and parents calling for the rejection of Donald Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos:

Hundreds of parents, teachers and other community members rallied outside the office of Sen. Cory Gardner.

Protesters were urging Gardner to vote against confirmation of Betsy DeVos, nominee for the U.S. education secretary…

“She felt very out of touch with what my day-to-day reality with students actually is,” said Heather C., a public school teacher in the Denver metro area.

She said that DeVos lacked the experience needed to run the country’s education and higher learning finance systems. For that reason, she was asking Gardner to help rescind DeVos’ nomination.

“And for him to realize that we are not paid protesters,” Heather C. continued. “And that simply because someone disagrees with his point of view does not mean they’re being bribed or that they have some other kind of agenda.” [Pols emphasis]

Gardner’s dismissal of the protesters showing up regularly at his offices as “paid operatives” very clearly appears to have backfired, both in terms of attracting negative press and growing the crowds of demonstrators in Skyline Park. The national attention Gardner received for his arrogance toward these protesters is a major misstep for a normally very disciplined politician, much better known for slickly talking his way around controversy than stepping in it.

And it helps explain why Gardner is becoming the local face for everything bad happening in Washington.