Author Archives: ColoradoPeakPolitics

‘WE WERE DUPED’: Mayor’s Ex-Aide Says Payout Was Hush Money

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More details are spilling out in the Han(d)cock sextgate scandal, including an allegation by his honor’s security detail that her $75,000 settlement with the city was hush money to keep those texts under wraps.

The Denver Post, in a thorough report, says Leslie Branch-Wise was told the city would settle her claim in exchange for silence, and at least one former council member isn’t happy with the news.

Susan Shepherd was a councilwoman when the lawsuit — ostensibly against a mayor’s aide for sexual harassment — was settled and disclosed to council members in 2013.

She says she has been disgusted and furious about Hancock’s conduct.

“Absolutely we were not given all the information,” Shepherd said. “There is physical evidence that this sexual harassment took place between the mayor and her,” she added, referring to the texts. “So absolutely, we were duped.”

Hancock has apologized for being “too familiar, too casual” in his texts to Branch-Wise.

But we still don’t buy it. In this day and age, casual office banter just doesn’t involve questions about pole dancing or other activities associated with strip bars. Or, how hard it is on a “brotha” to “keep it correct” in the presence of his co-workers.

FIGHTING BACK: Colorado Springs Neighborhood Puts Brakes on Bike Lanes

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Liberals have been working overtime to reduce car lanes by turning them into bike lanes across Colorado. This would make a lot of sense in San Diego, but Colorado gets dumped on by snow four months out of the year. But why let common sense interfere with rad bike lanes? It makes us as awesome as California, right? Well, the traffic jams resulting from fewer car lanes is not awesome.

Fortunately, one neighborhood group in Colorado Springs is fighting back. SpringsTaxpayers.com is supporting a lawsuit filed on behalf of Old North End Property Owners for the Enforcement of the Master Plan (ONEMP) that would stop the narrowing of neighborhood streets to make way for useless bike lanes.

According to the suit, the Colorado Springs Planning Commission never approved the plan to reduce lanes along North Cascade Avenue to one lane in each direction, but work on the lanes began last week. The President of ONEMP also sent a letter to the Colorado Springs Mayor and City Council to keep them abreast of the situation and asking them to prevent Kathleen Krager, senior traffic engineer for Colorado Springs, from moving forward with the construction. Here’s what the letter said:

“We ask that you, as the Mayor, and City Council save the taxpayers’ money by directing Ms. Krager to stop the unapproved process until the court has had a chance to review whether Ms. Krager has the unilateral power to install this new road alignment without the promised review by Planning Commission and Council.”

Laura Carno, founder of SpringsTaxpayers.com weighed in, saying:

“Trying to implement these lane reductions against the wishes of area residents and without the approval of the Planning Commission is not acceptable. When lane changes were implemented on Research Parkway in 2016 against the wishes of the area residents, the removal cost the City over $10,000 of taxpayer money.”

Sure, these bike lanes are expensive to taxpayers, but what’s worse is that they can’t be used by families, by anyone who has to run an errand after work (where will you put your dry cleaning?), anyone who has a client facing role at work (do you have a shower at work?), but they increase traffic. Colorado families deserve better.

COURT BANS LAMBORN FROM CONGRESS? Headline Gets On Our Nerves

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One might assume, incorrectly, that the above headline from the Denver Post tells the story of a state Supreme Court that has found something amiss with U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, personally, that prohibits him from running for office.

Lamborn should be “kept” off the ballot, the Post says the court ruled.

But that’s not what the court said at all. It was a petition circulator whose 58 signatures where invalidated because the names were collected by someone who is not a Colorado voter. The signatures were thrown out, so Lamborn cannot use that process to get on the ballot.

The only way a court could rule someone should be “kept” off the ballot is if that person didn’t qualify to run, like the candidate wasn’t old enough or didn’t live in the state.

We’re not ready to flash the “fake news” red lights, but the headline is a little pejorative, derogatory, bitchy.

Maybe they were just in a foul mood, because, as they write, Lamborn hung up on reporters who kept calling him before he had a chance to read the ruling and talk to his lawyer before commenting.

In other real news, Lamborn says he will challenge the court’s ruling:

“The Colorado Supreme Court just provided an avenue to have a federal court strike down residency requirements for candidate circulators,” Deputy Colorado Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert said in a statement.

FINAL SIGNATURE COUNTS: Three Democrats Off the Ballot, One Ekes On

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Today, the Colorado Secretary of State announced the results of the final petition signature reviews…and, look, it’s not just Republicans who have a tough time getting on the ballot by gathering signatures.

