Author Archives: ColoradoPeakPolitics

This week we learn “more voices call for Hickenlooper to switch to Senate race,” according to a headline in Colorado Politics.

Have voters here already rejected all Democrats lining up to challenge U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner as wanting in experience, popularity or ideology?

Not exactly.

By “voices,” the writer means the Washington Post columnist who wrote this article:

We don’t need 23 presidential candidates. There’s another important role to fill.

Also cited are Rachel Maddow, and someone at the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank inside the Beltway.

The writer also cites ancient popularity ratings for Hick, calculated long before the former governor started shooting off his mouth in the presidential campaign, rejecting a capitalist label while conversely warning Democrats their socialist wing could not beat President Trump.

Hick may very well decide to run against Gardner in 2020 if he can’t increase his zero percent support in the presidential contest, substantially.

However, Hick’s presidential rhetoric has already damaged his popularity.

We’re not sure he can come back from that when he comes back home looking for work.

And in Hick’s own words, he wouldn’t be a good senator:

“I’m not cut out to be a senator,” said Hickenlooper, who added that he loves putting administrative teams together. “Senators don’t build teams. Senators sit and debate in small groups, which is important, right? But I’m not sure that’s my — I’m a doer. That’s what gives me joy.”

There’s just no pleasing some people, especially bureaucrats in the Polis administration and radical environmentalists — but we repeat ourselves.

BLM officials already redrew plans to offer oil and gas leasing on 83 parcels in Colorado to protect the grouse.

Now, greenies are screaming that drilling would be too close to habitat for deer, elk, and other plentiful critters not considered threatened, endangered, or too cute to exist within 100 miles of civilization.

Adding grave insult to injury, the anti-energy advocates are citing the presence of Lesser Prairie Chicken in southeastern Colorado near some parcels as a reason to delay the lease sale.

How did the birds get there in the first place?

State wildlife biologists in April caught lesser prairie chickens in Kansas and released them in southeast Colorado as part of a multi-year program to rebuild the bird’s population.

So now we’re importing critters that are under consideration for endangered species listings, and we’re dropping them off at proposed BLM drilling sites?

The Lesser Prairie Chicken isn’t even a species, it’s a subspecies.

Ironically, Western Slope ranchers have suspected for decades that greenies or government workers were trying to sneak threatened species onto their land to stop grazing and other activities.

At least now, government admits to doing it.

Gov. Polis delivered a sharp rejection of Denver Post editors and readers and their name selection for the rock that smashed Highway 45 down Cortez and Telluride way on Memorial Day weekend.

Instead of removing the boulder, the Polis administration decided to rebuild the road around it and Polis memorialized said rock forever more with the name Memorial Rock.

Polis’s selection has about as much imagination as naming a Dalmatian “Spotted Dog,” and is inappropriate, as we will explain in a minute.

Post editors attempted to usurp the Rock Czar and came up with their own proposed names, and the majority of the 900 readers who voted selected Rocky McRocker Face.

Coming in second place was Rocky Road, followed by our favorite in third place, Tourist Trap.

Polis insists the rock should “remember and honor brave troops for their service,” because it fell on the eve of the eve of the eve of Memorial Day.

Memo to Polis: Veterans Day celebrates the troops for their service, Memorial Day is for honoring those who died in service to their country.

You’re the governor, learn the difference!

Here’s his full statement:

Stay tuned. We wouldn’t be at all surprised if Polis created a Bureau of Distinguished Rocky Mountain Rocks and hired a slew of new government employees to designate and name each.

On Friday night, the Denver Post dumped a hilarious op-ed by liberal Governor Jared Polis, who claimed that his legislative priorities were mostly bipartisan. That’s hilarious. Was he watching the same legislative session that everyone else was? Here’s exactly what he or his staff wrote in the Post op-ed:

“Best of all, most of the progress we made this year was done on a bipartisan basis.”

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. We’re still laughing.

