The Colorado Independent » Jason Bane

Political Gravy is No More

Jason Bane — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:40:27 +0000

Who’s got an iPhone?

You probably know more about the Roan Plateau after the last month than you ever knew before. I know a LOT more, particularly since I didn’t know there was such a thing in Colorado. Anyway, Sen. Ken Salazar is vowing a Roan showdown, as Todd Hartman of the Rocky Mountain News reports:

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar will block confirmation of President Bush’s nominee to run the federal Bureau of Land Management if the agency doesn’t give Colorado more time to review BLM plans for drilling atop the Roan Plateau.
“I’m doing it because of the fact the Department of the Interior and BLM have not been responsive in not allowing at least 120 days for Gov. (Bill) Ritter and others to review the Roan management plan,” Salazar, a Colorado Democrat, said during a telephone news conference Thursday.
Salazar’s move to block James Caswell’s nomination to lead the BLM comes a day after political maneuvers in the House killed an effort by two Colorado congressmen – Democrats Mark Udall and John Salazar – to deny funds to the BLM in 2008 for use in leasing lands on the plateau for oil and gas drilling.
Udall and John Salazar issued a joint statement blaming the Bush administration for “strong-arm” tactics in attaching a “highly speculative” cost estimate to their amendment, leading to its demise Wednesday.
The Roan Plateau, which reaches 9,000 feet in northwestern Colorado, has become a political flash point, with industry and business interests eager to reach its massive stores of natural gas. But environmentalists, hunters and other recreationists are wary of the impact on a region prized for its wildlife and scenery.

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The Supreme Court is moving further to the right, as The Washington Post explains:

The Supreme Court’s decision overturning school desegregation policies in two U.S. cities yesterday culminates a fractious term in which the new Roberts court moved the law significantly to the right, legal analysts said.
In a series of 5 to 4 decisions this term, the court also upheld a federal ban on a late-term abortion procedure and gutted a key provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Along with yesterday’s schools case, each of these decisions left open the possibility of more change in areas of the law on which the court had seemingly ruled definitively within the past decade.
“Conservatives got everything they could reasonably have hoped for out of the term,” said Thomas C. Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who specializes in Supreme Court litigation. “The table is set, particularly if there are more changes in the court, for wholesale changes in constitutional law. There were some incremental steps, but they were in a distinct direction and a uniform direction.”

That may be so, but I didn’t see any landmark decision in the Anna Nicole Smith case. So there.

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The saga of the so-called “Denver Three” continues, and now it comes with another – SHOCKING! – revelation that the Bush Administration really doesn’t want anything to do with people who don’t agree with them. As Ann Imse of the Rocky Mountain News reports:

Two people ejected from a Bush speech in Denver over a bumper sticker have filed a second lawsuit, claiming a White House manual unlawfully bars potential critics of the president from public events.
The Presidential Advance Manual calls for Bush volunteers to distribute tickets in a manner to deter protesters and to stop demonstrators from entering. It also calls for “rally squads” to drown out demonstrators and get between them and news cameras. The manual was obtained through a deposition in a West Virginia case.
The new lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C., by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Leslie Weise and Alexander Young in Denver, and two people arrested at a presidential event in West Virginia because they were wearing anti-Bush T-shirts.
The lawsuit is aimed at Gregory Jenkins, a former deputy assistant to President Bush and White House director of advance, who ordered the four removed.
The combination of the manual and the exclusion of people who had not disrupted events “suggests there is a formal, official policy of trying to keep hidden from the press and the president anyone who disagrees with the president,” said ACLU attorney Chris Hansen.
Hansen is arguing that people can be ejected from official presidential events “only upon disruption,” and not because of their viewpoints. He wants a federal judge to declare unconstitutional the policy of excluding people from presidential events due to their viewpoints or on the assumption they will become disruptive.

In other words, it is official White House policy that you don’t get to see the President unless you agree with him. I guess that keeps things simple and easy to manage. There are only about 30 people on that list anymore.

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Democrats held another Presidential debate last night at Howard University, and I helped live-blog the event for the Rocky Mountain News blog “Back Roads to the White House”.

My impressions? Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Christopher Dodd did well. Barack Obama bombed, and Mike Gravel is every American’s weird, crazy great-uncle.

The Washington Post offered their take on the debate as well:

The forum at Howard University seemed to be a guaranteed fit for Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the only black candidate in the race. He repeatedly discussed racial disparity, education and AIDS and used his unique status to call for greater responsibility from African Americans, one of his frequent themes. But the audience largely embraced the other seven Democrats on stage as well, applauding Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) when she called for a greater focus on AIDS research and cheering Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) when he called for an end to the Iraq war.

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Colorado needs more money to pay for roads. Either that, or we need more flying cars.

As Mike Saccone of The Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

Colorado could face its largest tax increase in history if state officials choose to ask voters in 2008 for new revenues to meet future transportation needs, Colorado Department of Transportation Director Russell George said Thursday. George, whose comments came at the 85th annual Colorado Municipal League conference, told a group of more than 170 local government leaders that the state’s projected needs are “mind boggling.”
George said by 2030, just to maintain the current level of road and bridge quality, the state is projected to face a shortfall of $59 billion. If Colorado were to get everything the state wants in terms of new or improved transportation infrastructure, George said the state is projected to face a $103 billion shortfall.
“Somewhere in the recent past, maybe for the first time … we cannot see how we can keep doing what we’re doing,” George said of funding the state’s needs.
George said solely fulfilling those needs through a new, voter-approved tax or fee increase, would be the largest of its kind in the state’s history.
“If we accept these large numbers of need over the next, say, 20 or 30 years, those numbers are very large,” George said. “And if the public chose to do that (approve a ballot measure to fund transportation), it would result in a significant tax.”
“The budget challenge, as Russ stated it, cannot be overstated,” Colorado Transportation Commissioner Doug Aden said.
Aden, who also addressed municipal leaders, said Colorado is facing a “really dark cloud on the horizon.”
Colorado Treasurer Cary Kennedy, who spoke alongside Aden and George, said the state needs to look into new revenue streams because the gas tax is falling short. Kennedy said because of pushes for more fuel-efficient vehicles, moves to phase out gasoline and the failure of the Legislature to periodically update the gas tax, that traditional transportation revenue source is drying up.

Republicans responded with more cries about “tax and spend Democrats” before someone finally reminded them that George is actually a Republican. D’oh!

