(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(D) Julie Gonzales
(R) Janak Joshi
80%
40%
20%
(D) Jena Griswold
(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Hetal Doshi
50%
40%↓
30%
(D) Jeff Bridges
(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
50%↑
40%↓
30%
(D) Diana DeGette*
(D) Wanda James
(D) Milat Kiros
80%
20%
10%↓
(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Alex Kelloff
(R) H. Scheppelman
60%↓
40%↓
30%↑
(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) E. Laubacher
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
30%↑
20%
(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Jessica Killin
55%↓
45%↑
(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Shannon Bird
(D) Manny Rutinel
45%↓
30%
30%
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
Reporter Graig Graziosi writes for the UK Independent about one very upset freshman firebreathing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, freely throwing the threats around against telecommunications companies who might be considering cooperation with the Select Committee investigating the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th by retaining phone records of a number of […]
Last week, the Cook Political Report changed its ratings for Colorado’s U.S. Senate race, moving their prediction to the left from “Toss Up” to “Lean Democratic.” Today, another national handicapper made an even bigger change: Sabato’s Crystal Ball has adjusted its ratings for Colorado from “Leans Democratic” to “Likely Democratic.” As Kyle Kondik and J. […]
Two years ago this week, Colorado progressives watched in horror as a minority of American voters elected Donald Trump to be our next President. Colorado never supported Donald Trump. Trump didn’t win the Republican caucus, and he didn’t win the general election in our state, either. In 2016, Colorado progressives grew the state house majority, […]
The Associated Press today issued new guidelines for how it covers polling data in political races. As Politico explains: The updated guidelines appear in a new chapter in the AP Stylebook — which forms the backbone of the standards used not just by the AP, but by the majority of news organizations around the country… …That […]
(Promoted by Colorado Pols) On a new page on his official web site, announcing a series of “telephone town halls,” U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) writes, “To join our conversations, complete the form below and we will call you before each event starts.” But if Gardner selects specific people, he may be breaking U.S. Senate […]
(Promoted by Colorado Pols) Asked by a conservative radio host this morning to “characterize his current relationship with President Trump and his team” and whether Gardner was a “persona non grata,” U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) said: Gardner: “Oh, I’ve had a number of great conversations with the President. The opportunities to work together are […]
(Promoted by Colorado Pols) U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman announced yesterday that he plans to hold “series of meetings,” beginning Feb. 20-24 and continuing in March. about the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. Absent from his plans is a town hall meeting in a “very large venue” that can “handle 300 people.” He promised to hold such a town-hall-style […]
(Promoted by Colorado Pols) Tipton’s staff somehow included my number in a telephone town hall on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. They didn’t allow me to ask any live questions*, so their lapse in constituent screening has only resulted in this diary. Only supportive conservative callers were allowed to ask softball, pandering questions. This was interesting, […]
The citizen's group Jeffco 5 has been lobbying the Jefferson County Commissioners to consider a proposal to add two new county commissioner seats. As we wrote in August: The argument for 5 commissioners is difficult to refute. Jefferson County has about the same number of residents as the entire state of Wyoming, and Wyoming has […]
[POLS NOTE: And how do we know that President Obama’s Chicago library card is real? Huh? Good Gravy, this is stupid.] You'd think KHOW's Peter Boyles, who's probably the leading birther talk-show host in America, would at least stop and say 'thank you' when a State Senator tips his hat to Boyles' relentless efforts to expose […]
Jefferson County Commissioner Don Rosier will be joining forces with former Lakewood City Councilman (and almost County Commissioner) Ed Peterson next week as they together host a telephone town hall about C-470.
From the C-470 Corridor Coalition’s Policy Committee (isn’t that a mouthful?):
C-470 Corridor Coalition Seeks Public Input
Will Use Innovative Telephone Town Hall Technology to Reach 200,000 ResidentsPhones along C-470 will be ringing July 31, August 1 and August 2 as the C-470 Corridor Coalition hosts a series of telephone town hall meetings to provide information on efforts to expand and improve the highway and to get input on how to pay for these upgrades.
