BIG MONEY IN POLITICS? Romanoff Knows All About It…Until He Runs For Office Opposing It

Published on March 25, 2013 by

Andrew Romanoff, the likely Democratic nominee for the 6th Congressional District, and failed U.S. Senate primary contender in 2010, talked to Denver Westword on Friday about his upcoming campaign and had some interesting things to say. In particular it was his bloviating about special interests that caught our attention, as we thought that trope had been trampled pretty effectively last go-round.

 “I see folks in Washington forgot the people who sent them there…

“…Special interests have enough politicians on their payroll already…

“I don’t think you should have to sell your house to serve in the House… There’s something wrong about a system that says, ‘Only millionaires need apply.”

OK, maybe Andrew Romanoff (D-Renting) got a bulk rate discount on campaign clichés. Maybe he’s really a starry-eyed amateur who thinks he can raise money for his campaign by ringing a bell outside a Whole Foods Market. Or, just maybe he’s picked a really ironic campaign platform to challenge Rep. Mike Coffman. Why is it ironic?

Hmmm, let us count the ways:

(1) Four millionaires bought Romanoff a really nice gavel in 2005. The Gang of Four (Tim Gill, Pat Stryker, Jared Polis, Rutt Bridges) weren’t exactly average lefties who dropped some coins in Romanoff’s campaign jar after he spoke at their Common Cause chapter meeting. They dropped millions and bought him the Legislature.

He can’t pretend he wasn’t there.

According to Rob Witwer/Adam Schrager’s The Blueprint, Romanoff accompanied Rep. Alice Madden on a fundraising pitch to Pat Stryker and Al Yates in October 2003. Did he oppose big money in politics at that meeting? Who “sent him” to the Speaker’s chair, and does he remember them?

(2) Only millionaires need apply to run for Congress? Maybe if you’re a Democrat. It worked for Jared Polis. It worked for whats-his-name…ahem, Michael Bennet [clearly Romanoff is still sore about that one]. But can you bang the class warfare drum against Mike Coffman — a lifelong military grunt who served in both Iraq wars?

In fact, let’s compare Romanoff’s race to become Speaker of the House to Coffman’s last Congressional race and see who is really a man of the people. According to OpenSecrets.org: 

• Average individual contribution to Coffman for Congress in 2012: $1,100

• Average individual contribution to Romanoff’s State House 527, Alliance for Colorado Families, in 2004: $42,888.

(3) It’s likely Andrew would have needed to sell his house to run for CD 6 anyway, as his former Denver domain didn’t reside in CD6.

(4) No one said it better than Romanoff’s former Democrat opponent, Michael Bennet, in 2010, with this ad pointing out that not only has Romanoff taken gobs of money from special interest Political Action Committees (PACs), but he was running his own PAC until four months after he entered the U.S. Senate race. There’s a word that comes to mind here…

 

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Democrats Resurrect Republican Bills and Pass?

Published on February 20, 2013 by

If the old adage that imitation is the highest form of flattery is true, consider Republicans flattered.  Yesterday, Democrats and Republicans passed a measure that would allow prosecutors to file charges over the death of unborn children when the death occurs during a crime against a pregnant woman.

Republicans have tried to pass similar bills over the past few years, but have come up short on Democratic votes.  The bill, HB1154, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee and will head next to the Appropriations Committee.

The bill was necessary because of several crimes against pregnant women during which their unborn children were killed, but the perpetrators could not be charged with the death.

This is just another example of Democrats killing good GOP bills and bringing them back themselves to pass them.  For the sake of the children, we’re looking forward to the Gill-Stryker version of Jessica’s Law to be introduced by a Democrat in the next session.

 

MIA: CO Senators’ Signatures Absent on Request to Delay Medical Device Tax

Published on December 13, 2012 by

Last week, 18 Democratic U.S. Senators sent a letter to Sen. Harry Reid asking for a delay in the medical device tax due to go into effect in 2013, citing the importance of the industry to the U.S. economy.  The medical device tax, a 2.3% federal tax on the price of medical devices, is another crippling tax that’s part of Obamacare. When we saw the news, we thought for sure that two of the 18 Senators who signed the letter would be Colorado’s U.S. Senators, Sen. Mark Udall and Sen. Michael Bennet, given the importance of the medical device industry to Colorado’s economy.  But, their fingerprints were nowhere to be found on this letter.  Here’s a snippet of what everyone else’s U.S. Senators (not Colorado’s) said in the letter:

Since this letter is nationally-focused, it understandably doesn’t cover the importance of the industry to Colorado’s economy.  And, perhaps Sens. Bennet and Udall have forgotten how important the medical device industry is to the state.