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Speaking of money, the Democratic National Committee could use some, as Chuck Plunkett of The Denver Post reports:

Nearly a month after missing its first fundraising milestone, the Denver committee hosting the 2008 Democratic National Convention remains $1.5 million short, a source close to the committee said Thursday.
Denver’s host committee has banked only $500,000 more since June 1, when donors had sent in checks totaling $5.5 million, the source said.
The committee’s contract with the Democratic Party required that it have $7.5 million by that date.
Officials at the host committee and at the Democratic National Convention Committee had no comment on the shortfall.
The convention contract sets a series of four deadlines for cash deposits into a bank account that ultimately calls for $40.6 million by next summer. The contract calls for another $15 million in donated goods and services.
The convention is set for Aug. 25-28 next year, and observers have said that money can be difficult to raise this far out, when even those corporations and individuals who are willing to donate usually have budget constraints that prevent immediate cash deposits.
There are many donors, for example, who pledged immediate support but who have no plans for depositing actual cash until next year.
“This is by far the toughest money to raise, because it’s so early,” said Chris Gates, a member of the Denver host committee, in an interview last month. Gates, the Colorado party chair during the 2004 convention in Boston, is a veteran of several Democratic conventions.

Don’t look at me. I gave at the, um, office.

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Democratic State Rep. Paul Weissmann is considering joining the field of prospective candidates for Boulder County Commissioner, as John Fryar of The Longmont Daily Times Call Gazette Journal Post reports:

Louisville City Councilman Don Brown has dropped out of the contest for a vacant Boulder County commissioner’s seat, but veteran state lawmaker Paul Weissmann is considering joining the field of prospective candidates…
…As many as six other eastern Boulder County Democrats, though, are still courting their county party’s vacancy committee members for support and votes next Monday night, when that panel meets to fill the seat opened by County Commissioner Tom Mayer’s death Friday.
State Rep. Weissmann said in a Tuesday night e-mail that he’d talk with his wife about the possibility of adding his name to that list as he drives back to Louisville from their ninth wedding anniversary vacation to North Dakota and Montana.
“I am very familiar with the area that Tom focused on while a commissioner, human services,” Weissmann wrote. “My legislative experience in that area helps.”
Weissmann said he’ll probably have made a decision by today about whether to seek the Boulder County Democratic Party vacancy committee’s appointment.

Weissman is such a romantic – a wedding anniversary vacation in North Dakota?

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Well, that’s it for today’s Political Gravy. And that’s it for my role in Political Gravy in general. It’s been fun after nearly a year of these daily rundowns, but it’s time for me to blog off into the sunset. I’ll still be lingering around the Internet tubes, but I won’t be here at Colorado Confidential after today.

So thanks, dear friends, for a good ride. Read you later.

By the way, you can see me this Sunday on 9News’ “Your Show”, which airs at 6:00 p.m. on Channel 20. I’ll be talking with host Adam Schrager and Republican Brad Jones about the Internet’s effect on politics.

Pick Me, Pick Me!

Jason Bane — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:38:07 +0000

The NBA Draft is tonight. Here’s hoping that there will be a run of slow white guys at the end of the first round. I am draft-eligible, you know.

Immigration reform is dead. As The Associated Press reports:

The Senate drove a stake today through President Bush’s plan to legalize millions of unlawful immigrants, likely postponing major action on immigration until after the 2008 elections.
The bill’s supporters fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate and clear the way for final passage of the legislation, which critics assailed as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. The vote was 46 to 53 in favor of limiting the debate.
Senators in both parties said the issue is so volatile that Congress is highly unlikely to revisit it this fall or next year, when the presidential election will increasingly dominate American politics.
A similar effort collapsed in the Congress last year, and the House has not bothered with an immigration bill this year, awaiting Senate action.
The vote was a stinging setback for Bush, who advocated the bill as an imperfect but necessary fix of current immigration practices in which many illegal immigrants use forged documents or lapsed visas to live and work in the United States.

My, how the mighty have fallen. At this point, President Bush would have a hard time passing gas.

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A Republican city councilman from Aurora is trying to get a “Right to Work” measure on the 2008 ballot, but new polling data suggests that it could be a lost cause. According to Colorado Pols:

RBI Strategy & Research recently polled on the “Right to Work” issue, and while the slogan itself does well with voters, a ballot measure does not. Only 36% of respondents would support a “Right to Work” measure, while 56% oppose it:

Without including the words “Right to Work” in the ballot title or language, there is little support among Colorado voters for this potential initiative. Predictably, the opposition to the initiative is strong among Democrats (65% are against). However, even a majority of unaffiliated voters oppose the measure.
Conclusion
While it is very early to be talking about a ballot initiative with likely voters, these results indicate that the language proponents use in describing the measure is popular, but voters show little support for the actual policy behind the language.
That lack of support for the content of the initiative indicates that it faces an uphill battle. Most ballot proposals need a 55%-60% level of support in initial ballot language tests to be considered viable. Proponents of this initiative have a long way to go to convince Colorado voters to change the way labor unions and their members negotiate in this state.

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An effort to delay drilling on the Roan Plateau failed yesterday. As the Rocky Mountain News reports:

An effort by U.S. Reps. John Salazar and Mark Udall of Colorado to delay drilling on the Roan Plateau failed Wednesday after what the duo called “strong-arm” tactics of the Bush administration.
Salazar and Udall tried to attach an amendment to an appropriations bill that would have prevented the Interior Department from using any funds to lease lands on the Roan not already open to drilling.
In a statement, the pair said a “curiously timed and highly speculative” cost estimate was added to the amendment late Tuesday that doomed its passage. Both promised to pursue other strategies to delay drilling on the Roan.
“We are disappointed that the Bush administration has stepped in at the last minute and apparently strong-armed the Congressional Budget Office . . .” the lawmakers’ statement said. Industry and its supporters say drilling restrictions imposed by the Bureau of Land Management will ensure that much of the region is protected.

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A Senate committee has subpoenaed the White House. As The Washington Post reports:

A Senate committee investigating the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program issued subpoenas yesterday ordering the White House to turn over documents related to the eavesdropping effort, escalating a legal showdown between Congress and the Bush administration.
The Judiciary Committee’s subpoenas were delivered to the offices of President Bush, Vice President Cheney and the national security adviser and to the Justice Department. They demanded copies of internal documents about the program’s legality and agreements with telecommunications companies that participated in the program.
Lawmakers said their aim is to understand and reconstruct the administration’s internal debate about the program’s legality, an aim White House officials have resisted.
“This committee has made no fewer than nine formal requests to the Department of Justice and to the White House, seeking information and documents about the authorization of and legal justification for this program,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, wrote in letters delivered with the subpoenas. “All requests have been rebuffed.”
The White House offered no word on whether it will turn over the documents by the July 18 deadline. “We’re aware of the committee’s action, and will respond appropriately,” spokesman Tony Fratto said. “It’s unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation.”

“It’s unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation.”

Seriously? Surely you jest.

Pot, meet kettle.

