You have got to love it when the niceties of politics get put aside and the true passions of lawmakers are laid out in plain terms for the audience tuned in at home to see.
Such was the case yesterday, when the capitol's most pugnacious right wing pitbull, Ted Harvey (R-Promised Land), threw the absolute smack down on John Morse (D-Reimbursement) after the Majority Leader suggested that Harvey and Republicans didn't much care for the little guy.
A debate over whether to ban Colorado employers from using credit reports against job applicants became feisty Tuesday when Senate Democratic Leader John Morse said Republicans are trying to protect corporations while Democrats want to protect "the little guy."
Republican Sen. Greg Brophy immediately yelled, "Don't impugn motive!"
Republican Sen. Ted Harvey backed up the anger...
As Rush Limbaugh would say, Mr. Snerdly roll the tape...
After watching Harvey in action, it occurs to us that Republicans should always meet progressive noise about "standing up for the little guy" with such force.
Who are you kidding Senator Morse? Yours is the party of Gill, Stryker, Soros and Ivory Tower environmentalism. Your majority is owed almost entirely to the big checks of a fat walleted few.
Little guys, Mr. Morse? Spit.
Harvey's hammering repudiation of Morse, and the positive news coverage it drew, should be a gentle nudge to the GOP as we head into a critical election -- meet fire with fire. As that pugnacious state Senator from the promised land of Douglas County showed, the best way to take down liberals' self indulgent "little man" baloney is to call it what it is -- an embarrassment.
(Correction: An earlier version of this post attributed the article on the spat to the Colorado Springs Gazette's John Schroyer. It was written by the AP's Ivan Moreno.)
If there are some items that could use a little more teaching at journalism schools, it might be those *tricky* math problems. You know, pesky things like return on investment and cost-benefit analysis...the kind of bullet points left out of swooning "green energy" press releases.
However, a "4 On Your Side" story from the investigative team at CBS4 crunched the numbers on a new solar panel project at the Denver Federal Center, and found the ROI is a little on the depressing side:
A 4 On Your Side investigation found it will take decades for taxpayers to get their investment back on a $40 million solar project at the Denver Federal Center.
The project created jobs and will be good for environment, but experts are shaking their heads over the projected payback period. The government’s own estimate is 48 years. Experts say that is an unbelievably long time for taxpayers to recover their costs on the large project.
A 48 year payback? The federal center might consider themselves lucky.
In 2008, one of the first stories I broke after joining the Independence Institute as the investigative reporter showed that the solar panels at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science -- toured and touted by President Obama just hours before signing the stimulus bill -- those solar panels would need 110 years to pay for themselves. Oh and by the way, in a best case scenario, solar panels only have a life span of 30-40 years.
But what made that story great was the math analysis wasn't even mine, it came straight from the horse's mouth:
A 2008 article in the Denver Business Journal sheds further light on the subject. The article notes the total price of the solar array was $720,000. And Dave Noel, VP of operations and chief technology officer for the Museum, was quoted as saying, “We looked at first installing [the solar array] ourselves, and without any of the incentive programs, it was a 110-year payout.” Noel went on to say that the Museum did not purchase the solar array because it did not “make sense financially.”
Of course, the one media outlet that will never shy away from crunching the numbers is the Wall Street Journal. Editor Stephen Moore did some back-of-the-envelope calculations for solar panels paid for by the stimulus bill, and installed on a library near Moore's neighborhood:
Arlington officials boast the project will save $14,000 in annual electricity costs, but the solar panels have a life span of no more than 10 to 15 years. So the feds spent $300,000 to shave at most $150,000 off the net present value of Arlington's electric bills. Some 3,000 counties across the country received federal funds for the same kind of negative-return energy conservation "investments." This is the kind of "clean energy" program the administration wants to expand.
Bill Ritter's legacy could be the same as President Obama's: selling the public a $10,000 car that only gives you 2,000 miles. What a bargain.
We've written plenty on this site about the massive and expansive corruption among Adams County Democrats. Nearly every single county elected Democrat has been tied to some scandal or corruption. Not a single Republican mind you -- corruption issues have only been present on one side of the aisle in ADCO.
