Author Archives: ColoradoPeakPolitics

Despite news headlines suggesting voters are evenly split when it comes to surrendering Colorado’s presidential votes to the whims of more populated states like California and New York, Coloradans don’t really like the so-called popular vote movement.

A Magellan Strategies poll of 500 likely voters in 2020 shows 39 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of the recently passed law, while 34 percent favor it.

There’s also 27 percent who have yet to form an opinion of the so-called Popular Vote Law, which was rushed through the legislature and signed last week by Gov. Polis.

Give them time.

Not surprisingly, Republicans were less likely to support it than Democrats.
Democrats tend to favor electing presidents by popular rather than electoral votes, the poll said, because they think it gives their party an advantage, and therein lies the problem.

What they fail to take into account, this goes both ways. When a Republican wins the popular vote, Colorado would still have to surrender their votes, even if the state had elected the Democrat.

Thankfully, independent voters aren’t falling for the scheme, with 48 percent saying they would vote in a recall to overturn the law, and 44 percent said they would keep the new law.

Meanwhile, 81 percent of Republicans said they would vote it down if given the chance, along with 14 percent of Democrats.

A recall of the law just so happens to be in the works — the Secretary of State’s office approved a petition for a ballot measure on Friday. Read more about that here.

To find out more about the petition and how to sign, click here.

We don’t often get letters (like, never), but this reader is pretty adament about their positions, and there’s no way a letter like this would ever see the light of day in a regular newspaper. It’s too anti-liberal and way too long-winded — about 1,500 words — three times the length allowed.

We did have to edit for brevity, and did so carefully so as not to change the author’s intent. But we did take out the recitations of the Constitution, PeakNation should know that by heart.

The author is Christine A. Martinez, a Colorado resident and Air Force veteran.

Dear Colorado Peak Politics,

I just read your article: ‘It’s Raining Recalls: Gov. Polis is Now the Target.’ 

First, let me say thank you for your support in our success.

Second, while Gov. Jared Polis is the subject of the latest grassroots movement to recall him from office, the last two months (his inauguration was January 8, 2019, and this is March 21, 2019, so a little over two months plus one week, not the three months your contributor inaccurately wrote) since Gov. Polis took office, has been no “honeymoon” for many Coloradans.

Many of us were never enamored of him in the first place; we don’t believe in his extreme left liberal/progressive agenda, and we have become angry as issue after issue, he ignores the will of Coloradans.

When Polis isn’t too busy ignoring us, he’s busy opposing us, and votes along his political agenda. It’s been one insult and injury after another: Coloradans emphatically voted against Proposition 112 (oil and gas-drilling setbacks) last year.

What did Governor Polis do?

At some point, either before or since the election, he invested a quarter of a million dollars in Canadian oil & gas, and is now in the process of shutting down Coloradan oil & gas in Adams County which threatens the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Colorado constituents, their families, their futures. Along with employees of the oil & gas business, there are the associated businesses that will also suffer; construction, and manufacturing, and the people in those businesses. In shutting down Colorado oil & gas, Polis forces Coloradans who rely on it for their homes, businesses, and schools, to pay for those resources from sources outside the state, if not outside the U.S.

I may be showing my age here, but in my day, this was called fiduciary abuse, similar to the Stock Exchange Commission’s illegal trading. Polis is supposed to be a trusted steward of the State of Colorado, and all her constituents.  We are shareholders in the sense that we all hold a share of the responsibility for the well-being of the state, and her economic survival. We must be invested in Colorado’s survival, if we are to be concerned with our own survival. In any case, we, the people, are certainly beneficiaries of the governor of Colorado, as what he does or doesn’t do impacts us. So in that sense, not only is investing in Canadian oil & gas, and then shutting down Coloradan oil & gas unethical, it is also illegal. That is despicable.

Although told for the last almost five years, Denver is not a sanctuary city when it comes to illegal immigrants, the fact is, former Gov. Hickenlooper and his failed policies certainly made Denver and other cities sanctuary cities. Now Polis has been in office for just over two months. He’s had the opportunity to step up, and issue some proclamation (against illegal immigration but hasn’t. The author is disappointed, disenchanted, disgusted and finds it deplorable).

We haven’t even discussed Polis’s viewpoint of the death penalty, but as I’m sure he probably believes another felon in the penal system is another potential vote for him. I fully expect him to genuflect to his far left, liberal, progressive, socialist roots and then stand indignantly to declare the death penalty unconstitutional. Funny how that self-righteous indignation is nowhere to be seen or heard when it comes to the pure infanticide of abortion.

Currently, we are waiting with bated breath to learn of the disastrous and dangerous House Bill 19-1177, the Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) bill that Colorado legislators are attempting to yoke Coloradans with in an effort to disarm us.

Representatives from the state House are replying to constituents with declarations that the bill is constitutional. I don’t know what Constitution they’ve been reading or what they’ve been smoking in chambers, but I assure you the U.S. Constitution trumps the state Constitution and guarantees absolute rights, specifically the 2nd Amendment.

