I love the broadcast of Elbert County Commissioner meetings on the internet!  See here for today’s broadcast.  It’s most interesting to see the local parade of interested parties pulling the levers of public decision making.

Dan Maes thinks he saved the Republican Party in Colorado from minor party status and future obscurity and that he is a hero.  He probably also thinks that his heroism was aided by divine intervention.

Colorado Tea Party people who supported Dan Maes think they saved the Republican Party too.  They bought the myth fed to them during last Spring’s precinct caucuses that they represented the people of Colorado, and all the higher ideals of our constitutional representative system of government were invested in them.  Trouble is, the people of Colorado never give their consent to be represented by the caucus system or those individuals who just show up one night in April to take charge of the caucus system.  So, armed with a myth, Maes-supporting Tea Partyers soldiered on and now feel like heroes too.

Republican Party leaders appeared to sit the whole thing out.  They watched from the sidelines while Maes and Buck worked the idealistic Tea Party types to their own advantage.  All they could muster was a hope that the Tea Party wouldn’t fragment the Republican party.  So, obsessed with their own political survival, they neglected to defend Jane Norton, or Josh Penry, and they left Tom Tancredo adrift–the only ones who really did embody Tea Party ideals.

They kept the Tea Party under the Republican umbrella all right, but threw out any candidate who actually walked the Tea Party walk.  That left them with remainders who could be manipulated–the 11% who bought them a narrow dodge of minor party status in Colorado in an historic Republican wave that washed over the entire country.  How they managed to avoid queering the Colorado statehouse turnover is kind of a mystery.

On the issues we had key government-limiting tax and debt measures to win, the death cult of abortion to defeat, immunity from Obamacare to enact, and the Republicans stood by and watched it all go down.

They really earned minor party status in my book.   There are no heroes in this election in Colorado.

Maes speaks

Maes speaks again

Maes speaks more

Looking at this political year in toto, lots of things stand out.   Maes stands out for pure bitterness and vituperation.  With each new day that Republicans allow themselves to be represented by this jerk, they do more lasting damage to their political brand.

People who still support Dan Maes have effectively withdrawn from meaningful participation in this election for governor.  Whether Maes goes or stays, you can make a plausible case that voters currently dedicated to Dan Maes are irrelevant to the outcome of the race.

Let’s assume he stays, which seems the most likely case.  If all those pledged to him remain loyal and vote for him, they won’t effect the outcome of the race for governor.  That race will be decided completely by people who vote for Tancredo and Hickenlooper.

On the other hand, let’s assume Maes withdraws–the unlikely case.  Some of his pledged voters will still vote for him, and won’t effect the outcome of the race.  Some will choose not to vote at all, and won’t effect the outcome of the race.  Some will vote for Tancredo on the principle of conservatism, while others will vote for Hickenlooper purely out of spite.  Let’s face it, after all that’s gone wrong with Dan Maes, of the people remaining in his camp today who don’t end up in one of the nullifying outcomes, they’re as likely to go one way or the other (conservatism or spite), and those two camps will cancel each other out.

The bottom line is, whether Maes stays or goes, his voters have become irrelevant.  The race is between those who relevantly declare for Tancredo and Hickenlooper, and Tancredo has about pulled even in that contest.

…did not found the Elbert County Tea Party and did not elect its self-appointed Chairman.  When will the Elbert County Tea Party embrace the consent of the citizens that it claims to uphold and elect its own party leaders?  When will the Elbert County Tea Party hold its own leadership accountable for supporting Dan Maes and for siding with the left on Proposition 1A?

Tea Party self-appointed leader Robert Rowland sides with Democrat Whistler on Elbert County Proposition 1A.

ELBERT COUNTY FINANCIAL WOES
by Robert Rowland on Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 1:30pm
WE NEED EVERYONE IN ELBERT COUNTY TO SEE AND READ THIS, PLEASE PASS ALONG.  ELBERT COUNTY – BALLOT INITIATIVE 1A [Read more…]

“Anyone who accuses the legislative council staff
[who wrote the Blue Book] of bias,
will be ejected from this hearing.”
-Chairman Terrance Carroll opening the only public hearing

With Colorado’s Blue Book Alternative you can avoid our government’s conflict of interest and bureaucratic bias, and get information about ballot initiatives straight from the proponents.

Proposition 101 (Cut car, income, phone taxes)

Amendment 60 (Limit Property Tax)

Amendment 61 (Limit Colorado Debt)

Time is almost up to do the right thing Mr. Peterson.

The right thing would be to stop promoting the grifter for governor and get behind the man with real answers, real experience, real leadership and real command of the office he seeks.

And doing the right thing for the greater good would be to support tax limiting proposals instead of big public money interests.

When Republicans align with the NEA, the Colorado Progressive Coalition, the Democratic Governors Association, and the SEIU, it’s time to say goodbye to the Republicans.

