a brief aside from the world of politics...
my dog Sassy died last night at the ripe old age of somewhere between 15 and 19. I am not sure because I found her freshly run over in Fayetteville, NC in 2007 (on a 6 lane road). Later, the vet could only say she was at least 2 but maybe as old as 4 or 5.
Besides being incredibly lucky, she was also incredibly loyal to me, and incredibly angry with Stephen Colbert's 'humor'
Colorado has a decision to make this year for the State Treasurer's race.
Do we stay with the current Treasurer, Cary Kennedy,
OR
do we elect political newcomer Walker Stapleton?
Let's take a look at the two candidates.
Cary Kennedy has a track record of helping the State of Colorado navigate Colorado through the difficult budget crises and working with across the aisle to solve problems with our budget.
She helped author parts of Referendum C in 2005 - which was supported by Republican Governor Bill Owens as a way to keep the state budget solvent.
Since becoming Treasurer in 2007, she has made the sound investments that have kept Colorado's Budget growing at a moderate 3% annually, at a time when other states are defaulting on their loans.
What kind of leadership does Walker Stapleton have to offer?
Selling something you don’t own in the first place (say, an iconic bridge in Brooklyn) is a form of fraud, but that’s not stopping GOP state House challenger Bob Boswell from selling Colorado’s 50th District seat to highest bidder more than seven weeks before Election Day.
In a letter to Colorado lobbyists dated September 13th, Boswell opened with “Well, we’re getting down to the nut-cutting,” and went on to declare “I am going to win this race. The opportunity for you to align yourselves and your clients with the next Representative of House District 50 is now.”
There are many reasons for supporting or not supporting a candidate in a primary race. I could cite many reasons to support either Andrew Romanoff or Michael Bennet -but for Democrats there is really only one thing that they should know about this primary.
It's that Michael Bennet can't win against the Republicans. From the Hill:
Sen. Bennet faces uphill battle if he wins the primary The troubling news for Bennet - and other Democratic incumbents - is that only 42 percent of the Colorado voters polled approve of him, and 44 percent disapprove. Moreover, asked whether they wanted to elect a new person or reelect their incumbent, just 34 percent would vote for their incumbent, while 55 percent prefer a new person.
This diary is serving to host a chain of emails specifially between School Board Member Jeanne Kaplan,Michael Bennet, Tom Boasberg, Theresa Pena and the rest of the school board. This is to expose the notion that the calls for an audit of the 2008 DPS banking derivative investment are being driven by 'politically motivated board members' - which the email chain below will prove to be factually wrong. In fact it appears Tom Boasberg's and Theresa Pena's opposition to providing an audit is politically motivated to protect themselves and Michael Bennet.
I have redacted the names and emails of everyone except former Superintendent Michael Bennet, current Superintendent Tom Boasberg, school board President Theresa Pena, and Jeanne Kaplan - however the names of the other board members are in the public record.
Everyone reading this diary on other sites will be redirected here to see the full list of emails.
The purpose of the emails is to get information on details of the finances pertaining to the Bank Derivative investment by the board in April of 2008.
The time line of these emails begins a full 15 months before there was even a primary and more astoundingly, 7 months before Michael Bennet was appointed to the Senate.
((guess this won't help win any popularity contests over at TOPB) - promoted by wade norris)
This Friday's New York Times investigation: "Payback Time: Exotic Deals Put Denver Schools Deeper in Debt" casts a laser focus on Michael Bennet's investment into a 'risky' derivative swap by as Superintendent of Denver Public Schools.
Pasts attempts by the Bennet campaign to deflect questions about this investigation are now laid bare and there are guilty parties involved.
Now, Colorado Democratic Representative Mark Ferrandino, Chair of the State Budget committee is calling for a bi-partisan audit by both the Colorado State House and Senate of this investment that has already cost Denver Public Schools 25 million dollars and counting. Listen here on local Progressive Talk show host Mario Solis-Marich's Friday show at about 1/3rd through the podcast.
