Obviously, this guy is Californian of the Year
Usually, we’re on the same page as the Independence Institute – they want more freedom for Coloradans, we want to be left alone. We even chuckled at the Californian of the Year contest the think tank sponsored, but when one of the nominees was Republican state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg we scratched our heads. We though to ourselves, “well, maybe he just needed to throw a Republican in there to look bipartisan-y.” Then, today, the Independence Institute named Sonnenberg “Californian of the Year.”
Puzzling. As liberal Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry noted, “Only accidentally funny because @RepSonnenberg is so reliably conservative.”
The other nominees included U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat running for Governor who has tried to use his impressive wealth and less impressive influence to shut down major sectors of Colorado’s economy. Then, there was Christine Berg, mayor of Lafayette for making childhood suck for restricting sugary drinks for kids, the green roof guy, and the lady from the UK who wants to halt the best event at the stock show, mutton busting, for its cruelty to kids dumb animals revered sheep.
We thought for sure that Polis would get the nod. He’s certainly our favorite Californian. Hell, he may even have a vacation house in California for all we know. But Sonnenberg? Nah. No offense to our buddies at Independence Institute, but this had the potential to be super fun and took a very strange turn today.
Go home Independence Institute, you’re drunk.