(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%
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) Waiting to testify at the CO Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Civil Unions, I was reminded of something that happened when I was a little girl. We lived three miles outside of Detroit in a small house with eleven residents (my parents and nine children), and my dad had […]
Ok, this isn’t about politics. And no, I didn’t buy a new Leaf electric car. Not even a hybrid — that’ll be in a couple of years, perhaps. What I did was buy a tablet computer running Google’s Android OS. Perhaps that is of interest to more than 2 people on this site. If not, […]
This morning, I spent a couple minutes on David Sirota’s morning show weighing in on the topic of texting and driving. As many of you know, I was hospitalized by a distracted driver a couple of weeks ago, so I was more than eager to participate in the discussion. Here’s the podcast if you want […]
Today, the Senate is holding hearings featuring over 60 survivors of gun violence, as well as their family members. Notably, the group includes 13 survivors or family members of victims of the shooting spree at Cong. Gabby Giffords’s town hall. The aim of the hearings? To encourage lawmakers to close holes in the gun background […]
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) POLS UPDATE: Westword Saturday evening: There are few scarier sights than that of 100 police officers putting on gas masks. That view, along with the largest showing of police force yet, graced Occupy Denver’s weekly rally today when state and city police reacted to the renewed presence of tents. […]
(Timestamped first person account of last night’s #OccupyDenver eviction, worth a read & Andrew says he’ll respond to comments following Occupy assembly today. – promoted by ProgressiveCowgirl) By Andrew Bateman Candidate for State House Colorado District 41 www.BatemanForColorado.com I was with the crowds in Lincoln Park from the afternoon yesterday until the last arrest was […]
Make no mistake, the first fundraising report a candidate makes is critically important. Strong fundraising numbers at a campaign’s outset shows that donors are willing to give; after all, if you can persuade donors, you’ll have an easier time persuading voters.
That said, we think the second fundraising report is about ten times more important than the first. In the first quarter of any campaign, it’s the candidate’s responsibility to pick off all the low-hanging fruit. That usually means contributions from family members, close friends, college acquaintances, and party activists. In other words, the people who donate to your campaign right away – still critically important in generating momentum – are donors that you don’t really have to convince to give. They’re going to give anyway. That’s why we’re skeptical of candidates championing “strong” first-ever fundraising reports: they show that the people you know are willing to donate, but the real test is persuading others to open up their wallets.
Cue this press release from Tracy Kraft-Tharp, the democrat hoping to give Rep. Robert Ramirez a run for his money in what was once Debbie Benefield’s HD-29.
As of September 30th, Tracy Kraft-Tharp successfully raised nearly $15,000 in the first three months of her campaign for Colorado House District 29. Receiving contributions from more than 170 individual small donors, Tracy’s campaign has raised $13,777 plus $1000 in in-kind contributions.
Says Kraft-Tharp, “From my conversations with voters at the 1,400 doors I’ve knocked in the last six weeks, it’s pretty clear that the people of Arvada and Westminster want a Representative that shares their priorities. More than anything else, I am hearing people express concern about the future of their kids’ schools as the new budget forecasts show another round of serious cuts next year.”
In a district that remains very competitive in the most-recently adopted maps, Kraft-Tharp’s first quarter will likely draw even more attention to the district that gave the Republicans the majority in the House in 2010 by only 197 votes.
First off, we like that this press release makes sure to point out that Kraft-Tharpe “successfully raised nearly $15,000.” How do you unsuccessfully raise money? Did you have a bunch of donors trying the ol’ quarter-on-a-string trick? People who write press releases for local candidates always try to add this kind of language; we think it’s unnecessary. Those who read your press release will determine if what you did was “successful” or not.
Still, $15,000 is no small sum. The only way to determine if it was “successful,” in our mind, is to compare it to what Rep. Ramirez raised. After all, if Kraft-Tharpe raised $15,000 from low-hanging fruit and Ramirez raised $50,000 (read: not gonna happen), Kraft-Tharpe would have a hard time convincing other donors that she could win. That’s the odd thing, though: Ramirez hasn’t released any reports for his campaign this cycle. Of course, the deadline is still a couple days away, but Ramirez doesn’t even have a campaign committee yet. At least, not according to the Secretary of State.
That begs the question: what happens if you were to use the donate button on Ramirez’s website? Where does that money go? It’s a little ridiculous that nobody told the incumbent candidate – who won by a hair – to go ahead and legally prepare to run for re-election. If the candidate doesn’t have a committee, he can’t even collect contributions by the books. We have no doubts that Ramirez has been fundraising for his re-election campaign. So why hasn’t he filed?
