Coming under fire recently, conservative Republican state senate candidate Mike Kopp has found himself engaged in a fierce political battle that wasn’t anticipated a few months ago. Senate District 22 in southern Jefferson County has a significant edge in Republican voter registration. But ever since the distinguished Army veteran and father of three edged out appointed incumbent Kiki Traylor in a tough primary vote, a race that should have been safely in the Republican column is now in play.
Smelling blood and hoping for an upset victory, Democrats set their big gun targets on Mike and have not let up, hoping to put their candidate Paula Noonan on top. Besides the usual bag of cheap dirty tactics (e.g., stealing campaign signs), pro-Noonan thugs have sent hate mail to Mike’s wife. Meanwhile, Noonan’s campaign exploited the school shooting tragedy in Bailey by sending out mailings that grossly distort Mike’s stance on the gun issue. Another mailing she sent out accuses Kopp of opposing “stem cell research,” without mentioning the important distinction of adult vs. embryonic.
Typical deceitful trash.
But it’s easy to see why the Democrat candidate and her cohorts are slinging mud and bile as fast as they can: to take voters’ eyes off her own record. She repeatedly refuses to submit responses to voter surveys and answer the tough questions. Instead, it’s been about practicing the politics of personal destruction, both personally and via her liberal cohorts.
Meanwhile, as Peter Blake has pointed out, Noonan has dumped more than $200,000 of her own money into her campaign to win the state senate seat. Maybe, it’s just the typically bad judgment of a big government spender (how much less frugal would she be spending YOUR money?), but it also strongly signifies an ideologically-driven attempt to win elected office. That right there should be enough to give pause to voters in SD-22.
If she is running an ideologically-driven campaign yet won’t disclose her views on voter surveys, what can we know about Paula Noonan’s political worldview? We look at her endorsements, affiliations, and campaign contributions. So with that, just a few questions (controversial 527-funded phone calls aside, voters still deserve to know the answers to these questions to make the most informed choice):
1. Taking money from Colorado Ceasefire and earning the endorsement of the radical gun control group Secure Colorado, what does she think of your right to bear arms?
2. Taking money from the Mountain West Regional Council of Carpenters, what is she going to do to ensure better enforcement that employers are abiding by immigration laws?
3. Taking money from the Colorado Education Association, whose interests would she look out for first: students & families, or education employees?
4. Taking money from Tim Gill and the GLBT Caucus of Jefferson County, is she going to push forward the radical agenda of homosexual marriage?
5. Taking money from NARAL, what is she going to do partial-birth abortions and government funding of abortions?
6. Married to a liberal environmentalist financier whose foundation fought to forcibly remove water rights from the Mountain Ute tribe, what does she think of private water rights and of private property rights in general?
Voters in SD-22 deserve to hear the answers to these questions before making this important choice. Noonan herself has credited Mike for being a straightforward and honest candidate. We know where he stands on the issues – even if his opponent tries to lie and distort his record.
So why is Paula Noonan so afraid to tell us why she wants to spend $200,000 of her own money for a seat in the state legislature?
Because she wants to win?
As if Republicans don’t routinely spend their own money on their campaign efforts. Give me a break. We’re supposed to worry about “an ideologically-driven attempt to win elected office”? In America, we call that “a campaign.”
Seriously, you protest too much and this all comes off sounding rather desperate and silly.
Kopp is a Tancredo clone who wants to turn public schools into ministries–it’s his life’s work, as he admits. Maybe Kopp is just not mainstream enough to get elected in Colorado.
“Kopp is a Tancredo clone who wants to turn public schools into ministries–it’s his life’s work, as he admits. Maybe Kopp is just not mainstream enough to get elected in Colorado.”
You just couldn’t resist sounding “rather desperate and silly” yourself, could you?
Maybe Noonan is not mainstream enough to get elected, either. I guess it depends on your point of view.
Sure, candidates often spend their own $$ to get themselves elected, and should be able to spend as much as they want. As long as the voters are fully aware.
There is a difference between a “campaign” and trying to buying a senate seat. She is nearing $1/4 million and still pouring money in!
Ben what is typically spent in state senate races?
I think when this is all over one thing will be clear. South Jeffco is safely conservative.
“So why is Paula Noonan so afraid to tell us why she wants to spend $200,000 of her own money for a seat in the state legislature? ”
I’m confused. Is she in thrall to all the groups you demonize in the preceeding list, or is she paying for this herself?
And what is Mike Kopps position on legally owned guns killing kids in schools?
Where does Noonan find a 1/4 of a million dollars to put in her campaign when she can’t pay a $160 bill to the City of Littleton for sanitation service last year, resulting in a lien on her and her husbands house? I find this amusing since a letter to the local rag, the Columbine Courier last week had a letter to the editor from Noonan’s exterminator praising her for paying her bill on time.
EVeryone who wants to know:
Bob Beauprez, Benson, and just about every other
Republican out there has put significant dollars into their campaign. Is it news when a Democrat decides to do so? I am in this campaign because Mike Kopp is not mainstream Jefferson County. He does not support embryonic stem cell research, he does not support basic checks on people who want to carry concealed (which would have resulted in felons carrying concealed weapons); he stated in a letter to Rocky Mountain Gun Owners that “I oppose gun control. Period,” and the state legislator needs a “gun hero”; and he wants to put a South Dakota anti choice law in place here.
I’m Paula NOonan, and this is why I’m running. I think the state doesn’t need an extremist in office. The people of Jefferson County want someone who is focused on issues important to them: great public schools; accessible and affordable health care; a strong economy for a prosperous and thriving Colorado; and enforcement of immigration laws so employers can’t abuse their competitors with low cost/no benefit employees and fob health care costs onto the rest of us.
