Support for Education Reform Funds = Support for Bill Ritter’s Re-Election?

Update, 10/24: Received a third pro-Obama Care email from Bill Ritter (and Mark Udall and Michael Bennet) today, still nothing on education reform …

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has a page set up where you can sign a petition to support the state’s effort to receive federal Race to the Top competitive grant dollars that support education reform. If you sign the petition, you end up on some sort of mailing list for Ritter’s re-election campaign. In the two weeks since I signed the petition I’ve received two mass emails urging me to back Obama Care!

Here’s the complete text of the online petition:

Colorado has proposed and is implementing a number of innovative educational reforms to improve school performance and expand opportunities for every Colorado student. As one of several states “leading the way on school reform,” Colorado is well-positioned to receive a piece of the U.S. Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” federal grant funds.

Over the past three years, Colorado has implemented numerous programs and policies that conform closely to the “Race to the Top” grant eligibility requirements established by the U.S. Department of Education.

This federal funding would accelerate implementation of the successful reform efforts already underway in Colorado.

I urge the U.S. Department of Education to recognize Colorado’s distinct education reform initiatives, and to award Colorado a “Race to the Top” grant so that it can continue to implement innovative solutions to improve all levels of education.

So have I received any email updates about education reform and the “Race to the Top” grant process yet? No. It’s only been a little over two weeks after all.

But a week after signing the online petition I did receive an email from Bill Ritter urging me to tell health insurance lobbyists to shut up. Then yesterday I received an email co-signed by our Democratic Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet urging me to contact Congress to stop a filibuster of the “public option”. Puh-lease. I’m just waiting for the big fundraising ask next.

Is what Bill Ritter doing legal? Yes. Is it ethical? Or perhaps a sign of incompetence? You decide.

To me, however, it sure seems like a classic bait-and-switch. Kind of reminiscent of the Democrat shell game that has given Coloradans the unpopular car tax, and opened the door for Ritter’s 2010 defeat to rising Republican star Josh Penry to be our next governor.