LONG TIME, NO TALK: Ritter’s Revisionist Recitations

Published on May 21, 2013 by

Just when we thought Democratic Sen. Bennet was the clown of the week with his faux outrage over the IRS scandal that he, himself, caused, former Colorado Governor and (we presume) current Democrat Bill Ritter steps in with a trite and totally inaccurate assessment of the current state of affairs here in Colorado.  Here is the rubbish that froths from his pen Sunday in the Pueblo Chieftain:

“Here in Colorado, we are ahead of the curve on many public policy issues that other parts of the country call intractable. There’s a pragmatic optimism in Colorado that leads us to find sensible solutions and compromises on tough issues, and move forward when others dig in their heels, putting ideology over progress.”

Initially, we thought he was planning to chastise his own party and we settled in to read the rest of the piece.  But, no.  Is Ritter living in an entirely different Colorado than the rest of… Colorado?  In the “real” Colorado, the Democrats killed bills that would have saved children from pedophiles, worked overtime to strip citizens of Second Amendment rights, penalized small businesses with extra burdens and regulations, and just generally made life miserable for Colorado’s middle class all in the name of liberalism.  (Or, perhaps, all in the name of their radical leftist patron saint, Tim Gill, who bought this year’s legislature and it’s bassackwards legislation.)

The ideas he expressed throughout his op-ed aren’t new, nor are they disagreeable – “let’s work together to get things done”.  It’s just that he’s so detached from reality.  And, it’s not just about the state of Colorado.  He even seems to have rose-colored glasses when it comes to his own administration.

He claims he “balanced the budget” – doesn’t every Governor have to do so because of TABOR?  That’s kind of like a criminal taking credit for serving his time.  And, then there’s the Medicare fee that he passed, which contributed heartily to the national debt.  Since he’s so worried about our debt.

By putting such a rosy spin on his and other Democrats’ actions, we can’t help but wonder if the lady doth protest too much.

 

GLASS JAW GOVERNOR? Hickenlooper’s Ability To Withstand A Political Punch Relatively Untested

Published on April 23, 2013 by

Governor Hickenlooper has been the recipient of a hard-hitting, professional attack ad campaign by Republicans just once in his political career. Once. And then Dan Maes took the GOP nomination and every outside player fled the state.

With Hickenlooper taking a 20-point hit in favorability in the latest PPP poll, it’s instructive to look back at that brief moment of political peril for the governor for what it says about his ability to take a political punch.

The assault by the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) in early May 2010 focused heavily on his raising taxes as Denver Mayor and the job losses at Frontier Airlines that happened as a result, and tied him to unpopular one-term Governor Ritter.

The smartly produced, memorable spot had a little over half a million behind it over a one-month period — a not insignificant, nor exceptionally huge, budget.

As a result, Hickenlooper’s numbers went into freefall.

Less than two weeks after the assault on the airwaves began, a PPP poll found Hick had gone from an 11-point lead over Scott McInnis in the previous PPP poll to being tied.

It was a crushing blow that reshaped the race dramatically.

Unfortunately, soon thereafter everything fell apart. The plagiarism scandal consumed McInnis’s campaign and paved the way for the most disastrous major party nomination in modern history in Dan Maes. 

But it’s that ever-so-brief moment that makes some wonder whether Hickenlooper is as politically invincible as conventional wisdom would suggest.

The second sustained assault Hickenlooper has faced from Republicans in his career, though with virtually no paid media, was over gun control.

And just like after the RGA attack, Hickenlooper’s polling numbers plummeted like a cartoon anvil.

Two assaults, two big poll hits.

Does Governor Hickenlooper have a glass jaw?

 

EROSION: Coloradans Freedom Score “Among Most Worsened”

Published on March 28, 2013 by

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University each year measures “freedom” in each state.  While Colorado’s overall score (19) is in the middle, the analysis of the state points out that “its freedom score is one of the “most worsened” in the country over the 2001 to 2011 period.”  From 2009 alone, Colorado’s rank has slipped 12 points – from #7 most free to #19.

It’s worth noting in the graph below that Colorado’s decline really began in 2007, which coincidentally or not was when Bill Ritter became Governor.

The reasons for the low scores are cited in the analysis video below and include its high state government spending and tax burden, which increased from 8.3 to 9.6% over four years.  Over the last decade, the state has dropped from #7 to #21 in terms of fiscal policy.  Additionally, “half-hearted” eminent domain reform and highly regulated telecom industries also drove the score lower.