According to April Giles, President and CEO of the Colorado BioScience Association, “the medical device sector makes up 50% of the [bioscience] industry for Colorado, with employment growth far exceeding the other sectors at 14.5% over the past 4 years.”

Here’s a few stats from the Colorado Bioscience Association:

  • The region’s medical device sector, a subsection of the bioscience industry, is the sixth-largest in the nation
  • Employment in the industry grew 8.1% from 2005-2010
  • Colorado employs 20,000 people in the bioscience industry, creating 100,000 direct and indirect jobs, translating into $7 billion in payroll, at an average salary of $74,000
  • For every job created in Colorado’s bioscience industry, four direct and indirect jobs are created

Given the importance of the medical device industry to the U.S. economy and to Colorado’s economy, it’s surprising that Sens. Udall and Bennet failed to act on this matter.  The fact is that the medical device industry is already preparing for the tax onslaught with even Pat Stryker’s company planning to layoff 5% of its staff worldwide. It seems that Sens. Bennet and Udall care more about ideology and carrying water for the Democratic Party than they do about Colorado jobs.

 

IT WAS POLITICAL: Abound Solar DOE Emails Prove Obama Lied

Published on October 29, 2012 by

Abound: When “infinity” translates to 18 months

The 9News interview between Kyle Clark and President Obama is one of the “emperor has no clothes” moments in which the President has found himself embroiled over the past month or so.  In addition to grilling the President on whether or not consulate staff in Libya was denied help during the Benghazi attack, Clark also asked him about the political favors he may have granted Abound.  Revealing Politics has released a new video highlighting the truth gap between what Obama told Kyle Clark and what Complete Colorado investigative reporter Todd Shepherd discovered in Department of Energy emails.

In the clip above, Obama tells Kyle Clark:

“Well, Kyle, I think that if you look at our record that these loans that are given out by the Department of Energy for clean energy have created jobs all across the country and only about four percent of these loans were going to some very cutting-edge industries that are going to allow us to figure out how to produce energy in a clean, renewable way in the future and create jobs in Colorado and all around the country. And some of them have failed but the vast majority of them are pushing us forward into a clean energy direction. And that’s good for Colorado and good for the country. And these are decisions, by the way, that are made by the Department of Energy, they have nothing to do with politics.” (Peak emphasis)

Unfortunately, the emails uncovered by Shepherd directly contradict this.  Here is a timeline of the emails and the approvals process.

continue…

 

BREAKING: Local Reporter Says Obama Refuses To Answer “Repeated Questions On Whether Requests For Help In Benghazi Were Denied”

Published on October 26, 2012 by

UPDATE 2: See full video of the damning interview:

UPDATE: 9News has published verbatim excerpts of the interview, which you can find here.
——-
A major news story is about to break, courtesy of 9News reporter Kyle Clark.

Earlier in the day, Clark asked on Twitter for questions to pose to the Commander-in-Chief. Our request: Benghazi. And specifically, was the President specifically made aware of a request for security backup by CIA officers on the scene.

And here is the big news. We haven’t seen the video yet, but Clark just tweeted a tease of the interview:

 

 

 

 

Try squaring that with Vice President Joe Biden’s comments during his presidential debate earlier this month:

“We weren’t told they wanted more security, we did not know they wanted more security,” the vice-president said.

This has all the makings of a big one. When the video is available, we will post it here.

Developing…

 

BIG SPENDERS: Which Party Is the Party of the Rich Again?

Published on October 9, 2012 by

Despite the left’s insistance that the Republican Party is the party of the rich, a newly released tool by I-News Network (a theoretically nonpartisan organization) shows that’s simply not accurate in Colorado.  In fact, Republican donors did not even break the top five donors according to this list of top donors who have given from 2007 through 2012.  As liberal CU professor Sandra Fish noted in her Daily Camera article:

“Corporations and billionaires — and their extravagant contributions to the presidential campaigns — have drawn the most national attention this year in terms of campaign financing. But in Colorado it is the same handful of wealthy Democrats and the labor unions continuing to play a steady hand.”

