The legislation “demands results and accountability but allows states the ability to chart their own course to higher achievement for students,” said Polis in a release. “There is no substitute for improving student outcomes and ensuring that every graduate is ready for college or a career, but where No Child Left Behind was prescriptive and punitive, the Growth to Excellence Act is flexible and focused on what helps better prepare students to succeed and graduate.”

The bill grew from Colorado’s experience as a participant in the Growth Model Pilot Project started in 2005, which allowed states to experiment in tweaking the No Child Left Behind Act accountability system. The idea was to look beyond the one established achievement standard and seek to reward schools that were successful in helping students significantly advance in their learning.

Provisions of the Bennet-Polis-Udall Growth to Excellence Act would allow states instead of the federal government to set measures of achievement and to base those measures on test score growth and high school graduation rates; replicate success by recognizing top-performing schools and districts; and seek to more accurately measure student progress by allowing states to use “adaptive assessments,” which “dig deeper into a student’s knowledge base to better measure knowledge or ability.”

Before being appointed to the Senate, Bennet was superintendent of the Denver Public School system and he has championed education reform on Capitol Hill. He spoke with passion last fall in the Senate chamber about what he characterized as the comically frustrating shortcomings of No Child Left Behind, describing the law was the worst kind of federal overreach. In explaining the priorities of the new Growth to Excellence bill, he emphasized the need to grant local parties the power to shape achievement and assessment efforts according to varying contexts.

“We developed a School Performance Framework in Denver to measure the progress of actual students year over year that served as the foundation for the Colorado growth model, which is now being used or pursued by more than a dozen states,” he was quoted in a release. “Our model has provided the country with an innovative example of how to measure student progress in real and meaningful ways.

“This bill builds on Colorado’s example and ensures we are working towards a sane and useful accountability system that gives every kid a shot at a quality education. I commend Congressman Polis for taking up this bill in the House of Representatives. It is an excellent counterpart to the bill Senator Udall and I have introduced in the Senate.”

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“As a former superintendent who has been on the receiving end of No Child Left Behind, I know that well-intentioned ideas from Washington often do not make sense once they reach the classroom,” Bennet said today in a release. “In a system where kids living in poverty face a 9 in 100 chance of graduating from a four-year college, parents, children and educators aren’t concerned with where a fix comes from. They just want the problem solved, and unfortunately, dysfunction in Washington has held up a fix in Congress.

“Now, Colorado has received relief from many of the one-size-fits-all elements of No Child Left Behind that disempower the people who are closest to our kids. This exemption will remove bureaucratic barriers to innovation and reform and allow Colorado to focus on what matters: improving outcomes for kids.”

Obama is granting waivers to ten states– Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The administration is working with New Mexico to help it meet the requirements for the waiver and nearly 30 additional states are applying for the same exemption.

A signature domestic policy of the Bush years, No Child Left Behind requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Educators have long felt the policy a draconian and ill-considered attempt to boost student performance by holding teachers to inflexible one-size-fits-all benchmarks. The effect, critics say, is that instructors simply “teach to the test” instead of taking a more organic approach to the way children learn.

“The goals of No Child Left Behind were laudable, but it has suffered from poor implementation and has been loaded with burdensome one-size-fits-all standards, making it difficult for our children to succeed in the 21st century,” said Udall in a prepared statement. “I’ll continue to work with my colleagues to improve the law, but until that happens, I’m glad the administration has recognized the reality that Colorado has developed a better way to hold kids and teachers accountable through its nationally recognized growth model. As the author of a bill that would build on that model nationally, I appreciate the administration’s decision today. And I’m proud Coloradans will be able to continue our efforts without being held back by onerous federal government standards.”

States receiving waivers must set new targets for improving achievement, reward schools making the best progress and aid schools that are struggling most.

Bennet has aimed at reforming No Child Left Behind almost since the day he arrived in the Senate. He helped write the Growth to Excellence Act meant to remake the controversial policy and made news last fall with an impassioned floor speech excoriating his colleagues for stalling action on the bill, which is still in committee.

