U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
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(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
January 28, 2015 11:37 AM UTC
14 Comments
Wasn't it Mittens who said: Pedophiles are people, my friend?
Red state Rodeo pedophiles are people, too. And he's surely proud of the fact that he doesn't read that Librul Denver Post.
Leave it to the self styled Family Values Party.
Of course we can leave it to them. Remember the creepy and predatory Mark Foley (R-Florida) serving as Chair or the Missing and Abuse Children Caucus by day and sexcting to children by night?
Come on, who's not for "elegant" solutions?? . . .
Some day I'm gonna' have to get me that "Nutter Thesaurus," . . . so I can some clue what they think their words mean.
There is no excuse for this bill, none.
Sen. Lundberg's bill would terminate government oversight of about 2,300 of the approximately 2,500 licensed child care centers in Colorado. His rationale is twofold. First, Colorado child care centers are some of the most expensive in the United States and cutting out regulation will make them affordable. Second, parents should be responsible for who they leave their kids with.
Let's dispose of the second reason first. Parents should be responsible, in part, for who they leave their kids with, but how in the world are they going to know if a child care center or its employees has a record of child abuse. They don't have access to a comprehensive database to run a background check. Lundberg wants to knowingly expose kids to absolutely certain abuse.
His first reason is complete and total nonsense. As one can imagine, he didn't let the following facts get in his way. On average it costs a child care center about $150 each year to maintain their state license. According to Lundberg, such expensive over regulation is driving child care centers out of business in Colorado. Now let's get down to the nitty-gritty. On average it costs a parent $905 per month to have their child in child care in Colorado. Assume a child care center has ten children for a year. Assume the cost of the annual license is incorporated in the monthly fee charged to each of the ten children. That means that each of the parents of each of the ten children is paying $15.00 of the annual $150.00 licensing fee or, put another way, each parent(s) is paying $1.25 per month of the cost of the license. So, extending Lundberg's logic to its inevitable conclusion, if the state child care regulatory scheme is eliminated and therefore, the monthly average cost is reduced from $905 to $903.75, child care centers will no longer be run out of business because of the excessive cost of government regulation. Who is kidding who?! And to think, Lundberg, who is such a good Christian, and yet, for the sake of his anti-government ideology, he wants to knowingly expose kids to pedophiles and ruin their lives.
This isn't legislation and it certainly isn't conservative. Its an act of immorality.
Not to mention the idea that the modest fees involved are putting people out of business is laughable.
Precisely.
So why do it? I'm with the Pols, it makes no sense.
You have to use their logic. "Government is bad" if the government is involved in anyway that is the problem. The military, abortion, and gay rights are excluded from this logic.
Because in Sen. Lundberg's world deregulation is always good no matter what harm it will cause. The government is always evil in his mind and always illegitimate.
Finding affordable childcare is a freaking nightmare. It has kept me, and millions of others, from being gainfully employed. It has caused me countless hours of stress and loss of productivity at work, worrying about the care my children were receiving.
I have left my kids with grandparents (yay!), licensed in home child care providers, university day care centers (yay!) and with sleazy neighbors who smoked (cigarettes and pot) and drank around my kids, or slept with my ex. (yuck) I have left my children with people whose teenage sons or unemployed ex-hubbies lounged around on the couch all day scowling at the soaps or playing video games.(double yuck.)
Let's face it, I was desperate. There are millions of moms and dads across America who leave their kids in similar situations or worse. There are not enough child care openings in the world for all of the kids who need it. For lower income and working class families, the cost of day care is easily 1/3 to 1/2 of one wage earner's net salary.
I'm guessing that Kevin Lundberg has never faced this dilemma:
All Lundberg's bill would do is siphon funds away from the good day by allowing more of the bad day care to flourish.
It' a day later and I see even Modster and AC haven't shown up to defend this bill.
He – and anyone who would vote for this bill – are setting themselves up to be in a pretty terrible situation politically the first time something bad happens. I'd be very worried about this if I were in his own caucus. Bad times over in Republican land.