Congress

WHY PACE HATES PEAK: First Google Auto Suggest Result For Sal Pace Is “Sal Pace Criminal Record”

Published on August 13, 2012 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

If you're a regular reader of this site you know liberals hate us. Loathe us. Despise our very existence. That's because we're bringing the fight to where liberals have long reigned in Colorado — the internets. No longer. Democrat Congressional candidate and State Rep. Sal Pace (D-Urination) illustrates exactly how much impact we're having.

When you type in "Sal Pace" in a Google search the first thing Google suggests is "sal pace criminal record." See the image below for the damage done in all its glory:

If you're not familiar with the story, last September we at Colorado Peak Politics broke the news that Pace had a long and embarrassing criminal record that invited comparisons to disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

What we turned up in our investigation turned out to be far more than the arrests in college turned up by The Denver Post in 2010 when he was running for a safe State House seat in Pueblo.

We found not one, but two(!), arrests for public urination, including a time when Pace was arrested on 700 E. Colfax for public urination — mere blocks from the Capitol where Pace was working as a legislative staffer at the time.

From felony burglary to bench warrants for his arrest, Pace didn't exactly have the record most candidates like to run on in competitive Congressional elections.

Now, it seems, the internet has picked up with our reporting and run with it, even as the mainstream media has still refused to report on it.

With increasing amounts of Coloradans voting by mail, and usually Googling candidates names before making their selection, Pace must really hate the Peak right about now. We wouldn't have it any other way.

STRYKER ON THE STAND? Congress To Investigate Abound Solar Loan

Published on July 5, 2012 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

Bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar's troubles are about to get a whole lot worse. The Washington Examiner is reporting that U.S. House investigators are asking executives and former executives of Abound Solar to testify before Congress regarding its $400 million taxpayer-backed loan.

Reports The Examiner:

The House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending invited the Abound Solar CEO and former CEO to testify, along with some Energy Department officials after the company announced it is filing for bankruptcy, despite drawing about $70 million of the $400 million available from the DOE loan guarantee.

The bankruptcy announcement comes after Abound laid off 280 employees in March. The DOE loan guarantee was projected to create 1200 permanent jobs.

As in the case of Solyndra, which declared bankruptcy last year, a bundler for President Obama’s campaign has a financial stake in the solar company.

Bohemian Companies, founded by Democratic mega-donor Pat Stryker, invested in Abound Solar in 2008. A year after the investment, but a year before Abound received a loan guarantee, Stryker apparently visited the White House. “The White House did not confirm that the visitor was the Pat Stryker in question and did not provide details about the meeting,” the Sunlight Foundation reported.

Stryker has still not confirmed publicly that she met with the White House, or what might have been discussed. Now that Congress is investigating the defunct deal, it’s something worth unraveling.

As Todd Shepherd has exhaustively reported, Abound Solar had major problems before they got the loan, leading many to question how political connections helped the ailing company secure the loan.

If Congress is looking for a suggestion of people to subpoena, we might also suggest former one-term Governor Bill Ritter. According to The Denver Post, Ritter "hand delivered two letters of support" for Abound Solar directly to Obama's Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. After Ritter left office, Stryker's Bohemian Companies helped fund a $300,000 salary for Ritter at a new renewable energy center at CSU.

The more that comes out about Abound Solar the more it reeks of pay-to-play. It sure would be nice to put Pat Stryker and Bill Ritter under oath to find out exactly how taxpayers were put in a position to cover a $400 million loan to a politically connected company.

(Photo Credit: NREL)

QUESTION: Is Allison Sherry The Worst Reporter…In The World?

Published on March 2, 2012 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

After a steady drumbeat of stories about the unbearable and undeniable liberal bias of Denver Post reporter Allison Sherry, we decided to take it easy on the political scribe. Maybe she would sense how much conservative readers despised the Democrat talking points she regurgitated as news and try to develop a more balanced perspective. Unfortunately, her last two articles have been so atrocious that we felt the need to pipe up again.