“You know why people are fed up with this place?” he said. “It’s because they don’t think the debate we’re having is about them. They think the debate we’re having is about us. And they’re right about that…

“The teachers all across this state want us to lift this burden from them, in my view the biggest federal overreach ever in domestic policy. That’s what this bill does, not for ideological reasons, but to respond to the voices of our teachers, respond to the voices of our superintendents.

“[The bill] responds to the voices of our parents who are sick and tired of the almost comical but to them painful measures of annual progress, the idea that we’re going to label all of our schools failing by 2014 because we have a completely made up accountability system in Washington DC. This bill does away with that!”

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The White House announced last month that it was standing by its decision to require that insurance providers — with the exception of religious employers — cover birth control without co-payments. Instead of giving in to requests that all objectors be able to opt out, the feds gave groups a one-year extension to meet the mandate. Since the announcement, the Obama administration has received a barrage of criticism from religious (mostly Catholic) leaders who consider such a mandate an affront to religious freedom.

While Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has publicly stood by the decision and said that such accusations are false, the White House does not sound as resolute.

According to the New York Times:

David Axelrod, who serves as a top adviser to Mr. Obama’s re-election campaign, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program that the president would “look for a way” to address the vocal opposition from Catholic groups who say the rule forces them to violate their religious beliefs against contraception.

“We certainly don’t want to abridge anyone’s religious freedoms, so we’re going to look for a way to move forward that both provides women with the preventative care that they need and respects the prerogatives of religious institutions,” Mr. Axelrod said.

Religious Americans, overall, are supportive of the federal decision. Polling released this week by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that a majority of Catholics think employers should be required to provide health care plans that cover birth control at no cost.

According to the survey:

• A majority (55%) of Americans agree that “employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception and birth control at no cost.” Four-in-ten (40%) disagree with this requirement.
• There are major religious, generational and political divisions:
• Roughly 6-in-10 Catholics (58%) believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception.
• Among Catholic voters, support for this requirement is slightly lower at 52%.
• Only half (50%) of white Catholics support this requirement, compared to 47% who oppose it.

• Among other religious Americans, 61% of religiously unaffiliated Americans believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception, compared to only half (50%) of white mainline Protestants and less than 4-in-10 (38%) white evangelical Protestants.
• Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Democrats, a slim majority (51%) of political Independents and less than 4-in-10 (36%) of Republicans agree that employer health care coverage should include contraception at no cost.
• Younger Americans are much more supportive of the requirement. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Millennials (age 18-29) agree that employer health care coverage should include contraception at no cost, compared to 4-in-10 (40%) seniors (age 65+).
• Women are significantly more likely than men to agree that employers should be required to provide health care plans that cover contraception (62% vs. 47% respectively).

An effort by some religious groups to frame this controversy as a religious freedom issue has been effective, so far. A week ago, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill that would roll back the federal decision. The bill is called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Twenty-two co-sponsors have already signed onto Rubio’s measure.

Catholics for Choice, a Catholic group that supports reproductive rights, says that the bishops and Catholic leaders fighting the decision are not speaking for all Catholics.

“Too often, religious voices are written off when it comes to support for reproductive rights issues,” Jon O’Brien, the group’s president, wrote in a recent letter. “Some of the strongest supporters for family planning are in the religious community. We know that the vast majority of all American women use and support access to family planning, including 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women. The loudest voices in the Catholic community are those of the priests and bishops who know that they are being ignored when it comes to their teachings on family planning. They may be the loudest, but we know they also represent a tiny minority of Catholics.”

According to research conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, about “98 percent of sexually active Catholic women have used contraceptive methods banned by the church.”

Udall and Bennet

Rep. Cory Gardner

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, is the lone holdout in the state’s bipartisan push.

Rep. Lamborn

“My preference is to help industry grow by reducing federal regulations and mandates as opposed to carving out special interests in the tax code,” Lamborn wrote in an email to the Colorado Independent on Tuesday.

