Category Archives: Colorado House

And Now, The Gun Tantrum Backpedal

6
  by: Colorado Pols Tue March 19, 2013 at 6:27 PM MDT

It's going to be okay.

It’s going to be okay.

9NEWS, so it begins:

Outdoor Channel is taking pains to distance itself from a claim by Senate Republicans that the network is pulling all production from Colorado over gun control bills being signed Wednesday.

The loss of production revenue has been widely cited by gun rights supporters as another unintended consequence of anti-gun legislation passed by Democrats in the legislature and due to be signed into law by Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Senate Republicans headlined a March 8 release on their website, “OUTDOOR CHANNEL TO END PRODUCTION IN COLORADO.” Republicans claimed the network “will be moving all production [out] of Colorado.” The source of the claim was an email from Outdoor Channel executive producer Michael Bane to Sen. Steve King (R-Grand Junction)…

As you know, the passage of gun safety legislation in Colorado has provoked retaliatory threats to leave the state, primarily from plastic ammunition magazine maker Magpul and some local contractors who supply them. The threat from Outdoor Life Network was taken as evidence that the economic harm resultant from hissy fits retaliation over these bills might spread beyond the firearms and related industries.

Well, as it turns out:

In a statement to 9NEWS Tuesday, an Outdoor Channel spokesperson stressed that Bane doesn’t speak for the network’s expansive programming lineup.

You see, something important happened between the time this Outdoor Life Channel executive made his threat to pull that network’s production out of Colorado and today–which he apparently was never authorized to do as an independent producer. Of course, that makes you wonder why they didn’t correct this days ago?

It doesn’t matter now, folks. Because the bills have passed.


Full story: And Now, The Gun Tantrum Backpedal

Join us and a panel of experts for “The United States of ALEC”

0
  by: ProgressNow Colorado Tue March 19, 2013 at 12:47 PM MDT

For years, we at ProgressNow Colorado have been tracking the influence of a secretive conservative organization known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Recent scandals in other states have resulted in an uncomfortably higher profile for this organization, which has operated in Colorado for decades with very little attention.

The United States of ALEC is a documentary, narrated by Bill Moyers, that reports on the most influential corporate-funded political force most of us have never heard of. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership." But behind that lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.

Click here to join Colorado Common Cause and ProgressNow Colorado for a screening of this important documentary.

In state houses around the country including Colorado, hundreds of pieces of boilerplate ALEC legislation are proposed or enacted that would, among other things, dilute collective bargaining rights, make it harder for some Americans to vote, and limit corporate liability for harm caused to consumers–each accomplished without the public ever knowing who's behind it.

Using interviews, documents, and field reports, the the documentary explores ALEC's self-serving machine at work, acting in a way one Wisconsin politician describes as "a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests."

WHAT: The United States of ALEC Screening Event
WHEN: March 26th 6-8pm
WHERE: Denver Post Auditorium
101 W. Colfax Ave., Denver, CO, 80202 (map)

Panelists

Elena Nunez, Colorado Common Cause (Moderator)
Tony Salazar, Colorado Education Association
Conservation Colorado
Sean Hinga, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Kirpal Singh, Colorado Trial Lawyers Association
Alan Franklin, ProgressNow Colorado

To RSVP, click here.


Full story: Join us and a panel of experts for “The United States of ALEC”

Legislative Democrats Take Action on “Fracking”

13
  by: Colorado Pols Tue March 19, 2013 at 8:56 AM MDT

Cathy Proctor of the Denver Business Journal reports:

Three new bill proposals calling for additional regulation of the oil and gas industry were introduced late Monday in the Colorado Legislature.

They’re among a wave of legislative proposals addressing the oil and gas industry that have been predicted for months, as controversy has swirled along Colorado’s Front Range over the industry’s recent boom. Colorado has hit record levels of oil and natural gas production in the last few years.

“I hope we can get some of them through,” House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, said Monday regarding the latest bills.