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A Montrose County Commissioner thought he was being clever in signing a petition, but the ploy apparently backfired. As The Grand Junction Sentinel reports:

andy See, chairman of the Montrose Democratic Party, signed a petition Tuesday to recall Montrose County Commissioner Bill Patterson, also a Democrat, but it was only a ploy, See said.
See’s plan may have backfired though, because the firm conducting the petition drive jumped on the opportunity and sent out a news release Wednesday morning saying See had signed the petition. The news release, sent by the Denver law firm of Ireland, Stapleton, Pryor and Pascoe, said, in part: “Exercise your right to vote whether or not to recall Bill Patterson in the November election by signing the petition today as the chairman of the Montrose Democratic Party, Randolph B. See, did this afternoon.”
See said Wednesday morning he planned to go to the county clerk’s office to have his name removed from the petition and to complain that illegal tactics were being used by petition gatherers. See said he signed the petition so he could protest that the person asking for petition signatures and the name certified on the back of the petition were not the same, which he said is illegal. The petition had been signed on the back by someone named Jamie Fadness, See said, while the man who handed him the petition to sign told him his name was Brent.

See, this wasn’t a very good plan.

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The shenanigans in Jefferson County politics are still being sorted out, as Ann Schrader of The Denver Post reports:

Attempts to recoup about $64 million in taxpayer money invested by former Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall shortly before he left office have come up with nothing.
“I still don’t have any money,” current Treasurer Faye Griffin said Wednesday
Griffin hasn’t heard from Capital Securities of America, an Ohio-based firm that brokered what state officials say are improper investments. Griffin has sent two letters to the firm – one in January and one early this month – demanding it repurchase the securities.
Colorado Treasurer Cary Kennedy also notified Capital Securities in a June 6 letter that state law requires the repurchase of the improper securities within one business day of the demand letter from the county.
Other than a receipt signed by the company that it received Kennedy’s notification, Griffin said there has been no communication from Capital Securities.
“The plan is to go ahead and file a lawsuit,” Griffin said, with the Jefferson County attorney’s office preparing the paperwork.

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I’ll be live-blogging tonight on the Democratic Presidential debate over at the Rocky Mountain News blog “Back Roads to the White House”. Stop by and say hello.

Show Me the (Q2) Money – Part II

Jason Bane — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:54:11 +0000

The second quarter fundraising period ends on Saturday, and now that Colorado has a larger slate of candidates, it’s worth taking a look at the money expectations (click here for the first part of this series).

CD-4
For the first time in a long time Democrats are going to have a primary for the right to take on Republican incumbent Marilyn Musgrave. After spending millions of dollars to defend Musgrave in 2004 and 2006, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is no doubt hoping Musgrave raises a lot of money on her own. Musgrave brought in $266,000 in Q1 of this year, and the more money she raises early, the less likely it is that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) will have CD-4 on its target list next summer. Musgrave has worked hard to change her image in recent months, and if she can start raising big money, she may have an easier time at re-election than she ever has.

On the Democratic side, 2006 candidate Angie Paccione needs to prove that she can raise money in the midst of a primary. Paccione raised a good amount of money in 2006, but much of that came in to her campaign not because of who she was but because of who she was running against; because of Musgrave’s strong conservative background, including her anti-gay rights rhetoric, any candidate who opposed her in 2006 would have been heavily funded. Paccione has an advantage of better name recognition than Betsy Markey in a Democratic primary, and if she can raise a good amount of money, it will help establish her as a favorite to win the nomination.

Markey made a strong entry into the CD-4 race last month with several high-profile endorsements, and a strong fundraising start to her campaign will certainly give her momentum among national interest groups. In a Democratic primary, Markey will probably need to outspend Paccione in order to counter the latter’s name ID in the district, so every dollar is going to be important. Perhaps most important for Markey is that she establish herself as a solid contender by showing that she has the fundraising chops to compete at a high level. Markey had a late start here, but anything near $100,000 would be impressive.

CD-5
Incumbent Doug Lamborn essentially won this seat last summer when he emerged from a bitter six-way Republican primary, but bad feelings still linger from that race. Lamborn raised only $75,000 in the first quarter, and he needs to start really bringing in the cash if he is going to dissuade potential primary challengers like Jeff Crank in 2008. If Lamborn has another weak fundraising quarter, it will only encourage a primary; conversely, a few quarters of $250,000 could be enough to scare away a top challenger. If Lamborn reports a weak Q2 – anything less than $100,000 – then expect to hear more buzz coming out of Colorado Springs about another GOP primary.

CD-7
Democrat Ed Perlmutter won this seat last fall by a surprisingly wide margin, and he sent a clear message by raising $267,000 in the first quarter of this year. It’s no coincidence that CD-7, which last year was one of the hottest seats in the country, didn’t make the early “protect” list for the DCCC. Perlmutter’s big victory in 2006 combined with a continued strong fundraising performance will likely scare away any serious Republican challengers in 2008. Perlmutter seems to be taking a page out of the John Salazar playbook, when the Western Slope Democrat brought in more than $1 million in 2005 in his first year in office and effectively kept a top GOP challenger from emerging. If Perlmutter keeps up a $250,000 per quarter pace through the rest of 2007, he should only see token opposition on the ballot in 2008.

You Have a Right to Read This

Jason Bane — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:55:32 +0000

So long, Tony Blair.

An Aurora City Council member is hoping to make a name for himself by attacking labor unions. As April Washington of the Rocky Mountain News explains:

Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier wants voters this November to make it tougher to set up all-union workplaces and to establish Colorado as a right-to-work state.
Late Tuesday, Frazier filed a right-to-work ballot proposal with the state that would ban unionized workplaces from forcing an employee to join the union as condition of employment.
It also would prohibit an employer from deducting union dues or fees from workers’ wages to support the union. The measure would make labor membership voluntary. Frazier could not be reached for comment.

“Right-to-work” is a clever title for legislation that has been passed in other states that is essentially designed to destroy labor unions.

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Democrats are unhappy with it. The American public is unhappy with it. And increasingly, top Republicans are growing unhappy with Iraq. As The Washington Post reports:

Key Republican senators, signaling increasing GOP skepticism about President Bush’s strategy in Iraq, have called for a reduction in U.S. forces and launched preemptive efforts to counter a much-awaited administration progress report due in September.
In an unannounced speech on the Senate floor Monday night, Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. military escalation begun in the spring has “very limited” prospects for success. He called on Bush to begin reducing U.S. forces. “We don’t owe the president our unquestioning agreement,” Lugar said.
The harsh judgment from one of the Senate’s most respected foreign-policy voices was a blow to White House efforts to boost flagging support for its war policy, and opened the door to defections by other Republicans who have supported the administration despite increasing private doubts.
Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Bush yesterday urging the president to develop “a comprehensive plan for our country’s gradual military disengagement” from Iraq. “I am also concerned that we are running out of time,” he wrote.
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, praised Lugar’s statement as “an important and sincere contribution” to the Iraq debate.
Republican skepticism has grown steadily, if subtly, since the Senate began debating the war in February.
One lawmaker who has changed his tone is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). Earlier this year, McConnell helped block from a vote even a nonbinding resolution opposing the troop increase. Now, he views a change in course as a given. “I anticipate that we’ll probably be going in a different direction in some way in Iraq” in September, McConnell told reporters earlier this month. “And it’ll be interesting to see what the administration chooses to do.”
Indeed, Republican leaders on Capitol Hill had been hoping to stave off further defections until after a report on military and political conditions in Iraq is delivered by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker in September. However, some in the GOP fear that the White House is stalling, hoping to delay any shift in U.S. strategy until the fall. A major test will come next month, when the Senate considers a series of withdrawal-related amendments to the defense authorization bill — and Republicans such as Lugar and Voinovich will have to officially break ranks or not.