Lamborn, who is the chairman of the Natural Resources subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, recently supported H.R. 2173, the Advancing Offshore Wind Production Act, which would slash government red tape for the wind industry in seeking permits on federal lands. He also recently introduced a plan to open about 2 million acres of public lands in Utah, Wyoming and western Colorado to oil shale drilling, which environmentalists strongly oppose. The U.S. Department of Interior has different ideas and is trying to rein in oil shale leasing in the American West.

Polls show, however, that Colorado residents prefer renewable energy over fossil fuels.

Renewable energy experts say the wind production tax credit is key for Colorado.

“Manufacturing jobs are critical in America’s economic recovery,” Tim Heaton and Lee Boughey, chairs of the Colorado Energy Coalition, said in a joint statment. “The expiration of the Production Tax Credit would have a devastating impact on Colorado, affecting not only jobs and investment at our large wind manufacturers, but the many supply chain manufacturers that serve the wind industry. To provide the certainty that wind-energy companies need to create more jobs and investment in Colorado, the Colorado Energy Coalition endorses a three- to five-year extension of the PTC.”

The legislation, which President George H.W. Bush first signed into law in 1992, gives owners of wind energy farms a 2.2 cents-per-kilowatt credit on their U.S. income taxes annually for the first decade of the wind farm’s existence. It has been extended many times and is set to expire at the end of the year.

Colorado generates the third highest percentage of power from wind of any state in the nation and is home to several major wind energy developers and wind turbine manufacturing facilities.

Estimates show that wind energy employs upwards of 6,000 workers statewide.

Newt Gingrich drew nearly 13 percent of the Colorado vote and Ron Paul drew nearly 12 percent.

As in Colorado, Santorum won in Missouri and Minnesota Tuesday by working the states harder than did his rivals. Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul mostly ignored the three contests, an understandable strategy given that none of the races assigned delegates for the Republican nomination.

Colorado caucus goers, for example, were only choosing delegates to attend a party convention later this year.

In key ways, the Colorado contest mirrored the Iowa contest that kicked off the 2012 election season. Santorum won the caucuses there in a nail biter that similarly switched back and forth between Santorum and Romney– it did so there for weeks after the votes were cast. Likewise, as he did in Iowa, the social conservative Bible-thumping former Pennsylvania senator appealed strongly to Colorado’s intense and relatively large evangelical Republican voter base, which was unlikely to swing substantially for either Mormon Mitt Romney or philandering husband Newt Gingrich.

Tuesday’s results aren’t likely to greatly influence the Republican primary race. Romney appears to be marching to the nomination slowly but surely, notching wins in states that assign delegates to the national party’s nominating convention. A month from now, the Super Tuesday contests will see ten states cast votes, seven of which are primaries that award nominating delegates, and one of those will take place in Virginia, where only Romney and Paul have qualified for the ballot and where 49 delegates stand to be won.

Indeed, the Colorado contest was significant mostly as a general election forecast. On that score, Republicans can not be too pleased.

Tea party enthusiasm swept Republicans into office around the country in 2010 but not so much in Colorado. Democrats won the governor’s office and a crucial U.S. Senate seat. After years of bashing President Obama and looking forward to the opportunity to replace him, tea partiers here seem to be a bit at sea, their enthusiasm cooled.

With 99 percent of counties reporting, fewer Republican voters appear to have turned out for the caucuses this year than they did in 2008, before the tea party movement was even born. Perhaps more significant, Mitt Romney defeated John McCain in that year’s caucuses by pulling down roughly 42,200 votes. This year, the likely eventual GOP nominee garnered a mere 23,000 votes. Romney is not likely to suddenly energize Colorado Republicans in the fall.

By contrast, Obama in 2008– admittedly a relative unknown who was running in a spectacularly close primary against Hillary Clinton– drew 80,000 votes of 120,000 cast by Colorado Democratic caucus goers.

Obama’s campaign has been working the state at a low pace but almost non-stop since then.

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“I’m not going to go out and say the sky is falling and that climate change is happening, but I’m very concerned about the risk of climate change,” Gov. John Hickenlooper told a coalition of 22 southeastern Colorado counties at a public meeting last week, as reported by the Pueblo Chieftain.

The governor’s comments echo some of the same language he used at the Colorado Environmental Coalition’s “Rebel With A Cause” gala in May 2009, except then his views were a lot more clear.