None of the three bills would resolve the issue of local governments banning the use of controversial "fracking" methods for oil and gas production within their boundaries–an issue that has pitted popular Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper against cities like Longmont and Fort Collins. Hickenlooper's ardent-trending-irresponsible backing of the oil and gas industry has earned him the critical nickname "Frackenlooper," and moments of exposed deception like his claim to have "drank frack fluid," later clarified to not be the fluid actually used in drilling operations, have significantly undermined his credibility.

What you do have here are three bills to increase fines on the industry (House Bill 1267), set up mandatory disclosure of the "split estate" system and mineral rights to surface property buyers (House Bill 1268), and a bill changing the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) and barring oil and gas industry employees from the commission beginning next year (House Bill 1269).

We have heard that Gov. Hickenlooper, while unmoved on the larger facts of the issue, has been personally stung by the criticism he has received during the growing rebellion against "fracking" in Colorado, and his apparent inability to bring the sides to a mutually acceptable resolution. Hickenlooper's ability to do exactly that was a major selling point during his 2010 election bid, though GOP disasters in the gubernatorial race mean he didn't have to sell himself much. Some of the arguments that will be presented in these bills will be harder for Hickenlooper to oppose; changing the mission of the COGCC so that it is not both a cheerleader for the industry and the organization charged with regulatory oversight, for example, seems like a pretty common sense measure. Either way, the conflict over "fracking" in Colorado represents the biggest crisis of Gov. Hickenlooper's political career thus far–and he has not acquitted himself well.

So, obviously, Hickenlooper's handling of these bills will be closely watched.


Full story: Legislative Democrats Take Action on “Fracking”

Hickenlooper To Sign Gun Bills Tomorrow

18
  by: Colorado Pols Tue March 19, 2013 at 8:11 AM MDT

FOX 31's Eli Stokols:

Gov. John Hickenlooper will sign three Democratic gun control proposals into law this week, including the controversial ban on high-capacity magazines that has outraged gun owners threatening a recall effort against the governor and ballot measures to reverse the ban.

Hickenlooper will sign the three gun control bills Wednesday morning in his office and take questions from the press, as FOX31 Denver first reported Monday afternoon and the governor’s spokesman, Eric Brown, later confirmed…

Wednesday’s signing ceremony will solidify a huge political victory for gun control advocates in Colorado and across the nation, many of whom view this moderate, western state as a sudden vanguard on the issue, one that could even impact what proposals are eventually adopted in Washington.

Opponents seized on any sign, however wishful, that Gov. John Hickenlooper might be wavering on support for House Bill 1224 to limit magazine capacity. Hickenlooper had called for closing the so-called "background check loophole" in his State of the State address, so there was never any realistic chance he would veto House Bill 1229. Likewise with 1224–a few trademark Hickenlooper foot-in-mouths notwithstanding, he was always supportive, and helping communicate that during the bill's final votes may have made the difference.

Tomorrow's bill signing will cement a major political victory for Democrats, and a model of successful action in the face of all the pressure Republican opponents and their grassroots allies could muster. The next event after that, however, could prove the greatest win for Democrats and credibility hit for Republicans. On July 1, when House Bills 1224 and 1229 take effect, there will be a massive gap between reality and the hysterical predictions from conservative lawmakers and the gun lobby about the "unintended consequences" of these bills. When the breathless predictions that "almost all magazines will be banned" and "private transfers will be prohibited" fail to materialize…well, the explanations are going to be pretty rich we expect.

The gap between opponents' hysterical rhetoric and a much less controversial reality, not to mention the enduring public support for these bills shown in public opinion polls, is why it was so important for Democrats to actually get them passed. The mobs of angry, misinformed gun activists at the Capitol were hardly representative of majority opinion on this issue, and their low-information belligerence became a huge liability–assuming the goal was ever to persuade Democrats to kill these bills. Repetition of the same nonsense doesn't make it more persuasive.