“We want to encourage public participation in the planning process so we’re trying to make it as easy as possible for C-470 users to offer their input on how to pay for these much-needed upgrades,” said Jack Hilbert, chair of the C-470 Corridor Coalition’s Policy Committee.
Over the course of three days, 200,000 random calls will be placed to those living near the C-470 corridor. Although each telephone town hall will include representatives from specific jurisdictions, those living outside the specific jurisdictions may also participate. Those that do not receive a call may still participate by calling 877-229-8493 and entering PIN number 110302.
Following is the schedule for the hour-long telephone town halls as well as the panelists:
Tuesday, July 31
6:15 p.m. – Jefferson County Commissioner Donald Rosier and Colorado Department of Transportation Commissioner Ed Peterson
First off, it’s 2012. While telephone town halls may indeed be novel, they’re certainly not innovative. And the only reason they’re novel is because they’re ineffective.
Just to make sure it’s clear, Rosier and Peterson will be on the other end of the line when a few thousand Jeffco-area residents pick up a phone call from a number they’ve never seen before. And then some sort of conversation about highway improvements is supposed to happen, or something?
How many of these “random calls” does the Policy Committee expect to be answered? The recipients certainly didn’t commit in advance to talking about C-470 — they were randomly selected, after all. Chances are that many who receive a call won’t be home, and those that are certainly won’t pick up when they see an 877 number on their caller ID. Not to mention that 6:15 to 7:15 PM is a pretty prime hour for both commuting and spending time with family. Few people, we presume, want to interrupt their evening to talk about highways.
Many of those who do pick up probably won’t be much help, either. A select few will have gripes about the road that they’ll all be all too happy to air — admittedly, this is probably designed for those select few — but we suspect most won’t have any idea what the town hall is about: “Don Rosier? No, you’ve got the wrong number; he doesn’t live here.”
There are undoubtedly better ways to interact with those who live near the C-470 corridor than an unscheduled and barely announced telephone town hall. Why not, you know, an actual town hall? The reason in-person meetings are a cornerstone of local government (and democracy) is because those who have something to say will be the ones in attendance.
Perhaps Rosier and Peterson are looking from candid commentary from the type of people who have opinions on C-470 but would never attend a town hall. Unfortunately, the duo isn’t likely to get much when their first attempt walks a fine line between outreach and telemarketing.
If the C-470 Corridor Coalition’s Policy Committee really insists on doing this kind of survey over the phone, why not limit it to a touch-tone IVR call that lets users record a message? People are used to those, especially in an election year, and it’s a lot easier to hit a button on a phone’s keypad than it is to engage in a live conversation with dozens of other residents.
The Denver Post buried a key paragraph in its front-page story today showing that Michael Hancock apparently did not use his cell phone to call a prostitution ring. The Post reported toward the end of the story that Hancock’s cell phone was actually being used during five of the nine possible times Hancock was allegedly […]
NEWSWEEK Poll: Obama Approval Rating Jumps, Democrats Close ‘Enthusiasm Gap’ http://www.newsweek.com/2010/1… http://nw-assets.s3.amazonaws…. Despite doom-saying about Democrats’ chances in the midterms, the latest NEWSWEEK Poll (full results) shows that they remain in a close race with Republicans 12 days before Election Day, while the president’s approval ratings have climbed sharply. The poll finds that 48 percent […]
SATURDAY PM UPDATE: Well, that’s the bottom, folks. The Colorado Independent’s Joseph Boven reports that Ken Buck has given the whole idea of World War II, 9/11 and nuclear annihilation some thought and changed his mind: Obama’s worse. Speaking after Tancredo at the Conservative Western Summit on Saturday, where Tancredo reiterated statements made at a […]
( – promoted by Middle of the Road) Romanoff may not need to worry about ‘how long he can keep the lights on’ according to a new poll for the Colorado Senate Race: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/… Rasmussen released the results of a new Colorado Senate poll Friday, and the news is particularly bad for incumbent Democrat Michael […]
There are many questions facing us as we transition towards the next administration. Most pressing is the economy. How will Obama tackle this issue? And, additionally, how much will he be able to accomplish in his first term. This also depends on how close we are to the magical number of 60 in the Senate. […]