“I’m not saying that the sky is falling. I’m saying that clearly the climate is changing, clearly mankind’s activities are causing it,” Hickenlooper said back then.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in Yuma.

Now, Hickenlooper clarifies that he is concerned about the risk of climate change but he deliberately stops short of acknowledging climate change is actually happening.

Even before he ascended to the governor’s office, there were questions as to whether Hickenlooper wears flip flops to the planet’s climate change debates.

In February 2010, at the National Western Mining Conference & Exhibition in Denver, Hickenlooper raised eyebrows when he said, “I don’t think that the scientific community has decided with certainty that climate change is as catastrophic as so many people think.”

It was a surprising remark that caught many people off guard, including Beth Conover, the author of “How the West Was Warmed.” Conover tweeted: “What the … ?” Hickenlooper wrote the forward for her 2009 book in which he called climate change “one of the greatest challenges of our time.”

Whether the governor now doubts how much the West has warmed is unclear. But rising sea levels, warmer temperatures and below-average snowpack are unmistakable to most scientists. And while he no longer comes out and says it is happening, Hickenlooper is preparing for climate change.

In an effort to conserve water, Colorado’s governor said Americans need to get rid of nonnative Kentucky bluegrass from their yards and that industry needs to develop more water-efficient toilet flushing. As mayor of Denver, he swapped out energy-guzzling bulbs in traffic lights with more efficient ones. He introduced biodiesel into city fleets, successfully lobbied for mass transportation solutions, implemented an ambitious recycling program at Denver International Airport and praised urban infill. In his speech last week in Pueblo, Hickenlooper reportedly mentioned he has been in discussions with the CEO of Kum & Go about possibly facilitating a low-interest government loan so that the convenience stores could offer compressed natural gas as an alternative to gasoline.

When it comes to climate change, Hickenlooper may walk the walk. But he no longer talks the talk.

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Italian weekly newsmagazine “Oggi” recently tracked down Santorum’s “dyed in the wool red” relatives in Riva del Garda. His grandfather’s generation opposed Mussolini and his Black Shirt fascists in the run-up to World War II and established a solid communist-socialist family political tradition.

“There are Santorums who would be turning in their graves,” one of Santorum’s relatives told the magazine, referring to Rick Santorum’s right-wing Catholic politics.

Last month the UK Guardian got hold of the story and translated many of the quotes.

“Rick’s grandfather, Pietro, ran the local post office and had strong liberal convictions,” said Maria Malacarne Santorum, whose late husband was a cousin of the former Pennsylvania Senator.

“Back in the 1920s, he understood what was happening in Italy. He was a convinced anti-Fascist.

“The political climate was stifling and so in 1925 he left for America, to work in a coal mine in Pennsylvania.”

Mrs Santorum, who is reportedly 83 years old, said Rick Santorum should moderate his views.

“To be opposed to homosexuality and divorce is damaging. Principles count but in politics you need to be open-minded.”

Michela Santorum said “Cousin Ricky’s” radical ice cube habits shocked his Italian relatives.

“Me and my brothers were amazed at the number of ice cubes that he put in his drinks,” she said. “But he was crazy for Italian food, including polenta.”

Santorum’s candidacy has attracted support from evangelical Christian groups. It has also re-introduced the sweater vest as adult wear.

Some would say Santorum’s “denial of reality” is apparent in the fact that he seeks to put into place policies in the 21st-century United States that would outlaw non-procreational heterosexual sex, gay sex, gay legal rights, abortion and birth control. Santorum also recently told a crowd at an energy forum in Golden, Colorado, that climate change is an international hoax perpetrated by scientists in league with elected officials looking to gain control of the U.S. economy.

Colorado Republicans are attending caucuses tonight to select a candidate to run against Obama in the general election.

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Today, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Democratic Party Chair Rick Palacio addressed the media at Su Teatro in Denver’s Santa Fe Art District.

“Mitt Romney, as we are learning, is out of touch with the American people. He’s out of touch on jobs, education, healthcare, immigration, and his positions are wrong for Colorado and middle class Americans. Coloradans are learning that when it comes to Mitt Romney, the more you learn, the less you like,” said Palacio.