After this year’s legislative session, we can’t even imagine how the score will fall.  Afterall, 14,000 pages of new regulations in the state in just half of a legislative session doesn’t bode well for Coloradans’ freedoms.  Nor does the Bloomberg/Biden gun grab.

 

PeakFeed: 1, 2, 3 Coloradans Strike Out for Cabinet Posts In Second Obama Term

Published on March 18, 2013 by

With news that Lt. Gov Joe “Sex Star” Garcia won’t be getting the Labor Secretary appointment in the second Obama term, we now have three Coloradans allegedly “being considered” for Cabinet gigs who won’t end up assuming those titles.

To recap:

1) Former Governor Bill Ritter on a “short list” for Energy Secretary

Nomination goes to: MIT scientist Ernest Moniz

2) Governor John Hickenlooper “may be offered the job” of Commerce Secretary

continue…

 

FLASHBACK: New CU Conservative Scholar Spanked Ritter In Energy Debate

Published on March 13, 2013 by

As if CU and CSU didn’t have enough rivalry, next year they will have competing energy experts that have faced off before. And much like the usual result between CU and CSU on the football field, it’s the CU energy expert that whooped the CSU staffer.

In this case, we’re referring to CU’s new scholar of conservative thought, Steven Hayward, and CSU green energy “lobbyist” and former one-term governor Bill Ritter, who squared off in a debate on green energy’s economic potential in 2011.

On Hayward’s appointment, per the Boulder Daily Camera:

Hayward, a Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Fellow at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University in Ohio, will begin his one-year appointment in the fall.

Hayward holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Claremont Graduate School. He has been the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he was principal author and project director of the AEI’s “Energy and Environment Outlook.”

Hayward has been a visiting lecturer in the Government Department of Georgetown University and is a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. He has also served as a Bradley Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

The visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy is a three-year pilot program supported by private funds. More than 20 donors have raised $1 million to support the program.

Longtime Peak readers will remember that Hayward and Ritter faced each other in a nationally televised debate on the topic: “Clean energy can drive America’s economic recovery”, where Ritter got whooped worse than Cherry Creek’s swim team did against Missy Franklin. 

And that was before the collapse of Solyndra and Abound Solar, so that’s saying something.

We put together a brief highlight reel of that debate at the time. You check it out after the jump: continue…

 

SCANDAL: EPA Official & Colorado Power Broker Resigns Following Transparency Inquiry

Published on February 28, 2013 by

A huge story involving a key power broker in Colorado Democratic politics flew under the radar of the Colorado press last week – and ours too.  Jim Martin, formerly the head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 8, which includes Colorado, resigned from his post last Friday.  According to Fox News, his resignation comes just three weeks after Louisiana’s Republican Senator David Vitter questioned his use of a personal email address to conduct official business.  An EPA spokesperson cited “personal reasons” for Martin’s resignation.

Vitter noted Martin may face a congressional probe for using his personal email address to circumnavigate disclosure laws, such as the Freedom of Information Act.  Vitter issued this statement about the resignation:

“Region 8 administrator Martin is likely resigning this week in part because of the open investigation about his use of a non-official email account to conduct official business,” Vitter said. “Now we know that Lisa Jackson’s acting replacement, Bob Perciasepe, appears to have been doing the same thing to dodge the agency’s mandatory record-keeping policy.”

According to a source, Martin has close ties with Governor John Hickenlooper, Bill Ritter, and U.S. Senator Mark Udall, which has been confirmed via his campaign donations.  In 2008, Martin donated $1,000 to Udall’s Senate campaign.  He gave the same amount to President Obama’s 2012 campaign.  He also gave $250 to Perlmutter’s campaign in 2006.

But, his ties don’t end with federal candidates.  Martin’s closest ties appear to be with former Governor Bill Ritter.  Martin’s alliance with Ritter goes back to at least 2007 when then-Governor Ritter appointed Martin the head of the State Department of Health.  In 2009, Martin again was tapped by Ritter to run the Department of Natural Resources, which “met with immediate approval from the state’s environmental advocates”, according to the Denver Post.  Martin donated $700 to Ritter’s 2006 election and gave $300 toward Ritter’s nonexistent 2010 campaign for Governor, according to TRACER.

Martin has led the Western Resource Advocates and the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado School of Law.  He also was a senior attorney and director of the energy program for Environmental Defense and worked for Democrat U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator Tim Wirth.

