“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.    

 

ASTRO-BACKFIRE: Enviros In Erie Turn In Anti-Drilling Petition With 99.5% Out-Of-Town Signatures

Published on June 1, 2012 by

An environmental group trying to shut down natural gas development in Erie, Colorado has been caught turning in a petition almost entirely signed by people not living in Erie.

In turning in 21,000 signatures the group, Erie Rising, was hoping for some great press, only to have it discovered that only about 100 signatures were from Erie residents. Doh!

From a guest commentary in The Denver Post yesterday:

A small group of environmental activists made the news last week with a petition against natural gas development in Erie. About 10 people, including the activists and their children, delivered copies of the petition to Encana Corporation's U.S. headquarters in Denver and Gov. John Hickenlooper's office, and made sure TV cameras came along for the ride. The petition included about 21,000 names gathered over the Internet, which sure sounds like a big number. There's just one problem: almost no one who signed the petition actually lives in Erie.  

All told, only about 100 Erie residents lent their name to petition, roughly one half of 1 percent of the town's population. In fact, hundreds more online signatures came from outside the country — Germany, Spain, Greece and Australia — than from inside the town. Erie's neighboring communities weren't persuaded, either, because barely 1,000 names came from the rest of Colorado. So where  did all those other names come from?  

The top three states were California, New York and Massachusetts, which together accounted for almost 9,000 names. Why so many from outside Colorado? Maybe it's because Erie Rising, the group that's trying to scare people in the Front Range suburbs by demonizing the oil and gas industry, called in a Washington-based pressure group called Food & Water Watch to run the campaign. [Peak emphasis]

This is a pretty common occurrence in the anti-drilling faction's latest war on energy independence. We've heard from a number of county commissioners and local officials that when energy issues come up they get a flood of anti-drilling form emails and letters, most usually from places out of town, out of state, and more often than you might expect, out of the country. 

Here's a lesson free of charge for the enviros — if you want to demonstrate support in a town, it's helpful to have people from that town, you know, show support. Governor Hickenlooper really doesn't care what some bloke from Britain thinks about energy development in Erie.

To Erie Rising's credit, unlike ACORN, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse don't appear to have signed the petition. 


 

DO DEMS FEAR ERIC WEISSMANN? Colorado Democrat Party Files Petition To Block Ballot Access

Published on April 17, 2012 by

The Colorado Democrat Party has filed a legal motion to block CD2 Republican Congressional candidate Eric Weissmann from being on the Republican primary ballot. Are they scared of the threat Weissmann poses to their beloved insider trading Congressman, Jared Polis?

Democrats don't generally get involved in Republican primaries unless they are hoping to prevent a competitive general election candidate from challenging a Democrat. 

The petition, dated April 15, was filed by attorney Martha Tierney for the Democrat firm of Heizer Paul Grueskin LLP on behalf of the Colorado Democrat Party. (Read the petition here).

That would be the firm of Mark Grueskin, the legal henchman for Pat Stryker and the menagerie of outside liberal groups who like to win elections in the court room, rather than the ballot box. 

As Grueskin's Twitter account profile says "Practicing law and politics. Usually in that order." Sounds about right. Sue to stop someone before you're forced to let voters decide.

Weissmann is currently trying to make the GOP primary ballot by petitioning onto the ballot. He ran into trouble when the Secretary of State's (SOS) office rejected enough signatures to put Weissmann below the required 1000 valid signatures from registered voters in CD2. 

Weissmann's campaign told The Longmont Times-Call the issue is related to some notary issues, and is likely to be resolved by a judge.

If there are enough valid signatures, we're betting a judge is unlikely to block ballot access over some small paperwork issues. 

But that's not stopping Democrats from going to court to make sure Weissmann can't even make the ballot. 

It's kind of a strange move considering Democrats' attacks on SOS Scott Gessler regarding access to ballots. 

But hypocrisy has never stopped Democrats from doing what it takes to win elections.


Weissmann is by no means guaranteed a shot at knocking off Jared Polis just by making the GOP primary ballot. 

He will have to face conservative state Senator Kevin Lundberg (R-Berthoud), who will not be easy to defeat in a primary. Considering the grassroots energy at the CD2 assembly in support of Lundberg's bid this past weekend, it is going to be especially difficult. 

Weissmann does have one serious advantage over Lundberg, an advantage that is causing Democrats to go to court to stop Weissmann now, and that is money. 

Last quarter, Lundberg raised a paltry $37,000. Weissmann raised $138,000, including an almost $30,000 donation from himself.