The Governor’s Forum debate begins at about 23 minutes into this video.

Ad Strategy Worked: Weak Tea Party Candidate Won Primary

“The most recently filed campaign records from Colorado Freedom Fund indicate that the Democratic Governors Association donated $150,000, while wealthy Colorado philanthropist Pat Stryker gave $108,000. The SEIU Small Donor Committee gave $200,000 and the Public Education Committee, an education union, gave $150,000. Two other groups gave $5,000 each to the committee.

“Democrats spent more money on Maes in two weeks than he raised in his entire campaign,” said Rob Witwer, co-author of “The Blueprint,” a book about the Democrats takeover of Colorado. “They wanted Dan Maes to be the Republican nominee and they got him.”

With nearly $4 million spent so far to defeat these measures, an amount which dwarfs the money for all other political issues and offices in Colorado combined, these measures are the biggest threat to tax and spend liberalism currently on the table.  You know, to a point of certainty, that the legal briefs that will challenge these measures are already written and waiting to be filed, should any of them squeak through the liberal firewall.  And you know, given the composition of the Colorado Supreme Court, that any legal challenge to these measures will be found sufficient and ultimately upheld.  There’s just too much money on the table to enliven the fight.

Still, it’s a fight worth having because it exposes the tax and spend super structure running Colorado.  And there’s no other way we’ll ever even see who runs our government.

Donors

According to August 2010 reports, Coloradans for Responsible Reform, an opponent of Proposition 101, Amendment 60 and 61, has reportedly received $4.109 million in campaign contributions and has spent $3.877 million. Their current balance is $231,335.98.^[29] Compared to May 2010 reports, supporters reported that they had received $777,000 in campaign donations and a total of $671,190 in the bank.^[30] In July 2010, state campaign finance records revealed that opponents received contributions from 36 businesses and 11 business & trade groups.^[13]

Below is a chart that outlines major cash contributions to Coloradans for Responsible Reform:^[31][32]

Contributor	Amount
National Education Association	$400,000
Colorado Contractors Association, Inc.	$300,000
Colorado Education Association	$250,000
The Colorado Health Foundation	$175,000
Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association	$150,000

Campaign advertising

• Opponents purchased $2 million of television air time. Their ad campaign is expected to launch after Labor Day.^[13]

• On September 8, 2010 Coloradans for Responsible Reform launched a one-minute ad in opposition to Prop 101, Amendment 60 and 61. According to reports, the ad calls the three measures “The Ugly Three.” The radio ad ran on 64 stations in 39 cities.^[33] The radio ad can be heard here.

Tactics and strategies

• In May 2010 Coloradans for Responsible Reform launched a website called www.donthurtcolorado.com in order to fight Proposition 101, Amendment 60 and 61. According to reports, the group has raised approximately $800,000 to fight the measures. The campaign group is supported by Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and others. According to Coloradans for Responsible Reform the proposed measures would make Colorado an “investment-flight state.”^[30]

• On August 14, 2010, opponents of Proposition 101, Amendment 60 and Amendment 61 gathered at the Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library, the headquarters of the Pueblo City-County Library District. According to reports, the crowd consisted of about 50 local politicians, school, library and business leaders.^[34]

• On August 25 opponents hosted a rally at the Pioneers Museum gazebo from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm to explain and distribute information on the potential impact of the three measures. The rally, according to reports, was sponsored by the Citizens for Effective Government and group of businesses and organizations.^[35][36][37]

• The Colorado Progressive Coalition hit the road on September 14 in a ten-day “Civic Engagement Roundtable Ballot Tour” to inform voters of “the costly effects and unintended consequences” of the measures.^[38] A list of tour events can be found here.

• On September 27, 2010 opponents met in front of empty seats at Invesco Field to illustrate the 73,000 jobs they argue would be lost should Amendment 60, 61 and Prop 101 be approved by voters.^[39]

Other perspectives

• • 2010 Gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo announced in an early September debate that he supported Proposition 101, Amendment 60 and 61. Tancredo said, “The people of Colorado are not under-taxed; we are over-governed” and added “It’s really a reaction to people being overtaxed and taxed without their permission. The passage of these things will be an indicator that things are coming to a change and we’ll have to deal with it.”^[40] However, in late September 2010, Tancredo said he was unsure about the measures.^[41]

GOP Agenda – A Pledge To America

I don’t think there’s enough lipstick in Washington to make this pig look good. It doesn’t mention death taxes, it uses weasel words about border security, it says they’ll put us on a path to balancing the budget without actually calling for a balanced budget, and they promise to give us 3 days to digest and respond to their thousand page bills.

It looks dressed up to appeal to constitutional fundamentalists without actually saying much to hold the GOP to. And this morph of the Declaration of Independence from a document stating the foundation for our right to change our system of government, to a justification for making policy changes within our existing government, is just repugnant.