I fully expect Governor Polis to disregard the will of the people, continue to overreach his office, and override the voices of the majority of  Coloradans, and sign HB 19-1177.

It is well-known and commonly understood the Bill of Rights afforded all U.S. citizens the God-given, and inalienable rights described in the Declaration of Independence.

I, and many thousands of similarly minded, patriotic, and liberty-loving, constitutional-protecting constituents of Colorado emphatically reject Polis’s policies and programs, and say: No, you will not infringe on our rights.

Consider our relationship dissolved, and the divorce now complete.

Leroy Garcia, state Senate president

State Senate Republicans scored a victory for the state’s constitution in Denver District Court this week with a preliminary injection against Democrats so drunk with power they’re rushing through bills like they could face recall elections at any moment.

Snicker.

The court order means no more computers to speed read bills.

That’s the tactics Democrats were using to beat back a GOP effort to get a grip on this year’s manic session in order to deliberate on the flurry of disastrous legislation Dems are sending up to Gov. Polis to sign into laws.

“Using multiple computers to read simultaneously different portions of a bill, any bill, at 650 words per minute is not within legitimate limits,” Judge David Goldberg wrote. “The Court was unable to discern a single word from the tape played during the court proceeding. To ‘read’ the bill, which is a constitutional requisite, in such a manner renders it a nullity.”

We agree, and applaud the courts for rescuing our constitution from the brutal trampling by Democrats.

State Senate President Leroy Garcia responded to the court order like a teenager stomping their foot and screaming “Fine! I won’t break the law anymore!”

But the lives of millions of Coloradans will be ground to a halt because he can no longer use computers to cheat at his job, or something like that, Garcia added.

The original movie poster. Who can’t tell this is not a suitable movie for mother and son?

Why would John Hickenlooper take his mother to see an X-rated porn movie?

More importantly, why would he even publish the story in his book, or talk about it in a presidential campaign?

Does he think it gives him cool street cred, or solidify his reputation as a nerd, or a complete moron?
Quite frankly, we don’t even believe it.

God help us, but we’re about to discredit a Democrat politician’s claim he took his mom to see “Deep Throat,” the most infamous pornographic film to ever hit the silver screen.

Hick says he was 18 and naive about what the film was about, but he was actually 20 when the film debuted in June of 1972. Hickenlooper was born in 1952.

Hick says he had no clue what the most infamous porn flick was about when he took his mom to see it during his Thanksgiving break from college — five months after the film was released and EVERYONE knew what it was about (Don’t Google this at work).

Maybe he accidentally got the timing all wrong because it allegedly happened 36 years ago?

Or maybe it didn’t happen at all. We hope that’s the case, because it’s not the kind of story any woman wants her son bragging about, especially to the point where’s its a joke in his presidential campaign.

Why anyone would brag, or lie about such a thing is beyond us.

Short answer: Because they’re always on the ticket.

Democratic former Governor John Hickenlooper’s staff used to wince every time he opened his mouth to speak. In fact, we heard that one staffer said it was like watching a baby crawl across a highway. Perhaps their fears were justified by his latest verbal gaffe. Just watch the CNN exchange here. And an excerpt from the CNN write-up:

“Governor,” CNN’s Dana Bash said at a presidential candidate town hall, “some of your male competitors have vowed to put a woman on the ticket. Yes or no, would you do the same?”

“Of course,” Hickenlooper said, before saying he wanted to ask Bash a question.

“How come we’re not asking more often the women, ‘Would you be willing to put a man on the ticket?’ ” he said with a shrug, to audible groans from the audience.

Of course, Bash responded by reminding him that there hasn’t been even a female vice president yet.

We get what he’s saying, but in this era of “me too” and on a station that caters to left of center viewers, we have to ask whether his question makes any sense whatsoever. But it may have revealed something about Hick’s ambition. Was he posturing for a veep position? Maybe, maybe not. Even if he was, it may be irrelevant.

Other than being the state’s most famous bartender, we’re not sure what Hick brings to the table. Colorado votes are already going to the Democratic candidate. He’s maybe a capitalist on days where his poll numbers are up, but truly in this field, he’s just another white dude and his competitor, Beto O’Rourke, has a billionaire father in law to help pick up his tab.

Colorado House Democrats dealt another body blow to Colorado taxpayers this week with renewed talk of a ballot measure to retain constitutionally-mandated TABOR refunds.  Predictably, they claim that this money will be earmarked for education.  Maybe that will be in the same way the marijuana tax was supposed to be for education.  We all know how that went…or something.

Why don’t they account for the financial windfall from pot tax dollars that were supposed to bolster the government schools across the state, first?

House Speaker KC Becker claims bi-partisan support, although we are unaware of any House Republicans lining up behind her.  Not that she would need it though, considering she has a multi-generational super-majority of Democrats in her chamber at the present time.

Under a formula in the state’s Constitution, TABOR limits the amount of money that the state government spends, and mandates a return of unspent tax dollars that were collected in excess of that amount. Pretty common sense measure – what responsible household spends every penny that it takes in, and when time are good, spends anything extra that it may find under the sofa cushions?  Importantly, TABOR requires a vote of the people before raising their taxes.