“Economic expert” Eric Fruits. (photo via Twitter) The latest installment in the amusing story of conservative economist Dr. Eric Fruits, who has watched kind of haplessly as a study he authored on the economic impact of Colorado’s Proposition 103 is subjected to enthusiastic misinterpretation by local conservatives. Bloomberg reported this weekend: Proposition 103 would increase […]
Most elected officials will tell you that one of the most thankless, unforgiving positions in local politics is a seat on the school board. It’s logical, really, that it’s a hard job; unlike other offices, school board positions deal directly with the issues affecting the children of their constituents. Parents are understandably protective of their kids in the education realm; they’ll as vigorously attack a school board member as a bully on the playground in the defense of their child.
A school board seat isn’t exactly the type of position you can easily use as a stepping stone, either. Sure, you can make incredible connections, but it’s even easier to amass a sizable list of opponents. That’s why it takes a special kind of person to serve on school boards, especially in Denver Public Schools. They have to be the kind of person who’d actually want to serve on a school board; sometimes you get amazing advocates for public schools, and sometimes you get entry-level politicians a little too proud of their title.
Cue Andrea Merida, southwest Denver’s district two director. Merida is a controversial figure in all of Denver politics; she’s picked numerous high-profile fights, including a few with other board members. We’re not here to discuss whether or not Merida has been a positive or negative influence on the direction of Denver’s schools; that’s a debate best left to Denver’s parents and her constituents.
What we will say, however, is that we continue to be shocked by Merida’s lack of political instinct. From her very first second on the board, Merida has been a constant source of controversy due in large part to some incredibly poor political posturing.
Let’s start at the beginning, really. On the day of her swearing in, Merida secured a court order enabling her to take her seat on the board just hours before she would’ve been sworn in as scheduled. She did so to vote against iconic reforms at Lake Middle School, and though we’re sure she had her reasons, the move defined her as a member. In taking her seat early, Merida swiftly and dramatically ended the tenure of her predecessor, Michelle Moss, without giving Moss the opportunity to say farewell or reflect on her past eight years on the board. Alan Gotlieb, the usually mild-mannered editor of the renowned Education News Colorado, compared the move to “a four-year-old ripping open her Christmas presents on December 23.” In this space, we noted that “Andrea Merida couldn’t have been more inappropriate and disrespectful if she had showed up in a ‘Fuck Denver’ t-shirt.” The measure that Merida grabbed the headlines to vote against ended up passing, and thus began Merida’s rather unique habit of posturing for posturing’s sake.
( – promoted by c rork) Now that Merida says she’s (maybe?) giving the $8,000 she overspent back to the district, I think it’s worth looking at just what she was spending that money on. I was pretty busy yesterday so I didn’t get a chance to look at the records and weigh in, but […]
UPDATE: The focus of today’s Statesman story is the money raised by Rick Perry in Aspen last week, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge this fascinating quote from his speech: “When it comes to economic growth, I know this,” Perry added. “The answer is not trickle down stimulus coming from Washington, D.C. but […]
“A direct assault on Internet users” is what the ACLU is calling it. Just before the break a House committee approved HR 1981, a broad new Internet snooping bill. They want to force Internet service providers to keep track of and retain their customers’ information — including your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, […]
Dear Mr. President,
Like most Americans, I had high hopes for a lot of change. Among my highest hopes was that you would change the toxic political culture in Washington. You have been the statesman I expected you to be, and tried valiantly to be bipartisan and to compromise. However, your efforts have been met mostly with vitriol and partisanship. It is clear that most Republicans and their leadership have one goal and only one goal-to see that you are a one-term President, period. And they are willing to go to any lengths-including threatening to purposely default on our sovereign debt and further damage our still fragile economy. They even refused to fund the FAA and put 70,000 people out of work. All because they care more about their personal political interests than the national interest. Their insane strategy to sacrifice the wellbeing of the people they claim to represent, not to mention our country’s reputation, simply to reclaim political power, is unconscionable and unacceptable, and they must be stopped.
