Category Archives: Featured Posts

BENEATH THE SURFACE: How Obama Economy Harms Colorado’s Brightest Industries

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While much attention has been paid to the headline unemployment rates in Colorado and the nation as a whole, just below the surface lingers a more damaging picture of Colorado’s stalled economy under the Obama administration.  Not only do we have fewer people working in this state than we did four years ago, but Colorado has witnessed a sharp decline in high paying, “good jobs” in critical industries such as IT, financial services, and manufacturing.

Viewed alongside the fact that the state’s population growth rate over the past decade has been approximately 1.6% per annum, an even bleaker picture regarding jobs and the gainfully employed in Colorado comes into focus:  Colorado’s labor force has contracted by more than 24,000 people during Obama’s term, while the state’s population grew by nearly 240,000. This fact makes the real employment situation in Colorado significantly worse than what is recorded by official numbers, as The Colorado Observer pointed out.

Who is hurt the most by the Obama economy in Colorado?

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CONGRESSIONAL WIVES CLUB HITS TV: Coors Campaign Ties Perlmutter To Solyndra, Broken Ethics Pledge

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Back in July we reported on a troubling trend – Coloradans losing their jobs in the energy sector while spouses of Colorado’s Congressional delegation were getting rich off the Green Lobby.

One fact we were the first in Colorado to report — that Democrat Congressman Ed Perlmutter’s then-wife was Solyndra’s first lobbyist — has now made its way onto TV screens across the Denver Metro area.

Last week the Coors campaign launched a brutally effective ad hitting Ed Perlmutter for his connection to the failed solar panel company that was raided by the FBI. Check it out here if you haven’t seen it yet:

The problem for Perlmutter here is the more he pushes back against this ad the deeper he’ll sink into ethical quick sand. Yes, Perlmutter is now divorced from said lobbyist-wife, but they were married at the time of her lobbying the US House, something that Perlmutter promised she wouldn’t do.

Compare this from a Denver Post editorial in 2006:

We were glad to hear Perlmutter say that his wife would not lobby him or any member of the U.S. House. That’s essential.

To official lobbying disclosures from 2008 that show that Deanna Perlmutter was lobbying the U.S. House over Solyndra’s loan application.

What does Ed Perlmutter have to say to voters in the 7th Congressional District about his broken lobbying ethics pledge?

Corruption was voters’ number one concern in 2006 — the year Perlmutter was elected to Congress. Could the issue that helped bring Perlmutter to Washington also send him packing?

SAVIOR OR EMPTY CHAIR: Did HD3 Rep. Daniel Kagan Save or Shutter the Family Business?

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When the Colorado Accountable Government Alliance sent out a mailer lobbing all sorts of accusations against Colorado House District Three candidate Brian Watson’s business dealings, House Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino batted clean up by offering to Fox31 that “Kagan saved his parents’ textile company and managed it for 10 years” and added, “His parents’ company in England was failing, he went back and rescued it.”

Well, not quite.

We took a closer look at Kagan’s business, Kagan Textiles, in the United Kingdom.  It would appear from the financial statements that the Kagan family (including his mother and brother, who also served as directors) dissolved – not saved – the family’s company.  In fact, during his time on the board of directors, Kagan liquidated nearly £20 million in company assets.

Kagan was appointed a director of Kagan Textiles from September 1, 1996. For the period ended January 31, 1996, gross revenue totaled approximately £493,000.  Of this amount, £417,000 was derived from rental revenue and interest income.  The cash the company had on January 31, 1996 was £605,000.  At the end of 2008, the company’s revenues were £684,320 and they had £13,580,191 cash on hand.

Selling off nearly £20 million in company assets doesn’t exactly equate to “rescuing” a company.  Those are the actions of someone who is dissolving the company, which Kagan did formally on July 19, 2011.  Further, to give you a concept of scale, in 2007, Kagan Textiles collected approximately £80,000 in gross rents and earned approximately £274,000 in interest, while the company recorded a £6,120,515 profit on the sale of fixed assets (e.g., real estate).

It was also interesting to note that around 2001, the principle purpose of the textile company changed significantly.  (See snippets from the financial statements below)

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WHO’S AFRAID OF JOE COORS JR? Democrats In Colorado Fear The Freight Train Of The Coors Campaign

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Ever since the specter of a Joe Coors campaign for Congress first came to light, Democrats have done their level best to insist that Coors stands no shot at winning. Telling a much different tale about the threat Coors poses to incumbent Democratic Congressman Edwin Perlmutter is the $1 million dollars two liberal outside groups have spent in recent weeks attacking Joe Coors on television.

Put simply, Democrats are frightened of the electoral freight train that is the Coors campaign.