So I just looked at a recent comment by Colorado Pols in Raf's diary.
As for debunking the Romanoff "disadvantage"
Any disadvantage he had in this Primary was his own doing. We discussed this many times in the last 18 months. Nobody forced Romanoff to wait until August to announce his candidacy, by which time he was already millions of dollars behind in fundraising. He could have jumped in the race in March, when he first polled on it, and it would have made a huge difference.
by: Colorado Pols @ Thu Aug 05, 2010 at 18:04:00 PM MDT
[ Parent | Reply ]
Bennet Scramble to Show Democratic Bonafides Too Little, Too Late
by: Colorado Pols Tue Sep 01, 2009 at 14:10:43 PM MDT
Sure, Bennet has raised a ton of money, but in a Democratic primary where Romanoff will start with significantly greater name ID, the latter needs only to be able to raise enough money to be competitive. Romanoff doesn't need to outspend Bennet, or even come close, because he is so much more well-known and liked among Democratic primary voters.
You can see that Colorado Pols has clearly supported the idea that Romanoff both had better name ID and 'likability' with Democrats and that this was more important than money. "Romanoff doesn't need to outspend Bennet, or even come close" the editors said.
This was not 18 months ago, but 11 months ago. And furthermore, the credibility gap for Colorado Pols goes back even further.
In case you hadn't noticed, there is a Senate primary in Colorado - pitting a Conservadem - Michael Bennet vs a people powered candidate, Andrew Romanoff - who has taken the Obama pledge to take no PAC money.
(Conservadem is not my label, Rachel Maddow gave Senator Bennet that name for joining Evan Bayh's coalition of conservative democrats)
Despite millions of corporate dollars being spent by Michael Bennet, Andrew Romanoff has taken the lead in polls with the Primary on August 10th.
Pundits have written that Romanoff's win will send a message throughout politics, that we the grassroots voters, can reverse theCorporate Stranglehold on Congress .
(with the week Bennet is having, this is not the time to give the impression that you are day dreaming in the Senate - promoted by wade norris)
Volunteers for Andrew Romanoff are busting their behinds day in and day out and Mr.Romanoff himself is crisscrossing the state connecting with voters and making his case for their vote.
Michael Bennet, a freshman Democrat from Colorado, said, "Sit and watch us for seven days-just watch the floor. You know what you'll see happening? Nothing. When I'm in the chair, I sit there thinking, I wonder what they're doing in China right now?"
uh, what? You have a primary - Guess your day dreaming is happening on the campaign trail too and Andrew Romanoff is taking advantage of it - and is surging in the polls.
(sorry to mention the blog who shall not be mentioned:) - promoted by wade norris)
There is a new poll showing Bennet 'has a lead' (41%-37%) even though this is within the polls' own disclosure that it is within the 4% margin of error.
http://www.politico.com/static...
I am calling it now - that Colorado Pols will trumpet this as a big deal and Team Bennet as well.
The Denver Post was more even handed with its title about Romanoff going up by 3% - 48% to 45% in the Survey USA poll -
by saying
Romanoff and Bennet are about even - 48 percent to 45 percent, respectively - in the poll of 536 Democrats who have voted or are likely to vote in the Aug. 10 primary. The question has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
(There are other primaries to discuss - believe it or not! - promoted by wade norris)
This week I got the chance to interview HD 12 candidate Jake Williams.
HD 12 is in the County of Boulder including the towns of Lafayette, Longmont and Louisville.
In addition to his record of public service, Mr. Williams has the depth of knowledge necessary for solving the tough issues facing Colorado, such as fixing the budget, creating more jobs, and improving government.
Mr. Williams explains these views and the fundamental difference in philosophy on governing between himself and his primary opponent.
Lately in Colorado, the Republicans have pretty much gone crazy - with
Tom "bomb Mecca" Tancredo launching an independent bid in the Governor's race and Republican Senate candidates Ken Buck and Jane Norton having a standoff about wearing high heel shoes.
