Has Colorado completely shifted to the bizarro world of leftist Boulder politics of tax and ban, or were motivated voters struck with a severe case of anti-Trump fever?

We would argue the latter, and the Boulderization of Colorado is what we got in return.

Not only will we have Jared Polis, king of the Boulder liberals, as governor, but a string of leaders will follow him out of the mother ship and dominate our lives, and wallets.

Polis is the first governor ever elected from Boulder, and he will be joined in the statehouse and other leadership offices by fellow Boulder-area politicians, the Boulder Camera boldly and proudly reports.

Dianne Primavera, the lieutenant-governor-elect, is from Broomfield.

Speaker of the House KC Becker is from Boulder.

Steve Fenberg of Boulder is the new state Senate majority leader.

Boulder native Alex Garnett is the state House majority leader.

Jena Griswold of Louisville was elected secretary of state.

Lesley Smith of Boulder has a seat on the University of Colorado Board of Regents.

Incoming Attorney General Phil Weiser is the former dean of the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder.

But wait, there’s more.

Stan Garnett, former district attorney in Boulder, is now being touted to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner in 2020.

Eric Sondermann, a political analyst from Denver, summed up the new Boulder World Order this way:

“The epicenter of the Democratic Party these days is on its activist fringe. It’s not the 17th Street (Denver) party that it used to be. This is a party that’s as likely to hold its meetings at the local environmental group’s headquarters as it is to hold them at the local union hall. I think Polis certainly signifies that.”

The only silver lining is, we won’t have to contend with the activist fringe protesting every perceived slight, and constant rallies that signify and accomplish nothing.

The downfall — and it’s a long drop — is the activist fringe will actually have to govern and show leadership instead of constant rage and temper tantrums.

Good luck with that.

Rational folks might think a decisive defeat of a ballot measure by the voters rejecting setbacks on oil and gas is a pretty solid message.

But not for Governor-elect Jared Polis. In his eyes, the voters’ answer equals indecisiveness and therefore his government should do something about it.

If only the same could be said for the governor’s race.

Polis told 9News that decisive victory for the energy industry has actually created uncertainty for them, because he means to bleed the companies dry by forcing them to keep holding that election over and over every cycle, or do what Polis wants.

And Polis wants 2,000-foot setbacks, not the 2,500-foot setback that was put to voters in Proposition 112.

“So yes, we want to find a way where we empower local communities to have a seat at that table, that we have larger setbacks, unless, you know, everybody agrees, meaning the landowner wants them closer, and I think that we can do that. And that will be really the challenge, to show that we can solve that, and it’s not just the environmental community and neighborhoods that are affected. I think the oil and gas industry will be at the table to help solve this too.”

Polis thinks the gas industry might be invited to his table, which will consist of environmentalists, to change the will of the voter.

So that’s how Polis intends to govern. Do what he says, or he will bankrupt you.

But don’t worry energy workers, there will be plenty of state jobs available soon for kindergarten teachers.

After Tuesday’s election, the House and Senate picked leadership for the 2019 legislative session this afternoon. Here is a complete list, in case you’re into that sort of palace intrigue.

House Republicans

House Minority Leader: Patrick Neville (Castle Rock)

Assistant Minority Leader: Kevin Van Winkle (Highlands Ranch)

Caucus Whip: Perry Buck (Windsor)

Caucus Chairwoman: Lori Saine (Firestone)

Joint Budget Committee: Bob Rankin (Carbondale)

House Democrats

Speaker of the House: K.C. Becker (Boulder)

Majority Leader: Alec Garnett (Denver)

Assistant Majority Leader: Chris Kennedy (Lakewood)

Co-Whips: James Coleman (Denver) and Jeff Bridges (Greenwood Village)

Caucus Chair: Edie Hooten (Denver)

Senate Republicans

Minority Leader: Chris Holbert (Parker)

Assistant Minority Leader: John Cooke (Greeley)

Caucus Chair: Vicki Marble (Fort Collins)

Minority Whip: Ray Scott (Grand Junction)

Senate Democrats

President: Leroy Garcia (Pueblo)

Majority Leader: Steve Fenberg (Boulder)

Assistant Majority Leader: Rhonda Fields (Denver)

President Pro Tempore: Lois Court (for now – it must be voted on by the Senate) (Denver)

Caucus Chair: Faith Winter (Westminster)

Whip: Kerry Donovan (Vail)

Well, that didn’t take long. According to Colorado Politics, Jared Polis’ company, Jovian Holdings, has registered the domain name JaredPolisforPresident.com. In case you’re not following along at home, PeakNation™, Polis hasn’t even taken office yet and was elected two days ago.

