Author Archives: ColoradoPeakPolitics

Candidate Joe Neguse for the 2nd Congressional District managed to skate through the entire campaign without answering who he would support for the party’s leadership.

That is until CBS’s “Face the Nation” got ahold of him Sunday.

The moderator had the ball firmly in her hands, then she dropped it.

Neguse did commit to voting for Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker, finally, and we’re sure some voters would like to have known that before they cast ballots for him.

Since no one has yet to challenge Pelosi for the Speaker’s gavel, the remaining question now is, who will Neguse vote for majority whip?

Colorado’s own trouble-maker Diana DeGette, or Jim Clyburn, the incumbent whip?

We don’t know. He wasn’t asked.

As it stands, the state’s Democratic delegation is split in their support of Pelosi. U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Congressman-elect Jason Crow vowed to oppose her, although Perlmutter is slipping in his vow.

Ironically, DeGette is campaigning for whip on the rhetoric that leadership needs a shake-up, new blood, diversity, etc.

Yet, DeGette is supporting Pelosi for Speaker, and her job as whip would be to bully the Democrats into voting however Pelosi wants them to vote.

In other words, not a shake-up, not new blood, and since DeGette is challenging the only black man who holds a leadership post, less diversity.*

*Diversity as defined by Democrats means different races, genders and sexual preferences and identity, it does not include thoughts or ideas. 

As reporters, operatives and analysts continue discussing Colorado’s election results, one thing is becoming abundantly clear: messaging matters most. That’s the theme this week, at least.

There’s hard evidence from the results to underscore this reality. In candidate races, Republicans were (fairly or more often, unfairly) branded as mini-President Trumps, the latter of whose brand that didn’t appeal to the Colorado general electorate in 2016 and still doesn’t.

Don’t take our word for it. According to a poll conducted by Magellan Strategies in the week following the election, pollster David Flaherty found that Trump’s approval rating in Colorado is staggeringly upside down, with only 31 percent of respondents viewing the President favorably, compared to 62 percent who view him negatively.

In this environment, Republicans didn’t stand a chance, and they have some hard questions to answer going into the 2020 election season, when the President’s name will actually be on the ballot.

This year’s ballot initiatives told a different story, in which Colorado voters again proved averse to tax increases, government bloat, and destroying entire industries like oil and natural gas. We continue to contend that at their core, our state is sane, sound, and yes, conservative in its values.

But none of that matters when voters make decisions based on the tweets of a guy two time zones away. Trump’s personality just rubs Colorado in a different way than it might in, say, other parts of the country.

It’s hard to imagine a universe in which Trump’s bombastic rhetoric will help himself, let alone the hundreds of Colorado Republican candidates in two years’ time. That said, our ideas are still better than the left’s; we’d just like a chance to remind the people who actually decide elections.

Republicans in need of a little post-Election Day cheering up need look no further than the bench of Democrats lining up to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner in 2020.

We can’t tell if the Denver Post is serious or just had a slow news day, but here are the contenders they claim top the lists of party insiders.

First up is Gov. Hickenlooper, because party insiders are still drunk from election night and forgot that Hick is running for president in 2020.

Then there’s U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, who no one in the state has heard of but will need a new job after opposing Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker.

Mike Johnston is still looking for work and he is popular with independents, the Post notes. Too bad he’s not popular enough with Democrats to win their nomination.

Then there’s Crisanta Duran, who ranks high with Perlmutter in the “Who’s That?” category.

Duran is actually the state House Speaker, and the Democratic leader who promoted Steve Lebsock to chairman of the Local Government Committee after she learned of the sexual harassment allegations against him.

Democrats will have to go big, or go home when it comes to challenging Gardner, a popular Republican who has worked hard for Colorado.

We don’t think those folks fit the bill.

We gave Jared Polis the benefit of the doubt he would have some sort of clue how to govern Colorado if he were actually elected governor.

It’s quickly becoming apparent we gave him too much credit.

In interview after interview, the governor-elect is still sketchy about what needs to be done, let alone how he will tackle problems like transportation, the economy or education.

The only hints he’s dropped, there will be energy development setbacks and it will be more extreme than the proposal voters recently rejected. And the process will be led by radical environmentalists.

Polis couldn’t even answer softball questions tossed to him by the Glenwood Springs Post about hiking trails.

