(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(D) Julie Gonzales
(R) Janak Joshi
80%
20%
10%
(D) Jena Griswold
(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Hetal Doshi
40%↓
30%
30%
(D) Jeff Bridges
(R) Kevin Grantham
80%↑
20%↓
(D) Diana DeGette*
(D) Milat Kiros
(D) Wanda James
70%↓
20%↑
10%↓
(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Alex Kelloff
(R) H. Scheppelman
60%↓
30%↓
20%↑
(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) E. Laubacher
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
30%↑
20%
(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Jessica Killin
53%↓
48%↑
(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%
Jeffco Young Dems will host several candidates aged 18-35 from the Denver Metro Area at 240 Union in Lakewood tonight. This Young Candidates Showcase offers attendees of all ages and party affiliations an opportunity to speak with and learn from people who’ve made the choice to run for office at a young age. Attendees will […]
The Denver Post’s latest “Battleground Colorado” panel is stacked against Democrats, but Post Editorial Page Editor Curtis Hubbard tells me that things will be fair in the end, as Dems will outnumber Republicans on a future panel. The Post’s “Super Tuesday” panel, the second in election-season series that promises to be interesting, in part because […]
Briefly lighting on the Broomfield Enterprise’s story yesterday, sure to be aggressively promoted by local conservatives today: In a press release issued Wednesday, grass-roots conservative advocacy organization Compass Colorado slammed state Democrats for naming former state Rep. Anne McGihon as a co-host for a Primavera fundraiser on March 11. As a registered lobbyist in Colorado, […]
As Chair of SD27 Dems, I am delighted to share the following press release with fellow Polsters. When David Paladino creates a Pols account and personally introduces himself (soon), I hope you will give him a warm welcome. David Paladino Announces Candidacy for CO Senate District 27 CENTENNIAL – Centennial Democrat David Paladino has officially […]
With incumbent Robert Ramirez’s commitment to the HD-29 race as uncertain as his reputation on the right, an alternative for conservative voters could be a spoiler for the Republican. SoS filings show that just such an alternative exists in the form of one Hans Romer, a Libertarian who received 584 votes for the same seat in 2002. That’s under 3% (not great even for a Libertarian), but it’s also more than the margin separating the D and R candidates that year.
It’s not easy to find information on Romer, who has no campaign website, no public Facebook page, and no easily discoverable Twitter account, but I pieced together what I could, after the jump:
(With Tad in the penalty box once again… – promoted by Pita) UPDATE FROM COLORADO POLS: It has always been our intention to use The Penalty Box as a cooling-off area and as a warning to behave nicely on these pages. But it appears as though The Penalty Box doesn’t always rehabilitate a Pols criminal. […]
As the Colorado Statesman’s Peter Marcus reports: In an exclusive interview with The Colorado Statesman this week, a shaken Bradford poured her frustrations over a string of controversies and personal turmoil over the last month that has left her fighting for her career and family… Just when Bradford was resuming some semblance of normalcy, she […]
A question of preschool or tests Thursday, HB1091 The Preschool Bill, was debated in the Colorado State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee. Here are the facts: HB1091 “The Preschool Bill” takes the public money that exceeds the federal testing mandates of No Child Left Behind and invests it in the Colorado Preschool Program. For the […]
The Colorado Statesman’s inimitable Ernest Luning last week gave his rundown of the top 12 tightest legislative races to watch in 2012.
Lo and behold, nearly half of all of those races are in Jeffco.
It’s just four months until Colorado voters cast ballots in the June primary, and already the battle for control of the General Assembly is taking shape.
Following last year’s contentious reapportionment fight, which scrambled districts statewide and resulted in an unusually high number of competitive districts – at least as measured by voter registration statistics – both Republicans and Democrats are vying for majorities in the state House and Senate. Republicans currently hold a one-vote margin in the House, and Democrats control the Senate by five votes, but an unprecedented turnover in the chambers means those majorities could be entirely up for grabs this year.
