Scott Gessler

Denver attorney and state Republican insider Scott Gessler appears to be building his campaign for secretary of state on opposition to ballot-initiative reform. It’s a move that positions him as a populist champion of citizen lawmaking at a time when broad consensus has built among lawmakers and analysts in favor of reining in the state’s famously loose initiative process.

Uh-oh. If Gov. Bill Ritter actually invites Scott Gessler for a Colorado secretary of state tryout, he’s gonna have some ‘splainin’ to do — what with the major rule being no one is supposed to embarrass the governor and the Republican attorney already called some of Ritter’s big-dollar supporters Maoists.

In an effort to oh-so-helpfully whittle down the 20 candidates vying for Colorado’s open secretary of state position, ProgressNow has launched a poll urging the liberal group’s members to cast their vote for their top choices. The voting continues through Thursday, but ProgressNow sent out a teaser today, listing the top picks. Is it Bernie [...]

OK. The final tally is 20, as in 20 people want to be sworn in to oversee elections and business licensing in Colorado and replace Secretary of State Mike Coffman, who is running off to succeed Republican Tom Tancredo in Congress after drawing the ire of a federal judge for purging 44,000 voters from the rolls at the last minute. As we reported late last week, whoever is picked must not be someone who will embarrass Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, in any way.

A campaign seeking to quash Colorado’s anti-affirmative action ballot measure faces an onerous battle in the weeks ahead as the Nov. 4 election nears. The group hopes to convince voters to reject the initiative that will dismantle affirmative action programs if passed. But a series of failed legal challenges have left organizers with little cash as they scramble to put together a cogent counter-campaign.

As was reported earlier in the month, metro taxi company Yellow Cab may be in hot water over allegations of illegal lobbying tactics–that is, paying drivers to call state lawmakers and encourage opposition to a taxi deregulation bill that would bring in more competition.

The Secretary of State (SOS) has started an investigation into the company, [...]

A Republican political committee financed by the Colorado Association of Home Builders was smacked down today by a state administrative judge for violating campaign finance law.

In today’s ruling [PDF] described as precedent-setting by the complainant, Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government (CCEG), the Committee for the American Dream was found to have broken the law regarding electioneering communications for a series of attack ads it helped to sponsor last fall.

A ballot measure to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85 an hour is set to take effect in January, after Colorado voters choose to support the increase by 53% on Election Day. The minimum wage is now part of the state constitution and will increase annually based on inflation.

Before the election, [...]

When writing an article about 527 organizations in Colorado, it might be a good idea to mention that one of your sources heads a 527 and has received money from one.

But that didn’t happen in the Denver Post.

Lawyer Scott Gessler is the president of Coloradans For Change and his firm has received money from All [...]

Managing political committees in Colorado can be pretty confusing stuff.

Just ask Scott Gessler, an attorney whose firm has received thousands of dollars from the Beauprez For Governor campaign.

In August, Gessler registered a new group called the Colorado Independent Auto Dealers Political Committee. The purpose? To “support candidates including Bill Ritter,” the Democratic candidate for [...]