The first, a full print edition article about GOP Congressman Scott Tipton's staff announcing a town hall in part of the new 3rd district, hammers Tipton for the exact same thing as Democrat Congressman Ed Perlmutter has done, except Tipton's staff announced the event on a website and Perlmutter had Congressman Polis use taxpayer dollars to send thousands of dollars worth of mail to announce his.

Yet that goes completely unmentioned in Sherry's telling. It instead reads more like a DCCC press release, not a balanced news story.

We're not going to sit here and defend Tipton's mistake. It was dumb and he should take the hit for it.

What annoys us to no end is Sherry is allowed to publish her piece that contains no journalistic integrity.

She spends her entire print edition article going on and on about an event on a website and only includes this little blurb about the Perlmutter/Polis event:

Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder invited fellow Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Jefferson County to a town-hall event in what will be part of Perlmutter's new district.

Ummm…Allison, are you forgetting something? Polis used franked mail, at taxpayer expense, to invite all of Perlmutter's new constituents to an event with Perlmutter. That is abusing taxpayer dollars for a political campaign. No expense was incurred in relation to Tipton's staff mistake — your article even says so.

But what readers of The Denver Post take away from the article is Tipton broke a House ethics rule. Sherry also "forgets" to mention that Joe Miklosi used an official public office website to make mention of his own Congressional campaign this week, a violation of State House rules. We guess there was no interest in "dirtying" up the clean hit on Tipton with that useful and relevant information.

The second iteration of Sherry outright shilling for Democrats comes in a "Beltway Blog" today, a series we like to refer to as the DNC press release publishing service.

The title of the post? [Obama's]"Interior Department: Reps. Cory Gardner and Doug Lamborn are wrong." In the piece she literally just repeats what the Obama administration says, and doesn't even bother getting responses from Lamborn or Gardner.

The article is ostensibly about whether oil and gas production has fallen on federal lands or not. Considering that, it might be worth looking at the issue from a Colorado or Western perspective. Well, there just so happens to be a formal study done on that exact topic! So of course Sherry mentioned the results from that study, right?

Nope.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) recently published a study showing oil and gas leases, wells and permits on federal lands in the West are down by 40% comparing 2007-8 to 2009-10.

A recent National Journal look at this issue pointed out Obama can’t take credit for the increase nationally because it wasn’t his policies that caused it. In fact, leases are how you look at analyzing Presidents’ impact on oil and gas production on federal lands. From the National Journal:

He doesn’t want to admit it, but President Obama is taking credit for something George W. Bush did.

The White House is touting federal data that shows domestic oil production is at its highest level since 2003. In a blog post last week, Obama’s top climate and energy aide, Heather Zichal, points to Energy Information Administration data that shows oil production from the Outer Continental Shelf (which basically means the Gulf of Mexico) has increased by more than a third between 2008 and 2010.

EIA Administrator Richard Newell says it takes several years for any major federal policy action — such as issuing leases — to affect domestic oil production.

Allison: It's fine to report the Obama administration said Lamborn and Gardner are wrong. But you might want to get their responses before you serve as a conduit for the Obama campaign's message. Reporters also like to spruce up he said, she said pieces with outside studies and information. You know, like reports on the exact topic the political spat is about.

We're getting mighty tired of seeing the state's flagship newspaper used as an extension of the Democrats' political machine.

With the sad passing of conservative giant Andrew Breitbart yesterday, we felt the urge to live up to his example and call the media out for blinding bias and unacceptable journalism.

If Breitbart taught us anything, it's that sitting around and hoping bad reporters will change does no good. You have to speak up. Loudly.

DITCHING DIFFICULT DUTY: Congressional Candidate Sal Pace Dodging Oil And Gas Issues

Published on February 23, 2012 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

Lynn Bartels of The Denver Post picked up on an important theme in today's dead wood edition, looking at state Representative and Congressional candidate Sal Pace's (D-Urination) multiple absences from his taxpayer funded day job at the state Capitol. This right wing digital rag even earned a mention for our criticism of Pace's absence.

