“We hear stories of people paying folks $50 through Craigslist to come and wear shirts supporting ‘Coal for America,’” Lisa Jackson, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator and surprise guest at the “Rebel With A Cause” gala, told a ballroom of activists on Thursday night.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson speaks in Denver. (Photo by Troy Hooper)

“What’s really neat is the thousands of people who came because they care, the moms who came,” Jackson said to a receptive crowd that filled the Seawell Grand Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts for dinner, a live auction and awards ceremony.

The audience stood and clapped when Jackson took the stage as the gala’s surprise guest. Her treatment here was quite different than what she receives in the nation’s capitol.

“It’s so rare that I walk into the room … and hear the applause that which counters those things I hear inside the Washington Beltway, which is that ‘average Americans just don’t care about air and water.’

“We know better,” she said.

Gov. John Hickenlooper at the "Rebel With A Cause" gala in Denver last night. (Photo by Troy Hooper)

“We want to help states that are trying to ensure that the wealth and potential that lies in natural gas doesn’t come at a price that would be far too high,” she said, adding that the agency plans to roll out the first results of its study at the end of the year with more to follow as the information becomes available.

“Our heritage is no more beautifully on display than in the Rocky Mountains,” said Jackson, who is in Colorado to speak to a Denver high school today about science and technology. She also mentioned she’d be meeting with Gov. John Hickenlooper, who dropped in on the gala to socialize.

Some of Colorado’s biggest critics of the EPA weren’t in the room. But U.S. Reps. Scott Tipton, Cory Gardner, Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn have consistently voted for legislation that weakens the U.S. government’s ability to regulate pollution that spoils the nation’s common air, water and land.

“We have a canon of environmental laws in this country that is under siege,” Jackson said.

To combat the undermining of environmental laws, two state conservation groups, Colorado Environmental Coalition and Colorado Conservation Voters, announced a merger at last night’s gala that will see Pete Maysmith at the helm of the new organization, which has not been named yet.

“Our stunning mountains, flowing rivers, gorgeous lakes, and clear blue skies brought us to Colorado and have kept us here,” Maysmith said. “We all know there is much more to be done to protect and preserve Colorado’s beauty and enhance the quality of life for all.”

Elise Jones, the outgoing executive director of Colorado Environmental Coalition, said the new group will “create an uber force for the environment, a juggernaut for Colorado’s natural heritage.”

Jones is leaving nonprofit work to run for a seat on the Boulder County Board of Commissioners.

The merger of the two organizations has been talked about for a number of years, according to the conservationists, and they said now is the time to combine the strengths of both groups: Colorado Environmental Coalition’s policy, advocacy and organizing work and Colorado Conservation Voters’ focus on electing pro-environment candidates to public office and holding them accountable.

Officials for the two groups say they have combined to affect more than 130 different bills at the state legislature in the past six years, taking on water conservation, air quality, energy efficiency and transit.

But no one can say House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, did not prove once and for all how much power the Speaker can wield. If the session had a theme, that was it.

House Speaker Frank McNulty holding forth on the House floor. (Tomasic)

When Colorado progressives look back on this legislature, they see both success and failure, heroes and villains.

“This was the definition of failed leadership,” said ProgressNow Colorado Executive Director Joanne Kron about McNulty’s time as Speaker.

“This year, progressives in the Colorado legislature had many successes fighting for Colorado jobs, our public health and environment, and advancing equality that we can all be proud of,” said Kron. “Unfortunately, right-wing extremists in both chambers obstructed progressive jobs and equality goals whenever they could, and a lot of good bills died as needless political fodder.”

ProgressNow was one of several Colorado organizations to issue legislative report cards or similar end-of-session commentary.

Ellen Dumm, executive director of Campaign for a Strong Colorado, was equally blunt in her assessment of McNulty.

“Obviously, the failure of leadership is the big take home. The failure of leadership in the House is the story. They just lost control of their caucus. When was the last time in Colorado that an issue that had broad bipartisan support didn’t reach the floor for a vote?

“It bodes ill for Republicans. Not only did they get outmaneuvered on reapportionment, but leadership proved completely out of touch with Colorado. It would be quite the come down for McNulty to sit in the minority next year. I’m not sure his own caucus would vote him minority leader. It’s going to be a tough year for Frank,” she said.

State Democratic Party Chair Rick Palacio said the product of lots of good work and cooperation was big-footed by McNulty’s end-of-session bad faith.

“2012 was a tale of two sessions, and not just because Governor Hickenlooper had to call a second one to complete unfinished business,” he said. “Many hardworking legislators did a lot to jump start Colorado’s economy. Linda Newell’s film incentives bill is a great example of creative ideas that can bring new activity to our state. Betty Boyd, Pat Steadman, and Claire Levy did a remarkable job of advocating for diverse needs while respecting a bipartisan process in writing our state budget. Our legislators deserve a lot of credit for their hard work.

“Unfortunately, much of this work was obscured by the extreme lengths Frank McNulty went to in order to block civil unions. His willingness to inflict so much collateral damage to the state for the sake of his political base is a dark mark on public service. With hard work, Democrats will make sure that Frank McNulty never has another chance to manipulate the legislative process to stop important progress for Colorado.”

Jobs and the economy

At the kick-off of the session, pols from both parties and both chambers said this legislature would be all about jobs. It didn’t turn out that way, dominated as it was by the civil unions showdown, but some progress was made.

the Skills for Jobs Act, sponsored by Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, and Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Greenwood Village, will set up a new collaborative relationship between the state’s Departments of Labor and Higher Education to help ensure that skills being taught in Colorado colleges line up with the needs of Colorado employers.