If this agenda sounds sensible to you, then you should vote for me, Paula Noonan. If you want an agenda that will roll back all gun control (remember, Kopp said, “I oppose gun control, Period,”) will take away completely a woman’s right to make her own medical choices; and will drain our public schools of needed resources and siphon the dollars off to religious schools, that is Mike Kopp.
I note too, that Mike Kopp, who states he is a Christian minister, did not declare his misdemeanor conviction for bad check writing in North Carolina. Hey, everyone makes mistakes when they are young and in the Army – but he did not give the people of south Jeffco accurate information on that RMN questionnaire, and that goes to the heart of his integrity.
Finally, as to the RM News questionnaire, I did fill it out. But there is another candidate with the same last name and first initial as I have. The RMN didn not have adequate security in their system and the two of us ended up changing each others’ answers (she’s a candidate from Aurora). After that massive mess up, I didn’t trust the RMN to protect my questionnaire adequately, and they took it down. I didn’t like my responses being changed without my knowledge or permission. You can check this out with the RMN.
Based on that, I do resent the implication by the Kopp campaign that I didn’t answer the questionnaire and am hiding my positions. If anyone wants to see my positions, they are fully explained on my website, Noonan4senate.com. Paula Noonan
To anyone who wants to know:
A couple of other points: My husband is not a financier – he is a retired employee of the US Dep’t of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. He opposes the boondoggle Animas LaPlata project, which I assume Mt. Virtus would too since the project is a huge waste of federal dollars that all of us will be paying to supply a Ute water right that, according to the US Supreme Court, was already satisfied (court decision, 1972.)
Finally, I said Mike Kopp was straightforward in his extreme views – I did not say he was honest because, if one looks at his reply to the RMN, he was not honest. Further, he used names as supporters, such as Sheriff Ted Mink and Health One, who have asked him not to use their name because of his intolerant views on gays. In case Mike doesn’t know it, there are gays in Ted Mink’s sheriff department, and Health One has gay employees and serves gays as patients. I’m wondering why Mike would think it’s acceptable to trash talk the gay community when there are also gay residents in his Senate District who would need representation, just as much as Christian Evangelicals would and should expect representation, no matter who wins this election.
I will represent everyone in the district and my door will be open to everyone. Mike’s door would obviously be closed to anyone, such as Ted Haggard, who does not tow a certain line. I think that is a prima facie disqualification for office, but then, that’s my bias. Paula Noonan
Ms. Noonan, thank you for leaving your comment. There is plenty of room for heated disagreement in an election campaign, so I appreciate your efforts to clarify your positions. The respective campaigns in SD-22 have had plenty of chances to make their case to the voters of their district, and from everything I can tell there is a very clear distinction of a strongly conservative candidate vs. a strongly liberal candidate. You are certainly no closer to the center of the political spectrum than your Republican opponent.
Personally, I think you distort some of Mike Kopp’s views as much as you believe I have distorted yours. But I think this is primarily reflected in the vast difference of worldview and philosophy between the two candidates. All other considerations aside, Mike Kopp is not only more closely aligned with my own beliefs but – I believe – also with a majority of the district’s voters.
And soon we all can be glad that the election is over.
I haven’t heard of any other candidate for the Colo General Assembly spending $200,000 of her own money to buy a seat. Paula Noonan is setting a state record. Obviously an ambitious person but unable to raise broad based support. I wonder how many voters in the district have that much extra cash laying around. Sounds like a limousine liberal, to me.
To anyone who cares:
I am hardly a limousine liberal. I have a 1999 audi which I bought used. I started my life with a Datsun 1200, and drove it for 112000. Every dime of my money I earned the hard way. I have worked hard, both teaching and working for the corporate environment, my whole career. I would think that my work ethic and ability to make money would be something most Republicans would admire.
I am a person who does not judge people for by their biological differences. I judge people by their character. Any person who uses slurs, innuendo, and slams against a group of people because oftheir differences rings hollow with me. Why don’t Mike and his supporters discuss issues through civil discourse? Why do Mike and his supporters toss red herrings, argue to the person and to the type rather than to the ideas?
I still haven’t heard from Mike about his misuse of the Health One “support.” That organization didn’t appreciate him using its name to aggrandize his campaign, to wit:
From: “Kanamine Linda”
Subject: HealthONE email
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 18:49:26 +0000
> I appreciate your feedback regarding this disturbing election mailing.
> It is true that HealthONE sent Candidate Mike Kopp a PAC fund check
> near the time of the primaries. He had never voiced any anti-gay
> sentiments at that time, and our lobbyists recommended we support him.
>
> We first learned about this mailing when Paula Noonan called me late
> last week. I was very surprised that we would be listed on a mailing
> without our permission – and that it would be associated with
> sentiments that we would never condone, nor advocate.
>
> Please be clear on this: HealthONE supports equal opportunity and
> civil rights, we have a significant population of gay employees among
> our 9,000 employees in metro Denver, and we were among the first large
> companies in the state to offer domestic partnership benefits for
> employees.
>
> We have asked the Kopp campaign to apologize and cease using our name
> with his campaign. We also expressed our displeasure with the
> Republican Senate leadership. Unfortunately, their responsiveness has
> not been quick or satisfactory.
>
> We will continue to try to right the record. It’s unfortunate that
> our good name has been dragged down in this dirty campaign season.
>
> Linda Kanamine
> VP Public Affairs
> HealthONE
>