To put it mildly, this seems premature. That said, we have always said that Polis has his eye on the White House and his overly generous donations to left-leaning organizations have less to do with ideology and more to do with paving a path for himself.

His campaign shrugged off their purchase of the URL by saying it was a way to keep trolls at bay. Sure, ok. We believe that he isn’t running for President in 2020 as his staff claims. But, 2028? Get ready America, for the first openly-gay President.

What’s funny about this entire bizarre episode is that they didn’t hide the owner of the URL, which is a standard option when buying a URL. So, either the tech wunderkind’s employees failed or they purposely left it out there for people to find.

Make of that what you will.

Now that Election Day 2018 is behind us, we can move on to the presidential races of 2020 and how Gov. Hickenlooper nearly killed his White House chances before he officially announced, again, his campaign.

This Democrat who has built a political career by catering to the whims and politically correct fancies of the mainstream media committed hari kari last week.

What could be so offensive to scribes everywhere that would cause them to turn their back on a, gasp, Democrat?

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday signed a proclamation celebrating a Denver-based law firm with ties to Saudi Arabia, weeks after suggesting the kingdom should be held accountable for their alleged involvement in the death of a prominent journalist.
It gets worse.

The “law firm” is also the lobbying powerhouse Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck where Hick’s former chief of staff works. The same lobbying firm that advises Hick on matters of great importance.

According to 9News, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck has a $125,000 monthly contract with the Saudi Arabia embassy in Washington, D.C., to lobby on the government’s behalf.

This would be the same government accused of ordering the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who is believed to have been dismembered and dissolved in acid.

So on the one hand, Hick goes on CNN to condemn the killing and demand Saudi Arabia be held accountable. With the other hand, Hick writes a special proclamation hailing the Saudi government’s lobbyists.

It’s unlikely the media will forgive Hick for this sin.

But will they forget all about it once Hick’s presidential campaign finally takes flight?

Ha! Like we’re going to let that happen!

The problem with knee-jerk campaign promises, they usually come back to bite the candidate on the proverbial butt once they’re elected.

And so begins our welcome to Jason Crow, congressman-elect to the 6th Congressional District.

Crow broke his promise not to accept money from corporations about 60 seconds after making the pledge during his campaign.

And now another broken promise looms on the horizon — will he vote for Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker?

Crow promised he would not, and we suspect that promise came after Pelosi’s second-in-command paid a visit to one of Crow’s Democratic primary challenger telling him to hand the crown to Crow.

That man was Steny Hoyer, who by all accounts will not challenge Pelosi for the top position.

As a matter of fact, no feasible opponent has come forward to challenge the wealthy San Fransisco Democrat who delivered on House control, including the $4 million she funneled into Crow’s campaign.

So what are Crow’s options?

“Either Jason Crow breaks his word with his first vote in Congress, or he incurs the wrath of the likely Speaker, and becomes a pariah to not only his base, but to House leadership. Not the best way to start out a congressional term,” said Kyle Kohli, Colorado’s Republican National Committee spokesperson.

If he keeps his promise, it will certainly hurt his district when they need a favor from the leader Crow spurred.

So will he break another promise? Stay tuned.

So much for the Kumbaya lovefest among Democrats who’ve taken control of the U.S. House.
Thanks to U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, an intra-party squabble is now the talk of the town in Washington, D.C.

The Colorado Democrat wasted no time after Election Day in making a grasp to boost her own political power by announcing her candidacy to run for House majority whip.

In her letter, DeGette made an appeal to diversity as a reason to elevate her to the job. She would be only the second woman to hold the House majority whip position and the first from the Mountain West.

Diversity?

Uhm, DeGette is challenging fellow Democrat Jim Clyburn, a black man from South Carolina and the highest-ranking black man in Congress.

Clyburn did consider running for the top House job if fellow Democrats decided they didn’t want Nancy Pelosi, but announced today he plans to pursue the whip position.

But wait, there’s more.

Her efforts to unseat Clyburn reflect a mood within the caucus for fresh leadership as Democrats take the House majority for the first time since losing it in the 2010 election.

We have no idea what DeGette means by fresh leadership, seeing as how she’s been in Congress since 1997 and Clyburn was elected in 1993 — only two terms longer than DeGette.

If you ask us, they’re both entrenched politicans who’ve spent too much time inside the Beltway.

