Walker Stapleton Term Limits Rally a Very Expensive Fizzle

7
  by: Colorado Pols March 9, 2017 at 1:10 PM MST

Walker Stapleton.

That was the scene on the West Steps of the Colorado state capitol building today, as Treasurer Walker Stapleton’s long-hyped rally for congressional term limits took place on an unseasonably warm Thursday afternoon. As we’ve discussed in this space and readers have seen in site ads for weeks, this event had a very large promotional budget. After all the thousands of dollars spent advertising the rally and especially Stapleton’s attendance, the estimated 150 or so who turned out is nothing short of an embarrassment (unless you consider $700 per person a good investment).

Today’s rally for congressional term limits always struck us as a contrivance, a vehicle for Stapleton to get face time ahead of his widely-expected run for governor in 2018. It’s clever in theory given that the term-limits pitch has a defiant anti-politician ring to it, which could feed off the large protests against President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress since January. But as soon as you find out this is all just a ploy to boost George W. Bush’s cousin electorally, it loses its rebellious allure.

Please clap.

Get More Smarter on Thursday (March 9)

0
  by: Colorado Pols March 9, 2017 at 12:31 PM MST

Ask your boss if you can work outside this afternoon. Let’s go ahead and see if we can Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Colorado lawmakers are getting closer to approving legislation that would put a tax increase on the November ballot in order to fund necessary transportation infrastructure upgrades. As the Denver Business Journal reports:

Following eight months of negotiations, the Colorado Legislature’s leaders late Wednesday introduced a 20-year transportation-funding bill asking voters to approve a sales tax hike to generate some $677 million per year for highway and transit projects — without making significant cuts to existing state revenues.

Observers, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, quickly referred to House Bill 1242 as a starting point, saying they expect details about everything from the size of the tax hike, to the allocation of new revenues, to be up for debate in the two months that the Legislature has left in its 2017 session.

But House Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, and state Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Cañon City, both expressed gratitude at finding a compromise they believe can muster support of their two parties’ lawmakers before they take their case to voters.

We still have a couple of months of negotiating before any proposal moves toward the ballot, but this is a good sign that the Republican caucus has at least a few adults in the room who aren’t going to continue to pretend that we can finance major infrastructure projects with magic fairy dust and generic speeches about financial belt-tightening.

 

► Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) held a telephone “town hall” meeting on Wednesday night that included a smackdown of President Trump’s plans for a border wall with Mexico. As Eli Stokols reports for Politico:

“We do need security on the border,” Gardner said. “That may mean personnel. It may mean a fence. That may mean an electronic fence,” the first-term lawmaker said. “But we shouldn’t just build a wall and add billions of dollars because that’s what somebody said should be done.” [Pols emphasis]

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also scoffed Thursday morning at Trump’s claim that he will be able to get Mexico to pay for the wall.

“Uh, no,” McConnell said.

McConnell’s comments this morning about a proposed border wall are getting a lot of attention from national media outlets.

 

► Trumpcare has passed two initial hurdles by limping through a couple of House committees, but Senate leaders continue to take a wait-and-see approach until cost and coverage estimates are available:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said lawmakers need to see the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of how the bill will affect the federal deficit.

“I think we need to know that,” McConnell said at a breakfast sponsored by Politico, adding that the CBO report could be released by Monday.

McConnell was the first in growing chorus of high-ranking Senate Republicans to question the wisdom of moving forward on the health bill without an official budget tally. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), whose committee will help craft a Senate response to the House legislation, told reporters on Thursday that he believes CBO score is a valuable tool.

The New York Times has more on Republican backlash to the Trumpcare proposal. Here in Colorado, the Bell Policy Institute outlines how Trumpcare would be a major problem for our state.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump… (more…)

Three Ways the GOP Health Plan Will Erode Colorado Gains

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  by: TheBell March 9, 2017 at 10:10 AM MST

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

We’re keeping a close eye on how the Congressional Republicans’ newly proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA), introduced on Monday, would impact Colorado. The measure would effectively repeal many aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through a budget process. The plan contains major threats to the health care status quo in Colorado.

