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Sunday, November 12, 2006
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The Denver Post reports on the current state of the Colorado Republican party. From the article, "It started four years ago when voters approved strict campaign-finance rules. Soon after, Colorado's budgetary woes turned into a full-blown crisis and the Republican-controlled legislature couldn't agree on what to do. U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis declined to seek re-election, followed soon after by his GOP colleague U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Then came Referendums C and D. When Colorado's Republican Party finally reached bottom Tuesday night, with the historic loss of the Governor's Mansion, state legislature and a majority of the state's congressional delegation, it was the culmination of years of bad luck and bad decisions. Now, party leaders find themselves heading into 2007 divided, with a shallow bench and no clear leader...
"While Republicans searched for ways to overturn the rules, Democrats found loopholes. They shored up financial support from unions through small-donor committees, which can collect $50 or less from people and contribute 10 times more to candidates than the new caps on individual contributions. They also quickly learned how to exploit a federal tax loophole to funnel millions of dollars into so-called 527 groups that could raise and spend money. Four millionaires - Pat Stryker, Tim Gill, Jared Polis and Rutt Bridges - were the biggest donors. Their groups polled, found an appealing message and hit voters with phone calls and direct mail...
"Meanwhile, simmering tensions between social conservatives and moderates continued to bubble up, especially in the state legislature. State Sen. Norma Anderson, a former majority leader from Jefferson County, announced she was resigning after 19 years, partly because of the expanding rift in her party and the increasing influence of 'ideological Christian conservatives.' By the time the party held its state convention in May, Bob Beauprez's and Marc Holtzman's battle for support of the far right had already pushed some business interests and moderates into the Democratic camp. 'The people who attend those (conventions) are more ideologically driven to dominate the platform and agenda. They are true believers,' [former U.S. Senator Ben] Campbell said. 'But in Colorado, neither party can get elected by only appealing to the base.'"
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
8:20:05 AM 
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The Denver Post has the latest on counting the Denver County votes. From the article, "Meanwhile, the commission continued - four days after election night - to struggle to count all absentee ballots following a malfunction of a scanning machine. Those results are still needed to determine the outcome of races for secretary of state, a position on the University of Colorado's Board of Regents and measure 1A, which would raise Denver's sales tax to pay for preschool for some children. 'One of the things we're looking at is a top-to-bottom examination of all of our processes,' said Alton Dillard II, the commission's director of communications, during a news conference. 'We are not even trying to hint that this a remotely acceptable outcome here.' Dillard said the commission hopes to have all of the absentee votes tabulated by today. Problems with an electronic polling book system that checks voters' registration and addresses caused long delays at polling places on Election Day. An unknown number of voters gave up. Then one of two scanners that count absentee ballots broke down. The commission now has three scanners, Dillard said Saturday. The commission, at the urging of Denver Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriguez, also began using about a dozen police officers to help sort through the ballots. Some 3,000 provisional ballots, which usually are cast by voters whose eligibility is questioned, won't be counted until Monday. By Saturday afternoon, the commission had counted about 46,000 absentee ballots out of about 64,000 that had been returned. The police officers were used because they were the only people on such short notice who had already undergone a thorough background check by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which is required by state law to handle ballots. The officers were assisting about 30 other permanent and temporary Election Commission staffers who were counting the ballots."
Category: Denver November 2006 Election
8:11:37 AM
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© Copyright 2006 John Orr.
Last update: 12/2/06; 8:02:01 AM.
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