Category Archives: Walker Stapleton

As the Colorado Statesman’s Ernest Luning reports:

State Treasurer Walker Stapleton and Secretary of State Scott Gessler berated Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper for refusing to take controversial positions when the two Republicans spoke on Monday before a conservative audience in Lakewood…

Asked by an audience member to describe their relationships with Hickenlooper, Stapleton and Gessler said they were frustrated with the governor’s ability to maintain stratospheric approval ratings while he avoids wading into potentially divisive fights.

“It’s dawned on me, after spending my entire life in the private sector, that politics is a strange business,” said Stapleton, cracking a bemused smile. The reason, Stapleton said, is that “the less you do, the more popular you are. Think about how backwards that is.”

It’s not like other professions, Stapleton continued, where more ambition and accomplishments usually lead to higher stature. “In politics, as long as you can sit comfortably on the sidelines when it comes to controversial issues, you’re popular. And we have a governor who’s incredibly adept at sitting on the sidelines on consequential issues facing our state.” [Pols emphasis]

Ouch! So much for executive branch comity, we guess.

That said, we do expect a mix of reactions to this story, so far as we know the most explicit criticism of Gov. John Hickenlooper offered by either Treasurer Walker Stapleton or Secretary of State Scott Gessler to date. You could argue that Stapleton and Gessler’s relative “activism” has been the real failure–Gessler has tripped almost every voting rights alarm there is in less than a year in office, failing in court repeatedly, while Stapleton has devoted his time to scrutinizing state public employee retirement funds–two years late to the reform party. Not to mention taking his “moonlighting” investment firm private, inviting charges of personal hypocrisy.

On the other hand…one of Stapleton’s main beefs with Hickenlooper was his failure to take a stand one way or another on Proposition 103, isn’t it? We know more than a few of our readers are likely to agree–or at least did agree around Election Day earlier this month. Unfortunately, the lopsided margin by which Proposition 103 was defeated makes it very difficult to question Hickenlooper’s neutrality: by Democrats or Republicans. In retrospect, it sure doesn’t look like Hickenlooper’s endorsement would have made a difference, and there’s an argument that by staying away from Proposition 103, Hickenlooper has kept his hands clean to propose a more comprehensive solution on his terms. Republicans see a ripe target in Proposition 103 after its defeat, but attempting to tie it to Hickenlooper personally just doesn’t work.

Beyond that, we’re just not sure you can accurately call Hickenlooper’s first year “unproductive” in any sense. Hickenlooper showed leadership defending the state’s new health insurance exchange from nonsensical “Tea Party” attacks, and vetoed legislation that would have hiked premiums on many children insured by the state’s Child Health Plan Plus program. Hickenlooper’s most dramatic use of executive power so far was his sacking of the Limiting Gaming Control Commission after they refused to undo a politically unfathomable vote to cut taxes on the casino industry. Hickenlooper’s personal involvement in negotiations with major businesses is resulting in relocations to Colorado and all-important jobs–for which he doesn’t seem to be getting much credit from the state’s chief financial officer.

It seems like every news story about Hickenlooper these days alludes to the fact that he’s been “mentioned” as a possible presidential candidate beginning in 2016 due to stellar approval. Stapleton says that Hickenlooper’s very high approval ratings are a result of his “staying on the sidelines” on the big issues. We think the truth is somewhere in the middle: Hickenlooper is popular now with much political capital left to spend, but before he runs for President, he’s going to need to spend it. A long-term, comprehensive resolution to Colorado’s perpetual fiscal struggles would indeed be one hell of a success story on which to run for President.

For as much as we hear about Hickenlooper’s possible long-term aspirations for higher office, which is fairly often, we think Hickenlooper knows he has yet to earn his way.

Full story: Gessler, Stapleton Get Publicly Surly With Hickenlooper

(But don’t comment to “ColoradoPols bloggers!” – promoted by Colorado Pols)



Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler said last month that he thinks  ”a lot of the mainstream media” get upset when Republicans “make waves,” but these hostile feelings toward the media didn’t stop him Monday from suggesting people can influence newspaper editors by writing letters to the editor and online comments.

