HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE: Democrat Victors Emboldened to Push Radical Agenda

Published on May 24, 2013 by

Last weekend, the Denver Business Journal’s Ed Sealover reviewed interviews conducted with seven Democrat legislators who were elected in 2012′s most competitive races to see how their promises on pro-growth issues tied to their votes and sponsorships this year. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, these lawmakers’ actions were largely hostile to the interests of job creators in our state.

Andy Kerr: Supported a bill to place a $1 billion tax hike on the ballot this year; co-sponsored a bill that required state contractors to hire at least 80 percent of their employees from Colorado (not the first time Democrat lawmakers looked to meddle in private sector HR policies).

Evie Hudak: Worked to kill a measure to let companies submit statements on how a particular bill’s fiscal impact affects them.

Brittany Pettersen: The only bill that Pettersen co-sponsored that was related to business was a requirement for the Secretary of State to find out if new businesses filing for licenses were minority-owned.

Tracy Kraft-Tharp: Like Hudak, helped kill a measure to let companies submit statements on how a bill’s fiscal impact would affect their business or businesses.

Daniel Kagan: Worked to promote a bill to expand damages available in discrimination lawsuits filed against small businesses.  According to the DBJ, business lobbyists felt that this bill was one of the worst in the entire session.

Linda Newell: Worked to increase regulations against the oil and gas industry.

Max Tyler: Worked with Kagan and other Democrat lawmakers on the bill to increase damages against small businesses in cases filed for discrimination.

All of these Democrat lawmakers were elected last year in tight races, with some failing to claim a majority vote in their districts due to third party candidates on the ballot. Unfortunately, all of them promoted measures that harmed job creators and our fragile economic recovery.

 

GOLD DOME DECREE: Winners Of The 2013 Legislative Session

Published on May 9, 2013 by

Welcome to the third annual Colorado Peak Politics legislative awards where we honor the winners, losers and those that neither won nor lost, sometimes maddeningly so. Or, as we have dubbed them in years past — sister kissers.

The session itself was a stone cold loser for the people of Colorado, with gun rights greatly diminished, rural electric rates set to rise and a looming billion dollar tax hike endorsed by every Democrat under the Gold Dome.

It was, in the words of The Durango Herald‘s Joe Hanel, “one of the most liberal ever.”

Without further ado, here are the folks who came out ahead by Sine Die.

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SWEATING BULLETS: Are Colorado Democrats Worried About Gun Control Recall Campaigns?

Published on April 30, 2013 by

With the frequency of flailing attacks left-wing Colorado Pols has been throwing out lately against the impending recall campaigns of Democratic Senators Hudak and Morse and Representative McLachlan, you might begin to wonder if they doth protest too much.

(Note to Michele Bachmann — it’s not “protestest too much“)

It makes you wonder if some on the left have polled the issue and are beginning to worry that a low-turnout recall election is more than just a minor annoyance.

Should any of the petition drives succeed, a recall election would likely be very low turnout, which would favor the highly motivated voter — something that gun rights supporters pretty much personify.

Of all the targets worrying about the recall drives, we’re betting Senate President John Morse is the one most concerned. There are a couple of reasons for this:

  • The threshold for signatures is the lowest in his district of all the recalls, as the threshold is 25% of the votes cast in the politician’s last election. For Morse, that was the the low turnout, off-year of 2010.
  • Morse’s Colorado Springs district is compact enough that gathering the signatures is considerably easier than, say, the rural Southwest Colorado district of Rep. Mike McLachlan.
  • As Senate President, Morse has more responsibilities at the Capitol than other targets. That means the drainage of time and treasure that combating a recall campaign takes will do greater damage regardless of whether Morse survives. Should be interesting to see how much per diem Morse claims for the days he’s playing politics to defend his seat.

At the outset of the recall campaigns, Colorado Pols and liberals wrote them off as hopeless exercises in futility.

With the amount of ink spilled on the recalls recently, it seems safe to say the left is starting to take the possibility of losing their Senate President before next session starts pretty seriously.

 

FUN WITH GOOGLE: 5 Legislative Democrats Who Need Some SEO Help

Published on April 29, 2013 by

This year’s legislative session has been a bruising, burn down your reputation party for Democrats. Their over-reach and confidence to the point of arrogance has started to cost them — in Hickenlooper’s polling numbers, brutal press coverage of offensive remarks about rape…and now it’s showing up in Google searches.

A brief review of a few of the more high profile names under the Gold Dome turns up some alarming results for politicians who care about their public image.

