President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Kamala Harris

(R) Donald Trump

80%

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) V. Archuleta

98%

2%

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

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Marshall Dawson

95%

5%

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

(D) Adam Frisch

(R) Jeff Hurd

50%

50%

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

(R) Lauren Boebert

(D) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank

(D) River Gassen

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) John Fabbricatore

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen

(R) Sergei Matveyuk

90%

10%

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

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

70%↑

30%

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
May 22, 2010 03:25 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 92 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.”

–Mahatma Gandhi

Tweet
Share

Comments

92 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. LOVELAND – Third Congressional District Republicans split on their two candidates, leaving Scott Tipton and Bob McConnell to campaign until August for the nomination.

    Tipton, a Cortez legislator who was defeated in 2006 for the congressional seat, outpolled McConnell, of Steamboat Springs, who is making his first bid for Congress, 54.5 percent to 45.5 percent in the district assembly in the Embassy Suites Convention Center.

    …An exuberant McConnell, who brought many of the 617 delegates to their feet declaring, “I join you as being an American who is angry” and describing the ruling Democratic party as wanting a “socialist utopia.”

    ..McConnell called for elimination of the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Reserve, and a return to the gold standard, the latter of which caused may Tipton delegates to shake their heads.

    …Tipton, nominated by his daughter Liesl Ross, attacked U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., as “being in lockstep with Barack Obama and (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi.”

    Tipton called for “capitalist solutions” to the nation’s health care woes.

    …McConnell said he was thrilled, but not surprised with the outcome of the vote, calling it humbling.

    http://www.gjsentinel.com/news…

    Oh fun!

    1. I do not have my own wifi card (and don’t wish to buy one) and could not get access at the assembly site.

      Glad to see David will be live and will look forward to reading his report this evening.

      I can report that check-in started on time right at 7:00 am. I was the first alternate in line and signed in right at 7 so I will be the first one seated for any missing Denver delegates.  

      1. I presume you mean a cellular data card, not wi-fi, what you connect with at home or office.  Only the creakiest laptops don’t have one built in.  

        T-mobile lets one tether his phone to a laptop using Bluetooth or cable, thereby using the phone’s data services.  Been doing this for years when needed.  Way too cheap to pay $60/month for non-tethered service.  I have EDGE service for free, about 150kb/sec.  The very fast G3 (limited coverage, too)is not anything I need, so I don’t pay for it.

        (My Nokia Communicators over the years also permit wireless MODEM connections.  That’s right, you dial into your ISP!  Very slow, 9kb/sec, but just fine for email.)

        It’s my understanding that Verizon blocks this, although how they would know, I can’t readily see.  

    2. god, you are really good.  I wish I was there…your blog made it real.  Can’t wait for the delegate count.  Thank you for doing this.

    3. You should have done this as a live blog on the front page, rather than your site. Good job, but I didn’t even click on it because I scrolled past earlier.

    5. How am I supposed to pay attention to my family if you decide to spend the afternoon with yours?

      Like many, I cut out of the State Assembly after the Senate vote. But I read your blog with interest (until you decided not tor return from lunch) since I spent from 7-10 doing registration and didn’t really get settled in until Hick spoke.

      As others have posted toward the bottom, the Senate breakdown was 60/40. I don’t think this is surprising to anyone watching this race. Meanwhile Maes edged out McInnis for top of the ballot in the GOP Governor’s race.

    1. … it does almost nothing to cover the uninsured. I think the big Republican alternative this past year was “more HSA accounts!” I am a fan of high-deductible, low-premium plans;  in which my spending is out of my HSA; I do think the market will yield more of these; and I do think that will lower health care costs.  But they’re no substitute for actually trying to cover the uninsured, for whom a HSA does very little.

  5. While going into the library yesterday,  a young man asked me if I would sign a petition to place Sen. Bennet on the ballot.  I asked him ‘Why do you support Sen. Bennet?  Why should I vote for him?’  He said he didn’t know; he was collecting signatures for class credit.

    If he was telling the truth, why would collecting signatures count as class credit?  Of course if he were interning as part of a political science class, it would make sense, except that if he were interning in the Bennet campaign, wouldn’t he have some idea of why one would vote for the Senator?

      1. It’s fabulous when someone anonymously impugns another person’s integrity (“if he’s telling the truth”) with something so laughable and expects us to believe it without questioning his or her own integrity.

        My basic belief is that “basicbeliefs” is a liar.

    2. encourage them to participate in a campaign for credit.  We got some kids to help us canvass for our Littleton City Council candidate last year for class credit.

