U.S. Senate
See Full Big Line
(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
See Full Big Line
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
See Full Big Line
(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
See Full Big Line
(D) A. Gonzalez
(D) George Stern
(R) Sheri Davis
50%↑
40%
30%
State Treasurer
See Full Big Line
(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
See Full Big Line
(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
See Full Big Line
(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
See Full Big Line
(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
See Full Big Line
(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
See Full Big Line
(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
See Full Big Line
(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
See Full Big Line
(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
August 01, 2007 03:09 PM UTC
57 Comments
The Chicago Tribune reported that eight Chicago-area mayors are joining forces to combat oil giant BP’s plan to increase its releases of ammonia and other pollutants into Lake Michigan. BP recently won approval from Indiana regulators to exempt it from state environmental laws as it prepares for an expansion of its refinery in Whiting, Indiana. http://www.coloradop… While Doug Lamborn was the only Colorado Congressman, and one of only 26 House Republicans, voting against House Resolution 187 Expressing the Sense of Congress Regarding the Dumping of Industrial Waste Into the Great Lakes, the largest fresh water source in the world and the source of drinking water for 30,000,000 Americans, all one needs to know is that Indiana is the home of Club for Growth “superstar” Congressman Mike Pence, and therein one may see Lamborn’s desperation to continue sucking up to the Club for Growth, hoping it will repeat for him in 2008 that which it did for him in 2006. By supporting a Club for Growth Indiana Congressman’s interests in not thwarting BP’s refinery and its plans to dump pollutants into Lake Michican, Lamborn may curry some favor with the Club for Growth or with Mike Pence, but at what expense to safe drinking water supplies to the 30,000,000 Americans–not just the 8 Chicago-area mayors’ cities–who rely on the Great Lakes for water?
Oops, I mean this issue, but it occurs to me that ammonia is the number one nitrogen fertilizer in the farm belt. So what would that do to algae blooms and such? Wow.
Obviously, it would cost them more to capture and sell this low value by product, but that’s no different than the sulfur removed from diesel fuels.
Make them do it.
should not have the right to unilaterally allow the trashing of such an enormous and vital resource. The repercussions will be national and even global, not just regional and certainly not confined to one state. As such, this should not be an issue left to any single state. The nation’s governors and members of congress should join the mayors to stop this.
Lamborn’s record on water issues isn’t impressive. I consider it disastrous. The way he voted on the Great Lakes matter is comparable to his vote on the dogfighting measure–he’s voting way, way, way out of line with my party, the Republican party.
Here follows another bad vote by Lamborn on water legislation. 167 Republicans voted “yes”, 25 voted “no”, and, not to my surprise, Lamborn was one of the 25 voting “no” on the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, a bill “to provide for the conservation and development of water and related resources, to authorize the Secretary of the Army to construct various projects for improvements to rivers and harbors of the United States, and for other purposes.”
http://www.govtrack….
Just to which Republican party does Lamborn belong? I think this has had some bearing on the party leadership intentionally passing him over for the Armed Services Committee and giving the seat he was supposed to have had to the Republican from California.
the Republican Party in CD-5. He is ALL YOURS. Your party in this district was so blinded by its need to have another rubber stamp Bushite in office, most of you refused to vote for an intelligent, fair minded man because he was a democrat.
Lamborn belongs to the republicans and everything he does is all yours. Any decent person upon seeing the debates between Fawcett and Lamborn should have voted for an intelligent, fair minded person to represent us. Instead you gave us Lamborn. He is yours.
Don’t think the majority of the Republicans in the 5th CD are happy with their choice that did vote for Lamborn. They’ll fix their mistake in ’08.
Lamborn wins again, which I really hope he does, the giggles will erupt from me like a schoolgirl.
Perhaps, but that remains to be seen. Crank has yet to announce, or even announce that he is seriously thinking of announcing. And even if Crank does go for a rematch, Bentley Rayburn may yet muck that up.
There’s a reasonable possibility, maybe even probability, that you will be stuck with Lamborn for the next 15 to 20 years.