HB12-1272, sponsored by Rep. Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, and Rep. Robert Ramirez, R-Westminster, provides $8 million for additional unemployment benefits for people interested in acquiring new job skills.

Other passed jobs bills include one to encourage space travel and one to encourage filming in Colorado.

Other jobs bills, though, went nowhere. One bill, HB12-1129, which would have provided $300,000 to leverage matching funds and strengthen Colorado’s existing network of Small Business Development Centers made it through one House committee before being killed by another.

Crime and punishment

Hickenlooper last month signed legislation that limits the ability of Colorado prosecutors to charge juveniles as adults.

“This legislation will save some kids who make a bad choice in their youth from a lifetime of ostracism and limited opportunity. [Gov. Hickenlooper] was under pressure to veto this bill, but progressives are grateful he didn’t,” said Kron.

Another bill, sponsored by Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, makes automobile hit-and-runs a Class 4 felony, which carries the same penalties as DUI. Prior to this, impaired drivers actually had an incentive not to stop after causing as accident. No longer.

Health Care

If you have health insurance and you’ve ever had a major procedure or spent extended time in the hospital, you may have received mathematically baffling statements that read something like this:

Cost: $10,000
Amount paid by insurance: $2,000
Amount due from patient: $200

Fact is, insurance companies negotiate much lower prices for procedures than they actually cost and much lower than an individual uninsured consumer ever could.

A bill passed this year will change that for at least some patients.

SB12-134 would limit the amount that low-income uninsured patients (250 percent of Federal Poverty Level or below) would be required to pay hospitals not more than the lowest-negotiated rate paid by private insurers for the same services.

The bill would also require hospitals to notify patients about discount programs and charity that may be available and to help patients determine if they qualify.

A statement issued by The Colorado Center on Law and Policy was succinct:

The Colorado Center on Law and Policy, while fundamentally disappointed in the political gamesmanship that closed the 2012 regular legislative session, still regards the session as one with more advances for policies supporting the health, economic security and well being of low-income Coloradans than might have been expected in this election year.

In the realm of health care, Hillary Jorgensen, director of Colorado Progressive Action, said much of the good news came in the form of bills that were defeated.

“We were able to kill a number of bills that would have impacted Medicaid. SB12-085, Concerning Reduction of General Fund Expenditures, would have made deep cuts to state spending in Medicaid and SB12-032 would have forced the governor to ask for a Medicaid waiver, which would have thrown the program, and by extension the state’s entire health care system, into chaos. While these two bills were started in the Senate and had little hope of passing, it’s both disappointing and frustrating that in a session when the GOP caucus pledged to focus on jobs and the economy, they wasted their time with meaningless bills that would have caused a very real health care crisis for the state.

We were also able to kill HB12-1175, Concerning the Encouragement of State Agencies to Pursue Colorado Solutions in Lieu of Federal Regulations. While this bill’s impact would not have been limited to health care and the Colorado Health Benefits Exchange, it would have had a huge impact on both of those things and very well could have resulted in the end of federal funding for both the exchange and several health care programs. It’s just another disappointing example of time wasted playing partisan politics,” she wrote in an email.

The People

While the drama around civil unions was writ large, even that story was one told by the people involved as much as by the issue itself.

ProgressNow highlighted a number of winners and losers among legislators. If you’re a conservative, you might be able to just flip this list on its head.

Yet support for civil unions defied easy categorization: Sure liberals support more rights for more people, but so do many conservatives, who were motivated to support civil unions in the service of personal liberty and small government.

ProgressNow cited House Minority Leader and civil unions sponsor Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, as its No. 1 winner:

Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino had perhaps the hardest job at the Colorado Capitol this year, but he managed his caucus, and relations with the conservative one-seat majority, with patience and determination. Ferrandino drove the pro-jobs agenda from the House as the majority’s leadership faltered… Ferrandino’s tireless efforts are one reason why the state’s budget passed this year with near-unanimous approval–a truly rare event.

Dumm called out OneColorado for praise. “It’s just amazing how far they have taken civil unions and how quickly they’ve done it,” she said. “They have become a force to be reckoned with,” she said.

It may have been a handful of Republican women who stood the tallest in the eyes of Colorado progressives, though, by supporting civil unions even in the face of hard pressure from Speaker McNulty and other social-right warriors.

Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland, cast the deciding vote in the House Judiciary Committee, sending civil unions on toward–but not quite to–the floor where the bill almost certainly would have passed had McNulty not pulled out all the stops to keep it from coming to a vote in regular session.

On every leg of its way not quite through the legislature, it was Republican women who stepped up to keep the civil unions bill moving. Of course, the bill also had unanimous Democratic support. From ProgressNow:

For the second year in a row, three brave Republican women in the Colorado Senate — Sens. Ellen Roberts, Nancy Spence, and Jean White — stood with their progressive colleagues to pass civil unions legislation for Colorado’s committed same-sex couples … someday it will be remembered that a few Republican women Senators were on the right side of history.

In the end, it all came down to Rep. Don Coram, R-Montrose, one of five Republicans on the “kill committee” that took a party line vote to keep the civil unions bill from reaching the floor for a full vote during special session. Coram was only one of five Republicans who could have broken ranks but he acknowledged having a gay son he was proud of and for whom he had every hope of success and equality.

