U.S. Senate
See Full Big Line
(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(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) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
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%
May 11, 2016 07:06 PM UTC
26 Comments
Give us the inside investigative scoop, Marshall! Meanwhile, please note what he didn't tell you. The infamous petition carrier should have been checked by Keyser's campaign staff – the buck stops there regardless of the contractor. The woman in question reportedly gave a false address in registering to vote and on the petition — and hate to tell you, but her Faceboook is like a tribute to Bernie Sanders. She has now disappeared… and I can guess she won't be found easily by anyone. She got her $1 per signature and didn't care how – even if it meant forging names and signatures. My guess is she got the names off of Republican precinct walk sheets – how else would she know who is a Republican voter to forge on the petitions? Yes, the SoS needs to investigate this fraud to the limit of the law – not erase her from the voter rolls.That in itself looks like a coverup. – See more at: http://coloradopols.com/diary/83478/jon-keysers-u-s-senate-campaign-is-basically-finished#comment-606765
Campaign staff generally doesn't do a background check on every independent contract's employee. Sorry. Not the way it works. Resources are spread thin and you have to trust that everybody else will do their jobs.
Sounds to me like Keyser is the victim in this situation of a rogue individual, not a perpetrator.
Oh yeah totally, cry me a river. Which lawyer social club do you and Keyser hang out at again, O'Willeke?
You don't have to use sleazy tactics to try to win partisan fights.
Being fair and decent and taking the high road pays off in the end. I've never met Keyser in my life, but I've worked on plenty of campaigns and have a certain amount of sense about what is and is not fair. There is no Democratic or Republican way to hire petition gatherers to collect signatures. It is pretty much the same job and has nothing to do with the agenda a candidate is pushing.
There is plenty of morally blameworthy conduct to confront. But, you lose all credibility if you cry wolf.
Yeah that's why Keyser won't return the reporter's phone calls.
Sorry, I've seen you low-budget political lawyers mysteriously go to bat for each other too many times not to recognize the bullshit. Keyser is responsible for his campaign, you buck-passing stooge. Period.
Horseshit, Bullshit. Ohwilleke is a straight shooter respected by everyone on this board. If his decency offends you, try insulting me instead. I'll trade you low blow for low blow and have fun doing it.
Ditto that,V. Nothing but the highest regard for Ohwilleke.
Agree Keyser likely a victim unless evidence surfaces to indicate collusion. But, if he is short a significant # of signatures his candidacy should be disallowed
Clarification, she was on the voter rolls but her address turned out to be a lie.
Sorry.
I have a great deal of difficulty getting excited about the fact that somebody hired a petition gathering firm (as just about everybody does), that happened to be sloppy about background checks (which would have been the firm's responsibility not the campaign's), and hired a dishonest employee who acted improperly through no fault of the candidate's own.
He may as well have been hit by lightening, or showed up late to a meeting because he failed to predict a late April snow storm. This isn't something that you want to have happen, but trying to smear the candidate in a situation where he did nothing personally blameworthy lacks class and is little more than rabid bullying. Disagree with the man's politics all you want. But, don't play the guilt by association game. I'm quite certain that Keyser was as stunned as anyone to learn that a subordinate employee he'd probably never met, of an independent contractor who was no doubt hired on the recommendation of someone he trusted, had an attempted forgery conviction.
Maybe it means that his Petition doesn't pass muster mostly because from his perspective he didn't have enough collected to have the necessary cushion to be safe (although AFAIK only ten forged signatures have been identified at this point out of more than tens thousand). But, none of that makes him a bad or dishonest guy.
Ultimately politics should be about trying to treat people with civility if at all possible when it is possible, and I'm certainly not impressed by this little tempest in a teapot.
Elliot, is that you? Fucking lawyers.
Nobody has challenged Mr. Keyser's political ideology. Secondly, from your comments it appears that you have very, very limited or no knowledge of campaigns particularly when a candidate chooses to petition onto the ballot. I really can imagine how upset Mr. Keyser is – but just as the buck stops at the top, the bottom line shows his mistake in hiring campaign staff and the petition signature contractor. Both of which he had total control and decision making power.
I have petitioned people onto the ballot, done far more than my fair share of campaign finance reports, and handled pretty much every other aspect of a campaign over the years.
Keyser will rise or fall based upon whether enough signatures are collected. But the notion that a candidate has any meaningful ability to prevent a rogue employee from being hired is fantasy. He has some very limited ability to influence how he handles it once he learns of the problem and its largely too late to do anything about it. But, that's it. And, it is pretty common knowledge that some sort of criminal record or another is very common in petition gathering which, when you get down to it, is probably not the worst possible thing for someone with a criminal record to being doing out of all possible jobs. Attempted forgery may be particularly concerning. But, shit happens and who survives the shit and who doesn't has a hell of a lot more to do with luck than skill.