But sources say Weissmann is willing and able to put in far more than that initial $30k.

Even though Jared Polis will be able to out-self fund any other candidate, it's the fear of damaging TV ads and mail pieces coming from Weissmann that has Democrats spooked.

With Jared Polis's well-documented troubles with insider trading and abusing taxpayer money to help fellow Democrats, a well orchestrated ad campaign could do serious damage to Polis's standing. 

Weissmann also doesn't have the long record of votes and quotes that Lundberg has, making it harder for the Polis campaign to attack Weissmann. 

Someone should ask Rick Palacio. If you are so concerned with ballot access, why are you suing to stop Eric Weissmann? What are you afraid of?

 

PROP 103 GOES DOWN IN FLAMES: A Stinging Defeat For Liberal Legislators And The Teachers’ Unions

Published on November 2, 2011 by

In a stinging defeat for teachers' unions, Colorado's liberal political network, and a brazen group of Democrat legislators who dared to ask for higher taxes in a record-breaking recession, Proposition 103 was soundly rejected by the voters tonight, losing statewide by almost 30% with almost half of the ballots in.

Now we guess we know why Governor John Chickenlooper Hickenlooper hid from taking a position. The Governor must have a pretty good pollster who told the state's CEO that this one was headed down in flames.  

And down in flames is an exactly accurate description, as the initiative was resoundingly rejected by voters from liberal counties like Pueblo to conservative counties like Mesa. In Mesa county, which had the highest turnout of any major county going into election day, unofficial results on the clerk's website show the ballot measure losing with a whopping 75% NO vote.


In Jefferson County, one of the most pivotal to Barack Obama's chances next year, the unofficial results show voters rejecting higher taxes at a 2:1 ratio. That's what you might call a harbinger of doom for Obama's political lackies sitting in campaign headquarters in Chicago. 

JeffCo was the site where Compass Colorado waged a spirited battle to defeat the measure. And it showed.

Tyler Q. Houlton, the President of Compass Colorado, had this to say about Prop 103's defeat:

Liberal special interest groups, and their allies in Colorado’s Legislature, simply do not understand that multi-billion dollar tax hikes lead to massive job loss and stifle economic recovery. Fortunately for our economy, Coloradans rejected this job-killing $2.9 billion tax hike that was never guaranteed to fund Colorado schools in the first place. The failure of Proposition 103 is a major set back for all left-leaning organizations that plan to force more tax hikes on next year’s ballot.

This is not the result Rollie Heath was looking for, nor was it one that gives any confidence to backers of Obama or the liberal political establishment who were hoping to run a bigger tax increase next year.

While Obama may be personally popular among Coloradans, his tax and spend agenda has been thoroughly rejected by citizens of the Centennial State. 

Tonight's vote was a repudiation of state Senator Rollie Heath (D-Boulder), state Senator Evie Hudak (D-Westminster) and the liberal tax hike team who were too slow witted to get that a Great Recession is no time for a great big tax increase. 

Image: xedos4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

TURNOUT ANALYSIS: Where Are The Ballots Coming From?

Published on November 1, 2011 by

We said last week that there was one way and one way only for the proposed $3 Billion tax increase known as Prop 103 to pass and that was conservative voter apathy. Luckily, GOP voters have turned out in far larger numbers than Democrats, which is not welcome news for Rollie Heath and his Tax Hike Team of liberal legislators. As of ballots returned over the weekend, the statewide turnout was 42% Republican, 33% Democrat and 25% Unaffiliated. This ratio has remained the same since last week, seeming to infer there will be no mass influx of Democrat votes at the end, despite Colorado Pols protestations to the contrary.

As of October 1, 2011, the state's active registration was 37% Republican, 33% Democrat and 29% Unaffiliated, meaning the GOP is overperforming by 5% whereas Democrats are performing right at their registration level and Unaffiliateds are underperforming by 5%. In raw vote GOP voters outpace Democrats by 65,000 votes, though that by itself does not necessarily mean defeat for Prop 103. In 2010, Republicans had a raw vote lead over Democrats by 108,000 votes coming into Election Day and still lost the Governor and Senate races. 

To get a closer look at where those votes are coming from, we've analyzed the top 11 most populous counties comparing votes by party registration to total ballots mailed. For Denver and Pueblo that includes inactive failed to vote (IFTV) voters. As the party registrations are not published for that small subset of voters, the analysis is limited total turnout in those two counties. 