Palacio and Hancock both stressed that the economy is improving under President Obama and that they think it would be bad for Colorado and the country to change directions now.

Colorado Democratic Chair Rick Palacio speaks to the press Tuesday. (Kersgaard)

Romney’s camp was quick to fire back.

“President Obama and his liberal allies continue to target Mitt Romney
with false and dishonest attacks because they are intimidated by his
candidacy. The president knows that he will lose the general election
if he is forced to compare his failed economic agenda with Gov.
Romney’s record as a successful businessman. That is why the Democrats
are trying to tear down Mitt Romney before he has even won the
Republican nomination.” emailed Ryan Williams, spokesperson for the Romney campaign.

“The interesting thing about Mitt Romney and his candidacy at this point is that there are a lot of Republicans who want anyone but Mitt Romney. He hasn’t broken fifty percent in any of the primaries or caucuses so far, but he is the frontrunner,” said Palacio in explaining why Democrats are focused on Romney at this point.

“Over the past two days we’ve seen polling data that shows weakness with Romney,” Palacio said. “The Washington Post reported that… 55 percent of those who are following the Republican campaign, disapprove of what the candidates are saying. While Mitt Romney is trying to finish off a weakened field of challengers, a recent PPP poll shows him with just about 37 percent in Colorado, well below the caucuses in Nevada and far below his winning total here in Colorado in 2008. Instead of strengthening his national lead, Mitt Romney appears to be losing ground and for good reason.”

Hancock emphasized that while Americans and Coloradans are still struggling with the economy, he thinks things are getting better. “This administration inherited the White House in the depths of one of the worst recessions this country has seen, certainly since the Great Depression. Today as we are standing here four years later, we can tell you we are making progress. Our unemployment is the lowest we have seen in three years. We are creating jobs today. We need to maintain that progress, Hancock said.

“I can tell you first hand that I’ve been in office just almost seven months and I’ve met with the president on no less than four occasions now.” He said he and Obama talk about education and how to create jobs.

“This administration clearly understands this region and what we are faced with in this economy.

“For me, it is not about partisan politics. The reality is that we need to keep moving forward to dig out of this very difficult recession. We need to keep making progress. We need to keep working to build opportunity for the middle class and for those who are most vulnerable.

“The reality is that right now in Congress we have too many games being played. Partisan politics is hurting the everyday citizen who is simply trying to keep a roof over their heads, simply trying to feed their families.

“That is what this election is going to be about. We need to put aside out Ds and Rs and stand together,” Hancock said.

Palacio said Americans are looking for a president who can sit down and get the job done across the aisle.

“That is not what we see from the Republicans running for president, from the Republican congress, or from Mitt Romney.”

Colo. Second District Democratic Rep. Jared Polis

“No law that denies any American the right to marry the person that they love can be called constitutional, moral or just,” he said in a release. “Today’s decision by the 9th Circuit is a victory for the cause of justice and the ideal that we are all created equal and are all equal before the law. I am hopeful that the Supreme Court will come down on the side of marriage equality and recognize the committed and loving relationships of millions of American couples.”

Polis was joined in celebrating the ruling by Colorado LGBT-rights group One Colorado.

“Today’s affirmative ruling…that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution is a victory for all loving and committed same-sex couples in California and across the nation,” Director Brad Clark wrote. “We applaud the 9th Circuit for standing on the right side of history and affirming that fundamental freedoms such as the freedom to marry should never be taken away by a popular vote.”
 
In its 3 to 1 ruling, the judges, whose 9th Circuit jurisdiction includes districts in nine western states and two territories, from Alaska to Arizona, did not lift the ban on gay marriage in California, which remains in effect pending further appeal.

In commenting on the ruling, however, Clark gave voice to wide-ranging sentiment that sees the series of legal victories arising from the Prop 8 battle as enormously influential in part simply because they’re based in California, home to Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Castro District of San Francisco, engines of U.S. cultural change.

