(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%
Hoping to follow John McCain’s 2008 path to the GOP nomination, as Reuters goes in-depth: Far from the glamorous receptions he once hosted as an ambassador, Jon Huntsman is braving hungry goats and hard-bitten voters in New Hampshire in a risky go-for-broke strategy that will decide the fate of his bid for the White House. […]
(It’s not going to end well, folks – promoted by Colorado Pols) Denver talk show host Bob Enyart has said Mitt Romney is lying to the GOP base when he says he’s a “pro-family, pro-life” conservative, and Enyart launched a national campaign to spread to spread the word. Enyart has also been a tireless supporter […]
(We shouldn’t be picking winners and losers* – promoted by Colorado Pols) I posted in late September about the bankruptcy of solar-electric array manufacturer Solyndra, and subsequent feeding frenzy by Republicans desperate to pin President Barack Obama in his first scandal. Even though the Solyndra loan application was initiated during the Bush administration, and the […]
UPDATE: Press release from Carroll after the jump, with full spin included. —– Democrat Brian Carroll had an interesting storyline to tout as a potential candidate for State Representative in Lakewood. Carroll’s campaign announcement last month noted the fact that he would be the first openly-gay soldier to run for office in the U.S. since […]
New York Times: Sharon Bialek, accompanied by the celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, became the first woman to publicly accuse the presidential candidate of sexual harassment, saying that she wants to “give a voice” to other women who might have been harassed by Mr. Cain during his tenure at the association. “I want you, Mr. Cain, […]
Last week was not good to Republican Presidential contender Herman Cain, who tried (and failed) to spin his way out of a litany of prior sexual harassment claims. You would think that Cain’s problems, combined with the apparent cratering of Rick Perry weeks earlier, would be a boon for Mitt Romney. Apparently not. From The […]
If it were up to Sen. Greg Brophy, we’d be on Daylight Savings Time the whole year in Colorado–which is another way of saying we’d be on Central Standard Time half the year, or something like that. They draw time zone maps with a special notation for your state, which is kind of cool. Brophy […]
Good analysis from Richard Dunham of Hearst: Rather than ignoring his struggling rival, who is stuck in single digits in every national poll released in the past week, Romney has unleashed an unusual barrage of attacks aimed at burying Perry before the Texan can regain his political footing. On Monday, as Perry ventured into the […]
( – promoted by c rork) POLS UPDATE: From the gist of Luning’s reports below, as well as our own sources today, Rep. Jim Kerr essentially got ambushed by the “Tea Party” last night, and all the things we’ve been talking about for months now as flash points within the GOP were on display. Jim […]
We’re kind of surprised by what seems to be a pushback attempt on the principal story from this week’s election in Pueblo County. On Election Day, Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert Ortiz put out a statement showing that, based on preliminary returns as of the night before, “inactive–failed to vote” voters who received ballots in the […]
UPDATE: The Colorado Independent’s John Tomasic: “I was extremely concerned when I saw that Romney embraced [proposed state-constitution personhood amendments]. It’s extreme legislation and it’s deceptive. It goes far beyond anti-choice,” DeGette told reporters on a conference call. She underlined the fact that personhood initiatives would outlaw birth control pills and would place in jeopardy […]
(How many times did we tell you Tipton’s “cut the government in half” pledge was going to come back to haunt him? We’re surprised it took this long – promoted by Colorado Pols) “We had Scott Tipton from our district stand in our studio while he was campaigning, and…he said he would go to Washington […]
Top priority, says the American Independent’s Andy Birkey: Colorado Republican Reps. Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman joined Rep. Michele Bachmann and 83 other members of the House as signers of a letter to the U.S. Senate urging that body to pass an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would prohibit gay members of […]
We’ve always been mystified by the interest in Aurora city council member Ryan Frazier, who seems to get a lot more credit than he deserves. But after losing his bid for Aurora Mayor last night to Steve Hogan in a race that wasn’t really close (Hogan won by 10 points), Frazier should be pretty well […]
As noted in the Colorado Statesman late last week: Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently announced key members of his Colorado leadership team. U.S. Congressman Mike Coffman will serve as the state chair, with House Majority Leader Amy Stephens and state Rep. Larry Liston serving as state co-chairs. Liston will also serve as the Perry state […]
A close one up in always-entertaining Longmont, as the Times-Call’s Scott Rochat reports: According to the final unofficial results, challenger Dennis Coombs was barely ahead with 10,558 votes to Baum’s 10,393. (The total includes one Weld County ballot.) However, that doesn’t include “problem” ballots such as those submitted with unclear signatures or by new voters […]