Now Adams County state legislators Sen. Mary Hodge and Rep. Cheryl Peniston are running a bill to make it look like Adams County Democrats are leading the way on ethics reform.
DENVER, CO – Democrats Sen. Mary Hodge of Brighton and Rep. Cherylin Peniston of Westminster are co-sponsoring a bill to strengthen and expand ethics provisions of Amendment 41 to local government officials and employees, including school district boards. If passed, it will also place restrictions on the employment of their family members.
...“In my travels around the district, my hours in the grocery store, people come up to me and they say, ‘Adams County is corrupt. Elected officials are corrupt. What are you going to do about it?’” said Hodge.
In response to those allegations, Hodge said Senate Bill 146 “will clarify and strengthen our ethics laws.”
...Hodge said the bill emanated from the ethics scandal that rocked Democrat Adams County elected officials, including violations by County Tax Assessor Gil Reyes and County Commissioner Alice Nichol, who allegedly had secured a high paying position for a relative and had a government contractor repave her residential driveway.
As Jorgensen goes on to note, critics have said the bill could actually end up hurting small communities in the name of helping clean up ADCO Dems brand with voters.
If Sen. Hodge and Rep. Peniston had truly wanted to clean up corruption in their county party they would have done something a long time ago. The problem has persisted for years. But 2012 is an election year and they both face potentially competitive races, making it pretty obvious why they ran this bill, this year.
It is also unclear how this bill would stop much of the corruption that has occurred in Adams.
How would it stop Democrat Commissioner Alice Nichol from allegedly receiving an under the table $10,000 cash bribe? (Nichol is running for a third term in 2012)
How would it stop Democrat Assessor Gil Reyes from helping his campaign donors save $800,00 in taxes through undervaluing their property?
The Denver Postreported last night that Barack Obama's re-election campaign hired Carrie Doyle, a high powered lobbyist for Colorado's most outspoken anti-drilling environmental organization, to run his campaign in the nation's key electoral battleground: Colorado.
From Lynn Bartels' write up:
Carrie Doyle has overseen or lobbied for various environmental groups, most recently working for the Western Conservation Foundation.
Missing from the Post's coverage was any mention of the fact that President Barack Obama once railed on John McCain for allowing lobbyists at the seat of power in his campaign. More on that in a second.
See Carrie Doyle's seven years of lobbyist registrations here.
Among the green groups that Doyle lobbied for -- Colorado Conservation Voters, the Colorado chapter of the League of Conservation Voters. That would be the same League of Conservation Voters who most recently won national stardom for pressuring the Obama Administration to reject the Keystone Pipeline.
Wondering whether Obama was going to move to the middle to shore up Colorado's notoriously independent voters? Wondering whether Obama's rejection of the Keystone Pipeline was an apparition?
Wonder no more -- Obama has hired a green hit man (excuse us, woman) to oversee his campaign in the most hotly contested state in the nation.
Hope and change be damned -- Obama is turning the keys over to the most extreme elements of his party, and doing it in the electoral places that matter most.
The pick reinforces that, beyond all the spin, there are two President Obamas -- the shining leader on a hill portrayed in his rhetoric, and the cynical Chicago Pol who plays the role of partisan-in-chief with gusto. His hiring of Doyle is one more throw away to the left wing base of his party -- the same liberal base that he capitulated to when he killed 20,000 jobs at the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Obama's pick of a green lobbyist is news worthy also because Obama famously railed against John McCain for hiring lobbyists himself.
So much for consistency, Mr. President. So much for keeping lobbyists at arms length from your campaign.
With friends like Carrie Doyle in high places, it is clear as day why, under the Obama administration, oil and gas leases are down on federal lands in the West by 44%, permits are down by 39% and wells are down by 39%. It is just as clear why the Keystone Pipeline got snuffed.
As gas prices soar and motorists howl in protest, scrutiny of the Obama record on energy will intensify.
By hiring an anti-drilling lobbyist to run his campaign in arguably the most important state in the union, President Obama just invited a whole lot more.
