Tag: Sal Pace

State House Minority Leader Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, filed his paperwork today to run for U.S. Congress in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District in 2012. That seat is currently held by Republican Scott Tipton, who ousted Democrat John Salazar last year. Pace worked as district director for Salazar and was first elected to the State Legislature in 2008. He was named Minority Leader this year after the GOP regained control of the State House in 2010.

Third District Colorado Congressman Scott Tipton unseated Democrat John Salazar in last year's Tea Party-fueled Republican wave election, where voters sought to shake up business-as-usual in Washington. The brother of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, John Salazar is a long-time government employee who served in the state House before heading to Washington for three terms. He was a ripe target in 2010. Tipton was no political innocent, however, and now just months into his term he has admitted to the House Ethics Committee that his daughter has been using his office to promote the tele-townhall company where she’s employed.

In the end, it came to the sort of calculation payday lenders might understand. After spending political capital fast and furiously in the last hours of the legislative session Wednesday, Colorado House Republicans seemed to accept that spending any more in the service of the payday loan industry would end in more loss than gain. They did the smart thing and just stopped spending altogether. They decided to withdraw the amendment they had attached to the annual rules bill on Tuesday that would have rolled back payday fee regulations put in place last year.

Democratic leaders of the Colorado General Assembly and Gov. John Hickenlooper released statements today praising President Barack Obama and members of the armed forces who orchestrated and performed the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

Redistricting co-chair Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, has issued a Democratic report stressing the need for competitive districts, and said a bill would likely be introduced in the Legislature this week. Republican leaders, in turn, issued their own statements chastising Democratic efforts.

A bipartisan effort to reduce cuts to K-12 education by $90 million passed the House Thursday with no opposition. Republican House sponsor Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, worked with Democrats to create a compromise that will provide funds to many rural communities, special needs programs and other supplemental programs.

Opening shots were fired Friday in what started as an attempt at bipartisan civility in charting the future of Colorado Congressional representation but ended in bipartisan name calling that did anything but create a basis for impartial redistricting discussions.

The bipartisan hug issued around the Legislature after a compromise on the state budget Tuesday was broken Wednesday as House Republicans passed a bill exempting businesses from business personal property taxes.

Activists, lobbyists and citizens this week have been pressing for at least one of six Republican members of the state House Judiciary Committee to vote in favor of sending Pat Steadman's same-sex civil unions bill to the House floor for debate. On Tuesday, the House Democratic caucus officially joined the campaign.

Democratic state Rep. Sal Pace's bill (pdf) seeking to rein in Pinnacol Assurance executive spending passed unanimously through the Republican-controlled House State Affairs committee last week. If that vote is any measure, the bill will pass into law in the next couple of months with little resistance. Indeed Pace's legislation will very likely gain more steam in April when a task force reviewing Pinnacol spending on travel for the last two years reports its findings. If what the public already knows about tax-exempt Pinnacol's executive travel habits is any measure, get ready for more bombshells from a Colorado battle-line in the lopsided contemporary American class war.