Today is Wednesday, March 10, 2010


Kathleen Conti will challenge Rep. Joe Rice in Colorado house district 38; Rick Gillit drops out

Littleton Republican Kathleen Conti will challenge Democrat Rep. Joe Rice in state house district 38. Rick Gillit, a member of of the Englewood city council, has dropped out of the race for the GOP's nomination to challenge Rice. Conti owns a small business.

Tom Munds reports,

Conti has an extensive business background. She built two successful businesses over the past two decades and now is a principal associate for SMM Foods. She and her husband operate their office out of her home while the manufacturing facility is in Golden.

The Republican challenger and her husband Ralph have lived in the Denver metro area for years and moved to Littleton in 2007. They have two sons, Andrew, 20, and David, 18. 

Conti said she has been active in grassroots movements more than in the regular Republican Party events. She also has been active in the community. Her activities include a trip as a volunteer to help the Haitian earthquake victims.

Arapahoe County commissioner: Jim Dyer won’t seek re-election, Nancy Sharpe, Lauri Clapp want job

Arapahoe County Commissioner Jim Dyer, a Republican and a former state senator, won't seek re-election in district two. Greenwood Village Mayor Nancy Sharpe and former State Rep. Lauri Clapp will seek the GOP's nomination to succeed him. The race is expected to be spirited. Sharpe is highly respected and very popular, and she's expected to have little trouble raising money for her campaign. Clapp lost a race for the state Senate in 2008, which wasn't a good year for Republicans. Dyer is supporting Sharpe and explained why to Lynn Bartels. Impact graphs from Bartels:

Dyer said he is backing Sharpe, saying Clapp would be a “disaster” and he fears if she wins the nomination, Democrats will take the seat in November.

He charged that Clapp ran a lackluster Senate campaign in 2008, and lost what had been a Republican seat to Democrat Linda Newell  

“I worked very hard in that campaign,” Clapp countered. “It just wasn’t a very good year for Republicans.

“I have a very good reputation in Arapahoe County. I have an excellent reputation as a legislator. Not only am I going to win this primary, I am going to win in November.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers endorses Jane Norton for U.S. Senate

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has endorsed former Lt. Governor Jane Norton for the U.S. Senate.

“Jane Norton is a person of principle and integrity, and I am certain she will be an exceptional representative for the citizens of this state in the U.S. Senate,” commented Suthers. “She has a proven track record of experience in tackling and solving big issues, and I believe she is the right person to stand up for Colorado’s law enforcement community in our nation’s capitol," he said.

“Jane Norton is just what we need in the U.S. Senate: a Colorado conservative,” continued Suthers. “She will be a strong voice for common sense solutions to the challenges we face,” he said.

“The people of Colorado couldn’t ask for a better Attorney General than John Suthers,” said Norton in a press release. “He is a true statesman and model of how to solve law enforcement challenges through cooperation and hard work. I am proud to have his backing as we continue to work to return Colorado values to the United States Senate."

Suthers who so far is running unopposed for re-election as attorney general, is a former U.S. Attorney and former member of Governor Bill Owens’ cabinet. He currently serves on the executive committee of the National Association of Attorneys General and as chairman of the Conference of Western Attorneys General. 

Rasmsussen Poll: Scott McInnis 48%, John Hickenlooper 42%; independents like Mcinnis 50% to 35%

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis is leading Obama-Democrat Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper 48% to 42%. A month ago, Hick led McInnis 49% to 45%. Three percent of Colorado voters opt for another candidate, most likely Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes. "Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Colorado voters hold a very favorable opinion of Hickenlooper, while 13% view him very unfavorably. McInnis is viewed very favorably by 17% and very unfavorably by 10%," according to Rasmussen. That's not so good for McInnis.

Also, 46% of Colorado voters view the Tea Party  movement favorably and 37% unfavorably. "Still, only 18% of Colorado voters consider themselves a part of the movement, while 68% do not," according to Rasmussen. Maes and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck are appealing to the Tea Party voters.  More here.

Amazon’s fired Colo. affilliates see how Democrats’ Internet taxes hurt small e-commerce businesses

Fired Colorado businesses and not-for-profits that were affiliates of Amazon until Governor Bill Ritter and tax and spend Democrats in the General Assembly enacted a new tax that caused Amazon to suspend its affiliations with Colorado-based web sites are learning that the Democrats are anti-small business. That's not news. The news is that there are some outraged former affiliates of Amazon who are staging a revolt in the comment's section of the Denver Post's comment section. When we had an e-commerce business we collected the state's sales taxes from our Colorado customers. And most e-commerce sites based in Colorado did the same. But in their greed for tax revenues, Ritter and his fellow Democrats over-reached despite warnings from Amazon and other small businesses. Now they get to play defense during the election campaign. Their problem is that they can't defend their blind irresponsibility. Read the comments on Jessica Fender's blog at The Spot. They're very entertaining. Chuck Plunkett notes that Hickenlooper misses his chance on Amazon tax. Scott McInnis put out a press release blasting Hickenlooper's complicity in passing the Internet tax that is costing Colorado businesses money.