At least Bush still has Dick Cheney on his side.

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Two Colorado Republicans have proposed creating a trust fund for money from oil and gas leases on the Roan Plateau. As Mike Saccone and Bobby Magill of The Grand Junction Sentinel report:

Two Western Slope state lawmakers want to use federal mineral-lease revenues from Roan Plateau leasing to create a permanent account to pay for higher education and impacts from energy development.
Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita, and Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, said Tuesday their proposed permanent fund would provide interest revenues for two of the state and region’s growing needs long after all the Roan Plateau’s natural gas has been tapped.
“It’s a potentially enormous windfall that the state should spend taking the long view,” Penry said. “No matter what happens on the Roan … it’s an acknowledgement that these natural gas receipts will stop flowing to local government.”
He said the trust fund would accumulate “several hundred million (dollars) or hopefully a billion or two,” with a 7 or 8 percent interest rate, creating a permanent revenue stream of between $70 million and $80 million annually.
Regardless whether the Roan Plateau leasing nets the state $1 billion or far less than that, Penry said, the state needs to use the revenues derived from the plateau’s leasing bonuses and ongoing mineral extraction to save for the future.
“No matter what happens on the Roan, we should do this,” he said. “We should create permanent funds.”
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association projected the Bureau of Land Management’s leasing of the roughly 50,000 acres, which were opened up under a decision issued earlier this month, could spark a “windfall” of at least $500 million in leasing bonus revenues prior to any development.
Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert, who along with the Rifle City Council has long opposed drilling the Roan Plateau, said it’s premature to create a trust fund until the state’s blue ribbon task force has finished analyzing severance tax and federal mineral leasing revenues.

Congressman John Salazar, meanwhile, is proposing amendments to the Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill to slow down plans for oil and gas leasing on the Roan.

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A deputy to ex-Interior Secretary Gale Norton (who is herself a former Colorado Attorney General) was ordered sent to prison yesterday. As The Washington Post reports:

A federal judge rejected the tearful pleas of the former second-ranking official in the Interior Department yesterday and sentenced him to 10 months in prison for a felony conviction of obstructing a Senate investigation into corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
“You are not above the law,” U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle told former deputy interior secretary J. Steven Griles as he asked for forgiveness.
Griles pleaded guilty in March to lying to the Senate about his relationship with Abramoff. In the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended a sentence of five months of house arrest and five months in prison.
But Huvelle imposed a sterner penalty of 10 months in prison and a $30,000 fine. She said she wanted to send a message to deter wrongdoing by high-ranking government officials. Defense attorneys had asked for three months of home detention, community service and a “reasonable fine.”
Griles, 59, the highest-ranking federal official convicted in the Abramoff scandal, apologized for his actions and cited 24 years of public service. “This has been the most difficult time,” Griles said, pausing to break down in tears, “in my life. My guilty plea has brought me great shame and embarrassment. I have lost my business, my income and, most importantly, my reputation.”…
…Griles, who is not cooperating with the federal investigation, was introduced to the now-convicted lobbyist by a girlfriend who ran an advocacy group co-founded by former interior secretary Gale Norton and financed by Abramoff’s Indian tribal clients.
The government contended that Abramoff thought that if he and his tribal clients contributed money to the group, then he would gain special access to Griles through the girlfriend, Italia Federici.

Prison might not be all bad. Look at all the free publicity it got for Paris Hilton.

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It may soon get more expensive to attend the University of Colorado. As Vimal Patel of The Denver Post reports:

Tuition would spike about 14 percent – or $664 per year – for in-state University of Colorado at Boulder students under a proposal being considered by CU regents.
Resident students would pay $5,218 per year under the plan, which could be approved Thursday. The proposal also calls for a $724 increase for the average full-time, in-state student at the Denver campus, and $285 at the Colorado Springs campus.
“We have to do this to provide a role that is very significant to the state,” said Robert Moore, CU’s vice president of budget and finance. He said the budget is the healthiest since 2002, when cuts sliced about $35 million from state funding.
Tuition for new out-of-state students would rise $1,130 a year, or 5 percent, at the Boulder campus and 5 percent at the Denver campus. There would be no change in Colorado Springs. Tuition rates would be frozen for current out-of-state students.
The university’s total budget would be $2.2 billion, or an increase in revenue of 6.5 percent.
The proposal would increase financial aid at CU-Boulder by 40 percent, in addition to meeting increases in utilities costs and staff salaries.
“We embraced a 10-year plan back to financial stability,” said David Skaggs, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. “This year is a good first step along the way.”

Speaking of colleges, whatever happened to Barnes Business College?

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Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey could be in hot water over his handling of a case that was ended when a former Denver City Attorney committed suicide last week. As the Rocky Mountain News reports:

Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey could face a formal grievance over his handling of the prosecution of former judge and Denver City Attorney Larry Manzanares.
The state agency that regulates the conduct of Colorado lawyers confirmed it received “multiple inquiries” this week about how to file an ethical grievance against Storey.
Critics and friends of Manzanares have suggested Storey, who was a special prosecutor on the Manzanares case, was overzealous and should not have held a news conference announcing the criminal charges against Manzanares, should not have released a lengthy arrest affidavit and should not have revealed that pornography was found on the computer Manzanares was accused of stealing.

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A new voter choice task force is meeting today. According to a press release from the House Democrats:

Members of the Voter Choice Task Force will hold their first meeting [today]. Chaired by Representative John Kefalas (D-Larimer), the task force has 11 Democratic, Republican, third party, and non-partisan members.
The objective is to study “Advanced Voting Methods” including those which allow a voter to indicate a preference for more than one candidate. The Task Force will be reviewing advanced voting methods that promote majority rule as a fundamental principle of representative democracy. Based on the findings, legislation will be considered for the 2008 session.

The meeting is at 1:30 p.m. in House Committee Room 0109 at the State Capitol.

Show Me the (Q2) Money!

Jason Bane — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:45:22 +0000

There’s an old business axiom that it takes money in order to make money. The same can be true in a political campaign, which is why this will be a stressful week for many Colorado politicians.

Candidates are scrambling this week to bring in those last-minute donations before the second quarter deadline on Saturday, and while the 2008 primary elections are still 13 months away in Colorado, early fundraising numbers can make or break a candidacy. Candidates need money in order to get their message in front of voters, but they also need strong fundraising numbers in order to stay competitive in the primary before the primary: The race for perception. Image is everything in a high-profile campaign, and if you look like a winner, you’ll be treated like a winner. At the same time, the more money you raise, the more money you’ll continue to raise; people donate to candidates that look like winners as much as they donate to candidates whom they agree with on policy issues.

