Tag: tea party

An open letter from leaders of the groups Take Back Washington, Tea Party Nation, Downsize DC, GOProud, the D.C. Tea Party and other conservative groups calls on members of Congress to reject the Legal Workforce Act, a bill sponsored by U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) that would mandate the use of the electronic identification system E-Verify by all businesses nationwide.

In a new chapter of the often topsy-turvy story of the Tea Party era, Colorado Democratic US Rep Diana DeGette this week finds herself championing local government rights against Republican efforts to expand federal power. DeGette on Wednesday urged House and Senate appropriations committees staffers to reject legislative stipulations that aim to prohibit the District of Columbia government from using local tax dollars to pay for abortions as part of its employee insurance policies.

Complaints surrounding the way U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s campaign has conducted itself are no big secret in the Hawkeye State, but it appears even Fox News is learning that some Iowans are none too happy with the degradation of the state’s historic retail politics.

LONGMONT-- The right and left protesters and counter-protesters gathered here off a sprawling suburban four-lane road and around a wall-less field house at the Boulder County Fairgrounds agreed on at least two things: that the group hosting the gathering, Americans for Prosperity, is suffering an image problem and that government subsidies to oil and gas companies have got to end.

In the eyes of the American public, Wichita-based Koch Industries is coming to stand more for right-wing string-pulling than for its blockbuster oil and gas business. For years, David and Charles Koch spent millions mostly behind the scenes to advance anti-environmental and anti-labor policies and to attack Democratic candidates for office. In the last two years, however, their expenditures have routinely made news. In the wake of the high-profile standoff in Wisconsin-- where Gov Scott Walker was caught explaining to a prank caller impersonating David Koch his plans to break public employee unions-- Koch Industries has dedicated time and money to mitigate fallout from the politics of the men in charge. The company's website includes an op-ed and a video defending Koch politics. Today comes news that the company has been buying up anti-Koch web addresses as part of its new brand-management strategy.

Seemingly taking a page right out of the Mark Udall/Michael Bennet playbook, Montana Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Tester is running for reelection as a moderate who campaigns in cowboy boots and decries the extremism of today's Congress.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat long known for his moderate views and willingness to reach across the aisle (sometimes to the chagrin of the state’s liberal base), has apparently had enough of the unbending rigidity of the Republican Party in Washington these days. In an email today to supporters, Udall called out the Tea Party and members of the GOP who are caving into its no-compromise agenda.

Freshman Republican Congressman Cory Gardner weathered a drawn out if ultimately not-close Tea Party caucus battle last year and rode the Republican wave to victory over Democrat Betsy Markey.* Less than a year later, he's again navigating the increasingly rocky electoral waters of Colorado's sprawling Fourth District.

When Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) took first and second, respectively, at Saturday’s Ames Straw Poll, they weren’t the only victors; Iowa’s tea party movement, and particularly social and religious conservatives within the movement, mobilized to bring their voices on issues to the forefront.

John Hickenlooper is an officeholder and a politician and yet he is well liked among the public. According to a survey conducted by Public Policy Polling last weekend, Colorado's Democratic governor garners a 54 percent approval rating and only a 24 percent disapproval rating, a remarkable 30 point spread. Democrats love him, independents love him and Republicans think he's OK. In other words, Hickenlooper is an odd fish, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout of 2011 U.S. politics, a compellingly strange-looking and endangered species.