His pat answer to everything, we aren’t exaggerating (this time), he looks forward to figuring it out.

How will he drive economic interests on the Western Slope? He has passion and he’s excited.

High speed internet? It’s critical.

Roads? He looks forward to figuring that out.

Education? He looks forward to working with teachers.

Infrastructure?

“We want to work on increased tourism from the west instead of the east.”

Wait, what??

His answer to whether or not he will prioritize infrastructure projects on the Western Slope or Interstate 70 is to reverse the tourism traffic flow?

Was the reporter just too horrified by Polis’s answers for follow-up questions?

We really would like to hear more about solving road problems by encouraging traffic to arrive from the other direction, and just, well, stay there.

Welcome to the Hotel Colorado?

We don’t know whether to be relieved about his pending ineffectiveness, or horrified by his complete cluelessness.

It didn’t take long for U.S. Rep. Ed Pelmutter to backpedal on his opposition to Nancy Pelosi for House speaker.

The once leader of the rebellion (as of Tuesday night) told the Associated Press on Wednesday that making other changes in party leadership other than Pelosi might be a better option.

“It’s about change,” Perlmutter said. “She’s not the goal. Maybe for some.”

Okay, maybe it’s more of a backflip than a backpedal for Perlmutter.

Perlmutter is suggesting that instead of getting rid of the top leader, maybe they should instead look further down the rung of power.

No one is challenging Steny Hoyer for majority leader.

But wait, what about the whip seat that U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is trying to wrestle away from Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina?

Yes, we think that will be Perlmutter’s escape hatch from breaking his promise to vote against Pelosi.

It’s not so much about who runs the party, as who whips all the votes in shape to support the party, we suspect he will blindly argue.

The U.S. Senate has already elected their leaders without a fight, but House Democrats aren’t holding their election until after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Earlier this week, Amazon announced that it had selected Washington, D.C. and New York, N.Y. as co-second headquarters. The question we have to ask is whether Denver really ever had a chance.

While proposals were confidential, the cities competing for the new headquarters were not.  It’s no secret that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has homes in DC and NY as well.  In retrospect, the Amazon decision was exactly the right one, and entirely predictable if one could see through the fart storm of economic development propaganda.  Each of these new headquarters were approximately six miles from Bezos’ houses. Perhaps that’s why Governor Hickenlooper cast doubt on Denver as a selection months ago, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict that trajectory.

And why wouldn’t a company like Amazon put its new headquarters at the center of the nation’s finance and government power structure?  With Amazon active in mergers and acquisitions, as well as being a significant capital markets participant, access to decision makers in New York was key.

With ever-growing regulatory clouds forming against the giant retailer, having a foothold in the nation’s capitol would enhance the relationships that it needs to navigate the muddy waters of the D.C. swamp.  And of course you had Bezos’ political arm, the Washington Post, just a few short miles way – another strong case for Northern Virginia.

Combine these factors with the fact that operationally, the business would have been in a far better strategic position having major operations there time zones away, instead of just one, spelled doom for our bid as well.

Nonetheless, could we have passed on the opportunity? Nah, that would have been foolish. Take note, Olympics haters. That said, even though we didn’t win it would still be nice to see exactly what economic incentives were included with Denver’s bid. What’s the new saying of Bezos’ favorite toy – Democracy Dies in Darkness?

Fractivists took five-miute break after the election and now they’re gearing up for another Proposition 112 in 2020.

Unless, of course, the new governor and Democratic legislature give them what they want — a mob-style beatdown of the energy folks to break legs and cripple the industry.

Incoming House Speaker KC Becker pledges to “put the oil and gas wars to bed,” the politically correct rephrasing for “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.”




 

Colorado Rising’s idea of compromise is to insist on even bigger setbacks, which they will demand from their Democrat leaders before passing around petitions for the next proposition fight.

Now that radical activists will have a seat at the policy table, the question won’t be whether they decimate the energy industry, but to what degree.

Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter just cannot win these days. He takes a stand against Nancy Pelosi’s bid for Speaker of the House, we assume to position himself for a U.S. Senate run, to show that he’s an independent thinker here.