“Today’s ruling, if upheld, will restore the freedom to marry in California and add our nation’s [most populous] state as another engine of progress for the country.
 

10-16696 #398_Decision

News of the 9th Circuit decision comes as gay-marriage-related proposals are scheduled to appear on ballots in Maine, Minnesota and North Carolina, for example, and as related legislative proposals, such as Colorado Senate Bill 002, sponsored by Sen Pat Steadman this year, come up for debate.

Steadman, whose 2011 version of SB 002 was killed by one vote in committee last year, told the Colorado Independent he was anxiously awaiting news of the Prop 8 court ruling today but that he didn’t see how it could immediately affect his bill, apart from providing the kind of cultural momentum that can influence political positions.

One Colorado has been a major advocate for Steadman’s civil unions bills and sees the Colorado legislation to be hotly debated and closely watched this spring as another vital chapter in the increasingly fast-paced national story of marriage equality.

“As this case makes its way through the courts, we will continue to pursue critical legal protections for all families here in Colorado. Civil unions will ensure that committed couples are able to take care of the people they love—until all families are fully recognized in our state.”

Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, the campaign to win marriage equality nationwide, placed the 9th Circuit ruling in the context of the “surging nationwide majority” of Americans now in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage.

“This monumental appellate decision restores California to the growing list of states and countries that have ended exclusion from marriage, and will further accelerate the surging nationwide majority for marriage.  As this and other important challenges to marriage discrimination move through the courts around the country, Freedom to Marry calls on all Americans to join us in ensuring that together we make as strong a case in the court of public opinion as our legal advocates are making in the courts of law.  By growing the majority for marriage, winning more states, and tackling federal discrimination – Freedom to Marry’s ‘Roadmap to Victory’ – we maximize our chances of winning when one case or another finally reaches the U.S. Supreme Court.” 

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Last week, the Johnstown-based group (which operates over a large swath of the northern Front Range but lists Johnstown south-east of Ft. Collins as its postal address) sent out an email blast littered with exclamation points announcing Paul’s brief visit to Denver. It also pointed caucus goers to the group’s “no rhetoric, all facts” GOP Presidential Voter Guide, a deadpan exercise in candidate demolition that leaves no doubt where the group stands.

The authors of the guide skewered Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum as unreliably conservative in both fiscal matters and in checking government overreach.

The guide’s list of facts on Romney, for example, opens on “Romneycare” and underlines that the Massachusetts healthcare plan steered into law by Romney was the blueprint for tea party-detested “Obamacare.” The list then moves onto Romney’s support for the big government-style anti-free-market TARP bailouts, gun right restrictions and climate change “cap and trade” proposals. The list wraps by calling Romney a “flip flopper” on amnesty for undocumented residents.

By contrast, not a single unqualified negative comment falls into the Ron Paul list. Paul’s record on government spending is described as “stellar.” Even Paul positions typically controversial on the right, such as his anti-interventionist foreign policy and commitment to ending “War on Terror” policies and programs, are described in an unabashed positive light.

The Northern Colorado Tea Party facts on Romney:

• Passed “Romneycare” into Massachusetts law, which eventually became the blueprint for Obamacare
• Supported TARP
• Opposed Obama’s stimulus plan and urged Republicans to vote against it
• Supported Cap & Trade legislation in Massachusetts
• Has also supported his fair share of anti-gun legislation and has refused to return the National Association of Gun Rights survey
• Has a horrible record on taxes, er, should I say fees…although he opposed tax hikes as governor, he imposed a mountain of “fees” to help balance the budget
• Has a mixed record on spending.  He did successfully cut government spending during the first part of his first term, but loosened the purse strings during the later years.  During his time as governor, he did save the state millions by cutting out waste within the system, eliminating meaningless government jobs, and going after local earmarks instead of dipping into the states rainy day fund.
• Supports ethanol subsidies
• Supports “Right to Work” legislation and states
• Mitt is a flip-flopper on amnesty and ultimately supports a plan similar to Newt’s, granting amnesty for “some”.