      1. Doesn’t sound so weird at all for a kid who is just volunteering for credit to be disengaged from the candidate and campaign.

        Then again, the original post was just a troll.

    3. That’s really suspicious. No ethical teacher would ever ask a student to do something like this (and any who did should be fired).

      More likely you just made this up.

    4. He is taking a poli-sci course and gets credit for doing some kind of campaign work. So he went to work as a petition circulator (paid or unpaid I would have no way of knowing.)

      Since it sounds like the school credit is his motivation, it may explain why he doesn’t really know anything about the candidate.

  9. @BobMooreNews

    Scott McInnis won’t be reachable when results announced because he’s headed to daughter’s wedding in Estes, campaign says. #COGOPassembly 27 minutes ago via web

    Only a slightly stressful day for McInnis.

  10. Senate primary numbers: Bennet 40, Romanoff 60. Bennet has cut into Romanoff base and will not need to petition on.  Primary kicks into high gear.

      1. First off, they already have nearly if not all of the names they would need if they had to petition on. They weren’t waiting until the last minute so those are already done and in the can. Second, thousands of new names give you one heck of a new base to hit for dollars and GOTV efforts.  

          2. that were collecting signatures that they intended to get a motherload to offset the inevitable signatures that are always thrown out for one reason or another.  

    2. but Bennet sign wavers crowd louder.  Bennet folks started chants.  People standing behind him on stage did some foot stomping.  There were plenty of base activists showing plenty of enthusiasm for Bennet.  

      Andrew gave very nice speech, not nearly as negative as some previous. Specifically said he’d be a Bennet supporter if Bennet wins.  Bennet usual nice self.  Hopeful for reconciliation among all but a few Dems heading into November.

      1. The Post says he got 57 percent of the delegates at County Assemblies.  So he did not cut into Romanoff’s base.

        Still, I think it is a victory of sorts.  It’s not impossible to stampede an assembly.  The fact that it didn’t happen is good news for him.

        2. The race is virtually unchanged. Romanoff is more popular with the insiders and people who know him, Bennet is more popular with the newer Democrats who came in to caucus in ’08.

          Both Romanoff and Bennet will be on the ballot, with Romanoff getting the top spot. It’s exactly what many people (including myself) were predicting all the way back in September when Romanoff announced.

          This race has always been about August 10th. Romanoff failed to knock Bennet off despite the Romanoff campaign and their surrogates’ best efforts to smear and attack Bennet.

          Now it will be up to the 300,000 or so people who will vote in the primary.

          Still, good victory for Romanoff, but they’d better not be thinking they can ride the Assembly Romentum all the way into August. If it doesn’t translate into more money, then it’ll be a Pyhrric victory.

          (Also that was SXP you were replying to, not me, but it’s pretty much my sentiment too.)

          2. but it has got to take the edge off for him to look across and witness the results of the R assembly. I mean, if he’s in the winner’s circle with Dan Maes that doesn’t really bode well.

              1. This is such a weird year that none of us is sure what’s going to happen. Romanoff got a couple of extra points over the counties – but just a couple. So not a big shift, but the little one was to Romanoff.

                I think the GOP side is where it’s really unusual – I think Buck could well win the primary. And I think Maes actually has a shot.

                As to Romanoff vs Bennet – I still think it’s Bennet’s to lose. Both of them are improving but if they both improve at the same rate, that leaves the advantage with Bennet.

                1. The Dems have issue of the appointed incumbent being a newcomer to elective office against a party favorite son now being cast in the role of challenger (despite the fact that he has won statewide at each level so far). Will primary voters follow the intra-party trend?

                  The GOP has the “Tea Party” phenomenon going on. So far, most (all?) federal and statewide toe-to-toe matches between “Tea” and “Tenured” have gone to the Tea column. Colorado is following the trend in the assembly process, but will it in the primary?

                  These and other intriguing questions will be answered in the Aug. 10th episode of “As the Candidate Turns Right/Left (pick based on your party)”

                  1. … does the Tea Party defeat of establishment favorites have a Dem analogue?  I’m a little dubious: the two supposed data points for an anti-incumbent Dem streak are Specter in PA and Lincoln in AR, but both had really antagonized their party faithful — Specter by being pretty partisan even when he was a liberal R (e.g., he voted for Bush econ policy & John Roberts, and many libs in PA never forgave his aggressive interrogation of Anita Hill in ’91); Lincoln by screwing over the Obama agenda by running to the right (which may have been good gen election politics in AR but which is bad primary politics).

                    Any other examples of a Dem anti-incumbent streak in 2010?  (Not a facetious question.)

                    1. And I’ll tell you what the Democratic incumbent picture is in November. If people find it unacceptable, it’s going to be a bloodbath for us Dems.

