(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%
(Eww – promoted by Colorado Pols) Lobbyist Corky Kyle, who runs the Kyle Group, hosts an internet radio show called “In the Lobby,” which promises to give “you a backstage pass to the heated industry of lobbying and politics.” Here’s the backstage view you got when Kyle had Tony Gagliardi, a lobbyist for the National […]
"The shot": Fran and Anna Simon kiss after their civil union ceremony. Photo by Evan Semon, Out Front Colorado If you were part of last night's partying related to the first legal civil union ceremonies for LGBT couples in the state of Colorado, chances are you're not even awake yet (unless you haven't gone to […]
FORBES COLUMNIST LAMBASTES RHODE ISLAND TREASURER GINA RAIMONDO. RAIMONDO ON COLORADO PERA MANAGEMENT FEES. In the United States, we have a handful of prominent self-serving politicians who support the breach of public pension contracts. As we have seen, such politicians serving in the Colorado General Assembly are attempting to take earned, accrued, contracted public pension […]
UPDATE: As if that wasn't enough, FOX 31's Eli Stokols: Dudley Brown, the executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, has been added as a co-defendant in a lawsuit filed by a gay couple whose engagement photo was used without their consent in a political mailer last year. Brown, who’s known for targeting GOP lawmakers […]
This week, Alan Prendergast wrote in Westword about a new Environment Colorado campaign to protect Colorado’s national parks from drilling: “When you’re a bureaucrat under fire, accused of being a tool of Big Oil, there’s nothing like a big, wet kiss from your critics to let you know you’re being watched — closely. Particularly if […]
with a few small edits, 2/1 The letter in the Montrose Daily Press doesn't mince words in firing back at the misleading article that had appeared in its pages a few days before: BLM using divisive tactics.
UPDATE: GOP Sen. Greg Brophy Tweets his enthusiasm: Golf course closed? RT @michellemalkin Every journalist in Washington wants you to know that Obama is at church today. — SenatorBrophy (@SenatorBrophy) January 20, 2013 —– Image courtesy The Obama Diary Washington Post: Obama and Roberts will repeat the process again Monday in a public celebration at […]
“Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.” –Henry Kissinger
It’s the bigoted group with the horribly unwieldy euphemistic name: The Public Advocate of the United States. It’s not a pretty story and the Southern Poverty Law Center is looking to make the group pay. From the Colorado Independent: The campaign mailer features two men leaning together and kissing. The image comes from a treasured […]
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) On any given day you could hate Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman, if you’re on the political left, in the center, or to the right of center. Their KHOW radio show was mostly a debate between a die-hard social/fiscal conservative and a right-leaning social moderate, and the illusion of […]
With a hat tip to Lynn Bartels of the Denver paper, here is the mailer attacking SD-8 incumbent Republican Sen. Jean White, in a tough primary battle against fellow Republican Rep. Randy Baumgardner–we were also forwarded a copy of these yesterday. Hide your eyes, Junior: As Bartels reports, this is primarily an attack on Sen. […]
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 […]
(Nice investigative blogging. – promoted by ProgressiveCowgirl) I paid $1.25 to obtain a copy of the actual police report. Apologies to Jennifer Bailey. Nobody phoned the police. Someone physically walked into the police department to report an incident. The case status is inactive. After reading the actual police report, I stand by my original comment: […]
UPDATED AND ALL THAT…THURS, MAY 3 Colorado’s North Fork Valley–with the highest concentration of organic farms in the state and one of only two American Viticultural Areas in Colorado–did it. It forced the BLM to back off and back down. The agency is not giving up the details of what the final thing was that […]
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) UPDATE: An early version of this post inaccurately attributed a Tomasic quote to Sirota. This might explain why Gessler avoids progressive journalists like me. My sincere apologies. —- Secretary of State Scott Gessler recently made an appearance Colorado’s flagship Tea-Party radio show, KLZ’s Grassroots Radio Colorado. I was jealous […]
The last time I wrote to you was shortly after you were elected. I asked, at that time, that you not forget the citizens who live in Colorados’ many (and growing) gas patchs. Your recent actions (well documented here) indicate that you have, indeed, forgotten Colorados’ gasfield orphans. You have betrayed the trust so courageously […]
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) The BLM is considering leasing some 30,000 acres in Colorado’s North Fork Valley, surrounding the town of Paonia, and extending up valley past Somerset and down valley to Hotchkiss, south almost all the way to Crawford. CNN ireport: Oil and gas leases threaten beautiful Western Colorado valley The […]
( – promoted by Colorado Pols) Honestly, I’m not sure what to think of this. CNN: After a string of disappointing debate performances, the presidential campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry is signaling that Perry might be dialing back his participation in several planned televised Republican presidential primary debates. The new tack raises the question: […]
In all our recent talking down of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presdiential prospects, we’d be remiss if we failed to note this poll today from CNN and ORC International Research–is it too soon to count Perry out? Early debate face-plants not indicative of future success? Despite his performances in the two most recent Republican presidential […]
Politico’s Juana Summers recaps a tough week on the GOP primary trail: There was no election-ending gaffe or singularly disqualifying remark. But [Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s] second consecutive weak outing set off alarm bells on the right, where too many cringeworthy moments raised questions about Perry’s durability, his seriousness and ability to compete on a […]
(Cross-posted at JeffcoPols.com) Jefferson County (and Western Arapahoe County) have been home to two significant re-zoning issues this summer that speak to the heart of the very reason we have zoning rules and regulations in the first place. In Littleton, local residents are not pleased that the Foothills Park and Recreation District is trying to […]
Jefferson County (and Western Arapahoe County) have been home to two significant re-zoning issues this summer that speak to the heart of the very reason we have zoning rules and regulations in the first place.