The Northern Colorado Tea Party facts on Paul:

• Voted against TARP
• Voted against Obamacare
• Voted against Obama’s stimulus
• Voted against auto bailouts and Cash for Clunkers
• Voted against Cap & Trade
• Supports Right to Work legislation
• Has never voted to raise the debt ceiling
• Is an outspoken advocate for the Tenth amendment and states rights
• Is an outspoken advocate for the Constitution and limited government
• Strongly supports auditing the Federal Reserve
• Has an excellent record on gun control, recently being crowned the “Defender of the Second Amendment” by Gun Owners of America.  He is the only candidate remaining to have returned the National Association of Gun Rights survey with a 100% score.
• He has an excellent record on taxes, never voting for a tax increase and always supporting tax cuts across the board.  He has voted to cut taxes by $80 billion in the past 5 years, voicing his opinion that cutting taxes is the only way to stimulate the economy
• He has an excellent record on spending voting against nearly every big spending bill and was 1 of  41 congressman to vote against No Child Left Behind.
• His stellar spending record aside though, he has become a strong supporter of earmarks giving him an undesirable 29% on the Club for Growth’s rePORK card (although earlier in his career he never used earmarks).  He believes that earmarks are held to much higher accountability and that if the federal government is taking funds from his state constituents, it is his responsibility to bring the funds back to them.  He typically votes no on the same bills he is inserting his earmarks in.
• Believes we need to end the billions of dollars we spend annually in foreign aid, especially to the countries we are at war with.
• Supports securing our borders and coastlines, supports enforcing visa rules by tracking and deporting anyone who overstays their visa, opposes amnesty, and supports ending birthright citizenship.
• Believes we should bring our troops home and readdress our approach regarding the War on Terror and military spending along with the waste, fraud and corruption that may go along with it.

It’s hard to say how much influence the Northern Colorado Tea Party leaders will exert on caucus activity today, but the group’s large presence in the state’s fourth congressional district and strong support for CD4 candidate Cory Gardner in 2010 likely played a large role in Gardner’s easy victory over Democratic incumbent Betsy Markey. The group also lead the state-wide tea party support that boosted Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck’s U.S. Senate bid that same year, propelling him to primary victory over establishment candidate Jane Norton.

Messages to the Northern Colorado Tea Party went unanswered this week, so its loose membership in the thousands or even perhaps tens of thousands couldn’t be confirmed. Estimates, however, put state-wide tea party membership in 2010 at something like 220,000. If those numbers have been even moderately sustained, tea partiers will have a significant impact at the GOP caucuses.

There are roughly 1.08 million registered Republicans in Colorado and only roughly 10 percent of those will turn up to caucus tonight. Politically engaged tea partiers will make up a disproportionate number of attendees.

Although tea party support for Paul will certainly thin Romney support, it bodes particularly ill for rival runner-up candidates Santorum and Gingrich.

Santorum at least is likely to do well among the state’s large Colorado Springs-based evangelical voting bloc.

“I ask you to reset this race,” Santorum told voters here this past weekend. “Create an opportunity for someone who can speak to Americans about what America is all about.”

Yesterday in Golden, just miles from the country’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, the former Pennsylvania senator let loose a stemwinder at an energy forum in which he attacked international climate scientists as partners in a conspiracy to willfully create panic that would open up the country to totalitarian-like government control of the economy. He laced his talk with tent-revival-style reference to god’s will and man’s dominion over the natural world.

Yet it may be Gingrich who seems to be hoping most for a miracle in Colorado. He still has minimal campaign presence in the state and has spent almost no time here. His three wives and outrageous Tiffany tab won’t help him win the Focus on the Family-Tim Tebow vote and his term as House Speaker and then as Beltway-influence peddler are sure to undercut his attraction to anti-government tea partiers.

Romney, however, despite tea party and evangelical resistance, may pull off a key victory in the Centennial State. He has gained momentum from a series of recent primary victories and will be boosted here as he was this weekend in Nevada by the Mormon vote. Mormons make up roughly 5 percent of all religious adherents in Colorado, or something like a community of 140,000 believers who generally vote Republican.

Romney enjoyed 60 percent support among Colorado Republicans in 2008, burying John McCain in that year’s caucuses.

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