Against that campaign of unfocused anger and misinformation, proponents brought in astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to testify. They brought in families from the Columbine High School massacre, the shootings in Aurora last summer, and at Newtown, CT in December. Do you want to know why Democrats held together and passed these bills? Listen to Mark Kelly for five minutes, or Jane Dougherty, whose sister Mary Sherlach was gunned down trying to save little kids at Sandy Hook Elementary.

And compare them to Dudley Brown of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.

Yes, folks, this is a big win for Democrats politically. But it's also a win for, in broad philosophical terms, the truth.


Full story: Hickenlooper To Sign Gun Bills Tomorrow

A Gun Bill Republicans Shouldn’t Have Opposed?

15
  by: Colorado Pols Mon March 18, 2013 at 2:38 PM MDT

In a chilling story story, the New York Times’ Michael Luo discusses some of the cases that underscored the need for one of the gun safety bills that recently passed the Colorado Senate and expected to pass the House soon: Senate Bill 197, restricting access to guns in cases of domestic violence. Reader discretion advised:

Her former husband, Corey Holten, threatened to put a gun in her mouth and pull the trigger, she wrote in her petition. He also said he would “put a cap” in her if her new boyfriend “gets near my kids.” In neat block letters she wrote, “ He owns guns, I am scared.”

The judge’s order prohibited Mr. Holten from going within two blocks of his former wife’s home and imposed a number of other restrictions. What it did not require him to do was surrender his guns.

About 12 hours after he was served with the order, Mr. Holten was lying in wait when his former wife returned home from a date with their two children in tow. Armed with a small semiautomatic rifle bought several months before, he stepped out of his car and thrust the muzzle into her chest.

Stephanie Holten didn’t die that evening, but the story tells of women in this situation who have died–and could have been saved, if they had lived in a state that requires those subject to a protection order to prevent domestic violence surrender their guns.

(more…)


Full story: A Gun Bill Republicans Shouldn’t Have Opposed?

GOP’s “Growth and Opportunity Project” Poses Tough Questions For Colorado Republicans

54
  by: Colorado Pols Mon March 18, 2013 at 9:32 AM MDT

The struggle of the Republican Party to adapt, both here in Colorado and nationally, to changing demographics and viewpoints that threaten the party's long-term viability, is one of the most important themes we have documented in this space since our beginnings in 2004. Here in Colorado, Democrats have emerged generally victorious in five consecutive general election cycles, adding a new chapter to the political history of this historically conservative but untamably independent state. We believe, furthermore, that the last decade of Colorado politics has revealed systemic problems within the Republican Party, which threaten a replication of the long-term minority status they hold in this state in many other places across the country.

In 2012, we watched these intertwining and systemic problems cost Republicans the presidential election–while stopping the closest the GOP has had to a comeback in Colorado, 2010's one-seat margin recapture of the state House majority, in its tracks.

Today, as they seem to clearly understand nationally if not in Colorado, the Republican Party's greatest threat to its ongoing viability is itself. A report we were pointed to this weekend from the Republican National Committee detailing the results of their post-2012 "Growth and Opportunity Project," makes a host of observations and recommendations for improving the GOP's competitiveness in coming elections. Excerpt:

Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. States in which our presidential candidates used to win, such as New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Florida, are increasingly voting Democratic. We are losing in too many places. 

It has reached the point where in the past six presidential elections, four have gone to the Democratic nominee, at an average yield of 327 electoral votes to 211 for the Republican. During the preceding two decades, from 1968 to 1988, Republicans won five out of six elections, averaging 417 electoral votes to Democrats’ 113.1 

Public perception of the Party is at record lows. Young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the Party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country. When someone rolls their eyes at us, they are not likely to open their ears to us. 

At the federal level, much of what Republicans are doing is not working beyond the core constituencies that make up the Party. On the state level, however, it is a different story…

The report goes on to describe both the troubles that national Republicans have had and continue to create for themselves with younger voters, women, Hispanics, and so many others outside the party's core conservative, white, and Christian base. Interestingly, the authors contrast these failures at the "federal level" with supposedly much more successful state-level Republican governance. On page nine, the report reads off a list of accomplishments by GOP governors like John Kasich in Ohio and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana. "Republicans," declares the authors, "are thriving on the state level." 