Does Fawcett pay you to refer to him as “intelligent” and “fair minded”? Holy crap. Sorry to break it to you buddy, but no amount of intelligence and fair-mindedness would have changed the fact that your man was going to get straight cold-dissed by CD-5. Was that a surprise to you at all? Because every time you post about the guy it’s as if you woke up the day after Election Day expecting Fawcett to have the title of “congressman” only to be surprisingly disappointed. That must have sucked to have been hit so hard by reality.
Yup, we gave you Lamborn because your man would have helped give us Pelosi. We’ll work on getting a real congressman-a position your man will NEVER achieve here in CD-5.
I mean, if he couldn’t pull off a win against Lamborn, how is he intelligent again?
So, a loss to Lamborn signifies unintelligence? I guess that means that Crank, Rivera, and the other also-rans are equally unintelligent?
I wasnt surprised that Fawcett lost, but I was surprised that he lost by such a wide margin. Putting aside the overwhelming registration advantage (clearly, the bad year for republicans doesnt apply in CD-5), Lamborn conducted himself like a total jack-ass. Im not a resident of CD-5, so I really dont care about the goings on, but the fact that you dont feel the least bit embarrassed about your vote for Lamborn, or about the total canard that Fawcett would have given us Pelosi (who we have anyway) is really telling.
And what is with the petty insults?
When, for example, the Club for Growth endorsed and funneled money to a Democrat Congressman, Henry Cuellar, in 2006, wasn’t that the same thing as the Club for Growth working to increase the Democrat’s majority in the House? Cuellar was elected, thanks in part to the Club for Growth’s donors. That’s more than a Republican’s breaking Reagan’s 11th Commandment. That’s political heresy.
Im no fan of CFG or Norquist, and this is with the most cursory glances on my part, but CFG plays to the audience. Saying that Lamborn was going to prevent Pelosi from taking over as Speaker played right into the hearts and fears of CD-5. Can you imagine a woman from *gasp* San Francisco taking over as speaker?!?!
The 11th commandment is a trite cliche that people call for when it is their guy that is getting criticized and losing.
Correct me if I am wrong, but CFG has one goal and one goal only, and that is to get people who will eliminate taxes and decrease the size of government “so it can be drowned in the bath tub.” If some republican were to take an ultra-liberal stance on the environment to the left of their democratic opponent, and were endorsed by Sierra Club I wouldnt call it political heresy, I would call it pragmatic.
If Pelosi were so evil that the CFG and Lamborn used that in support of defeating Jay Fawcett, why did the CFG endorse and fund, as an example, Democrat Henry Cuellar in Texas and send him back to office? I’ve asked myself, “If a Democrat doctor with an active abortion clinic ran for Congress in the 5th CD on a pledge to eliminate all income taxes and his opponent was a Republican minister in a pro-life movement running for the same seat but with a pledge to raise income taxes for the rich to a 70% marginal rate, who would the CFG and Grover Norquist rather see elected?” That’s precisely why the CFG and Grover Norquist are outside the Republican party and why the CFG has no problem endorsing Democrats for Congress and adding to Pelosi’s majority.
This guy always complains about how CD-5 voters rejected an “intelligent” and “thoughtful” man like we personally insulted Fawcett by electing someone with our values. Is Lamborn a lame ass? Sure. But the guy needs to get off this lame line about how the choice was somehow between who was the most intelligent and fair minded. It wasn’t and he doesn’t seem to understand that. All I’m trying to do is put it into perspective for the guy.
I’m just bummed that you responded and not him. Not that I don’t like talking to you, but you’re not the one I’m trying to make a point to
To be fair, if we were to compare Lamborn against Fawcett with regard to thoughtfulness and intelligence I think we both know who would come out on top. But I see your point about voting for someone with your ~values. But I can also see his point, which I see as voting for someone who is not a total lame ass (both points I simplified for obvious reasons).