Joe Coors can spend big, has sky-high name ID and appears to be generally liked by all reporters who meet him. That, and he’s challenging Perlmutter in a district that’s nearly half brand new to both candidates.

A year ago, virtually no one would have said that Perlmutter was at risk of a serious challenge in 2012, seeing that he walloped Ryan Frazier by 11 points in the Republican wave year of 2010.

How quickly the tides have turned.

After Nancy Pelosi’s House Majority PAC dropped $500,000 attacking Coors, the Democrat mouthpiece blog Colorado Pols laughably tried to convince their readers that the race would be over now, suggesting the terribly-produced spot by House Majority PAC would be a “Coup de Grace.”

“…what we hear from Democrats is they want this race relegated to sideshow status as quickly as possible so they can focus on pickups elsewhere in Colorado…”

Turns out relegating the CD7 race between Coors and Perlmutter to sideshow status didn’t happen, forcing public sector union AFSCME and the SEIU to drop another $500,000 attacking Coors.

Colorado Pols’ truly pathetic spin got even worse this weekend, claiming “Joe Coors’ candidacy won’t survive” a story by Lynn Bartels in the Sunday Denver Post.

Wishing doesn’t make it so, Pols.

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CONFRONTING THE MOB: Hickenlooper Stares Down Rabid Anti-Fracking Protesters In Longmont

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If you haven’t seen the video from Governor John Hickenlooper in Longmont, check it out. The clip should be called “Greens Gone Wild”, because the mob of fracking activists literally boil over on their own Democratic Governor.

The video is interesting for reasons beyond the mere irony of liberal, progressive wackos attempting to intimidate a governor they helped elect. (Check out the lady pounding her sign on the governor’s vehicle as he departs).

The scene is noteworthy because other Democrats in Colorado are going to face this manufactured mob in the coming days, months and weeks as well. And Democrats will be forced to make a choice…do they stand on the side of jobs, domestic energy and one of the nation’s most popular governors, or do they side with the mob of angry, anti-drilling radicals like the crowd in Longmont?

9NEWS TRUTH TEST: Coors Ad Hitting Perlmutter’s Support of Rapists’ Rights Is Accurate

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Here’s something you’re not likely to see much this campaign season: a campaign ad “truth-test” that declares the harshest accusations flat out “TRUE.”

But that’s what happened when 9News took a closer look at the damning Coors campaign ad slamming Congressman Ed Perlmutter’s record of supporting rapists’ rights.

The fact that the truth test came on right after the ad itself aired makes it even more damning for Perlmutter.

CLAIM: Ed Perlmutter voted against the law that protects victims of child abuse from having to face their abusers in court.

This statement is true.

CLAIM: Extreme Ed Perlmutter voted against Colorado’s law allowing the use of DNA evidence to convict sexual predators years later.

There is no denying how Perlmutter voted as a State Senator in 2001. The ad’s statement about the vote is true.

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CROSS-TABULAR CHORUS OF ANGELS? 5 Reasons Mitt Romney Should Be Euphoric Over The Denver Post/SurveyUSA Poll

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Last week, The Denver Post released a poll by SurveyUSA showing the Presidential race tied in Colorado. Then today, the Post did something unusual — they released a bunch of the data below the top line numbers (PDF). Kudos to the Post for putting it all on the table.

Polls, as we are taught, are mere snapshots in time. The top line results…who is up, and who is down…is often less important in the end than what the cross-tabs beneath say.

Who is winning with key demographics? Who is under-performing where they need to over-perform? Who is gaining ground on the other guys’ turf? These are the questions that decide elections. These important data points are the all-important tidbits found in a polls’ cross tabs.

In the cross tabs of the Denver Post SurveyUSA poll…a poll that shows the challenger and the president in a tie…there is much good news for Willard Romney. Here are five reasons the SurveyUSA poll should make Mitt Romney and his campaign team euphoric about Colorado:

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DENVER POST POLL: Obama & Romney Tied In Colorado

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The Denver Post released a Colorado poll confirming what everyone other than Democrat polling firms already knew — the race for President in Colorado is tied.

Reports John Ingold and Kurtis Lee:

After months of campaigning, multiple visits and millions spent on advertising, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are dead even in Colorado, according to a new Denver Post poll.

The poll results — first announced Friday on the noon broadcast of DPTV— show Obama ahead of Romney by a single, statistically insignificant percentage point, 47 to 46 percent. When former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is running as the Libertarian nominee for president, is factored in, Obama’s single-percentage-point lead remains, 45 percent to 44 percent. Johnson registers at 3 percent of the vote.

We have only one slight problem with the poll — as Alan Philp noted on Twitter, the poll’s sample assumes a higher turnout of Democrats than Republicans.

The sample is 34% D / 34% R / 30% Unaffiliated. As there were almost 100,000 more registered active Republican voters than Democrats as of September 1, an equal turnout from Democrats would assume they are actually turning out at higher rates than Republicans.