Instead of the accolades we believe he was expecting, he is crapped on by feminist activists who claim that Perlmutter’s actions are anti-woman. Just read this tweet:

Per @CharlesPPierce, it is 5 white guys agitating for this: the #FiveWhiteGuys are Moulton, Ryan, Ed Perlmutter of Colorado, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, and Bill Foster of Illinois. Great – women just did the heavy lifting and mostly women won, but 5 white guys coming to “save us”

— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) November 14, 2018

Amy Siskind is no ordinary activist with 30 followers and a cat. Here are just a few of her credentials, according to her Wikipedia page:

“Amy Siskind is an American activist and writer. In 2008 she founded The New Agenda, an organization devoted to the empowerment of women, and she is its president. She is the author of The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year (2018).”

Of course, Siskind and her gal pals are the least of Perlmutter’s problems regarding 2020. Rumor has it that his U.S. Senate run is doomed from the start since he’s left a trail of bad blood from his false start in the 2018 governor’s race.

It seems that Perlmutter is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Poor Diana DeGette, we can’t get enough of her sad, yet determined bid for the U.S. House whip race.

It’s doomed, we’re told by everyone, but bless her heart for throwing everything she has at the race, including, uhm, candy.

As Congress reconvenes today, I’m sending my Democratic colleagues a treat that’s almost as sweet as our new House majority — licorice “whips.” In the 116th Congress, I aim to do some whipping of my own to help pass bills that strengthen America and push back on #Trump‘s agenda. pic.twitter.com/hkurkwJeie

— Rep. Diana DeGette (@RepDianaDeGette) November 13, 2018

Now there’s a treat so irresistible, members of Congress can’t help but pass it straight to their intern’s desk.

Apparently, others are also secretly passing around some retro candy to campaign against current Whip Jim Clyburn.

Uh oh, those better not be what we think they are.

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina on Tuesday accused detractors of using racially-charged “dog whistles” to undermine his bid for the No. 3 slot in House Democratic leadership.

“I don’t know where it’s all coming from,” Clyburn said in an interview with McClatchy. “But someone came to me over the weekend and told me that (they heard), when I was whip before, I was a figurehead.”

DeGette’s spokesman Matt Inzeo assured McClatchy that suggestions of tokenism or lack of leadership were not coming from the candidate.

“ … it’s going to be really important to have a whip who does that job and delivers the vote,” Inzeo said.

So DeGette’s team isn’t saying the civil rights fighter from South Carolina is a token leader, they’re just insinuating that he can’t do the job or deliver voters.

Wows. Stay turned.

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Congressman-elect Jason Crow have gotten themselves, and the constituents they represent, into a political jam.

Both promised not to vote for Nancy Pelosi to control the U.S. House as speaker — it was a huge issue in Crow’s campaign — but now Nancy is the only one running.

What to do, what to do …

They can either break their promise, their word, and forever be labeled “liar, liar, pants on fire.”

Or, they can keep their promise and make an enemy of the most powerful Democrat in Washington. Add to that mixture their alienation of the Republican president, and what happens then?

They deliver exactly squat for their district and constituents.

This might not be as big a problem for Perlmutter — no one in Washington knows who he is, anyway.

But Crow’s name is already popping up in the national news as a “no” vote for Nancy, because he made a big deal about the promise.

Not helping Colorado at all, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette is challenging the Democratic whip for his seat. So when she loses that bid, voters in her district will also pay the price.

PeakNation™ will recall that DeGette, a white woman who has served for 21 years, is challenging a black man who’s served for 25 years on the grounds of needed diversity and fresh leadership.

The only Democrat left in the delegation who hasn’t pissed off Democratic leaders, is incoming Congressman Joe Neguse, who was elected to fill Jared Polis’s seat.

According to Roll Call, Neguse is one of a handful of candidates nationwide who managed to escape the Pelosi question and get through the entire campaign without a single reporter getting his stance on the record.

Which puts Neguse in the awkward position of splitting with the Colorado delegation in leadership votes, or joining them in pitting newly powerful Democrats against out state.

Ironically, a talking point against Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton in the 3rd Congressional District — if Democrats take the House, the Western Slope would lose their influence and get nothing from Washington.

Luckily for the Western Slope, they ignored those whispers and now they have Tipton in the House, Republicans ruling the Senate, and a Republican president who looks favorably upon western issues.