(**Note: Arapahoe County is only showing 25% turnout, but it is a notoriously slow county to report turnout. With a competitive mayor's race in Aurora, turnout is expected to be much higher, meaning the 25% number is expected to jump significantly when results start to be tabulated. Sources say it's expected to be about 40k in Aurora alone.)

So…who's voting?

According to the Colorado Peak Politics analysis, the biggest turnout is in Mesa County, where 49% of voters have returned ballots, including 53% of the county's 13,531 Democrats and 49% of the county's 31,133 Republicans. 

Next up are El Paso and Jefferson counties, with 37% turnout, with the GOP outperforming the Democrats as a percent of active voter registration 41-37 in El Paso and 42-38 in Jefferson. As the number of GOP active registered voters in JeffCo and El Paso is significantly higher than Democrat registration, that translates into a lot more Republican votes in the bank. For El Paso the Republican raw vote lead over Democrats is 29,604 and in JeffCo it is 8,796.

This is potentially good news for the GOP-backed school board candidacies of Jim Powers and Preston Branaugh, who have been fighting an uphill battle against candidates supported by the powerful teacher's unions. 

The lowest turnout county as a percent of ballots mailed is Denver, where only 27% of voters have returned their ballots, despite heavy spending in the school board races and a vicious fight over Initiative 300, which would mandate small businesses provide up to 9 paid sick days per year for their employees. 

Democrats are outperforming Republicans 34-33 in Adams County in addition to Mesa. The performance is tied in Larimer and Douglas as a percent of voter registration. The GOP is turning out at higher levels in Arapahoe, Boulder, El Paso, Jefferson, and Weld. 

With the highest turnout seen among conservative counties, there are high hopes among opponents of Prop 103 that it will go down in defeat in a big way.

The big question tonight is not whether or not Prop 103 loses, but by how much.

If it's a close vote, we fully expect the entire liberal establishment, including Governor Hickenlooper, to come trick-or-treating in the near future asking for a significantly higher tax increase than $3 billion. Should the ballot measure lose by big margins, groups like the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and the teacher's unions would have significant pause about spending resources to support a tax increase in the next year or two. 

As it's too late to mail your ballot today, make sure you drop it off at an approved vote center or your County Clerk and Recorder's office. 

Also make sure to check back at the Peak for the latest election results, which will be available here shortly after 7.

Image: taoty / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

TALK RADIO TURNOUT: Compass Colorado and Too Taxing For Colorado Blitz The Airwaves On Prop 103

Published on October 27, 2011 by

UPDATE 2: All three Compass Colorado radio spots are up now.

——-

UPDATE: The two Too Taxing for Colorado radio ads have been added. They are running in the West Slope, Denver metro, Larimer/Weld, and El Paso.

——-

The proposed $3 Billion tax increase known as Prop 103 has one way and one way only to pass: conservative voter apathy. In a year where it's the only statewide ballot initiative, and outside Aurora the only races on the ticket are pretty much only school board races, no one expects an overwhelming turnout. Voters' TVs aren't being slammed with ads and their door bells aren't constantly ringing from canvassers, meaning many folks will simply let November 1 pass them by without noticing.

A number of groups who are opposed to raising taxes in a recession are now running radios ads on conservative talk radio stations and robodialing voters to make sure the citizens of Colorado know the risk of not weighing in on a job killing measure. 

The first group formed to oppose Prop 103, Too Taxing For Colorado, is running radio ads and dropping robodials into households across Colorado.

There are two radio ads being run by Too Taxing.

Here is the first one:

.



And here is the second:



And a copy of one of the robodials we've heard about:

Also jumping into the voter education mix is Compass Colorado, which announced in a press release is running ads in the Grand Junction, Colorado Springs and Denver media markets.

The Compass Colorado ad uses a narrator and drops in a variety of public figures to make the point.

In Grand Junction, the ads are using the voice of freshman Rep. Ray Scott (R-Grand Junction). In Colorado Springs, the ads use House Majority Leader Amy Stephens (R-Monument). For Denver, Save Colorado Jobs' Victor Mitchell is the voice of reason in the spot.

Give the Denver version a listen:



Here is the Ray Scott version:



And Amy Stephens:

These radio ads come at a much needed time, as many major Republican counties are underperforming in a major way. 

According to a Colorado Peak Politics analysis comparing Secretary of State numbers on total turnout by party registration in 2009 — the last off-year election — to total turnout as of Oct 26 by party registration, El Paso and Douglas are turning out at depressed levels.