The Colorado Statesman has compiled a list of the 12 legislative races – including a handful of primaries – to watch this year, based on interviews with party strategists, campaign operatives, candidates and neutral observers. At the end of each month up to the election, we’ll update the list to reflect changes in the ranking based on what’s sure to be a dynamic campaign year.
…
1. Senate District 22 – Democratic state Rep. Andy Kerr vs. Republican state Rep. Ken SummersThis is the marquee legislative race this year because it pits two solidly partisan, veteran lawmakers against each other in a quintessential swing district smack in the middle of bellwether Jefferson County. It’s also the contest that has seen the most twists and turns on the way to the final line-up, promising plenty of excitement right down to the wire. Reapportionment maps crowded state Reps. Kerr and Summers, along with Democratic state Rep. Max Tyler, into the same House district, leaving Kerr and Summers to emerge as candidates for the open Senate seat.
Rated: A pure toss-up.
…
3. House District 29 – Incumbent Republican state Rep. Robert Ramirez vs. Democratic challenger Tracy Kraft-TharpEven if this north Jefferson County district weren’t one of the most evenly divided in the state, it would still feature one of the most hotly contested races if only because of its symbolic value. This was the seat that flipped control of the House from Democrats to Republicans in 2010 when Ramirez toppled state Rep. Debbie Benefield by a mere 197 votes. Since that win, House Speaker Frank McNulty has been touting Ramirez as the linchpin for Republicans. Though he briefly flirted with a run for his Senate seat, by all appearances he’s working as hard to keep his seat as he did to win it the first time around, facing a strong challenge from lawyer Kraft-Tharp, a Democratic Party stalwart.
Rated: Pure toss-up.
…
6. Senate District 19 – Incumbent Democratic state Sen. Evie Hudak vs. Republican challenger Lang SiasRepublicans want this Arvada and Westminster seat in a big way, evidenced by a flurry of TV ads – yes, TV ads! – already unleashed on Hudak in an attempt to soften her up for past congressional candidate Sias. The ads went after Hudak for supporting last fall’s failed ballot initiative Proposition 103. It would have raised state taxes by $3 billion to fund education, a hot-button issue Democrats aren’t too worried will irreparably damage the former teacher, whose views on education funding are hardly a secret. On the heels of his losing primary to run against U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, Sias brings campaign experience and the past backing of U.S. Sen. John McCain to the suburban battleground.
Rated: Hudak’s familiarity with district gives her a slight edge, but Sias could benefit from sour voter mood.
…
7. House District 28 – Republican Amy Attwood vs. the winner of a Democratic primary between Brian Carroll and Brittany PettersenBy the numbers alone, this Lakewood district ought to be a safe Democratic seat, but the combination of a combative Democratic primary and a seasoned Republican candidate make the outcome less predictable. Attwood knows the district inside and out, having run a failing bid for Lakewood City Council and gotten a jump on the partisan side as an aide to state Rep. Ken Summers, who is running for an open Senate seat. She’ll have the advantage of campaigning unobstructed through June while the Democrats slog through a primary. Campaign organizer Pettersen jumped in the race last week at the urging of local Democrats who feared Carroll had burned too many bridges during his short-lived primary challenge last fall against state Rep. Andy Kerr, when Carroll ran as the first openly gay veteran to launch a bid following the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military rule.
Rated: Pettersen looks strong out of the gate, and if primary isn’t too bruising could hold the advantage in November.
…
8. House District 23 – Incumbent Democratic state Rep. Max Tyler vs. Republican challenger Rick EnstromTouted as a top example of Republican legislative candidate recruitment efforts this year, Enstrom’s bid to unseat Tyler could give the Democrat his first real race in the central Jefferson County district. The candy man brings a solid record of public service and mainstream GOP positions to a race Republicans hope to turn into a referendum on Tyler’s more liberal approach to government.
Rated: Leans Tyler, but Enstrom will make him work for it.
We think Luning is spot on in almost all of his analysis. The campaign between Kerr and Summers isn’t simply the most compelling in Jeffco, it’s an incredibly important indicator of Colorado’s political temperature as 2012 progresses. There’s good reason it’s the top race to watch.