The Republican Party needs to stop talking to itself. We have become expert in how to provide ideological reinforcement to like-minded people, but devastatingly we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who do not agree with us on every issue.

It is time for Republicans on the federal level to learn from successful Republicans on the state level. It is time to smartly change course, modernize the Party, and learn once again how to appeal to more people, including those who share some but not all of our conservative principles.

You've probably begun to realize something important here, haven't you? When forward-thinking Republicans say "it is time for Republicans on the federal level to learn from Republicans at the state level," they are not talking about Colorado Republicans. 

(more…)


Full story: GOP’s “Growth and Opportunity Project” Poses Tough Questions For Colorado Republicans

Bill O’Reilly Melts Down on Denver Post Editor

25
  by: Colorado Pols Thu March 14, 2013 at 2:59 PM MDT

Last night, Denver Post editorial page editor Curtis Hubbard went on FOX News' O'Reilly Factor, to further discuss his column last weekend blasting host Bill O'Reilly for his repeated and obvious inferences, covered in this space, that Colorado House Speaker Mark Ferrandino's sexual preference played a role in the death of a GOP-sponsored bill this year mandating long prison terms for particular first-time child sex offenders. Hubbard's column Sunday argued that "O'Reilly's fear-mongering should offend all Coloradans. He was saying 'gay,' but what he wanted his listeners to hear was 'pervert-pedophile.'"

As Media Matters for America reports, O'Reilly doesn't like being called out as a hater.

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly berated a guest on his show, calling him a "smear merchant" and a "charlatan," for accurately accusing him of attempting to depict a gay Colorado lawmaker as being lenient towards child molesters…

In his March 10 column, Hubbard condemned O'Reilly for repeatedly citing Rep. Ferrandino's sexual orientation while discussing the lawmaker's opposition to Jessica's Law, a measure deemed unnecessary by law enforcement experts and victims' advocates that would impose a 25-year minimum sentence on those found guilty of sexually assaulting children.

O'Reilly's rant turned decidedly nasty as he called Hubbard as a "ridiculous person" and a "smear merchant," and launched into a tirade of personal ad hominem attacks:

O'REILLY: I described Ferrandino to the audience because the audience doesn't know who the heck he is and I did it in the context of what his priorities are. His priorities are civil unions, alright, which you guys are going to have pretty soon out there, and legalizing marijuana, which you already have out there. And he's a gay marriage proponent, as you know. So I said he are Ferrandino's priorities, here's what he spends his time on, alright? And Jessica's Law he doesn't want…

O'REILLY: I didn't impugn his character at all. I said what his priorities are as Speaker of the House. Look, I'm going to post this on BillOReilly.com, the whole thing, so people can see what a charlatan you are. [Pols emphasis]

Beginning with O'Reilly's interview with Colorado Rep. Libby Szabo, the sponsor of the bill in question, it is impossible to deny the clear implication by O'Reilly that Speaker Ferrandino killed "Jessica's Law" in retaliation for the death of the civil unions bill in 2012, and that his sexual preference somehow makes Ferrandino unqualified to "protect the children." O'Reilly went to great lengths to explain Ferrandino's supposed motives, eagerly supported by Rep. Szabo, who accused Speaker Ferrandino of "obviously protecting somebody" by killing the bill. There's absolutely no mistaking the impression O'Reilly wanted to leave with his viewers.

Bottom line: Curtis Hubbard didn't take on one of America's biggest conservative media icons out of partisan spite. He did it because Bill O'Reilly crossed a line, and made allegations against Colorado's Speaker of the House that have no place in civil debate about these issues. The fact that nobody considers O'Reilly an unbiased source of information is beside the point. Such a contemptibly low blow cannot go unchallenged, and we wish there were more Republicans standing up to condemn these smears–from O'Reilly and from Rep. Szabo.

In the meantime, we applaud Hubbard for taking this real "smear merchant" to task.


Full story: Bill O’Reilly Melts Down on Denver Post Editor

Why is Corrections Corporation of America still sucking down Colorado taxpayer money?

19
  by: For People Over For-Profits Thu March 14, 2013 at 9:05 AM MDT

(Corporate welfare of the worst kind? – promoted by Colorado Pols)

prisonmoneyRight now, the prison population in Colorado, as it is nationally, is declining. The inmate population growth in the 1990s that resulted in for-profit prisons popping up like mushrooms to absorb the overflow is receding.
 
Which begs the question: why are we still sending taxpayer money to Corrections Corporation of America and subsidizing their economic race to the bottom for jobs? If you work at a state facility in Colorado, you make a decent living, staring in the $40,000 range, with health insurance and PERA.
 
CCA pays entry-level guards $12.66 an hour, about $25,000 a year – low enough wages to qualify for public assistance. And that doesn’t include even lower-paying administrative jobs. It’s the Walmartization of the public safety sector and it comes will all the short-cuts we’ve come to expect from that trend. 

(more…)


Full story: Why is Corrections Corporation of America still sucking down Colorado taxpayer money?

More Stories Than Bullets

5
  by: Colorado Pols Wed March 13, 2013 at 12:39 PM MDT

On Feb. 12, a man named Charles Robles testified before the Colorado House Judiciary Committee that a high-capacity magazine saved his life when he was in a shootout in a pawn shop in Arizona. His testimony played an important role in amending a bill to limit ammunition magazines; the original 10-round limit was changed to a 15-round maximum. 

But as the Denver Post is reporting, Robles has more versions of his story than any high-capacity magazine:

In fact, in interviews in the weeks since Robles, 43, spoke to lawmakers, his story has changed several times in significant ways. In particular, he has at times claimed to have killed one of the robbers, then said he simply shot the man and then said it didn't matter whether he hit the man or not. He also neglected to mention the presence of a co-worker who was armed.

"Robles said that he thought he fired 3-6 rounds total at the (black/male) suspect who had shot him," a police report says. The report said Robles' co-worker was the one who fatally shot a second robber. In an interview with The Denver Post, Robles said he fired the fatal shot.

Geez. These stupid facts keep getting in the way of the gun lobby.


Full story: More Stories Than Bullets

Sunshine Week: Colorado Legislature Gets an “F?”

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  by: Colorado Pols Wed March 13, 2013 at 8:42 AM MDT

The Sunlight Foundation, a top nonpartisan open government watchdog based in Washington DC, has among its many responsibilities something called the "Open States Project," which attempts to compile and organize legislative information for all fifty states into a unified searchable index. Each state's information portal for legislative proceedings is different, of course, and some states have significantly more accessible data than others.

And as they released in their "Legislative Data Report Card" Monday, Colorado's legislative data is about as inaccessible as it gets.

In the course of writing scrapers for all 50 state legislatures, our Open States team and volunteers spent a lot of time looking at state legislative websites and struggling with the often inadequate information made available.  Impossibly difficult to navigate sites, information going missing and gnarly PDFs of tabular data have become daily occurrences for those of us working on Open States. People are always curious to know how their state stacked up compared to others — in fact one of the most frequent questions we have been asked has been “so which state was the worst?”  That question got us thinking:  How could we derive a measure of how “open” a state’s legislative data was?

After some consideration, we came up with six criteria on which each state could be evaluated, based on six of the Ten Principles for Opening Up Government Information: completeness, timeliness, ease of access, machine readability, use of commonly owned standards and permanence…

Evaluating each state on each criteria was a large task, and with community support we ensured that each state was evaluated by multiple people.  After the evaluation was complete, we converted the qualitative data on how a state performed to numeric scores (specific scoring details are available on the report card itself).  After summing these scores, states were also assigned a letter grade according to where they fell among their peers.  A state with a net score below negative one was given an F, a negative one or zero became a D.  With the average total score among states being a 1.5, we gave states with a net score of one or two a C, three became a B, and four and above became an A.

