Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Amendment 40 Jim Spencer weighs in on Amendment 40 in his column in today's Denver Post. From the opinion piece, "The system, installed 40 years ago, was meant to take politics out of the process. Reinserting politics, [Attorney General John] Suthers said, is a 'bad idea.' Ten-year appellate judgeships will breed a judiciary with no institutional memory and no future. The result will be more decisions motivated by judges' personal politics. Amendment 40, said the governors, makes appellate judgeships unattractive enough to drive away the best and the brightest. Joining the Supreme Court should be like 'joining a monastery,' [Former Governor Roy] Romer said. You put aside personal biases and usually a fat paycheck to pursue a sacred public trust based on precedent and reason. Judicial term limits do nothing to encourage that. Instead, they gut a system that works much better than what is proposed to replace it." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 6:54:31 AM

Amendment 43 and Referendum I Amendment 43 is the target of a new group, Don't Mess with Marriage, according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "Gay-rights activists have formed a political committee and hired a Boulder political consultant to lead the fight against a proposed gay- marriage ban known as Amendment 43 on the November ballot. The new group, called 'Don't Mess with Marriage,' is expected to be registered with the Colorado secretary of state in the next few days. It's the creation of gay-community leaders and campaign officials with the domestic-partnership measure known as Referendum I, which also will appear on the November ballot. The committee will focus solely on opposing Amendment 43, which would define marriage in the state constitution as a union only between a man and a woman, said Sean Duffy, executive director of Coloradans for Fairness, the sponsor of Referendum I. The campaign will be directed by Lisa Moreno, who said she worked for 20 years as a Washington, D.C., lobbyist and has not been involved in local politics since moving to Colorado a few years ago. "The formation of a separate group allows Coloradans for Fairness to focus its energy on promoting Referendum I and pushing a campaign message that isn't muddied by the gay- marriage debate. Referendum I would allow gay couples to register as domestic partners and obtain many legal rights and responsibilities given to married couples, such as making medical decisions for a partner. "Coloradans for Marriage, a coalition of 10 Christian groups, has been careful not to comment on Referendum I since launching its campaign in February. So far, the main opposition to Referendum I comes from Focus on the Family and its political arm, which has given more than $700,000 to another political committee called Colorado Family Action, which will launch ads against the domestic-partnership measure." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 6:45:37 AM

Fall ballot issues Here's the view of Coloradoans with regard to a few of this fall's ballot issues, according to a recent voter poll from the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "The most popular initiative would require school districts to spend at least 65 percent of their operation funds on services that directly affect student achievement. Two-thirds of voters supported that measure, known as Referendum J. The other questions hovered at or below 50 percent support - a finding that could mean problems for measure proponents, pollster Lori Weigel said. Support for ballot initiatives tends to fall off over the course of a campaign, and when undecided voters are in the ballot booth, the safe answer is often the status quo, or a 'no' vote. So any measure that has less than 50 percent support at this point is in 'dire straits,' Weigel said. This year may be even tougher because of the sheer number of items on the ballot; with 15 statewide questions in addition to races for governor and other offices, it's the lengthiest in nearly 100 years... "Thirty-nine percent of voters said they favor Amendment 38, which would make it easier for citizens to propose initiatives to appear on local or state ballots. Thirty-two percent said no, while 29 percent said they didn't know or declined to answer, the poll found... "Kenney was surprised there wasn't more support for Amendment 40, which would limit state Supreme Court and appellate court judges to terms of 10 years. Republicans, in particular, have made an issue of 'activist judges,' and term limits are popular in the West, [David Kenney of The Kenney Group] said. Yet the measure got support from just 54 percent. Thirty-seven percent said no... "Voters are backing a state constitutional amendment on school funding, but it may not be sufficient to withstand a heavy counter attack from education groups, said Weigel. Amendment 39, which has support from 58 percent of voters and is opposed by 25 percent, requires that 65 percent of school district expenditures occur in the classroom. It is opposed by education groups, which say the 65 percent would not include positions such as principals and counselors, who play important roles in schools. An attack by those groups could sink the amendment, Weigel said... "A companion measure, Referendum J, would also require that 65 percent of school funding go directly to education. But Referendum J would not amend the constitution, and it would count numerous positions as part of education, including principals, counselors and school bus workers. Referendum J is supported by 66 percent of voters and opposed by 21 percent... "The poll results for Amendment 44 to legalize the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana for persons 21 or older showed it failing 53 percent to 42 percent. 'Predictably, the people pulling for pot are from Denver - 58 percent. It fails everywhere else in the state,' Weigel said. She added that there's also the 'laughingstock factor,' which means Colorado may not want to be viewed by the nation as the place to go for marijuana. But a proponent, Kathy Swaim, a 49-year-old nurse, said her mother died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76, and even though medicinal marijuana laws have been passed, they're not working. Swaim also said marijuana has been unfairly stigmatized." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 6:41:31 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 10/1/06; 8:46:17 AM.