 

Republicans may have been in for a rough night last night in Colorado, but fortunately Democrats, led by Jared Polis, haven’t also destroyed our economy. At least not yet. Proposition 112, foisted on the ballot by Polis’ base, who received a wink, wink from the politician regarding his support for the ill-conceived measure, failed by a 13-point margin.

This disastrous proposal would have prevented oil and gas development in Colorado, killed hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, cut off funding for schools, and more. It would have spelled disaster.

So, now that Republicans lost the Governor’s race and the state Senate, we have just a brief delay before the state legislature takes up setbacks after the people just voted down setbacks, or at least that’s our prediction.

Wow. Talk about not hearing the will of the people. We’ve seen how that goes, right (former) Sen. Morse?

Regardless, Colorado should know this peace will be short-lived. Come Monday, it’s back to the drawing board for those who would like to ban fracking and it will be up to Colorado to push back.

This morning, Colorado Republicans woke up to carnage. We lost the Governor’s race, state Senate, the three statewide seats (Treasurer, Attorney General, and Secretary of State), Mike Coffman’s seat, and a host of local races we would have won with a normal year. Last night’s results are causing some Republicans and gloating Democrats to declare that Colorado has finally turned blue. If you’re one of those people, no offense, you’re a damn fool.

First, last night was Jared Polis’ crowning achievement. When he embarked on the Blueprint with his fellow rich Democrats in the early 2000s, it wasn’t just because he believes so strongly in Democrat values, it’s because he was charting his own path, creating his own chess board that we would be forced to play on. The results last night were because Polis invested literally millions just this year in a turnout model that would substantially change the composition of voters in his favor. He literally has had 65 full-time field staff doing voter ID since January. That is insane – and Republicans should take note and copy it.

Second, this was just another time that Jared Polis bought an election. He contributed $23,275,775.04 (that we know of) to win this election. He won his first election by spending close to a million dollars to win a state Board of Education seat by just 90 votes. He bought his next election, ousting the heir apparent Joann FitzGerald to the shrieking of Democrats everywhere, in 2008 when he won the primary for the Second Congressional District, the seat he held until he ran for Governor.

Third, while it was a bad night for Republican candidates, Colorado voters soundly rejected Democrats’ policies in the form of ballot initiatives. Voters rejected Amendment 112 by a wide margin, rejected tax increases, etc. The electorate is the same group of fiscal conservatives, this isn’t a seismic shift to the left as some would have you believe. If anything it was a referendum on Trump at the top of the ticket that trickled down to state and local races. Nobody rejected Sheriff Dave Walcher because he was a Republican. More likely, the turnout for Jason Crow was massive and voters voted straight Dem, including Sheriff.

Fourth, some of the losses can be attributed to friendly-fire in the Republican Party. That has to stop. You know who you are.

Is Colorado deep blue? No. Is it still purple? Absolutely. Republicans had a bad night last night. Democrats had a bad night two years ago. In Colorado, the pendulum swings back and forth. We’ll have a good night again.

 

Coloradans voted their wallets when it came to ballot measures, rejecting amendments that would raise taxes and cripple our energy economy.

Ironically, these outcomes are in stark difference to voters’ selection for governor.

Jared Polis can now stop spending his own millions to get elected, and instead take our tax dollars to go on a wild, liberal spending spree.

But we angrily digress …

Here are the ballot measure results with 91 percent of counties reporting:

Amendment A: Prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime and thereby prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude in all circumstances.

Yes 65%
No 35%

Amendment V: Lower qualifying age to run for state legislature from 25 to 21.

Yes 35%
No 65%

Amendment X: Change the industrial hemp definition from a constitutional definition to a statutory definition.

Yes 61%
No 39%

Amendment Y: Take away responsibility from state legislature to redraw congressional districts, and give that power to a commission of citizens and party members.

Yes 71%
No 29%

Amendment Z: Change legislative reapportionment commission by expanding the commission to twelve members, two-thirds of which are party members?

Yes 71%
No 29%

Amendment 73: Increase taxes by $1.6 billion to spend on education.

Yes 45%
No 55%

Amendment 74: Require government to award just compensation to owners of private property when a government law or regulation reduces the fair market value of the property.

Yes 46%
No 54%

Amendment 75: Allows state candidates to accept five times the campaign donation for every $1 million someone like Jared Polis contributes to their own campaign.

Yes 34%
No 66%

Proposition 109: Issue bonds to pay for transportation projects.

Yes 39%
No 61%

Proposition 110: Tax increase of $766 million annually to pay for transportation projects.

Yes 40%
No 60%

Proposition 111: Reduces charges on payday loans to annual percentage rate of less than 36 percent.

Yes 78%
No 23%