Despite Obama’s promises of the most transparent administration ever, Martin’s departure following an inquiry over disclosure skirting is just one example in the EPA alone of the great efforts administration officials have undertaken to block transparency.  If officials, like Martin, in Obama’s administration don’t play by the rules when transparency is the goal, what sort of rule bending occurred when transparency wasn’t such an explicit goal?  The unholy alliance between Democrats, big government, and green energy/environmentalism rears its ugly head once again.

 

IRRESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT: Dems Weaken Penalty for Missing Energy Office Funds

Published on February 5, 2013 by

Remember the last time you wasted approximately $252 million at work and got a slap on the wrist?  Of course not, because that’s not how the real world works.  But, apparently, that is how the government works when Democrats are in charge of the Governor’s Energy Office.

Last week, the Colorado Energy Office (aka the Governor’s Energy Office) released a blistering performance audit showing that mismanagement of funds and programs ran amok in the office.  From the audit report:

CEO was unable to demonstrate that $252 million spent over the past six years was spent cost-effectively.

  • CEO does not calculate or maintain a comprehensive, annual budget or budget-to-actual data for any of the 34 programs administered during Fiscal Years 2007 through 2012. As a result, CEO could not determine the total cost or the total amount spent for any of its programs.
  • CEO program managers have not been required to manage programs within a budget, though they are responsible for requesting and justifying program expenditures.
  • Of the eight programs we reviewed in-depth, staff responsible for three programs could not identify the program’s goals or say whether the goals had been achieved.

While the audit report found the oversight issues began with the Ritter administration, the lack of oversight has continued with the Hickenlooper administration, dividing Democrats.  Democratic Senator Lucia Guzman warned the Hickenlooper administration in the Durango Herald:

“If I start a job, and I’ve been on it for two years, it seems to me I should have some outcomes giving me reason to continue to be there.”

As a penalty for essentially blowing hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars, freshman Republican Senator Owen Hill yesterday suggested an amendment to the Governor’s Energy Office appropriations bill that would cut its funding by approximately $13.9 million.  Unbelievably, the amendment passed with bipartisan support.

Not so fast.  Senator Pat Steadman swooped in to rescue the GEO by offering another amendment that would cut the funding of the GEO by a paltry $3.5 million.  Let’s just remember this massive boondoggle next time Democrats come begging for a tax increase.

 

SPENDING PROBLEM: Does Colorado Keep Spending in Check?

Published on January 8, 2013 by

When Speaker John Boehner revealed yesterday that President Obama, during the fiscal cliff talks, absurdly asserted that the United States does not have a spending problem, we pulled out our excel spreadsheets and reviewed Colorado’s spending habits.  While Colorado is likely more frugal than other states, state and local governments have spent more than can be accounted for by either inflation or population growth as a total.  Below is a chart of total state and local government spending over the past 10 years.

Some might argue that the increase in spending is due to population growth, so we also examined spending as a function of population growth.  If the increase in spending was due solely to population growth, the chart below would be relatively flat across the top.  It’s not.  Further, some might say that inflation is to blame.  We’ve include the projected line of inflation (accounting for population growth) across this chart in blue.

Viewers of the chart might ask, “what happened in 2007 to cause such a huge jump?”  A couple of things may have impacted spending – first, Colorado elected a Democratic governor, Bill Ritter, who was no fiscal hawk.  Second, voters voted on Ref C in 2005 and it’s possible that it started affecting spending trends in 2007.  But, after eight years of the sound fiscal leadership of Gov. Bill Owens, it’s more likely Ritter’s influence.

So, to answer the original question – does Colorado have a spending problem?  When government spending outpaces both inflation and population growth, it’s a problem.  Perhaps the federal government has different spending trends (we doubt federal government spending is more responsible); however, Colorado has gradually moved from a fiscally sound state to one that has allowed outsized government growth.

 

 

“I DON’T KNOW”: Congressional Candidate Sal Pace Trying To Dodge Obamacare Position

Published on July 11, 2012 by

Congressional candidate Sal Pace (D-Urination) made a major mistake yesterday in trying to skirt The Denver Post's questions about his position on Obamacare. When asked whether he would have voted for Obamacare when it came up for a vote in Congress, Pace was caught flat-footed, saying "I don't know."

On an issue that defined the 2010 elections, and saw his former boss, now former Congressman John Salazar, ousted from office over it, you would think Pace would have thought through his public position. Guess not.

Reports Sara Burnett:

Asked by The Denver Post last week whether he would have supported the bill in 2010, Pace said “I don’t know,” and added that he has concerns with the bill’s mandate that Americans buy health insurance.  

