Tag: colorado

Rejoice, oh state Democrats: the White House will be interfering in your races.

With all of the delicacy, charm and raw political skill that they showed in trying to get Gov. David Paterson of NY to quit.

White House Is Taking a More Aggressive Role in State Races

WASHINGTON — The White House’s intervention in the race for New York governor is the latest evidence of how President Obama and his top advisers are taking an increasingly direct role in contests across the country, but their assertiveness has bruised some Democrats who suggest it could undercut Mr. Obama’s appeal with voters tired of partisan politics.

[snip]

More than anything, though, the interventions reflect a controlling style of this White House and of Mr. Emanuel, who employed similar hard-ball tactics to recruit candidates when he was running the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In addition to Mr. Emanuel, the White House political director, Patrick Gaspard, and deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, keep close watch on all political races.

Via @PatrickRuffini: bolding mine, and reflective of Erick Erickson’s recent first look at ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis’s Rolodex.  One may be forgiven for wondering whether… input on this was sought.

Moving along, disapproving quotes from affected Democrats like Joe Sestak (running against the untrustworthy opportunist Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania), Andrew Romanoff (running against the rather uninteresting appointee Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, and Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania (who may or may not have to run away from eventually being named as ‘Governor X’) show up in the article, for all the good that it’ll do them.  The President simply must micromanage, you understand; and, given that he’s been told time and again by his own party that his is a political genius not seen since FDR, Otto von Bismarck, and Martin van Buren there’s little incentive for him to stop.  Besides, this all comes back to what’s best for the White House, not the individual state Democratic parties.  Having Paterson on the ballot guarantees a politically embarrassing loss in New York in 2010; and the White House’s primary interest in Pennsylvania and Colorado is keeping their Senate seats in Democratic hands.  If that means signing off on a turncoat and a nonentity, so be it.

I would be sympathetic, but then this is what the Democratic party signed up for.  Well, sort of: it was probably expected that the President would be better at it.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Pro-Obamacare fanatic attacks CO Democratic party HQ!

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

That is me being charitable.  Because the alternative is that Maurice Schwenkler is an idiot whose idiocy is only matched by the Democratic idiots who sent him out to bust his own side’s window:

A 24-year-old arrested this morning on suspicion of smashing 11 windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters tried to conceal his identity while allegedly committing the crime, according to police descriptions.

[snip]

While [Maurice] Schwenkler does not appear in the state’s voter registration database, a person by that name in November 2008 received $500 from a political 527 committee called Colorado Citizens Coalition for “communications,” according to campaign finance disclosures.

[snip]

A Maurice Schwenkler also signed an online 2005 petition to free anti-war Christian protesters who were captured in Iraq.

More details here, here, and most assuredly here (the phrase “connected to ultra-liberal groups once investigated by the FBI for potential domestic terrorism incidents” features prominently) [and now here and here]: this Rootswire screenshot of the Colorado Citizens Coalition will also prove amusing.  Which leads to the next question: what does State Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak know about this?  She familiar with Schwenkler at all?  Or the guy that’s still at large?

At any rate, I think that it’s time that extremist fringe supporters of health care rationing stop using violence to accomplish their goals.  It’s not going to derail the democratic process, and it’s bad for the country in general.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Rep Jared Polis (D, CO-02) swamped at not-town hall.

Expected 30 at a sidewalk coffee place: got several hundred.

A few things to note:

  • No SEIU on hand, so everything stayed peaceful.
  • CO-02 is D+11 and includes the city of Boulder.  They haven’t elected a Republican Congressman there since the 1970s.  A front line in the 2010 election wars, it isn’t.
  • Man, but there are a lot of ticked-off old people out there who want to talk about why they don’t like the way Congress is handling the health-care situation.

Shame the Speaker of the House would rather blather on about swastika-wielding mobs – hey!  She means the ticked-off old people, doesn’t she?

Moe Lane

PS: I think that Polis may be getting it, a little.  Or at least he’s not a natural born damned fool who’d casually insult an entire voting demographic by calling them Nazi astroturfing shills.

Crossposted to RedState.

NAME! THAT! PARTY! – Colorado Governor category.

It’s not what you know…

…it’s who you know.  Isn’t that right, Governor Bill Ritter (D-CO)?

Gov. Ritter Steered Stimulus Money To Ex-Employer

DENVER (AP) ― Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter has awarded some of the state’s first stimulus money to his former employer in a no-bid contract.

Ritter hired his former law firm, the Washington-based Hogan & Hartson, in a no-bid contract to review stimulus spending, The Denver Post reported Friday. It said the firm was paid $40,000 in stimulus money through June.

In this case, ‘who’ is a law firm full of political donors of Governor Ritter’s (D), including at least two “who work directly on the state’s stimulus issues.”  The Governor’s (D) office is claiming that the deal was righteous, as well as legal… although they didn’t go into explaining why they paid six times what they would have if they had run things through the Attorney General’s office: Continue reading NAME! THAT! PARTY! – Colorado Governor category.

An update to Warner Todd Huston’s Colorado outrage.

If you haven’t read it yet, read it here.

Yup. Threatening a kid for having fake gun-shaped items used for rifle drills. Fascinating how these people think, huh?

The principal for Cherokee Trail High School is Brooke Gregory. S/he could very well be not yet fully aware of this situation: give him/her a call at 720-886-1904 and politely inquire.

The Superintendent for the Cherry Creek School System is Marie Chesley, and she would no doubt like this problem to go away. You can reach her at 303-773-1184 – just to make sure, though.

The Congressman for CO-07 is Ed Perlmutter (D). Call him up at 202-225-2645 and ask him if he supports the expulsion of students trying to do rifle drills. If you live in the District, his number there is 303.274.7944.

Mark Udall (D) is the senior Senator for Colorado. Call him at 202-224-5941 (877-768-3255 if you’re from Colorado) and ask him the same question, assuming that you can get through from all the people screaming about how we’re about to pass a trillion dollar debt bill. On the other hand, they’d probably be ecstatic to have something less minefield-like to work on, at this point.

Michael F. Bennet (D) is the junior Senator for Colorado. Call him at 202-224-5852; if/when you get through, be sure to ask whether he would have sanctioned this when he was running the Denver school system.

…And that’s all that I can think of, under the circumstances.

Crossposted at RedState.