A little over a month ago, just before the ballots were to be printed, a lot of politically-attuned Coloradans were discussing and debating whether Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Maes should drop out of the race. With the revelation of a not-so-secret meeting this week between Maes and third-party conservative candidate Tom Tancredo, the discussion has regained some momentum — though Maes insists he’s not going anywhere. (I am pretty sure he wasn’t referring to his campaign’s fundraising and polling trend, but he could have been).
Mount Virtus does not employ an election lawyer, but today I play one on my blog. Questions have arisen about the legality of it all: What happens if Maes drops out? Will he be replaced? Will his votes count for someone else? What’s the deadline to take action? Let’s look at a couple excerpts from Colorado Revised Statutes 1-4-1002: Read the rest of this entry »
Another reason for conservatives to unite their support behind the more electable candidate for governor: Democrat John Hickenlooper is going to perpetuate the Bill Ritter legacy and coddle government employee unions. Specifically, Hick wouldn’t want to revoke Ritter’s executive order giving union leaders gold-plated access to state government for fear of hurting somebody’s feelings — even if some state employees have suffered. Wow, what leadership:
Meanwhile, as WSYS reports:
Contrast the mayor’s comments with those of Tom Tancredo, the American Constitution Party candidate, who on Friday released a statement that read, “I’ll repeal the Executive Order unionizing state government before lunch on my first day. What about you, Mr. Mayor?
Well, I guess we have our answer now. And the race for Colorado’s next governor becomes that much clearer a decision.
It’s becoming a tradition. As of this evening, I have posted online my ballot with informed recommendations based on my personal inclinations, for whatever they are worth. The online ballot includes all Colorado statewide issues and one local issue, with a discussion of each, along with the candidates for whom I plan to vote (some of which include explanations).
Perhaps I should be flattered, but here’s hoping you don’t agree with me on every last point. Not that I take it to the extreme of one of the greatest conservative political philosophers of the 20th century, of whom William Buckley, Jr., once famously said: “As hard as it is to disagree with Harry Jaffa, it’s even harder to agree with him.” Even so, I hope you find it useful.
Last week I highlighted the political giving of Colorado education-related groups, making several observations. Among them was the fact that none of the groups — not even the pro-reform **Stand for Children small donor committee — had supported a single Republican candidate.
But I wrote too soon. They just hadn’t reported it yet. An Ed News Colorado story today highlights that Stand for Children has backed some of its Republican (and other) endorsements with campaign cash: Read the rest of this entry »
Colorado drivers, look around you. Okay, keep your eyes on the road. Of course. But if you’re motoring along highways throughout the state, you may see one of the 100 famous Who Said You Said billboards spread throughout Colorado (86 in the Denver metro area and 7 each in Fort Collins and Grand Junction):
The billboards invite citizens to “Stop Payment” on reckless ?spending by visiting WhoSaidYouSaid.com and send “Stop Payment”? notices to those officeholders. Federal spending has ballooned to $3.7 trillion, we have a $1 trillion budget deficit and are $13 trillion in debt.
In the most recent edition of The Enterprise Group Political Report (“At the Nexus of Business and Politics”) email newsletter, Andrew Boucher of Boucher Strategies in Fort Collins writes:
I’ll make three fearless predictions for November:
1. In the state legislative races, there will be at least one absolute stunner where a Republican no one has ever heard of knocks off an incumbent Democrat no one knew was in trouble.
2. Everything down-ballot is going to swing heavily towards the Republicans. (The less a voter has been paying attention to a particular race, the more likely they’ll default to the the national mood. Call it surfing the wave.)
3. Ben DeGrow is exactly right: “In this kind of generic political environment, in which most voters keenly see the adverse effects of excessive government spending, the opponents of Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 have their work cut out for them.”
I like these fearless predictions, and not just out of any sort of shameless self-promotional attempt to quote someone else quoting me. But especially reading the first of the three, I was inspired to chime in. Who could the surprise, out-of-the-blue Republican winner be? Let me forward some nominees (then you can discuss amongst yourselves): Read the rest of this entry »
One of the silent joys I plan to take on Election Night will be watching the defeat of Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson, truly a despicable figure and, as this NRCC ad puts it (H/T Redstate’s Moe Lane), using his own words to make the case, a “national embarrassment”:
As Hot Air reports, even a liberal MSNBC interviewer had to call Grayson on the carpet for his outrageous attack ad against his Republican opponent Daniel Webster, an ad that took Webster’s recorded comments out of context to make them sound like he said the exact opposite. Watch Grayson dissemble on the cable news program, and you’ll soon join me in rejoicing at his coming defeat.
As Election Day draws closer, appointed Democrat Secretary of State Bernie Buescher can’t be feeling too good. He has been nagged by his office’s failure to ensure that overseas military personnel have timely ballot access, perhaps affected by his long hours away from the office.
A Denver attorney has filed a complaint against Secretary of State Bernie Buescher claiming Buescher violated state law by using state workers to coordinate his campaign for re-election.
The Denver Post‘s Michael Booth is to be commended for his efforts: He’s working really hard to bolster the flagging campaign of appointed junior U.S. Senator Michael Bennet. Maybe it’s some sort of “Michael B” bond. Who knows? Though artificially inflating Bennet’s hopes in the end isn’t a terribly kind thing to do.
We already knew that my Congressman, liberal Democrat Ed Perlmutter, can twist himself into knots defending the Death Tax. But today Perlmutter went further, providing the decisive vote on the House floor (210-209) to adjourn Congress to keep from voting on extending the Bush tax cuts that would provide relief to my family and millions of others.