The early signs point to higher costs for low- to moderate-income people, older people and sicker people. The AHCA would dramatically shift Medicaid costs to states, under the guise of “greater flexibility” and “modernization.”

If health insurance premiums soar, if people don’t get help with paying higher costs, or if they lose Medicaid coverage, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans will lose health coverage because they can’t afford it. That puts us right back to where we started before the ACA.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not released its analysis of the AHCA. Even though we lack this crucial, unbiased information about what the plan will cost taxpayers and how many people stand to lose health coverage, the House is rapidly pushing this bill through the legislative process.

While we policy analysts wait, here are some educated guesses about the three ways the GOP plan will erode many of the health care gains that our state has made.

(more…)

Colorado Pols Regular Gets “SLAPPed”

7
  by: Colorado Pols March 9, 2017 at 9:47 AM MST


Pete Kolbenschlag.

We’re obliged to bring to our readers’ attention a distressing situation affecting one of our longtime readers and guest bloggers, Paonia-based environmental activist Pete Kolbenschlag. For years, Kolbenschlag has provided our community with insightful commentary on energy and conservation issues affecting Colorado’s energy-rich Western Slope.

But as the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Dennis Webb reported this week, Kolbenschlag has been hit with what’s known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) by energy company SG Interests over comments he made on an online news story:

Pete Kolbenschlag says the suit brought by SG Interests against him is unfounded and an attempt to silence him. He has raised more than $10,000 from more than 150 donors in just four days in an ongoing crowd-funding effort to pay for his defense.

SG Interests sued Kolbenschlag Feb. 21 in district court in Delta County over a comment he posted on the Glenwood Springs Post Independent website about a Nov. 28 article in that newspaper. The article said SGI planned to sue the federal government over the Bureau of Land Management’s cancellation of 18 SGI leases in the Thompson Divide southwest of Glenwood Springs, based on evidence of alleged collusion between the Obama administration and environmentalists to reach a predetermined political conclusion.

SGI proceeded with suing over the lease cancellations on Feb. 10.

The company says Kolbenschlag falsely stated in response to the Nov. 28 article that while SGI alleges collusion, “let us recall that it, SGI, was actually fined for colluding … to rig bid prices and rip off American taxpayers.”

And as Webb continues, Kolbenschlag appears to be right:

Kolbenschlag’s comments were a reference to allegations by the Justice Department that SGI and Gunnison Energy Corp. colluded in acquiring four leases covering some 3,500 acres in the Ragged Mountain area of Delta and Gunnison counties. The companies agreed in 2013 to pay a combined amount of more than $1 million to settle a civil antitrust action and alleged violations of the False Claims Act in the case. [Pols emphasis] Neither company admitted wrongdoing.

The fact that the companies settled without admitting wrongdoing appears to be the basis for the libel claim by SG Interests, which strikes us as extremely dubious–if not legally than certainly morally. Moreover, there’s no reason to believe that a comment on an online news story of a small-town paper would be injurious to this large energy company. The tactic of large companies filing libel or other such civil suits against individual critics is deeply controversial even with far nastier subject matter.

We can’t forget that this is the same SG Interests who Rep. Scott Tipton admitted to letting directly author large portions of legislation he introduced addressing the conflict over drilling in the Thompson Divide area:

In an interview, Tipton confirmed its origin, and documents obtained by The Denver Post show that Tipton’s draft legislation duplicates — word for word — entire sections of the proposal offered by SG Interests.

Writing at this blog and elsewhere, Kolbenschlag has been highly critical of SG Interests, their large donations to Tipton, and Tipton’s role as a vehicle for their desired policies. We’d say it’s likely that the comment Kolbenschlag is not anything close to the most serious allegation he has made about the company–it’s just the one they decided they could sue over.