The final breakdown was 8 As, 11 Bs, 20 Cs, 6 Ds, and 6 Fs.

Here's how Colorado earned an "F"…

(more…)


Full story: Sunshine Week: Colorado Legislature Gets an “F?”

O’Reilly Backpedals on Ferrandino Smears, Weakly and Too Late

11
  by: Colorado Pols Tue March 12, 2013 at 2:22 PM MDT

Video of the O'Reilly Factor courtesy Media Matters:

Yesterday, FOX News' Bill O'Reilly responded to a blistering opinion piece in the Denver Post this weekend, where editorial page editor Curtis Hubbard responds to recent segments from O'Reilly about Colorado House Speaker Mark Ferrandino regarding civil unions and the death of a GOP bill insituting lengthy minimum sentences for first-time child sex offenders. Hubbard says that "O'Reilly's fear-mongering should offend all Coloradans. He was saying 'gay,' but what he wanted his listeners to hear was 'pervert-pedophile.'"

O'Reilly is hurt by this accusation, folks. Hurt.

O'REILLY: We described the speaker as "openly gay" because Americans don't know who he is and that description is used in almost every article ever written about him. And the reason we brought up civil unions is because Ferrandino objected to that vote being sabotaged by Republicans a few years ago, then he turned around and used the same technique to table Jessica's Law.

As we've recounted in this space, O'Reilly said much more than that. In these segments attacking Colorado House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, O'Reilly's obvious implication was that Ferrandino had sent "Jessica's Law" to its death in the State Affairs "kill committee" as retaliation for Republicans killing the civil unions bill in State Affairs during last year's special session of the legislature. As everyone in Colorado knows, Democrats swept the GOP from power in 2012, which is the only "retaliation" that mattered. What's more, Colorado already has very tough sentencing laws for crimes of this nature, sufficiently that both prosecutors and victims' rights groups opposed the bill.

Perhaps the worst was O'Reilly's interview with GOP state Rep. Libby Szabo, where Szabo flat-out claimed to O'Reilly that Ferrandino was "obviously protecting somebody" with the killing of "Jessica's Law." Between that statement and everything O'Reilly said about Ferrandino's sexual preference and motives, it's unmistakable what impression he wanted his millions of conservative viewers to have.

O'Reilly should just own up to these allegations. Whatever he says now, he left no ambiguity about them.


Full story: O’Reilly Backpedals on Ferrandino Smears, Weakly and Too Late

Welcome To The Big Leagues, Mike McLachlan!

18
  by: Colorado Pols Tue March 12, 2013 at 9:02 AM MDT

The Durango Herald's Joe Hanel reports from yesterday's debate in the Colorado Senate of House Bill 1224, which limits gun magazine capacity to 15 rounds. In which Sen. Steve King made some telling remarks about a fellow Western Slope legislator:

“Please do not be confused that the goals and objectives of Barack Hussein Obama, of Joe Biden, of Michael Bloomberg, are the same goals and objectives of the majority of your constituents,” said Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction.

King made reference to a call that Biden made to Rep. Mike McLachlan, D-Durango, to lobby for several of the bills. Opponents are trying to recall McLachlan for his votes on gun control.

“I look forward to the vice president of the United States coming to Colorado and going to Durango to help the representative on his recall election. He owes him that,” King said.

In a similar manner to the highly vocal crowds that have descended on the Colorado Capitol, freshman Rep. Mike McLachlan of Durango has been aggressively singled out by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and their supporters during the gun debate. McLachlan has been threatened with a recall for supporting the package of gun safety bills that passed the Senate yesterday, in particular House Bill 1224. That said, it was McLachlan who introduced the amendment raising the maximum capacity from 10 to 15 rounds; this has been widely viewed as a favorable accommodation for gun owners, as it allows many autoloading pistols to use their "standard" 15 round magazines. Since then, McLachlan has talked about, but not committed to, further raising that limit to 30 rounds, in an effort to accommodate what Republicans insist are "standard" magazines for rifles like the AR-15.

