Center Well

Campaign mailers underlining the anti-abortion views of Republican state senate candidates Bernie Herpin and George Rivera reportedly landed in southern Front Range voter mailboxes over the last two days, stoking flames in the already hot recall elections organized in response to gun-control legislation passed in the spring.

DENVER -- Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler attended a meeting of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration held at the Colorado History Museum Thursday.

It's 2013, apparently eight years into the Tea Party era. So who leads the Tea Party? Define terms! Who are you asking and what do you imagine is the Tea Party? Is it an uppercase group or a lowercase group? Grassroots or astroturf? Independent or Republican? Has Colorado Rep Cory Gardner offended the Tea Party or just Erick Erickson and the version of conservative movement he presently helps lead?

Erick Erickson has made a name for himself and gained significant influence among conservative thought leaders and elected officials by speaking his mind with the kind of muscular frankness that has come to characterize the TeaParty political movement in general. Erickson has shaped debate on Capitol Hill, endorsed local and national candidates and launched successful fundraising campaigns to great effect.

What would you do if your mother, thousands of miles away, was dying and it would jeopardize your immigration status to see her one last time?

ON WEDNESDAY, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s office signed off on ballot language for the state’s first-ever lawmaker recall election, where Democratic state Senate President John Morse will effectively face Republican City Council Member Bernie Herpin.

Weld County Republican D.A. Ken Buck announced Wednesday he is running to represent Colorado in the U.S. Senate, looking to unseat first-term Democrat Mark Udall. The news made a splash, firing up conservative supporters hungry for a substantial Republican candidate to enter the race and generating groans and sharp criticism from Democrats who were relieved to see him recede from the statewide political stage three years ago.

Certain things bring out the writer in us. Among them is wonder. More than 12,000 people, inspired by the upcoming Mars Atmospheric and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission, have submitted haiku musing about the red planet, celebrating the voyage and otherwise waxing poetic about everything from taxpayer-funded space exploration to galactic peace.

DENVER -- One speaker told of a harrowing border crossing intercepted by a drug cartel seeking hostages. Another of attempts to free her teen daughter from detention in Arizona. Another, on a hunger strike, recalled the story of a detained friend and community leader.

On Monday, Capitol Hill shuttered for a five-week recess. That means lawmaker visits to local wind-power factories, stent-maker shops, pancake joints and craft-beer pubs. It also means town halls!