In Littleton, local residents are not pleased that the Foothills Park and Recreation District is trying to re-zone some of its land from “open space” to allow for new development. As 9News reports:
Mike Williams bought his home in Littleton’s Shadow Ridge subdivision for the view from his back yard.
“Ninety-five percent of the reason is this open space that we back to right now,” he said. “You can come out after a stressful day at work, you can come out and watch the birds, the prairie dogs, whatever else. We’ve got coyotes coming through here, elk and deer. This is just my way to kind of unwind.”
Williams said he paid an extra $55,000 to back up this open space. This Arapahoe County appraiser said the home was sold and marketed as one with open space. No documents presented to him prior to sale indicated this land could be developed.
But Williams recently found out the Foothills Park and Recreation District that owns the open space put it up for sale, along with five other parcels of land, to possibly build more homes.
Foothills says that it needs to sell the land to make money, but what about the loss in property value that Williams and his neighbors will see as a result?
Over in Golden, many residents are concerned that South Table Mountain — which locals have fought for decades to preserve as open space — may again be on the verge of development. From the blog Pedal Pushers Cyclery:
A current landowner of approximately 400 acres on top of South Table Mountain has requested the removal of “Open Space Only” designation to allow commercial/residential development on half of the land. This the same landowner family who wanted the NIKE corporate headquarters on South Table Mountain. The proposed commercial uses are incompatible with the quality of life for adjacent land and with preservation of South Table Mountain as Open Space…
…A public hearing by Jefferson County Planning Commission on the Central Plains Community Plan is scheduled for: September 14, 2011; 6:15 P.M. Jefferson County Building (The Taj), Hearing Room 1.
The southwestern suburbs of Denver grew rapidly in large part to the layout of the area that mixed home developments with adjacent open space areas. It’s no surprise to hear that homeowners who bought land near officially-designated “open space” areas would be upset about seeing that land developed.
The heart of both issues is an ideology of private ownership vs. the public good. A Jefferson County publication called City and Mountain Views magazine has an interesting profile of Republican Jefferson County Commissioner Donald Rosier in its Autumn 11 issue, in which Rosier lays out rather bluntly his view of the planning and zoning process:
He also believes property owners should be allowed to do whatever they wish, regardless of zoning.
This is an incredibly juvenile and intellectually bankrupt position to have on zoning regulations. Perhaps Rosier justifies this belief — and he is not alone in this opinion among some conservatives — by thinking that he is donning his personal freedom cloak and pretending that he is standing up for the individual. But how can you justify protecting the “freedom” of an individual over the “freedom” of the rest of the community?
Planning and zoning regulations were established in communities hundreds of years ago for very, very good reasons. For example, most people would agree that you should not be allowed to open up a pornographic bookstore, or a strip club, or a liquor store, across the street from an elementary school. Perhaps that is seen as infringing upon the rights of the person who owns the land where the strip club would go, but what about the rights of all of the individual people connected to the elementary school? What about the parents and teachers? Don’t they have a right to take their children to a school without having to park across the street from a Kitty’s Theatre?
Or how about these examples: should your neighbor be allowed to keep an old, rusty car on blocks on the front lawn? What about a hog farm? It’s his land, right? — shouldn’t he be allowed to raise hogs in the front yard and spray the pig excrement down into the gutters? Why can’t your neighbor build a 12-foot-tall monument to the band KISS on top of his house? Should your neighbor be allowed to bulldoze his house and build a 30-story office building in its place? Why not? It’s his land! He should be able to do whatever he wants!
