Author Archives: ColoradoPeakPolitics

Earlier today, we reported that Colorado Democrats former Governor John Hickenlooper and current U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, who each struggled to qualify for the Democratic primary debates which required polling at a measly 1% or 65,000 donors, have won the jackpot. The two Coloradans will share a debate stage with the top-polling presidential candidates – former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Lucky bastards. They could have been relegated to the night with the candidates nobody has ever heard of like Swalwell. Oh wait. They are the candidates that nobody has ever heard of. They are the Swalwell of their debate. Either way, Bennet and Hick will certainly benefit from the eyeballs that their fellow candidates bring.

Or maybe not.

We would never accuse either Hick or Bennet of having a commanding debate performance. In fact, neither of these two candidates have ever had a great debate that we can recall. So, was placing Hick and Bennet with some of the most accomplished debaters a way to narrow the field by the Democratic Party and NBC (but we repeat ourselves)? NBC said it was a random drawing, but whether it’s fortuitous depends on how well these two do against the top contenders.

Good luck, gentlemen.You’ll need it.

Not a day goes by when we aren’t reminded of the hypocrisy rampant in the Democratic Party and far-left wing in Colorado – especially around women. The most recent example comes to us in the form of Leo McKinney, the former Mayor of Glenwood Springs and current president of the environmental organization, Glenwood Springs Citizens Alliance, which claims to educate the public about the benefits of securing permanent protection of the area within and surrounding the city of Glenwood Springs from mineral extraction and development. In other words, they want to keep it in the ground.

We won’t even add the tweet here but you can see for yourself  in a post from the Colorado Transparency Project, McKinney was recently busted for sinking as low as possible and dropping the See You Next Tuesday (are you really going to make us spell it out?) slander on Education Secretary Betsy Devos. Woah. That escalated quickly.

That’s right folks, McKinney doesn’t always call women the c-word , but when he does he likes to do it as publicly as possible on social media. Besides the admission that he likes to use this offensive word, it’s another yet reminder that Democrats aren’t the party of women.

We haven’t seen any apology from McKinney yet, or heard if the Glenwood Springs Citizens Alliance will ask him to resign, but both actions would seem to be appropriate in this situation. It’s not a good look to have a misogynist as the president of your organization.

A state transportation department audit reveals the agency hid, then spent hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars that bureaucrats failed to report to the state legislature, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.

The hide-and-seek game occurred during the administration of former Gov. John Hickenlooper during the 2017 fiscal year.

The audit, which determined no fraud was committed, was completed during the Polis administration.

The whole matter will be set aside as a mere lack of transparency, and ignorance.

Transportation officials claim they weren’t aware they had to report that extra $1 billion they had left over from the previous year, of which more than $587 million was spent.

That’s in addition to the agency’s $1.563 billion budget approved by the legislature.

The agency also forgot to mention a federal windfall of $43.7 million.

This is some serious money they were hiding.

Truly scandalous, especially when voters were asked the following year to raise taxes for needed road projects.

The new transportation chief under Polis issued a gobbledygook excuse, plus a half-hearted pledge to hide the money better present a budget next year that will “look different.”

If this is what a mere performance audit uncovered, then clearly the agency needs a full-scale review of their books.

While crime and homelessness in Denver spirals out of control, newly-elected District Attorney Beth McCann has decided to throw her law enforcement resources against…AirBnB landlords.  Two Denver real estate investors, a husband and wife team, were each charged with “attempting to influence a public servant,” a felony, for their dangerous AirBnB rental units.

It was a real Perry Mason moment for the McCann team.  Excise and licensing investigators bravely interviewed neighbors of the couple – both near their home in Stapleton and their AirBnBs in other parts of town.  Photographs in hand, some of Denver’s finest approached neighbors asking, “do you know who these people are?” (For the record, we wouldn’t be able to identify our neighbors in a lineup.)

Amazingly, people in the Stapleton neighborhood recognized them as neighbors, but people living near the rentals were not able to ID them.  McCann had them right where she wanted them.