With all of this in mind, we hope our readers will head over to Kolbenschlag’s legal defense fund page and consider helping him out as he readies for his David vs. Goliath legal battle. As of this writing, the page is up to $16,175. Legal defense isn’t cheap, and nobody has deep pockets like the energy biz.

Good luck to Mr. Kolbenschlag, and thanks again for all the great posts.

BREAKING: A Real Life Voter Fraud Conviction!

9
  by: Colorado Pols March 8, 2017 at 4:23 PM MST

A press release moments ago from El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman announces one of the rarest events in American politics, even if it’s one of the most commonly feared: a conviction for actual vote fraud by an actual voter.

The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office is pleased to announce a conviction has been secured in one of the outstanding voter fraud cases being investigated by the District Attorney’s Office. Toni Newbill pleaded guilty to voting twice under Colorado Revised Statute 1-13-710. The penalty for this crime includes probation, community service, a fine, and other court fees. Ms. Newbill attempted to cast Ralph Nanninga’s ballot in the 2016 Primary Election. Mr. Nanninga passed away in 2012.

“I’d like to thank our District Attorney Dan May and his staff for their great work on this case,” said Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman. “Our office takes voter fraud seriously and we’re committed to combating it in every form. We’ll continue to work with various agencies to prevent voter fraud, clean up registration lists, and prosecute those who try to abuse our democratic system.”

To say that Republican elected officials “take voter fraud seriously” is a bit of an understatement, since vote fraud claims formed an outsize component of Republican pre-election messaging in the 2016 elections. It’s true that Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican himself, pushed back on Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated accusations that the “election is rigged,” but that didn’t stop the rumors from spreading within conservative media. Just as one example, former Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s unfounded claims of “tens of thousands” of illegal voters in Colorado were recycled by national conservative columnist Michelle Malkin with absolutely no regard for truthfulness.

But never mind all that, now we’ve got a real-life voter who has pled guilty to voting twice! Surely that confirms Republicans’ worst fears of rampant voter fraud, right? The answer is no, for two reasons. The first is that this conviction is evidence the system works. The attempt in this case by a Colorado voter to cast two ballots was not successful, because the voter in question, Toni Newbill, was caught.

And the second reason? Toni Newbill is a registered Republican. The election in which she attempted to cast two ballots was the 2016 primary election, in which the marquee contest was the Republican U.S. Senate primary–the same primary that saw frontrunner Jon Keyser’s campaign collapse under allegations of petition fraud, which later resulted in a felony conviction of a Keyser campaign subcontractor.

Far from proving the unsubstantiated claims from President Trump and others that vote fraud is a major problem, this one case against the backdrop of millions of votes legally and properly cast in Colorado proves that there isn’t a problem–at least no problem that merits clamping down on the system, impeding access to the franchise by thousands in order to prevent the exceedingly rare instance of actual lawbreaking.

If that blows a hole in your cherished conspiracy theories, we’re not sorry.

Trump NOAA Cuts Bad For Boulder, Rest of Planet

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  by: Colorado Pols March 8, 2017 at 1:50 PM MST

The Boulder Daily Camera’s Charlie Brennan reports on growing unease in Boulder, home to numerous important federal environmental research facilities including the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, as the Trump administration prepares to take a hacksaw to parts of the government that don’t comport with the new president’s vision–like climate science:

Little more than a month ago, Boulder scientists were publicly counseling a cautious, wait-and-see approach to feared budget cuts by the administration of a president who has called climate change a hoax perpetrated by China.

They waited, and late last week, they saw.

A report appeared Friday from the Washington Post, which had obtained a four-page memo outlining a 17 percent budget cut for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which the newspaper called one of the nation’s premier agencies for climate science.