After the vote, Coram’s son, Dee, did not sound so proud of his dad, whom he said missed an opportunity to be a leader.

Coram was hardly the only legislator this year to open himself to criticism. Republicans Greg Brophy, R-Wray, and Spencer Swalm, R-Centennial, tweeted themselves into trouble.

Brophy jumped on the short-lived anti-Sandra Fluke bandwagon just as it was crashing hard.

From ProgressNow:

This spring, Sen. Greg Brophy brought the “war on women” to our state, after publicly defending radio host Rush Limbaugh’s disparaging remarks about a law student who testified on Capitol Hill in Washington about contraceptive insurance coverage. Sen. Brophy actually told followers on Twitter that he too did not want to pay for “booze,” “spring break,” or birth control for the college student, Sandra Fluke of Georgetown University. Sen. Brophy’s antics had the opposite of their intended effect, motivating women to organize a large rally at the Capitol, and to get more politically involved in general to protect their basic rights.

Then, after ProgressNow had already issued its legislative wrap-up, Swalm made a late bid for the Twitter Hall of Shame, tweeting the writings of a man — Steve Sailer — who thinks all the GOP needs to do to be successful is get more votes from white men.

The Sailer essay had been posted at VDARE.com, a site run by Peter Brimelow. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers VDARE to be a white nationalist hate group.

Rep. Laura Bradford’s, R-Collbran, also grabbed the spotlight for an evening run-in with Denver’s Finest. ProgressNow:

Rep. Laura Bradford’s brush with the law after a “legislative happy hour,” and avoidance of arrest via an obscure law preventing the arrest of legislators during the session, turned into a major public embarrassment for the entire Colorado General Assembly. Although Rep. Bradford was subsequently “cleared” by Denver Police of asking for special treatment, the public was left to reconcile major questions about accountability for public officials with the fact that she was never charged or properly investigated. Lingering questions about what really happened that night were too much for Rep. Bradford’s constituents, and she is no longer running for reelection.

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While support for legalization has been building in the United States for some time, this is the first credible poll to show such a wide margin.

“There is more nationwide support for regulating marijuana like alcohol than ever before. This news bodes well for Amendment 64, especially since Colorado is among the states with the most support for ending marijuana prohibition,” said Mason Tvert in a prepared statement. Tvert is the director of the Amendment 64 campaign.

“People are fed up with the current system. It forces marijuana into the underground market where it cannot be controlled, making it far more accessible to teens. Prohibition also makes adults criminals simply for using a substance that is objectively less harmful than alcohol.

“Coloradans are ready to move beyond the wasteful and ineffective policy of marijuana prohibition, and this November they have the opportunity to do just that by regulating marijuana like alcohol. In doing so, it can set an example for the rest of the nation,” Tvert concluded.

Nationally, marijuana legalization advocates were as pleased with the poll results as you might expect.

“Polling now consistently shows that more voters support legalizing and regulating marijuana than support continuing a failed prohibition approach. Yet far too many politicians continue to act as if marijuana policy reform is some dangerous third rail they dare not touch, said Neill Franklin, a retired Baltimore narcotics cop and the executive director of LEAP–Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “If the trends in public opinion continue in the direction they are going, the day is not far away when supporting a prohibition system that causes so much crime, violence and corruption is going to be seen as a serious political liability for those seeking support from younger and independent voters. Savvy forward-looking politicians are already beginning to see which way the wind is blowing.”

“Marijuana prohibition is counterproductive to the health and public safety of our communities. It fuels a massive, increasingly brutal underground economy, wastes billions of dollars in scarce law enforcement resources, and makes criminals out of millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens,” said Art Way, Colorado drug policy manager with the Drug Policy Alliance.

“What often gets overlooked are the collateral consequences of a marijuana conviction and how blanket prohibition is actually in opposition to public health and safety. We also intend to address our medical marijuana system, the impact prohibition has on immigration policies and the public health costs of marijuana compared to alcohol and tobacco.”

Surveys have shown that marijuana usage is roughly equal among ethnic groups, but minorities face arrest far more often than do whites. Black people in Denver make up approximately 10 percent of the total population, yet account for more than 30 percent of the arrests for marijuana possession, says LEAP.

“Once someone is convicted of even a minor possession offense, they are subject to a system of legal discrimination that makes it difficult or impossible to secure housing, employment, public assistance, federal student aid for higher education, or even a basic driver’s license,” Way said.

“Absent a conviction, the collateral consequences of a mere arrest can include immeasurable stigma and humiliation, the financial burden of posting bail and hiring a lawyer, and lost hours at work or school. The toll is quite significant and unnecessarily harsh.”

(Image: Kersgaard)

Caught in that kind of mire on a few big bills, Colorado lawmakers nevertheless managed in some key cases to get out from under the rhetoric and posturing to solve problems in laudable bipartisan fashion.

Education

Early literacy, Senate Bill 1238

The new law revs up efforts to help struggling kindergarten to third grade students begin reading. The bill takes a refreshingly holistic approach to addressing the problem, adding reading programs at schools, involving parents in instruction, providing additional training for teachers and holding back students who need extra time to catch up.

Fair discipline in schools, Senate Bill 046

Lawmakers on the right and left came together to rework Columbine-era zero-tolerance school discipline rules, which leaned on law enforcement, threw lots of kids out of school and disproportionately affected minority students. The new law gives school authorities increased discretion and training to handle discipline on a case by case basis and it eliminates mandatory expulsions, except in cases that involve firearms. The bill also sets up procedures to improve reporting, so that patterns of discipline can be better examined and problems with enforcement better addressed.