That may be true of full-day kindergarten, but there were a host of highly-controversial bills that went through without Republican support due to the Democratic triumvirate (Democrats control the House, Senate, and Governor’s mansion). Just off the top of our heads, we could point to the National Popular Vote, a measure that would tie Colorado’s electoral vote to the national popular vote (alternate name: The Hillary Clinton needed more electoral votes bill); the radical oil and gas measure that has the potential to destroy one of the state’s largest industries; anti-landlord bills that would increase the cost of rent; the Red Flag bill, which would allow the government to seize guns from mentally ill without appropriate due process (the only bipartisan thing about this piece of legislation was the opposition), and the sex ed bill until it was watered down. Certainly there are more.

In fact, even the Fort Collins Coloradoan highlighted this fact:

“It’s hard to call the recently wrapped 2019 legislative session anything less than a steadily completed checklist of Democratic priorities.”

While we appreciate the Governor’s attempts to rewrite history with misleading statistics, such as 95% of bills had bipartisan support, it’s naive of him to not recognize that those 5% of bills were the truly important ones. It’s great that there was bipartisan support for a large number of procedural votes, which is how one gets to that 95% number; however, the bills with huge impact, like the oil and gas legislation, didn’t have bipartisan support – only bipartisan opposition.

Voters aren’t dumb. They recognize overreach when they see it and Democrats and Governor Polis went beyond overreach this legislative session to an almost dictatorial stance, refusing to consult with stakeholders or Republicans on legislation.

Don’t fall for Democrats’ attempts to rewrite the clusterf&@% that this past legislative session was. It was bad for Colorado and really bad for Democrats. This is just damage control at its worst. Shame on the Denver Post for even printing something so intellectually dishonest.

Hang on to your wallets, PeakNation™, the legislature found a new piggy bank – and it’s yours. During the last legislative session, transportation reached into Colorado’s financial “lost and found” aka the Unclaimed Property Trust Fund, a $116 million bucket for $30 million to fund spending on roads and transit.

Here’s the problem. Technically, it’s not the government’s money to spend. Republican Sen. Paul Lundeen told the Colorado Sun:

“We are holding those assets in trust, and to be using them as if they’re our dollars, is, in my opinion, incorrect. It’s the perfect example of the overreach of government.”

What is this “lost and found”? It’s overseen by the Colorado Treasurer’s Office, now run by Democrat State Treasurer Dave Young, and its role is to reunite Coloradans with (often) financial assets that they may not have realized were missing – savings and checking accounts, stocks, legal settlements, and refunded security deposits. There also are abandoned safety deposit boxes that are sent to the treasury by Colorado banks that contain things like jewelry, coins, and stocks.

It’s really unclear how this is even legal and how this is not technically asset seizure by the government. Regardless, if you think you might have unclaimed property, please visit this website and search for your name. You might be surprised by the money owed you. At the very least, don’t leave money on the table for liberals to spend on pet projects.

Stealing the red vote.

Activists are clearing working overtime to get a measure on the ballot to overturn the National Popular Vote law in Colorado.

They’ve already collected 100,000 signatures of nearly 125,000 required by Aug. 1, and say they intend to gather another 100,000 to make sure the recall question is put to the voters.

For those residing under the proverbial rock, the National Popular Vote Act passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature and signed into law by Gov. Polis means Colorado votes would be awarded to whomever California, New York, and other largely populated states elect in presidential contests.

Colorado’s vote, literally, would no longer count and presidential candidates would no longer feel the need to court us.

The troubling trend of state legislatures controlled by Democrats passing this law and joining the national compact was thankfully interrupted by Nevada’s Democrat governor, who actually read the damn thing and realized what a horrible idea it is.

While National Popular Vote, Inc., claims to be a bipartisan organization, most of its major contributors are liberals know for backing progressive causes, like George Soros’s son, Allen, whose foundation kicked in $1 million.

Their goal is obvious — to steal control of fly-over country’s presidential power, which tilts heavily to the right, and shove it all the way to the left.

In an opinion piece by the Washington Post‘s Jennifer Rubin, Rubin argues that the Democratic National Committee is right to limit the number of participants in its debates to those who can meet the party’s thresholds for polling and/or fundraising. The threshold jumped to polling at two percent for the second round of debates (the horror). Guess who’s a top example? Colorado’s very own Democrat U.S. Senator Michael Bennet.