                      Same in August. If I was Romanoff I would be hammering Bennet on jobs, jobs, & jobs. (And a mention of failing to address truly fixing the financial system.)

                    2. … and I suppose my pessimism about November is based on a pessimism that the job market will get that much better that quickly. I really do think the economy has turned the corner, but it takes forever for bad unemployment to drop enough for people to feel good.

              2. On the Democratic side, I think it shows that Romanoff’s 15 years in the game was worth a 20 point lead over a Senator with only 17 months to build up his campaign.  But I’m certain the momentum will all be Bennet’s, given the continuing flow of earned media, and of course, paid campaign ads.

                But on the GOP side, this is amazing — both establishment candidates — Norton and McInnis are getting the message from the people most likely to volunteer, contribute and GOTV that they’re mad and aren’t gonna take it anymore.

                Major splitsville for the Republicans.  The Democratic message I heard from most of the candidates today was about inclusion, positive, practical solutions, and coming together for all Coloradans (Independents and Republicans too), which I believe will resonate with the majority in November.

        1. as someone from your same precinct, and a Bennet supporter to boot, I’m still very upset with your decision. I appreciate and understand that this was a hard decision that left you with mixed feelings, but as someone who represented our precinct and then our county as a Bennet supporter only to flake out at the last minute, I feel your decision was in error.

          I don’t mean to beat a dead point with this, but I think it’s appropriate to point out that, regardless of whether you were allowed to do so or not, you have let a lot of people down.

          1. Do you feel that delegates should be bound regardless of what occurs? What if during that time HCR came up for the final Senate vote and Bennet was the deciding vote against? Would your opinion still be that delegates are bound?

            The Bennet campaign was really glib about “hey, if we are forced into another great recession in 10 year we’ll agree you were right.” But if we are now back in the mode of a serious recession every 10 years answered by a taxpayer bailout, isn’t that important enough?

            1. for two reasons.

              First stems from Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, which is to say that while it is impossible for an entire precinct or county to aggregate preferences in any one delegate (i.e. we all were supporting Bennet for a variety of reasons, some of which were conflicting), but nonetheless we all supported Bennet. So the only thing a delegate knows is, not the reasons they were elected to support a candidate, but that candidate which they were elected to support. Therefore if a candidate changes their opinion (which wasn’t even the case for you this time around), but taking your example of HCR, some supporters that elected you as delegate may support that and some might not. Point is you don’t know, you can’t know, and even if you did there is no way you could aggregate all those individual reasons to support Bennet into a single “group” reason (i.e. the Impossibility Theorem). So at that point, if you change your vote as a delegate, then you are changing based on your own reasons for preferring a candidate, but we (as a precinct as a county) did not elect or support you, we supported Bennet, so in effect you are marginalizing our votes and voices in a process which is already elitist to begin with.

              Which leads to the second reason…

              Why should we trust an average delegate’s reasons for preferring? After reading and engaging with your material here, I am fairly confident that you are an intelligent person capable of making very reasoned and logical decisions. However, when someone asks to be a delegate, what do we know about them and their decision-making framework, much less intelligence? This is the reason that any analogy with elected officials fails, because with people running for office, they have to give us reasons why we should trust their judgment to make decisions without consulting with us. They have to prove their ability and intelligence in order to get that trust from us. Delegates don’t. I’m not prepared to trust some random person’s judgment on who to support, even if that means genuinely intelligent persons such as yourself Dave, are locked into voting against your conscience and reason. If we had a more thorough vetting process for delegates, then maybe I would be more lenient on this.

              And more particular to the case at hand (and your second paragraph) I just think your reasons for switching your vote are bogus. So even if I’m completely wrong with everything I wrote above this, and delegates should be free to vote for whichever candidate they want, I still think you let down your county, precinct, and party by withdrawing your support based on bad reasoning. This post is long enough so I won’t list out why, plus that’s kind of moot at this point, if you want to go into the issue more, my email is in my profile page, feel free to shoot me an email and we can discuss it either via email or down at cafe sole or something.  

        2. about why you bailed on Bennet.  But first, I need to finally and definitively settle the question of how many angels can dance on the head of the a pin.

           Whatever, amigo.  Personally, I think your decision was just silly, but that doesn’t make you a bad person or a traitor to whatever it is your critics said you betrayed.  It’s just a decision.   And, like other human activities, fallible.

             

          3. Certainly no sillier than the decisions made by delegates (for either candidate) to just not show up at the Assembly.  With a hotly contested race like the Senate one this year, it makes no sense to me that people jump up and down in excitement to be a delegate from their county to the state, then later, just lose interest and decide something else is more important.  I don’t believe any of the local Dem officers in my county showed up at state.  Not the way I was “raised” in the Party.