Whereas Democrat turnout in Larimer County is already 101% of their 2009 total, Republican turnout in El Paso is only 49% of 2009 levels. DougCo Republicans see significant low turnout as well, with only 48% of the votes registered by Oct 26 compared to total DougCo GOP voters in 2009. Democrats in El Paso and Douglas are turning out at similar levels, meaning the entire counties are either slow in turning their numbers into the Secretary of State, or total voter turnout is severely depressed in the South Metro area. 

Democrats in Boulder have only turned in ballots at 46% of their total 2009 turnout — a bad sign for Prop 103's lead cheerleader, Boulder Senator Rollie Heath. 

The bright spots for the GOP are that they are turning out at a 9% higher rate in Pueblo compared to Democrats in terms of 2009 turnout, and a 11% higher rate than Democrats in Denver compared to 2009 turnout. 

These numbers make clear that this election will be a turnout game. The question is will conservatives take heed of the robodials and radio ads and turn in their ballots. We'll find out next week. 

 

THE ‘DEVIL’ IS IN THE DETAILS: Rollie Heath Caught Lying On Jon Caldara’s Show About Prop 103

Published on September 19, 2011 by

The Left has been a hot mess this afternoon about a Colorado Statesman story over job loss projections associated with Rollie Heath’s tax increase. We will be back later today “with the rest of the story” there. But in the meantime, we now resume our regular coverage of Rollie’s errant campaign to raise taxes…

Shortly before Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute filed a complaint against Rollie Heath's (D-Boulder) tax increase initiative for its deceptive signature gathering, he had Rollie Heath on his TV show "The Devil's Advocate" for an interview. During the interview — in a case of delicious irony — Rollie Heath gets caught on the record lying about Prop 103.

The most egregious, and fact checkable, lie that Rollie spews on Caldara’s show is that the General Fund is the exact same now as it was 10 years ago. It's not true.

Sen. Rollie Heath: Jon, the hard truth is the General Fund today is exactly what is was 10 years ago. The General Fund today is $6.8 Billion. The General Fund 10 years ago was $6.8 Billion. So I don't know where you're getting all these numbers, but those are the numbers.

Jon Caldara: I got my numbers from Legislative Counsel.

Sorry, Rollie, but you're wrong.  

In the 2001-2002 session the General Fund was $5.61 Billion (PDF – p. 21), not $6.8 Billion as Heath asserts. In growing to $6.8 Billion in 2011-2012 it represents an over 21% growth in the General Fund, while population went up less than 17% between 2000 and 2010, according to the Census. 

There is no way to argue semantics on this one. Rollie lied.

The second complete and obvious untruth Rollie spews is that there has been no polling done on the initiative. 

Jon Caldara: This doesn't seem to be polling so well out of the box. 

Sen. Rollie Heath: There are no polls, Jon. 

Wrong again, Rollie.

Public Policy Polling included it in their flawed statewide poll of Colorado a month ago. Despite oversampling Democrats by 8 points, the poll still showed the initiative being defeated 47-45. 

We know Rollie doesn’t want to see any facts that contradict his quixotic quest to raise taxes, but facts are stubborn things.

The next time Rollie waxes off about the state budget, reporters might want to check to see if he is just making it up.

 

TAX HIKE ‘TRUTHFULNESS’: Rollie’s Lying Petition Circulator v Rollie’s Bill On Petition Circulators

Published on September 15, 2011 by

State Senator Rollie Heath, who is leading the charge on the $3 Billion tax hike known as Prop 103, co-sponsored legislation in 2009 that seems at striking odds with the behavior of his own paid petition circulator whose deceptive behavior Heath tried to downplay to The Denver Post yesterday. Rollie's legislation, HB-1326 (PDF), was a bill "concerning the integrity of the statewide citizen-initiated petition process" aimed at cleaning up fraudulent signature gathering. 

Rollie's paid petition circulator was caught on tape lying about what Prop 103 does — actually claiming it was an attempt to stop taxes from being raised. But Rollie doesn't seem to think that he has any responsibility for the lies being propagated about his ballot initiative, telling The Denver Post:

"When you rely on volunteers and paid circulators, you have no idea what they're saying."

Compare that to what Rollie's bill said about the importance of truthful petition circulators:

THE INITIATIVE PROCESS RELIES UPON THE TRUTHFULNESS OF CIRCULATORS WHO OBTAIN THE PETITION SIGNATURES TO QUALIFY A BALLOT ISSUE FOR THE STATEWIDE BALLOT

Help us out here, Rollie. If the initiative process "relies upon the truthfulness of circulators" shouldn't "having no idea" what they say be unacceptable?