Ditching votes and avoiding tough issues is becoming a trend for Pace, who has to figure out a way to placate his left wing enviro base and not screw the oil and gas industry, which employs much of the 3rd Congressional district's voters.

Rather than pick a side in the enviro vs. oil and gas divide this week, Pace decided to avoid the issue altogether and skip the vote in favor of a campaign fundraiser.

Reports Bartels:

Republicans blistered state Rep. Sal Pace for missing an oil-and-gas vote this week, saying he's more interested in campaigning for Congress than representing his constituents.

…Pace left the Local Government Committee Monday to attend a fundraiser in Edwards, an event he said he had RSVP'd to more than six weeks ago.

…Pace pointed out his vote wouldn't have changed the outcome, but the conservative blog ColoradoPeakPolitics took the Democrat to task.

"Rep. Pace: Was this an unimportant vote?" the blog asked.

Chuck Poplstein, executive director of the Colorado Republican Party, said Pace likely benefited from his absence.

"Skipping a vote on oil-and-gas allowed Pace to save face with two important but conflicting entities in his district: environmentalists and the oil-and-gas interests," Poplstein said.

Chuck has it exactly right. Pace is still trying to figure out how to thread the needle between standing against energy development, as environmentalists want, and creating jobs through tapping into Colorado's expansive energy reserves.

Let's make it easy for you, Sal. You can't.

Governor Hickenlooper has tried to balance enviros against oil and gas, but mostly he's earned the enmity of environmentalists. He even bragged to Politico about annoying and "irritating" environmentalists in Colorado.

Ditching votes to avoid the difficult duty of picking sides isn't earning Pace any plaudits from either side.

Not only is Pace avoiding policy positions, but he's been avoiding the job he was hired to do by the people of Pueblo altogether. This week marks the second time the state's flagship newspaper has called him out for skipping votes to attend campaign fundraisers.

In January, Pace missed two days of votes in the House to attend Barack Obama's State of the Union and raise money from DC lobbyists.

We know Pace badly wants to be a Member of Congress, but voters don't generally promote politicians who are failing in their current duties. Showing up and picking sides is half the battle in politics. In that regard, Pace has a long way to go before he can start measuring the drapes for his Capitol Hill office.

TEMPER, TEMPER: Sal Pace’s Inability To Control Himself Will Kill His Congressional Campaign

Published on February 14, 2012 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

State Rep and CD3 Congressional candidate Sal Pace (D-Urination) lost control of himself last week, again. Readers of this site are well aware of Pace's struggles with controlling basic bodily functions, but last week it wasn't his bladder, but his temper. In attempting to argue for half a million dollars to create an unnecessary parking lot in his district, Pace lost control and started shouting at his opponents from the state House floor.

WhoSaidYouSaid has the video here. Pace's temper starts to flare at 1:43:

As Representative Gerou (R-Evergreen) helpfully points out before Pace loses his mind, the building Pace is hopping mad to see razed into a parking lot isn't even on the list of local priorities for the next five years, according to the state architect.

Rep. Gerou might know something about building management, considering she is an award winning architect herself.

You see, Pace is getting all riled up because the State Fair people wanted the extra parking space and the same State Fair bigwigs can be very helpful to Pace's other day job, running for Congress in the the 3rd CD.

Now razing a building to create a parking lot isn't going to create a whole lot of jobs, but it will help Pace cozy up to some wealthy patrons for his next potential job.

In then end, though, it won’t matter how many political patrons he does favors for if he can’t control himself in public. Because speeches like this end up looking really bad in opposition attack ads.

SHAFFER FOLDS: After Pressure From Left, Senate President Backs Off CD6 Race

Published on February 3, 2012 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

Senate President Brandon Shaffer has ended his CD6 striptease. After weeks of speculation, which began on this blog in December, Shaffer has formally announced he won't be running in the more competitive CD6, and instead will stay in the impossible-to-win CD4 race.

