Tag: Lois Court

DENVER-- Democratic state lawmakers Rep. Lois Court and Sen. Morgan Carroll have taken another step in their move to head off would-be anonymous Colorado ballot-initiative authors and financiers. A bill they introduced this legislative session comes in response to the farce Colorado Springs anti-tax crusader Doug Bruce made of the initiative process last year, when as "Mr X" he sent detailed emails of instruction to the initiative proponents, failed to report he was housing petition-signature gatherers and dodged subpoena servers for more than three months.

Stating that Colorado needs to be more pro-business, Gov. John Hickenlooper cut deep into K-12, further sacrificed state employee earnings, and shut down some state parks and services in the budget proposal he delivered Tuesday.

Former Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher told a roomful of Garfield County Democrats Monday during their annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Dinner that campaign finance disclosure in America is “completely, irretrievably broken,” according to the Aspen Times.

Democratic state Sens. Morgan Carroll of Aurora and Lois Court of Denver say stricter penalties and tighter legal definitions should be at the heart of upcoming legislation to prevent abuses to laws regulating those looking to sway public opinion in elections. Both legislators are working with watchdog groups to shore up what they see as serious holes in campaign finance and ethics laws after a mid-term election cycle marred by violations and rumors of clandestine deals.

A bill intended to clarify which groups are backing or opposing ballot measures – as well as provide administrative law judges more enforcement leeway...

In case no one heard about it, blogger Republican Joshua Sharf is running again for Colorado House District 6. The past co-host of Backbone Radio...

Referendum O, a bipartisan attempt to make it more difficult to amend Colorado's state constitution, didn't rank among the top controversial ballot initiatives last year. The initiatives that generated heat included one on affirmative-action discrimination and one on the rights of the unborn, which were controversial in part because many voters don’t even believe there are such things as affirmative-action discrimination and the rights of the unborn.

Gov. Bill Ritter signed budget reform Senate Bill 228 into law this morning. The controversial bill -- the work of bipartisan co-sponsors Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, Rep. Don Marostica, R-Loveland, and Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver -- made an amazing journey this past legislative session. And, as law, will now serve to test hotly debated partisan theories about public spending in the state.

Denver attorney and state Republican insider Scott Gessler appears to be building his campaign for secretary of state on opposition to ballot-initiative reform. It's a move that positions him as a populist champion of citizen lawmaking at a time when broad consensus has built among lawmakers and analysts in favor of reining in the state's famously loose initiative process.

Senate Bill 228, the controversial budget reform bill introduced to lawmakers and the public in February, was passed in the House today, clearing yet another hurdle on its remarkable path toward loosening the state's famously rigid spending structure. Sponsored by Colorado Springs Democratic Sen. John Morse and Loveland Republican Rep. Don Marostica, the bill inspired exasperated attacks in the Senate that culminated in an historic GOP filibuster, where members of the minority party argued the bill was an unconstitutional attack on voter-mandated spending limits and that it would drain the state's transportation fund.