I argued that the people of CD-5 should have voted for Fawcett for a couple of reasons. Number one was that he was more qualified than Lamborn to represent a district with such a high military population if only because he was in the military. Number two, Lamborn is an extremely poor representation of the district. Number three, so many people on here were bemoaning the fact that Lamborn was going to be elected (after the official results for the primary were counted) that I suggested electing an effective democrat rather than an ineffective republican would be better for all. With Lamborn in office, and the track record of the district, it would not be unusual for him to be re-elected. A democrat would have no such chance.
nobody who supports expanding access to abortion can win in CD-5. Not now. And that is not likely to change over the next 5 – 10 years.
This does not depend on the opinions of the people you talk to, your neighbors or your friends. It depends on who actually bothers to vote. And the average voter in CD-5 is over 65 and a fundamentalist Christian. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not by much.
You don’t have to like that fact, but you ignore it at your own peril.
.
And that’s a good thing? I don’t like the fact that CD5 is Republican any more than I like the fact that CD1 (where I happen live) is Democratic. I have this quaint old idea that competitive elections are a good thing for the entire nation.
If I were drawning the CD boundaries come redistricting time, I’d splice half of CD1 onto half of CD5. (Granted, it would be constitutionally suspect because the two parts would only be linked by a ribbon stretched along I-25, but we’re talking hypothetically.)
Both Lamborn and DeGette would quickly be replaced in their respective primaries by a center-right Republican and a center-left Democrat.
or written in Mickey Mouse.
But a vote for Lamborn is beyond the pale.
…the more Lamborn does, the more ammuniiton an opponent in the primary has. It’s like watching a man commit suicide, slowly, one cut at a time.
After he finishes his political suicide, the taxpayers won’t save anything in salary. We’ll have replaced him, hopefully, with Jeff Crank, but, if not Crank, someone else; however, we’ll sure save one hell of a lot in postage after “Frank”enstein Lamborn is gone.
another $10,000,000 went to a crony.
And you are going to worry about $40,000 in Franking that was approved by the Franking committee ?
…because someone is worse?
Come on, that’s pretty poor rhetoric.
No mention of Colorado’s birthday?
You mean the employees at Colorado Pols were not given today off as a paid holiday? What kind of unpatriotic sweat shop are you operating!
Ok, so your kids comes home with a 51% and says “Dad, I’m doing great!” And I then introduce her to her desk and ground her for the rest of the semester.
So now lets look at the results from Boulder. And BVSD is one of the top performing districts.
The pass rate for 10th grades in Math is 51%. And they say they’re doing a good job. In what world other than education is 51% a good success rate?
And some want to eliminate the CSAPs?
When you don’t measure results you gaurantee mediocrity. The CSAPs could stand improvement but eliminating testing means the students would do even worse.
After all, the teachers know they are going to be measured by this, they teach to the test, and they still get just 50%. That’s pathetic.
you have to get the answer right. In our present system you can get full credit for a wrong math answer as long as you show that you did the work “correctly”. What I don’t understand is, since kids can use calculators so you can’t make computation mistakes, like not carrying from one column to the other accurately, how do you follow the right steps, show your work, compute with a calculator and STILL get the wrong answer? I mean understanding the theory, method, what have you, is peachy but isn’t the point of the method to get you to the correct answer?
Oh and you can get the right answer but if the teacher thinks you deviated a little from the steps you were supposed to show, then your answer is wrong. So it’s now possible for a US student to get every math answer right and get a very low grade while one who never gets the answer right can still get an A. This makes sense? It’s certainly not the way its done in the countries producing all the engineers these days.
And forget engineering, how about just preparing our kids to know how many square feet of carpet they need to buy? We’re not even doing THAT. But we ARE producing kids who FEEL good about their math skills and they keep telling us that’s the important thing. I guess Indian and Pakistani engineers can take care of real world issues for us.
have the best swing coach, short game coach, putting guru, sports psychologist and caddy but he was the one who needed to make the shot. Doesn’t the same apply to students taking CSAP?