We disagree, however, that the race between Kraft-Tharp and Ramirez is a toss-up. Kraft-Tharp is outraising the sitting representative, after all. Ramirez’s brief exit from the House race only bolsters the perception that Kraft-Tharp is the candidate to beat, and that perception will only lead to increased fundraising. Luning’s right that the dynamics of this race may very well change between now and November – Ramirez will no doubt receive a healthy amount of outside support from those wanting to preserve the razor-thin GOP majority in the House – but we think Kraft-Tharp is currently enjoying a definite edge. Ramirez knows it, too.
As for the House District 28 campaign, we agree that Pettersen is making the best case for the Democratic nomination right now in part because of her backing from prominent “local Democrats.” If Carroll can argue, however, that he’s learned from his past indiscretions and if he continues pulling in enough money, he’ll swiftly fill the gap. He’ll also need to demonstrate that he didn’t move into Lakewood just to run for office.
Either way, we give Attwood the advantage against either Democratic candidate. Unlike both Carroll and to a lesser extent Pettersen, Attwood is well-known in Lakewood. Yes, she lost her last campaign for Lakewood City Council, but that only gives her impetus to work that much harder for the house seat. And we suspect that many Lakewood voters wish Attwood had won her last election, given Councilman Dave Wiechman’s recent problems.
(In-person, original coverage of a local race — wonderful. – promoted by ProgressiveCowgirl) It was everything I hoped it would be and more. The Candidates all brought everything they had (which is more impressive for some than others) and provided a couple hours of very entertaining discussion in one of the most (if not the […]
Can’t see the audio player? Click here. A short while ago, a coalition of state environmental groups, including Colorado Conservation Voters, the Colorado Environmental Coalition, and EarthJustice, sent out a release strongly criticizing Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s recent radio ad on behalf of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association–click above for audio–in defense of hydraulic […]
The AP’s Kristen Wyatt reports: Hospitals with religious objections to procedures such as abortions would have to tell patients in a special notice Colorado’s Senate approved Friday. The measure was approved over vigorous objections from Senate Republicans, who called the notification bill a thinly veiled attempt to stigmatize religious hospitals… The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Sen. […]
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock today announced that Denver’s 46 DMV employees will stay at work while other city employees will be forced to take furlough days.
Fox 31’s Eli Stokols has the story:
DENVER – Mayor Michael Hancock announced Monday that workers at the city’s Motor Vehicle offices will be exempt from taking four furlough days like other city employees.
It’s an effort to ensure that DMV offices remain open and accessible and, to the extent possible, to limit wait times and improve customer service.
“I am dedicated to making Denver better, faster and stronger,” Mayor Hancock said in a press release. “Keeping our DMV open during furlough days is not just about cutting down wait times. It’s about being more efficient, more effective and providing the highest level of service to our customers, the neighborhoods, residents and businesses of Denver.”
Hancock’s administration is reviewing all DMV operations as part of a Peak Performance initiative that is gathering data in an effort to make government agencies more efficient.
Denver’s four DMV offices, which employ a total of 46 people, process motor vehicle registrations, titles, temporary permits and license plates for City and County of Denver residents.
Nobody likes an hours-long wait to renew their license plates, after all, so the DMV becomes the quintessential example for many taxpayers of government inefficiency. In keeping DMV employees at work even while other city employees will be forced to stay at home, Hancock may be trying to keep “government running like a business” by ensuring that lines are that much shorter and nobody’s enraged when they drive to the DMV only to find out that it’s closed.
The problem with Hancock using the DMV to show that the city can “do more with less” is that taxpayers probably should be angry that the DMV is closed. They should be disappointed that the city doesn’t have enough money to keep city services running. In that disappointment is a lesson in taxation: tax revenues are what keep the city going. No citizen sees any purpose to paying more in taxes if their city is able to, say, keep the DMV running smoothly based off current revenues. But they will be able to connect their low tax rates with the fact that the city can’t provide services like it used to if something like a DMV closure on any given Friday is framed properly.
By furloughing DMV employees, Hancock could’ve made the case that the city simply needs more money to provide basic services. He could’ve linked taxation with government service, a connection that’s most visible at the local level.
