(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%
It’s time again to cast your votes as we ask you who you think will be the Republican nominee for President. As always, we want to know your opinion on who will ultimately win the nomination, and not your personal preference. In other words, if you had to bet the deed to your house, who […]
UPDATE #2: Dow ends up 61 for the day, but Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating to AA+ from AAA spells uncertainty for Monday: We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate […]
Jeremy Myer over at the Denver newspaper today had an interesting piece on Wil Alston’s primary task of raising the profile of Michael Hancock to garner the mayor some national attention. As Myer points out, Hickenlooper as mayor had an enviable national image. His quirky, soft-spoken personality partnered with his sharp political acumen made him seem like the perfect person to represent Denver nationally. Indeed, Hick’s term as Denver’s de-facto spokesperson culminated in his appearance during the Democratic National Convention in 2008. It’s because the Mayor of Denver also serves as a representative of Colorado and its culture that we’ve always called the position the marquee elected position in Colorado.
The thing is, Michael Hancock is no John Hickenlooper. Not yet, anyway. Hancock’s story is certainly inspirational, gripping, and really something admirable. Yet Hancock just doesn’t have the same personality as Hick. It’s nothing against Hancock; what’s made Hickenlooper such a teflon mayor-cum-governor is that he seemed like somebody you’d want to sit down and have a beer with, somebody you could trust because he’d have no reason to lie to you. Hickenlooper’s communications shop didn’t have to work so hard to promote the mayor’s image because John was already a decent ambassador for the state.
We’d be proud to have Michael Hancock take on the same national profile as John Hickenlooper. Still, we feel it’s a little too soon for Alston to be shopping around Hancock’s story. It feels a little…corporate. While Hancock’s rise to mayor would certainly make good fodder for the Today show, it would be even better if Hancock was first given the chance to accomplish something in the office. If Hancock shines in Denver we have no doubt his name will be brought up for Governor or any other statewide office soon enough. However, if Alston succeeds and Hancock assumes a national profile this early on in his administration, his local and national reputation will be damaged ten times more if he doesn’t remain popular.
The paradox here is that Alston’s communications shop is trying to make Hancock look the natural heir to John Hickenlooper from a national perspective, something that John Hickenlooper would never do or at least admit to doing. The more Alston pushes Hancock’s story, the less organic it seems, the less “Hickenlooper-like” it is. What Alston should be doing is letting Hancock inherit the role; instead of pushing Hancock, he should be showcasing how Hancock is, to borrow the slogan, “moving Denver forward.” That takes time because it takes more than replacing the welcome voice at DIA or snagging a 3 minute appearance with Matt Lauer to have a track record you can brag about.
With friends like these, reports The Hill: The group [American Action Network] is spending roughly $1 million on the total campaign, which already included 22 other freshman House Republicans. Many on the list are in senior-heavy districts where Medicare is a top issue. The more recently added GOP incumbents: Reps. Allen West (Fla.), Chip Cravaack […]
The debt ceiling deal was one of those classic “compromises” where people like to say it’s fair because both sides are unhappy. Whether or not that philosophical bargaining nonsense is true or not, it’s fair to say that both conservatives and liberals are not overly pleased with the deal. But as Time magazine’s Swampland blog […]
As the Durango Herald’s Joe Hanel reports: A group of parents and 21 school districts – including Montezuma-Cortez – is suing the state in a case called Lobato v. Colorado, claiming inadequate funding for schools. Opening arguments took most of the morning Monday. “This case begins with the constitution and ends with children,” said Kenzo […]
The Colorado Independent’s David O. Williams reports: Democrat Diana DeGette joined Republicans Doug Lamborn and Scott Tipton in voting no on the measure, while Democrats Jared Polis and Ed Perlmutter voted for the deal along with Republicans Mike Coffman and Cory Gardner. “Here we are at the 11th hour, with a gun to our head, […]
And not squarely down party lines, either–on the key vote, debated as an amendment to a 2002 education reform bill so as not to (technically, anyway) violate Speaker John Boehner’s pledge to allow 72 hours of public viewing of bills before a vote, here is how your Colorado House delegation voted on the final debt-ceiling […]
Image via Twitter From a news conference under way now–supporters of Initiative 25, the ballot measure from Sen. Rollie Heath to restore Colorado sales and income tax rates to 1999 levels, plan to submit some 142,000 names to the Secretary of State’s office later today. Well in excess of the campaign’s goal of 125,000 signatures, […]
UPDATE #3: Ernest Luning of the Colorado Statesman reports that Rep. Doug Lamborn has apologized in a formal letter to the President this evening. —– UDPATE #2: Bet you’re dying to know what former FEMA Secretary Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown thinks of all this, aren’t you? Brownie Tweets his objection: Now there’s the sensitivity that […]
There was an interesting story from Bloomberg on government spending per district last Friday which included the fact that two Colorado Congressional districts — CD-5 and CD-6 — are among those that receive the most federal money of any district in the country. From Bloomberg: Sixty House members backed by the Tea Party, whose opposition […]
From the livestream last night of GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum at the Western Conservative Summit–it should come as no surprise that Santorum, when talk turns to wealthy Democrat Tim Gill’s zeal for bringing down the former Pennsylvania Senator back in 2006…well, yeah. As can probably be expected, Santorum goes off a little. Wow! We […]
Back in June, we had some fun with the…unusual defense of freshman Rep. Cory Gardner’s vote in favor of the GOP 2012 budget proposal (known as the “Ryan Plan”) offered by Gardner’s spokesperson Rachel Boxer. Despite the undisputed agreement that the 2012 GOP budget would result in large reductions in coverage for Medicare beneficiaries starting […]