I’m not making excuses for teachers because they should be doing there job but I’m convinced the overwhelming majority are doing their job — teaching. They don’t take the CSAP test.
Remember the “take the test day” when CSAP started? None of the adults taking the math test passed. I wonder if that is still the case?
When 50% fail, it’s a systemic failure of the system.
…I mean, if students and adults alike fail, who decides these standards? Think about it. There is nothing objective “out there” that says a certain skill set is normal to have by a certain grade. It’s just assorted someone’s opinions.
Were these skill sets obtained from the sixties? From kids going to Grayland Country or St. Mary’s? I mean who the hell sets the goals and how do they set them in concrete?
I’m certainly against dumbing down, but maybe the goals are unrealistic. How did the non-urban public schools in the state fare? The schools in Longmont or Sterling or Fruita? How did they do?
I majored in Physics and Math. I could solve Schrodinger’s equation for a particle in a box and handle physics problems that combined complex variables and partial differential equations. And I was tested on this stuff and passed.
And today I’d have trouble solving a moderately complex integral or algebraic equation. I know because my daughter has asked for help and while I’m ok on the general theory – mostly, I’d flunk any test she took.
The kids are tested on what they are being taught that year.
And the thing about learning, it doesn’t matter what district or school or background you are from. Because when we’re hiring people at my company all we care about is how qualified you are. And being a stand-out from your background but average by interantional standards is comendable, but it’s not what gets you hired. Because we’re competing against the world.
They should have pass rates of 85% or better.
if a high school diploma still meant, as it once did, that the holder could read, write and do basic arithmetic competently. It no longer means any such thing. Years ago I read that Japanese companies here in the states were demanding college degrees from Americans for jobs done in Japan by high school graduates. I know that high school is not the same in Europe and Asia as here but still… The Japanese reason was that an American high school diploma no longer meant the potential employee was even moderately literate or able to do simple computation.
That’s just not an issue anywhere else in the world. We’ve been spinning our wheels with one questionable theory of education after another, such as the whole give-everyone-stars-and-tell-them-how-special-they-are self esteem movement coupled with the it-doesn’t matter-what-they-know-as-long-as-they-know-how-to-look-it-up theory. There has to be a better way to teach our students what they need to know to be competent and competitive.
…who can whip ours have paid a huge price for that knowledge and those skills. Many, many hours a day/week/month/year stepping over each other. To think of humans as mostly an economic machine is frightening and dehumanizing.
I know, let’s send those kids lots of drugs to take away their ambitions!
Even way back in 1964 when I graduated, there were plenty of social graduations. Came to school pretty often, stayed out of the worst troubles, got a diploma.
I was in Safeway a few days ago, loitering around some section, as were these two nice early 20’s parents with a baby. “Honey,” she asked, “how many ounces are in a pound?”
Sigh.
That’s the fact that we use a brain-dead measurement system – the only country left in the world to do so.
That we become metric like the French? That’s downright un-American and all you are doing is aiding and abetting the terrorists!
Now I’m off to have a couple of slices of Freedom Toast for breakfast……
I think said individuals would ask the same question in metric. It’s not our system, which millions of Americans – let along the Brits with their pence and stones, far weirder – have learned for generations. These two never learned, and probably have diplomas.
“Honey, how many grams in a kilogram?”
I’m not against CSAPS, and I agree that they impose some degree of accountability on the process. But what I consider too-little understood, and too-little addressed, are the far deeper, systemic problems that cripple American education, with or without CSAPs.