“So, sign up for our e-newsletters, sign up for our notifications, write an email, write an email to us so you know what’s going on,” he said. “Come to our rulemaking hearings. Once every two months, write a letter-to-the-editor. Twenty minutes a week, do a blog. I won’t ask anyone to contribute money to a campaign. And serve as an election judge. Those are the things you can do. [BigMedia emphasis]

“When they write a story, and they see a large number of comments one way or the other, that means something,” said Gessler. “We do a terrible job on our ideological side of the fence. We do a terrible job of this.“[BigMedia emphasis]

Gessler’s comments came in response to a question from the audience at his lecture Monday evening at Colorado Christian University’s Centennial Institute.

The unidentified questioner asked speakers Gessler and Colorado State Treasurer Walker Stapleton what ordinary citizens can do.

In addition to writing letters-to-the-editor and blogging, Gessler suggested people volunteer as election judges, sign up to receive e-mails from his office, and attend rulemaking hearings or submit comments on proposed rules.

Gessler said testifying during the rulemaking process is important but did not have an impact in the recent challenge of his rule to increase the amount of money a group of people can raise for an political issue before their group is subject to campaign finance laws.

“Now, this particular court [in the issue-committee-threshold case] didn’t read any of that [citizen testimony], so he [the judge] wasn’t quite prepared, which he admitted, which is unfortunate, but I’m sure the Court of Appeals will be far more prepared than he was, and those comments are just critical for helping me out,” said Gessler.

Here’s an excerpt of Gessler’s comments on this topic:

Look, if you can spend time, two or three hours, once every two months, to write a letter-to-the editor, that makes a difference. Writing a letter-to-the-editor once every two months really makes a difference.  It only takes three or four hours, about as much time as you’ll spend driving here, listening, and driving home. That makes a difference.

It doesn’t just have to be The Denver Post.; particularly local papers as well helps. When you see something in a local paper online, I’m assuming most people go online., instead of merely raging at the machine, I love raging at the machine, don’t get me wrong, instead of merely raging at the machine, write a post to that story. Because let me tell you something, newspaper editors pay attention to that stuff. And actually a lot of readers pay attention to that stuff too. When they write a story and they see a large number of comments one way or the other, that means something. We do a terrible job on our ideological side of the fence. We do a terrible job of this. I’ll go online, and my wife is watching, and she’ll say, ‘Don’t read those. Don’t read ‘em.’ And I’ll read them nonetheless. And look, people on our side don’t take the time to do that. You don’t have to put your name. You can be anonymous. You have sign up and register with your real name, but it can be absolutely anonymous.  I would challenge everyone to do this, 20 minutes, once a week. That’s what I would challenge you to do for 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes once a week.

The other thing is, come to my website…and sign up for our e-newsletters….

So my office engages in rulemaking a lot. I just said, I’m re-doing all the campaign finance rules to make them clear. Okay. What helps me a lot, is when you come in to my office during rulemaking. You can come in person, is the best and testify. You can write us an email and that becomes part of our record. You can write us a regular letter and that becomes part of our record. The reason this is so important is, if I say, for example, I want to raise the threshold, and I did this. I held a rulemaking hearing, saying I want to raise the threshold to $5,000.  Well, what happened is people came in, and I see Matt Arnold with his hand up the entire time, and he’s one of the people who came in. I’m teasing Matt. And he said look, and other people did, this is why it’s so hard, this is the burden we face. And when I get that evidence and testimony, and I can take that evidence and testimony and use it in court to defend myself. So if you can bring your personal experiences in, that’s just so critical. Now, this particular court didn’t read any of that, so he wasn’t quite prepared, which he admitted, which is unfortunate, but I’m sure the Court of Appeals will be far more prepared than he was, and those comments are just critical for helping me out.

So, sign up for our e-newsletters, sign up for our notifications, write an email, write an email to us so you know what’s going on. Come to our rulemaking hearings. Once every two months, write a letter-to-the-editor. Twenty minutes a week, do a blog. I won’t ask anyone to contribute money to a campaign. And serve as an election judge. Those are the things you can do.

And let me tell you. If everyone in this room did those things on a consistent basis, it would make a huge impact here in the state of Colorado. It would have an impact people rarely ever see. Just the people in this room, if everyone did that on a consistent basis.

Full story: Gessler suggests people influence journalists by, among things, blogging 20 minutes a week