Not only is she a huge drag on the Republican ticket, but her approval rating numbers in Alaska have plummeted over thirty points! Gov. Sarah Palin electrified the conservative base of the Republican party when she was first picked as Sen. John McCain’s vice-presidential running mate, but polls say she has become a polarizing figure […]
By LT. SEAN WALSH The passing of the 4,000th service member in Iraq is a tragic milestone and a testament to the cost of this war, but for those of us who live and fight in Iraq, we measure that cost in smaller, but much more personal numbers. For me those numbers are 8, the […]
From The Pueblo Chieftain: Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., released polling results Tuesday showing that he has close to a 2-to-1 advantage with voters over Republican challenger Scott Tipton in the 3rd Congressional District race. Salazar campaign officials said a telephone survey of 575 district voters during the second week of July showed that 56 percent […]
In May of this year Colorado PERA retirees will elect a new trustee to represent their interests on the Colorado PERA Board of Trustees. This election provides an opportunity for PERA retirees to place a member on the board who will remind the board that Colorado PERA pension benefits are contractual obligations of PERA-affiliated employers. (PERA’s legal staff has neglected this important duty.) Colorado PERA Board members must realize that the protections of the U.S. Constitution also extend to citizens living in small western states.
I believe that the Colorado PERA Board of Trustees and the Colorado PERA administration would benefit from the presence of PERA Board members who regularly call attention to the contractual nature of public pension benefits in Colorado. Such trustees should encourage PERA’s administrators and lobbyists to routinely and emphatically communicate this contractual status of public pension benefits to members of the Colorado General Assembly. Rather than serving as a discussion forum for potential means of breaching PERA pension contracts, the Colorado PERA Board should work to protect the contractual rights of Colorado PERA members.
Such trustees should have the backbone to withstand attempts by self-interested parties to enact PERA pension reforms that are unconstitutional on their face. Such trustees should insist that PERA-affiliated employers meet their annual required pension contributions, and cease the irresponsible accumulation of their pension debts. Every communication that Colorado PERA Board members have with elected officials should begin with a reminder that the State of Colorado is currently in breach of contract. In conformance with their fiduciary duty, members of the PERA Board should remind members of the General Assembly that $4.3 billion in annual required contributions to the PERA trust funds have been skipped by the General Assembly in the last decade, and that these skipped payments accumulate as public pension debt of Colorado PERA and PERA-affiliated employers.
Colorado PERA Board Trustees should be present at annual PERA presentations to the Joint Budget Committee, Joint Finance Committees, and Legislative Audit Committee to remind state legislators that state expenditures to meet contractual obligations take precedence over discretionary expenditures. PERA trustees should remind state legislators that, although former legislators and Colorado voters have slashed state revenues (Colorado now has the lowest state revenues per capita in the nation), under the Colorado Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, the State of Colorado will never be able to welch on its contractual public pension obligations.
From the Colorado PERA website:
“Board of Trustees Election Slated-Candidates Sought
In May 2013, Colorado PERA will hold an election for seats on the Board of Trustees for the following positions:
One State Division position
Two School Division positions
One retiree position (to be elected by School, Local Government, or Judicial Division retirees)
Candidacy packets may be obtained by writing to:
Colorado PERA
Internal Audit Division
1301 Pennsylvania Street
Denver, CO 80203-5011
To be placed on the ballot, a candidate must fulfill the requirements explained in the candidacy packet. Requests for candidacy packets should include the name, PERA Division of membership, mailing address, daytime telephone number, and signature of the candidate.
Candidates will be subject to a background check.
Members from the State Division who are interested in being a candidate must also indicate whether they are a member of the PERA defined benefit or defined contribution plan.
Ballots will be mailed in early May to the following:
Members of the State Division
Members of the School Division
Retirees from the School, Local Government, and Judicial Divisions
Returned ballots must be postmarked by May 31, 2013.