With that in mind, here’s a look at what’s at stake for several Colorado candidates running for higher office in 2008…U.S. Senate
Democrat Mark Udall had $1.5 million in the bank at the end of the first quarter of this year; that may seem like a lot of money, but it was considerably less than many other Senate candidates around the country had raised to that point. Udall is currently considered the frontrunner for the Senate seat over Republican Bob Schaffer, and a strong second quarter of fundraising will likely drive even more money towards the longtime congressman while assuaging concerns that Udall may be moving a little too slowly. Udall raised about $324,000 in the first quarter, and he needs to do better than that in Q2 as a sign of strength. If he doesn’t raise more in Q2 than he did in Q1, Udall will likely start to hear grumblings about his campaign’s readiness.

Schaffer has run for Senate once before, losing a primary to Pete Coors in 2004. One of the knocks on the former congressman during that race was that he was not a good fundraiser, though supporters will say that it would have been hard for anyone to raise a lot of money against the wealthy and well-connected Coors. Schaffer had a clumsy announcement in early May that may have happened sooner than he would have liked, leaving him with less than two full months to raise money before the Q2 deadline.

Schaffer can ease concerns about his fundraising ability with a strong, albeit shortened, second quarter; something between $300,000 and $400,000 for the quarter would be a good showing for him. Schaffer also has a lot to lose with a weak Q2, because there are some in the Republican Party who remain unconvinced that he is the right candidate to take on Udall. A weak quarter from Schaffer – anything less than $200,000 – would be cause for hand-wringing among the state GOP.

CD-2
The three-way battle to replace Udall in CD-2 is already the busiest congressional primary in the state, and the Q2 fundraising results could have significant implications.

Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald is the early frontrunner here, and she has proven to be a strong fundraiser for Democratic state Senate efforts in the past. Fitz-Gerald has the ability to put up huge fundraising numbers, and anything in the neighborhood of $500,000 would send a clear signal that she is the candidate to beat in CD-2. That may be a tall order, even for Fitz-Gerald, but it would be a surprise (and would raise a few eyebrows) if she didn’t bring in more than $200,000. It will also be worth noting how many of the big power players in Colorado have already cast their lot with Fitz-Gerald.

Jared Polis doesn’t have the same financial needs as the other candidates in this race, because as a multimillionaire, he can afford to put a great deal of his own money into the race. That doesn’t mean that fundraising isn’t important for Polis, however. He needs to show a lot of individual donors and must have some impressive names on his fundraising list in order to avoid the criticism that he is just a rich guy trying to buy his way to victory.

Polis is never going to raise as much money as Fitz-Gerald, in large part because it’s hard to raise money when everybody knows you are filthy rich, but his fundraising efforts will be a barometer of how much support he has as a candidate. For Polis, who donated – and how many people wrote checks – is more important than how much money he raised in total.

The candidate with the most to gain (and lose) from Q2 is Will Shafroth, a relative unknown outside of environmental circles. Fitz-Gerald and Polis are heavyweights as candidates, and Shafroth needs to prove that he is beefy enough to enter the ring with them and not get knocked out in the first round. If Shafroth can report, say, $200,000 in the second quarter, he’ll establish himself as a legitimate challenger in a three-way primary. If he reports in with less than $100,000, then Shafroth will be under tremendous pressure to raise a lot of money in the third quarter (which ends at the end of September).

There’s almost no chance that Shafroth will be able to compete financially with Fitz-Gerald and Polis, but he needs to raise enough money to show potential supporters that he can be in position to steal votes from the two frontrunners. Last year Democrat Ed Perlmutter won a three-way primary against Peggy Lamm and Herb Rubenstein in CD-7, but it became clear months earlier that Rubenstein wasn’t going to be a big factor when he couldn’t raise any money. Shafroth is a better candidate than Rubenstein, but he’s in the same position; he needs to prove that he has the support to be a serious contender, and the best way to do that is by asking people to pull out their checkbooks.

Part II – Fundraising expectations in other congressional races.

Free Paris!

Jason Bane — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:30:39 +0000

Paris Hilton is scheduled to be released from jail today. At last, all is right with the world.

Michael Moore was in Denver yesterday to discuss his new health care documentary, “Sicko,” as well as attending a rally at the West Steps of the State Capitol. Bianca Pietro of the Rocky Mountain News has more:

The movie, due to be released Friday, is an examination of the country’s health insurance industry and Moore’s view of what should be done to change it.
An Aurora woman, Donna Smith, was featured in the film about her struggle with the health care industry.
“Some lost all they had worked for, and some lost their lives,” Smith said at the rally. “No Coloradan – no American – should ever have the want for adequate health care.”
The Oscar-winning filmmaker, wearing a black T-shirt and a baseball cap, attended the rally to promote the new film.
Moore spoke for several minutes to the crowd about the war in Iraq, George W. Bush, the mainstream media and the health care system.
“In other societies and countries, it is the worst thing to do to let too many people slip between the cracks because the whole society suffers,” Moore said.
He also said the cost of the Iraq war could cover government- funded health care…
…Nathan Wilkes balked openly at what he said was the ridiculousness of getting a divorce to receive health care.
His solution is to de-privatize insurance and make it a government-funded benefit for all citizens.
“Band-Aids do not work on a system that is hemorrhaging,” Nathan Wilkes said, drawing cheers.

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The state Republican Party is confident that it can turn things around and regain some control in Colorado. But expectations are being lowered faster than goals for President Bush’s last 18 months. As Karen Crummy of The Denver Post reports:

Nearly three years after losing both chambers of the legislature to the Democrats, Colorado Republicans are plotting a comeback – but not until 2010.
Divisive primaries, campaign-finance reform and the inability to financially keep pace with Democrats have seriously weakened the party’s muscle, GOP leaders say. And that can’t be fixed in time for next year’s election.
“It’s a challenge to win back either the House or Senate next year,” state GOP chairman Dick Wadhams said. “We hope to make inroads in 2008, but we’ve been on a four-year plan.”…
…Democrats have a 13-person edge in the state House and five-person margin in the Senate. While Wadhams won’t disclose which seats he thinks are vulnerable for Democrats, he did say six Senate seats and 10 to 12 House seats are on his radar. However, some of those Senate seats aren’t up for election next year.
To be competitive, the GOP is focusing on candidate recruitment and rebuilding financially. Wadhams said that while he inherited debt from the last chairman, the party will be “amply funded” for the next two elections.
At the end of last year, the party had only $50 in its state account. Through March 31 of this year, the party raised $34,000 and has about $11,000 left. The GOP raised $278,338 this year for its federal account but currently has $22,113 in it.
While the Republican Party’s cash on hand appears low, the Democrats’ accounts aren’t in much better shape. Colorado Democrats raised more than the GOP this year – $421,903 for the party’s federal account and $66,160 for the state account – but have just $15,880 on hand.
With the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver and Wadhams’ predictions for less-than- stellar state elections, some Republicans quietly have voiced concerns over whether the state party can raise the cash it needs to help state candidates and get out the vote for federal contenders.