One critic of those proposed cuts pointed out that the $990 million savings would fund the Department of Defense for 12 hours…

It’s not a surprise that President Donald Trump intends to make large cuts to climate research given his statements on the campaign trail. But as those consequences of Trump’s victory move from hypothetical to reality, the manifold implications are setting in:

A widely circulated posting Saturday for Forbes by Marshall Shepherd, a leading international expert in weather and climate, and 2013 president of the American Meteorological Society, explored the far-reaching ways in which NOAA affects everyday life…

Shepherd, who is also director of the University of Georgia’s Atmospheric Sciences Program, said it was “beyond the scope” of his intentions to “get into the politics.”

He sticks instead to the simple facts of what a 22 percent slashing of the satellite division, or a 5 percent cut to the National Marine Services Service or 5 percent reduction to the National Weather Service — which are also both under NOAA — could mean.

Although the goal of these cuts would be to strike a blow against climate change “alarmism,” the effects may be felt in areas of the economy that have little to do with that one admittedly significant aspect of NOAA’s job. Neglect of NOAA’s coastal erosion programs, for example, could undermine hurricane recovery efforts. A reduction of weather forecasting information hurts the ability of Americans to prepare and respond to all kinds of events.

And yes, this is likely to cost Boulder some very good jobs. Republicans don’t like to factor the value of government employment into the strength of the larger economy, but the fact is, these are high-paying jobs that drive secondary economic growth just like good jobs in the private sector do. For their impact on the economy alone, these are not jobs that Coloradans of any political persuasion should want to go away.

All told, Trump’s plans for neutering climate science are bad news locally, in ways that won’t take decades to come to fruition. The long-term damage these cuts could result in is of course the more important story, but our local economy will feel the pain first.

Colorado Senate GOP’s “Women’s Day” Tribute: Five Dudes

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  by: Colorado Pols March 8, 2017 at 10:47 AM MST

Today is International Women’s Day, and with all the tumult in American culture over women’s rights and dignity in the Donald Trump era, the holiday is getting quite a bit more attention than usual.

That includes a Women’s Day “tribute” video released today by Colorado Senate Republicans:

The GOP Colorado Senate Majority’s Women’s Day commemorative video you can watch above immediately raised eyebrows, and not just because the production value is well beneath the minimum standard of your local high school AV club.

For reasons we are unable to comprehend, Senate Republicans released a “Women’s Day” video that contains no women.

As opposed to the Senate Democrats, proudly celebrating their record-setting nine-woman caucus today (above). It’s true that Senate Republicans don’t have nearly as many women in their caucus as Democrats, but highlighting that fact with this laughable “tribute” by a bunch of dudes really does nothing to improve the GOP’s already abysmal gender divide.

On the other hand, having Women’s Day “mansplained” by male Republican lawmakers is kind of, you know, perfect.

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (March 8)

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  by: Colorado Pols March 8, 2017 at 10:15 AM MST

Happy International Women’s Day! Let’s go ahead and see if we can Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► President Trump has joined with House Republicans to promote a major healthcare policy change that some Republicans are calling “Obamacare-lite” (in order to conserve letters, we’re just going to stick with “Trumpcare”). Despite any happy talk you may hear from individual lawmakers, the conservative backlash is well underway. Today, the American Medical Association announced that it could not support Trumpcare, either.

Good luck trying to find consensus on Trumpcare among Colorado’s Republican delegation to Congress. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) has been a vocal supporter of the new health care legislation — even before he had a chance to read the draft document. Coffman is excited about what he calls a massive entitlement reform that would quickly eliminate Medicaid. Meanwhile, Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) continues to insist that he is opposed to any proposal that would gut Medicaid.

Politico examines seven specific pitfalls that could derail Trumpcare entirely, including a poor reception from the healthcare insurers and providers. Many conservative Republicans are also not happy with the plan being pushed by House Speaker Paul Ryan.

