Saturday, August 5, 2006

Primary election night parties Next to mud-slinging Coyote Gulch enjoys a good election night party. If you have information you'd like to share about next week's primary night shindigs please send e-mail to CoyoteGulch [at] mac [dot] com or use the nifty "email john" link under the blogroll. First party (it isn't even up here in Denver): Jay Fawcett will be having a celebration after his victory in the primary next Tuesday. Here are the details: August 8th, 7-9PM; Jay's (New) Field Office; 710 North Weber, Suite B. Thanks to Out in Left Field for the tip. 8:08:04 AM

Term limits for judges? Bob Ewegen brings us up to date on the term limits intiative, in his column in today's Denver Post. He writes, "Big-name Colorado Republicans are split on a key ballot issue whose resolution is crucial to the future of our state government. Sound familiar? The issue is in the form of a so-called 'term-limits' initiative crafted by longtime court basher John Andrews, formerly the Republican president of the state Senate. If approved Nov. 7 by voters, Andrews' measure would sack five of the seven Supreme Court justices by Jan. 13, 2009, and seven of the 16 Court of Appeals judges as well. More than half of judges in lower courts would also be forced off the bench. This past week, Attorney General John Suthers stepped forward to fight the judicial purge that will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot. "The measure alarms Suthers, a Republican who was U.S. Attorney for Colorado before Owens named him state attorney general after Ken Salazar was elected to the U.S. Senate. He spoke up as bipartisan opponents of the purge plan organized under the banner Citizens to Protect Colorado Courts. Besides Suthers, the group fighting to preserve the independence of Colorado's judiciary also includes Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce president Joe Blake; Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey and business and community leaders including the League of Women Voters, the Colorado Judicial Institute and Common Cause. Denver lawyer John Moye chairs the group. "Andrews - who led the opposition to Referendum C last year, butting heads with Republican Gov. Bill Owens - submitted 108,000 signatures to the secretary of state on Wednesday to put his proposal on the ballot. The signatories may not have realized what they were endorsing. This is a grudge match for Andrews, who has been seething since the Colorado Supreme Court struck down his illegal 'midnight gerrymander' in 2003." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 7:53:00 AM

Ritter or Beauprez for governor? We know that we're sick, deep down, but we love a good mud-slinging, negative campaign. Things are off to a great start in the gubernatorial election. Here's an article about Beauprez vs. Ritter from yesterday's Denver Post. From the article, "Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez's campaign accused Democrat Bill Ritter on Thursday of selling access to the statehouse, sparking a squabble over who has closer ties to influence peddlers. Beauprez spokesman John Marshall bashed Ritter for having lobbyist Mike Feeley handle fundraising efforts... "'The last time I checked, Congressman Beauprez has spent the last four years getting his hands dirty with the likes of Tom DeLay and Randy 'Duke' Cunningham,' congressmen tied to lobbying scandals, Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said. DeLay, of Texas, was indicted on a conspiracy charge last year and resigned from Congress in June. Californian Cunningham resigned last year and was convicted of taking bribes and evading taxes in March. Beauprez received campaign contributions for his congressional races from DeLay and Cunningham." It looks like the Ritter campaign is ready to help remind voters that Representative Beauprez has been part of the Washington D.C. establishment for the last 4 years. That can't help his campaign here in Colorado. It looks equally likely that the Beauprez campaign is looking to hang the "political insider - 17th St. lawyer" tag on Ritter. This is going to be fun to watch. Category: Denver November 2006 Election 7:45:24 AM

Fall ballot issues The Denver Post editorial staff has a rundown of ballot issues for the fall election. From the article, "Seven measures were referred by the legislature and are thus designated by letters, as Referendum C was last year.Citizen initiatives are assigned numbers after they are certified for the ballot. "One referral is designed to soften an initiative, Amendment 39, that orders all school districts to spend at least 65 percent of their budgets on classroom instructions. Many school districts have denounced 39 as a "one-size-fits-all" measure that ignores the extra transportation costs of rural districts and other needs. Legislators thus drafted Referendum J, which retains the 65 percent standard but allows some exceptions. "One other initiative has already been certified for the ballot, the hapless Amendment 38. Among other things, it extends the right of citizen initiative to more than 2,000 local governments, including counties and special districts, that do not now have such provisions. Business groups are preparing a hard fight against 38, which they fear will infringe on property rights. "Two items, Referendums H and K, were placed on the ballot by the recent special legislative session on immigration. H removes tax credits for companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants while K is a quixotic measure that instructs the Colorado attorney general to sue the U.S. government to comply with existing immigration laws. "Another referred measure, Referendum E, extends a property tax break to disabled veterans. F changes rules on recall elections while G simply removes some obsolete provisions in state laws. "Referendum I is a high-profile measure that allows same-sex couples certain rights as domestic partners. That measure stops well short of allowing same- sex marriage and thus could dovetail with an anti-gay initiative filed this week by Focus on the Family defining marriage as a union between a woman and a man. "In addition to those 10 measures, four more citizen initiatives were filed last week with enough signatures that they will probably be on the ballot. They won't be assigned numbers until they are officially certified but include a labor-backed measure to increase the state minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85; a proposal to set retroactive term limits on judges that would remove more than half of Colorado's sitting judges; an ethics measure prohibiting lobbyists from buying meals or drinks for legislators; and an initiative that would legalize marijuana across the state as it now supposedly is in Denver." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 7:35:51 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 9/1/06; 7:22:14 AM.