Data in support of the bill showed that kids being expelled in the state in great numbers under the old rules were much more likely to drop out and end up adrift and in and out of criminal corrections facilities and programs.

Money for education

Big news was that for the first time in three years, since the national recession hit full force, legislators did not slash the education budget in Colorado. As the state economy evened out and tax revenues increased, lawmakers kept the k-12 budget at last year’s roughly $5.3 billion level.

But it wasn’t all good news on the education front. Fraught immigration politics killed one of the more popular bills introduced this session.

Undocumented student tuition, Senate Bill 015

Despite wide support among the public and among higher education boards and administrators on the left and the right, Colorado’s proposal to offer not-quite in-state tuition rates to undocumented students who have graduated from a Colorado high school was voted down by hardline anti-illegal immigration members of the legislature. Opponents argued the “ASSET” bill would reward lawbreakers, draw illegal immigrants to the state and offer false hope to young people who would still be unable to work legally in the U.S. after graduating with college and university degrees.

States surrounding Colorado already offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, including conservative states like Kansas and Texas, and those policies have been enormously successful– not just at graduating students and seeing them apply for citizenship, but also at attracting many of Colorado’s best undocumented high school graduates.

ASSET in different forms has been introduced repeatedly in Colorado over the last half-decade and its sponsors have vowed to bring it back again next year.

“I’d rather see our graduates going to school than sitting in their boxers playing Nintendo in their parents’ basement,” said bill sponsor Sen. Mike Johnston at an early Education Committee hearing.

For now, however, the thousands of undocumented Colorado kids who have graduated and who are graduating from high schools across the state won’t be paying to attend Colorado’s universities, colleges and junior colleges, nor will they be up and relocating to the countries where they were born but mostly haven’t visited since arriving in the States as toddlers. Instead, they’ll be watching their longtime friends go off to school and they’ll go to school in other states or they’ll sit in their basements playing video games or they’ll do yard work for cheap or they’ll sell dope.

Gay rights

Civil unions, Senate Bill 002

The gay-rights bill dominated the legislative session and the special session that followed it. The bill would grant state rights and protections to gay couples and to their children, establishing overdue legal responsibilities, for example, in regard to child support and visitation. Supporters called this a “family values” bill and it garnered unanimous Democratic support as well as the support of high-profile Republicans working inside and outside the capitol. It also eventually won over a clear majority of lawmakers in both chambers of the legislature. Yet Republican House leaders used unprecedented procedural moves to make sure the bill never made it to the floor for debate. Christian-right-orchestrated opposition argued the bill went against Biblical teachings and that it sought to legalize “gay marriage” in the face of a state constitutional amendment put in place by voters in 2006 defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

House Speaker Frank McNulty, urged on by Majority Leader and former Focus on the Family staffer Amy Stephens, threw up road blocks during the last days of the session as the bill chugged along through three Republican-controlled House committees on its march toward the full chamber. On the second-to-last day of the session, the bill lurked behind all activity, shaping discussion and leading to thinly veiled lawmaker confrontations. Amid an often absurd evening filibuster, when Democrats and their Republican allies maneuvered to bring the bill to the floor, the McNulty bloc called a recess and the Speaker, at a loss, went out on a walkabout for more than two hours, running out the clock on debate.

In the special session called by Gov. John Hickenlooper to revive the civil unions debate and to pick up the remains of the dozens of bills dropped in the wake of the battle over civil unions, McNulty assigned the bill to a stacked committee of loyalists who killed the bill.

Colorado Republicans enjoyed a one-seat majority in the House this session. Democrats are hoping to win that seat this year and gain control of committee assignments in both chambers. To make that happen, Metro State Political Science Prof. Norm Provizer said civil unions supporters and activists, including Republican voters, will have to keep their eye on the ball.

“Will this switch things to the Democrats? I’m not sure it will make a gigantic difference,” he said. “It’s natural to want to support people– regardless of party– who support [civil unions]. What people have to remember, though, is that they are also voting to give a seat to a party and that it may be in their interest to support candidates [explicitly to flip the majority].”

The sponsor of the civil unions bill, openly gay Denver Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman, will no doubt introduce a new version same as the old version on the first day of the 2013 session.

Women’s health

With an eye on the intense anti-abortion bills passed by the Republican Congress and in Republican-controlled state capitols across the country– efforts that for example attempted to outlaw contraception, limit legal rape to vague “forcible” instances and mandate doctors read scientifically inaccurate material to abortion seekers and submit them to vaginal-probe ultrasounds– Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains President Vicki Cowart expressed relief that Colorado beat back such efforts.

“We expected 2012 to usher in harmful bills targeting Colorado women and families but, thankfully, our champions in the House and Senate as well as our advocates in the community did not sit idly by,” she said.

Personhood, House Bill 1130 and Senate Bill 125

The Democrat-controlled Senate killed both of this session’s anti-abortion bills, which aimed to classify human embryos as persons with legal rights. The arguments in support of these bills caused some head scratching, coming as they did from the same people making arguments against civil unions.

In opposing civil unions, Republicans argued that voting for the law would violate the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box in 2006′s Amendment 43 and Referendum I, which respectively banned gay marriage and rejected civil unions. Yet Colorado voters have twice in the last four years rejected so-called personhood initiatives– and by much wider margins than they rejected gay partnership rights.