Our public schools systems are geared toward the recruitment and production of mediocrity, in numerous ways. Since the acadmically best and brightest, or even pretty good and pretty bright, tend to select careers that are more intellectually stimulating, higher paying, and merit-rewarding than education, schools are generally staffed by mediocre talent. That same mediocre talent sits in on the hiring committees that fill vacancies, and seeks out colleagues as much like themselves as possible, i.e., mediocre. The radical democratization of our educational ideology (“No child left behind”) means diverting 90% of our educational resources toward the lowest performing and least motivated 10% of our student population (A teacher, for instance, is a limited resource, expected to give the bulk of his/her attention to the worst students). Grade inflation is rampant, because no administrator, no parent, and no student ever complains about it in the particular, and every teacher benefits by engaging in it. Administrators, particularly at the district level, are formulaic and mechanistic, giving lip-service to the value of human capital, but betraying a true belief that the quality of teachers is a constant, that teachers are largely interchangeable, and that all that really matters is that the machinery they manage runs smoothly and without any disruptions from below. Since the highest quality human capital is tempted to innovate, to take risks, and not to compromise quality to expedience, they are often identified as undesirables by district administrators, and in one way or another removed from the institution. And public indifference to all of this, due to the dominance of more generic, pedestrian criticisms about why schools are failing, and a very misguided belief that “corruption” has to involve sex or graft to be important (the standardized corruption of district administrators is far more consequential to education then the ocassional sexual or fiscal scandal), guarantees its continuation indefinitely.
CSAPs are simply a very marginal issue alongside all of this.
For those who have not read the article, the CSAP scores for the state were released today and summarized in the Denver Post.
http://www.denverpos…
The state CSAP results are disappointing in that they represent a significant number of our children who are not performing at grade level in basic skills areas — reading, writing, math and science. The results are also disappointing from a taxpayer’s perspective given that the state spends more on public education than any other category of public service — 34% of the state budget is devoted to public education.
Statewide, here are the % of 10th grade students who were at or above grade level (proficient or advanced):
Reading 69% (31% are below grade level)
Writing 51% (49% are below grade level)
Math 30% (70% are below grade level)
Science 48% (52% are below grade level)
Consider: seven out of ten 10th graders in public schools score below grade level in math. Half can’t write and half don’t perform at grade level in science. Uneducated kids can look forward to a life of poverty. Colorado’s educators should be ashamed of these numbers. Colorado’s taxpayers and parents should demand a change.
I’ve said before that throwing more money at public schools seems like a foolish public policy given the poor results our public schools produce. A dramatic, systematic change is called for.
Which approaches 50% in DPS and is way to high everywhere. We are failing our children.
Over 50 cars in the water and 6 confirmed dead so far. It looks awful – http://www.msnbc.msn…
states there is no reason to suspect a connection to terrorism. Of course not. Who needs terrorists when we’re doing such a great job of letting our infrastructure crumble all by ourselves.
I’d like all those people who want to shrink government down to where it can be drowned in bathtub, think any tax is too much, the free market requires no oversight, safety regulations interfere with business, and repeat the talking point that says “we know how to spend our money better than the government does” to explain how they plan to spend their money to make sure they don’t wind up in a river on their way to work tomorrow. Or how they plan to spend their money so as not to be sickened by the food they buy or damaged by the medicine they take, or crushed by the buildings they work in. We used to read about this kind of thing happening in third world countries. Beginning to look like we’re on our way to becoming one.
From the video it looked like the government agencies did a superb job responding to the disaster. All of them gove if we eliminate taxes.
Every time I drive over the Sunshine Skyway I think of the collapse and deaths of the original one in 1980. How terrible it must have been to be driving along one second and then hurtling into Tampa Bay the next.
Probably caused by the ship’s pilot who was really an Al Qeda shill……just ahead of the curve.
http://en.wikipedia….
Although this is stricly guesswork, do you think this man tends to vote Republican or Dem?
“JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — A Baptist minister has been charged in Tennessee with indecent exposure and driving under the influence.
Police said 58-year-old Tommy Tester of Bristol, Va., was wearing a skirt when he was arrested last week after allegedly relieving himself in front of children at a car wash.
A report also accuses Tester of offering police officers oral sex and says an open bottle of vodka and empty oxycodone prescription bottle was found in his car when Tester was arrested Friday.
Authorities identified Tester as the minister of Gospel Baptist Church in Bristol and an employee of Christian radio station WZAP-AM, also in Bristol. WZAP issued a statement asking for prayers and saying Tester has been suspended during an investigation.