These are extreme examples, but they are not irrelevant. The reason we have zoning regulations is not to restrict the interests of an individual property owner — it is to protect the interests of everyone else. One landowner on South Table Mountain shouldn’t be allowed to do whatever the hell he wants if his decision is going to negatively impact entire communities in Golden…just as one homeowner shouldn’t be allowed to build an office building in place of his 1960’s brick ranch.
Electing people to office who openly disregard the laws and regulations they are supposed to enforce is a dangerous thing. People in southwest Denver are seeing that firsthand this summer.
Politicos looking to measure the depth of the Republican bench in Lakewood need look no further than Mark Barrington. We first wrote about Barrington, his bizarre take on the issues, and his even more bizarre fashion sense, in the lead up to last November’s election. Barrington was the bright-eyed and lot-lizard tied Republican candidate taking on Rep. Andy Kerr in HD-26.
Though no Republican would have an easy time running against the popular Representative Kerr, Barrington did an especially bad job. He raised less than $10,000 over the course of the campaign. Sure, the the 13% margin was Kerr’s closest ever, but that was more a function of 2010’s political climate than any inherent political ability on Barrington’s part.
While the young Republican might have been thoroughly trounced in his last bid for public office, it still comes as no surprise that he’s on the ballot again this cycle, this time as a candidate for Lakewood’s open seat in Ward 3. Barrington clearly values himself as some sort of cunning political operator; unfortunately, voters just don’t see him that way. Barrington was unable to sway even the five member committee of activist Republicans during the vacancy appointment to fill Kevin McCasky’s old commission seat. In fact, if Barrington’s an expert on anything, it’s blowing elections: in his first bid for Council in 2005, he came in third, ultimately losing by more than 20% to Ward 3 Councilwoman Sue King.
Why, then, is Barrington making another go for a constituency which has already so soundly refused to elect him? Perhaps he’s using it as the foundation to launch his glamour shot modeling career. Perhaps he really enjoys being “that guy with the faux-hawk,” or “that guy who can never quite seem to be relevant.” Either way, Barrington is back, and we hope his campaign for City Council can be even half as entertaining as the race he ran for the state house.
Of course, other candidates have lost in bids for council before they returned in the next cycle and won a seat; Ward 1 Councilwoman Karen Kellan shines as a bright example of the legislative talent persistence can bring. Mark Barrington is no Karen Kellen, but there does exist the slight possibility that Barrington could actually win this seat. In an election in which voters have little reason to pay attention, Barrington’s name ID from his previous two campaigns may raise his profile above competitors Pedro Roybal and Carolyn Evans, much in the same way even Ramey Johnson has a natural advantage in her race. Barrington may also benefit from the fact that he’s the only Republican running; Roybal and Evans are both Democrats, so even in a non-partisan election, Barrington alone can court Republican donors while Roybal and Evans must themselves compete for Democratic movers and shakers. There’s also a case to be made for “vote-splitting”; that Roybal and Evans will both earn enough share of the “Democratic” vote that their candidacies will cancel each other out and allow Barrington to cruise to victory. While we admit that the dynamics of a three-way race, especially in Lakewood, are radically different than a traditional campaign, we don’t necessarily buy the argument that voters really care about party ID in these local community races. Even if they did, we think it would take someone way craftier than Mark Barrington to take full advantage of having two opponents with similar ideologies.
With Vicki Stack gone, Barrington has a natural place on City Council. Unfortunately, like Stack in her early years, we think that Barrington would all-too-naturally inheirit the role of an inept curmudgeon, more concerned with half-understood Grover Norquist theories of small government than a responsibility to the city or constituents. Indeed, Barrington’s previous electoral personality will likely be his kiss of death; observers know Mark Barrington and they know what he’s about. Unsurprisingly, you get what you see with the guy possessing the doorstep manner of a used car salesman. Bob Murphy and the rest of council won’t want to serve with him, and without Murphy’s support, Barrington is just another one of a handful of perpetual candidates floating around Lakewood. It may be Ramey Johnson’s year, but it shouldn’t be Barrington’s, even in the off-chance he does something about that haircut.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry moved closer to his expected presidential run today, and 2010 Colorado gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo wants you to know that Perry is not, and be assured that Tancredo of all people knows how to pick ’em, a “true conservative.” Writing at Politico today: Perry is eager to separate himself from his […]
“People think responsibility is hard to bear. It’s not. I think that sometimes it is the absence of responsibility that is harder to bear.” –Henry Kissinger
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