Over the weekend at the Western Conservative Summit, a gathering of several thousand conservatives across the West, gubernatorial candidate George Brauchler took the top spot in the event’s straw poll with 38% of the vote. Coming in second place was Republican (yes, the poll also included Democrats) Vic Mitchell with 20%. The surprise third place winner was Steve Barlock, who was the Trump for Colorado chairman. He garnered seven percent of the vote.

State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, who has not yet declared his intent to run for Governor, came up with six percent of the vote and declared candidate Doug Robinson, nephew of Mitt Romney, took five percent.

While the poll is a good measure of evangelical sentiment, it hasn’t always been a good barometer for the eventual winner. A quick review of past straw poll winners:

• 2011: Herman Cain (President)
• 2012: Marco Rubio (Vice President)
• 2013: Ted Cruz (President)
• 2014: Ben Carson (President)
• 2015: Ben Carson (President) – it’s also worth noting that Trump finished ninth this year
• 2016: Newt Gingrich (Vice President)

That’s not to say the poll doesn’t matter, but it’s important to recognize that it does not necessarily represent the entire GOP voting bloc, and certainly doesn’t represent the potential independents who may vote in the 2018 gubernatorial primary, depending on the outcome of litigation.

That said, the early support for Brauchler and Mitchell shows that they are working hard to earn the trust of Republican voters far in advance of the 2018 primary. Congratulations on a job well done, gentlemen.

We love when we can sit back and watch the drama unfold. We have been saying for months now that Democratic Congressional candidate Levi Tillemann Dick was in violation of Federal Election Commission rules. It looks like the Democratic establishment was listening because Karen Middleton, head of NARAL, hooked up former Arapahoe County Commissioner with local Democrats who had concerns about Tillemann Dick’s allegedly illegal campaign activities.

Of course, Middleton already is supporting the establishment candidate, Jason Crow, who doesn’t even live in the Sixth Congressional District. We’re sure that had nothing to do with her overwhelming concern about Tillemann Dick’s activities (wink, wink).

Here’s the crux of the complaint, according to Colorado Politics:

“Patricia Ann Noonan, a former Arapahoe County commissioner, filed a complaint last week with the Federal Election Commission, pointing to language Tillemann used on a website, in a video and in a Twitter exchange with a Coffman strategist. In several cases, Noonan maintained, Tillemann represented himself as a candidate by saying what he ‘will do’ if elected, such as pledging, ‘I will fight for progressive causes. And I will fight for you.'”

But, really, how sad for Democrats in Rep. Mike Coffman’s district. They have literally never had the opportunity to pick their Democratic candidate – it’s always been handed down on high from the Democratic establishment. Now, this is 2016 presidential election happening all over again. Democrats have two candidates from which to choose – the pro-Bernie candidate in Tillemann Dick and the establishment candidate in Crow. It’s too bad the Democratic establishment is trying so hard to squash the voices of the grassroots. Again. Will the grassroots rise up or will they again be told to sit down and shut up?

There has been much conversation around President Trump’s request for voter data (all of which is publicly available) and many pieces of false information debunked. That’s why it’s puzzling that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Michael Johnston would rely on an already-debunked rumor in a recent sponsored post. See a screenshot of the post.

While President Trump requested the last four digits of social security numbers, Secretary of State Wayne Williams refused to hand over the information. Instead, he gave the President’s group the publicly-available data, such as names, party affiliation, address, and birth year.

While Johnston has an uphill fight against the vast wall of money coming from Jared Polis, it’s disappointing to see Johnston using blatantly false information to gin up support for his campaign. Johnston should pull his silly petition.

Forgive us our delay, but we had to fully digest what we saw at the anti-Betsy DeVos rally yesterday. Several hundred protesters gathered to protest…something about Betsy DeVos. We’re not really sure what.

Prior to the rally, the Colorado Education Association sent out a statement about DeVos that was grotesque and simply untrue. Here’s what Christina Medina, a DCTA member-teacher at Academia Sandoval, who also sits on the CEA Board of Directors as chair of CEA’s Equity Council on Race and Culture, said:

“The policies championed by DeVos have a negative impact on all students, but are especially harmful to students living in poverty and students of color.”

What is she talking about? What really harms students living in poverty and students of color is forcing them to attend a failing school simply because of their zip code. School choice has done incredible things to lift kids out of poverty. What she really means is that the policies championed by DeVos have a negative impact on unions.