Health insurance and religious freedom, Senate Memorial 003

The Senate also killed a proposal aimed at backing congressional legislation that would allow employers, citing any moral objection, to refuse to provide health benefits for employees. Supporters of the proposal argued that it bolstered religious freedom. Opponents argued that religious freedom is already safeguarded in the U.S. Constitution and that these kind of proposals set up a legal free for all, where employers would be able to object to any category of action– like having unmarried sex or meat eating — and are given free rein to discriminate against employees, or at least take advantage of them by finding a spurious way to cut costs, by denying them coverage.

Speaking on this year’s legislative session, Ellen Dumm, executive director of the progressive politics Campaign for a Strong Colorado, said that, as a matter of political strategy, Republican lawmakers seem to understand that they are out of step with constituents on matters like gay rights and the obligation of employers to provide full reproductive health care coverage, that they seem to know that they should pay less attention to social issues and more attention to economic issues. “Still, they just can’t do it,” she said.

[ Image of Colorado capitol by TCI ]

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But now his show, “La Voz del Pueblo,” has grown to be the biggest and most-trusted Spanish-language talk show in a state where Hispanics could easily decide the presidential election.

And so, on Tuesday morning, a woman’s voice on KBNO said, “Hi, give me one moment, the President will be on the line.”

“No problem. No problem,” replied Sergio.

A minute later, Obama said, “Hello, Fernando?”

So began an interview that was scheduled for 10 minutes but ran about 20. (Read about it here.)

“To the best of my knowledge it’s the first time a sitting president called into Spanish-language radio here in Colorado,” Sergio told me. “You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t appreciate that. It was a very positive experience for me and [my listeners] to have the most important man in the world calling.”

So how’d Sergio land Obama?

“We approached the Obama campaign,” Sergio told me. “They did their research and expressed interest. And then we approached Secretary Salazar, and the Secretary said, ‘I will ensure that they know your show is an important show and that the President should speak to you.’ We heard back in a couple days.”

“Four years ago, I was able to speak with John McCain twice, but we were unable to speak with Obama,” Sergio told me. “Instead, we got Joe Biden.”

Republicans are reaching out to Sergio this year as well.

“I had a conversation with [Colorado Republican Party Chairman] Ryan Call,” Sergio said. “He told me, ‘You can be sure that I will have Governor Romney on your show at least twice this year.’”

Has a date been set for Romney?

“Not yet,” Sergio replied. “It’s just a promise. It’s up to him. The doors are wide open. We will be as respectful with Governor Romney as we were with the President.

“At some point during this process I will make the case for one of the other,” Sergio said. “Twenty or 30 days before the election. Here is who I’m going to vote for, and here are the 10 reasons. But let people become well informed first.

“I stress how important it is to vote. Every single day, I say, ‘You go out there and you vote. Don’t let anyone else decide this for you.’ This will be a permanent theme until November.”

It’s an approach that’s in keeping with how Sergio runs his radio show, which he sees as a “platform is to try to help people.”

The show, which airs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on 1280 AM, mostly addresses consumer issues, like problems with the banking industry and issues with police and immigration. Immigration attorneys make regular appearances on the program.

“The platform has worked out for us,” says Sergio, who’s been doing radio for 18 years. “It’s kind of like Martino’s show, but we’re more into helping people than promoting businesses.”

Sergio has an active presence on Facebook, but his show isn’t streamed online, because of steep fees that are required due to the fact that KBNO mostly airs music, Sergio told me. He hopes a solution can be found and online streaming will be added at some point.

Asked about the issues he thinks are most important to Hispanics, Sergio said he wavers between the economy and immigration.

“From my perspective, of course, it’s the economy, but immigration, for me, it’s a matter of respect. It’s emotional. I feel it. There is no other issue that has the same emotional impact. I was born in United States. But I witness the difficulties they face. I listen to the phone calls and the abuse.”

“I am an independent,” said Sergio, who supported Michael Bennet in 2010 and is leaning toward Obama. “I try in my own wisdom to do what’s right for my listeners.”

Jason Salzman runs the BigMedia blog and writes frequently at Huffington Post and Colorado Pols.

(Image of Obama: Hooper)

“The cost to Colorado taxpayers and our economy that would result from the development of the Flaming Gorge pipeline would be devastating. This project would also increase the risk of a compact call that would hurt our state’s water users,” the letter (pdf) from 118 affected businesses reads.

Last week the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reaffirmed an earlier decision to deny a rehearing of Aaron Million’s permit application to build a lucrative 578-mile pipeline, which would annually siphon 80 billion gallons of water from Wyoming’s Green River to Colorado’s Front Range.

A state task force convened in January to review the proposal and it is set to finish in December.

Protect the Flows, a coalition of over 500 small business owners in the seven-state Colorado River region, recently released a report showing that the Colorado River and its tributaries support a quarter million U.S. jobs and generate $26 billion annually in economic output. In Colorado alone, the Colorado River supports about 80,000 jobs and about $9.6 billion in total economic output.

The Green River is a principal tributary to the Colorado River. (Photo by Brent Gardner-Smith/Aspen Journalism)

A study by Western Resource Advocates indicated that the pipeline would take nearly a quarter of the Green River’s flow, resulting in a $58.5 million dollar annual loss to the region’s recreation economy. That same study reported that the water delivered to the Front Range by the pipeline would have to be sold at a price that is the most expensive in Colorado’s history. The threat of diversions has made the Green the nation’s second most endangered river, according to one group.