Tester was released Friday on $1,000 bail. A hearing is scheduled for October.”
Man, oh man, it’s like shooting ants in an anthill.
http://www.wgal.com/…
Can’t we find an honest, decent Republican anywhere?
Hank is the type of Pub those Pub voters need to encourage. But are there any in this generation?
I’m sure that there are others, but between the scarcity and the fact that for me, R’s R Scandals, I can’t think of others.
Crazy pinko commie leftist tarist? No, Paul Craig Roberts on the new Robber Barons and Richistan.
http://vdare.com/rob…
http://www.timesonli…
How is saying this is going to help his campaign? I was under the impression after listening to Mirtha that the Blues wanted peace at any cost.
want peace at any cost, you haven’t been listening to Murtha or any other Dem. You’ve been listening to the rightie spin machine.
Most Dems believe the war in Iraq has been using up all the resources we should have been using to deal with our REAL terrorist enemies, none of whom were IN Iraq prior to our invasion. It is the Bush administration that ignores terrorism, not Dems. Their buddies the Saudis go on financing the indoctrination of terrorists in Wahabi Schools while we let the terrorists have safe haven in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The deaths and maiming of Americans in Iraq have done absolutely NOTHING to counter terrorism. That’s why Dems oppose the war in Iraq which NEVER had ANYTHING to do with terrorism. No Dem ever said we should be nice to terrorists or leave Iraq so they’ll leave us alone.
Obama’s a bright guy and in about 10 years, he’ll be ready for “prime time”. But he’s not quite there yet.
And his desperate attempt to look macho and belligerent after his screwed up answering the question about promptly striking back militarily in the event of a terrorist attack shows.
He’s never going to be able to compete with Hillary in the Testosterone Department. None of the Democrats and very few of the Republicans (Giuliani is one who can) can do that!
If OBL is confirmed to be at a specific location inside Pakistan and Musharraf decides to pass on the opportunity to grab him, we should just let him be?
Sorry, I’m not understanding what the big brouhaha is about Obama’s comment.
Maybe. Capturing OBL would have a fairly small affect on the world, even considering its symbolic value and the positive consequences that eminate from that. But there are many other considerations to weigh into the balance when considering military action in Pakistan (undermining Musharraf, who may be on the point of negotiating with civilian leadership -esp. Benezar Bhutto- for powersharing, thus throwing nuclear-armed Pakistan into the lap of the hard-liners). Thanks to our knee-jerk, jingoistic, nationalist inclinations (as a country), we have the unfortunate tendency to throw lit matches on highly combustible situations, without a clue about how to put out the conflagration once ignited. The truth is, OBL is largely insignificant, nor is he in any meaningful way “the guilty party” for 9/11. It’s obvious that he represents a multitude of people, a movement, and we’d be better off dealing with that fact than being overly preoccupied with “getting the bastard.”
Let me substitute OBL with Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has pretty much been acknowledged as the organizational brain behind al-Qaeda. OBL is only good as a figurehead and for the money he controls – and depending on how conspiratorial you feel, the connections he has to the Saudi royalty; kill him, and AQ suffers a minor setback. Kill or capture al-Zawahiri, though, and you probably do some serious damage.
I’m not so sure a Special Forces incursion into Waziristan would be a major setback to Musharraf. Invasion wouldn’t be prudent, I agree. But a surgical strike on a village or home would probably be safe under most circumstances.
Also, I’m not sure if Musharraf is really on our side here. AQ Khan has been essentially back in business for a couple of months now, doing the same wheeling and dealing that he had been doing. There’s a tacit peace arrangement between Pakistan and al-Qaeda – a harbor for AQ to regain its footing. I realize the alternatives have issues, but Bhutto’s finger on the Big Red Button isn’t one of them – she’s had control of those weapons before and no-one blew up…
(presumably Musharraf’s), in practical terms, since 9/11 he has acted about as much in accord with our desires as possible while still retaining power. Anyone manifestly more on our side would have been worse for us, because we would have lost Pakistan altogether as a result.