UPDATE: Colorado Democratic Party chairman Rick Palacio responds:
"Congressman Beauprez has picked sides in the Jefferson County education fight. Not surprisingly, he chose the tea party school board members over parents, teachers and students. Asking our students to wait until the next election to be taught America's rich and incredible history is out-of-touch. To best prepare our children to be our nation's next generation of leaders, they should be armed with the facts, not just the limited and ideological agenda of the tea party extremes."
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The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce is currently hosting a debate between Gov. John Hickenlooper and Republican challenger Bob Beauprez. Politico reporter Manu Raju is moderating the discussion, which you can follow at Politico.com/LIVE or via Twitter under the hashtag #copolitics.
Just a few moments ago, Raju asked a question about the controversy surrounding the Jefferson County School Board, and Beauprez is apparently convinced that it is a smart idea to be critical of the thousands of students, teachers, and parents who have been protesting a proposal to change the curriculum for certain history classrooms. Last week, Beauprez said in a radio interview that teachers are "manipulating" students to walk out of class and join the protests — a comment that echoed Jeffco Superintendent Dan McMinimee and the right-wing School Board. When given another chance to give a different answer to a similar question…Beauprez doubled-down instead.
Here's how Beauprez's answer sounded from the Twitter feed of Fox 31's Eli Stokols (image at right): "We've lost precious instruction time because of the protests…elected school board has obligation to look at [curriculum].
We can't even begin to speculate as to why Beauprez and his campaign team think this is smart approach to answering a question about a subject that has made national headlines for more than two weeks. As we all know, Jefferson County is THE bellweather county in Colorado, and it is essentially impossible to win a statewide race if you don't win in Jeffco. It is also considerably harder to win in Jeffco when your basic response is no more detailed than, Go back to class!
From a political standpoint, this isn't a difficult question to answer correctly. Just take a look at how Gov. HIckenlooper answered to see what Beauprez should have done instead.
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Fish gotta swim.
He isn't TRYING. It's in his Conservative DNA to be totally clueless and lacking in empathy for other points of view. "Freedom be damned. Tyrants are always right!"
Go Bob Go! And take Cory (and Cynthia and Wayne and Walker) down with you 🙂
Boo-pray is done. Finito. History. He will lose every county except for the moron county of El Paso. He already lost everything else.
He'll carry Mesa, Montrose, Delta, Rio Blanco and Routt, too. Fortunately, those counties combined don't quite equal a Denver fart.
I'm not so sure that Beauprez is going to carry Mesa County. People here seem to be pretty upset with the characters that the GOP has given us, and some of the largest Anti-Amendment 67 rallies are happening right here…
Bet you a cocktail, Konola, and I hope you win.
Hey now, I live in that moron county. I'm not a moron, although I do periodically border on doofus.
The Jeffco school board may have already lost this county to Beauprez. But he's doing nothing to help himself.
I tell ya, if Republicans lose their ass in Jeffco because of Julie Williams and her ilk, they'll have earned it all the way.
His politics are anchored in the 19th century. Any decade now, he will notice that most of us are living in the 21st. He will be scratching his head over the mysteries of the smart phone and social media.
Don't forget he will probably carry Weld county too. We love to vote in backwards candidates. Plenty of Gardner and Beauprez signs sticking out of the cow patties and fracking wells up here.
They loves them some CMC and BWB here in Mesa County, as well. Lots of signs…and big ones, too.
Colorado Pols wrote:
It’s not entirely unreasonable to speculate that Beauprez’s target constituency supports these clowns—somebody elected them to the school board after all.