As the Denver Post reports:
State Sen. Josh Penry may be running for governor – he’ll announce his decision Saturday – but as recently as last week he was raising cash for re-election to the Senate…
The parties allow Penry, R-Grand Junction, to collect dollars from those who may be leery of choosing sides in the GOP gubernatorial primary or who support Gov. Bill Ritter’s re-election, said Democratic strategist Steve Welchert.
Penry would face former employer and ex-U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis in what many expect to be a contentious GOP primary.
“There are a whole host of business, industry and PAC folks who can tell McInnis, ‘Hey, I’m not writing him a governor’s check,’ ” Welchert said…
“I’ve spent the last two years raising money for every Republican in Colorado except for myself,” Penry said. “It’s not going to be a huge transfer, if there’s a transfer.”
…The state allows a senator or representative to transfer up to $19,080 to a statewide race, but it means the state party can give that much less to the candidate.
There’s not a thing wrong with what Penry’s doing, although we seriously doubt that the people who gave at these ‘Senate fundraisers’ had any delusions about where the money would ultimately wind up. The fact is, the law allows funds raised for one state office to be transferred to a campaign for another state office, subject to limits described above–he’d be a fool not to max that out. Opponent Scott McInnis, on the other hand, cannot transfer his remaining federal campaign funds to his state campaign.
“If there’s a transfer”–good save there, Senator.
Trying to keep his name in the papers (unaccompanied by the word “gaffe,” that is) while Penry’s impending announcement sucks up all the oxygen this week, McInnis sent out a list of early endorsers yesterday, including such heavy hitters as Phil Anschutz, Pete Coors, Ben “Nighthorse” Campbell and former Colorado First Lady Frances Owens. His release after the jump–says McInnis, “These men and women are a cross-section of well-respected leaders in business and in their local communities, and their public support sends a strong signal of the momentum we’re building every day.”
It would be interesting to know how many of them were at one of Penry’s ‘Senate’ parties too…
SCOTT MCINNIS ANNOUNCES FIRST WAVE OF ENDORSEMENTS IN RACE FOR GOVERNOR
Business and Community Leaders Express Public Support For Restoring Experience, Leadership, Vision and Common-Sense Results to Governor’s Office
(DENVER) – Saying the group is the first in a series of supporters to be announced, Scott McInnis, candidate for Colorado Governor, this morning unveiled a list of 36 prominent Colorado business leaders, philanthropists and community leaders who are supporting his candidacy.
“I couldn’t be prouder of this initial list of leading citizens who have come on board our campaign to get Colorado back on the right track,” Scott said. “These men and women are a cross-section of well-respected leaders in business and in their local communities, and their public support sends a strong signal of the momentum we’re building every day.”
Scott said leaders in every corner of Colorado are responding to his positive message of filling the current leadership gap in the Governor’s Office with a strong vision backed up by solid experience and a record of delivering results for Colorado.
This statewide list comes on the heels of a list of hundreds of leaders from Mesa County who publicly endorsed Scott in a newspaper advertisement in the Grand Junction Sentinel this morning.
The first list of statewide endorsements includes*:
Christian P. Anschutz – Managing Partner, Western Development Group, LLC
Gregory B. Maffei – President & CEO, Liberty Media Corp.
Stephen Foster – President, Business Controls Inc.
Blair E. Richardson – Managing Partner, Bow River Capital Partners
David McReynolds – Founder & President, Columbine Health Plan
William B. Vollbracht – Chairman, Land Title Guarantee Company
Mort Marks – Columnist, Villager Newspaper
Michael T. Fries – President & CEO, Liberty Global, Inc
James B. Wallace – Partner, Brownlie, Wallace & Armstrong Exploration
Peter Dea – President & CEO, Cirque Resources
Tim Travis – CEO, Eaton Metal Products Co.LLC
Robert S. Boswell – Chairman & CEO, Laramie Energy LL
Leslie Vollbracht – Philanthropist
Joan Allard – Community Volunteer
Collis Chandler – Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Northern Reg GeoResources, Inc.