Here’s the part where he gets smacked down:

“Calling the criteria “arbitrary” is meaningless. There has to be a cutoff somewhere. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) opines, ‘I don’t think they should be winnowing the field.’ Actually, that is precisely what the DNC should do — the earlier, the better.”

Of course, he wouldn’t feel that way if he was even remotely in a position of strength. The fact is that Bennet is not polling well. Is he a good candidate? Well, he has the pedigree for the Democratic process, but the truth is that he got a late start due to his prostate cancer surgery and simply hasn’t made it up otherwise. Is it fair? Is life fair? Probably not. But it’s reality right now.

Here’s why Rubin argues that folks like Bennet should either shut up or do better:

“In point of fact, there is a fleet of candidates who practically never register above 1 percent. The party is indulging these candidates by setting a very low threshold of 1 percent. However, the purpose of debates is to help voters make a choice, and they cannot do so if 10 people per debate get only a few minutes each to make their case.”

In addition to voters having no idea who Bennet is because of a variety of factors, he’s probably also less appealing than the far left candidates that are driving the Democrat party right now, like Bernie Sanders. He’s known as a more moderate Democrat. That’s probably not the worst thing in the world for an elected official, but it’s terrible in the primary. Again, probably not fair, but probably reality.

When Saira Rao challenged sitting Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, we cheered because someone, anyone should dethrone DeGette. We had no idea she hated entire swaths of people. But Rao’s latest Twittertantrums leave much to be desired, and, apparently, Twitter agreed. Allegedly, Rao officially has been banned from the social media site. Here are a few of the tweets that raised eyebrows…just over the past few days.

Just as we’d think her awful for saying that she hates all black people, saying she hates all white people because they’ve made her miserable isn’t ok either. Should Twitter ban her? Who cares? Here’s the deal. If she wants the entire world to know what a complete [email protected] she is, who is Twitter to stop her?

Are we the only ones who’ve noticed U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer appears to be a terrible boss to work for?

How else to explain the mass exodus of Democratic senators climbing over top of each other like crabs in a bucket to run for president?

At least seven incumbents, nearly 16% of Senate Democrats, are vying for the single slot — the majority of whom are polling poorly.

Here are the Democrat senators running and their Real Clear Politics polling average:

• Sen. Bernie Sanders 16.7%
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren 8.2%
• Sen. Kamala Harris 7.8%
• Sen. Cory Booker 2.5%
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar 1.3%
• Sen. Michael Bennet 0.6%
• Sen. Kristen Gillibrand 0.3%

It’s not just the incumbents who don’t seem to want their jobs anymore.

Hickenlooper was touted as a shoe-in to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner. Instead, Hick seems perfectly happy to be in the rear of the pack with a polling average of 0.7%.

Beto O’Rourke also decided against challenging Texas Senator John Cornyn, grasping instead for the elusive brass ring with a 3.8% polling average.

Democrats begged Montana Gov. Steve Bullock to run against GOP Sen. Steve Daines. Instead, Bullock is almost dead last in the presidential race with a 0.4% polling average.

It appears all those Democrats know something we don’t.

Either Schumer is a horrible boss, or Democrats are tired of being in the Senate minority, and don’t think they will take it back from Republicans in 2020.

Was John Hickenlooper’s bold and booed stance against socialism in front of a radical leftists California audience just a fundraising stunt?

It appears so, based on the fundraising blast he sent out just days after the weekend event, according to The Hill, an inside-the Beltway publication.

“A lot of people in the crowd didn’t want to hear that simple truth, and responded with boos—but John didn’t back down,” said the fundraising pitch.

The Hill asked Hick about his fundraising message, and the Coloradan responded: “If we don’t draw a clear distinction between Democrats and our candidates and socialism, the Republicans will paint us into a corner that we can’t get out of.”

“Massive government expansions may not be strictly speaking socialism, but trust me: Republicans will make it seem like socialism.”

Thanks, Hick, for explaining to us the difference between Democrat socialists, and Democrat pseudo socialists who just believe in massive government expansions that eliminate businesses and cripple the free market.

Good luck reaching the fundraising quota with that reasoning to participate in the June presidential debates.