Instead, Hancock will be making everybody happy by keeping the DMV’s doors open on furlough days. He shouldn’t be. A business can’t run if its income isn’t sufficient to keep people employed. If the mayor is set on “running government like a business,” he should show that even with efficiency measures and cost-cutting, Denver’s taxpayers aren’t paying enough for the city-provided services they’re receiving.
Hancock’s winning the battle on Denver’s own belt-tightening, but as a result, he may be losing the war on the perception of government.
TUESDAY CORRECTION: Carroll campaign manager Aaron Cohen reached out to us today with a link to Carroll’s own ActBlue page. The numbers on that page indicate that Carroll is actually leading Pettersen in online fundraising with over $7,000 raised through the online portal. We took the $3,600 figure below from the Secretary of State’s TRACER Campaign Finance System which only reported numbers through January 25, 2012. As Carroll kicked off his campaign officially on January 26, whatever haul he brought in from his first major fundraiser wasn’t yet included with the Secretary of State’s office.
That Carroll and Pettersen are both posting strong numbers within weeks of announcing their respective campaigns is evidence of the lack of a clear frontrunner in this race thus far. Both will be able to make a strong case for the nomination, and now that both have picked the off low-hanging fruit through initial fundraisers, the financial race between them will only get more heated.
We sincerely apologize for our mistake.
Still, that Carroll has a primary opponent at all – let alone such a credible challenge from Pettersen – demonstrates the uneasiness of some Democrats in HD-28 to get behind the candidate who put one of their own in a primary. Carroll is raising enough to win the nomination, but had he avoided his earlier entrance into the race against Kerr, the money he’s bringing in now could’ve been saved for Amy Attwood.
For her part, the Republican is reporting over $13,000 in contributions raised since December 15.
Our original post follows.
One of the benefits (or drawbacks, depending on your perspective) of the Denver City Council’s in-house management of redistricting is the limited probability that a sitting council member will draw him or herself out of a seat. It only stands to reason — with direct oversight of the redistricting process, each of the 11 district-elected councilors can ensure that their current home remains in their current district, thereby avoiding any messy elections pitting two incumbents against each other.
The city council will host its first public meeting on redistricting later this week. The first topic of discussion at that meeting, we suspect, will be the status of the three draft maps already drawn up by the Redistricting Committee.
If the state-level reapportionment process is any indicator, it’s highly likely that each of those three draft maps will evolve into any number of wild permutations. With the proposals as they stand now, however, there isn’t even the remote possibility that two current council members may end up in the same district.
Redistricting won’t have any impact on either Robin Kniech or Debbie Ortega – both were elected at-large in 2011 and are eligible to continue serving no matter where they live in Denver.
Council Members Jeanne Fatz, Peggy Lehmann, Charlie Brown, Judy Montero, and Jeanne Robb were each elected to their third terms in 2011. They’ll be ineligible to run again in 2015 because of term limits.
That means that the only sitting council members whose political futures could theoretically be affected by redistricting are Susan Shepherd in District 1, Paul Lopez in District 3, Mary Beth Susman in District 5, Chris Nevitt in District 7, Albus Brooks in District 8, and Chris Herndon in District 11.
Shepherd’s residence will stay in District 1 in each of the current maps, so barring any major changes in future proposals, she can continue serving without issue. The same is true for Paul Lopez in District 3, as the southwest Denver district didn’t experience any major population shift since the last Census. Neither do Susman or Nevitt have any cause to worry based off the current proposals – their respective homes will stay put in their respective districts.
That leaves Albus Brooks and Chris Herndon. Brooks will remain squarely within District 8 in two of the current proposals, but in the Redistricting Committee’s “Map B”, he’ll be moving to District 9. Still, Brooks has no reason to fret given that incumbent District 9 Council Member Jeanne Robb won’t be able to run again in 2015; Brooks will have the new district all to himself.