Here are five legislative Democrats who direly need some help with their Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

1) First up, Rep. Joe Salazar (D-Box of Rocks), who infamously said that women on college campuses should not be allowed to carry a concealed weapon for fear of them mistakenly thinking they were about to be raped and “popping off” a round at an innocent bystander/would-be rapist.

We’re assuming that third result is for people looking for ways to contact Salazar and give him a piece of their mind.  

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COVER STORY: “Arrogance Reigns in Colorado”

Published on April 24, 2013 by

In case Coloradans needed further confirmation that our state is the epicenter of the gun debate, millions of Americans found some of Colorado’s most familiar faces in their mailbox this week.  The entire front cover of America’s 1st Freedom, the NRA’s official journal regarding Second Amendment issues, was dedicated to the landmark gun control measures that the Democrats jammed through the Colorado legislature this year.

Pictured were Senate President John Morse, State Senators Jesse Ulibarri and Evie Hudak, and State Rep. Joe Salazar. Each photo was accompanied by their notorious quotes such as Hudak’s condescending statement to a rape victim, “Statistics are not on your side, even if you had a gun.”

The cover story was actually written by Amanda Collins, the rape victim whose eloquent testimony ran headlong into Senator Hudak’s ignorant talking points.  In describing Amanda, the introduction to her story noted that as an advocate for the rights of women, “she has been met with respect, compassion, and admiration…until she traveled to testify before the Colorado legislature.”

Although in a few short weeks we will be spared further embarassing antics by Senator Hudak and her ilk (at least until next year), the damage left in their wake will be felt for years to come, and may never be unwound.

 

PeakFeed: 6 Ways To Not Eff Up Your Political Paraphernalia

Published on April 22, 2013 by

UPDATE: A reader wrote in with another helpful suggestion to help future candidates avoid Perlmutter’s mistakes. See 1A.

A number of political outfits in Colorado have made some pretty rookie mistakes recently, from poor photoshop decisions to union attack websites that forgot to spellcheck. In an effort to improve the professionalism of politics in Colorado, here are 6 ways to avoid effing up your political paraphernalia.

1) Don’t Mess With Minorities: Don’t photoshop them in or out of photos. People notice and it never helps.

1a) Know Your “Foreigners”: If you are going to attack an opponent for outsourcing, don’t use an American citizen and veteran as the face of it. You’ll be accused of both racism and stupidity.

2) Spell Check: Always check that your grammar and spelling are correct, most especially if your site, mailer or yard sign is related to education issues. Yes, we’re talking about you, AFL-CIO/Douglas County Classrooms.

3) Make Sure They’re Colorado Mountains: If you’re going to use photos of mountains in your campaign schwag, just ensure they’re in Colorado.

4) Made In The USA: Don’t buy campaign t-shirts or hats made in China. For Democrats, check that they have the union bug on them signifying they were made in a union shop. For Republicans, the reverse is true — make sure they don’t have a union bug.

5) Campaign Staff Are Not Constituents: Ed Perlmutter learned this the hard way when his campaign staff accidentally uploaded raw cuts of a web ad to YouTube, exposing an alleged constituent as nothing more than a campaign staffer play acting.

6) Don’t Let Your Mailer Step On Your Message: If you’re sending out mail about the importance of hiring in-state workers, don’t do it with an out-of-state mail firm. Right, Evie Hudak?

 

MOST LIBERAL LEGISLATURE IN HISTORY: The Consequences Of Democrats Radical Redirect To The Left

Published on April 19, 2013 by

Yesterday’s Public Policy Polling survey of Colorado that found that Governor Hickenlooper had taken a 20 point nosedive among voters revealed one of the major consequences to come out of a legislative session dubbed by The Durango Herald‘s Joe Hanel as “one of the most liberal ever.”

A flashback to that Durango Herald piece from April 8:

DENVER – Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Colorado legislators have done a lot this year. 

If the session ended today, it would go down as one of the most productive and liberal ever, with new laws allowing civil unions, in-state tuition for children who lack citizenship and some of the only new gun control bills in the country this year, and they are on their way to expanding eligibility for Medicaid.

But with 30 days left in their annual session, Democrats are just getting warmed up.

KDVR’s Eli Stokols predicted this would happen in a 5280 Magazine piece in March, suggesting Democrats could be confronted with a case of “whiplash” from their over-reaching legislative agenda. (The article is offline right now, but we’ll link if/when it goes back up It’s been reposted here). Eli’s inner-Swami proved quite prescient.

The consensus among the Colorado press corps seems to be coalescing around the idea that this legislative session has been on the radical side of liberal…sorry, progressive…much to the chagrin of Democratic leaders like House Speaker Mark Ferrandino who promised to focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

From gun control to Hitler’s dog to sex ed for 1st graders, the topic of discussion under the Gold Dome has been everything but economics so far this year.