First, the one who made it on the ballot. Former state Rep. Joel Judd just barely made the ballot to run in House District 5, a district he represented from 2002 through 2010. He submitted 2,497 signatures. He was required to have 1,000 valid signatures. He ended up with 1,001 valid signatures, which means that 1,496 were deemed invalid. What happened there, Joel? That’s about the worst percentage of valid signatures that we’ve ever seen. Really.

Then, there were three who didn’t make it on the ballot: Attorney General candidate Brad Levin, Senate District 34 candidate Jonah Weiss, and Attorney General candidate Amy Padden, who withdrew her signatures. While Republican candidates primarily had trouble in the Second Congressional District (aka Boulder), Levin had problems in nearly every district except for the First and Second. He submitted 15,996 and ended up with just 8,979 valid signatures. He needed 10,500, so he missed it by a wide margin.

Without Levin and Padden on the ballot, it appears that the Democratic Attorney General’s primary will come down to Phil Weiser, who has raised buckets of money, but has zero name recognition, and state Rep. Joe Salazar, who suffers from extreme “foot-in-mouth” disease, although he has the hearts of the grassroots.

Rock and a hard place, Democrats. No envy on this side of the aisle.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY? The Real #MeToo Campaign

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Cary Kennedy

Democrats think the governor’s race is all about #metoo — the movement sweeping the nation denoting that someone has experienced sexual assault or harassment.

For a Twitter hashtag movement, it certainly gained traction and has become an awareness campaign for victims. But is it enough to sway a gubernatorial election in Colorado?

Cary Kennedy seems to think so

“I see women all over the state motivated and getting involved, getting engaged because they’re frustrated. They’re mad at the president. They want to see women treated better,” the former state treasurer told Colorado Politics. “They want to see equality, with women represented in leadership positions, and they’re engaging in the political process like I’ve never seen before.”

Voters may say publicly they support a candidate because they think it will help others.

But the cold, harsh reality of politics is that elections have always been won on a “me campaign,” as in, “what have you done for me lately?”

In other words, the candidate’s actual accomplishments that affected me and what are the candidate pledges to perform in office that affects me? Specifically, how will it affect my wallet, my ability to perform my job, educate my kids, enjoy my retirement?

In other words, $MeToo.

Of course women would like to see the first woman elected governor. But they’re not so shallow as Democrats seem to think, that they will base their decision solely on this criteria without considering the other me factors that include their wallets and ability to make a living.

Just ask Hillary Clinton.

TEACHER WALKOUT THIS WEEK: Parents, Students Lose But Republicans Take a Stand

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Teachers at the largest school districts in the state are planning to walk out in protest of their pay and education funding on Thursday and Friday this week. During this wrong-headed labor action, hundreds of thousands of students will miss class, and families will scramble to find child care to accommodate teacher whining.

It is politically tone deaf for this group of professionals who work far fewer days than the rest of us, to walk out on a scheduled work day.  This forces working parents to take the day off work and lose income.  It also deprives students of the opportunity to learn. Remember, this is on the heels of schools closing down for anti-Second Amendment protests just a few weeks ago.

But while public school teachers were preparing to unleash chaos on working families in Colorado, Republicans in the state legislature were putting pen to paper to try to head this off in the future.

SB18-264, written by State Senator Bob Gardner and sponsored in the House by Paul Lundeen, makes it a crime for government school teachers to strike, and it states that school districts are not permitted to pay teachers for a day off if they choose to strike.

The bill goes further to authorize school districts to go to court for a preliminary injunction against imminent strikes, and stipulates that if an individual teacher, or group of teachers, refuses to comply with the injunction, they are in contempt of court. If a teacher is found in contempt for disobeying the injunction, the school district is instructed to immediately fire the teacher without a hearing.  If a teachers union is found in contempt, it loses its collective bargaining agreement.

We are totally in favor of teachers petitioning their government for better pay, more classroom dollars, or, quite frankly, anything they want.  Just on their own time, and on their own dime.

We expect this bill – in one form or another – to make it out of the Senate committee and onto the floor for a vote.  While it is doubtful to get through the Democrat-controlled House, which is bought and paid for by the teachers’ unions, it sends a message and will put people on record.  Republicans will stand up for our students and working families.

HOLY MOLY: CO Supreme Court Says Rep. Doug Lamborn Cannot Appear on Primary Ballot

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In case last week’s drama wasn’t enough for you, hold on to your hats. Today, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn did not gather enough signatures as many of his signatures were tossed because some of the paid circulators were not Colorado residents.

