Colorado Pols Posts

If you are a Republican, how do you reach out to women voters while your candidates are simultaneously making them cringe? When all else fails, apparently, you do your best to tell women that these issues don't really matter anyway. And even if they did matter, Republicans wouldn't be able to do anything to overturn Roe v. Wade or anything like that. Right?

A press release from the arch-conservative Republican Study Committee of Colorado, the social club for the more right-leaning among Republican legislators in this state, announced that they are taking another field trip to the Mexican border. In 2006 and 2010, both years like 2014 when immigration was in the headlines, a gaggle of Republican elected officials and candidates undertook similar border "fact-finding tours." As you might imagine, those trips revealed more about the legislators themselves than anything on the border.

Meet Republican Ron Sandstrom, possibly the worst candidate for County Assessor in Jeffco history.

We've written extensively about the myriad of problems facing the Jefferson County Republican Party — and how those troubles may impact statewide races such as U.S. Senate and Governor — but we've

The Denver Post's Op-Ed chief hasn't hid his rightward leanings that well in the past, but after footage surfaced of him speaking at tea party-affiliated event, he's digging himself in even deeper.

Colorado's Cory Gardner, campaigning for a US Senate seat, is having trouble explaining why legislation he co-sponsored would put an abortion provider in jail for longer than a rapist.

Colorado State Senator Steve King is facing several felony and misdemeanor charges, stemming from allegedly falsified timesheets filed with different public agencies he was employed by — overlapping to a degree that the pay he received cannot be justified. In the midst of a heated election cycle, why isn't anyone paying attention to this?

Illegal coordination? In-kind campaign contribution? Take your pick! Colorado Republicans have had quite a bit of trouble with campaign finance violations during this election cycle, and the hits just keep on coming. The variety of violations has been curious — from Tim Neville's open courting of anonymous donations to Secretary of State candidate Wayne Williams accepting obviously illegal donations — but sometimes the biggest problems can come from simple sloppiness.

Debate over the death penalty in Colorado continues this election year, as Republican work to make Gov. John Hickenlooper's granting of a temporary reprieve to "Chuck E. Cheese Killer" Nathan Dunlap a campaign issue. A recent interview leaked by a conservative news outlet, as one example, quotes Hickenlooper as considering a full commutation of Dunlap's sentence — along with the governor's growing belief that the death penalty in Colorado (as elsewhere) is no longer a just punishment. The Republican outrage quickly worked itself into ridiculousness.

The El Paso County Republican Party is standing up for embattled Colorado House candidate Gordon "Dr. Chaps" Klingenschmitt in the wake of his outlandish attack on Rep. Jared Polis last weekend, suggesting that Polis would "join ISIS in beheading Christians" for…actually, it doesn't really matter why he thought that statement was justifiable.

Colorado Republican Senator Tom Tancredo has joined the ever-increasing numbers of truly out-of-touch right-wingers that are calling for Obama's impeachment.

Billionaire Tom Steyer was in Aspen, Colorado, yesterday for the American Renewable Energy Day summit conference talking about his ambitious plans to aggressively take on politicians in 2014 and beyond who deny the general scientific consensus that human activity is contributing to global climate change. Even though he made much of his fortune investing in coal, Styer is looking to lead the charge against climate change denial and clean his hands along the way.

Another anti-Obamacare ad posted by Americans for Prosperity has failed to pass even a modicum of scrutiny. Turns out the lady at the center of the ad wasn't hurt by the ACA at all. In fact, her husband's high blood pressure medication was covered under Obama's signature legislation.

The numbers are in, and they unequivocally lead to one conclusion: Obamacare is working. Colorado's uninsured rate has dropped to 11% from the 17% it was before the Affordable Care Act was implemented.

By no means are economic conditions perfect, if they ever are in a free market economy — there are still lots of underemployed workers, and there are still several million long-term "structurally unemployed" Americans who haven't found a way forward in the new economy. But it's worth acknowledging that the last six months of 200,000+ per month job growth is the longest stretch of growth that high since 1997 — the fabled Clinton years, which so many Americans look back on nostalgically as the last great economic boom time.

​After the passage of gun safety bills in the Colorado legislature last year, Republicans and their gun lobby allies predicted, we'd even go as far as say hoped for, a crippling boycott of the state's vital tourism industry. This prediction quickly proved unfounded, as the most likely indicator of a boycott by pro-gun tourists — a reduction in hunting licenses — didn't take place. That isn't the only set of numbers showing an explosion in the state's tourism.

Colorado Rep. and U.S. Senate candidate Cory Gardner has made his career on the idea of personhood, even as he infamously flip-flopped in light of how terrible of an idea it is if he wants to get elected. When "Cosmopolitan" ran a story on the controversial legislation, highlighted by his role, Gardner's campaign reacted in the most unsurprising manner possible: Making fun of women's magazines.

For all the trolling inspired by the boogeyman that is Obamacare, the actual laws and benefits reaped by consumers under the Affordable Care Act are wildly popular. Who would've thought that $2.7 million in rebate checks — just in the state of Colorado — might be something that people want?

Within hours yesterday, two different courts reached opposing decisions on a key portion of the president's health care plan — meaning a showdown in the nation's highest court is probably inevitable. As more Americans understand and, seemingly in turn, approve of the law however, an interesting political dilemma is beginning to rise for ardent opponents of Obamacare.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers continues his obsession with trying to stop county clerks from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, despite repeated court rulings that strike down bans on same-sex marriage. Suthers has been rumored to be looking at running for Mayor of Colorado Springs in 2015, so perhaps he views his defense of a same-sex marriage ban as something that may help him with a highly-conservative Colorado Springs electorate.

Democrats are raising significantly more money in competitive House districts compared to their Republican counterparts, by a measure of five-to-one. With Republicans needing at least five seats to take control, and SuperPACS still looming, will this be enough to keep Colorado blue?