I was hoping that we were going to stay civil on the Democratic side of the aisle, but in the Senate primary, Michael Bennet's campaign and his supporters are trying their level best at matching the Republicans' insanity with their tactics against Andrew Romanoff.
((sorry for the petty diary, but it had to be said) - promoted by wade norris)
Trevor, really dude? Even as Bennet's supporters are calling for civility between bloggers, ( http://www.coloradopols.com/di... ) you are poking your finger in the eye of civility.
And, that would not be so bad if you had not won an award for being one of the
"50 Most Beautiful People on the Hill"
who quote was
"Raised to be the quintessential Southern gentleman, nothing bothers Kincaid more than inconsiderate people..."
In light of the latest round of polling showing that Andrew Romanoff continues to be the better General Election candidate vs. Republicans, I have a question.
What happens to Senator Bennet's war chest should he lose the Primary race to Andrew Romanoff?
Does Senator Bennet get to keep the money for another race or does it go into escrow or does it have to be returned to the donors?
What's more important, would Senator Bennet donate any of his funding to the Romanoff Senate Campaign?
Would Andrew Romanoff accept that money if it came from PAC's?
Or would it no longer be PAC money once Bennet is no longer a candidate?
Today a new poll came out that showed that Romanoff is the stronger Democratic candidate against either Norton or Buck. Against either candidate, Bennet loses handily.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Colorado finds Buck earning 48% support against incumbent Democratic Senator Michael Bennett who gets 39% of the vote.
If former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is his Democratic opponent, Buck leads by a narrower 47% to 42% margin.
A month ago, Buck posted a 46% to 41% lead over Bennet and a 45% to 39% lead over Romanoff.
The 2010 Colorado Democratic Senate Primary signifies two different directions in Education in our Country - between a business person's view of education vs an educator's view of education.
Our choices include Michael Bennet and challenger Andrew Romanoff.
Michael Bennet is the incumbent appointed Senator who was also appointed to be Superintendent of Denver Public Schools. Bennet was appointed to Superintendent because of his financial experience in business as a corporate manager for billionaire Phillip Anschutz. Andrew Romanoff is the former Speaker of the House. He also worked as an educator in the State of Colorado as well as teaching in rural schools in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
Speaker Romanoff's website mentions that he formed a coalition to pass the Building Excellent Schools Today or BEST Act, which provided the largest investment in Schools in Colorado history, while Michael Bennet states he gave Denver teachers the largest pay raise in Colorado history.
Let's have a closer look at each candidate's claims and philosophy on education.
"Too often these days we're waking up to newspaper headlines that prove what all of us already know: the old ways just aren't working.
In the past few weeks we've seen profound examples of this, with lax regulations and long-standing corporate loopholes leading to catastrophic financial and environmental disasters.
This is completely unacceptable. I know we can do better."
Yesterday Senator Bernie Sanders offered an amendment to close one of those 'long standing corporate loopholes' - Huge Tax Credits to Big Oil companies.
But Senator Bennet, the same one sending out fundraiser appeals on closing corporate loopholes, decided to vote with the Republicans to keep that loophole open.
This past week, the headlines reported that the White House tried to limit the Colorado Primary via a list of possible administration positions to Senate Primary candidate Andrew Romanoff. This type of insider politics does not rise to the level of a violation of the law, but it does show a continued pattern of questionable use of the White House's and President's reputation to influence and interfere in Senate primaries - the other being a similar offer to Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania.
Now, information has surfaced about the timeline of that interference that raises some interesting questions about whether there was any coordination between Senator Bennet and the White House.
These new facts seem to indicate that Bennet was also part of the 'Pay to Play' mentality that is part of the Rahm Emanuel or Jim Messina playbook. We need to make sure these kind of deals are stopped so that they don't harm Obama's reputation or the Democratic party. We also need to find out what, if any, was Senator Bennet's involvement.
Consider these facts:
