President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Biden*

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%↓

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

90%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

90%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

(R) Ron Hanks

40%

30%

20%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(R) J. Sonnenberg

(R) Ted Harvey

20%↑

15%↑

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Dave Williams

(R) Jeff Crank

(R) Doug Bruce

20%

20%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

90%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) Brittany Pettersen

85%↑

 

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

(R) Janak Joshi

60%↑

40%↑

20%↑

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
July 08, 2006 08:00 AM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 62 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

A mystery wrapped inside an egg roll.

Comments

62 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread

  1. So did the Little Fella tie the knot yet?  Was not the wedding supposed to take place early in July ’06?
      Rumor has it that Bill Owens and Both Ways were bickering over which of them would be allowed to give the GROOM away…..
      And what about the honeymoon?  Did not Hocus Pocus on the Family send monitors to make certain that nothing other than the standard mission position was assumed and that children (THE one and only purpose for marriage) were the end product?
      Finally, why didn’t ColoradoPols.com send in its paparazzi to crash the wedding and/or honeymoon?
      Inquiring minds want to know……..

  2. Why is Jim Banks, campaign manager for Jeff Crank telling people that Doug Lamborn asked him to be his campaign manager first?

    I used to think that it was Jeff Crank who had the ethical problems, now I am not so sure it wasn’t Banks the whole time… it’s not going to matter — Crank is going to get third and cyphon enough votes to make sure Rivera is the next congressman…..

  3. @ Banks is a fraud…..there might be a lot of ethical challenges going around this time of year……remember Bismarck’s warning:  the biggest lies are told immediately before the wedding, right after the hunt, and in the middle of the political campaign!

  4. Herb Rubenstein has a powerful and controversial anti-war ad now airing. Check it out at http://www.herbforcongress.com.
    Many party insiders now are saying that Rubenstein can win and it is clearly now a three way race for the Democratic nomination in the  7th District. Those Democrats who passionately oppose the War as Herb Rubenstein does should go to his website and make a donation. This guy is the real deal.

  5. I wrongly credited Steve Welchert with Ed’s great direct mail. I am sure that Steve had a big hand in that great mail. Alan Salazar is a stud. He works day and night for Ed and must be giving up a lot of money in salary from Udall to help his friend.
    Danielle Radovich-Piper is great with the volunteers. Those cheap shots were just that cheap shots. Ed is loyal and has one of the best staffs anyone has ever seen. Ed Perlmutter with the help of this great team is headed to Washington. Peggy is doing OK now but when Ed gears up she will drop like a rock. I am sure that Ed’s media team will use that Ferrugia interview. Tim Knaus also has a great political mind and is adding his talent to this great team, Go Ed Go.

  6. SPECIAL SESSION DAY 3

    The bomb is dropped on the Dems.
    Things had been going quite swimmingly for the Dems so far when Mr. Governor Sir unexpectedly showed up at the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee today to express several concerns he had with HB1073 which the committee was hearing. 1073 was the Romanoff/Fitz-Gerald bill that was designed to address the issue of limiting state services for folks not here legally.

    The “problems” the Governor stated were, surprising enough, the exact same things the GOP in the House had complained about in the bill the day before during 2nd reading, and this morning during 3rd reading. These problems were interpreted by the Senate Dems, and probably rightly so, as a likely veto of the current bill. So the senate which was supposed to reconvene at 5:15 this evening is now out until 12:30 tomorrow. The last I heard the leadership and the Governor’s office are trying to work out some salvagable.

    The GOP is concerned that the bill does not do enough to require people to prove their citizenship in order to gain access to state services. There were several people who have testified over the past few days that this bill does about as much as we can do in state law that could be practically enforced. From what I got from the debate, nearly every concern the GOP had were things the state has no control over, only Congress does.

    Yesterday I told you about SB1 which had some employer responsibilities in it but was a ballot measure. It was killed in the House State Affairs Committee this morning. Other employer-responsibility bills that are not ballot issues have proceeded though.

    So the only bills that have controversy to them that are still alive (I think!) are 1073 above and a Senate bill which is designed to limit the amount of time the Colorado Supreme Court can spend deciding a ballot issue dispute. That one is going (or may have gone by now) to conference committee because the House and Senate versions are quite far apart.

    It is rather hard to keep up with the doings during special sessions because everything moves so fast.

  7. That’s HB-1023.

    And the Governor, being a founder of Trailhead (which has been doing robo-calls to put pressure on legislators), is prohibited from lobbying.

    Will the Gov be frog-marched out of the Statehouse in leg irons for illegally lobbying the Legislature?  Stay tuned…

  8. Whoops hit “submit” too fast!

    HB1020 has also passed today. It will be referred to the voters and since it is a tx-related bill, it coms immediately after referred constitutional changes and before any other referred measures, so it is the new Referendum H. The former refs H & I are now I & J respectively. I will have these changes on my website in a few minutes. In a nutshell, this referdum does not allow an employer who hires an illegal resident to claim the money he/she paid that illegal worker as tax deduction as they are currently able to do for legal employees.