PERA will be holding elections for the seats currently held by Maryann Motza from the State Division, Scott Noller and Marcus Pennell from the School Division, and Carole Wright, a retiree, whose terms expire June 30, 2013. All positions are for four-year terms.
The Board of Trustees meets at least five times per year and is responsible for adopting the rules and policies for the administration of PERA. Elected Board members serve without pay, but are reimbursed for necessary expenses.”
http://www.denverpost.com/news…
Link to PERA announcement:
Lawsuits and investigations have been in process since before the 2012 election. On December 14, a local attorney delivered to the local AG, a complaint alleging that Mesa County’s Clerk and Recorder should be investigated for criminal activity. What follows after the break is the letter that was hand delivered to the AG, and forwarded to me by the attorney. I removed the letter writer’s address and phone number, but his E-mail contact information is included. There is a citizen’s group mentioned in the complaint–I was present at that meeting.
HD-9 Republican Celeste Gamache has always been a bit of a novel candidate. A former JAG officer and veteran of two tours in Afghanistan, Gamache is generally regarded as a smart, articulate, and up-and-coming community leader. In any other district, her resume combined with a smart campaign would make her a serious contender for the State House. Denver’s HD-9, however, leans so far to the left ideologically and in terms of registration that Gamache hasn’t been the beneficiary of Republican efforts to keep the speaker’s gavel — her defeat at the hands of Democrat Paul Rosenthal is a foregone conclusion.
Just because Gamache has the potential to be a great candidate, however, doesn’t mean that she knows what she’s doing. Take, for example, the campaign commercial she released on the web a few months ago. That is to say we think it’s a campaign commercial and not Gamache’s entry to an 80’s video dating service.
Seriously, was this thing filmed and edited in 1987? That tacky synth music at the beginning is a nice touch, as are the words that soar across the screen. Jobs, taxes, seniors: If this is a dating video, we’re not sure those interests would earn Gamache much attention. And is that the Papyrus font? Woah, dude, sleek.
Then, for whatever reason, Gamache appears in a little box surrounded by a neon green background. Here’s a piece of advice for anybody ever making a commercial, political or otherwise: Do not use neon colors. In hindsight, they were barely cool in the 80s and they’re certainly not cool now.
Surrounded by her campaign logo, her website url, and a cell phone number, it’s almost impossible not to mistake Gamache’s spiel for a dating video. She introduces herself as “running for state representative in House District 9,” but it’s just as easy to imagine Gamache saying that she’s “looking for a life partner who she can talk to deep into the night and have fun with.”
We’re not sure why, exactly, Gamache decided to produce this video. Maybe she has a nephew, or more likely, a “tech-savvy uncle” with an old camcorder, who offered to make her a really slick campaign advertisement. Voters aren’t going to see it, which in this case is probably a good thing, but maybe Gamache thought that using innovative new technologies like the YouTubes would get the youth on her side.
In her defense, Gamache’s 84 year old campaign manager probably thought this was a really groundbreaking use of cutting-edge technology. It certainly was when she was in her fifties!
Danny Stroud, former Chairman of the Republican Party of Denver who in 2010 gave State Representative Jeanne Labuda a run for her money, has a little bit of unexpected company in his bid to take on Congresswoman Diana DeGette.
The Colorado Statesman’s Ben Conarck has the story:
Former Denver Republican Party Chairman Danny Stroud is a well-known personality in the 1st Congressional District who is clamoring for a chance to take on incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, but a truck driving political neophyte may deny him the opportunity.
Stroud’s primary opponent, 61 year-old Denver resident Richard Murphy, is virtually unknown in Colorado politics, so much so that Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call had to call Stroud looking for the trucker’s phone number.
Although Stroud – a Denver businessman who just turned 59 – still won the top line at the CD 1 nominating assembly on April 13 with 81 votes, or 56 percent, Murphy’s candidacy was buoyed by a surprise showing of Ron Paul supporters who secured his place on the ballot with 46 votes, amounting to 44 percent.
