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Time to Respond to Denver Post’s Anti-DougCo Voucher Letter Writers

Update, Noon: Here is the one-page summary of official recommendations made to the Douglas County Board of Education by the School Choice Task Force's "Option Certificates" subcommittee. So unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past couple weeks, you may have heard Douglas County -- one of Colorado's largest school districts -- is considering the adoption of a local voucher-style private school choice program. Independence Institute blogger "Eddie" has covered the story well here and here. With all the coverage in the Denver Post, it's not surprising that plenty of readers wanted to weigh in with letters published in Sunday's Perspective section. I was disappointed to see most of the letters rely on misinformed premises … [Read more...]

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9-12 and Tea Party Groups to Tancredo: Reconsider Your Ultimatum

Lu Busse, Chair of the 9.12 Project Colorado Coalition, this evening dispatched an open letter to Tom Tancredo in response to the former Congressman's serious threat to run as a 3rd party candidate for governor if Scott McInnis and Dan Maes don't announce they will drop out of the race by tomorrow at noon. The letter is copied in full below the fold: … [Read more...]

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Stapleton, Gschwendtner, Hurlbert Await Fateful Day for Ballot Petition Results

Update, 6/11: Final results are in. As expected, Walker Stapleton moves forward. Gubernatorial candidate Joe Gschwendtner and state senate candidate Mark Hurlbert both failed to make the ballot -- the former by a mere 242 out of 10,500 votes. "They won't have Joe G to kick around anymore." One day to go for the Colorado Secretary of State's office to verify whether candidates who opted to petition onto the ballot collected a sufficient number of signatures to move ahead. The updated list is here (PDF). As of 5 PM on Thursday, five candidates (including Jane Norton for U.S. Senate) have qualified for the ballot and one was disqualified. The fate of two Democrat and five Republican campaigns are up in the air, including: State … [Read more...]

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Outrageous Attacks Abound in Colorado GOP U.S. Senate Primary Race

If I were to pick candidates to support in this year's primary based on the ill behavior of political allies, I wouldn't be able to back Jane Norton or Ken Buck to be Colorado's next U.S. Senator. First, it was the over-the-top attacks from Norton lieutenant Josh Penry (whom I had enthusiastically decided to endorse during his brief, abortive run for governor) against Buck. Then yesterday I nearly fell out of my chair when I read this bizarre hit piece by Red State's Erick Erickson on Jane Norton. Until today, most of Buck-backer Erickson's jabs at Norton have been at least somewhat reasonable. Then he highlighted this passage from an AP story: … [Read more...]

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Colorado State House Breakdown: Majority Up for Grabs, Tiny GOP Edge

On Thursday I updated the rankings of Colorado's competitive state senate seats. After 15 weeks it's also time to update the Colorado state house rankings. A quick overview: There are 65 seats in the Colorado state house, and all of them are up for re-election every two years. State representatives are limited to four two-year terms of service. Currently, the Democratic majority holds 37 seats and Republicans 27, with one seat belonging to unaffiliated (and former Democrat) Kathleen Curry. Fifty-two incumbents are running to retain their seats: 30 Democrats (including 2 vacancy appointments), 21 Republicans (including 2 vacancy appointments) and Curry. That leaves 7 open Democrat and 6 Republican seats. Interestingly, Colorado … [Read more...]

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Dean Boehler’s Emerging Campaign Shows 2010 Election Uncertainty

Update: For comparison, a video of Ellen Roberts' SD 6 assembly speech also has been posted. It's been a few months since I provided an update of Colorado state senate races. I rated Senate District 6 -- in southwest Colorado, on the other side of the state -- as the number one Republican target, noting with current Rep. Ellen Roberts remaining on pace fundraising with Democrat incumbent Bruce Whitehead that, "This seat remains the closest to an automatic party switch in the fall." But the people of Senate District 6 will have something to say about the matter first. Last Saturday the late-entry campaign of San Miguel County's conservative Dean Boehler took some state political observers by storm by capturing 66 percent of the … [Read more...]

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Nip Bad Elections Bill in the Bud

How many truly bad ideas can come up in the course of one Colorado legislative session? More than you may think (or maybe not). The latest hasn't even been formally introduced yet, but the backlash has grown strong. Fox31 News reports on a proposal that would open up Colorado's election system to fraud and abuse:The 68-page draft bill, likely to be sponsored by House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D- Denver, and introduced later this week, would allow Colorado voters to register just three days before the 2010 election. Currently, Coloradans must register to vote up until 29 days before an election. Carroll says allowing a longer registration period will open the door to greater voter turnout. But Republicans see it as a blatant attempt to … [Read more...]

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Taxpayers for Liberty: Who Is This Group Playing in U.S. Senate Race?

Update: Scanned copy of the March 5 Taxpayers for Liberty letter posted below. Yesterday I received a strange mailing from a group called Taxpayers for Liberty. (Many of my fellow conservative, politically-active Colorado friends likely received the same.) It's a self-described 501c4 organization with a Denver P.O. Box and an executive director named Andrew O'Neill -- I'm almost positive it's not this Andrew O'Neill. I will take time later today to scan and post the four-page letter, along with the attached questionnaire and reply form, so you can see the mailing for yourself. It looks a lot like your standard political fundraising letter, with short paragraphs and heavy on underlined text and bullet points. Suffice it to say, the … [Read more...]