    Here is the actual ballot title:
    “SHALL STATE TAXES BE INCREASED ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ANNUALLY BY AN AMENDMENT TO THE COLORADO REVISED STATUTES THAT ELIMINATES A STATE INCOME TAX BENEFIT FOR A BUSINESS THAT PAYS AN UNAUTHORIZED ALIEN TO PERFORM LABOR SERVICES, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, PROHIBITS CERTAIN WAGES OR REMUNERATION PAID TO AN UNAUTHORIZED ALIEN FOR LABOR SERVICES FROM BEING CLAIMED AS A DEDUCTIBLE BUSINESS EXPENSE FOR STATE INCOME TAX PURPOSES IF, AT THE TIME THE BUSINESS HIRED THE UNAUTHORIZED ALIEN, THE BUSINESS KNEW OF THE UNAUTHORIZED STATUS OF THE ALIEN UNLESS SPECIFIED EXCEPTIONS APPLY AND, TO THE EXTENT SUCH A PAYMENT WAS CLAIMED AS A DEDUCTION IN DETERMINING THE BUSINESS’ FEDERAL INCOME TAX LIABILITY, REQUIRES AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE PROHIBITED DEDUCTION TO BE ADDED TO THE BUSINESS’ FEDERAL TAXABLE INCOME FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING STATE INCOME TAX LIABILITY?”

  9. Dan Willis – thanks for the update.  Why wouldn’t the Dems pass their bill anyway and let Owens veto it if he so chooses?  How would that hurt them?

  10. Emma, believe it or not, I think the Dems actually want to do something in this session and aren’t happy only playing politics.  There’s still plenty of that to go around, but personally, I still think the Dems have the upper hand.  They got rid of the ballot measure that was a ‘symbolic vote only’ (Gov Lamm) and could replace it with a law that does something (not much but something).

    In my opinion the Dems have played their hand well, even the Gov’s suggestions to the HB1023 aren’t deal breakers (ID to accompany the affidavit, more accountability on verification).  IMO, the R’s are still in second place to the Dems on this one.

    But, the fat lady ain’t singin’ yet.

  11. Wow Go Ed Go, you have a real talent for sarcasm and bile.  I’ll bet you are fun at parties and have lots of friends.  Try taking antacids…

  12. Posted by LegWatch: “Will the Gov be frog-marched out of the Statehouse in leg irons for illegally lobbying the Legislature? Stay tuned…”

    No, he’ll be frog-marched out of the Statehouse in leg irons for other stuff.

  13. So…my question this evening is, where are all the illegal-immigration-is-bad types? A few weeks ago you couldn’t visit this blog without wading through all the angry posts from hardcore send-em-packing types like JoseSixPAC and quixote. I would really like to know what you guys think about the special session. Why? Because, after reading scores, maybe hundreds, of your posts I got the impression you were extremely partisan types who were just as motivated by trying to stick it to dems as you were by whatever concerns you had about the immigrants.

    So, now that Dems are working to bring about the reform you claim you want, what do you think? This goes out to anyone who was mad as hell about illegal immigration.

  14. Angie Paccione just posted elsewhere that her Q2 numbers were approx. $295K – bringing totals to about $695K. As the running odds here said Angie had to raise money this seems to change the equation. How much?

  15. So why not put some real teeth in the effort to limit (real or imagined) state services to illegal aliens.

    For each instance where a state service is illegally provided, the cabinet officer of the department and the Governor are each fined $1000.

    The Governor will be required to report annually to the legislature the number of times state services have been provided to illegal aliens.

    Any citizen may file a complaint with the Attorney General regarding any provision of state services they believe has occurred and the Attorney General shall investigate.

    If people are serious about restricting state services, hold the state officials responsible.  If you put their feet to the fire, maybe they will make certain it doesn’t happen.  The buck stops at the top, make them accountable.

    If they don’t know or can’t control what goes on in their own departments, then they should be fired or fined or both.

  16. Aristotle- I am happy about any clamp down on illegal immigration. Let’s see what gets signed. My fear is that at the end of the day we will still be putting money into the pockets of people that are here illegally.

  17. Ed Perlmutter is a dedicated parent and a hard worker.
    I think his team is top notch. Jim Polsfut has raised a ton of money and is raising more by the wheelbarrow full.
    Welchert, Piper and Salazar are doing their jobs well. The 527 fund headed by Knaus will kick in soon. Peggy might well be ahead today but there is still a huge undecided block of votes. Ed will win by 7 to 10 points. Lamm does not have a deep enough team to match Ed’s. Merlino is good. But, Welchert and his team are better.