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With one week to go until the end of the second quarter fundraising efforts, The Washington Post takes a look at the fundraising gap for Presidential contenders:

Twelve weeks ago, after raising less money than two other Republican candidates in the first three months of 2007, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the early favorite for his party’s presidential nomination, declared that it was his fault, said he hoped “to get better” at it and reorganized his finance team.
This week he said it hasn’t worked out too well, acknowledging that raising money is “very tough” and allowing that “we weren’t going to win this campaign on money anyway.”
On the Democratic side, former senator John Edwards of North Carolina had vowed that he, too, would improve on a weak first-quarter showing. But this week, Joe Trippi, a senior aide, e-mailed supporters with news that the campaign is only two-thirds of the way to its relatively modest fundraising goal.
Edwards and McCain are two prominent victims of the widening money gap between the front-runners and the rest of the field, a separation that will be apparent when the campaigns file their fundraising reports on the second quarter, which ends next Saturday.
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are each expected to hit the $25 million mark — at least — for money raised since April 1, a feat that reflects their continuing ability to reach deep into their Democratic constituency. Among the Republicans, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani are said to be repeating their impressive first-quarter takes.
Former senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who is not yet officially a GOP candidate, seems on track to reach his goal of raising about $5 million in just one month, according to advisers. And New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is barely registering in most polls, has told other Democrats that he expects to raise more money than Edwards this quarter.

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Drinking Liberally, the thriving Colorado organization largely overseen by John Erhardt, gets some good press in the current issue of Westword:

Coloradans do not believe in moderation. As proof, consider that this small state boasts a dozen chapters of Drinking Liberally, the second-largest showing outside of California for the four-year-old group that’s now 212 chapters strong, with each of them devoted to “promoting democracy one pint at a time.” And this month, Drinking Liberally Denver is spilling over into another regular event: Reading Liberally.
“Reading Liberally is a new direction taken by Living Liberally,” explains Jay Hazen, who, along with Lauren Turnage, is hosting this latest offspring. “Its first big push was with Drinking Liberally as a social club, so that the progressive movement could not only stay in touch socially, but talk out the issues of the day.”
How does he account for Drinking Liberally’s popularity in this town? “I’m sure the microbrews have something to do with it,” Hazen admits, “but the state has been changing, too. Little by little, we’re seeing inroads being made by candidates who are not part of this radical conservative agenda.”

Call me a stick in the mud, but drinking with liberals sounds like a lot more fun than reading with liberals.

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Drilling on the Roan Plateau has emerged as a major issue on the Western Slope, with locals hoping to preserve the natural landscape. But as The Associated Press reports, even if drilling does commence, the profit it will generate is uncertain:

Supporters of oil and gas leasing on the scenic Roan Plateau say the leases could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars needed to deal with impacts already being felt from the industry’s expansion.
“If that gets dropped in our lap, it could solve a lot of problems,” said Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, of the revenues.
He said if current lease rates were paid, up to $1 billion could be generated.
But the industry says that does not seem likely. And Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, said the projections are not a sure thing.
“The dollar numbers are coming from the industry and are based on a fairly high number per acre, so the dollar amounts aren’t really known,” she told the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel…
…Greg Schnacke, executive vice president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said he thinks $500 million is closer to the amount likely to be paid.
Environmental restrictions imposed by the Bureau of Land Management will lower the value of the leases, he said.

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Both the news media and Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey are under fire for the way they publicized the case of former Denver City Attorney Larry Manzanares, who committed suicide on Friday. As John Ensslin and Julie Poppen of the Rocky Mountain News report:

The death of Larry Manzanares has raised several sharp ethical questions about the news media and prosecutors for the way the case against the former Denver judge and city attorney was filed and covered.
Several friends and colleagues of Manzanares blamed the media in general, and the Rocky Mountain News in particular, for what they felt was sensational treatment of the fact that pornography was discovered on a stolen state court laptop computer found in his possession.
Others were critical of Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey, special prosecutor in the case, for including the pornography allegations in an affidavit filed to support charges of theft, embezzlement, evidence tampering, computer crime and official misconduct against Manzanares.
Manzanares resigned as Denver city attorney in February after news of the stolen laptop became public. He said he bought the computer from a man in a parking lot and did not know it was stolen.
The 50-year-old lawyer was found Friday under a bridge near the Highline Canal adjacent to Eisenhower Park, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Denver police said. Just a few hours before, Manzanares had appeared in court on the charges.
Michael Canges, a Denver lawyer who was a friend and colleague of Manzanares, said he was appalled at the media’s coverage of the criminal charges.
“He was a thoroughly decent human being who did not deserve the treatment he received from the press, particularly the Rocky Mountain News. It was disgusting,” Canges said.
While Canges said he understands that the media had to cover the story, he said the prosecutor’s office and the media placed too much emphasis on the adult videos.
“There is not a male over the age of puberty that has not – at some point or another – got into adult videos or that type of thing,” Canges said.
He also was critical of the prosecutor’s decision to hold a press conference to announce the charges.
“Calling a press conference was unnecessary. It was designed really to savage this man,” Canges said. “At the end of the day, he’s a public figure who at best committed the transgression of taking an item to which he wasn’t entitled, with the value of $500 or $600.”
Storey could not be reached for comment Sunday. He had been appointed special prosecutor in the case to avoid a potential conflict of Denver prosecutors reviewing it.

———————–

M.E. Sprengelmeyer of the Rocky Mountain News takes a look at Democratic Presidential contender Bill Richardson, who has strong ties to local leaders in Colorado:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is a man in motion.
His hands never stop moving when he makes a point about Iraq. His body sways as he talks about energy policy. His face contorts with each mention of President Bush.
Now Richardson is trying to move in a different direction: up – as in up from fourth place in most of the Democratic polls.
Richardson is trying to do that by taking the toughest stand for withdrawing troops from Iraq, by pitching his international r

I’m Sure Your Mom Thinks You’re the Best Politician

Jason Bane — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:33:29 +0000

Yes, it is hot enough for me.

Republicans who think that Colorado’s government is too big and too expensive can take heart – we actually haven’t hit rock bottom. Yet.

As Ed Sealover of The Colorado Springs Gazette reports:

Colorado must spend billions more each year on education, transportation and health care just to reach the average per-capita allocations of other states in those areas, according to a report put out by a private organization this week.
The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, which works toward financial polices that benefit especially low- and moderate-income populations, did not offer specific solutions on how to fix the problem. But the report, “Aiming for the Middle,” declared that it is time for public discussion about the state’s spending choices.
“Colorado is a wonderful and amazing place in so many ways, yet we continue to lag behind other states when it comes to investing in our future,” senior fiscal policy analyst Carol Hedges said in a statement.
The report found that, among the 50 states, Colorado ranks:
- 49th in covering the uninsured and low-income families under Medicaid
- 39th in state highway spending per capita
- 48th in per-capita spending on higher education
- 34th in per-capita investment in public elementary and secondary schools.
To bring it up to average levels, the state would have to increase spending annually by $1 billion on health care, $139 million on highways, $467 million on public colleges and universities and $672.5 million on elementary and secondary schools, the report states.