Dear Mr. President, Like most Americans, I had high hopes for a lot of change. Among my highest hopes was that you would change the toxic political culture in Washington. You have been the statesman I expected you to be, and tried valiantly to be bipartisan and to compromise. However, your efforts have been met […]
People who are living in New York will be in quest of becoming an owner a car which is best in performance. An awesome and luxury car which last for several years is Cadillac NY car because it has a powerful fuel efficient engine, power steering and many other incredible features. The price of Cadillac […]
Protecting the people from corporate greed and abuse is a non-stop effort for progressive community organizers and political activists. In the organizer’s toolbox are a number of tools: community groups, neighborhood associations, blogging, the telephone, facebook, direct mail, email, and now… twitter ? The effectiveness of twitter as an organizing tool is being shown in […]
Despite the distraction of Weinergate, Denver Mayoral rumours, and the lure of the penalty box parties calling me back, I’ve been watching the news about the enormous wildfire in Arizona. As of yesterday afternoon, the inferno was zero percent contained and almost 400,000 acres, an area larger than the city of Phoenix. The weather forecast […]
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) UPDATE: How about a little spin with your Sunday morning coffee? Romer and Hancock respond: Hancock: In the words of Wellington Webb, “A poll is just a snapshot in time. The only poll that actually matters is the one on Election Day.” We know from early ballot returns […]
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) While insiders and observers of the mayoral campaigns are content to discuss abortion, evolution, and the merits of negative campaigning, arguably the most important issue facing Denver’s next mayor is being largely ignored by the media and the campaigns themselves. Bucking that trend, Westword has put together a timeline […]
CO SB 85, the “john’s bill” or demand-side diversion program, is in the House for second reading today. What is it? SB 85 attempts to save young people from sexual slavery, by giving cities an option to establish “john’s schools” for first time offenders. Like traffic school, it’s goal is to educate the consumers (“johns”) […]
Recently, one of my facebook friends acknowledged me for helping her realize she could be religious and also be politically on the left. I was floored. Has the Republican party co-opted religion so completely that generations of Americans believe you can either by spiritual, or be a Democrat (or worse — gasp — a “Green” […]
Our analysis of the latest fundraising numbers from all the candidates is coming soon, but until then, Chris Romer just sent out a little teaser about how he’s doing:
ROMER RAISES OVER $1 MILLION
Chris Romer continues momentum for his campaign, reaching over $1 million total raised, after another strong month of fundraising
(DENVER) — Denver mayoral candidate Chris Romer announced that he raised over $280,000 in March, bringing his campaign’s total raised to date to over $1,000,000.
Fundraising cannot win a race alone. But we’re sure Chris Romer is sitting pretty on top a stack of a million dollar bills laughing as the other candidates duke it out.
After the run-off, we expect he’ll spend all of it. If we were one of the other candidates, we’d be a little nervous about even having to make it to the run-off. Running against the guy who can raise $1,000,000 in a non-federal race has got to make you more than a little nervous: that’s a lot of positive (or negative) TV ads you’re going to have to compete with. Not to mention mailers, door-hangers, field staff, phone banks, and in this day and age, Facebook ads.
UPDATE: It was just brought to our attention that reporter Allison Sherry of the Denver paper wrote a good “Beltway Blog” post on Scott Gessler’s testimony late last week, including a reference to the 32,000 people who became United States citizens in Colorado during the period Gessler cites (see our spreadsheet). Kudos to her, we […]
UPDATE: Coverage of today’s poll from FOX 31’s Eli Stokols. —– This is a poll of the Denver mayoral race, released by Colorado Pols and conducted by Denver-based RBI Strategies & Research. The results show Chris Romer with a solid lead, but perhaps more importantly, he is the only candidate with any real name recognition; […]
This is a poll of the Denver mayoral race, released by Colorado Pols and conducted by Denver-based RBI Strategies & Research. A summary from RBI research director Kevin Ingham:
RBI mayoral survey shows low voter engagement with just 3 weeks before voting begins
A survey of likely 2011 municipal voters in Denver shows that while Chris Romer is currently leading, a plurality of voters remain undecided and have yet to significantly engage on the race. When asked who they would vote for in the race for Mayor of Denver, 22% of respondents said they would vote for Chris Romer and 10% said James Mejia with Michael Hancock (9%), Doug Linkhart (7%), Carol Boigon (5%) and Theresa Spahn (2%) all receiving support in the single digits. Another 5% said they would vote for a different candidate and a 40% plurality say they remain undecided on which candidate they will support.
This survey is a useful snapshot of the status of the race at a time before voters have began to engage. Though Chris Romer is clearly leading, much of this can be attributed to his name ID advantage and the race remains wide open. Early horserace surveys, such as this one, tend to show that support is highly correlated to name ID. Therefore, with such a large portion of the likely electorate unfamiliar with the candidates, the high number of undecided voters is not surprising. In fact, fully 32% were unable to provide hard name ID for any of the six candidates presented during the survey interview.
As the major mayoral candidate begin to communicate with voters, the race will be sure to become more engaged and is likely to become highly fluid over the next few weeks.
RBI Strategies & Research conducted a telephone survey of 400 Denver voters who indicated it was likely that they would vote in the May 2011 Municipal Election. Interviews were conducted March 21 – March 22, 2010 by Standage Market Research of Denver, Colorado, a market research firm specializing in telephone survey interviewing. Respondents were randomly selected from a list of Colorado voters, purchased from Voter Contact Services, who registered after the 2010 General Election or voted in the 2010 General Election and either 1) voted in at least one off-year election dating back to 2003 or 2) registered after 2009 off-year election.
The margin of error for a survey of 400 interviews is ±4.9% at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error is higher for subsamples within the full sample.
Other sources of error not accounted for by the stated statistical margin of error include, but are not limited to, question wording, question order, and refusal to be interviewed.
NOTE: RBI Strategies is not involved with any Denver mayoral campaigns.
Mr. Ingham will join Colorado Pols readers at 1PM today for a Q&A session.
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