Washington Post: The House on Friday narrowly approved Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) debt-ceiling framework, one day after leaders postponed the vote and revamped the measure to secure support from conservatives and four days before the deadline for Congress to raise the federal borrowing limit or else send the country into default. The new Boehner debt […]
After reading yesterday’s brief update in the Fort Collins Coloradoan, you might have thought that freshman Rep. Cory Gardner of Colorado was in the bag as far as Speaker John Boehner’s latest (and so far unsuccessful) debt-ceiling legislation was concerned: Gardner participated in a press conference [Thursday] morning with other GOP freshmen to express support […]
If you thought the messaging troubles for the Republicans couldn’t get any worse…you were wrong. As ABC News reports, House Republicans managed to figure out a way to make themselves look even worse on the night that they failed to even call a vote on the debt ceiling: Despite what some government officials have billed […]
Speaker of the House John Boehner was not able to corral Republicans on Thursday in time for a vote on his debt ceiling/deficit plan. The vote is now supposed to happen on Friday, and the stakes may never be higher for Boehner. From Salon: It is still, at this point, nearly inconceivable that Boehner’s bill […]
UPDATE #2: House Republicans postpone a vote on the debt ceiling. From MSNBC: Earlier in the day, in a closed-door GOP meeting, Boehner, R-Ohio, made headway in securing the 217 votes necessary to pass his plan. No Democrats were expected to support it. Boehner told the Republicans he expected to round up enough votes but […]
Lakewood Mayor Bob Murphy’s 2011 campaign is a far cry from where he stood in 2007. At the time, the then-City Councilman was expected to inherit the top title from Steve Burkholder. Murphy didn’t have to challenge anyone he served with on council for the Mayorship in part because Burkholder made it painfully clear that a Bob Murphy administration was to be a nuanced continuation of all the work Steve had done as Mayor and on Council.
Together with Murphy and other likeminded councilors, Burkholder had amassed a sizable list of accomplishments, crowned by the re-invention of the decrepit Villa Italia shopping mall into what is now known as Belmar. As bulldozers razed what was once an icon of 60s consumerism, Burkholder and Murphy with him ushered in a new, modern Lakewood no longer defined by the rotting capitalistic fusion of classical Italian architecture and art-deco.
It was Burkholder’s same keen eye for development which earned him many enemies in Lakewood. He clashed with citizens from across the city over development projects. There were those that thought Belmar would be a disaster, that Villa Italia was a Lakewood icon that deserved to stay. With the development of Solterra and the controversy surrounding Hayden Park Ravine, opposition to Burkholder and his policies began to grow. In libertarian-leaning parts of Lakewood, this was perhaps the precursor to the national Tea Party trend. The icon of this movement? The 20-something activist and filmmaker who was perhaps most vocal in her opposition to any development in Lakewood, Rita Bertolli.
It came as no surprise, then, that when Bob Murphy announced that he was running to replace Steve Burkholder, Rita Bertolli was quick to jump in the race as well. In those first few months of the campaign, Bertolli fancied herself as the leader of a grassroots movement, one that made it clear that the people of Lakewood were opposed to any new development; they were opposed to anything which changed the Lakewood they grew up in. With no political experience, little fundraising, and nothing more than a half dozen hard-core activists shouting and sign-waving, Bertolli gave Murphy a run for his money…and it shouldn’t have happened.
Bertolli’s campaign certainly gave the illusion of a deep-rooted grassroots uprising, with shouts of “Rita, Rita!” at every parade and oft-directed jeers at Murphy and those he was supporting for City Council. It was a close election. Bob Murphy won, of course, but the margin was narrower than it should’ve been in a race like that. Murphy, and by extension all which he and Mayor Burkholder had worked on previously, won just over 13,000 votes. Bertolli won just over 12,000. It was a tight race, but the voters decided that Bob Murphy was to be Mayor.
UPDATE: Tipton falls into line; will support Speaker John Boehner’s latest House cuts plan coming up for a vote this afternoon. From Tipton’s statement (H/T: ClubTwitty): “The House of Representatives has led the charge to find a solution to our nation’s debt crisis from the beginning, passing a responsible budget earlier this year and a […]
Interesting numbers in a new poll from Zogby released late yesterday. According to the results, Republican voters don’t really want Mitt Romney as their Presidential nominee…even though they seem convinced that he’ll be the guy: Michele Bachmann continues to lead the field of announced Presidential candidates among Republican primary voters, but Rick Perry would be […]
Much has been made of the new TV spot from Karl Rove’s famously well-funded “Super PAC,” Crossroads GPS aimed at Spanish-speaking audiences (above). Though only a token buy of about $150,000 compared to Crossroads’ massive $20 million summer ad campaign, it’s received disproportionate news coverage to its size–and prompted the DNC to release a Spanish […]
The Colorado Independent’s Troy Hooper reports: The swashbuckling 61-year-old was the main attraction in an hour-and-a-half conversation with Aspen Institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson along with four other governors: New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, Virginia’s Bob McDonnell and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker. He and the others were in town for the Republican […]
We’ve been saying for months that the Tea Party is killing Republicans, and there’s no better current example of that problem than the one that faces Speaker of the House John Boehner. From CNN: Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, said Boehner “has a big headache inside […]
Reports Politico, poor Sen. Harry Reid just can’t get a break: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joined fellow Republicans critical of Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan to raise the debt ceiling, calling it “another attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people.” The Senate’s top Republican didn’t outline any specific objections to […]
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