Naturally, Republicans derided the report by saying that the answer isn’t to spend more money, and maybe they’re right. Perhaps we could fund our schools and Medicaid programs with IOUs, just like the Bush Administration has done with the Iraq war.

—————————-

Vice President Dick Cheney continues to do what he does best: Tell people to “go f*** themselves.” As The Washington Post reports:

Vice President Cheney’s office has refused to comply with an executive order governing the handling of classified information for the past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that sought to enforce those rules, according to documents released by a congressional committee yesterday.
Since 2003, the vice president’s staff has not cooperated with an office at the National Archives and Records Administration charged with making sure the executive branch protects classified information. Cheney aides have not filed reports on their possession of classified data and at one point blocked an inspection of their office. After the Archives office pressed the matter, the documents say, Cheney’s staff this year proposed eliminating it.
The dispute centers on a relatively obscure process but underscores a wider struggle waged in the past 6 1/2 years over Cheney’s penchant for secrecy. Since becoming vice president, he has fought attempts to peer into the inner workings of his office, shielding an array of information such as the names of industry executives who advised his energy task force, costs and other details about his travel, and Secret Service logs showing who visits his office or official residence.
The aggressive efforts to protect the operations of his staff have usually pitted Cheney against lawmakers, interest groups or media organizations, sometimes going all the way to the Supreme Court. But the fight about classified information regulation indicates that the vice president has resisted oversight even by other parts of the Bush administration. Cheney’s office argued that it is exempt from the rules in this case because it is not strictly an executive branch agency.
“He’s saying he’s above the law,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which released a series of correspondence yesterday outlining the situation. “It just seems to me this is arrogant and shows bad judgment.”
Cheney’s office declined to discuss what it called internal matters. “We are confident that we are conducting the office properly under the law,” said spokeswoman Megan McGinn.

You’ve gotta love the official stance from Cheney’s office. Trust us, we’re doing everything completely by the books. The Bush Adminstration has really crossed over from being secretive to being embarrassing at this point.

——————–

Meanwhile, the Iraq Study Group that President Bush once called on, only to ignore their recommendations, may be brought back from the dead. As The Washington Post explains:

The Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel that mapped out an alternative U.S. strategy for Iraq last December, may be reconstituted for a sequel.
In a sign of the growing public pressure on Congress, the House voted 355 to 69 yesterday to revive the 10-member panel chaired by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former congressman Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) to again review U.S. policy and offer new recommendations.
“I’m receptive to reconstituting the group, but I can only speak for myself as I don’t know feelings of the group and Baker is traveling,” Hamilton said in an interview. “If Congress thinks we can be constructive, then I think we should do it.”
The House vote was on an amendment proposed by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) to an appropriations bill providing $34.2 billion for State Department and foreign operations. Now that the House has voted, a bipartisan group within Congress — including Shays and Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) — will seek an alternative source of funding since the bill is not likely to pass quickly enough for the Iraq Study Group to report in the fall.
Shays said the Baker-Hamilton group could play a pivotal role again. “Last fall, the Iraq Study Group provided Congress a thoughtful assessment on one of the most important issues of our time,” Shays said in an interview. “As we approach another crossroad in this conflict, having that thoughtful insight again will be invaluable.”
The goal is to have the group make its new report within about a month of the assessments scheduled to be outlined to Congress in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker on military and political progress in Iraq, Shays said.

—————————

Labor unions are still hoping for some sort of action on the Employee Free Choice Act now in the U.S. Senate. As Tom McGhee of The Denver Post reports:

The union-backed Employee Free Choice Act now in the U.S. Senate has no chance of becoming law this year, but that hasn’t stopped labor and business from pouring resources into a scrap over the bill.
Over the past week, the Center for Union Facts, an anti-union organization, has mounted a $500,000 campaign to defeat the bill, which would make it easier to unionize a workplace. The center ran ads on cable TV and in The New York Times and USA Today.
The AFL-CIO has collected a little less than that from affiliates and is using it to drive a campaign that includes cable-TV advertising and grassroots activities throughout the country, said Bill Samuel, director of legislation for the national AFL-CIO.
On Thursday, union members engaged in street theater in downtown Denver to put pressure on Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., to vote for the act.
All this activity is over a bill that Republicans plan to filibuster and the president will probably veto if it gets to his desk.
Nonetheless, labor wants to keep the bill in the public eye and put pressure on politicians while working to elect a Democrat to the White House in 2008.
The bill could then become law in 2009, Samuel said.
“The minimum wage (legislation) came up every year for 10 straight years, and it took 10 years to get it passed. That is how the pressure to pass major legislation is built,” he said…
…The law would allow unions to bargain for workers in businesses where more than 50 percent of the workers sign union- authorization cards. It would eliminate a secret election by employees that now follows the card-signing.
Supporters say the bill would end harassment and intimidation of union organizers by employers. Opponents say doing away with the secret election would leave employees vulnerable to union intimidation.

————————-

O, zone!

Todd Hartman of the Rocky Mountain News says the ozone is part of a hot debate right now:

The EPA’s proposed toughening of the nation’s air pollution standard for ozone would improve public health but create difficulties for industry in the Denver region, which has struggled to stay within the existing standard for the pollutant.
The proposal is based on new scientific findings that show current limits aren’t protective enough, both for people with existing respiratory ills and for healthy adults exercising outdoors on high pollution days.
The EPA’s proposal recommends ratcheting down the current limit of 80 parts per billion over an eight-hour period to 70 to 75 parts per billion, which – if in effect today – would put the metro area in violation of the health standard.
A slew of new pollution-control measures could be in the offing for the region, ranging from costlier, cleaner-burning gasoline to new limits on emissions from oil and gas operations.
More public education campaigns to limit even everyday activities, such as lawn mowing and backyard grilling – both contributors to ozone – might be considered.
“Advances in science are leading to cleaner skies and healthier lives,” EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson said in a prepared statement. “By strengthening the ozone standard, EPA is keeping our clean air momentum moving into the future.”
But in a parallel move that has some environmentalists wondering if the EPA is actually planning to maintain the current standard, the agency said Thursday that it would continue to take public comment on leaving the 80 parts per billion limit in place.

I’m all for the 80 parts per billion limit. Or am I? Frankly, I don’t really understand this story.