Jimmy Lakey drops out of Colorado CD-7 race

Jimmy Lakey has dropped out of the Colorado seventh Congressional District race for the GOP's nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, Lynn Bartels reports. He cut his losses after it was learned that he had not registered to vote and that his claims that he had voted absentee couldn't be documented. Aurora Councilman Ryan Frazier remains the leading contender for the nomination. Lang Sias, Mike Sheely and Michael Demming also are running.

Will anti-taxpayer majority on Colorado Supreme Court continue to ignore TABOR on tax increases?

Former State Senator Mark Hillman challenges the Colorado Supreme Court to enforce the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) section of the state Constitution in a severance tax case. He mocks the court's "anti-taxpayer" majority to uphold TABOR rather than explain again that 'up is down,' 'round is square,' 'more is less' and that the plain language of the constitution doesn't really mean what it so obviously says." Most likely, the court will show once again that it's time to Clear the Bench.

Why aren’t Scott McInnis, Dan Maes and John Hickenlooper coming up with creative solutions?

This morning's Denver Post editorial complains, Candidates for governor are short on answers. That's for sure.

I've been following this gubernatorial campaign and the debate over what to do about taxes, spending and the budget deficit pretty closely.

What amazes me is not only that Scott McInnis and John Hickenlooper are refusing to take the risk of offending contributors to their campaigns and other special interests by offering real solutions for the state, but the deeply underfunded GOP candidate, Dan Maes, is basically following the same strategy.

From three guys who are promising to lead the state, we're seeing no creativity, no risk taking and no straight talk. McInnis and Hick are waiting for each other to make the first move. They're playing chicken. Each wants to attack the other. Negative ads work.

Maes is appealing to Tea Partiers, etc., but I can't figure out why they would pick him over the other two, because he agrees with McInnis on virtually all issues and promises to do things that probably are politically impossible because they require cooperation from the General Assembly.

McInnis is counting on out working Maes and HIck. He apparently thinks the anti-Obama Democrats tide will carry him to victory in November regardless of what he doesn't say.

Hick is counting on strong support from the hard left base. He apparently thinks he can charm independents into putting a tax and spend Democrat in the Governor's mansion despite the fact that he's an Obama-Bennet-Romanoff and DeGette Democrat.

Maes is hoping that the Texas election, which gave 19% of its primary vote to an underfunded Tea Party Republican candidate for governor last week, will be replicated in Colorado and will allow him to win more than the 30% of the state convention votes he needs to get on the August 10 primary ballot. He apparently thinks that if he does well at the convention, the campaign contributions that so far are not going his way suddenly will. He ought to talk to Mike Miles, an underfunded Democrat who did well at his party's state convention and was crushed by Ken Salazar in the August primary.

Bottom line. None of these guys knows what the economy will do, what kind of tax revenues to expect next year or how to fix the state's budget without raising taxes and cutting spending. Like most Americans, they're frozen in place and silenced by their uncertainty and fears of the unknown.

The question is, could Maes, McInnis or Hickenlooper win next November without telling voters what  he will try to do to fix the state's budget? Is hiding your plans from voters a winning strategy?

Tea Parties are influencing but not winning Republican primaries; bad news for Dan Maes, Ken Buck

Every Republican candidate in Colorado is trying to win the votes of Tea Party activists. Tea Party, 9.12 Project and related conservative groups are having a big impact on this year's GOP primaries. They are forcing candidates to focus on fiscal issues.

But primary elections in Illinois and Texas, where Tea Party candidates failed to elect candidates in Republican primaries, show that without successful campaign fundraising, Tea Party candidates are likely to have a tough time in Colorado's August 10 primary, if not at the May 22 state convention in Broomfield.

This suggests that all of the hard work that candidates like Ken Buck, Dan Maes, Cleve Tidwell and Ali Hasan have been doing for months may come to naught. Tea Party activists attend meetings and caucus training seminars, but they don't seem to be inclined to contribute to candidates. Without money, it will be nearly impossible for any of these candidates to win their GOP nominations or the general elections. Buck and Tidwell are running against Jane Norton for the U.S. Senate. They are splitting the anti-Norton votes with Tom Wiens who is running a mostly self-funded campaign. Maes is running against Scott McInnis for governor. Hasan is running against the establishment favorite, J. J. Ament, and an experienced portfolio manager, Walker Stapleton, for Treasurer. LINK: Tea Party candidates falling short.