Thirty-nine Democrats voted against adjournment to give a chance to debate tax relief. But not Ed Perlmutter. The official response from the campaign of Republican challenger Ryan Frazier:
“Ed decided to skip town early rather than vote to get our nation’s economy back on track,” Tyler Q. Houlton, Ryan Frazier’s Campaign spokesman, said. “Ed would rather put his reelection chances above the interests of our constituents here in the 7th Congressional District.”
As my fellow Colorado blogger Rossputin notes about the narrow margin on the adjournment vote: “The Obama/Pelosi/Reid agenda is now officially on life support…” Perlmutter has helped to ensure the IV drip continues a little while longer.
Time to come home for good, Ed. Time to come home.
Update, 10:30 PM:In an email this evening, Republican candidate Tim Leonard responded to the charge from his Democratic opponent as follows:
After one debate together, she clearly knows that her statement of my position is erroneous. I have used clear language to state that my position is to reduce our state government spending to equal our tax revenues — currently estimated to be a $1.1B budget decrease. And I have been equally clear that I support an “across the board” reduction in all the funded areas of our state government.
So to represent to the public that I would support absorbing 100% of our budget shortfall within public education is a purposeful misrepresentation for the benefit of fooling voters. This is the very definition of “negative campaigning”. I would hope she retracts her statement, apologizes for misleading voters, and better adheres to her pledge of running a positive campaign.
Jeanne Nicholson is a Democrat running for one of the Colorado state legislature’s most competitive races this year: Senate District 16. In an email sent out yesterday morning, she regurgitated an alleged statistic that lies somewhere between misleading and utterly meaningless:
…In these uncertain times public schools are under attack. My opponent in this race is calling for a billion dollar cut to the state’s education budget. I don’t need to tell you that a budget cut on this scale would devastate our public schools already ranked 49th in the nation in funding per student.
First of all, it should be noted there is no evidence I can find that Nicholson’s Republican opponent Tim Leonard has made any sort of a call. But that just looks like the usual election season hyperbole. What I am more concerned about is the absurd claim that Colorado ranks 49th in per-pupil K-12 funding. I’ve debunked ittime and againbefore. But here we go again for the record so other candidates, officials and groups this year avoid repeating the spurious claim: Read the rest of this entry »
Ed News Colorado posted an interesting piece by Todd Engdahl this morning on the political support of the five in-state education interest groups that endorse and contribute to candidates:
Colorado Education Association (CEA)
American Federation of Teachers Colorado (AFT)
Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE)
Democrats for Education Reform (DFER)
Stand for Children Colorado (Stand)
Unsurprisingly Engdahl reports:
Of the more than 130 contributions or endorsements by the five groups, 90 percent went to Democratics [sic]. Only CASE (seven of 32 total) and Stand for Children (five of 18) endorsed Republicans. (Stand also endorsed the legislature’s only independent, former Democratic Rep. Kathleen Curry of Gunnison.)
The five groups cover a majority of the legislative races on the ballot – 47 of 65 House contests and 16 of 19 Senate races. (Because senators serve four-year terms, an additional 16 Senate seats aren’t up for election this year this year.)
But, individual group contributions and endorsements don’t necessarily follow simple patterns. Teachers unions like CEA and AFT-Colorado don’t give money just based on how candidates stand on specific bills or issues; they also have a longstanding pattern of of seeking to elect Democratic majorities.
The focus of the article is somewhat narrow. So I decided to add some context and clarification to get a sense of the relative scope of support: Read the rest of this entry »
An interesting political poll is out today, commissioned by the group Public Notice and conducted jointly by The Tarrance Group and Hart Research. What’s interesting for this time on the calendar is that it asks no questions about candidates or ballot issues. But the results from 500 likely Colorado voters (asked between Sept 12 and 15) offer some valuable, if not terribly surprising, insights about the upcoming election:
68% of likely voters say government spending is too high; only 10% say it is too low….
Nearly two thirds (61%) named government spending among the most important issues to their vote….
Nearly two thirds (65%) say government spending is a factor in their own financial situation….
The perceived impact of government spending reaches across all income levels, from those making less than $30,000 per year (61%) to voters making $100,000 and over (56%)….
Voters are cynical about the nation’s fiscal future: less than half (39%) believe they will see another federal budget surplus in their lifetime.
And now a little blast from the past… Funny how some stories more easily disappear when it’s the heart of election season and the story casts a liberal Democrat incumbent in a bad light. The last Saturday in September is the perfect time to dive back into the Mount Virtus archives to remind readers why it’s time to bring home my Democratic Congressman.
From July 15, 2009, a look at ethically challenged Ed Perlmutter and a Washington Times scoop that should find its way back onto the radar of local political reporters:
Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Colorado inserted a provision into the recently passed House climate change bill that would drum up business for “green” banks, such as the one he has invested in and his family and a political donor helped found in San Francisco.
Winning back one house of Congress will be nice, but lovers of liberty and limited government will have to wait longer to undo some of the damage done by executive order. One of the latest cases in point: Obama’s Department of Education asserting federal government power into the private higher education accreditation process, providing a threat to academic freedom.
Cal Thomas, one of my favorite syndicated columnists, brought attention to the story in his Wednesday piece — with a special focus on Colorado:
Former U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong, now president of Colorado Christian University, wrote a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan on July 30. In it, he warned of an “all-out politicization of American higher education, endangering academic freedom, due process and First Amendment rights.”