Messages left for Hickenlooper’s spokespeople were not immediately returned.

House Republicans passed a pair of provisions Friday that would stymie the military’s efforts to incorporate more renewable fuels into its supplies. The defense authorization bill now heads for a markup in the Senate Armed Services Committee, where Democrats are preparing to go to battle.

“Continued reliance on foreign oil puts U.S. troops at unnecessary risk on and off the battlefield,” reads a letter written last week from Sens. Mark Udall, D-Colo., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Mark Begich, D-Alaska, to Navy Admiral Jonathan Greenert soliciting his opinion on the House’s actions.

“In addition, the fiscal costs related to DOD’s dependence on fossil fuels are staggering. The annual Pentagon fuel bill increases by $130 million for every dollar increase in the cost per barrel of oil,” the letter continued. “This year alone, the Department of Defense will face an additional $1.3 billion bill as a result of the recent rise in fuel prices. Given that our military consumes approximately 300,000 barrels of oil per day, research into alternative fuels is a strategic and economic necessity.”

In response, Admiral Greenert wrote back (pdf) this week, saying attempts to obstruct the military’s transition to alternative fuels “will impede America’s energy security.” He referenced a May 16 statement from his superiors that lamented the House provisions would affect the Department of Defense’s “ability to procure alternative fuels and would further increase American reliance on fossil fuels, thereby contributing to geopolitical instability and endangering” U.S. interests abroad.

Soldiers set up a solar panel. (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense)

The military is emerging as a leader in the country’s clean energy movement, setting a goal of producing three gigawatts of renewable energy by 2025, or enough energy to power 750,000 homes. Each branch of the military is expected to kick in a gigawatt of energy, with the Navy taking the lead.

Not only are fossil fuels expensive, but transporting liquid fuel is an additional burden on the troops. And too often a deadly one. Many of America’s troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been killed guarding fuel convoys and defending fuel resupply lines. According to Sierra Magazine: One out of every 24 fuel convoys in Afghanistan, and one out of 38 in Iraq, led to the death of a soldier in 2007. In 2007 alone, that adds up to hundreds dead given the 6,000 recorded fuel convoys. Between 2003 and 2010 more than 3,000 troops have been killed or wounded while moving fuel.

Burning oil and gas also creates more work for the armed forces.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta recently noted that “rising sea levels, severe droughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.”

The defense authorization bill passed the House by a vote of 299 to 120. Colorado Republicans Scott Tipton, Mike Coffman, Doug Lamborn and Cory Gardner all voted for it as did Democrat Ed Perlmutter. Colorado Democrats Diana DeGette and Jared Polis voted against the defense bill.

Rep. Coffman

“By forcing our military to adopt high-cost renewable energies, while at the same time pushing for reductions in military personnel, the president will ultimately force further reductions to achieve his costly Green Energy initiative while also meeting his demands for a smaller military,” Coffman said earlier this year.

The stage is now set for a showdown over the military’s energy spending between Sens. Udall, Shaheen and Begich and Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., who have decried the military’s shift away from fossil fuels. The arguments just may come down to dollars and cents.

“There is a clear need to find cost-competitive alternative fuels, given the fiscal challenges the Navy is facing in FY12 alone due to increases in the price of fuel,” Admiral Greenert wrote to the senators.

Critics have questioned Gessler’s priorities, given that the number of documented incidents of voter fraud in Colorado is tiny.

Yet Gessler argued his case at committee hearings in Washington and Denver by citing statistics. There were hundreds and maybe thousands of non-citizens registered to vote in Colorado who may or may not be casting ballots, he said, as an example.

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has also sounded alarms on voter fraud. Taking a page from Gessler, he recently cited numbers to back up his claims.

In an interview with the Weekly Standard, Walker said he thought fraud typically accounted for 2 percent of the vote in the state and likely swayed elections.

“I’ve always thought in this state, close elections, presidential elections, it means you probably have to win with at least 53 percent of the vote to account for fraud. One or two points, potentially.”

That’s enough to change the outcome of the election.

“Absolutely. I mean there’s no question why they went to court and fought [to undo] voter ID.”

Indeed, ever since judges there enjoined Wisconsin’s new controversial voter ID law in March, Walker supporters have been warning that voter fraud will make it more difficult for the governor to survive the coming June 5 recall election.

“As we’ve been telling you, the liberal power network is pulling out all the stops to RECALL Gov. Scott Walker. We’ve now received news that liberal judges have teamed up to block Wisconsin’s new Voter ID law,” wrote Walker supporters at the the Campaign to Defeat Obama in an email last month.

“This means we will not be able to fight voter fraud, and this means that our margin of victory must be much larger now — to compensate for any fraudulent ballots cast by RECALL proponents.”  

The email begs the usual questions: How much voter fraud is happening in the state and would the voter ID law prevent it?

After the 2008 presidential election, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm formed an Election Fraud Task Force to investigate.

In February of 2011, the Department of Justice released a statement on the results of that investigation: Authorities charged 11 felons for voting, 6 people for voter registration misconduct and 2 people for voting twice.

As the Badger Herald’s Sean Kirkby reported, authorities also charged one Milwaukee County resident for acquiring a ballot in his late wife’s name in order to fulfill her “dying wish” and vote for Obama.

