(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
(D) George Stern
(D) A. Gonzalez
(R) Sheri Davis
40%
40%
30%
(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
The Republican budget plan drafted by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan has created a — yes, we’ll say it — shitstorm of problems for Republicans around the country because of a key component that would dramatically change Medicare. Here in Colorado, freshman Rep. Cory Gardner has been furiously trying to spin the Medicare piece of “The […]
A fascinating story from the Loveland Reporter-Herald’s Alicia Stice: responding to criticism of Rep. Cory Gardner’s vote for the “Ryan Plan” 2012 budget, a textbook deception: A group of about 50 people gathered Thursday outside of U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner’s Fort Collins office to protest his recent vote for a budget proposal that would make […]
From Politico: With five Republicans joining Democrats in opposition, the Senate easily rejected a House-passed budget plan Wednesday calling for deep cuts in domestic appropriations and major restructuring of Medicare, the government-backed healthcare program for the elderly. The 57-40 roll call proved more for show than substance but still stung for GOP leaders, coming less […]
As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Peter Roper reports–should have read it first, don’t you think? Rep. Scott Tipton, the freshman Republican who represents Pueblo and the 3rd Congressional District, held his own telephone town hall meeting Thursday night and said most of the calls he received agreed the federal government is overspending and that has to […]
In the aftermath of Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams’ surprising–only due to belatedness, as we’ll explain–decision to give up his bid for re-election, all eyes are on two possible replacements: the announced bid of state Sen. Ted Harvey, and the widely-expected entry into the race by attorney and former Denver GOP chair Ryan Call. Both […]
Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams, one way or another, has presided over yet another remarkable clearing of the Republican primary field in the races that matter most next year–gubernatorial and, with a single wild card remaining, the U.S. Senate race as well. Wadhams of course claims that he loves primaries, and did seem to genuinely […]
Pols Update: According to a report from Lynn Bartels at the Denver newspaper, Watson claims to have paid back a portion of his outstanding taxes and disputes the number and amount of liens levied against him.
That certainly changes the story, but unfortunately for Watson, it won’t change the potency of the attack.
—-
Bad news for Republicans in the race against Democrat Dan Kagan and what many consider their best House pickup opportunity statewide.
From Fox31’s Eli Stokols:
DENVER – The Republican candidate looking to unseat a Democratic state representative, in a race that could determine which party controls the statehouse, owes nearly $280,000 in unpaid property taxes, FOX31 Denver has confirmed.
Brian Watson, a businessman who is running to unseat Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Denver, has Republicans excited about their chances to win a Denver district that was re-drawn in their favor during reapportionment earlier this year; and state GOP chairman Ryan Call considers Watson a possible rising star in the party.
But FOX31 Denver has found that there are nine tax liens pending against Watson for unpaid taxes on various properties that add up to $279,657.
An outside political action committee supporting Kagan, the Colorado Accountable Government Alliance, is now highlighting Watson’s unpaid property taxes in a new mailer.
Kagan himself told FOX31 Denver he has had nothing to do with the mailer and hasn’t been raising the issue when he talks with constituents.
Three of the liens, for a total of $147,506, are on Aspen Moving and Storage, which Watson explains in a 2010 letter to investors, “suffered approximately a 70 percent decline in income between 2008 and 2009.”
The timing of this particular revelation is going to hurt. Ballots go out in a few weeks, and you better believe the “Colorado Accountable Government Alliance” and other independent expenditure groups are going to hit Watson hard on this issue — even if Kagan doesn’t touch it himself.
This is one of those issues that’s precisely as bad as it looks. Watson has been so successful in his bid thus far because he’s been able to frame his campaign around his business record. This tax issue, then, calls his number one qualification into question. On his website, Watson discusses his desire, if elected, to create “predictable and reasonable regulation and fair taxation.” Seems like the Republican isn’t really the best guy to be discussing what’s fair, is he?
Even worse, as Stokols points out in his article, Watson defends the debts as resulting from the economic downturn and “mismanagement” in the company that his firm, Northstar Commercial Investments, acquired. Fair enough. That doesn’t change the fact that Northstar contributed $500 to the Colorado Republican Party. The investment firm, it would seem, has money enough to facilitate Watson’s candidacy but not enough for taxes. Hell, Watson himself wrote a check to a small donor committee “supporting Republican candidates and Republican members of the Colorado House of Representatives for election and reelection.”
If you’re a candidate for public office, and you owe back taxes, it’s probably not a good idea to be writing checks to anyone or anything other than the IRS.
At the top of the ticket, Mitt Romney has already driven the issue of tax responsibilities into the national spotlight. With this development, Watson’s going to have to defend his own background down ballot as well.
Dan Kagan couldn’t have gotten better optics if he had asked for them.
Jefferson County promises to be a battleground county in a battleground state this election cycle, with the Obama campaign jockeying to perform as well as it did in 2008 — when then-Senator Obama swept the county by nearly 10 percentage points. For its part, the Romney campaign is making every effort to reduce and overcome those numbers in 2012. If Obama loses Jefferson County, after all, there’s a good chance he loses the White House along with it: a loss in Jeffco is attendant of a loss in nearly every competitive district across the country.
Well aware of that fact, then, the Romney campaign selected Jeffco as the home of its first campaign office in Colorado.
From the Colorado Statesman’s Ernest Luning:
With just over four months to go until the November election, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign finally has an office of its own in Colorado.
“It is an exciting day because today we have the opportunity to kick off the Romney campaign in Colorado officially, with the opening of the statewide headquarters for Romney Victory,” said state Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call, welcoming roughly 200 supporters on Saturday to the campaign’s spacious digs in the Denver West office park in Lakewood.
