Archive for December, 2011

2010 Colo. GOP Rising Stars Return? Lang Sias Weighs SD 19 Challenge, Owen Hill Dives into SD 10 Fray

Posted on December 22nd, 2011 in Colorado Politics, liberty, PPC | No Comments »

Shortly after the 2010 elections I came up with a short list of Colorado GOP candidates who fell short but still faced bright political futures. At the top of the list was Ryan Frazier, who this year ended up coming in second in a six-way race to be the new mayor of Aurora (one of the nominees for Colorado political stories of the year that YOU can vote on).

While CD 1′s hard-working Dr. Mike Fallon (#2 on the list) looks to be keeping true to his word to be a one-time candidate, the conservatives occupying the next two spots both could be back in the fray for 2012. It was more than 13 months ago I observed about CD 7 primary runner-up Lang Sias (#4): (more…)

Colorado Teachers Union Political Refund Opportunity Ends December 15

Posted on December 14th, 2011 in clean government, Colorado Politics, Education, Labor, My Life, PPC | 1 Comment »

Last week I filmed a 14-minute segment with my boss at the Independence Institute, Jon Caldara, on his show Devil’s Advocate. The topic for discussion was the timely news that members of the Colorado Education Association (CEA) have until tomorrow (December 15) to get back money automatically collected with their dues to support (almost completely one-sided) state and local political campaigns.

As I often say, if you like how the union spends your money on politics, you have no reason to complain and absolutely nothing to do. But for those teachers who would rather support their own political causes, or use the money to pay for Christmas shopping or just save for a rainy day, then members need to be informed of their opportunity. One way to find out how to get the Colorado teachers union political refund is to watch the video:

For those who want to cut to the chase, all the information you need on the Every Member Option political refunds ($39 for CEA, up to $24 for some of the CEA locals) is available on the Independent Teachers website. Or you can go directly to CEA’s online refund request form.

In the episode Jon describes the notifications about teacher options as my personal charity work — the kind of charity work where one gets called nasty names. So be it. In the last-minute rush before the holidays, and tomorrow’s all-important December 15 deadline, here’s hoping this post makes the difference for someone out there.