Tag: chris romer

If it's about the money (and isn't it always?), then the field of candidates for Denver mayor may be narrowing a bit. In reports filed with the Denver Clerk and Recorder's office, five candidates emerged as being reasonably well funded. Four of them, though, received significant boosts either from personal loans or from money raised for other races.

If the Denver mayor's race has been less than exciting so far, it probably isn't from a lack of effort on the part of the candidates. The Colorado Independent gets press releases on a nearly daily basis from one or more of them, announcing rallies, public appearances, fundraising totals and endorsements. While the first fundraising reports do not have to be filed until Jan. 31, two candidates have announced unofficial totals. Michael Hancock said he has raised $265,000 and James Mejia's campaign said he had raised $208,500 through the end of 2010.

Muhammad Ali Hasan, a Beaver Creek filmmaker and former Republican candidate for state treasurer and state House District 56, says he has no plans to run again in that district in 2012 after the resignation of Democrat Christine Scanlan.

In his bid to become the next mayor of Denver, State senator Chris Romer is selling his 25 years experience as a banker who specialized in municipal finance issues. He says Denver has achieved great things in lean times in the past and he would look to do the same now, zeroing in on keeping the FasTracks light rail project on track.

Colorado State Rep. Beth McCann, HD 8, told The Colorado Independent this evening that she is also running for the seat most insiders expect...

As far as we know State Senator Chris Romer has not yet officially resigned his seat to run for Mayor of Denver, but one...

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is unabashed about having taken campaign cash from the payday loan industry. The donations and his refusal to return them have spurred disgust among Democratic lawmakers and on the part of Suthers' campaign opponent, Democrat Stan Garnett, who have suggested future laws might head off the kind of relationship Suthers appears to have entered into with payday lenders and their lobbyists.

Attorney General John Suthers is not writing the new rules that will govern the payday loan industry in Colorado. That's why he is playing down the $10,000 in campaign donations he has received from the industry, saying the cash won't influence the final contours of the new state regulations. The person writing the rules, Laura Udis, has worked in the attorney general's department of consumer protection for more than two decades. She told the Colorado Independent that Suthers has so far not been involved in her work on the path-breaking payday legislation that was passed in the spring and that she expects Suthers to remain uninvolved.

DENVER-- The Higher Education Flexibility Act passed the Senate last week and is scheduled to make it to the House Monday. It's a bold bill that would rearrange the relationship between public universities and the government. It would mean greater autonomy for university administrations which, for example, would be free to levy tuition hikes under 9 percent per year. Current higher education funding in low-tax recession-wracked Colorado has become unsustainable. The new bill seeks to buffer universities against a likely $300 million funding cut next year.

DENVER-- Republican lawmakers furious with the $18.2 billion budget presented Friday in the senate here said the proposal failed to limit government spending and that it amounted to another move toward socialism. Exasperated Democrats argued that the budget cut millions of dollars from programs, including vital education and medical programs in the state.