Colorado’s Third Congressional District On George Will’s Radar Screen
In his editorial published in The Washington Post, George Will enumerated some of the more interesting stories to watch for in Tuesday’s Democratic beating. One of those stories is the probable defeat of Colorado’s John Salazar, the incumbent Democrat from the Western slope:
Rep. John Salazar (D-Colo.), whose younger brother was a Colorado senator before becoming interior secretary, won in 2008 by 22 points. In Congress, Salazar has opposed cap-and-trade and TARP and supports a one-year extension of all the Bush tax cuts. The National Rifle Association has endorsed him. Nevertheless, he may lose.
Given his fairly conservative voting record, if Salazar does in fact lose on Tuesday, I think it will signify the anti-incumbent nature of the current political climate rather than the anti-liberal/anti-Obama narrative conservatives are trying to develop. Voters, in other words, aren’t just angry at President Obama and the Democrats. They are angry at everyone in Washington.
Dan Maes is Poised to Force Colorado GOP into Minority Party Status
According to a poll released by the Denver Post on Sunday, Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, John Hickenlooper, holds a comfortable lead over both Dan Maes and Tom Tancredo. In fact, with a mere 1% of the voters undecided, Hickenlooper has more support than both of his major opponents combined.
See Graph:
According to the Colorado constitution, any gubernatorial candidate that garners less than 10% of the vote, his/her party is, by definition, relegated to minority party status for the next two election cycles. That means the party will usually face some fundraising limitations and it does not get preferential placement on the top of the ballot with the major parties.
With Maes, the Republican candidate in the race, garnering only 9% of the vote, all I can say is, “Hello minor party status for Colorado Republicans.” You can thank the tea baggers, who nominated Maes, and Tom Tancredo’s massive ego for your place between the Libertarian and the Unity Parties on the 2012 ballot.
Amendment 62 and Cory Gardner’s Assault on Women’s Rights
Republican Senate candidate, Ken Buck, has garnered a great deal of state and national media attention for his unusually rigid view of what rights a woman has to an abortion. His contention that even in instances of rape and incest, abortion is still morally repugnant and should not recognized as legally permissible, has even been fodder for campaign ads against the Weld county district attorney.
With all of this negative attention focused on Buck, it has gone largely unnoticed that CD-4 Republican Congressional candidate, Cory Gardner, holds similar views on abortion and women’s rights more broadly defined. In fact, where they do differ, Gardner’s pro-life position on abortion is even more extreme than Buck’s.
Last week, in an interview in the Coloradoan, Gardner, who is running against Betsy Markey, elaborated on his pro-life views and suggested that he makes no exceptions. When asked if he would allow exceptions for rape, incest, or in instances where the mother’s life was in danger, he simply answered, “I’m pro-life, and I believe abortion in wrong.”
Why Won’t District 49 Representative, BJ Nikkel, Do An Interview??
Last month, I posted, on this website, an interview with Karen Stockley, a Berthoud resident and Thompson R2-J school board member who is running for the state house against appointed incumbent BJ Nikkel.
Within hours of publishing the interview on this website and on Coloradopols.com, I received a strongly worded comment on each post, which I can only presume came from Ms. Nikkel’s staff, or perhaps even from Nikkel personally, in reply. (The comments were identical.) Written under the handle “liberty,” the comment reads:
Any reader should be thoroughly dizzy from the spin after reading this blog. It talks about Rep. Musgrave's results in 2008, but more importantly, it leaves out then Rep. Lundberg's results. He won the 49th HD by 58% of the votes--the most he ever has, and that was in a down year for Republicans.
Douglas Bruce to be Deposed Next Week
At the League of Women Voters candidate forum last night, Democratic house district 51 candidate, Bill McCreary came out vigorously opposed to Amendments 60, 61, and Proposition 101.
In doing so, he chastised anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce and declared that he was mystified that he had not yet been investigated for his allegedly illegal involvement in the development of the three ballot measures.
It turns out that McCreary may get exactly what he wants because the Denver Post’s political blog, The Spot, reported earlier this evening that Bruce is to be deposed, after seven months of avoidance, by no later that October 8th:
Denver District Judge Brian Whitney today ordered that, no later than Oct. 8, anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce sit for a deposition and answer questions about his involvement in getting Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 on the ballot….
Testimony from people whose names are listed as proponents of the three measures indicated they received the language for the three measures from an email address used by Bruce and that the former Republican lawmaker from Colorado Springs advised them on legal matters.