But there was more.  The arresting document explained how “technicians” searched the internet and found a YouTube video of the couple proclaiming their love for their Stapleton neighborhood.

These heroes even looked through windows and into the yards for evidence of children living there (the perps had young kids). Amazingly, the Stapleton house had kids toys visible, but none of that was visible at the short-term rentals.

Sensing something was amiss, the AirBnB cops requested the couple fill out a notarized form, part of which attested that the rentals were their primary residences.  Once they signed that – McCann had the process crime to go after.

A spokesperson from McCann’s office said that other AirBnB criminals will be frogmarched soon.  Meanwhile, this couple has a date with a Denver judge on June 21. For the crime of doing what they wanted with property they owned. Good God.

It’s official.

John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet’s fairy godmothers pooled their magic for some extra bibbidi-bobbidi-boo so that both Coloradans would qualify for the presidential debate in Miami.

We don’t know who made the first night cut for June 26 or who got left behind for the 27th. Democrats say they’re just going to pull names out of a hat or something.

And we don’t know in which order they qualified.

Because everyone is a winner in the Democrat Party, all the names were released in alphabetical order.

We’ll save you the trouble for digging to see who didn’t make the cut, it was Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Mayor Wayne Messam of Miramar, Florida.

The 20 candidates who qualified are: Bennet; former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.; former housing secretary Julián Castro; Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York; former Representative John Delaney of Maryland; Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii; Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York; Senator Kamala Harris of California; Hickenlooper; Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington; Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; former Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas; Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio; Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont; Representative Eric Swalwell of California; Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; author Marianne Williamson; and Andrew Yang.

To qualify, candidates had to average 1% in at least three of a billion major polls conducted this cycle, or collect 65,000 individual contributions.

We’re guessing Hick and Bennet slide in with the 1% requirement.

However, their overall polling average is still lagging: Bennet has .08% and Hick is in second to last place with .04%.

Our dream team is for both men to debate on the same night, alongside Sanders, Biden, Warren, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, Yang, Harris, and O’Rourke.

Not because we think it would be interesting, just to spare us from having to watch both nights.

While Democrats are having a meltdown over the Census question asking whether a person legally immigrated to the U.S., the liberal media is crowing over a new report that illegal immigration is down in Colorado and across the country.

Nationwide, 1.7 million fewer people were reported from 2007 through 2017, and 30,000 less in Colorado.

How do we know this?

U.S. Census data collected by the Pew Research Center, which conveniently left out last year’s, and the ongoing border-crossing crisis.

Turns out it’s okay for liberals to use a host of immigration data to make political points, but it’s not okay for the U.S. to collect that data to count people.

Liberals aren’t worried about the question scaring illegal immigrants or invading privacy.

Their only concern, is non-citizens won’t be counted as legal residents when congressional districts are redrawn, and if they lose all of their voters, they might lose their electoral advantage.

Yesterday, Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner was a brilliant guest on KDVR with Joe St. George in which St. George, never a friend to conservatives, asked Gardner why those who already are writing him off, saying that he has no chance to win in 2020, are wrong. Gardner’s answer:

“You can ask Sen. Udall that question.”

Ouch. The truth hurts. The full exchange is even better – it’s just a glimpse into the insanely great candidate that Gardner is:

Video: @SenCoryGardner on the crowded Democratic field running against him in 2020 and what he says to critics who say he has no chance of winning. “Just asked Mark Udall” he responds. #copolitics #kdvr pic.twitter.com/lWPdlHCbJK

— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) June 12, 2019

Democrats on social media freaked out that Gardner just didn’t know what was coming. Here are a few examples:

That’s a pretty arrogant response from a guy who earned 97,000 less votes than Walker Stapleton did in 2018.

