By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 14, 2007

Will Shafroth is relying on a lifetime of work for environmental causes to get him elected to Congress in Colorado’s heavily Democratic 2^nd District. But Shafroth also plans to use his nice-guy reputation to set himself apart from a pair of more strident opponents in a multi-million-dollar primary that will effectively determine who goes to the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Stylistically, this district has had someone who was about bringing diverse coalitions together, working with Republicans, Democrats and independents,” Shafroth said of prior 2^nd CD reps Mark Udall, Tim Wirth and David Skaggs. “It is grounded in being a good listener.”

Sharoth said his personality is better suited to building consensus than Democratic primary opponents Jared Polis and Joan Fitz-Gerald.

But in an interview Shafroth also admitted that his name recognition is not as good as either Fitz-Gerald, the former president of the Colorado State Senate, or Polis, a former State Board of Education chairman who used his personal fortune to help Democrats regain control of the Colorado General Assembly, the governor’s office and a majority in the Congressional delegation.

Shafroth, meanwhile, ran Great Outdoors Colorado from 1993 to 2000, directing lottery proceeds into land conservation and recreation projects. Since 2000 he has directed the Colorado Conservation Trust, a private foundation that Shafroth said has collected $17 million to help preserve agricultural lands, wildlife habitats and open space.

Shafroth said his decision to petition on to the primary ballot did not signal a fear that he would have failed to get 30 percent of the delegate votes needed to get on the ballot at May’s Democratic assembly. He said going door-to-door will help his name recognition and allow him to discover what issues matter most to voters.

“I’ve been in the Democratic system in Boulder,” Shafroth said. “That’s where 50 percent of the delegates will come from. I think I could have done that (gotten 30 percent of the assembly votes).” ((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 13, 2007

Colorado Democratic chairwoman Pat Waak says she would prefer not to have a primary in the U.S. Senate race where state executive committee member Mark Benner has said he “intends” to challenge Rep. Mark Udall for the party’s nomination.

“If we know who our candidate is sooner, we can raise more money,” Waak said in an interview this week.

With that in mind, Waak said she spent time last Saturday talking to Benner about other ways to provoke a discussion of issues without trying to get on a primary ballot.

“For years, I would have said primaries are great for a discussion of the issues,” Waak said. “But when I watched what happened with Ed Perlmutter and Peggy Lamm in the 7^th Congressional District and the amount of money that took, we’re much better off without primaries in 2008.”

The Perlmutter-Lamm Congressional primary in 2006 was not only expensive; it was acrimonious with both candidates using negative attack ads to disparage the other.

Benner probably wouldn’t have the money to do that to Udall. But Waak fears his attempt to get on the primary ballot might divide her party before a general election in a critical race to maintain and extend Democratic control of the Senate. ((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 12, 2007

He is a subcontractor working on the new headquarters of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. He and his family are beseiged by anti-abortion fanatics in ways that are scary, disgusting and apparently legal.

On Monday, the lunatic fringe sent his home telephone number out in a blast email and encouraged zealots to call his house.

The “Truth Truck,” covered with huge pictures of bloody aborted fetuses, first showed up at his home two weeks ago. It parked in front of his house and across the street from the middle school bus stop.

The truck returned last week with a sign that said his business “takes blood money from an abortion mill.” “Auschweitz” is how the sign on the truck referred to Weitz Company, the general contractor for the Planned Parenthood headquarters in northeast Denver.

Holocaust and concentration camp references are popular with the crazies who have invaded this man’s life.

Mainstream Americans, even those who oppose women’s reproductive rights, find this kind of behavior so obnoxious that it actually hurts the cause of the people acting out.

“The more they show up, the more our neighbors support us,” said the subcontractor.

His neighbors and friends have told him: “Don’t let these guys get to you.”

Still, he didn’t want his name or his business’ name in this column.

For now, he’s hanging on, working a job he had every right to accept. Still, he worries for the safety of his wife and their four-year-old child.

“How fanatical are these people?” he asks. “What are they capable of?”

He mentions Eric Rudolph, the true-believing abortion opponent who bombed a family planning clinic in Alabama that offered abortions to women who chose to have them. Rudolph killed one person and critically injured another.

People so steeped in their belief that abortion is murder rationalize those kinds of attacks, even if they don’t commit them. In these people’s eyes, Rudolph’s victims or doctors shot for working in family planning clinics invited their fate. ((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 10, 2007

Two of Colorado’s top political analysts agree that without quick and proper responses, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall risks getting stereotyped the way Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry got tarred by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Udall’s camp has been remarkably quiet as the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the conservative advocacy group Common Sense Issues have produced misleading videos and advertisements that try to brand Colorado’s 2^nd District congressman a “Boulder liberal,” who is soft on terror and a friend of Fidel Castro’s.