  18. @ Fine the Guv…..That’s an excellent suggestion since the chief executive is legally responsible for law enforcement.  But let’s take it one step further.  If any cabinet officer or the Governor is found to have failed to cut off services to an illegal immigrant three or more separate occasions, then the legislature shall impeachment the officer or Governor for such malfeasance or nonfeasance.  Three strikes and he’s out…..

  19. Rockerfeller Republican:  You forgot one part of the equation.  Angie has to have some brains too.  She can’t make up for that deficit.

  20. Is it true that in addition to mandatory ignition interlock devices, cameras in classrooms, and video surveillance cameras on every traffic light, Herb Rubenstein also wants to require thermometers with safety switches on all plumbing fixtures so no one will ever risk being scalded in the shower?

  21. She doesn’t need to worry about that, gogo. She’s one of the most intelligent women I’ve ever met. You might try looking at what she’s done in the State House in the last four years but if you don’t feel inclined to do your homework, I’ll be happy to assist you in educating yourself.

  22. More than anything placed in front of us before, Amendment 38 (Keith’s link above) will hurt local governments’ abilities to serve citizens. Doug Bruce wrote Amend 38 and we now see how well he plans for unforeseen circumstances in his Amendments. 

    Amend 38 does not simplify but complicates.  This is a VERY dense, VERY complex Amendment that should not be broken down into soundbites for the voters.

    38 would allow citizens to petition anything and everything onto the ballot, clogging government more than TABOR ever could.  Do not be fooled by what you will hear about Amend 38.  It is not good for us and will not help Coloradoans.  It WILL help Doug Bruce clog El Paso county with hundreds or more frivolous petitions on his pet issues, though.

  23. I’m not sure that I would argue against that Car 31, having not read 38 myself.

      But I can identify with that “pesky citizens” part of the piece given Trailhead’s operation the past few years.

  24. US-Russian tensions to simmer at G8

    Sun Jul 9, 2006 1:10pm ET
    http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-09T171037Z_01_N07233036_RTRUKOC_0_US-GROUP-RUSSIA-USA.xml&archived=False

    By Caren Bohan

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five years ago, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin hit it off so well in their first meeting that Bush famously said he trusted Putin after getting “a sense of his soul.”

    But at next weekend’s Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, tensions between the two world leaders will be unmistakable even though both will try to play down the rift.

    The Russian president has grown annoyed with Washington’s accusations that he is restricting freedoms and with a push to expand the NATO alliance further into his neighbourhood.

    Bush has been frustrated by Russia’s resistance to a tougher line on Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its Iraq war opposition.

    “The relationship is not what it was four and a half years ago. Each leader views the other with more suspicion,” said James Goldgeier, a professor at George Washington University.

  25. Agreed Car31.  Amendment 38 will be costly and will impede local governments ability to gets things done.  There is a reason we have representative government and the founding fathers understood this.  Another Douglas Bruce quagmire is in the works, let’s hope the voters don’t buy it this time.

  26. Anytime Lauren.

    This summary of Amendment 38 is courtesy of the Rocky Mountain News. It came at the end of an article about Beauprez’s flip-flop (link below).

    • Allows circulators 12 months, not the current six, to collect signatures for the ballot.

    • Establishes the state standard for signatures (5 percent of the last vote for secretary of state) as the maximum for initiatives on local governments’ ballots. Cities currently are allowed to set their own standards.

    • Extends the initiative process to county governments and special districts. Cities already do it.

    • Allows any sort of initiative to be considered even on odd-year ballots, which the state Supreme Court has ruled can now only feature TABOR-related issues.

    • Makes it much tougher to disqualify signatures by giving the benefit of the doubt to the sponsors in every case.

    I think the second point is sensible, but overall I agree with Lauren and Car 31 as far as how this will just make it easier for cranks who don’t like anything to muck up the system even more. There’s no reason why you should have a whole year to come up with enough signatures to put your pet issue on the ballot.

    The opinion Keith linked to is interesting, coming as it does from an Amendment 38 supporter, but don’t think that special interest groups won’t take advantage of something like this. I can easily envisage the ballot being crammed with contradictory initiatives sponsored by the NRA and Handgun Control, the oil industry and the Sierra Club, and any other diametrically opposed groups you can think of.

    My dad has said for years that he thinks Bruce is not a conservative, but rather an anarchist because his ideas undermine government. I can’t say I disagree.

  27. I don’t think Bruce’s motives is to undermind government but rather to tie the hands of government. I think he’s more libertarian than anarchist. He surely enjoys direct democracy and the power of the vote.

  28. I’m not even sure that he wants to tie the hands of government.

    He believes that we the people are the government, and the bureacracy is merely servant.