Shaffer's announcement that he will stick with CD4 brings to an end a long stretch of brutal and damaging process stories that undermined the current CD6 candidates and exposed Shaffer as a politician more concerned with his own ambition than representing a specific community in Congress.

Days after calling the Peak a liar in an interview with the Colorado Statesman regarding our reporting that he was looking at CD6, The Denver Post reported Shaffer was polling in CD6. News that Shaffer was looking at moving races was not met kindly by current CD6 candidate, Democrat state Rep. Joe Miklosi (D-Denver), whose campaign pushed back hard against Shaffer's potential entry.

Miklosi's campaign consultant, Steve Welchert, even went so far as to invoke Shaffer's wife and kids as a reason to not move races.

Shaffer's race jumping adventure also invoked the ire of liberal activists in CD4. One liberal blogger who runs a site dedicated to attacking CD4 Congressman Cory Gardner had this to say about Shaffer's potential switch to the CD6 race:

For my money, [Shaffer has] lost a lot of credibility through this decision that shows his lack of loyalty to his supporters in the 4th. If Shaffer has that little loyalty to the people in the District he currently lives in, I would hate to imagine how “loyal” he would be to the people of the 6th, should he decide to switch races.

Burn! When even liberals who are dedicated to attacking your opponent are instead training their fire on you, you know you've royally screwed up.

Shaffer's exit from the candidate pool leaves only one better funded Democrat for Miklosi to beat now in the CD6 Democrat primary. Currently, the two declared Democrat candidates for CD6 are Miklosi and Dr. Perry "Massage Therapist Millionaire" Haney. Haney has donated or lent $421,000 to his own campaign, but managed to raise only $16,000 from other people in all of 2011.

Regardless of where the money came from, Haney now holds a decisive 2:1 advantage in cash on hand compared to Miklosi.

Miklosi, meanwhile, has been the worst Congressional fundraiser in Colorado this cycle, pulling in only $104,000 in the 4th quarter, despite seeing a 30-point swing towards Democrats during the redistricting process that was finalized late last year.

With Shaffer firmly in the 4th, and Miklosi and Haney battling it out for the right to lose to Mike Coffman in the 6th, Democrats have pretty much left themselves with only one potential race to win — the 3rd Congressional district.

Unfortunately for Democrats, while their candidate is raising good money, he's got a long and illustrious criminal rap sheet, a voting record supporting over a billion dollars in tax increases, and took a taxpayer funded bonus for working on the political campaign of then-Congressman John Salazar.

That's not a recipe for success in any district, let alone the conservative 3rd CD.

SHAFFER APOLOGIZES: Calls Rape Reference “Insensitive And In Poor Taste”

Published on January 13, 2012 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

Senate President Brandon Shaffer has finally apologized for his remark comparing his political opposition to people who blame rape victims for the crimes perpetrated against them. It only took him five days.

On a Facebook page set up to demand Shaffer apologize for his stupidity, Florence Sebern posted an email exchange between her and Shaffer, though Shaffer didn't take the time to get her name right in his apology.

From the email chain:

Senator Shaffer,

Thank you for the response and I accept your apology. A public one would be very effective since the statement was issued publicly.

Two minor points: my email did not communicate my feelings. It communicated objective facts. Also, the name is SEBERN, not Steuben.

Sincerely,

Florence Sebern

On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 1:08 PM, Brandon Shaffer wrote:

Ms. Steuben,

I apologize. You're right. My analogy was insensitive and in poor taste. I truly regret saying it.

Thank you for contacting me and sharing your feelings with me. Again, I am sorry.
Sincerely,
Brandon

From: Florence Sebern
Date: Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 8:24 AM
Subject: really?
To: brandon.shaffer.senate@state.co.us

"What I thought when I read your piece — it's a little bit like blaming the woman or saying to a woman she deserved it," he said, apparently referencing victims of rape or sexual harassment.

There is nothing in politics that even comes close to being a victim of sexual assault, Senator.