It’s as surprising to Stroud as it is to many observers, of course, that there’s a Republican primary in CD-1 at all. Winning the Republican nomination to challenge DeGette essentially wins you the opportunity to become another electoral loser whose name is tossed into the dustbin of history. As Conarck points out, DeGette’s district overwhelmingly favors the incumbent: there are two registered Democrats for every Republican. In fact, the only way a Republican could win the Denver seat is if he or she turned out every Republican voter and won the vote of every single unaffiliated voter.
The inevitability of defeat, then, is what makes Stroud’s take on Murphy’s candidacy so confusing:
Referring to the fact that Murphy is often trucking back and forth across the country, Stroud dismissed the possibility that he could potentially beat DeGette, saying that running for Congress wasn’t a “part time job.”
“Here’s the deal. If somebody’s going to beat DeGette, they have to be motivated to beat DeGette. They can’t just be motivated to beat me,” Stroud said. “The way things are going in politics, it’s conceivable he could win the primary, but he can’t beat DeGette. I’m the only one that can beat DeGette.”
It’s easy to understand why Stroud would object to and question the candidacy of the interloper Murphy. But by framing his primary opponent’s campaign as leading to certain defeat at the hands of DeGette makes Stroud look delusional. Stroud, of course, should never openly admit that he can’t win, but by criticizing Murphy’s poor odds against the incumbent, Stroud turns the camera back on his own chance at winning the seat. He may think that he’s “the only one that can beat DeGette,” but he can’t, and by parroting his electability to win the Republican primary, Stroud makes his eventual loss in the general election that much more excruciating.
We’ve always enjoyed reading former City Councilman Doug Linkhart‘s e-mail newsletters if for no other reason than they’re such an embodiment of Doug Linkhart himself. They’ve always been goofy, easy reads that try to take the dullness out of some aspects of city government. Rife with exclamation marks and saturated with with the e-mail writing style of a technologically overzealous grandparent, Linkhart’s e-mails always did a moderately entertaining job of explaining, say, how to deal with graffiti in your neighborhood and what upcoming community invents the Councilman would like you to attend.
Of course, because they were such friendly, good-natured updates on what Doug was doing on City Council, we never read them as comprehensively as the former Councilman would’ve liked us to. That said, in announcing his transition out of office in a newsletter dated July 13, one particular passage caught our eye:
It’s been great to be of service to you for the past eight years. As of press-time I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing next. I am confident that my email address, Doug.Linkhart@Denvergov.org, will stay the same, though my title and phone number will change. Please stay in touch!
Folks, this classic off-the-cuff comment from Linkhart was a not-so-subtle revelation that Doug expected to find a job in the Hancock administration after he left Council. After all, why shouldn’t he? Linkhart’s early endorsement of now-Mayor Hancock was important in getting Michael elected. Could Hancock have won it without Linkhart’s help? More than likely. But Linkhart endorsed Hancock and lent him a not inconsiderable number of supporters, and that never hurts in an election as contested as this year’s was.
So it’s not too strange that Linkhart pretty much admitted that he’d be sticking around in City Government. What is odd, however, is that no public announcement has been made of Linkhart joining the Hancock team. It’s been more than two weeks since Doug ever-so-coyly told his subscribers that he’d still be involved with the city. Two weeks on, and for all we know, Linkhart is still out in the cold (or the heat, as it may be).
We’ve heard from a few sources that there’s a seat for Linkhart at Hancock’s table. The real question, then, is what’s the hold-up?
Of course, this isn’t the first time the Hancock administration has been rather dawdling in its announcements of staff and cabinet appointments. We’re sure it won’t be the last, either. But that’s not abnormal for a transition period between one administration and another.
On Monday, our friends at the Colorado Times Recorder put out a story detailing some decidedly non-mainstream views held by the Colorado Libertarian Party’s Secretary and 2026 Secretary of State candidate James Wiley regarding the recent assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk–alleging and then apparently standing by under pressure his belief that Kirk was killed […]
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