Troy Eid – Partner- Greenberg Traurig, LLP, former United States Attorney
Linda Campbell – Entrepreneur & Businesswoman
Phil Greenblatt – Partner, Deloitte & Touche
Sharon Magness-Blake – Philanthropist
Ernie Blake – Former Mayor of Breckenridge
Pete Coors
Frances Owens – Executive VP for Community Affairs, Galloway Group
Robert L. Manning, Jr. – Managing Director, M2P Capital LLC
Andy Miller – President & CEO, Sevo Miller
Doug Moreland – President & CEO, Moreland Dealerships
Jo Greenblatt – Entrepreneur & Businesswoman
Bryant Martin – President & CEO, Nexcap Ltd.
Bob Arciniaga – Managing Partner Advisory Board Architects
Ben Nighthorse Campbell- Former United States Senator
Greg C. Stevinson – President, Denver West Realty, Inc.
Edie Marks- Realtor Kentwood Company
Tony Mayer- Captiva Resources, Inc.
Barry Craddock- Principal, Craddock Properties & Craddock Development
Roger Hutson -President & CEO HRM Resources, LLC
Philip Anschutz – Chairman & CEO, The Anschutz Corporation
Carl Koelbel- Real Estate & Finance Student Leeds M.B.A. Program*Affiliations listed are for identification purposes only
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True, it’s a great move all around. He gets to double dip before he announces, and he’s always got the sure-thing to fall back on should the gov campaign go awry. For such a young campaigner, Penry sure has the whole “career politician” thing down pat.
Penry is the lobbyists’ best friend and acting like every other career politician.
Even though what he’s doing is legal, it’s shady and intellectually dishonest. If this is how he operates as a senator, what would he be like as a governor?
Stop being such a baby. It’s legal, story over. Not shady, not unfair.
Story over.
That’s a great argument.
How does one ‘walk progressively’, anyway? Is it more of a saunter? Do you walk around giving other people’s money away?
your brillaint retort on the same terms, Boy.
brilliant
Could walk on water and heal the sick, and you’re going to find a problem with it. It’s cool, just don’t expect people to react as though there’s some big scandal with how he’s managing his fundraisers.
It’s legal, sorry a Dem didn’t think of it first. Mwah.
Sounds like someone has a Messiah complex. Strange.
You’d be criticizing them as a career politician who was intellectually dishonest in exploiting a fundraising loophole.
It’s nitpicking. And boring. I’m sure progressnowusedtobeincoloradobutfoldedupshopwhengerogestoppedsendingchecks will do a huge expose on it.
zzzzz
If I could change my handle to something that long, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Jon Caldara is such a goon and embarrassment to your side, who has cost you more than he will ever win, that all you have to talk about is progresssocialismgeorge(spellitrightpinhead)sorosnow.
LB, have I told you lately that you are a vapid identity politics obsessed hypocrite with no actual ideas, who doesn’t deserve the deference you seem to get around here? Well, there you go.
Maybe I should just be awful to someone every single time I post like you are to garner more ‘deserved’ respect.
Mwah.
Actually, it’s quite clever. Campaign finance laws have loopholes big enough to drive several trucks through. Penry isn’t the first to discover one, and he won’t be the last. He’s just the first serious candidate for Governor who was a sitting legislator since the last new batch of laws took effect.
That being said, the legislature should probably close this loophole next session.
Every politician who aspires to higher office wants to take whatever is left in the kitty along with them. Since it was politicians who wrote the campaign finance laws, it only stands to reason that they left that possibility open on purpose.
or a list of clients McInnis was hired to lobby for? Oh, wait, same thing. My bad.
had a day job outside Government? What an artform to be a career politician at 32. Wow.
Josh Penry…Young Career Politician
though that was for a state college.
and he was on a state-funded scholarship at Mesa State. He’s been on the state dole for his entire, albeit brief, adult life.
Are so bitter at him – it’s jealousy. He’s pulled off what so many of you aspire to!
🙂
but never call me a self-serving Republican egotist. It is something I have never, nor will ever, aspired to be.
Nor do I have any ambition to be a QB. I like watching the good ones, though.
But I, too, think that Penry has run against government for his entire career, while at the same time sucking a nice living from it.
Never mind. You don’t know.
shudder
…why is Nighthorse in quotes, but not Ben or Campbell? Are we quoting someone who used the name Nighthorse only?