Search Results for: Faye griffin

Faye Griffin is set to breeze through election year. Democrats failed (or were unable) to draft a candidate to run against her, so she’s a lock for re-election. Given that Griffin’s the only sitting commissioner displaying any modicum of common sense, perhaps that’s for the best.

District 2 Commissioner John Odom, however, is left alone to defend his seat from Democratic attorney Casey Tighe. Make no mistake: it’s an uphill battle for Tighe. Odom’s incumbency will lengthen his fundraising lists, and as a Democrat, Tighe’s already starting out behind in a county which favors the GOP for countywide offices. It doesn’t help that Odom, unlike his predecessors, is more or less untouched by scandal. At least, scandal that we know of.

Still, Odom’s never won an election before. He was appointed to his current position in the wake of Kevin McCasky’s now-controversial resignation last year. His only electoral qualification, in fact, is his failed bid against Cheri Jahn in 2010.

We want to know: who do you think will be the next Jefferson County commissioner from District 2, John Odom or Casey Tighe? Remember, vote for the candidate you think will win, not the candidate you’d like to win.    

In another strange episode in the bizarre saga of Jeffco’s so-called “Bridge to Nowhere,” it seems like the Tea Party is seizing the bridge as a prime example of wasteful government spending.

From 9News:

JEFFERSON COUNTY – Critics have found a use for Jefferson County’s so-called “Pedestrian Bridge to Nowhere.”

Protesters used it as a stage near Southwest Plaza Mall on Friday.

They posted letters that spelled out: “$3 million bridge to nowhere – for crying out loud – vote conservative.”

9Wants to know recently exposed that while Jeffco officials backed the bridge project publicly, the point-man on the project admitted behind the scenes it was expensive and unnecessary.

County leaders aren’t even trying to defend the $3 million-bridge as a good use of taxpayer money.

Some of those taxpayers, who identified themselves as part of the Tea Party, were part of the protest Friday.

The bridge was an incredibly wasteful – and potentially corrupt – use of taxpayer money; nobody is taking issue with that. What the Tea Party protestors don’t seem to understand, as they use the bridge to convince commuters to “vote conservative,” is that the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners was under conservative Republican control when the bridge was voted on. Kevin McCasky voted for it, and he’s no liberal. Faye Griffin voted for it, and she’s as conservative as they come.

This wasn’t a project that Democrats pushed forward; Dems haven’t had control of the Board for decades, so there is no possible way any reasonable person could think to frame this as a Democratic mistake. Don’t tell that to the Tea Party, though: in the minds of those protesting on the bridge, it must’ve been the result of liberal waste in government.

If anything, this just demonstrates something that everybody knew about the Tea Party all along: the movement prefers talking points over facts. The organizers didn’t think to check who voted on the bridge before they had a protest? Of course not. That would be sensible.

While we’re at it, what about 9News? A story like this, which they have covered at length, needs some context included. At the very least, 9News should have pointed out the logical problems with this protest.

A few readers have e-mailed us this image of the yard sign for Jeffco School Board Candidates Preston Branaugh and Jim Powers.

We’ve been keeping a running catalogue of the best and worst yard signs over at Colorado Pols, but we think the sign for the GOP’s dynamic duo in the school board race warrants special comment.

We wouldn’t say it’s a bad sign. It doesn’t look great, but it tells you who’s running and for what. Jeffco School Board is noted big enough there at the bottom, and there isn’t a ton of wasted space. Both names are on the sign as much as you can fit “Preston Branaugh” anywhere, and while we think they could’ve made this sign look a lot better by not including first names, it kind of works for the whole XY chromosomes thing going on here.

That brings us to the “Vote for the Dads” part of the sign. Those who have e-mailed us have mentioned that they thought it both sexist and a clear indicator that both candidates are backed by the same group of people. We’re not sure if that matters. The GOP has made it no secret that they’re running Branaugh and Powers as a slate of sorts. They have no reason to hide that fact; the whole strategy behind pushing these candidates as Republicans is the hope that Republicans across JeffCo will realize that, even though it’s a “nonpartisan” race, there are still two good ol’ boys you can vote for.

The slogan-of-sorts at the top there actually strikes us as kind of clever. It’s hard to communicate to voters that they can vote for two separate candidates in this race. Sue Windels, in her 2008 run for commissioner, was always fond of saying “you can vote for one boy and one girl” during her campaign against Faye Griffin and Jason Bane’s campaign against Kevin McCasky. Saying “Vote for the Dads” is a quick and easy way to remind people who only glimpse at the sign to vote for both male names on the ballot. If we were Branaugh or Powers, we’d be using that talking point in every speech and in every elevator, so to speak. It’s pithy. It’s memorable.  

Still, we think it’s disingenuous for Jim Powers to be calling himself a “dad” in the context of Jefferson County Schools. Sure, he’s a dad by way of his skills as a progenitor, but his kids aren’t even in Jefferson County Public Schools. Powers has “made the personal decision to home school his children,” according to campaign literature, so he’s certainly not a dad in the PTA sense.

Contrary to the image “PTA meeting” conjures, there are quite a few dads who are heavily involved with their schools and the education of their children in Jefferson County. Jim Powers isn’t one of them; he’s running to make education decisions that wouldn’t even affect his own children. We get that being a “dad” may earn Powers some votes, but the only PTA meeting that he’s ever had to attend and the only bake sale he’s had to supervise have been in the comfort of his own home.

We don’t have anything against homeschooling: that’s a personal decision incumbent upon a child’s parents. We do, however, take issue with Powers calling himself a “dad” in the public education sense. That’s a title you can only earn after getting leg cramps from trying to fit in those tiny desks at parent night. He’s a father of children, but he’s not a father of children in Jefferson County Public Schools.