As former CD3 Congressman John Salazar's District Director, you would think CD3 candidate Sal Pace would know something about the 3rd district. You would be wrong. In missing a key vote on energy development, crucial to employment in CD3, and making categorically false statements at a recent campaign stop, Pace's lack of preparation and knowledge is beginning to shine through.
Reports Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee via Twitter:
Rep Jones' HB1277, giving local gov'ts more of a say in oil and gas dev fails 4-6 on party lines with Pace absent. #coleg:
Will Pace also be absent in Washington, DC when issues important to CD3 come up for a vote? When Pace missed two days of work at the Capitol to fundraise in Washington, DC in January, he wrote it off as missing unimportant votes.
Rep. Pace: Was this an unimportant vote?
Perhaps even worse was Pace's recent display of outright ignorance on healthcare in CD3.
Recent accounts of Pace's campaign stop in Montrose on Saturday paint a picture of a candidate woefully unprepared for the West Slope.
His stop in Montrose earned derision from both sides of the aisle, with a post on liberal Colorado Pols slamming him for not knowing a thing about health care in Grand Junction, and a guest post here on the Peakhitting him for not understanding a thing about energy jobs on the West Slope in general.
With Republicans in control of the state House and Democrats the state Senate, both parties can expect to see their bills killed in the chamber they don't control. It's common sense. Yet Democrats have succeeded in getting gobs of coverage for having their bills blocked in the House. Republicans, unsurprisingly, have not found the same luck in the press for their bills blocked in the Senate.
Last week, Democrats succeeded in getting not one but two Denver Post process stories about their tough time in the House minority. The first was a lame story about how Rep. Matt Jones (D-Louisville) supposedly gets passed over for speaking slots on the House floor. The second about Democrat sponsored bills that failed to win a majority vote.
Boo hoo. That's what happens when you don't have the majority in the chamber.
At least that's the reception Republicans have received when their bills fail in the Senate.
When Republicans had a business impact statement bill killed last week there was not a word in the only statewide newspaper. The bill even originated with the Democrat Governor's 2011 State of the State address, and Democrats still killed it. Still, no story.
Both parties send out near daily press releases complaining of killed bills. Yet, recently only one side has seen their press releases turn into full blown mainstream media stories.
The lesson from this is simple: Democrats need to suck it up and realize they don't control all three legislative levers anymore and the press needs to stop rewarding their childish whining with lame process stories.
Sal Pace, the Liberal Democrat state Rep from Pueblo who has mounted a campaign against Scott Tipton in CD3, spoke before a group of about 35 Democrats today in Montrose. The meet and greet sponsored by Pace's campaign took place at the RnR Sports Bar in downtown Montrose. Many in attendance traveled from as far away as Telluride to see the Democrat candidate. Pace spoke for about 20 minutes refusing to call his opponent by his name. Pace referred to Scott Tipton, the Republican incumbent in the CD3 House of Representatives seat, as "the incumbent," or "my opponent." But in a Harry Potteresque avoidance of an apparently hated name, Pace avoided a single reference to Scott Tipton's given moniker.
Pace referred to his campaign as "moving forward with common sense," which is not terribly creative given Tipton's motto of "Common Sense for Colorado," which he used in the 2010 race against then incumbent John Salazar. Pace indicated that he felt optimistic about his chances for victory in November and cited a poll funded by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red State to Blue State" effort which he said shows that 54% of those questioned were against the reelection of "the incumbent" in 2012.
Without reference to specifics about Tipton's record, Pace did say that "his opponent has thrown his lot in with the most extreme fringes of our country." This was in reference to Scott Tipton's opposition to the payroll tax cut which is, in actuality, a raid on the Social Security fund. One can only speculate to which "extreme fringes" Pace was otherwise referring since Scott Tipton has been called a "Tea Party Freshman," having been elected by a majority of voters in his District in 2010. Pace went on to characterize efforts by his opponent in the House of Representatives to rein in spending and give economic relief to job creators as, "legislation to cut taxes for his rich friends and wealthy contributors."