No campaign finance reports were filed with the state indicating the source of money to gather signatures for the three measures.
Over seven months, Bruce has repeatedly been spared from having to testify about his role in the initiatives, arguing that he wasn’t properly served (after 30 attempts by the state to serve him) and avoiding contempt-of-court penalties for his actions.
If these depositions prove legal wrong-doing occurred getting the measures on the ballot, would that be enough to invalidate the laws if the voters approve them on November 2nd? That is a question I will be investigating in the coming days.
The League of Women Voters Candidate Forum in Loveland
The Loveland City Council Chambers was abuzz on Wednesday night as the local candidates for much of Larimer county were waiting to begin their third candidate forum in the 2010 election cycle. Once it began, however, the forum’s energy began to wane and the event proved to be a subdued, unremarkable affair. The questions asked solicited answers from the various candidates that differed very little. With few exceptions, the forum offered only minor disagreements from candidates who, as a matter of first principles, have major philosophical differences.
The lack of substantive disagreement played well for the three Republican incumbents—district 49’s BJ Nikkel, district 51’s Brian DelGrosso, and Senate district 15’s Kevin Lundberg—who, by virtue of their incumbency and the favorable electoral climate, were left relatively unchallenged on substantive policy issues by their Democratic opponents.
The only real moment of genuine disagreement came from Kevin Lundberg when he vigorously defended his support for Amendments 60, 61, and Proposition 101. All the other candidates, including DelGrosso and Nikkel, opposed all three measures.
Colorado’s Fiscal Folly Reverberates in Local Races
A day after the New York Times published an unflattering portrait of a group of austere, tax-cutting measures—Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101—on the Colorado ballot this year, the Denver Post reports that even larger shortfalls loom in Colorado’s budget than thought as recently as a month ago.
The Denver Post writes:
According to the forecast presented to lawmakers Monday, the state budget is as much as $257 million short in the current fiscal year that ends in June and faces a deficit of almost $1.1 billion in the next fiscal year.
"Get ready," Natalie Mullis, the legislature's chief economist, told lawmakers gathered Monday for the budget briefing. "We're in for a roller-coaster ride."
Mullis said a sluggish economy has resulted in largely flat revenues from sales- and personal income-tax collections.
In total, in order to remain legally balanced in the current, 2010-11 fiscal year, the state will have to fill up to a $256.9 million hole. Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, already filled a nearly $60 million deficit in the current year, relying largely on one-time measures such as tapping cash funds. Now he must bridge an even bigger gap.
In Plain English: The Scoop on Colorado’s Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101
The Bell Policy Center, in collaboration with Colorado Children’s campaign and the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, produced this video on three of the most controversial measures on the Colorado ballot this year: Amendment 60, 61, and Proposition 101. It gives a pretty good break down of the impact of the initiatives on Colorado if passed.
Watch:
For more information, click here.
It should be noted that these measures among state lawmakers are incredibly unpopular. Even twenty-three of the twenty-seven Republicans in the state house of representatives have signed a letter explicitly opposing them. And the libertarian Independence Institute has responded tepidly by remaining auspiciously silent on the measures.
The Denver Post observes:
According to a recent report by legislative analysts, if all three of the measures were passed and fully implemented in the current fiscal year, the state would lose $2.1 billion in revenue and would have to increase its share of funding for public schools by $1.6 billion.
Essentially, the state would have to use about 99 percent of the current general fund of less than $7 billion for K-12 education, leaving only about $38 million for prisons, colleges, human services such as homes for the mentally ill and health care for the poor, the analysis said.
Dan Maes for Governor: The Story that Just Keeps on Giving
The Colorado Statesman reported on Friday:
The Colorado Republican Party has officially abandoned its support of their nominee, with State Chairman Dick Wadhams saying he was "very disappointed in the decision by Dan Maes to continue his candidacy for governor. Revelations before and especially after the August 10th primary have raised serious questions about the veracity of how he has presented his professional background and career and have virtually destroyed any possibility of running a viable campaign."...
...A story published earlier Friday by the Washington, D.C.-based Politico referenced an anonymous source who said Maes met Friday morning with members of the Colorado Republican Party's executive committee. According to the political news site's account, powerful Republicans confronted Maes with further "damaging evidence" about him that hadn't yet been made public in a last ditch effort to force him from the race.
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