Mount Virtus

"Happy to come back to Michigan, but I miss the mountains!"

Ben on Social Media

Home Archives for Colorado Politics

By Leave a Comment

More Unions Jockeying to Get a Piece of State Employee Action

From this week's edition of the always insightful & entertaining Education Intelligence Agency Communique:2) Colorado Public Employees Union Hooks Up with CWA. Organized labor in Colorado is about to become very volatile. The dust has yet to settle from Gov. Bill Ritter's executive order establishing "partnerships" between state agencies and labor unions, which is clearly the prelude to public sector collective bargaining. The plans of Colorado WINS, a coalition of SEIU, AFSCME and AFT, are in evidence in the new organization's founding documents, first released exclusively by EIA on November 19. But Colorado WINS will have some competition. The formerly AFT-affiliated Colorado Federation of Public Employees has dissolved and … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

CDOT “Partnership” Success Begs Questions about Ritter Order

The Pueblo Chieftain's Charles Ashby reports (H/T Mike Saccone) that Gov. Bill Ritter and the Democrats are trotting out a Republican state department chief as safe cover for his executive order: A Republican Cabinet member in Gov. Bill Ritter's administration already has found the governor's plan to "partner" with state workers beneficial to running his de- partment. But Russell George, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation, would have done that anyway, the former GOP House speaker said. "It's very much in my nature to want to know the people I work with," said George, who previously was head of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources under former Gov. Bill Owens. "So, as I got here, I would have … [Read more...]

By 6 Comments

The Time for a Fred Comeback Would Be Now

Erick at Red State charts a path for Fred Thompson's tired campaign to come back and make a surprising resurgence. And let me tell you, I'd be pleased to see him do it. If Colorado's caucus were held today, Fred would get my vote. The most recent Rasmussen results show the Centennial State is a wide open playing field for Republican candidates, as a lot of GOP members like myself are adopting a wait-and-see attitude:Which of the following Republican candidates is most in tune with the attitudes and needs of Colorado? 19% John McCain. 14% Rudy Giuliani 14% Fred Thompson 12% Ron Paul 9% Mike Huckabee 8% Mitt Romney 16% None of the above 8% Not sure So here's hoping Fred has really found his stride. Today's … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

“So What” Report Confirms Ritter’s Solution in Search of Problem

Doing its duty in support of the Left-liberal Colorado coalition, the Bell Policy Center released a report today that expends a lot of megabytes (and ink?) to say almost nothing relevant. The Rocky Mountain News first picked up on the story:Labor-management partnerships such as the one Gov. Bill Ritter ordered for state government are positive on balance, according to a report by the Bell Policy Center — a group that consulted with Ritter's staff as he launched his partnership plan. However, such agreements mostly have been used to turn around adversarial labor-management relations in already unionized workplaces with collective bargaining, the report points out. [emphasis added]The report presents zero evidence of so-called … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Dem Divide: “Dump Udall”

Boulder liberal Rep. Mark Udall wants Colorado to choose him as our next U.S. Senator, but he is treading a fine line of confusion on the most important issue of our times. From the Aspen Times comes this gem: Thursday, Udall's plans were momentarily derailed when protester George Newell positioned himself behind the congressman, directly in line with cameras of local photographers. Newell carried a sign saying, "Dump Udall. He Votes For War" - a reference to Udall's recent vote for passage of a $100 billion war bill sought by President Bush. When one of Udall's staff tried to get Newell to step away, the protester reacted angrily, saying, "That's assault." When Udall joined in with a politely-phrased request to get out of the way, … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Ritter’s State Union Proposal Deserves Scrutiny

The fact that Gov. Bill Ritter and his Democrat cohort wants to impose mandatory collective bargaining on Colorado state employees has been the Capitol's worst-kept secret for 2006. Today, the Rocky Mountain News quotes a leading Democrat legislator as confirming the rumors: Senate President Joan Fitz- Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon, confirmed she has heard Ritter's office may be working on a state government reform package that could include collective bargaining for state employees. And she spoke positively of the possibility. "Under the Owens years, the state employees did not fare well and they lost a lot of their benefits," she said. Ritter declined to talk specifics on a possible initiative. "We're working on how to best … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Lt. Col (Rep.) Rice off to Iraq

Godspeed to Lt. Col. (and state representative) Joe Rice, who will be deployed to Baghdad for a three-month stint starting in October, as reported today in the Denver Post's Politics West: Rice, who has three young children, said he looks forward to getting the “feel of the street” in Baghdad. “Unless you are out there on the street, you just don’t get it,” he said. As an operations analyst, Rice will look for the best practices among reconstruction teams. He plans to spend a lot of time with the Iraqi police force. Rice, who has been in the Army for 23 years, said he didn’t think about asking for a special deployment exemption because he is a state lawmaker. I am honored to have met Rep. Rice in May 2006, before he … [Read more...]

By Leave a Comment

Media Matters Acknowledges Democrats’ Marriage to Defeat

An irrelevant left wing "watchdog" group named Media Matters has reprinted the comments of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer on Greeley's Amy Oliver Show. The key excerpt of Schaffer's comments highlighted by Media Matters goes as follows: "I think it's foolish to behave the way you see people like Harry Reid and other, others who are leading the Senate right now, that I think are trying to, at the end, the analysis of their achievement and what they are effectively accomplishing is a deliberate loss and a surrender in Iraq for the sake of their political advantage at election time in 2008. I think they're hoping America loses." The comments were reported and repeated uncritically, which can only lead an open-minded observer … [Read more...]