Tag: Libby Szabo

From left to right, top row: Szabo, Ytterberg, Kerr; bottom row: Sias, Pettersen, Moreno   With Wednesday’s entrance of state Sen. Andy Kerr of Lakewood into the...

Secretary of State Wayne Williams is enforcing a 2009 law that will require all 64 counties to replace some of their voting machines with equipment...

Colorado's election reform law needs tuning up. A plan to put it on blocks for two years made by GOP candidates in tough election races this year is probably not going to fly.

The news is out: ALEC has been officially Snowdened.

Leaked reports prepared this summer by ALEC highlight the priorities of the group and its intimate relationships with and expectations of state lawmakers, specifically state ALEC "chairs," such as Colorado's Sen. Bill Cadman and Rep. Libby Szabo.

Former Colorado Springs Senator Dave Schultheis is no longer holding forth on bills on the Senate floor in Denver, but he has continued to exert influence this year as the powerful force behind the conservative Republican Study Committee of Colorado. Now that influence may be waning. This week, a third of the RSCC flock quit the committee, rejecting the would-be radical-right revival.

There were mixed results Tuesday in pair of key state Senate races targeted by the shadowy, pro-energy nonprofit group Western Skies Coalition, which is being investigated by the IRS to determine if it’s actually engaged in social welfare activities or hard-core politicking.

Three weeks after The Colorado Independent launched a series of reports detailing the shadowy group Western Skies Coalition, the watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch has filed an IRS complaint asking for an immediate investigation into whether Western Skies, along with three other 501(c)4 nonprofits, are truly engaged in “social welfare” activities — or if their activities are actually more akin to hard core politicking.

Rep. Frank McNulty is one of a trio of GOP state lawmakers thought to be behind the Western Skies Coalition — a Virginia corporation raising oil and gas money to target key state senate races. In an interview with Colorado Independent, McNulty (R-Highlands Ranch) declined to discuss the group's funding sources Tuesday, but he did acknowledge signing its “Energy Leadership Action Plan” pledge.

Oil and gas companies doing business in Colorado have dropped a mind-blowing $10 million into Amendment 58 — a statewide initiative that would cut their state severance tax and raise roughly $321 million a year for college scholarships, wildlife habitat and other programs. But when it comes to whether big oil may be pumping in cash to help Republicans retake control of the state Senate, well, they're just not saying. And in fact, they don't have to.