————————-

Republican Presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich were both in Denver yesterday. Karen Crummy of The Denver Post hung out with Mitt:

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, in Colorado to raise money and give a speech on national security, said Thursday that a strong military, strong economy and strong family values are the keys to moving the country forward.
“It’s the three-legged stool,” said Romney, who did not hold any public events but spoke to reporters for a few minutes at the Brown Palace Hotel. “It’s time that we as a nation return to the source of America’s strength.”
The former Massachusetts governor, who has lagged in the polls despite raising more money in the first quarter than any other GOP candidate, also dismissed those who have contended his Mormon religion may be a liability in his White House bid…
…Romney, who has raised more money in the interior West than any other presidential candidate, also noted that Colorado Republicans could possibly influence the presidential race if they move up their caucus to Feb. 5 – the same date as about two dozen other states.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers voted to allow political parties to move their presidential caucuses from March 20 to Feb. 5. The chairs of the Democratic Party and the GOP are in favor of doing so but haven’t completed the official process.

Elsewhere, Newt Gingrich – not yet officially a candidate for President – also gave a speech in Denver:

Republican Newt Gingrich said Thursday night in Denver that he’s unlikely to run for his party’s presidential nomination if leading GOP candidates adopt his ideas for overhauling government.
“If, in my own party, a (Rudy) Giuliani or a (Mitt) Romney or a Fred Thompson take up these ideas…we probably won’t run,” he said.
However, the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives said if there is a “collapse” among such candidates later this year and there is “no effective opposition” to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, “then we’d consider running.”
Gingrich ruled out running as an independent.
He spoke to more than 100 people at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts at an event sponsored by Malik and Seeme Hasan. Malik Hasan, a Colorado-based health care mogul, raised money for the re-election of President Bush in 2004.

———————-

Independence Institute head Jon Caldara may wish he was a smart politician, but wishing doesn’t make it so. As Colorado Media Matters explains:

Guest hosting on the June 21 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA’s The Mike Rosen Show, Independence Institute president Jon Caldara misread Bill Husted’s June 21 Denver Post column in claiming that 5280 Magazine had voted Caldara “best politician.” Caldara added, “[T]here it is in black and white: best politi — not second best. Best politician. Just a little bit of respect, please. Do you know how much that cost me? I had to tip the guy 500 dollars for that award.” According to Husted’s column, however, former Denver City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth won “best politician,” while “Caldera” [sic] won the “loudmouth in need of a muzzle” award in the Denver-based magazine’s annual “Top of the Town” listings…
…From Bill Husted’s June 21 Denver Post column, “Radio station ‘Summer of Love’ into one day”:
Baby, you’re the best
5280 magazine is out with its Top of the Town roster, telling us what’s good about everything and everyone in Denver. Here’s a smattering of winners:
Hotel bar, Peaks Lounge at the Hyatt Convention Center; sports bar, Choppers; dive bar, Gabor’s; make-out spot, Cinderella Twin Drive-In; politician to vote out of office, Rep. Tom Tancredo; loudmouth in need of a muzzle, Jon Caldera; best politician, Elbra Wedgeworth; best bartender, Dwight Long at My Brother’s Bar.

D’oh!

Hey, just keep telling yourself that you’re the best politician, big guy. Self confidence is key.

Where’s My Earmarks?

Jason Bane — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:38:33 +0000

Hot enough for ya?

President Bush once again vetoed a measure to provide funding for stem cell research, a bill that has become Rep. Diana DeGette’s signature issue. Yesterday, DeGette spoke out about the veto:

“President Bush remains stubbornly defiant by once again vetoing potentially life-saving legislation that would give millions of patients and their families hope. Congress gave President Bush another opportunity to do the right thing, but once again he put politics before science.
“The president has become a roadblock to allowing this research to unlock doors to treatments and cures for numerous diseases and conditions – including diabetes, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis.
“I can understand why President Bush is hiding from the public to veto this legislation in private – he refuses to meet with us, he refuses to give ground, and he continues to turn his head to the promise of embryonic stem cell research.
“Today’s Executive Order by President Bush is not a substitute for the promise of embryonic stem cell research.
“I support all forms of ethical stem cell research. However, the vast majority of scientists agree that embryonic stem cell research offers the greatest promise for developing treatments and cures for countless diseases and conditions. That is why I and a bipartisan majority of Congress feel strongly that we must allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

But as Anne C. Mulkern of The Denver Post reports, the stem cell issue is likely to come up again:

President Bush on Wednesday vetoed for the second time in as many years legislation lifting limits on embryonic stem-cell research, even as bill supporters vowed to get it back on his desk.
In rejecting the bill from Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., Bush played up his commitment to science. He announced a federal effort to find new stem-cell sources similar to powerful embryonic cells. It would not have any new federal funding.
“We’ll encourage scientists to expand the frontiers of stem-cell research,” Bush said. “We want to say, ‘We stand on your side in an ethically responsible way.”‘
Critics accused Bush of favoring politics over science…
…In the meantime Wednesday, two key senators planned to force Bush to confront the issue a third time.
Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., will add language expanding embryonic stem-cell research to a $152 billion bill funding health care, education and labor programs.
“Families across America are waiting for some sign of hope,” Harkin said. “If the president isn’t going to give it to them, we will.”
DeGette’s bill would have revoked Bush’s restriction limiting federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research to lines created on or before Aug. 9, 2001. It would have allowed work on embryonic cells created for in vitro fertilization, slated to be thrown out, and donated for research.
“The president has become a roadblock to allowing this research to unlock doors to treatments and cures for numerous diseases and conditions,” DeGette said after the veto.
Harkin and Specter will attempt to reset the clock on research. They’ll add to the spending bill language that moves the cutoff date for embryonic stem-cell lines to June 15, 2007.
That would give researchers more than 400 stem-cell lines eligible for federally funded work, Harkin spokeswoman Jennifer Mullin said. Additionally, those newer lines are of far higher quality than the older lines.

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A measure to halt funding for Pinon Canyon expansion hasn’t yet drawn a decision from Colorado’s Senators. As Erin Emery of The Denver Post explains:

Neither U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard nor U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar will immediately commit their support to legislation that would halt funding for the expansion of the Pi

Pony Up and Become a Media Baron

Jason Bane — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:08:06 +0000

You’re not going to believe this, but apparently the troop surge in Iraq isn’t working.

Ranchers in the Pinon Canyon area continue to fight efforts by the military to expand onto their land (hey, that rhymed!). As Steven Saint of the Rocky Mountain News reports:

If there are ranchers in southeast Colorado ready and willing to sell their land to the Army for its expanded Pi

The Mythical Quadrillion Dollar Tax Increase

Jason Bane — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:58:10 +0000

Quadrillion.

A quadrillion is the number that comes after a trillion. I had to look it up, because you don’t normally see numbers that go beyond a trillion.

The reason I looked it up is because of Rep. Mark Udall, who is apparently taxing the holy hell out of everyone in sight. At least, that’s what an online campaign ad from the National Senatorial Campaign Committee (NSCC) says. The ad, which appeared last week, appears to be the first advertisement targeted at the 2008 U.S. Senate race in Colorado