 

► House Republicans are moving quickly as they try to enact Trumpcare. As the Washington Post explains, outside groups are being left to figure out the details:

The House GOP is moving so fast — with debate starting in the Ways and Means Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee less than 48 hours after they unveiled their bills — that lawmakers have not yet received any estimates from congressional budget analysts of how much the plans would cost or, significantly, how many Americans could be expected to gain or lose insurance coverage…

…An analysis by S&P Global predicts the legislation would lead to a loss of coverage for 2 million to 4 million of the roughly 16 million Americans who bought their own health plans through the ACA’s marketplaces or separately. More adults 35 and younger would gain coverage, while fewer adults 45 and older would be insured, according to the analysis…

…The GOP plans also would undo an ACA rule that allows insurers to charge their oldest customers no more than three times what they charge their youngest and healthiest ones. Instead, insurers could charge five times as much…

…Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said more low-income people would have a hard time affording benefits under the Republicans’ American Health Care Act. “There will be more losers than winners,” he said.

It’s not all bad news — Trumpcare is great if you are already rich.

 

► The Colorado legislature could end up convening a special session this summer if Trumpcare makes it through Congress.

 

► Women haven’t disappeared in Colorado, but this is what it might look like if they did.

 

Get even more smarter after the jump… (more…)

Coffman Pumps Health Care Bill, Reads Text Later

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  by: Colorado Pols March 7, 2017 at 3:49 PM MST

Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) puts the cart before the horse.

Republicans will have to pass a healthcare bill in order to find out what it says. This has been a popular joke around Capitol Hill recently, and like any good yarn, it is one that has its roots in reality.

According to a Tweet from Rep. Mike Coffman’s office this afternoon, the Aurora Republican was hunkered down at his desk reading the new House Republican bill to repeal destroy Obamacare. But just this morning, as Coffman’s office also Tweeted, the Congressman went on “The Ross Kaminsky Show” on 630AM to offer his full-throated support of legislation that he may not have even read yet.

In a healthcare-centric interview, Coffman tells Kaminsky that the legislation represents a “massive reform” to Medicaid, promising to end the program altogether in four years (Coffman cites “political reasons” for not trying to end Medicaid sooner). Says Coffman:

“It actually goes much further than the Affordable Care Act.  This is a major entitlement reform.  It is a major reform to the entire Medicaid system.  And I think that that has not been part of the discussion..

…”As long as enough republicans stay together, we can get this passed and on the President’s desk.”

Coffman is apparently all-in on the House legislation, which has received public support from President Trump. Coffman’s endorsement of cutting Medicaid, however, doesn’t square with what Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) said on Monday, when he said he couldn’t support healthcare legislation that did not protect Medicaid.

Check out the Big Media Blog for more from Coffman’s interview this morning.

Cory Gardner Supports AND Opposes GOP Healthcare Bill

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  by: Colorado Pols March 7, 2017 at 12:48 PM MST

Yesterday, Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) signed a letter from four Republican Senators expressing opposition to any healthcare legislation that would attempt to gut Medicaid, which is a key component in any serious GOP repeal-and-destroy legislation. This was an interesting move from Gardner, given that he voted in late 2015 to gut Medicaid, but attempting to be all things to all people is how Gardner rolls.

Today, Vice President Mike Pence spoke to Senate leaders to convey that he and President Trump fully support the House Republican healthcare plan. Guess who showed up to the press conference?

Yup, that’s Sen. Gardner just to the left of the podium behind Pence. From the look on his face, Gardner must have been anxious that he might not have time to make it over to the press conference denouncing the House Republican plan.

Colorado House Passes “Conversion Therapy” Ban (Again)

5
  by: Colorado Pols March 7, 2017 at 12:35 PM MST

A press release from One Colorado, the state’s principal LGBT advocacy group, cheers the state house passage of House Bill 17-1156—this year’s bill to ban the controversial practice of what’s known as “conversion therapy” to “cure” LGBT kids of their homosexuality:

“House Bill 1156 will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth in Colorado from discredited and dangerous efforts to change their sexual orientation or gender identity. So-called ‘conversion therapy’ is extremely harmful to the well-being of young people.