Surrounded by candidates for offices ranging from county commissioner to Congress, Call said that the office will serve as headquarters for Republican campaigns from president all the way down to the local level.
As Luning points out, the Romney campaign is still playing catch-up to Obama’s team in field efforts: the president’s campaign has already opened 13 offices in Colorado, with more on the way.
Still, that the Romney campaign selected Jefferson County as the location for its first campaign office in Colorado highlights the amount of time and money Romney (and outside groups) will be spending in the region. While that will certainly impact the presidential race at the top of the ballot, it will also bolster Republican candidates down-ticket, especially in some of the area’s most competitive seats.
If Romney takes Jeffco, then, there’s a good chance that Republicans will be welcoming Lang Sias and Ken Summers into the State Senate. But if Obama comes anywhere close to his 2008 numbers, State Senator Evie Hudak will be joined in that chamber by Andy Kerr.
Danny Stroud, former Chairman of the Republican Party of Denver who in 2010 gave State Representative Jeanne Labuda a run for her money, has a little bit of unexpected company in his bid to take on Congresswoman Diana DeGette.
The Colorado Statesman’s Ben Conarck has the story:
Former Denver Republican Party Chairman Danny Stroud is a well-known personality in the 1st Congressional District who is clamoring for a chance to take on incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, but a truck driving political neophyte may deny him the opportunity.
Stroud’s primary opponent, 61 year-old Denver resident Richard Murphy, is virtually unknown in Colorado politics, so much so that Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call had to call Stroud looking for the trucker’s phone number.
Although Stroud – a Denver businessman who just turned 59 – still won the top line at the CD 1 nominating assembly on April 13 with 81 votes, or 56 percent, Murphy’s candidacy was buoyed by a surprise showing of Ron Paul supporters who secured his place on the ballot with 46 votes, amounting to 44 percent.
It’s as surprising to Stroud as it is to many observers, of course, that there’s a Republican primary in CD-1 at all. Winning the Republican nomination to challenge DeGette essentially wins you the opportunity to become another electoral loser whose name is tossed into the dustbin of history. As Conarck points out, DeGette’s district overwhelmingly favors the incumbent: there are two registered Democrats for every Republican. In fact, the only way a Republican could win the Denver seat is if he or she turned out every Republican voter and won the vote of every single unaffiliated voter.
The inevitability of defeat, then, is what makes Stroud’s take on Murphy’s candidacy so confusing:
Referring to the fact that Murphy is often trucking back and forth across the country, Stroud dismissed the possibility that he could potentially beat DeGette, saying that running for Congress wasn’t a “part time job.”
“Here’s the deal. If somebody’s going to beat DeGette, they have to be motivated to beat DeGette. They can’t just be motivated to beat me,” Stroud said. “The way things are going in politics, it’s conceivable he could win the primary, but he can’t beat DeGette. I’m the only one that can beat DeGette.”
It’s easy to understand why Stroud would object to and question the candidacy of the interloper Murphy. But by framing his primary opponent’s campaign as leading to certain defeat at the hands of DeGette makes Stroud look delusional. Stroud, of course, should never openly admit that he can’t win, but by criticizing Murphy’s poor odds against the incumbent, Stroud turns the camera back on his own chance at winning the seat. He may think that he’s “the only one that can beat DeGette,” but he can’t, and by parroting his electability to win the Republican primary, Stroud makes his eventual loss in the general election that much more excruciating.
With Newt Gingrich’s upset win over Mitt Romney in last Saturday’s presidential primary in South Carolina, the race to win the Republican nomination is far from over. That means that all eyes are looking forward, first to Florida and then Nevada, Maine, and Colorado.
From Fox 31’s Eli Stokols:
Until Saturday, it looked like Mitt Romney was barely going to break a sweat — never mind be forced to go after any of his primary opponents — on his pleasure cruise to the GOP’s presidential nomination.
But after Newt Gingrich’s ground-shaking, double-digit beat-down in the Palmetto State, the Republican race is suddenly competitve — and set to engage well beyond the handful of early-voting states.
It’s exactly what Colorado Republicans were hoping for when they voted to move up the party’s presidential caucues from March to Feburary.
“When we voted to move up, no one could have predicted the race would be as fluid and dynamic as it’s turned out to be,” Colorado GOP Chairman Ryan Call told FOX31 Denver Monday. “Not only will Colorado’s voice be heard — it could actually be decisive.”
Call understands that Colorado, with its caucuses wedged in, along with a few other states, between the Florida primary and Super Tuesday, is but one of a handful of states that are becoming increasingly important to the four remaining GOP candidates.
As Stokols goes on to observe, Mitt Romney trounced eventual nominee John McCain in 2008: Romney scored a whopping 60% of the vote in Colorado’s caucuses that year.
In Jefferson County, it was even more of a one-man race, with Romney garnering nearly 70% of the vote compared to about 15% each for McCain and Mike Huckabee.
But 2012 isn’t 2008: Romney now faces the curse of the “moderate” label among Republican primary voters and the well-oiled machine that is the Ron Paul ground game. That’s not to mention the continued threats of both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum if either (or both) keep gaining momentum from other nominating contests.
With about two weeks until Jeffco Republicans head to public school gymnasiums and church basements to help select their party’s nominee, we want to know: who do you think will win the Republican caucuses in Jefferson County?
Remember, we want to know what you think will actually happen, not your preference. In other words, if you had to bet the deed to your house on Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, or Rick Santorum, who would you choose? And while we doubt the results in Jefferson County will be radically different than the state as a whole, we only want to know who you think will win Jeffco.
A poll follows.
BY: NotHopeful
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