“The key words here are ‘defining early,’” said political scientist Bob Loevy of Colorado College. “If you allow the other side to define you and define you early, that will be the way people think of you. You have to respond and respond hard.”

As crazy and distorted as the current attack ads are, without rebuttal and pushback to discredit the source, almost any kind of specious characterization can take hold, said Colorado State University political scientist John Straayer.

“Basically,” Straayer explained, “you have to Swift-Boat them back.”

((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 8, 2007

A member of Colorado’s Democratic executive committee and state central committee said Friday night that he intends to run against Congressman Rep. Mark Udall for the U.S. Senate nomination.

Mark Benner said he intends to file paperwork with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Senate. Benner sent an announcement of his candidacy to the Udall campaign, but has yet to file required paperwork to make it official.

“I would do this not to run against Mark Udall so much as to run on issues,” Benner said in an interview Friday night at Colorado Democratic headquarters.

Benner’s main issues are single-payer health insurance, which Udall has not endorsed, and impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, which Udall does not support.

Benner, a 54-year-old art teacher in rural Washington County, said he is also concerned about Congress’ lack of action on the issues of torture, withdrawal from Iraq and the environment.

Still, said Benner, “I don’t want to go down as the Ralph Nader of Colorado Democrats,” referring to the consumer advocate whose third-party presidential campaign likely cost Democrats the White House in 2000.

But even Benner admits that isn’t likely. He has no illusions about winning. He helps lead the Colorado Democrats’ left wing and wants to provoke a discussion. He did much the same thing in a 2002 state senate race against Republican Mark Hillman. Benner played the role of the loyal opposition and got 27 percent of the votes.

A primary would be a distraction in what could become an expensive Senate campaign.

Udall is already under attack from harsh ads by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a conservative advocacy group, Common Sense Issues.

((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 7, 2007

Discussion leader Bill Fulton asked participants at the governor’s school dropout prevention summit to “imagine a Colorado education system where no one drops out.”

At this point, a solution to the state’s scandalously low high school graduation rate remains just that – a dream.

The two-day dropout summit that concluded Thursday at Mountain Range High School in Westminster summed up the challenges just fine. What will be much more difficult in a state where at least three in 10 students don’t make it through high school is turning talking points into action, dreams into reality.

“Begin with pre-natal care through higher education or vocational training,” Fulton urged his audience. Imagine students who can read and write on grade level before being allowed to leave third grade. Imagine partnering schools with businesses. Imagine dealing with racism and stereotypes that hurt minority students. Imagine believing all students – rich or poor - can learn with sufficient resources. Imagine tracking struggling students to address their problems when they first arise.

Imagine, imagine, imagine.

The goal outlined by Gov. Bill Ritter is to halve the state’s dropout rate by 2017. Yet for all the good intentions a huge wrench remains wedged in the teeth of the gear box.

Republican State Sen. Mike Kopp and Democratic State Sen. Ron Tupa both alluded to it in the summit’s final meeting between practitioners and policy makers.

“Nothing we do,” Kopp said, “is going to replace good strong families. If we had that, we wouldn’t be having the conversation we’ve had the last two days.”

Too many parents of drop outs “aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” added Tupa, acknowledging the need to increase spending on dropout prevention, but putting it in perspective. “A lot of these kids (who drop out) don’t have parents. (Public institutions) become the de facto parents. That costs money.”

Tupa told the summit that some money for dropout prevention exists because of Referendum C, which bailed out a starving state economy by temporarily suspending tax refunds required by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. State Sen. Sue Windels said freezing tax rates in most of the state’s school systems will produce enough money to pay for expansion of kindergarten programs.

It was all good news for fixing the dropout problem. But it still dodged the nagging question of parental accountability without which so many dreams will continue to be figments of imagination.

((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 5, 2007

One of two attack ads being aired in Colorado against Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall beats up on the 2^nd District Congressman for introducing a bill nearly identical to one that a number of Republicans – including Colorado’s 4^th District Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave – introduced last year.

The ad’s content has fallen off the radar as charges fly about the relationship between the supposedly independent political group Common Sense Issues Inc. and Udall’s opponent, former Republican Congressman Bob Schaffer.

The ad in question shows Udall getting a made-up “Cuban hero award” from Fidel Castro for sponsoring a bill that lets U.S. companies drill for oil off the coast of Cuba. The ad tries to make Udall seem like a commie sympathizer while he opposes drilling for oil and gas on Colorado’s Roan Plateau.

