March is a bad month for Colorado Senate Majority Leader John Morse. Last year about this time he went a little ballistic at Amazon.com on a YouTube video he created -- trying to blame the company for deciding to terminate its Colorado Affiliates program rather than pay the Democrats' new tax. Last year's episode looks like a warm-up act for this year's arrogant display, with John Morse threatening the private homes of citizens who filed an ethics complaint against him. You see, March so far has been filled with Colorado Peak Politics (if you're not reading this blog regularly, you should be! ... and no, I don't know who is behind it) reporting on a brewing scandal: Democrat legislative leader Morse claiming $40,000 in public … [Read more...]
Numbers Show Government Employees Top Private Sector Counterparts in Colorado’s Union Membership
It looks very much like Colorado is only one year behind in achieving a labor movement milestone measured at the national level. A little over a year ago I reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) finding that government employees represented a numerical majority of the unionized workforce in the United States. (You can listen to a 2010 iVoices podcast on this finding that I recorded with the Alliance for Worker Freedom.) This milestone is the culmination of a decades-long trend in which private sector unions have diminished while Big Labor has targeted government agencies as fruitful sources of revenue. As of 2010, we have the first strong indications that the same observation can be made of Colorado -- namely, that more of the … [Read more...]
Irony, Hypocrisy (and Independence?) in Lefties’ Anti-Koch Brother Campaign
Update, 9:00 PM: Common Cause issued a formal "apology" for the vile behavior of its rally attendees, a statement thoroughly deconstructed by James Taranto, who concludes with the zinger: "For the sake of truth in advertising, Common Cause should change its name to Hypocrisy Hub." Ouch. That's going to leave a mark. Independent new media journalist Christian Hartsock has a compelling piece up at Andrew Breitbart's Big Government blog. Hartsock went to cover an event sponsored by the Progressive group Common Cause. The goal seemingly was to organize a grassroots protest of the pro-free market billionaire Koch Brothers and conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas for some imaginary collusion on the … [Read more...]
Surprise, Surprise: John Hickenlooper Calls Todd Shepherd On 850 KOA
Kudos to my friend and colleague Todd Shepherd (of Complete Colorado fame) for catching a surprise exclusive live interview with Colorado's new governor. In the middle of hosting the Sunday afternoon show on 850 KOA, Todd's jaw hit the floor when none other than John Hickenlooper heard his name being discussed and called in to the show while en route from Pueblo to an event in Colorado Springs. Click here for the full hour's audio: the Hickenlooper call starts about halfway through (not to be completely overshadowed is Todd's discussion with Colorado RNC committeeman and former state treasurer Mark Hillman at the top of the hour). Todd took a few minutes to get the softballs out of the way. But then he went to work with a series of … [Read more...]
Twenty-Eleven Means I’m Back
The New Year has arrived, and my long hiatus from serious blogging is over. For any blogger, a long hiatus can be a dangerous proposition -- threatening the already tenuously small readership and helping people to forget about you. Look, many of you already were going to forget about me anyway over the Christmas / New Year holiday anyway. And having blogged here for nearly seven years (can you believe that?), I felt secure enough to take the time off. But one major reason for the break was to gear up mentally and spiritually for the battles that lie ahead. Contributing to all the apparently positive gains in the 2010 elections, in Congress and elsewhere? That took some effort, to be sure. The real challenge lies ahead, however -- among … [Read more...]
Weld County School Board Challenged for Taking On Local Union Prerogatives
Colorado is an interesting place for education reform, for many reasons. Among them are issues related to teacher professional membership and representation: In Colorado, public school teachers have a right to join or not join (and not pay fees to) a union or other professional membership organization. In Colorado, elected school boards are not obligated to enter a collective bargaining relationship with teachers or other employees. In Colorado, no state laws define collective bargaining for government workers, nor any of the related procedures and guidelines. In Colorado, school districts with active collective bargaining agreements are required to post them online (and have them available in the school office) for transparency and … [Read more...]
Colorado Education Association Members Can Get EMO Political Refunds Until December 15 Deadline
Spend 99.9% of member dues political funds on Democrats over Republicans (at a 50% success rate for the most heavily funded candidates)? Check. Give $250,000 in member funds to the 527 group Accountability for Colorado, with a track record of negative political smears -- a group denounced by candidates in both parties and by Denver Post columnist Vince Carroll for maliciously distorting the truth? Check. Remember: The deadline to request the Every Member Option political refund is December 15. CEA members can go directly here to make an online request of the $39 refund. To find out more information, including on local union refunds, visit the Independent Teachers web site. … [Read more...]
Colorado GOP, What Do You Want to See in the Next State Party Chair?
The midterm elections are more than a week past in the rearview mirror. Time to stop navel-gazing and focus on the future. In that spirit, I wanted to pass on the link to a survey for serious Colorado Republicans. One of the next is choosing leadership for the state party, as the central committee is scheduled to convene in a few months. Make your opinion known of what qualities and characteristics will be important in the next Colorado Republican Party state chair. I look forward to seeing the results of the survey. … [Read more...]
Colorado GOP Candidates Who Fell Short But Can See Bright Futures
A full week has passed since the Election. We all know the results. For the winners it's transition time. New members headed off to Congress -- at least one pegged with a remarkably bright political future. I'm proud to see a new secretary of state in Colorado, a new state treasurer, not to mention the "Mighty Six" GOP upstarts who took over formerly Democratic seats to reclaim the state house majority. But what about those Colorado Republican candidates who threw their hats into the ring, who entered the arena and did battle, yet came up short? Some of them we won't see on the electoral stage again (in some cases, thankfully). For others, a potentially bright political future remains. Here are a few: … [Read more...]
Non-Union State Employee Closes Up Tongue-in-Cheek ColoradoLoses
Today marks the end of an era. The state employee who started the non-union group ColoradoLoses as an answer to Colorado WINS, the union coalition outgoing Governor Bill Ritter invited into Denver by executive order in 2007. Dave Ohmart posted the announcement on his website earlier today:I am shutting ColoradoLoses down. Thaks so much for the support you showed me over the past two and a half years. WINS will be shutting down too, I believe. They have lost support and are near bankruptcy. I don't have any independent information to confirm or challenge Dave's assessment and prediction. But it's important to note that Colorado WINS (a joint coalition of SEIU, AFSCME and AFT) did gain its semi-exalted bargaining position, after … [Read more...]
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