The liberal group, Conservation Colorado, walked for recall candidates. Recall candidates went down in flames anyway.
In August, billion dollar tax hike proponent and Democratic Senator Michael Johnston told the Colorado Independent that Colorado Commits to Kids hoped to line up $6 million to pass the largest tax increase in the history of the state on Colorado’s middle class. He also mentioned this to EdNews Colorado.
What a difference a month makes. New reports by the Colorado Independent suggest that Colorado Commits to Kids may have more funds waiting in the wings than even they initially thought. The rumor is that Commits has donors sitting on $10 to 20 million in funds and they’re waiting until the end to dump the money into its coffers. From the Colorado Independent:
“But political insiders say the campaign has something like $10 million to $20 million “lined up” and is holding the funds and avoiding the noise disclosing that amount of money could generate while quietly building an Obama-style ground-game to win over voters and make sure they cast ballots.”
How worried are proponents of this terrible amendment that they’re gathering tens of millions of dollars to pass this initiative? To put this in perspective, a $20 million campaign means that proponents would be spending at least $4 per person in Colorado (population, approximately five million) to pass this initiative, assuming everyone votes (which they won’t).
But, will this huge influx of money matter? The recall effort showed that even when outspent 7-to-1, when the right is right on the issues and put up their own ground game effort, they can overcome. Of course, the amount that the “No on 66” team will be outspent remains to be seen, but this ballot initiative may test how far special interest money goes – or doesn’t – in Colorado.
As my Jeffco School teacher-wife pointed out–and you all might have made this point in the past, too–wouldn't it make more sense for these liberal donors to just give their 10 or 20 million directly to schools rather than flushing it all down the electoral toilet in one fell swoop? No, it's not a billion, but I'm confident that you'll find a fair number of takers throughout the state's many districts that would be just fine with 20 million dollars. And that way the money would certainly go to the schools themselves, rather than the state general fund where Democrats can legislatively (and, of course, legally) funnel a little off the top to various special interest groups.
But what fun is it if you can't make Colorado's tax code more "progressive" while you're at it? And that is probably what this is about as much as it is about teachers union pensions and covering for government waste and, somewhere down the line, Colorado kids. If you can't beat TABOR, then join it–by spending such an absurd amount of money on GOTV and marketing that TABOR ceases to matter anymore. Is that how we're doing it now?
I sure hope this state rejects the Democrats' cynical politics. It will be a bright day indeed when the GOP takes control of government.