There’s no sugar coating it, and the Durango Herald makes no attempt: Proposition 103, a state senator’s improbable campaign to convince voters to raise taxes statewide for education, failed Tuesday by a 2-to-1 margin. Backers conceded defeat an hour after polls closed. Prop 103 failed 36 percent to 64 percent, with nearly all precincts reporting. […]
(We call this phenomenon “GOP amnesia” – promoted by Colorado Pols) In its coverage of the release of Hickenlooper’s proposed state budget, The Denver Post predicted a partisan battle in the state legislature next year over Hick’s proposal to suspend Senior Homestead Exemption, which gives some seniors a property-tax break and costs the state around […]
I posted a whole blog on this earlier tonight (here: http://www.coloradopols.com/di… but I think now that the results are in and Anne Rowe is clearly winning easily, it’s worth talking about what really happened in District 1. Here are the facts: Fact: Anne Rowe had the grassroots support in this district. In their rhetoric and […]
I was following up on the diary that I posted a couple days ago about Occupy Nashville and found that the group has won another major victory there. To refresh your memory (or for those who didn’t read the first diary), protesters in Nashville were arrested two nights in a row for violating the city’s […]
UPDATE 10:15PM: state Democratic Party chair Rick Palacio’s statement on Proposition 103: “Tonight’s results are one part of a much larger conversation Coloradans are having about how we invest in our future generations. A strong education system remains fundamental to our continued vitality, and Proposition 103 raised important questions about how we stand by our […]
If these numbers are correct, we can imagine no more compelling repudiation of Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s lawsuit to stop the delivery of mail ballots to registered voters flagged as “inactive” for not participating in the 2010 elections. From the press release we just got from Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert Ortiz: Pueblo County Clerk […]
Via Allison Sherry of the Denver newspaper: not a misprint, not a satire piece, this is actually Rep. Doug Lamborn, nationally-recognized mortal enemy of Big Bird and the face of the GOP’s campaign against public broadcasting, encouraging locals to become sponsoring members of Rocky Mountain PBS. In a TV spot with Rocky Mountain PBS President […]
This story is cross-posted at Jeffco Pols, but it’s so bizarre that we had to post it here as well: Lakewood City Councilman Dave Wiechman is responsible for 78% of all contributions to Pete Roybal’s campaign in Ward 3, according to recently released campaign finance reports. Roybal raised a grand total of about $5,800 in […]
Lakewood City Councilman Dave Wiechman is responsible for 78% of all contributions to Pete Roybal’s campaign in Ward 3, according to recently released campaign finance reports.
Roybal raised a grand total of about $5,800 in monetary contributions for his campaign against Carolyn Evans and Mark Barrington. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s respectable for a Lakewood City Council race. He gathered a decent number of small contributions between $10 and $100 from campaign supporters. That’s standard fare for a city council campaign.
Of the $13,157.71 that Roybal raised including loans and in-kind contributions, David Wiechman contributed $10,326.71. That’s 78% of the total. Wiechman clearly looks to be trying to “buy” Roybal a seat — for what political reason, we’ll leave you to speculate.
Wiechman first gave $1000 in February, around the time that Roybal kicked off his campaign. That thousand bucks alone would raise eyebrows, coming from a sitting councilperson, but a grand is chump change in the scope of Wiechman’s other contributions.
Wiechman also donated about $7,300 in “non-monetary” contributions to Roybal. $7,300 of in-kind donations struck us at odd, until we realized that Wiechman was simply paying for Roybal’s campaign expenditures. According to the campaign finance filing, Wiechman’s in-kind contributions were “payments to Endpoint Direct for print and mail.”
Get that? Sitting Lakewood City Councilor David Wiechman directly paid for Roybal’s mailings. Rather than donating an additional $7,300 to Roybal’s campaign, Wiechman instead footed the bill for most – if not all – of Roybal’s print and direct mail services. We’ve never seen anything like that happen before, and while we don’t think it’s illegal, it certainly raises questions about the ethics of Councilman Wiechman trying to buy his friend a council seat.
Then things get a little more strange and a little less legal. On August 1, 2011, Wiechman loaned Roybal’s campaign $2,000. Roybal probably thought he was getting a pretty good deal with this loan: Wiechmann didn’t ask for repayment until July 2013, more than enough time to repay two grand at 2% interest.
Unfortunately for Roybal, and by extension Weichman, that loan is against the law. Even worse, it says it’s against the law on the very form on which it’s reported. According to Section 3(8) of Article 28 of the Colorado Constitution, “a candidate’s committee may receive a loan from a financial institution organized under state or federal law.”
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