    2. Take it for it’s worth, but I think your diary was more meaningful than your decision not to go as a delegate.

      Who you vote for in August, that matters.

      1. The diary & comments was probably a lot more meaningful. My mom (remember she’s a state rep) read it and she thought the diary and comments was a superb discussion. We’re here every day so we don’t realize what a rare thing we have with our community – having robust discussion on the issues.

        I’m hoping that this stays as one of the main topics in the election. I noticed that the Romanoff campaign jumped on this Friday afternoon. And I’ll bet Ken Buck makes this a major topic in the general.

        1. Boring as hell.  David, you’re blogging put me right there and you captured the flavor of a democratic state assembly.  I am pissed at the dems for letting the repub talk media walk all over them…..but I was drawn back into the fold as you described the damm rituals so damm well.  It was like returning to church or a reunion of my house of many colors….

          Did Norton get the Palin endorsement???  I don’t think so.

        2. That’s the entire purpose of the caucus process. So, even though you decided not to go, it didn’t really make a difference. If Romanoff had gotten 71%, it would be a different story, but even then, Bennet will have enough signatures to petition on anyway.

          Like I said, your diary was more meaningful because you were such a staunch supporter of Bennet up until now.

          Also, you never answered my question in that diary: who do you plan to vote for on August 10th?

  13. In 3 months she leaves for Harvey Mudd and my wife and I are empty nesters. Enjoy the time you have with your children – it’s limited.

    ps – And kudos to BVSD. They aren’t perfect but all 3 of my daughters got a strong education there. I’d put Fairview High School up against any private school.

  14. which prohibits private owners of businesses which serve the public from discriminating against people on the basis of their race, shows the problem with blind ideology in general, and Libertarian blind ideology in particular. Paul is right that his blind dogma would have to reject Article II as a government infringement on the individual liberty to discriminate, but, despite the noise they make disproportionate to their numbers, few Americans are left who do not believe that some such infringements are necessary, in order to promote economic efficiency and sustainability, public health, or, as in this case, civil rights. That’s why it’s time for all of us to be reasonable people of good will, PROGRESSING together into the future.

  15. Time to shut down Sharks and head to the Finals. The last time they were there, I was still in college.

    Oh shit. SJ just scored.

    1. And I’m a lot older than you.

      The year I graduated High School, the Hawks traded away Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield and got Pit Martin, Jack Norris, and Gilles Marotte, thereby ensuring that Chicago would win squat and Boston would go to the finals in six of the next ten years.

      Of course I was a Rangers fan at the time, and that REALLY sucked.  Damned Bruins.

      1. Thanks a lot. You don’t need to bother reminding me the last time the Cubs won the World Series, by the way, just in case you were considering doing so.

                1. So there, smart pants. (Although I admit I was switching back and forth between the Cubs game and they just won. Beat the Rangers yesterday and today, no less.)

                  And now I’m watching the power play and upon genius Earnest’s suggestion, I’m cracking open a bottle of Gnarly Head Cabernet and getting lit at work.

                    2. Holy shit. Nobody at the net. Nobody. WTF? Oh, I almost feel bad for the Sharks. What a fucking shot. Wide open.

                    4. I can’t believe it. Man, I wish I were in Chicago right now.

                      Didn’t know that about the goalie–I know next to nothing about hockey–I just like to watch and see the occasional tooth knocked out as a bonus, like today.

  16. Palin’s speech in Denver was in the form of a ‘conversation’ she would have with the president.  In addition to deregulating all businesses, she wants to ‘end’ government spending.  Of course, for most local communities, government (federal, state, local) provides the largest number of jobs.  For state’s like CO military spending–government money–is critical. Hell, 1/2-term Governor Palin spent years on the public dole, flying her family around on the public dime.  

    She would attempt to persuade him to limit all government interference with business– to “end the bailouts and government spending” so the economy could “roar back to life.” She would tell him to be proud of America and to end the “apology tour” that she said defines his foreign policy, where our enemies are coddled and our allies alienated.

    …She also said she would point out the irony of Obama’s wanting to lead the country toward European socialism even as Europe is finally having to reckon with market realities and failing.

    And she loves talk radio…

    “I love talk radio. Talk radio audiences are some of the most knowledgeable in the country,” she told the crowd. “What you’re doing for Americans is just so great,” she told Prager and Hewitt and the radio show producers. “Teaching us all about the Constitution.”

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

177 readers online now

Newsletter

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