The problem is, proponents have nothing to gain from further wrangling over the details of this bill. The arguments against not just this, but all of the gun safety bills that have passed the Senate, have been sufficiently irrational and strident that further debate with the GOP and the gun lobby is useless. The changes made in the Senate, however, including the fix for the silly-season grade "shotgun ban," require House Bill 1224 go back to the House for one more approval. The margin is narrow enough that we expect McLachlan is very, very busy talking to lobbyists and "concerned citizens" today, and his email and voicemail boxes are chock-full of nastygrams.

But here's the bottom line: threats of a recall election against McLachlan are wildly overblown. In all likelihood, the daunting logistics of collecting over 10,500 signatures from McLachlan's remote and mountainous district in 60 days will stop it cold. And if they do get that many signatures? Rep. McLachlan was the one who compromised, folks. There just aren't enough voters in HD-59 upset about not being able to buy banana clips for their automatic rifles to offset the middle-road narrative McLachlan can put forward, no matter how much Dudley Brown wishes there were. The biggest thing McLachlan needs to do is not confuse activist anger with majority support.

This is not to say that Rep. McLachlan won't face a spirited Republican challenge for his seat in 2014. As a drawn-competitive swing district, every election cycle is sure to be lively here. But it's clear to us that McLachlan has much more to gain by sticking with his caucus than he does caving to a small, if really loud, segment of voters.

We expect that's what he'll do.


Full story: Welcome To The Big Leagues, Mike McLachlan!

Civil Unions: A Long Legislative Journey That Ends Today

24
  by: Colorado Pols Tue March 12, 2013 at 7:59 AM MDT

FOX 31's Eli Stokols:

On Monday morning, the Colorado House of Representatives did something it has never done before, debating the civil unions bill that’s been introduced for three straight years.

The debate could have happened at the end of last year’s session, after civil unions survived three successive hearings before GOP-controlled committees, but then Speaker Frank McNulty shut down the House floor on the session’s penultimate day, effectively running out the clock on the bill and 30 others.

“This marks the first day in my time here that the full House will debate civil unions,” said the sponsor, Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, who became the current House Speaker after Democrats swept competitive statehouse races last fall just months after the legislative meltdown over civil unions.

“This bill is about love, family and equality under the law.”

Final passage in the state House of Representatives of the Colorado Civil Union Act today marks the completion of a legislative campaign to enact basic rights for the state's gay and lesbian couples that began in 2006, when the Democratic-controlled legislature sent Referendum I to the ballot bypassing GOP Gov. Bill Owens. That referendum narrowly failed, and a constitutional gay marriage ban, Amendment 43, passed that year: even as Democrats celebrated the second in what would become an unparalleled string of electoral victories in 2006, this election was a also a nadir for LGBT equality advocates in Colorado.

Since then, there have been many changes.

(more…)


Full story: Civil Unions: A Long Legislative Journey That Ends Today

RMGO, GOP Desperate To Kill Remaining Gun Safety Bills

19
  by: Colorado Pols Mon March 11, 2013 at 4:50 PM MDT

TUESDAY UPDATE: Sen. Michael Johnston's memorable address to the Senate in favor of House Bill 1224 yesterday in its entirety:

FOX 31 covered Johnston's speech:

“Any society that holds more than one value, holds no value absolutely,” Johnston said, arguing that the Second Amendment, like all Constitutional rights, has its limits.

Johnston also spoke emotionally about the Newtown, Conn school shooting, noting that the only victims who were spared were those who escaped as the gunman finally reloaded.

“Every single bullet mattered. Because he put the gun to the head of a 5-year-old, one after the other, and made sure he never missed,” Johnston said.

“In that 11 seconds when he reloaded, 11 kids got away. What if that were a 15-round mag. We could have picked 11 of those little five foot coffins and chosen not to fill them.”

—–

UPDATE: 5:20PM: House Bill 1224, limiting magazine capacity, wins final Senate passage on an 18-17 vote. Democrats Cheri Jahn and Lois Tochtrop oppose as expected, but other Senators hold firm.