Pace repeatedly talked about "focusing on solving problems, not ideology," but gave no specific solutions to the pressing employment problems, and crushing regulations that are now effecting Western Colorado. The only idea he offered as a solution to the employment problem in CD3 was "renewable energy," and a reference to a wind turbine plant in his hometown of Pueblo. Not once, when asked about what he would do about Western Colorado's bleak employment outlook did he mention mining, natural gas, oil shale, or any of the other mineral or fossil fuel industries that are so critical to this end of the state. Pace, a political leader in a state which has amazing energy potential, focused upon non-specific renewables, and failed completely to mention the vast reserves of earth-bound energy beneath the feet of the people in attendance in Montrose.
Colorado's 3rd Congressional district race is certainly one to watch. Western Colorado is highly diverse, with towns like Telluride which are overwhelming Liberal, and those like Grand Junction which are largely Conservative. Sal Pace may appeal to those who like to hear platitudes about "renewable energy" but the reality is that the energy sector, governmental regulation, education, and high unemployment will not be solved by platitudes, but by hard decisions by people who are willing to take "extreme" measures such as cutting taxes, slashing regulations on small businesses, confronting the environmentalist lobbies, and reigning in the federal spending that is hurting the entire nation.
Despite Allison Sherry's attempt to push the Democrats' campaign finance talking points, her article today, "Colorado's Swing-State Status Gives Rise to Super-PAC Attack" rings hollow in Colorado. To somehow insinuate that large corporate, union or individual donors have been limited in their campaign spending is laughable.
This idea that President Obama and the Democrats are "aghast" at the Citizens United decision smacks of hypocrisy. Especially in Colorado, Sherry should know that local Democrats have consolidated enormous sums of money into victories for their candidates. Between the unions, Tim Gill, Pat Stryker and the trial lawyers, none of these persons or entities have been limited in their spending in Colorado.
Sherry insinuates that the Citizens United decision is a boon to Republicans and the Democrats have no choice but to "...[reverse] a long-held disdain for this kind of politics." This is total bunk and continues a long stretch of Sherry reiterating the Left's talking points.
The fact is the Democrats and their liberal allies have been successfully using 527 committees, 501(c)3's, and 501(c)4's to attack Republicans and elect Democrats for years, even before the Citizens United decision. But somehow Sherry, a news reporter, states as fact that "...the new environment so heavily favors Republicans right now." How can it favor Republicans when the Left has already been doing this for years?
She also continues to show her left-leaning stripes when she reiterates the liberal talking point about the Citizens United ruling that, "...opened the floodgates for unlimited outside spending in 2010." All you have to do is look at the 527s operating in Colorado and see how much more money the Left has than the Right. Coloradans are also accustomed to the hidden donors and attacks on Republicans from 501(c)3's and (c)4's like Ethics Watch, Progress Now and America Votes.
Unfortunately, these facts are for real reporters to uncover, not the Democrat's spokeswoman Allison Sherry.
Colorado Democrats have not had a good year recruiting legislative candidates and that trend appears to be continuing in the newly-drawn HD-28 in Lakewood. The first Democrat candidate to declare in the district was Brian Carroll, who was bought off by the state party from pursuing his primary challenge versus Andy Kerr. Enter stage left Brittany Pettersen, a career Democrat operative who is set to challenge Carroll in what could shape up to be a nasty primary for liberals.
Pettersen should be a familiar name to Pols Trolls as she was a staffer on James Mejia's failure of a Mayoral campaign, and is currently a "community organizer"/field director/16th Street Mall harasser. Astute political observers would also note her connection to Andy Szekeres on Mejia's campaign, which further fuels speculation as to why either Carroll is running/or why Democrats are so hell-bent on challenging him at every step. Pettersen has few credentials to represent the district outside her extensive campaign and "community organizing" experience, so it stands to reason that she was the recipient of heavy establishment-Democrat pressure to challenge Carroll in the race.