Just as companies are responsible for the behavior of their employees, politicians running ballot initiatives are responsible for the behavior of their paid petition circulators. 

If one employee is caught lying about what that company does, isn't it fair to ask if others lied as well? In the case of Prop 103, how many signatures were gathered fraudulently? Care to provide your paid petition circulators for deposition, Rollie?

We have heard from sources recently that there are many more problems, legally-speaking, related to the gathering of signatures for Prop 103. The lying petition circulator caught on tape may be just the tip of the iceberg.


 

FULL FRONTAL ASSAULT ON PROP 103: Complaint Filed And Opposition Campaign Kicks Off

Published on September 14, 2011 by

State Senator Rollie Heath's Proposition 103, the $3 Billion, five-year tax increase on the ballot this November, is coming under a full frontal assault. Until now the supporters of the Proposition have been the only ones raising money, mailing propaganda (at taxpayers’ expense), and running a formal campaign. No longer.

Yesterday, Jon Caldara, the head of the Independence Institute filed a formal complaint with the Secretary of State's office over a signature gatherer's lying about the initiative caught on tape. Today, the group opposing the tax hike called Save Colorado Jobs, headed by former state Rep. Victor Mitchell, announced its first press conference scheduled for tomorrow at the Capitol (full release after the jump).

The Denver Post's Tim Hoover reports today on Caldara's complaint over an incident we covered last month:

The complaint, filed by Jon Caldara, president of the libertarian-conservative Independence Institute, cites a video in which a signature gatherer for the initiative says — among other things — that the ballot measure would not raise taxes. The undercover video was shot on the 16th Street Mall by conservative blogger Kelly Maher.

…In the video, Maher says, "I think funding for schools is really important. But will it raise taxes?" To which the circulator replies, "No, it won't raise taxes. That's what we're trying to make sure that they don't do."  

The complaint cites a section of law that says, "If a circulator is found to have violated any provision of this article or is otherwise shown to have made false or misleading statements relating to his or her section of the petition, such section of the petition shall be deemed void."

While the law is somewhat vague on the legality of petition circulators lying to citizens, the complaint will cause both PR and legal bill headaches for Rollie Heath and supporters of Prop 103.  

Rollie Heath doesn't seem to think he is responsible for what people were told about the initiative by his paid signature gatherers:

Heath said he had not seen the complaint and could not comment on it, but he added, "When you rely on volunteers and paid circulators, you have no idea what they're saying."

While Heath may think he can brush off the complaint, he is about to see a full frontal assault from a group opposed to the initiative that he can't ignore — a group that we hear won't lack for resources.  

Prop 103 has already been shown in polling to be destined for failure. Even with an 8 point oversampling of Democrats, Public Policy Polling found the initiative starting off under water at a 45/47 support/oppose. Initiatives almost always drop from where their approval starts once opposition campaigns kick off.  

As we said when this initiative first began, all opponents need to defeat it is a one-sentence argument almost as good as the proponents, not even necessarily better, just strong enough to create doubt. 

The study by Dr. Eric Fruits of Portland State University showing the initiative could kill as many as 119,700 jobs in Colorado is just that one-sentence argument.

It's an initiative killing argument and it's bothered the tax loving liberals over at ColoradoPols so much that they've written no less than three posts about it. 

Consider today the kick off to killing Prop 103. 


MEDIA ADVISORY

SAVE COLORADO JOBS MEDIA ADVISORY

For Release on:  9/12/2011

Contact:  Adam Johnson

720-222-2654 or 303-960-6736

info@savecoloradojobs.org

Save Colorado Jobs Issue Committee Media Briefing

What: The Save Colorado Jobs Issue Committee, headed by former State Representative Victor Mitchell, will hold a Press Conference on Thursday September 15, 2011 to discuss the opposition to the Colorado Ballot Measure Proposition 103.  Accompanying former Representative Mitchell will be:

State Representative Jim Kerr (R- HD 28)

State Representative David Balmer (R-HD 39)

State Senator Bill Cadman (R-SD 10)

Former Representative Victor Mitchell, and the Save Colorado Jobs Issue Committee will discuss how this proposition will not only slow an already anemic economic recovery in Colorado, but how this measure will also deplete Colorado’s job market by an alarming 119k jobs over its 5 year inception. We encourage all media outlets to attend.

When: September 15, 2011

               1:00pm

               3rd Floor Press Room

               Colorado State Capitol

               Denver, CO 80203

For more information about the Save Colorado Jobs Issue Committee visit www.SaveColoradoJobs.org.

 
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