The investigation may seem to confer some legitimacy on the concerns about voter fraud. As Dave Weigel at Slate points out, however, the yearlong “deep-dive” investigation in Wisconsin found a mere 20 cases of fraud, so Walker’s math is way off, Weigel writes. The 20 cases don’t reach anything close to 2 percent of the 3 million votes cast in Wisconsin in 2008. They amount to 0.0007 percent of the vote.

“For fraud to equal ‘one or two points’ in that election, you’d have needed 30,000 to 60,000 phony ballots,” Weigel explains.

University of Wisconsin political science professor David Canon told Kirkby that Wisconsin’s voter ID law would have done nothing to prevent the 20 cases of fraud found by the DOJ investigators.

“[The law] would not prevent felons or non-citizens from voting,” Canon said. “The only type of fraud it will catch is impersonators.”

The DOJ and Wisconsin county authorities found no polling-place voter impersonators who committed fraud in Wisconsin in 2008.

[ Image via tychay at Flickr ]

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“Despite the midnight madness at the end of the session, the environment emerged a winner,” Colorado Environmental Coalition Executive Director Elise Jones said. “In the face of numerous attempts to unravel Colorado’s progress on clean air and water, citizens convinced the legislature to hold firm. Coloradans across the state sent a clear message to their lawmakers: We want to continue Colorado’s leadership on renewable energy, we love our outdoor heritage and access to our public lands, and we want strong protections from oil and gas impacts at all levels of government.”

Conservationists highlighted a pair of bipartisan bills passed with wide majorities and signed into law: the Electronic Recycling Jobs Act (SB 133) and the Electric Vehicles Act (HB 1258).

State Sen. Gail Schwartz speaks about new legislation that bans computers, TVs and other other electronics from landfills as Randy Moorman (left) of the Colorado Environmental Coalition looks on. (Photo by Troy Hooper)

“We said in January that this session was about creating jobs — and the conservation community delivered by creating an estimated 2,500 jobs and keeping thousands of tons of hazardous electronic waste out of our landfills with the passing of the bipartisan Electronic Recycling Jobs Act,” said Pete Maysmith, executive director of Colorado Conservation Voters.

“We helped Colorado continue to develop innovative jobs by securing funding for renewable energy and passing legislation to increase electric vehicle stations,” he said.

“This (electronics recycling) legislation will stop the flow of dangerous electronic waste into Colorado landfills, while ensuring easy options for consumers to recycle their old components. It will create jobs, help the environment, and make it easier for us all to reclaim valuable storage space taken up by old electronics,” said Joanne Kron, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado.

Conservationists worked with administrators and legislators to secure funding for the Governor’s Energy Office (HB 1315), maintaining the state’s leadership in renewable energy. Colorado has created an estimated 21,000 new sustainable jobs and led the nation in solar jobs per capita.

Other victories in the state legislature hailed by conservationists include HB 1032, which continues the forest restoration program for five more years; HB 1050, which extends tax check offs for non-game and endangered wildlife; and HB 1028, which extends funding for low income energy assistance.

“Coloradans know that renewable energy like wind and solar is the future and they want to go forward, not backward, and shift to clean energy and reducing pollution from fossil fuels,” said Jeanne Bassett, Environment Colorado’s senior associate. “Thankfully, the legislature heard us and responded by refusing to weaken our nation-leading clean energy policies. While these steps reaffirmed the legislature’s commitment to Colorado’s clean energy leadership, more needs to be done. We are now counting on our elected officials to help bring more clean energy to Colorado.”

The list of so-called “anti-conservation” bills defeated in the state this year is long:

HB 1322 – A bill forcing the federal government to sell treasures such as the Colorado National Monument and Maroon Bells to the state, potentially ending access to over 23 million acres of public land.

HB 1172 – Prohibits the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) from considering carbon when making decisions on energy generation.

HB 1121 – Permits the PUC to waive the renewable energy standard.

HB 1102 – Increases cap rate from Clean Air Clean Jobs to 1 percent.

SB 88 – Preempts local governments on oil and gas regulations.

SB 17 – Prohibits the Water Quality Control Commission from adopting rules to regulate water pollution.

HB 1103 – Permits counties to exempt themselves from auto emissions testing as part of compliance with ozone standards.

HB 1014 – Reduces funding for repairing bridges and improving transit by reducing vehicle registration late fees.

HB 1066 – Requires counties to allow ATVs/OHVs to be driven on county roads, thereby increasing the likelihood of OHV damage to sensitive public land ecosystems.

HB 1021 – Eliminates state transit and rail advisory committees.

SB 126 – Extends time new vehicles are exempt from air pollution inspections from 4 to 8 years without scientific evidence to show that these vehicles do not break down and pollute as they age.

HB 1136 – Eliminates the ability to provide electric vehicle charging stations at rest areas and RTD park and rides.

HB 1160 – Allows the capture of coal bed methane to be considered a renewable energy source under the renewable energy standard.

HB 1161 – Delays water pollution rules on nitrogen and phosphorus.

HB 1351 – Includes energy produced from gas created by burning waste and methane gas from coal mines in the renewable energy standard.

NOM has long insisted that its battle against same-sex marriage transcends partisanship. “We’re committed to achieving a majority for marriage, not any particular partisan majority,” said Brown in announcing NOM’s recent endorsement of an anti-marriage equality Democrat in New York.

Which is what makes NOM’s close relationship with a right-wing fundraising and activism organization called ActRight so striking.