But, the hysterical hype over something that does nothing to reflect on the candidates and the attempt to try to make it look like it is blameworthy conduct on his part is full of shit.
You have collected signatures, but you have not worked on the inside of a US Senate campaign that petitioned onto the ballot. Those candidates who made it on the ballot had their staff verify everything regardless of what contractor was hired to run the petition drive. First – no contractor employee even circulates a petition without bringing or sending verification of their voter registration to the campaign, which double checks both. Second, the petitions come in and the campaign staff double checks every signature, address and voter registration – yeah! all 1,500 from each Congressional district.Last, the notary signs and uses their seal to validate every petition before they are sent to the Secretary of State's Office. OK. And why do you think they run these checks and balances? Because the candidate hired them (a good campaign staff) and they want to ensure the candidate makes the ballot and is not hurt, sued or embarrassed by some idiot petitioner who forges signatures or isn't even registered to vote. This is "INSIDE" politics. Keyser made mistakes in hiring his campaign staff, his petition contractors and not keeping tabs on either.
Ohwilleke, let me also clarify that the US Senate campaign staffers checked not just 1,500 signatures on petitions per CD, it was a minimum of 3,000 signatures and addresses and voter registrations. You strive for double the number you need per district knowing some will not be valid. That's why you take all these precautions which Mr. Keyser's campaign did not. All of the petitions carried by Maureen for Mr. Keyser should be dumped – eliminated – because of her fraudulent voter registration address, not just the forgeries but those too.
How about accusations of illegally campaigning in uniform? What about Veterans of the military claiming he's embellishing his service record for political gain? What about his two ballot two step from 3 years ago? He claimed the system failed and he shredded the evidence. http://coloradopols.com/diary/50919/jon-keysers-failed-system-so-much-for-that
He's the candidate. He's shown no leadership. These sorts of problems are not something that just popped up with candidate Keyser, as you can see. You know what rolls down hill, right?
The question, as raised in another topic, is what is the SoS going to do about this ridiculous situation? As that poster pointed out, the SoS is in charge of making sure elections are on the up and up.
Maureen is now 45 years old and still forging… really? She was 28 years old and plead guilty of forgery in NY to get probation – so apparently Maureen wasn't rehabilitated. How many other states have records on her fraudulent activities? Perhaps we need criminal background checks for petition carriers… why not, you want a job or apartment or loan, you are subject to a criminal background check and in most cases will be forced to pay the vendor for it.
Not a bad idea. White collar crime registries are percolating up the criminal justice policy agenda and better to blacklist someone who is a potential threat of future harm to others than to have them wasting away in prison at state expense. More bang for the buck with the Scarlet Letter.
Lol! Just making a point about our society's penchant for background credit and criminal checks
I'm not a fan of ban the box.
It is an empirical fact that background credit and criminal record checks generally have a measurable positive benefit for black and Hispanic (and tattooed and trans and otherwise not out of central casting) apartment applicants, job applicants, etc.
Why? Because, in the absence of that kind of verification, decision makers make gut decisions based upon stereotypes rather than decisions based upon accurate factual information. Employers don't want to be victimized the way that Keyser's campaign was victimized in this case, and if they can't get accurate factual information, they resort to second best solutions and play probabilities and a lot of the time that boils down to conscious or subconscious racial profiling.
I am a small business owner and I have to do background checks on all of my employees. I also have to verify that contractors I hire to do stuff are insured, bonded and carry workman's comp. I'm not running for dog catcher.
What exempts Keyser from all the stuff I have to do? Besides IOKIYAR and the rules don't apply to them?
What's to insure? The campaign won't be up on charges unless it can be proven that they cleared each signature gatherer above and beyond what the contractor might have done. All of the liability already falls directly to the contractor or the petition gatherer under the law.
What?!? As long as she's still eligible to purchase an entire assault armory, Dudley's happy; everything else is just fluff . . . don't be getting all crazy!
It seems clear keyser is more stumblebum than crook. Still not a great campaign slogan.
It's sad for Keyser, but the buck does stop with him. It's also sad for him that he put his faith and his money in a petition-gathering firm that doesn't do due diligence on its employees (or contractors). ohwilleke's right, though, expecting a campaign to check out the petitioners is not S.O. P. But these are not new tactics. About 15 years ago, there was another, very well-known, company that got a very bad reputation for its validity rate. If I were Keyser, though, I would not go silently into that good night. I would be shouting the firm's name from the rooftops- if only to save my party brethren from making my mistake and hiring that lax (or crooked) company.
cook, you're right that Keyser should blame the petition-gathering firm. Often, the fact that these canvassing firms are crooked is a feature, not a bug, for Republican candidates. Remember in 2012 when voter registration people in Pueblo and the Springs would only register Republicans?
However, Keyser has a pattern of lying or fudging the truth – his supposed "two ballots" scandal, political advertising in uniform, campaign finance loans from himself, etc. It does not show anyone who can be trusted to represent our district in Washington.