We don’t see that happening. Just look at Obama’s recent visit to CSU: In 2008, he attracted a crowd of 45,000. This year: 13,000. Does that seem like it portends a 2008-like turnout among Democrats?

If the poll were to have a more realistic likely voter sample, Romney would actually be in the lead, which we know would probably break Denver Post Publisher and Obama fan boy Dean Singleton’s heart.

FELON FUNDRAISER FIASCO: Did Joe Miklosi Knowingly Hire An Ex-Con To Raise Money?

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UPDATE: Per 9News:

AURORA – The congressional campaign of Joe Miklosi (D-Aurora) is acknowledging it never performed a background check on an employee forced to resign after a conservative website revealed his history of drug arrests.

Doran Kaye’s background was first reported Friday by The Colorado Observer. Kaye volunteered his resignation the same day.

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A brutal story in The Colorado Observer today on CD6 candidate Joe Miklosi’s latest problem with his Congressional campaign staff. The Observer‘s Leslie Jorgensen reports that Miklosi is currently employing a 6-time drug offender, who spent at least 276 days in prison for his crimes, in his fundraising department.

No wonder Miklosi’s fundraising “blows.”

Reports The Observer:

DENVER– Democrat 6th Congressional District candidate state Rep. Joe Miklosi claimed that he didn’t know who was working on his campaign – most were being picked and paid by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

The controversial staff shakeups made news – but undetected was a key member of Miklosi’s fundraising team – a felon whose arrest record is riddled with drug charges.  

…Miklosi refused to answer questions about [Doran Todd] Kaye, and repeatedly said, “I’ll have Ryan (Hobart), my communications director get back to you.”

Hobart did not return calls to The Colorado Observer. Numerous attempts to contact Kaye were unsuccessful.

…Kaye’s pipeline to these campaigns appears to be a nine-month stint as a “trainer/fundraiser” for Telefund, a company  that brags of being the one of the top fundraising arms of the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Obama for America and other “progressive non-profit organizations.”

According to Kaye’s resume, he landed the Telefund job in October 2009 – a few months after a warrant for his arrest was served and then cancelled in July 2009, and he completed a two-year probation and jail term for a class 4 felony, possession of a Controlled Substance Schedule 2 drug.

Schedule 2 drugs are described as dangerous drugs that include cocaine, morphine, methamphetamines and opium.  

According to public records, Kaye was arrested at least six times by the Denver Police Department for drug related charges from April 2006 to March 2009, excluding several warrants for his arrest primarily for failure to appear or comply with court orders.[Peak emphasis]

Give the whole story a read here. Kaye’s rap sheet reads like something out of Breaking Bad.

This is a serious issue for Miklosi, as it calls into question his judgment in managing a staff.

Seeing that it’s another scandal in his fundraising department — and Miklosi has proven to be one of the worst fundraisers in the country — it makes it worse, even if only symbollically.

Earlier this year The Observer reported that Miklosi had a back pay complaint filed by his campaign finance director Kirsten Boyd for stiffing her of her full paycheck. The complaint was eventually dismissed on a technicality because Boyd wasn’t considered an employee, and therefore the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) could not review her situation.

Normally we would say the background of staff members doesn’t much matter, but in the case of Doran Kaye there are a few issues that make it matter.

First, the staffer in question — Doran Kaye — was in his 30s when these arrests happened, so they are no youthful indiscretions.

Secondly, these are very serious charges. Schedule 2 drugs do not include marijuana, but dangerous drugs like crystal meth and cocaine. And it’s not one arrest but many arrests in the last couple of years, including one in 2008 described in the article as “‘possession with intent’ (typically intent to sell or distribute)”. He has spent at least 276 days in prison for his crimes, according to the story.

The police records don’t detail which Schedule 2 drug or drugs Kaye was arrested for, so that will be up to the Miklosi campaign or Kaye himself to clarify.

Thirdly, Kaye’s last arrest, in March 2009 for drug paraphernalia at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver, was mere months before he went to work for a liberal fundraising company that boasts the DNC, DCCC and Obama’s campaign as clients.

Are Democrat donors okay with an ex-con potentially having access to their credit card information?

There are a number of unanswered questions in this story. Compass Colorado outlined three in a press release this morning. We’ll leave you with that.

When did Joe Miklosi know his staffer was a convicted drug pusher?  

Who hired the felon staffer, Joe Miklosi or the DCCC?

Will Joe Miklosi defend his staffer’s criminal actions or dismiss his employee?

(Photos via Facebook)

 

THE SECRET SAL PACE: Burglary, Multiple Public Urination Arrests, Bench Warrant Bespeckle Rap Sheet

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OUR VIEW: No candidate has been more poorly vetted since Dan Maes.