The long term result of diverting the TABOR refund to other government programs is that the refund only exists in good economic times, but once government programs are funded at a certain level it is nearly impossible to dial it back.  Are Democrats going to suddenly claim they need less money for the teachers union a few years down the road, when we are in the grips of the next recession? Certainly not.  For them, it’s never enough.

Giving just 24-hour notice (the minimum required), the Adams County Commissioners last night voted unanimously to ban oil and gas development for six months as the legislature shoves local control measures through the state. The vote came as the testimony from Coloradans was overwhelmingly pro-oil and gas industry. We’d love to spend another 150 words on how wrong Adams County Commissioners are, but we’ll turn it over to the nonpartisan 9News’ Kyle Clark, who does a fine job here.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, we were right that SB19-181 was a de facto ban on oil and gas development. In fact, the language of the moratorium referenced 181 several times. That’s awkward, especially for the Democrat leadership in the legislature, which claimed that they did not intend for this to be a ban on oil and gas.

Adams County Commissioners should be ashamed of themselves for trying to destroy the jobs of their constituents, but even more ashamed for laughing at the people who showed up to give testimony in defense of their way of life.

That whole “white guy” excuse for failing to gain ground in the Democratic presidential primary was working out pretty good for John Hickenlooper.

No plain old white man can win — it’s pretty much all CNN ever talked about.

And then super white dude Beto O’Rourke comes flailing into the room like Kramer from Seinfeld, and the Democrat Party makes it rain with $6.1 million in donations in the first 24 hours.

Hick only raised about $1 million in nickels and dimes after passing the hat around for 48 hours after he announced.

Hickenlooper has even gone so far as to shun his capitalist cred in favor of socialism and the Green New Deal. Looks like he sold out for nothing.

Turns out Democrats really, really do like white guys, but just the hipster types who belonged to secret computer hacking clubs, and fantasized about killing kids when they were teenagers.

It’s not even the law yet, but state Attorney General Phil Weiser is already telling sheriffs to resign if they follow locals laws passed in 26 counties that declared themselves 2nd Amendment sanctuaries.

But wait, there’s more.

Weiser blinked.

He also said this during his testimony in favor of the bill at a state Senate committee meeting:

“Any commission that says ‘I don’t want my sheriff upholding an unconstitutional law,’ they’re on solid ground,” Weiser said, adding that he expects the question to go before a court.

But Weiser, whose job it is to defend Colorado statutes, says he believes that if the red flag bill becomes law as expected and is challenged, it will be found to be constitutional and therefore must be enforced.

So county commissions passing the sanctuary laws and the sheriff’s following that order, are totally within the law to thumb their nose once the state bill becomes law, Weiser concedes.

And the bill is certain to become law, once it skips through a second state Senate panel and floor passage, and Gov. Polis signs it.

But the sheriffs have wiggle room until the constitutionality is tested in what could be a lengthy court battle.

Until then, El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder says he will stick to his oath of office, in that order.

“I don’t remember swearing to uphold the rule of law,” said Elder, who heads Colorado’s largest county law enforcement agency. “I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the state of Colorado, and the laws of the state of Colorado.”

Just a friendly reminder, House Bill 1177 is sponsored by House Majority Leader Alec Garnett of Denver and state Rep. Tom Sullivan of Centennial, with state Senate President Pro tem Lois Court of Denver and state Sen. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood, all Democrats.

Yesterday, Twitter ignited upon hearing that infamous Twitter drama queen David Sirota was going to work as a communications director and speechwriter for Democratic Socialist presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. Among the many sentiments expressed by those on Twitter was pearl clutching that a “journalist” like Sirota would hang up his media credentials to advocate for Sanders.

To that we reply – who actually thought that Sirota was a legitimate journalist?

For the uninitiated, here are a few things Sirota (David, not to be confused with his equally-wrong wife, Emily at the state legislature) has written about in his lengthy so-called journalism career: the “economic miracle” of Venezuela (we’d be laughing still, if people weren’t having to eat their pets to survive), his hope that the Boston marathon bomber is white, why every Democrat except Bernie Sanders sucks (while he was working as a so-called journalist), and on and on.

This crap is laughable. It’s a parody. It’s Sirota’s gaslighting of the Twitter universe that has everyone’s panties in a bunch. See exhibit A:

he accused people who said he acted like a Sanders campaign staffer of being part of a conspiracy that was out to get him.

other than that, totally normal. sure.

— sous la plage🥚 (@SousLaPlage) March 19, 2019

Of course, everyone flocks to Twitter for mentally healthy conversations, right?

But perhaps the best thing to come out of this hilarity is pile on from other Democrats. It warmed our heart to hear fellow limousine liberals “champagne socialists” as if one was worse than the other.

He’s always been a propagandist for Bernie’s wacky brand of champagne socialism. This isn’t even the first time he’s done that job for Sanders. And frankly he’s another example of the revolving door between journalism and the subjects they’re supposed to be critically covering.

— Michael Ditto (@janus303) March 20, 2019

It’s delicious.