—–

UPDATE 4:45PM: In a dramatic speech on the Senate floor, GOP Sen. Greg Brophy announces that he will "not obey" House Bill 1224, limiting gun magazine capacity, if passed. No truth to the rumor that Brophy took his ball and went home last weekend when his kickball team was losing.

But seriously, this is an elected member of the legislature publicly announcing that he will refuse to obey a law if it is passed in the legislature, of which he is a member. That's not a principled stand. It's cowardice. It's childish. And it send a terrible message to families around the state: If you don't like the law, then just ignore it!

—-

UPDATE 12:00PM: House Bill 1229, closing the background check loophole, wins final Senate passage 19-16 with Democratic Sen. Lois Tochtrop dissenting as expected. The Senate earlier passed Senate Bill 197 20-15 (party line) on third reading, denying guns to persons who commit domestic violence.

—–

AP reports via the Durango Herald after Friday's marathon House debate:

Democrats moved forward with new ammunition magazine limits and universal background checks. But they withdrew two of the most controversial pieces of the package, including a gun ban on college campuses and a measure to hold assault-weapon owners liable for damages caused by their weapons…

Friday’s gun debate stretched past 12 hours, with Republicans in the Senate taking turns trying to defeat the gun controls. Democrats pulled the two most divisive bills before Republicans could speak against them. At least three Democrats were planning to side with the GOP, a margin big enough to defeat those measures.

A formal Senate vote on the measures is required [this] week before the bills clear the Senate. Republicans took to Twitter immediately after debate concluded late Friday to urge changed votes by Monday.

We've heard reports of gun-rights advocates and Republican legislators working overtime this weekend on a last-ditch strategy to peel off one or two more Democrats–especially from House Bill 1224, the bill limiting magazine capacity on which Republicans are making their final stand. It's worth noting that the killing of two of the most controversial bills by their Democratic sponsors–Sen. Rollie Heath's gaffe-plagued House Bill 1226 restricting on-campus concealed weapons, and Senate President John Morse's assault weapons liability bill–have given Republicans substantially less to complain about. That said, the onslaught of conservative messaging on Twitter and social media hasn't changed much since those bills died. For all the conservatives on Twitter still ranting on about House Bill 1226, you'd think it hadn't died at all.

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Full story: RMGO, GOP Desperate To Kill Remaining Gun Safety Bills

Was the biplane’s banner aimed at a debate on some other planet?

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  by: Jason Salzman Wed March 6, 2013 at 12:13 PM MDT

(Is it so hard to report elementary facts, reporters? – promoted by Colorado Pols)

You’re feeling pretty good right now if you were one of the gun-rights activists who paid for the biplane that flew over the Colorado Capitol Monday carrying a banner: “Hick: Do Not Take our Guns.”

Local reporters ate up the banner, and a Google search turns up about 2,000 hits.

One problem: The banner was totally misleading, in the context of what was actually happening below the plane on the ground at the Capitol.

If you own a gun, you won’t lose it under the proposed legislation. And if you’re a law-abiding citizen, the bills won’t affect your ability to buy a gun.

As such, you’d think reporters who cited the banner would have pointed out, hey, its message doesn’t connect with reality in Colorado.

But just one story bothered to say that the banner was a sky-high form of manipulation.

As far as I can tell, only 9News’ political reporter Brandon Rittiman did the right thing and put the banner in context:

A constant drone of honking car horns could be heard from inside the governor's office, part of a demonstration against the gun control measures. A hired airplane flew over the Capital for hours towing a banner that read, "HICK: DO NOT TAKE OUR GUNS."

"There's a plane flying around that's saying, 'Hick, don't take our guns.' Well, here's the answer: we're not taking any guns," said the governor.

While nobody would have to give up a gun they currently own under the proposals, the protestors still see them as overly restrictive of the second amendment. [bigmedia emphasis]

Other reporters let the banner speak for itself. 

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Full story: Was the biplane’s banner aimed at a debate on some other planet?