  29. SPECIAL SESSION DAY 4 (may be jumping the gun a bit)

    It appears to be all over now but the rhetoric. HB1023 (restricting services for illegals) remains standing with a couple of amendments added to address some issues brought up by the Governor yesterday. The Senate was still lecturing about it for the folks at home, but the substantive changes seem to have been made.

    It still seems to be best option offered that is both doable and constitutional. It’s legislative fate is assured it will pass the Senate by either 18-17 or 19-16 and the house will approve the senate changes. Its fate in the Governor’s hands is not as clear.

    There also remains HB1018 with deals with employers who hired illegal residents. The Senate today passed another bill on 2nd reading which addresses this issue as well so I am not so certain of the fate of 1018 is at this point. One thing going against it in committee right now is that to approve it will drag out the special session at least til Tuesday.

    The last outstanding point is whether to require the state Supreme Court to move faster on ballot title challenges. That one went to conference committee and it has about a 50-50 chance of survival, but no guesses on in what form.

    It would seem to me they can wrap this up tomorrow (if Senate State Affairs kills 1018), so I am hoping they do.

  30. Bruce may believe those things, but his solutions to bureaucratic problems make me think he’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We have a representational form of government because, no matter what the issue, someone will come out of it unhappy. Opening up the initiative process sounds good on the surface, but I see the potential for abuse that can result in government that’s even more muddled and unresponsive than we think it already is.

    As usual, Bruce’s amendment mixes the good (statewide standard for # of signatures; opening up counties to process) with the bad (a whole year to gather signatures? If you can’t get it in 6 months either you’re not trying hard enough or most people see what’s wrong with your idea; give the benefit of the doubt to the signature gatherers? In this age when we’re so concerned about voter fraud?), so I’ll vote against the whole thing because of what’s bad.

  31. Aris —  🙂

    Our rather small, tiny little gathering for the 4th of July was very enjoyable with the fireworks — now that you mentioned it.  However, we did not gather in Aspen, nor did we find a forest to pray in for world peace.  Instead, the ocean in Washington DC called our names and I listened to the 7 lauchings by NK from the beach, realizing that “freedom” certainly means different things to different people?  I think it’s safe to say that I agree with intentional community building, non-violence, and alternative lifestyles theme (less government is more) — now that you mentioned it Aris.  The Native Americans did have some good ideas, don’t you think?  The belief in Peace and Love are INDEED great things … don’t you think?  Now, if only we could convince the NK?

    ALSO, I do think that during the past 6 years the world has certainly rattled and shook the columns that hold up the world … which to some might be considered not too smart, or very wise?  We now have only 122 days until the November 2006 election!  NOW THAT WILL BE INTERESTING !!!

    ColoradoPols needs a countdown clock !!!

    From the Rainbow Family —
    http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow.html

    We, who are brothers & sisters, children of God, families of life on earth, friends of nature & of all people, children of humankind calling ourselves Rainbow Family Tribe, humbly invite:

    All races, peoples, tribes, communes, men, women, children, individuals — out of love.

    All nations & national leaders — out of respect

    All religions & religious leaders — out of faith

    All politicians — out of charity …

  32. Yesterday a rock fell in Clear Creek Canyon onto a car.  The car was apparently (not proven) owned by an immigrant from the Czech Republic.  Should CDOT have required proof of legal immigrant status before removing the rock?
    BTW, the car was also an immigrant.

  33. I don’t support 38 and I don’t go painting labels on Bruce just because he is puts his ideas into play.
    I get a kick out of his level of game whether I agree with him or not.

  34. Virginia has the breach … Washington has the fireworks … unless you prescribe to Boston’s firework show — the largest in the nation with over 19,000 pounds of air display strewn over three football fields in length … a kind-of-boston-tea-party!

  35. Thanks also to Car31 for the link to the whole text of Amendment 38. There was an interesting sentence in one of the sections that reads:

    Referendum petitions may begin at any time. They shall have no ballot title setting, appeal, or single-subject challenge, nor print texts of measures on petition forms. (Page 2, lines 39 – 41)

    The whole text is lengthy and confusing, so I don’t know if this refers to all petitions for referenda or just certain ones, but I REALLY don’t like the idea of petitions not including the details. You’d have to rely on the honesty of the petition gatherer as to what the referendum is about. Paid signature gatherers (which are the norm in Washington state, where I was living for a few years) are not known for their honesty and ethics. (I enjoyed making them squirm simply by reading what the initiative text said.)

    Keith – I don’t think I was labelling Bruce but my apologies if I was. I don’t think I wield that kind of influence anyway. 😉

  36. Aristole,
    From the wording, I would say Amend.38’s “non-disclosure” section would apply only to referendum petitions. These are very rare at the state level but there have been several at the local level. These are petitions the citizens circulate to force to the ballot an issue that the legislature or a city council/county commission have already passed.
    Having clarified all of that, I agree with you that this is yet another bad idea and another reason to vote no on Amendment 38.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

212 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!