(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%
This article addresses ten of the most fascinating minutes of legislative debate in the history of the Colorado General Assembly. These ten minutes dramatically illustrate the control that lobbyists have over the members of the Colorado Legislature. Video of the ten minutes is available on the website of “The Colorado Channel.” Link: http://www.coloradochannel.net/colorado-senate-2010-legislative-day-20 (Click on […]
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:
We’re obliged to note Westword’s report out yesterday:
Secretary of State Scott Gessler has faced a lot of pushback for his efforts to identify immigrants who are illegally on Colorado’s voter rolls. But over the summer, those criticisms escalated to a new level when he received multiple violent threats, some targeting his family. Through an Open Records request, we now have new details on one disturbing phone call and the subsequent investigation — and more information is expected this week.
While the threats took place over the summer — and death threats toward politicians are not all that uncommon — these cases have a lot of significance now and will continue to be important in the coming months.
Why?
Because Gessler, a Republican and the state’s chief election officer, is currently the focus of criminal and ethics investigations, both the result of complaints from Colorado Ethics Watch, a watchdog group that has closely scrutinized Gessler on a number of issues. Based on open records requests it filed with the Secretary of State’s office, in October Ethics Watch alleged that Gessler had misused state funds for travels outside the scope of his office.
As Westword’s Sam Levin reports, a call placed to the state’s election information line last August turned into a long rant about the letters Gessler sent over the summer to registered voters he dubiously “suspected” may not be citizens. The caller said Republicans “should be shot in the head,” and indicated that “many people” know where Gessler’s family lives.
The call was investigated by the CBI, but Denver DA Mitch Morrissey declined to press charges. Investigation reportedly reveals this person made a similar threat toward Rep. Doug Lamborn last year, and Levin’s retelling of the CBI report paints a picture of a harmless, albeit very stupid, crackpot. That said, we don’t think anyone will dispute the necessity of taking any such threats made against the Secretary of State or his family seriously.
In terms of the investigation(s) underway regarding Gessler’s alleged misuse of discretionary funds, however, Westword’s Open Records Act request explains only one detail among numerous questionable incidents–from using these funds to attend partisan events at all, to “sweeping” the account empty at fiscal year’s end in a check to himself. Sympathy for Gessler over threats made against him or his family, which we’ll say again are totally unacceptable, doesn’t extend to excusing unethical or illegal behavior on his part.
But if any of you happen to recognize this crackpot, please let him know he’s not helping.
In a post Thursday, I discussed a conversation between two local talk-radio hosts and Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Page Editor, Wayne Laugesen.
Unfortunately, the good folks at KLZ’s Grassroots Radio Colorado thought I unfairly presented their show as attacking every garden-variety environmentalist under the sun, not just the radical fringe.
I disagree, but I’ve posted more of the exchange between Laugesen and the KLZ hosts below, including more insight into Laugesen’s thinking on whom he’s referring to when he talks about “radical” environmentalists. Warning: he’s pretty vague, as some suspected on ColoradoPols and elsewhere.
I’d love to meet the soccer-mom environmentalist from Jefferson County who feels good about the Republican Party after hearing this conversation on conservative talk radio.
If the KLZ radio hosts, and Laugesen for that matter, really cared about the toxic effect of talk radio on the Republican Party, here’s a suggestion on how they could begin to do something about it.
Have an actual debate! Bring a mainstream environmentalist on the show, for example, when you talk about radical environmentalists or environmentalism as religion. Refuse to be a guest unless more than shades of conservative gray are present. I’m not saying this never happens, but do it more often, please.
Chances are, when the echo chamber starts echoing on talk radio, it’s turning off most of the electorate. That’s when you need to bring in an opposing view.
9NEWS reported Monday night and we wanted to make sure our readers saw:
A Jefferson County School board member has apologized after she agreed with a Denver radio host that the school’s superintendent should be shot.
Radio host Jason Worley, of 560 AM, made the comment about Jefferson County Superintendent Cindy Stevenson in reference to the school’s budget.
Worley said, “If you have a [full-time] Facebook person still in Jefferson County [on staff] your superintendent should be shot.”
Board member Laura Boggs, who was on the radio to talk about a ballot initiative to increase taxes for education, agreed with the statement, but later said she was on her phone at the time and did not fully hear what Worley said.
Laura Boggs has been at the center of a number of controversies on the Jefferson County school board, becoming the first-ever member of that board to be censured for her consistently outrageous conduct. Boggs represents the “Tea Party” minority opposition, was a proud supporter of 2010’s “Bad Three” ballot initiatives after voting to oppose them officially, and is presently working against a mill levy and bond issue campaign for the district she serves.
This is evidently how shooting the superintendent came up.
Incidentally, there is no “full time Facebook person” on staff at Jefferson County Schools. This is just one of many such particularly fact-challenged talking points employed by the campaign against Jefferson County’s Issues 3A and 3B. Ms. Boggs should certainly know better.
But as far as superintendent Cindy Stevenson is concerned, we’re kind of past that.
Originally posted at Colorado Pols.
