Colorado trends suggest Romney plan to court only ‘thoughtful independents’ doomed

Republican Party donors and strategists alarmed by the trajectory of the embattled Romney presidential campaign won’t find much to boost their spirits in swing-state Colorado. On the contrary, what’s happening on the ground here suggests the party’s nominee is failing to execute the strategy he said he “inelegantly” outlined in the hidden-camera videotape that has dominated the politics news cycle for the last two days.

Primary election stats suggest GOP youth-voter catastrophe will continue

Low turnout among youth voters for the Republican Super Tuesday primary contests suggests the GOP is making a major strategy misstep this year, analysts told the Colorado Independent. They said that Republican campaign messages to young people are mostly absent, weak or a turn-off and they called youth outreach efforts uninspired. They said the party looks to be continuing a disastrous trend sure to be exploited in the general election by President Obama, the man whose candidacy drew out young people as voters and volunteers in record numbers in 2008.

DADT repeal throws DOMA under spotlight

While gay soldiers and veterans in Colorado react today with a mix of joy and relief that the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy barring them from serving openly has been repealed, Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family continues to express concerns. The Christian-right group’s political-action news outlet, CitizenLink, worries that repeal might impinge on soldiers’ freedom of religion and expression and that it could also further erode the shaky standing of the Defense of Marriage Act, which precludes federal recognition of same-sex unions.

Colorado tax hikes proposed by DU researchers not at all radical

News outlets in Colorado reported last week that researchers at the University of Denver recommended tax hikes to fill yawning future budget gaps. In fact, the researchers made no recommendations. What they did was offer two scenarios for public consideration by which the state could meet its obligations (download the study summary). The first scenario included only program cuts. The second included only tax hikes. Even though the tax-hike scenario has already drawn fire, it is no radical proposal. The hikes, as detailed to the Colorado Independent by the director of the study, would establish rates that would still compare favorably with those in its neighbor-state competitors of the Great Plains and Mountain West.

Colorado state budget researcher: ‘We’re headed off a cliff’

There is nowhere near enough money for Colorado to continue to do the business of the state as things stand, according to an influential team of researchers at the University of Denver. State lawmakers will either have to raise more money or cut away the kind of programs and services most Americans view as measures of the baseline quality of life achieved over centuries in the world’s wealthiest nation.

Take Back the Night rally brings Senator Michael Bennet to DU campus

“What woman has not felt anxiety walking alone at night?” With that question, University of Denver students, staff and friends kicked off this year’s Take Back the Night rally on the DU campus Wednesday evening.

Stapleton business deal would raise new round of questions for Colorado treasurer

Weeks after Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton took office this past January he drew a flurry of questions about a lucrative consulting contract he made with SonomaWest Holdings, the Northern California real-estate firm he headed for years as CEO. Stapleton arranged to work for up to 250 hours per year with Sonoma for $150,000 while acting as Colorado’s treasurer. Colorado AOL reporter Sandra Fish discovered the arrangement by looking at paperwork SonomaWest had to file as a public company, and government watchdogs took comfort from the fact that those public records filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission or SEC would continue to provide some level of transparency. Now Stapleton’s family finance business, Denver-based Stapleton Acquisitions Company, is proposing to buy out shareholders of SonomaWest (pdf) and take the company private. That would mean no more filing with the SEC. It would mean no more public records from which to monitor Stapleton’s moonlighting as a consultant.

DU professor wins Babelgum art prize for antiwar video

Video artist and University of Denver professor Chris Coleman won the Babelgum Metropolis Grand Prize for a five-and-a-half minute work exploring warring nationalisms and individual alienation. Coleman was awarded $20,000 and is en route to New York, where…

Prof. Brownie: Disgraced Bush official to teach Patriot Act class at DU

Michael Brown, the disgraced head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during Hurricane Katrina, lives in Boulder now and, four years after the epic disaster, is apparently ready to dip back into the world of law and government. Brown

In Iraq War Funding Nothing Is As Simple As It Seems

Think of it as the “Kucinich Strategy.” At Monday’s debate among would-be Democratic presidential candidates, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich outlined what he said was a solution for Iraq:

 Stop funding the war except to get the troops out.…