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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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Wash Park Prophet: "I have to remember to vote on August 12, 2008, Denver, Colorado's primary election date, despite the fact that there are no contested primaries in the Democratic party for voters in my precinct. Why? Denver has an initiative on the ballot. Worse yet, the title that will appear on the ballot is deceptive."
6:31:12 PM 
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Here's Part I of an in-depth look at the proposed "Personhood" Amendment Colorado voters will see on the fall ballot, from Colorado Confidential. Here are a couple of excerpts:
Hard-line, socially conservative activists are gearing up to enact state laws to restrict abortion since President Bush and Congress have all but abandoned the federal cause. To that end, Colorado is once again serving as a political incubator in yet another attempt to chip away at Roe v. Wade. But for all the hue and cry, do efforts at the state level have a chance of success and at what cost do they exact from the larger conservative movement in a watershed election year?[...]
"States rights" has been the battle cry of modern-day social conservatives over the last 50 years to oppose everything from racial desegregation and gay marriage to gun control. But no issue has raised culture warrior hackles more than abortion.
Less well-known than the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court's 1989 ruling on Webster v. Reproductive Health Services set the stage for a series of state skirmishes on restricting abortion and influencing public opinion through constitutional amendments, efforts that continue to this day. Webster is a Missouri state law that restricts the use of state funding, employees and facilities to provide abortions. However, the real test lies in the language. The law added a strict Christian construct to the preamble of the Missouri constitution -- that life begins at conception and therefore unborn children have protectable rights. Now 20 years after Webster became law, a similar initiative is being attempted in Colorado through a proposed ballot measure to amend the state constitution:
Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Colorado:
SECTION 1. Article II of the constitution of the state of Colorado is amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION to read:
Section 31. Person defined. As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the terms "person" or "persons" shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.
Category: Denver November 2008 Election
5:43:27 PM
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Denver Business Journal: "A signature drive was formally kicked off Tuesday to collect enough support to place two union-backed initiatives on the November ballot. One initiative would hold top executives personally liable for fraud that occurs at their companies. The other would require employers to show "just cause" for firing employees."
Category: Denver November 2008 Election
5:39:59 PM
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State Representative Andrew Romanoff is trying to get voters to approve a fix for TABOR and Amendment 23 this fall, according to The Pueblo Chieftain. From the article:
What Romanoff, Suthers and other supporters want to do is put a ballot question before voters this November that would retool how the state pays for public education. It would require that any state tax revenue that would otherwise be refunded to taxpayers (because it exceeded state income limits), be diverted into the State Education Fund instead. At the same time, it would remove the constitutional requirement that the General Assembly increase funding for public education each year by inflation, plus 1 percent.
"We aren't touching the heart of (the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights), which says voters must agree before the General Assembly can raise their taxes," Romanoff said. In recent years, state lawmakers had struggled with how to reconcile voter-approved limits on state revenue with voter-approved requirements that education funding be increased each year. Romanoff's ballot amendment would still provide money for public schools, but not a fixed formula that lawmakers would have to apply regardless of budget conditions.
"This is a good year to ask voters because there isn't any TABOR surplus to be refunded, so the state won't lose anything financially if voters turn us down," he said.
Category: Denver November 2008 Election
5:36:54 PM
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© Copyright 2008 John Orr.
Last update: 6/1/08; 10:39:57 AM.
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