Things get a little complex when you turn to Chris Herndon because his District 11 has nearly doubled in population in the past ten years. Under the council’s first proposal, Herndon will stay in District 11, but the district itself will split in half and a “new” district will be created and labeled District 10 – the current District 10 will be incorporated into Districts 9 and 5. No current council member resides within that new district, so under “Map A,” the city council will be getting a brand new member. In “Map B,” Herndon will be moved to District 8, but under that proposal, current District 8 Council Member Albus Brooks will be moved into District 9, so there’s no conflict. In that map, the new northeast Denver district will be deemed District 11. In the third proposal, Herndon stays in District 11 and the new, empty district gets the District 9 moniker. The current District 9 will be divvied up into Districts 1, 3, 7, and 8.
At first glance, the plans to redistrict the divisions of the Denver City Council seem incredibly complex. Yet because so many sitting council members won’t be able to run again in 2015, all potential conflicts pitting one incumbent against another are more or less resolved.
Still, you’ve got to wonder: if the current homes of current council members weren’t even casually considered as part of the redistricting process, what would the maps, especially at this initial stage, look like?
Jefferson County Democrats have been struggling to field candidates in the two countywide commissioner races this cycle.
Commissioner Faye Griffin is vying for a second term in 2012, and Commissioner John Odom, who filled the vacancy created after Kevin McCasky’s controversial move to the Jefferson County Economic Council, is seeking a full term. No Democrats had announced to take on either Griffin or Odom until attorney Casey Tighe filed papers late last month for Odom’s District 2 seat.
From the Columbine Courier:
Democrat Casey Tighe has the lofty goal of unseating Jeffco Commissioner John Odom in November, and the Colorado Department of Transportation audit director is ending his 24-year career to focus completely on his campaign.
Tighe, a longtime Golden resident who filed his candidate affidavit on Jan. 27, said he does not foresee a highly charged, partisan race for the District 2 seat, which in recent years has been dominated by Republicans.
A Republican vacancy committee appointed Odom to fill the seat vacated by former commissioner Kevin McCasky a year ago, when McCasky accepted a job as head of the Jefferson County Economic Development Corp.
“I don’t know that this will be a real partisan race,” Tighe said. “You’re looking for someone who will run an effective government.”
The last Democrat to fill an elected office in Jefferson County was former commissioner Kathy Hartman, who in 2010 was defeated by District 3 Commissioner Don Rosier, a Republican. Hartman was also the first Democrat elected to the seat in 14 years when she won the office in 2006.
But despite the local electorate’s historically conservative leanings, Tighe, 52, said his auditing expertise will make him a competitive candidate.
“I can provide a fresh set of eyes and perspective as a county commissioner,” said Tighe, who was serving on the county audit committee last year when the current Board of Commissioners dissolved it. “I try to make my decisions based on the facts … and not purely on ideology. There’s a lot of talk right now about cutting government … but you need to make the right decisions about where can you cut and where you focus the government’s efforts.”
Further, county residents are interested in a business-friendly atmosphere, he said, an insight that does not appear lost on the current board.
“I know Jefferson County. I know what the people are looking for. … People are interested in business development. They want to see businesses grow,” Tighe said, adding that county services should be streamlined and helpful. “The government should be elegant in that the customer has a positive experience. … It should be an efficient process. You shouldn’t have to go back again to get service.”
That political newcomer Tighe is the only Democratic candidate set to take on Odom in District 2 shows just how intimidating the commissioner’s races are for Democrats. Odom, who lost his first ever political bid against Cheri Jahn for the SD-20 seat in 2010, is arguably much more vulnerable in his re-election bid than Griffin – he lost his last campaign for a much smaller office and never before has been on the ballot countywide. Even with that inherent vulnerability, however, no big-name Democrats were willing to challenge him for the District 2 seat, leaving the race open to the relatively unknown Tighe.
Can Tighe win? He’s got an interesting pedigree, at the very least. The longtime CDOT audit director also served as the chairman of the Jefferson County Audit Committee, qualifications which will enable Tighe to campaign on government transparency and accountability. Those talking points may resonate in light of Jeffco’s own “Bridge to Nowhere” scandal if Tighe can make the case that he’s better qualified than Odom to root out county corruption.