Police records obtained by Colorado Peak Politics reveal a long and troubling criminal record for 3rd Congressional district candidate and state Representative Sal Pace (D-Pueblo). His criminal rap sheet reveals two arrests for public urination, one for felony burglary and larceny, as well as a bench warrant for failure to appear on his second public urination charge.

  • March 12, 2004 Pace was pulled over and charged with driving without a valid license, driving under restraint, driving without proof of insurance, expired license plates and suspended license plates. He pled guilty and was fined for the suspended license plate violation.
  • August 15, 2003 Pace was arrested for public urination, his second charge for public urination. He pled guilty.
  • August 29, 2003 A warrant was ordered for Pace’s arrest for failure to appear in court on the public urination charge.
  • April 20, 1996 Pace was arrested for obscene conduct, which Pace has confirmed was for public urination.
  • October 5, 1995 Pace was arrested and jailed for felony burglary in the 3rd degree and larceny, which Pace has said was for attempting to steal from his dorm’s vending machine.

These revelations, barely three months after Pace announced his candidacy for the 3rd Congressional district make Pace the worst vetted candidate since Dan Maes.

It’s one thing to have a criminal rap sheet as a state legislative candidate in a safe district where no one pays much attention to the race.

It’s entirely different to run for Congress in a competitive district with a long and illustrious criminal background that invites comparisons to disgraced New York Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Most conspicuous on Pace’s rap sheet is the news that he’s been arrested for public urination not once, but twice. While a Denver Post story last year noted Pace’s first charge for relieving himself in public, the Peak is the first to report news of a second public urination arrest, which occurred in the summer of 2003.

Pace attempted to explain away his first public pee-pee problem, and his contemporaneous burglary arrest, as brain dead moments as a college student.

Per The Denver Post:

“Both incidents occurred while I was a freshman at Fort Lewis College.”

And he told the Pueblo Chieftain:

“When my two boys are older I will use this experience to show them how mistakes can live with you your entire life,” he said.

Fair enough.

But when Pace was nabbed a second time for dropping trow in public he was no longer a college student, but climbing the Democrats’ partisan political ladder.

In 2002, he was a regional director for the Colorado Democratic Party.

In 2003, he was working with environmental groups to help defeat Referendum A, a ballot initiative that would have allowed the Colorado Water Conservation Board to borrow up to $2 billion for public and private water projects by issuing bonds.

A few months after being nailed a second time, Pace worked for then-state Representative John Salazar as a political aide at the Capitol. Pace would go on to be a top level operative in Salazar’s campaign for the 3rd Congressional district in 2004, and ran his re-election campaign against now-Congressman Scott Tipton in 2006.

Pace’s second arrest for public urination can’t be written off as the misdeeds of a stupid college kid; Pace got nailed with his pants down while he was three rungs up the Democrat political ladder (excuse the mixed metaphors).

The incident didn’t occur on a college campus, but rather right next to the state Capitol on one of the most policed streets in the state.

Pace’s frankly embarrassing record of using sidewalks as urinals is only the start of the House Minority Leader’s long and checkered criminal rap sheet.

His driving record in Denver from 2004 includes charges for driving under restraint, a charge that was later pleaded down to a conviction of driving with suspended license plates. Driving under restraint is driving while knowing you had no legal right to, such as driving with a suspended license. The charge carries with it a mandatory minimum sentence of five days in jail.

While he wasn’t jailed for that offense, Pace did end up in the slammer for felony burglary in the 3rd degree and larceny charges on October 5, 1995. Pace has told The Denver Post the incident was in regards to stealing from his dorm’s vending machine.

At the time, Pace told the school newspaper of his alma mater Fort Lewis College, “The Independent,” that he was “under the influence of alcohol” during this incident. Fort Lewis College placed Pace on probation.

The next year, on April 20, 1996 Pace was arrested for obscene conduct. He was also “under the influence of alcohol” during this incident, according to Pace’s comments to The Independent.

Under college rules, the criminal charges spurred a mandatory disciplinary hearing. Pace was sentenced to 20 hours of community service, probation and was told he must attend alcohol counseling.

At the time Pace was a student Senator, and after his criminal melee he was asked to resign his position in exchange for not being suspended from school.

Vice President of Student Affairs for Fort Lewis College Betty Perry told The Independent that Pace was the only student Senator in school history to go before the Disciplinary Hearing Committee.

Pace tried to fight the dismissal, claiming if he was forced to step down it would stifle student voices.

Fort Lewis College did not buy that specious and hollow argument, and he was forced to resign in November 1996.

All of this adds up to a troubling record for a Congressional candidate in a competitive district. Pace’s past has caused trouble for his political career once before, and these new revelations are likely to add major questions about his candidacy.