The problem for Republicans is that the bill Udall sponsored in the current session of Congress mirrors a very similar bill introduced by Republicans in the Senate in 2006 and a similar bill co-sponsored by Musgrave in the House of Representatives in 2006.

So if the GOP is going to link Udall to Fidel for wanting to let the U.S. drill for oil, Republicans need to add John Warner, John Thune, Larry Craig, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Pete Domenici, Ted Stevens, Musgrave and a bunch of other prominent Republicans to the Red Squad. Their drilling legislation apparently would have done the same thing.

Schaffer campaign consultant Walt Klein said he was unaware of the other drilling bills. Klein said Udall’s willingness to drill off-shore, but not on the Roan was an issue, as was Udall’s willingness to lift the trade embargo with Cuba to do so.

“What’s the difference between a bad idea by Republicans and a bad idea by Democrats,” Schaffer said. “Raul and Fidel Castro are still doing cartwheels.”

“I think (Udall) was trying to throw a bone to the energy industry,” Klein said.

But Klein called the Democrats’ charge that the Schaffer campaign had illegally conspired with Common Sense Issues on the attack ads “B.S.”

Schaffer refused to comment on the charge or the attack ads.

“They (the Democrats) can file a complaint, and I can respond to it,” he said. If Democrats don’t file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, he added, then they know they have no case.

((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 5, 2007

Getting politicians to talk about tax increases is like trying to turn cougars into house cats.

It just ain’t natural.

So as the costs for improvements in transportation, health care distribution and competitive universities grow by the billions, Colorado’s leaders still act coy about the kind of revenue-raising measure they might have to take to the voters in November 2008.

Gov. Bill Ritter keeps talking about limiting a money vote to a single ballot initiative.

But Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, insists that those listening to the governor are missing the subordinate clause in his speech.

“The singular word that gets lost is ‘if,’” Dreyer said.

As in, if there needs to be a revenue-raising ballot measure in 2008 …

Well, here’s another if:

If the governor intends to keep his promises to the people, it’s nearly impossible to see how he can avoid some kind of money measure next year. ((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 4, 2007

There is no question that Sgt. Darren Mischke is a wounded warrior. After two tours in Iraq, the 27-year-old Army vet suffers from nosebleeds, memory loss, mood swings, dizziness, blurred vision and severe headaches.

Only instead of treating him for what are classic symptoms of traumatic brain injury – or TBI – Mischke’s wife and father say the U.S. military has tried to force him from the service for domestic abuse.

“He’d be out of the service if his wife hadn’t fought for him,” Tom Mischke said of his son.

Darren Mischke got knocked out in a wreck during his first tour in Iraq, said his wife, Teresa. He was riding on the turret of a military vehicle that got hit by a mortar in his second tour.

It was enough, his family claims, to turn Darren Mischke from a squared-away enlisted man into a pain-riddled head case. Mischke is among the estimated 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who return from war with traumatic brain injury. A report by USA Today estimates that 20,000 returning vets not classified as wounded actually had undiagnosed TBI.

The scope of the problem is huge. But the reaction to it is even more critical. ((more))

By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com

December 3, 2007

Colorado ACLU Director Cathryn Hazouri and immigration lawyer Ann Allott differ sharply on the effectiveness of the Social Security Administration’s identity check system in finding illegal immigrants. But they agree just as strongly about this:

Using the system to automatically fire workers whose numbers don’t match their names is a big mistake.

That won’t be happening now that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has abandoned a new policy that forced employers to terminate employees within 90 days of receiving a so-called “no match” letter from the Social Security Administration or face punishment.

The ACLU forced the government’s hand on a policy that was supposed to fight illegal immigration. In a federal lawsuit, the ACLU that claimed the Social Security database was so full of inaccuracies that it stood to victimize millions of American citizens by encouraging their bosses to fire them.

Homeland security officials backed down last week. They withdrew the new policy and asked the federal court to put the ACLU lawsuit on hold while they revised the no-match policy. That should happen this month.

Meanwhile, Hazouri and Allott expressed relief for very different reasons.

“To say the Social Security Administration system is inaccurate - that’s an understatement,” Hazouri said. “In 2006 an inspector general’s report found 17.8 million inaccuracies in the Social Security database. Twelve-plus million of those belonged to American citizens. If a no-match letter received under the new rules is grounds for firing, it’s easier just to fire someone” rather than give them the time to straighten the situation out. ((more))