RUSH FOR THE EXIT: Hickenlooper’s Chief of Public Health Resigns

Published on June 18, 2013 by

Dr. Chris Urbina, Governor John Hickenlooper’s executive director and chief medical officer a the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, resigned during the outbreak of wildfires last week.

Is this just the beginning of a mass exodus within the embattled Hickenlooper administration, or is Urbina simply departing quietly after the string of missteps in his organization?  Urbina’s leadership had been the subject of criticism in recent months after it was discovered that its toxicology labs had fubar’d operations to the point that some police units had stopped using the labs in recent months, according to the Denver Post.  Attorney Gary Pirosko, affiliated with the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar placed the responsibility of the bungled testing on Urbina:

“I don’t know what Urbina knew and when he knew it; he may have just gotten caught up and this is a political move to save face.  I think he’s responsible because of the breadth of all the problems. He may not have known, but he certainly should have known.”

Of course, Hick was quick to heap praise on the disgraced official: continue…

 

EXPERT? John Hickenlooper Doesn’t Know Jack About The Death Penalty (Part 3)

Published on June 17, 2013 by

In Governor Hickenlooper’s interview with Mike Rosen on 850KOA last week our state’s chief executive showed a shocking lack of knowledge about the death penalty and convicted cold-blooded killer Nathan Dunlap, to whom he’s granted a temporary reprieve.

Despite his protestations to the press that he has studied the issue — that he’s an expert — Hickenlooper’s interview made clear he doesn’t know jack about the death penalty.

In part one of our series we exposed Hickenlooper lying about what the victims’ families wanted for Nathan Dunlap. In part two, we caught Hickenlooper making up polling numbers that don’t exist when it comes to public support for the death penalty.

In part three today, we examine Hick’s statement that the United States is basically the only civilized country with the death penalty on the books.

Roll the tape:

Transcript:
continue…

 

TAX HIKE TROUBLES: Teachers Union President Takes To Twitter To Trash Governor Hickenlooper

Published on June 17, 2013 by

Uh oh. Is there trouble in tax hike city? Is Governor Hickenlooper, reeling from fresh polls showing his political standing dropping like a rock, suddenly feeling reticent when it comes to the coming tax hike campaign?

Last Friday, the president of the largest teachers union in Colorado, the Colorado Education Association (CEA), took to Twitter to push Hickenlooper to put his full weight behind the billion dollar tax increase associated with the bill he signed, SB213.

Beyond the irony of a teachers union leader having serious issues with basic English grammar, the real news is that she felt it necessary to take her concerns public. Why might that be?

continue…

 

DAMNING DENVER: Study Finds Denver Discourages Retail Development

Published on June 17, 2013 by

A study conducted by the City of Denver found what Denver residents have been noticing for several years – Denver is hostile to retail development. And, it’s costing Denver tax revenues.  Here at The Peak, we have to wonder what role Denver’s Democratic leadership – from Federico Pena and Wellington Webb to now-Governor John Hickenlooper and current Mayor Michael Hancock – may have played in this inhospitable atmosphere.

The Denver Business Journal‘s editor, Neil Westergaard, who highlighted the $150,000 study, noted:

“Every mayor since the 1980s has wrung his hands about the lack of Denver retail, especially downtown. But very little comes of it, besides raw fingers.”

Recent high-profiles failures to bring new retail to Denver have included the WalMart debacle, which would have redeveloped the former University of Colorado Hospital campus at 9th and Colorado into a city-flavored WalMart, let’s not forget that groups also chased away the King Soopers that was slated to put a city market at the location, and who could forget the Ikea that wasn’t in Denver.

Westergaard blames these failures on the following: continue…

 

EXPERT? John Hickenlooper Doesn’t Know Jack About The Death Penalty (Part 1)

Published on June 13, 2013 by

In an interview with Mike Rosen on 850KOA yesterday Governor Hickenlooper took a lot of heat from callers over his cowardly decision to grant a temporary reprieve to cold-blooded killer Nathan Dunlap.