“I certainly am a strong advocate of expanding health care access,” said Pace, who has represented Pueblo in the state House since 2008. “I think it’s a moral issue. No one should die in poverty because of one illness. But I think it makes economic sense too.”

Really? He doesn’t know?

The thing is, Pace does know, he just doesn't want to say he would have supported the highly unpopular legislation. With Obama likely to go down by at least double digits in Pace's 3rd Congressional District, Pace can't afford to be associated with anything else that unpopular in the district. 

The problem for Pace is he has an extensive record supporting Obamacare and even more left wing health care legislation. In 2009, Pace signed a petition by the Progressive States Network sent to President Obama and Congress that read:



"As leaders in state legislatures across the country, we urgently call on President Obama and the US Congress to take up and pass comprehensive health care reform in 2009."

When Pace signed that petition, urging an even bigger version of Obamacare that included a public (read: government) option, he had no idea he would be running for Congress in 2012. At that point, Congressman Salazar looked safely ensconced in his seat and Pace was happily representing a safe Democrat seat in Pueblo. There was no risk in giving a full-throated endorsement of Obamacare.

As a State Rep in 2009, Pace also co-sponsored left wing legislation, HB1273, to enact what the Rocky Mountain News called "a Canadian-style, single-payer universal health care system in Colorado." The legislation was considered so left wing that even Democrat Governor Bill Ritter went on the record opposing it. 

With a formal record on government-run health care like that, "I don't know" not only doesn't cut it, but it's a flat out lie. Pace does know, he just doesn't have the stones to say so. 

Well, Sal, just like your extensive criminal record, just because you don't want to talk about it, doesn't mean it didn't happen.    

 

SHADY: Pat Stryker’s Name Appears In White House Visitor Logs At Key Points In Abound Solar Loan

Published on July 9, 2012 by

Democratic mega-donor Pat Stryker's name appears in White House visitor logs at key points in the Abound Solar loan process. A review of White House visitor logs when compared to the timeline for approval of the $400 million taxpayer-backed loan to the now-bankrupt company yields some interesting overlaps, raising questions worth investigating outside of an anonymous blog.

The one caveat is that a "Pat Stryker" appears in the logs, but the White House and the Fort Collins billionaire heiress have yet to publicly confirm that she is the Pat Stryker in question. We assume there are not a lot of "Pat Strykers" out there capable of getting three White House meetings on the schedule in a year. 

Democratic donor Pat Stryker has had an outsized role in Abound Solar. Her Bohemian Companies was a large private investor in the company.

Abound, like Stryker, has also had a great deal of Democratic politician ties. The company ran advertising "thanking" then-Congresswoman Betsy Markey for voting for the Cap and Trade bill. Former Governor Bill Ritter personally hand delivered two letters of support for the company directly to Obama's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu. After Ritter left office, Stryker's Bohemian Companies helped bankroll a $300,000 a year salary for Ritter at CSU focused on renewable energy. 

Additionally, Stryker donated $50,000 to Obama's inauguration, and raised another $87,500 for the same. Her tight political connections — including funding millions in liberal attack groups and other Democrat political infrastructure in Colorado — leads many observers to wonder about her role in helping secure the $400 million loan from the Obama administration.

When you compare White House visitor logs to key points in the Abound Solar loan approval process, something even sketchier emerges.


A "Pat Stryker" first appears in the White House logs in October 2009, meeting with a staff member in Operations. Nine months later, on July 3, President Obama personally announced the $400 million loan to Abound.

Only a day after Obama announced the loan to Abound, on July 4, a "Pat Stryker" shows up in White House visitor logs.

The overlap continues with the approval of the loan. Abound announced on December 14, 2010 that the Department of Energy had officially approved their loan application. Then four days later, on December 18, a "Pat Stryker" again shows up in White House visitor logs. 

What is going on here? It would seem the key dates in Abound Solar's campaign to get a government loan match up a little too closely to a mega donor for the Democrats and Obama setting meetings at the White House. 

The Sunlight Foundation last year tried to figure this out, but was rebuffed by the White House, who refused to answer any questions about the meetings. The only thing a White House spokesman did say was that the July and December meetings appear to be missed appointments, since no check in time was listed on the records. 

The question we have is: Did a Pat Stryker have meetings on those dates? If so, is it the same Pat Stryker who has donated millions to get Democrats elected? And if that is true, how can that not be seen as a lobbying campaign to use political connections to get nearly half a billion dollars in taxpayer loans?

(Photo Credit: NREL)

 
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