Tag: Jon Caldera

To some, stimulus money has been a godsend. To others, it has been an overreaching waste of taxpayer money. One thing that is hard to argue, though, is that it has pumped billions of dollars into the Colorado economy.

Colorado played host over the weekend to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who Sean Hannity of Fox News recently called "the second-most hated Republican woman," ranking her as a compliment directly behind former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. On Saturday, Bachmann spoke at the Steamboat Institute's inaugural "Freedom Conference" in Steamboat Springs. And on Monday afternoon, the libertarian-leaning Independence Institute is hosting a Bachmann talk in Denver at the Athletic Club.

The future of controversial so-called clean government Amendment 54 has been fast-tracked by the Colorado Supreme Court. This week the Court directed attorneys to submit records by next Friday, Sept. 4. Court arguments will begin in the fall. "There's a perceived obligation to get appellate clarity when the voters have adopted a law and it has been declared unconstitutional," said Mark Grueskin, one of the high-powered attorneys who represented plaintiffs fighting the amendment. "There's just added importance to getting the Supreme Court to weigh in and say there is or is not a problem."

It appears at first as though an important political-cultural wall has crumbled. Provocative conservative talk-radio host Amy Oliver is offering testimony in an official capacity on state budget and funding priorities. She is a member of the legislature's Interim Long-Term Fiscal Commission, the site this summer of what the Denver Post called a battle of philosophies.

Denver District Judge Catherine Lemon delivered her written preliminary injunction of Amendment 54 this afternoon. The judge decided in favor of plaintiff's at a...

Independence Institute honcho Jon Caldera is wooing Joe the Plumber to attend the conservative think-tank's summer Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms gathering, dubbed "the most politically incorrect event of the year," Denver Post gossip columnist Bill Husted notes. Caldera "says he's this close to closing the deal to have Plumber (a.k.a. Samuel Wurzelbacher) as the speaker" at the shindig, Husted reports.