“Every mainstream mental and medical professional association in the country has discounted conversion therapy. In Colorado, many major behavioral and mental health organizations — including the Colorado Psychological Association, the Colorado Psychiatric Society, the Colorado Counseling Association, Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council, Mental Health Colorado, and the National Association of Social Workers – Colorado Chapter — support HB-1156.

“These harmful practices use rejection, shame, and psychological abuse to force young people to try to change who they are. Unfortunately, many young people are coerced and subjected to conversion therapy, which puts them at increased risk for depression, substance abuse, and suicide.

“No young person should ever be shamed by a mental health professional into thinking that who they are or who they love is wrong. As this bill moves over to the Colorado Senate, we hope that Republican leadership will give the bill a fair committee assignment and hearing.”

The bill passed on a 38-27 vote in the House, with GOP Rep. Dan Thurlow joining with Democrats to advance the bill to the Republican-controlled Senate. In past years, that has been where this bill has died despite widespread opposition to the practice of “conversion therapy” by mainstream psychologists and LGBT advocates. This year, Republican allies against conversion therapy are perhaps more vocal than they have been in previous years, reflecting increasing impatience with the party’s socially conservative moral grandstanders:

We’ll let you know if it makes a difference in the Colorado Senate this year.

FACT CHECK: Gardner Misleads Constituents on Phone Call

3
  by: Jason Salzman March 7, 2017 at 12:22 PM MST

(Surprise! No, wait, what’s the opposite of “surprise?” — promoted by Colorado Pols)

During his conference call with constituents last week, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) boasted about being bipartisan when, in fact, he was just being a manipulative partisan Republican.

Asked why he’s voted with Trump 100 percent of the time, Gardner told constituents on the call that most of his Trump votes were for cabinet posts, and Gardner believes any president should be allowed to select his own team, unless extreme circumstances dictate otherwise.

“I think it’s important that the president have the people around him that the president nominates,” said Gardner on the phone call.

Gardner then patted himself on the back, and made himself look all bipartisan, by saying he “voted to end debate” on whether Obama’s nominee for attorney general, Loretta Lynch, was fit to serve.

Gardner during his telephone town hall last week: “In fact, if you look at my vote on Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama’s Attorney General, I received a lot of heavy lobbying to vote against the cloture vote and cloture’s a fancy way of saying, ‘To cut off debate and allow the nomination to reach the floor.’ There was a lot of people who wanted me to vote against Loretta Lynch and to say that – vote against her nomination from even coming to the floor, and even though I disagreed with many of the positions that Loretta Lynch has taken and took as Attorney General, I believed that the president had a right to that nomination making the floor, and so I voted to end debate. And so again, elections have consequences. Had it been Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders who were elected to president, I’m sure I wouldn’t have liked the – some of the positions that the cabinet members took, but the elections have consequences, and those officials would have been confirmed.”

But instead of a pat on the back, Gardner deserves a spanking for talking out of both sides of his mouth, because after he voted to end debate on the Lynch nomination, he actually voted to reject Lynch.

Thumping his chest in 2015 at right wingers who were apparently applying the “heavy lobbying,” Gardner even shot off a news release after his vote against Lynch.

Gardner on Lynch nomination in 2015: “On topics from the President’s executive actions to when exactly federal law trumps that of the states, Ms. Lynch declined, both in person and via letter, to provide satisfactory answers that would have helped me determine how exactly her confirmation as Attorney General would affect the lives of Coloradans. With too many unanswered questions, I am unable to support her confirmation.”

Unless they happened to possess crazy knowledge of U.S. Senate rules and Gardner’s votes, folks on Gardner’s conference call last week may have thought Gardner really believes a president should be able to select his cabinet members when, in fact, he seems to believe this for Trump but not Obama.

Gardner’s intent was to manipulate his constituents, and reporters should call him out on this tactic.

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