In case you were wondering who the top donors in Colorado might be, here are the top five, and few are surprising:

  1. Rep. Jared Polis has given an unbelievable $8,420,886 in 644 donations (533 candidates and 111 committees).
  2. Tim Gill has given $3,683,894 in 358 donations (256 candidates and 102 committees).
  3. Pat Stryker has given $3,016,722 in 266 donations (196 candidates and 70 committees).
  4. Rep. Ed Perlmutter has given $1,065,772 in 202 donations (104 candidates and 98 committees).
  5. Rep. Diana DeGette (dean of our delegation, in case you’ve forgotten) has given $967,062 in 152 donations (71 candidates and 81 committees).

We would have liked to create a chart for this, but it’s fairly pointless since there is not one single Republican donor in the top five.  Here is what the top five donors have spent in Colorado (keep in mind, this all goes to the left): $17,154,336.

continue…

 

COLORADO “INDEPENDENT” DEATH WATCH: Did Our Lady Of Fort Collins Give Up On The Left Wing Rag?

Published on August 27, 2012 by

The Colorado "Independent", that paragon of journalistic objectivity who hired Congresswoman Diana DeGette's daughter to run the site initially, appears to be experiencing its final death throes. With only six articles published in August it seems only a matter of time before the left-wing online rag shuts down for good.

With the ever-dwindling amount of content, and particularly any content that people actually read, we have to wonder: 

Has Our Lady of Fort Collins, liberal heiress Pat Stryker, given up on the site? Is she pulling her inherited funds?

The demise of the "Independent" has been a long time coming. A few years ago, when it was called Colorado Confidential, the site had some actual impact. But that was long ago and far away. 

If the “Independent” does go under it will join Colorado Media Matters in the dustbin of forgotten liberal organizations in Colorado. Just look at how relevant former Colorado Media Matters boss Bill Menezes is now! (What do you mean you don't know who he is?)

Can you remember the last time the Colorado Independent had a story that mattered? That actually influenced the political conversation? We can't.

Their conservative counterpart, The Colorado Observer, on the other hand, has been making quite the splash recently. 

Between reporting that Congressional candidate Joe Miklosi had a back pay complaint filed against his campaign for not paying a staff member in full and uncovering an ex-con drug felon working in Miklosi's fundraising department, The Observer is not a favored outlet over at Joe's campaign headquarters. 

How the tables have turned. 


 

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)

 

STRYKER ON THE STAND? Congress To Investigate Abound Solar Loan

Published on July 5, 2012 by

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)


 

COULDA SEEN THIS COMING: Stryker Corps To Lay Off Employees Over Obamacare Tax

Published on July 2, 2012 by

Who couldn’t see this coming? A company that built the wealth inherited by one of the biggest Democrat donors in the country is now laying off 5% of its staff because of the Obamacare Medical Device Excise Tax. 

The fortune of Pat Stryker — Colorado Democrats’ personal sugar momma – comes from the Stryker Corporation, a company started by her grandfather that specializes in medical equipment. Stryker has used that money to spend millions propping up liberal attack groups and make extensive donations to Democrats.

Now that political advocacy is wreaking havoc on the company that created her fortune.

Reports Michigan Live:

KALAMAZOO — Stryker Corp.'s plans to layoff about 5 percent of its worldwide staff to cut costs — a move announced by the medical products company last Thursday — have some worried about the spin-off effect it may have in the community.

…Stryker Chairman, President and CEO Stephen P. MacMillan said the decision was a result of “a challenging economic environment and a market slowdown in elective medical procedures,” as well as the need to prepare for the new tax.

The company said that it will look to cut its 20,036-person worldwide staff before the end of 2012 and restructure some of its operations in order to wring out about $100 million in pre-tax operating costs savings. It said it expects the Medical Device Excise Tax, which requires the makers of various medical devices to pay 2.3 percent of their gross U.S. revenues on such products beginning in 2013, to cost it about $150 million.

If Stryker does an across-the-board cut of its 2,250-person Kalamazoo-area workforce, about 112 local workers would lose their jobs. About 1,002 of its worldwide workforce would be cut. [Peak emphasis]

As the Boulder County Business Report detailed in May, the 2.3% Obamacare Medical Device Tax is weighing heavily on Colorado businesses that deal in medical equipment. Coming amid a stagnant economy — unemployment rose in Colorado in April and May — it couldn't be a less welcome change to struggling companies.  

It's also not the only tax about to take effect. As we recounted last week, Obamacare is riddled with tax increases — there's something in there for everyone to hate, at all income levels. 

It's unfortunate that Pat Stryker's political advocacy is killing jobs for hard working employees who weren't lucky enough to inherit a 10 figure fortune. And those on the left wonder why we denigrate limousine liberals…


 
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