9NEWS reported Monday night and we wanted to make sure our readers saw: A Jefferson County School board member has apologized after she agreed with a Denver radio host that the school’s superintendent should be shot. Radio host Jason Worley, of 560 AM, made the comment about Jefferson County Superintendent Cindy Stevenson in reference to […]
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!
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) Mike Coffman told The Denver Post’s Kurtis Lee over the weekend that Coffman himself will provide “very specific” answers to any question from his constituents. As the people’s representatives, reporters should throw queries to Coffman, as well, because the Congressman’s record has yet to be fully aired out in […]
We get a lot of press releases here at Colorado Pols. While some are good, others are, well…not. The following press release falls into the latter category. The office of Attorney General John Suthers seems pretty excited about the fact that one of the people convicted was a “rapper.” The Colorado Attorney General’s Office announced […]
(Oh, well, there’s that, um… – promoted by Colorado Pols) Brandon Rittiman’s six-and-a-half minute interview with Paul Ryan on 9news’ Your Show last week raised more questions than it answered. Not that Rittiman didn’t try his hardest. But reporters who encounter Ryan further on down the campaign trail should press him for more details. […]
Update (thanks to BlueCat): Oh, and he’s also a meth cooker. Who made the film, “Innocence of Muslims,” that stirred up protests so violent they cost America’s ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, who was enormously popular with Libyans, his life? Yesterday, that man was “Sam Bacile,” who described himself as a Jew who had raised […]
The Durango Herald updates a race considered a key pickup opportunity for Democrats: [A]ccording to their Wednesday filings, when it comes to fundraising, Democratic challenger Mike McLachlan has been trouncing incumbent Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio, for the last two months. Since announcing his campaign in February, McLachlan, a Durango-based lawyer, has raised $65,790 in […]
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) You may recall that Steve Kelley, host of KNUS radio’s morning drive-time show, got really pissed at Rep. Mike Coffman, after Coffman refused to appear on Kelley’s show and explain why, among other things, he felt the need to (sort of) apologize for saying Obama isn’t an American in […]
( – promoted by ClubTwitty) Many here may have already seen these words from Mike Johnston via Facebook or email but for any who have not, I wanted to share. Like so many Coloradans, yesterday I found myself on a roller-coaster of emotions. As anger, sadness and grief gave way to numbness, a message from […]
A facebook friend of mine, who happens to also be a Latino activist, posted the following great analysis of recent political attempts to win him over: It’s fascinating how white Republicans seem to think Latinos are monolithic. Marco Rubio is Cuban and most Latinos simply don’t identify with him. He isn’t some sort of magical […]
(Bumped into Thursday because of late post yesterday – promoted by Colorado Pols) It’s only June, yet we already have a runaway favorite for Colorado’s worst candidate in 2012. Republican Matt Arnold, running for a statewide seat on the CU Board of Regents, is not only making terrible campaign mistakes — but he’s also doing […]
Night before last I heard about the back to back billion dollar ad’ buys the republicans are putting out in a six state swing area in just the next few days. Between the Koch’s, Rove, the aspirin between the legs guy, Gingrich’s sugar daddy, the shit bag that owns the Cubs, Trump, the RNC, and […]
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.
Somewhere near the Utah and Wyoming borders. 9NEWS’ Brandon Rittiman: Sources tell 9NEWS that Governor Mitt Romney will stop in Craig, Colorado. Full details of the campaign stop have not been finalized. Craig is a four-hour drive from Denver… The Northwest Colorado town has a population of about 10,000 and is popular with big game […]
It seems that Mike Coffman of Colorado is doing his best to hand his congressional seat over to the Blue column, but for those not familiar with Mr Coffman, he is not just a dumb birther caught with a live microphone. Mike Coffman was Colorado’s former Secretary of State before running for Congress. And in […]
Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times reports: With Republicans increasingly concerned about losing Hispanic voters this November, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida on Thursday pressed his party to embrace a compromise measure allowing young illegal immigrants a pathway to legal status… “Mitt Romney is the leader of the Republican Party now. Our hope is […]
(Too classy for prime time – promoted by Colorado Pols) Two days after Rush Limbaugh called Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute,” Colorado Springs talk-radio host Jimmy Lakey asked his listeners if they thought Fluke spent her “birth control” money on “cigarettes afterwards,” “booze,” and a “hotel room.” Lakey, who ran for Congress in […]
We get a lot of press releases, as you might expect. Some are gooder than others, and from time to time we like to share those with you in our “Fun With Press Releases” feature. Today’s release comes from Mark Shaffer, who is kicking off his campaign for HD-51 tomorrow: PRESS Advisory Mark Shaffer, candidate […]
According to a press release sent out by the Pual Rosenthal campaign, he received 81% of the caucus vote in the House District 9 race between him and RTD Board Member Bill McMullen.
Delegate count according to the press release (full release is after the jump):
Rosenthal 83
McMullen 9
Uncommitted 11
These numbers are from Denver Only. The handful of precincts in Arapahoe County will assign their delegates at their County assembly on the 23rd.
Because all election fraud was not created equal–the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone: On the eve of the 2008 presidential election, Pueblo voters’ phones rang off the hook with automated messages that deviously and falsely claimed their precinct polling places had changed. The voters were redirected to incorrect locations to cast ballots. “We have experienced it […]
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