With no contribution limits in county races, however, Tighe’s talking points won’t be relevant unless he can raise enough to televise them. Tighe may have some contacts with the Colorado Trial Lawyer’s Association, but he doesn’t have a record as an elected official. Without it or any other indicator of previous success, Tighe will struggle with convincing donors that he can win the election against Odom. There’s just no way that Tighe’s fundraising list, as a political newcomer, will be long enough to really give incumbent Odom a run for his money.
The commissioner’s race is an important challenge for Democrats – a strong presence at the countywide level will boost turnout for State House and Senate Candidates, especially given that there are no statewide offices up this year with the exception of CU regent at-large.
Tighe may prove a worthy adversary for Odom, but the numbers aren’t on his side. There are more residents in Jefferson County than in the entire state of Wyoming, and unless Democratic challengers can raise the kind of money characteristic of a congressional race, incumbent Republicans will continue to dominate county level politics. Without previous elected service and with a low name-ID, it’s unlikely that Tighe will be able to pull in enough cash to be viable.
Still no word on who, if anybody, will take on Faye Griffin.
Sitting elected officials at the state level are often reluctant – and sometimes downright recalcitrant – to endorse any candidate in a state level race when that candidate is in a primary.
There’s good reason for that, of course, particularly in districts with such heavy registration advantages for either party that the primary election is akin to the general. Sitting legislators will ostensibly have to work with whoever wins their party’s primary, and “working together” becomes a whole lot more awkward when there’s lingering resentment because you endorsed the losing candidate.
That’s why it comes as a surprise that State Senator Pat Steadman will be holding a joint fundraiser with HD-9 candidate Paul Rosenthal. Steadman isn’t just an honorary “host” of a Rosenthal fundraiser – standard fare for an elected endorser. Instead, Steadman will be fundraising for his own campaign right alongside Rosenthal.
From Steadman:
Please join us on Thursday, March 8th from 5:30-7:30P.M. for a rockin’ happy hour in support of two candidates for the 69th General Assembly.
Suggested Contribution: $50
($25 to each candidate committee)Contribute online at http://www.peopleforpaul.com & http://www.patsteadman.com
Gunther Toody’s Denver Diner
4500 E. Alameda Ave. (at Leetsdale Dr.)
Glendale CO, 80246
That Steadman is encouraging donors to give both to his own re-election campaign and Rosenthal’s campaign fund is evidence that Rosenthal has been widely and wildly accepted as the eventual Democratic nominee in HD-9. Steadman clearly isn’t afraid to step on Rosenthal challenger Bill McMullen‘s toes because there’s no chance that Rosenthal won’t get his party’s nod.
It’s events like these that make the HD-9 race all that much stranger. Paul Rosenthal’s never won any of his campaigns for public office yet he’s being treated as though he’s the sitting representative, joint fundraising events with an area state senator and all. RTD-Director Bill McMullen, on the other hand, can point to his record in public policy and government as well as the fact that he’s demonstrated his ability to win a campaign. By all measures, McMullen is a much more credible candidate – he should be the one enjoying legislator endorsements, or at the very least, he should be able to prevent people like Steadman from endorsing in the race at all.
Chalk it all up to timing, folks. Rosenthal had been publicly gunning for the HD-9 seat since May 2011 and hinting about it even earlier. If McMullen had entered the race the very second Joe Miklosi announced his CD-6 run, he might’ve had a fighting chance. As it stands now, however, McMullen seems like a misguided outsider campaigning against someone with all the benefits of incumbency and none of the drawbacks of a career in politics.
If you’re a candidate for any public office, one of your first steps should be registering a domain name that consists of your first name and last name – nothing more, and nothing less.
The reasoning is simple: when voters first get their ballots and they see an unfamiliar name, they’ll turn to Google before they try to remember what they saw on the mail piece they threw out three weeks ago. If you’re a candidate or any sort of public figure, then, it’s important that the information you’ve crafted be the first info they see on the web and equally important that those supporting your opponent can’t use your own name against you.