ActRight, which is also run by Brown and shares office space with NOM, has often been presented as the conservative answer to the successful progressive fundraising site ActBlue. Its website allows users to sign petitions, fund conservative organizations, and donate to politicians.

The site makes clear that when it comes to candidates, its focus is electing conservative Republicans. “All federal Republican candidates appear on ActRight,” reads the “about us” page. “But from there you actually decide! Anyone who has become a member of ActRight by donating at least $5.00 to any federal candidate can vote RINO’s off of the site by hitting the RINO button.”

ActRight doesn’t automatically list Democrats, but it doesn’t ban them either. “Given that some third party candidates or even Democrats could be conservative (hey, it does happen!) we also allow you to vote candidates on.” Still, as of May 15, none of the federal candidates listed on ActRight were Democrats.

Fighting same-sex marriage together

As a clearinghouse for conservative and Republican causes, ActRight makes it seem like the right’s top priority is fighting against same-sex marriage.

Half of ActRight’s “top causes” — the groups the site has raised the most amount of money for – are campaigns pushing anti-gay marriage ballot measures in Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Washington state. NOM has been deeply involved with each of those campaigns. Most of the remaining top causes are groups affiliated with CatholicVote.org (a project of Fidelis, a socially conservative Catholic group), which also wants to prevent same-sex couples from marrying.

This placement does not appear to be coincidental.

As Good As You blogger Jeremy Hooper recently reported, the state anti-marriage equality campaigns backed by NOM have set up their websites so that online donations are processed through ActRight.

Hooper, who has written extensively about NOM’s ties to ActRight, reported last year that contributions made through Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.)’s presidential campaign site website were being process through ActRight. McCotter continues to be the highest-earning candidate on ActRight.com.

In addition to allowing users to donate to candidates and causes, ActRight allows users to create and contribute to “actions,” which mainly consist of petitions and letters to political leaders related to a particular cause. ActRight’s “top action” for this month is “Dump Starbucks for Supporting Same Sex Marriage,” an electronic petition informing the CEO and board of directors of Starbucks that signatories are “deeply offended by your corporate position to support same-sex marriage and your decision to oppose the reasonable moral views of half your US customers and the vast majority of your international consumers.” The signers pledge not to patronize Starbucks until it stops “attacking the natural institution of marriage.” NOM started the Dump Starbucks boycott initiative back in March.

Last week — after President Obama declared his support for gay marriage and North Carolina voted to ban it — NOM announced a new initiative called Stand for Marriage America, which allows marriage equality foes to contribute simultaneously to ballot campaigns in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington: “For every dollar you donate, 25 cents will go to each of the four state campaigns where marriage is on the ballot – or you can re-allocate your gift to particular states!”

NOM’s Stand for Marriage America campaign is being conducted using ActRight. In a blog post on NOM’s site, Brown repeatedly directs supporters to ActRight’s site in order to fund the effort.

A close relationship

NOM’s relationship with ActRight goes beyond simply sharing its president and cooperating in fundraising activities.

Just last month, ActRight’s legal arm, ActRight Legal Services, took over as NOM’s counsel in two different federal cases. They replaced Citizens United attorney James Bopp Jr. and his colleagues at the Bopp Law Firm, which for years has been representing NOM in its efforts to skirt campaign-disclosure laws. (At least four of the attorneys who joined ActRight Legal Services earlier this year are former Bopp attorneys.)

NOM has avoided directly promoting ActRight or declaring a formal relationship between the two organizations, though the address listed for ActRight and its various entities is the same as that listed for the National Organization for Marriage. (ActRight Fund — the group’s 527 arm — lists rent paid to NOM on its IRS filings.)

The American Independent recently visited the K Street address listed by both NOM and ActRight, where we requested copies of ActRight’s 2010 tax filings for its 501(c)3 (ActRight Educational Trust Fund) and 501(c)4 (ActRight Action). We could not be helped because, we were told, the relevant ActRight staff member had the day off. That ActRight staffer is Paul Bothwell, who at one point worked at NOM. Bothwell later told TAI in an email that for 2010, ActRight was “not required to file as we had too little activity.” Bothwell would not confirm whether he was still working for NOM, but he responded to our inquiry using an actright.com email address instead of the nationformarriage.org email address at which we had originally contacted him.

Louis Marinelli, a former NOM employee who is now a marriage equality activist, released several of NOM’s internal memos and emails earlier this year. Among the documents Marinelli posted were minutes from a meeting in which he and other NOM staffers discussed ActRight’s technology at length.

Campaign-finance records for ActRight’s political action committee (ActRight) and its 527 organization (ActRight Fund) show that recent big donations have come from past NOM donors.

The ActRight Fund’s 2011 year-end report of contributions and expenditures showed that the bulk of its nearly $200,000 in itemized contributions came from one source, Sean Fieler of Equinox Partners LLP. Fieler — who gave the group $195,000 — is chairman of the American Principles Project, whose founder is Robert George, chairman emeritus of NOM. Excluding a bank payment refund, the rest — four installments of $700 — came from ActRight’s PAC.

The ActRight Fund’s 2012 first quarter report shows that it received $500,445 in itemized contributions. Nearly all of that came from one person: Terrence Caster, who helped bankroll the NOM-backed Proposition 8 in 2008.

According to a version of NOM’s 2008 tax return that was released by the Human Rights Campaign via a reported whistleblower, in 2008 Fieler gave $100,000 to NOM and Caster gave NOM $172,500.