You've made a huge mistake. Man up and apologize. Now.
Sincerely,
Florence Sebern

For someone who is attempting to get a promotion from the people of Colorado from Senate President to Congressman, Shaffer sure isn't doing himself any favors.

We'll update this post if and when he makes a public apology, as Ms. Sebern asked Senator Shaffer to do in her follow up email.

SOURCES: Brandon Shaffer May Drop Out Of Congressional Race Soon

Published on November 11, 2011 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

With the redistricting decision by liberal lapdog Judge Hyatt yesterday, things have changed dramatically for state Senate President and CD4 Congressional candidate Brandon Shaffer. With the dramatic shift in Congressional districts, our sources say there are loud rumblings that Shaffer is likely to drop his Congressional bid soon.

And why not — about the only favor the Democrat map did was to not draw him out of it. But in a district that is a lock-ness loser for the Longmont Liberal, they might as well have.

It wouldn't even be the first time Shaffer dipped his toe into a Congressional race, only to abruptly depart soon thereafter. See his angering of liberal activists in 2007 when he bollixed up his entrance by insulting left-wing darling Angie Paccione as unable to win. But he soon realized then what he is likely to recognize now — that he can't win.

The question, our sources say, is how long it takes to sink in for Shaffer that he is wasting his time and making his job as Senate President that much harder.

As long as he remains a Congressional candidate, legislative Republicans will make his life hell, blocking any and all of his legislative priorities and consistently seeking to get him on the record with politically perilous positions.

Despite Shaffer outraising CD3 candidate Sal Pace (D-Urination) last quarter, he is likely to see his fundraising dry up like an Australian drought in the coming days and weeks. The Progressive Roundtable stuck a shank in his back in their court-ordered redistricting power play, ensuring that Shaffer's race has fallen from the list of priorities. Donors and activists will quickly get the message.

The question is how long will it take Shaffer to.

THE BRANDON-MANDER IS BACK: Dems New Redistricting Map Allows Shaffer To Stay In CD4

Published on November 1, 2011 by ColoradoPeakPolitics

The Brandon-Mander is back. In a new Congressional redistricting map submitted by the Democrats today to the Denver District Court, which is hearing the case, Senate President Brandon Shaffer's home in Longmont was carved back into the 4th Congressional district where Shaffer has declared his candidacy already (h/t Lynn Bartels). This is merely the latest installment of Shaffer's sad attempts to find himself a district in which incumbent Congressman Cory Gardner won't beat him by double digits.

It all began with the original maps submitted by Shaffer's subordinates on the Bipartisan Redistricting Commission — which was supposed to resolve the issue legislatively — in which Shaffer's home was meticulously drawn into the 4th CD, while shredding rural Colorado to pieces. This effort at gerrymandering the map to aid Shaffer was dubbed the "Brandon-Mander" on this site — a phrase that has dogged Shaffer ever since. The destruction of rural Colorado proved a sticking point for the GOP, who wouldn't budge on protecting the Eastern Plains and Western Slope as communities of interest not to be divided.

When Governor Hickenlooper refused to get his hands dirty and force a legislative compromise, the issue was pushed into the courts, where it has been resolved the past few go-rounds.

In a seeming last ditch effort to convince the political cognoscente that Democrats really do care about the electoral Hail Mary that is Brandon Shaffer's Congressional campaign, they decided to submit a final map today that put Shaffer's home back in the 4th CD.

While it's nice Shaffer may be able to avoid the tag of carpetbagger, the only signal that mattered was sent in the Democrats' first map, when they infamously drew his home out of the 4th CD.

Perhaps even more tellingly, the Democrats' top two lawyers conspired to trash Shaffer's chances in the court record, with the lead Democrat map-drawing lawyer Scott Martinez saying he couldn't imagine any Democrat winning in the 4th. We wonder whether Scott Martinez would say that no Democrat can win in this newly constructed 4th CD as well. After all, Martinez probably drew it.

That's not to say this move of Shaffer back into the Democrats' redistricting map is not news or doesn't matter. It is and it will.

The likely effect: Cory Gardner will raise more money.