U.S. government has $107 billion in contracts with multi national companies doing business with Iran

Even free trader patriots have to be dismayed that the Bush and Obama administrations have allowed the U.S. government to contract with 74 multi-national companies that are defying sanctions against Iran and are doing business with that rogue country. The New York Times shows how a determined group of reporters can put the spotlight on governmental and private sector hypocrisy and the willingness of the Feds and multi-nationals based in the U.S. and abroad to support Iran even as it sponsors terrorists around the world. Good story by Jo Becker and Ron Nixon. I don't think any Colorado-based companies are involved, but a lot of companies with operations and employees in the state are among the culprits.  

Jane Norton 44%, Andrew Romanoff 42%; Norton 48%, Michael Bennet 39%

Coloradans don't like Obamacare, and appointed Democrat Senator Michael Bennet is paying the price in the latest Rasmussen Reports polls, which show him trailing Jane Norton, Ken Buck and Tom Wiens.

Andrew Romanoff, who is challenging Bennet for the Democrats' nomination for the senate race, looks better against the Republicans than Bennet does. Bennet has been making headlines as a strong supporter of Obamacare. Rasmussen found that 43% of Coloradans favor Obamacare and 56% oppose it. More important, only 21% strongly favor Obamacare while 49% strongly oppose it.

While Romanoff is even a stronger backer of Obamacare than Bennet, the senator is better known and his support for the bill is costing him in the polls. Read the whole report here.

Where are Jane Norton, Scott McInnis, Ryan Frazier, other GOP candidtes on ObamaCare?

Why are Colorado Republican candidates for governor and Congress being so quiet about President Obama's dishonest efforts to shove ObamaCare down the throats of Americans?

Why aren't Jane Norton, Ken Buck, Tom Wiens, Scott McInnis, Dan Maes, Ryan Frazier, Cory Gardner and other Republican candidates putting pressure on Senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall and other Colorado Congressional Democrats to vote against ObamaCare?

If Republicans don't step up and help fight the Democrats over ObamaCare, why should Colorado voters think they will be real conservatives if they are elected?

Colorado's GOP candidates should dedicate the next two weeks to pressuring Bennet (admittedly a lost cause), Markey (a vulnerable Democrat in conservative CD-4) and Ed Perlmutter (also a lost cause) to vote against ObamaCare 2. 

We're looking for some political courage, and we'll be watching to see who knows how to fight for Colorado.

UPDATE: The McInnis campaign notes that he spoke out against ObamaCare early in his campaign and continues to. A You Tube video is here.

Diana DeGette is pretending she doesn’t like ObamaCare, which would expand Feds’ funding of abortion

Diana DeGette and pro-choice Democrats in the U.S. House are crying that the health deform bill being pushed by President Obama will restrict abortions, but the bill clearly would require the federal government to vastly expand its funding of abortion clinics and services.

This is a smoke and mirrors game by DeGette. She is pretending that that the Senate bill is too restrictive for pro-choice House Democrats so that the anti-abortion Democrats who are threatening to kill the bill will decide that the bill is anti-abortion and vote for it. That the Senate bill would expand government funding of abortion clinics and related services is very clear.

Why do Michael Bennet, Ed Perlmutter, Betsy Markey let Obama lie about $2.3 trillion health bill?

Why are Michael Bennet, Ed Perlmutter, Betsy Markey and Colorado's other Congressional Democrats saying nothing while President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid repeatedly lie about ObamaCare? Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) spelled out the Democrats' game playing at last week's health talkathon. Bennet, Perlmutter, Markey, John Salazar and Obama didn't listen, but America did.

Don't Colorado's Democrats know that by helping sell Obama's deceptions and accounting gimmicks they are complicit? They, too, must be called scandalously brazen liars. Americans are tired of the lies that politicians tell. At the moment, they see that the Democrats are lying more desperately than the Republicans, which is why the GOP appears to be riding a huge anti-Obama Democrat wave toward November's elections.

After the last 

When will Markey, Salazar, Perlmutter and Udall return contributions to disgraced Charlie Rangel?

Congressional Democrats around the country are rushing to donate to charities the contributions they received from Charlie Rangel (D-NY), who has been deposed as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. They know the money is tainted by his multiple ethical violations.

But, so far, Betsy Markey (CD-4), John Salazar (CD-3), Ed Perlmutter (CD-7) and Senator Mark Udall haven't announced what they'll do with the money they received from Rangel. The Colorado GOP says: "According to Federal Election Commission records, Markey took $7,000, Salazar took $3,000, Perlmutter took $9,000, Mark Udall took $10,000, and the Colorado Democratic Party took $10,000 in contributions from Rangel's House campaign account and his National Leadership PAC over the past two election cycles."

Why are Colorado Democrats so slow to disown Rangel and return his contributions?