Then, at the rally, some of the grossest signs we’ve ever seen at a rally – and a rally meant to be for kids, nonetheless. Here’s what one bystander wrote on Facebook about the event:

“The tenor was one of combativeness and conflict–and more generally of rage (I can’t think of a more appropriate word for what I saw) against Republicans and conservatives. They handed out nasty, sarcastic awards to Republican lawmakers I know personally and whom I greatly respect while holding their heads up on sticks. Sen. Merrifield doubled down on his comment that charter school supporters deserve a ‘special place in hell.’ People dressed up as conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices in order to mock them and accuse them of corruption. I’ve heard that someone in the crowd desecrated a flag, though I didn’t see it happen personally.”

Here are some of the photos from the event:

What are they even protesting? A question for PeakNation: Are these the people who we want teaching our kids…anything…?

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner called out lawmakers for “spiking the football” after the Obamacare repeal failed in to gather enough votes for Senate passage.

He’s right, there is nothing here to celebrate except for a partisan political victory from special interest groups who want to keep the status quo that has failed Coloradans and the nation so that Democrats can get reelected.

Democrats have failed miserably in coming up with their own solutions, and now the media is snipping a quote from President Trump to “let Obamacare fail” and suggesting that he has some sinister trick up his sleeves to make that happen.

But the sad reality is that Obamacare has already failed miserably on its own. It’s caused insurance premiums to skyrocket and taxed those who can’t afford it so that they are paying huge sums for no insurance in return.

Just days ago we learned that Colorado premium costs will climb even higher next year by 27 percent.

Gardner’s right. This is not the time to celebrate, but to pick up the pieces and keep trying until we repeal and fix the Obamacare pyramid scheme.

In a hilarious interview between a tanner 9News’ Brandon Rittiman and Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Bennet demonstrated that he has no new ideas to fix Obamacare or our healthcare system as a whole. At least, he has no ideas that Republicans haven’t already put on the table. Rittiman tries no fewer than five times to pull Democrats’ ideas out of Bennet. Each time, Bennet turns back to Republican talking points.

Oh, the irony.

Here’s a play by play:

Rittiman Attempt 1: Where is the Democratic Plan?

Bennet’s response: We need to stop talking about Obamacare and start talking about the healthcare system we have in this country. There are plenty of us with bills in the system to make our healthcare system better, more transparent, make it more affordable, create more competition in the system….

Peak Note: Those sound like the very things Republicans have been demanding for almost eight years and BUT HOW?

Rittiman Attempt 2: Are there any Republican ideas that could be in a bipartisan solution?

Bennet’s response: I don’t think so. I think we should start from scratch and we should start with what the American people have to say.

Peak Note: O…K…. But, does he realize that a bipartisan solution, by definition, kind of has to have Republican ideas. You know, so it’s bipartisan?

Rittiman Attempt 3: What’s it going go take to get a handle on the premium increases? (In other words, what is your solution?)

Bennet’s response: I think we are going to need much more competition in our health insurance than we presently have, far more transparency.

Peak Note: We stopped transcribing here because it was just too tedious and too similar to what he already had bored us with. Why did Bennet even agree to this interview if he had nothing – and we mean NOTHING – substantial to say about healthcare? After spending literally almost four minutes demonstrating that he has no ideas to improve healthcare, Bennet then went on to blame Republicans for having no ideas. The irony is rich.

Rittiman Attempt 4: How do you bring more competition? [Thank you, for the love of God]

Bennet’s response: At this point, who cares what his response was? He just started spouting Republican talking points like buying insurance across a bigger geographic and population area. Republicans have literally been demanding this for decades.

Rittiman Attempt 5: Where is your party’s leadership on this?

Bennet’s response: We passed Obamacare. (shorter version)

Peak Note: Oh FFS. We stopped watching after this. We gave up – kudos to Rittiman for soldiering on.

How many times do fractivists have to lose before they realize that attempting to recall politicians with whom they disagree is a losing strategy? Last night, radical environmentalists tried to recall Greg Stokes, Broomfield Mayor Pro Tem, because he refused to vote for a five-year moratorium on fracking. Stokes handily survived the attempt 64-36 percent.

This recall effort was monumentally stupid. First, Stokes is term limited come November, so fractivists just wasted likely thousands of taxpayer dollars on a special election. Second, Stokes was right to vote no on the moratorium. Such moratoria have been struck down by courts – and even going to court, which would have been a sure thing, would have cost the city and/or county thousands and thousands of dollars. What a boondoggle. Third, the electoral process was not meant to recall folks with whom we disagree. The idea is that you wait until the next election and elect someone you like better. Fourth, his “no” vote was one among the majority of no votes.

Stokes was right to call this recall “irrational” in the Washington Times. Then again, we’d expect nothing less from such a radical group.