He also made clear in a number of statements that he doesn’t know jack about the death penalty, or makes it up as he goes along.

Hickenlooper claims to have done his homework. He studied it. As an unenlightened layman during the 2010 election, he was for the death penalty. As a scholar of the death penalty, he now knows better.

But Hick’s claims about death penalty expertise don’t hold water, or was it the scotch he was drinking when he granted amnesty to Nate Dunlap?

In a multi-part series we’ll examine those lies, exposing Hickenlooper’s flubs and fibs for all to see.

The first, and most egregious, is Hickenlooper saying that half of the families didn’t want Dunlap to receive the death penalty.

Roll the tape:

continue…

 

WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME: Coloradans Evacuate While Hick Wines and Dines

Published on June 13, 2013 by

Photo courtesy of Facebook

What is it with Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper?  Every time there’s a big emotional story impacting Colorado, Hick is partying with his friends.

First, it was his disastrous Dunlap decision after which he went to one of Denver’s largest social events of the year and rubbed elbows with Denver Broncos.  Last night, as evacuees were gathering their most beloved possessions and looking for somewhere to stay due to forest fires, Hick was kicking off his campaign at History Colorado, Denver’s newest museum.

Last night’s soiree, a kick-off for his 2014 Finance Committee, asked guests to donate $10,000 to be on his finance committee, $2,200 to be a host for the event, $1,100 to co-host, and $550 to simply attend.  Per the pictures on Facebook, it looks as though he had about 50 to 75 in attendance.  So, again, while Hick was rubbing elbows with high dollar donors, Colorado Springs residents were fleeing this enormous fire.  Surely, he realizes that the optics of this are terrible.

Just today, the FoxNews.com called the Black Forest fire the most destructive in Colorado’s history, having destroyed 360 homes in the Colorado Springs area.  According to the Associated Press, some evacuees had just five minutes to pack and leave their homes.  And, this isn’t Colorado’s only fire burning. The AP also is reporting that another fire had destroyed 20 buildings in the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park area, and another fire was blazing in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Hick’s hot party last night must be cold comfort to those who have lost or may lose everything in the fires.

 

PARTY LINE ISSUE: Republicans Wanted Air Tanker Funding, Hickenlooper & Dems Didn’t

Published on June 12, 2013 by

The press has made a big deal of the number of party line votes during the 2013 legislative session. One of those party line votes has particular resonance today — whether or not to allocate funds for firefighting air tankers.

In the Senate Appropriations Committee, all the Democrats voted against funding the air tankers and all the Republicans voted in favor of the funds. See the vote here.

Governor Hickenlooper’s budget, which you can read here, didn’t propose a cent for firefighting tankers. It did, however, propose over $85 million for raises for state bureaucrats:

After four fiscal years without a raise, it is time for State employees to receive a modest cost of living adjustment of 1.5 percent and to reward top performers from a pool of funds equivalent to 1.5 percent of payroll. In total, these items require $57.8 million TF and $27.4 million GF.

The Governor didn’t propose a penny for tankers and he signed a bill, SB245, that didn’t contain a cent for tankers.

When Coloradans ask where the air tankers are, they should ask the Governor and legislative Democrats why they thought it wasn’t a priority.

 

PAPER AIRPLANES: With Wildfires Raging, Coloradans Must Wonder Why Democrats Didn’t Fund Tankers

Published on June 12, 2013 by

As Colorado once again deals with devastating wildfires, many Coloradans are likely wondering why we still refuse to prepare for what is an inevitable issue — putting the fires out. In fact, a legislative fix was proposed this past session by State Senator Steve King (R-Grand Junction) to buy a set of air tankers, but Democrats voted against spending a mere $17 million to buy the planes.

While the bill, SB245, was signed by Governor Hickenlooper to create an air tanker fleet, there was no money attached to it. That’s led the press to refer to the endeavor as “paper airplanes” as they exist only on paper at this point.

What fools voted against funding the tankers?