One has to wonder why Colorado Democrats are so worried about Carroll's campaign. Does he have some skeletons in his closet that they are worried about (no pun intended)? Pettersen has already netted nearly $3,500 in her ActBlue account and she won't even officially declare her campaign until Friday at the Paradise Cove in Lakewood at 6 PM.
Governor Hickenlooper's pro-business leanings have always separated him from his party's legislators, but that gap is now widening into a chasm. Between statements that it's "inconceivable" that fracking affects groundwater and government doesn't create jobs, Hickenlooper has taken many stances that do not gel well with his party's liberal base. That gap between Hick and legislative Dems has created a situation where Hick gets nothing done legislatively.
As we think about it, no wonder Hickenlooper has spent so much time dodging anything that looks like a major public policy initiative this legislative session. Hick loves to be viewed as a moderate with a keen political sales pitch. He knows that the Democrats in the Legislature and especially the Senate don't give a hoot about what he wants, so why bother trying to do something of consequence when legislative Democrats have no plans to give him what he wants?
Why risk losing?
An article in the Denver Business Journal highlights the latest example of the gap between Governor Hickenlooper and Democrats in the Legislature killing another legislative priority for the Governor.
It’s been more than 13 months now since Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said during his first State of the State address in 2011 that he wanted legislative proposals that affect business operations to carry a fiscal-impact statement explaining what such bills could mean for companies.
Judging by the way the Democrats voted on a pair of Republican bills aimed at addressing that subject over the past two days, it seems obvious that they either have forgotten that or that members of Hickenlooper’s party never agreed with him in the first place.
In the days ahead, I would like to see if we could look at adding a regulatory impact statement to new legislation. Just as we require a fiscal note for every new bill that estimates the costs to state government, we could also include an estimation of the cost to businesses of additional regulations.
Yet, much like Hickenlooper's stated intention to run legislation to reduce red tape for businesses, nothing has happened since Hickenlooper's speech.
That is, until this week, when Senator Shawn Mitchell (R-Broomfield) and Rep. Larry Liston (R-CO Springs) ran bills in their respective chambers to have businesses and unions give feedback on the cost of legislation.
Democrats killed Senator Mitchell's bill in committee, but Rep. Liston's made it through the Republican controlled House committee with the vote of Democrat Rep. John Soper (D-Thornton), although Soper had indicated his support was due to the union provision in Liston's bill that Mitchell's lacked.
What is going on here?
As Congressman Cory Gardner pointed out to an EPA bureaucrat in a now-viral video, it's ludicrous for government to propose new rules and regulation without any regard to the impact on employment.
Democrats have repeatedly said they are "laser-focused" on jobs this session, yet they are blocking legislation that would help better inform their understanding of the impact of legislation on jobs.
Their vote to block a business-impact analysis on legislation is a vote to remain ignorant of the effect of their actions.
And a vote to reject a key element of Governor Hickenlooper's political persona.
With allies like that, is it any wonder why Hickenlooper's economic plan is self styled "To Be Determined"?
Hell, we half don't blame him for hiding in his office. The guy has no inkling about how to get the ingrates and intransigents in his own party to move his agenda, so WTF...why even try?
Now Adams County state legislators Sen. Mary Hodge and Rep. Cheryl Peniston are running a bill to make it look like Adams County Democrats are leading the way on ethics reform. 
If Sen. Hodge and Rep. Peniston had truly wanted to clean up corruption in their county party they would have done something a long time ago. The problem has persisted for years. But 2012 is an election year and they both face potentially competitive races, making it pretty obvious why they ran this bill, this year. 
Reports Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee 
Last week, Democrats succeeded in getting not one but two Denver Post process stories about their tough time in the House minority. The first was a lame story about how Rep. Matt Jones (D-Louisville) supposedly gets 
As we think about it, no wonder Hickenlooper has spent so much time dodging anything that looks like a major public policy initiative this legislative session. Hick loves to be viewed as a moderate with a keen political sales pitch. He knows that the Democrats in the Legislature and especially the Senate don't give a hoot about what he wants, so why bother trying to do something of consequence when legislative Democrats have no plans to give him what he wants?