Hick’s twenty point hit since Christmas, almost entirely in the form of moderate Republicans and independents fleeing his ship, is nothing to sneeze at. That fundamentally reshapes Hickenlooper’s political standing in the state.

Hick’s slide likely isn’t over yet, either. The Progressive Leap Forward still has many miles to go.

There is still a slate of horrible bills yet to reach the Guv’s desk — like driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, a Common Cause-drafted election bill and a slew of anti-business legislation.

Not to mention the coming billion dollar tax increase campaign.

There is a reason the last tax hike campaign, Prop 103 in 2011, lost everywhere in Colorado but Boulder, Aspen and Telluride. Tax increases are like Democrats in Douglas County — a guaranteed loser.

While Hickenlooper managed to evade a public position on Prop 103, both the media and liberals are not likely to give him a free pass this time around. He’ll have to take a position. Coming out against it would enrage the left, and considering the pressure liberals were able to exact on him during the gun debate, we can’t be sure Hickenlooper won’t dive down the tax hike rabbit hole.

Suffice it to say supporting a tax hike in this economy won’t help improve his numbers.

The political blowback for legislative Democrats has only just begun, with a number of them having to fend off recall campaigns that will prove costly, both in time and treasure.

Such are the consequences for the most liberal legislature ever.

 

SILVER LININGS: 6 Victories For The Conservative Opposition To The Bloomberg Gun Grab

Published on March 19, 2013 by

Gun rights supporters packed Sen. Angela Giron’s (D-Pueblo) town hall meeting in protest of the gun grab

Conservatives, gun owners and those opposed to an over-reaching government should not feel totally hopeless after hearing that Governor Hickenlooper is ignoring their concerns and signing the magazine ban tomorrow. In the gun control debate, there have been a number of key victories that are worth remembering.

This legislative battle may be over, but the war continues. Here’s 6 reasons for conservatives to cheer:

(1) Two of the bills, at a great embarrassment to their sponsors, died an unceremonious death, as leadership tried to resuscitate them. It isn’t often that a signature bill from the Senate President gets whacked without a vote in the case of the “assault” weapon manufacturer liability legislation. HB1226, the ban on concealed carry, died due to both the utter stupidity and insensitivity of two Democrat legislators and the courageous testimony of victims who didn’t want to be “disarmed” by the Legislature’s vote.

(2) The bills that did pass, passed narrowly when Democrats control everything. Remember, Democrats have a whopping 38-27 advantage in the House and a healthy 20-15 majority in the Senate. The fact that the gun bills had close votes at all is a testament to the opposition’s campaign. 

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HICKENLOOPER’S LIP TURNS NASTY: Guv Says Pro-Gun Protesters A Minority & Not Mainstream

Published on March 7, 2013 by

Instead of acknowledging reasonable disagreement with the several thousand citizens who took to the Capitol grounds to argue against more gun control, a few days ago Governor John Hickenlooper’s rhetoric took a nasty turn, as the Governor attacked the honking rights protestors as being outside the political mainstream.

No one has paid much attention. So we thought we would. 

From 9News:

For all of their fervor, Hickenlooper sees the demonstrators a small minority.

“Not only do they not represent the middle, I don’t think they represent the Republican party. I don’t think they represent a large number of people,” said Gov. Hickenlooper.

Want to know how mainstream gun supporters are Hick? This mainstream.

Want to know who isn’t mainstream?

Get your facts straight, Hick. And keep the lecture to yourself.

 

RECORD OF DISRESPECT: Amanda Collins Wasn’t The First Recipient Of Evie Hudak’s Brutish Behavior

Published on March 7, 2013 by

State Senator Evie Hudak has been taken quite the lashing this week for her disrespectful and condescending attitude toward a rape victim testifying on behalf of the right of women to defend themselves on college campuses with a concealed weapon.

The increasingly left-wing Denver Post editorial board took her to task in a scathing piece yesterday:

You might think a twice-elected state senator would have the good sense to treat a rape victim with respect during testimony at the state Capitol. 

…What is gained by trying to one-up a rape victim and her belief she could have beaten the odds?

And given the dust-up after state Rep. Joe Salazar’s rape comments when the bill was debated in the House, why didn’t Hudak have the sense to exercise restraint?

But it’s not the first time Hudak has employed a confrontational attitude toward a young woman in her way politically.

Hudak’s bullying behavior can be seen as far back as 1994, when she was running for a State House seat in Arvada, making a 14 year-old girl cry and allegedly trespassing on private property to replace an opponent’s yard sign with hers.

Recalled The Colorado Observer last fall:

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