While this is stunning and likely pleases his GOP primary opponents greatly, this is not the end of the legal battle for Lamborn. The next step could be to appeal to a federal judge, according to a tweet by Secretary of State spokeswoman Lynn Bartels.

Bartels also noted on Twitter that “Deputy SOS on Lamborn notes that a federal court already struck down a ruling that says circulators for initiatives must be in state.”

Associated Press reporter Nick Riccardi pointed out the genius of this whole mess:

Lamborn is – was – in a five-way primary for the Congressional seat with state Senator Owen Hill, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, retired Texas judge Bill Rhea and former Green Mountain Falls Mayor Tyler Stevens.

Stay tuned PeakNation™. This race just got incredibly interesting.

WE GOT MICE: Endangered Protections Prevail for Stupid Rodent

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It’s back to the drawing board for ranchers and homebuilders who challenged, and failed, to overturn the endangered species listing of the damn Preble’s meadow jumping mouse.

This is what has become of the so-called protective listing — it’s been reduced from protecting legitimate, endangered species, and is instead being used as a weapon to stop the production of food and building of homes because of a rodent.

That damn mouse isn’t even a species. It’s a subspecies. And it’s not even endangered. It’s protected as “threatened” in case it ever, maybe, becomes endangered because humans inhabit the planet.

The law is a tool for environmentalists, and it’s being abused in the case of that damn mouse.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently ruled against ranchers and homebuilders, who with the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation, are challenging the listing.

People lost, because they didn’t have enough evidence to prove the damn mouse was a subspecies of a subspecies instead of a distinct subspecies. Either way, it’s still a subspecies, and the name of the law is the Endangered Species Act, not the Might-Be-Threatened Subspecies Act.

This is yet another example of why lawmakers need to overhaul the outdated and much-abused-by-environmentalists law. It’s a joke.

EARTH DAY: Where Were All The Liberals?

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Earth Day used to be like Christmas for liberal politicians. They’d all gather around trees, sing songs and air perceived grievances against Mother Earth. Well, maybe it was more like Festivus for liberals, but you get the drift.

They would congregate in large messy groups in parks, repair a trail, plant a tree, or at the very least attend a rally and make speeches about recycling and planting gardens.

Now they can’t even be bothered to do anything but instruct a staffer to tweet something cynical and partisan to benefit the Democrat Party.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, who is trailing in the Democratic primary for governor, didn’t participate in any Sierra Club events, but he did announce their endorsement of him. Then he did some virtual littering by trashing Trump.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet recalls that one time he spent time outdoors with family and experienced nature.

Cary Kennedy, who is leading the Democratic pack in their primary, was MIA. And Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne, another gubernatorial contender, gave yet another virtual reality shout-out to the Earth through Twitter.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, who is no longer running for governor and does not have a challenger this year, made the rest of his colleagues look like a bunch of slackers who don’t practice what they preach.

 

ON THE BALLOT: Colorado Gubernatorial Primaries Solidify

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Not all candidates today received bad news. Some candidates running for Colorado Governor received good news today. Republican businessman Victor Mitchell secured a spot on the ballot. Mitchell submitted 26,839 signatures and ended up with a total of over 14,000 valid signatures. No word on whether his dogs plan to vote for him.

Democratic Lieutenant Governor Donna Lynne also made the primary ballot today after submitting 11,733 valid signatures out of 22,512 signatures submitted. Who knew she was still running? Thanks to the Secretary of State’s office for the heads up.

At this point, the Colorado gubernatorial primary is basically set, give or take a Doug Robinson, who plans to mount a legal challenge to the Secretary of State’s statement of insufficiency regarding his petition signatures. Translation: Robinson was 22 votes in the Second Congressional District short of a spot on the GOP gubernatorial primary ballot.

At this point, you have Cary Kennedy, Congressman Jared Polis, and Donna Lynne on the Democratic primary ballot and Walker Stapleton, Victor Mitchell, and Greg Lopez on the Republican ballot.

State Rep. Polly Lawrence also received some good news today – she also qualified for the ballot. Her opponent, businessman Brian Watson, failed to make the ballot after coming up just 120 signatures short in the Second Congressional District. Watson plans to appeal the insufficiency. At this point, Lawrence will face off against Justin Everett who swept the State Assembly.

Congratulations to all who made the ballot. Let the games begin.