That would be Democratic Senators Rollie Heath, Jesse Ulibarri, Pat Steadman and Mary Hodge.

Governor Hickenlooper also has culpability in this outcome. For a governor who bragged he didn’t veto a single bill because he was allegedly so effective at managing the legislative process to his liking, why couldn’t he manage to get $17 million for such a critical need as planes to fight wildfires?

To be sure, should Democrats have decided to spend the money on common sense things like air tankers in a state annually beset by wildfires, rather than banning guns or teaching sex ed to kindergartners, the tanker fleet wouldn’t be up and running for this current raft of fires.

But, with the Democrats voting against the tankers, they probably won’t be ready for next wildfire season either.

When reporters cover this latest foreseeable tragedy, we hope they remind readers that it was Democrats who decided their tax money was better spent banning standard capacity magazines than fighting wildfires.

Priorities matter.

UPDATE: A reader writes in to point out SB245, the air tanker bill, was classic Hickenlooper — with the governor making an empty gesture by signing the bill without any actual dollars attached to it. It allowed him to claim he did something without actually doing anything.

Think of it as partially commuting the death sentence for a real tanker bill that would have had real funding and real muscle behind it. 

Even when it comes to something as easy as forest fires, Hick is a weak suck.

 

VULNERABLE: Andrews Rejects the Conventional Wisdom that Hickenlooper is Unstoppable

Published on June 4, 2013 by

Over the weekend, Centennial Institute Director and former Colorado Senate President John Andrews published an op-ed in the Denver Post that called into question a sense of so-called inevitability about the re-election of liberal governor John Hickenlooper.

Andrews’ extensive article outlined a stinging litany of the governor’s broken promises, failed policies, and poor judgement.  And he didn’t even get to Hickenlooper’s support of disastrous legislation regarding anti-growth business policy, gun control, and impediments to the state’s promising oil and gas industry.

But Andrews did go straight after the governor on numerous issues that have been ignored by the headline-grabbing disasters of recent weeks:

  • His “still-TBD jobs creation plan”
  • High unemployment rate compared to regional peers (Colorado has the highest in the region outside of trainwrecks AZ and NV)
  • His proposal to raise the state income tax
  • Poor student performance and his reluctance to adopt pro-student policies that have proved successful in states such as Florida, Arizona, and Louisiana
  • Unacceptable traffic situations on I-25 and the roads leading to the mountains, and how that threatens to impact economic growth

During the last several months, Hickenlooper made a deliberate choice to align himself with the most extreme left wing of his party, which, when finally given control of both houses of the legislature and the governor’s mansion jammed through unpopular legislation that hampered economic growth, made things more difficult for job creators, and even make the state the punchline of pathetic jokes from coast to coast.

While social issues that had little impact to Colorado’s struggling middle class sucked most of the air out from under the dome this year, Hickenlooper’s incremental march towards more government dependency for a less well off Colorado continued with little resistance.  What Andrews laid out was just the tip of the iceberg for Hickenlooper’s hyper-partisan agenda.

 

THE PRICE IS WRONG: Hick to Pay Price for Dunlap Decision, Says Former Dem Chair

Published on May 30, 2013 by

Perhaps the criticism from those who support victims’ rights and/or the death penalty following Colorado’s Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper’s decision to grant clemency (sort of) to Chuck E. Cheese killer Nathan Dunlap shouldn’t come as a surprise.  But Hick might have issues when the former chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party, pollster Floyd Ciruli, adds his own critique and prediction that Hick will “pay a political price”.  From Ciruli’s own blog post last night:

“The reprieve approach, combined with his explanation, sounded confused. He apparently has ‘evolved’ to being anti-death penalty. Why not just say it and provide clemency? Hickenlooper claimed during his gubernatorial campaign in 2010 to be willing to enforce the death penalty. So, this decision makes him vulnerable to the charge of failing to keep a promise – a trait politicians are often accused of, and Hickenlooper hates to be considered just another politician.”

continue…

 
© 2011-2013 Colorado Peak Politics