The same Walker Stapleton who lost by over 10 points to Jared Polis. #copolitics #cosen

— Pourshoushtari (@davidkpoursh) June 12, 2019

Um, that’s a really dumb response given the huge change in voter registration numbers. Republicans had a 50K advantage in 2014 – and not only do *Democrats* now have a 50K advantage, Rs are 3rd in registration. #COpolitics

— Laura Chapin (@LauraChapin) June 12, 2019

While it’s true that any statewide campaign here in Colorado is an uphill battle for any Republican, Gardner is no slouch. He’s an engaging communicator and machine-like campaigner. He’s a Republican that can win over the moms in Highlands Ranch. He’s right to be confident in his campaign team that expertly steered his campaign in 2014.

As for Democrats, at last count, there are approximately 18 in the running for the chance to take on Gardner. By the time the party whittles it down to one, that one will be seriously damaged and likely broke. See, Democrats are comparing running their battered and bruised candidate to Polis’ campaign. Polis was (is?) a deca-millionaire. He had dozens of field offices throughout Colorado starting in January of 2018. A candidate spending his own cash on a race is far different than outside groups spending Bloomberg dollars to support a candidate. And, then, there’s the very real possibility that they could select a Bernie Sanders disciple as their candidate, which would simply alienate most of Colorado.

Democrats probably shouldn’t count their chickens before they hatch.

Democratic former Colorado Governor and current U.S. Presidential candidate John Hickenlooper will be in Washington, D.C. to chastise fellow liberal presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who is hellbent on doing away with capitalism in favor of Sanders’ preferred “Democratic socialism” otherwise known free $h!t in exchange for votes.

We almost feel bad for Hick. He’s not a bad guy, but his party has moved so far left that his prepared remarks could easily be exchanged for GOP talking points (as opposed to American idealism) at this point.

Take this for example:

“…it would be a grave mistake to abandon the American entrepreneurial spirit that has always been at our country’s core. The reality is that socialism increases tax burdens on working families while failing to solve the problems it claims to address.”

Pretty sure those words could have actually been lifted from one of our posts (and may have – it sounds like something we’d say).

The big question for John Hickenlooper is whether he can realistically run as a Democrat for U.S. President. The Democratic base is so out there right now that they’ve completely lost touch with reality. If Hick can’t run as a Democrat for President, does he run for Senate as a Democrat…or does he come home to Colorado and attempt to run for U.S. Senate as some kind of independent?

Isn’t this the test his BFF, Kent Thiry, a proponent of the third party, has been building infrastructure for?

Former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown

A new measure Proposition CC, which would permanently gut the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), has a set of new opponents in the official campaign against the measure chaired by former State Treasurers Walker Stapleton and Mark Hillman, University of Colorado Regent Heidi Ganahl, and 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler.

A twist to the typical opponents; however, is that the proponents of Referendum C, which was a temporary timeout on TABOR passed in 2005, are lining up to urge voters to just say no to this unwise ballot initiative. Former U.S. Senator Hank Brown and former Colorado Governor Bill Owens, who both supported Ref C, are on the advisory board of the “no” campaign because they say that this measure is a bad idea. Here’s what Brown told the Denver Post today:

“With Ref C the promise was that a third of the money or more would go to higher education, and that never happened. The legislature simply didn’t do it. I’d say we’ve heard it before, and it didn’t work out that way.”

Congressional Democrats want to overturn a law blocking civil lawsuits against those who make and sell guns and ammunition when those products are used illegally to commit crimes.

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was passed in 2005 and signed into law by President George W. Bush.

The measure to overturn that law is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

But Colorado’s own U.S. Rep. Jason Crow is taking credit for the effort, blasting in a press release that he is actually leading the charge, not the actual sponsors.

We suspect when the bill is actually filed, Crow’s name will show up as a cosponsor, along with hundreds of other Democrats.

But we digress.

Crow compares guns to the tobacco industry and declares it the new health crisis, and demands manufacturers be held accountable by taking their money when products sold legally are used illegally.

By Crow’s reasoning, we should also sue automakers when cars kill people, take knife makers to court when those weapons are used, and litigate lighter companies or subpoena Mother Earth when fire or lightening kill.

Essentially, Democrats think they can ban guns and ammo and put gun dealers out of work by suing them out of existence.