HD-1 Rep. Jeanne Labuda has a fairly unique name and as a result her campaign website, jeannelabuda.com, has dominated the Google search for her name. That’s a pretty good URL for Labuda to have: it’s literally as easy to remember as her name, and it’s not so long or obscure – think of something to the tune of Labuda4HD1Rep.com – that it would look out of place on mail or yard signs.
The problem with jeannelabuda.com, however, is that Jeanne Labuda no longer owns it. She used to own it, as evidenced by her campaign filings with the Secretary of State’s Office. Sometime between now and last October, however, Labuda (or whoever was managing Labuda’s website) forgot to renew their domain registration. Now, jeannelabuda.com is a headache-inducing blend of green, red, and white hocking LASIK eye surgery in Japanese. The first thing voters will click on when the Google search Jeanne Labuda, then, is a spammy-landing page that has nothing to do with their representative.
All things considered, this isn’t the end of the world for Labuda. She’s re-located her campaign website to jeannelabudaco.com – it’s not nearly as good as her original URL, but at least her name is still in there somewhere.
Still, this is one of those things that Labuda should never have let happen. Any yard signs or campaign literature that had her old domain on it are now useless, not to mention that Labuda’s website is nowhere near the first (or tenth) page of a Google search for her name. Juxtapose that with primary opponent Corrie Houck, who controls the first page of a search for her name, and it’s clear that Labuda should’ve just paid the 10 or 15 bucks to keep her url. Having a workable, searchable domain name is one of those things that doesn’t give your campaign any perceivable edge but really hurts when you neglect it.
Of course, it’s a simple, easily avoidable mistake like this that really showcases why Houck is challenging Labuda in the first place. If Labuda can’t even organize her campaign such that her domain name doesn’t lapse, the argument goes, she may be equally likely to make similar mistakes throughout 2012. The difference is that those mistakes matter; if Labuda hasn’t crafted a campaign organization now, who’s to say she’ll have one by the time she actually needs to defend her seat?
Here’s a roundup of the extensive statewide coverage today of the General Assembly’s apparent intention to plow ahead with a 22% hike in the daily per diem rate for legislators from outside the Denver metro area. Beginning with the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby: Even though rural lawmakers would get about $4,000 more a year, […]
As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone reports today, and who originally broke the story of the “stealth passage” in the GOP-controlled Colorado House last week of a 22% increase in the daily per diem rate paid to legislators from outside the Denver metro area: Gov. John Hickenlooper said Thursday that he is sympathetic to lawmakers […]
We talked Wednesday about the testimony in favor of a bill specifying “crimes against an unborn child,” Colorado House Bill 12-1130, in the House Judiciary Committee from one Bob Enyart of Colorado Right to Life. In that discussion, we juxtaposed Enyart’s comparatively mild testimony in favor of HB-1130, noting the “abortion neutral” language and scoffing […]
(The real question is, why wouldn’t he? – promoted by Colorado Pols) ColoradoPols broke the news last month that congressional candidate Joe Coors gave $1,000 to Personhood Colorado, in support of its efforts to pass a personhood amendment in 2010. A handful of news outlets subsequently reported the Coors donation, but it appears no one […]
I love politicians who will talk openly about their “messaging.” Everyone knows it chews up huge amounts of behind-the-scenes time (and money), but the insider debate about messages doesn’t spill out much. When it does, reporters should be all over it, not to play “gotcha,” but to help real people (none of whom read this […]
Nevertheless, FOX 31’s Eli Stokols reports: In an Internal Affairs report released Wednesday, Officer Brian Klaus said that Bradford, R-Collbran, initially said she’d only had one glass of wine, but later admitted to having had three glasses after Klaus informed her what he believed her BAC to be. Bradford, who was temporarily relieved as her […]
Can’t see the audio player? Click here. This is an excerpt from the testimony of Bob Enyart, spokesman for Colorado Right To Life, in favor of House Bill 12-1130 yesterday. We discussed earlier this month the defeat of Senate Bill 125, a measure “concerning crimes against an unborn child,” and HB-1130 is the equivalent introduced […]
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