Colorado Politics
Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter
McCain’s Water Woes
McCain set off a firestorm last week when he suggested that the 86 year old agreement that allocates the scarce resource of the Colorado River among the seven states of the Colorado Basin "obviously needs to be renegotiated" because of "new realities of high growth, of greater demands on a scarcer resource," he didn't mean it should, you know, be renegotiated, really, to make sure that the high growth states of California, Nevada, and Arizona got more of that scarce resource. But that's sure how it sounded to the people of Colorado. [more]
MCCAIN UNBUTTONED
McCain’s Maverick Spirit Emerges
No tie, collar unbuttoned, reclining comfortably in his chair, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain looked like the straight-shooting Western politician his longtime fans adore and his handlers try to muzzle. Appearing in famously-liberal, fabulously-wealthy Aspen, Colo., McCain punctuated his tough talk on Russia and Iraq with wit. When audience members groaned that his $3.75-a-gallon-gas reference was well below Aspen prices, McCain chuckled.
“That’s the classic Democratic approach: soak the risk,” he joked.
Apologizing to the crowd members on the left side of the audience for turning his back to them, he joked they were probably all liberal Democrats anyway. Not so, though. Chatting at the Aspen Institute think tank with its CEO Walter Isaacson in front of a crowd of over 700, mostly supporters, McCain received resounding applause throughout his talk. Despite Aspen’s cachet among left-leaning glitterati, its wealthy second-homeowners are tilting the town rightward, and for many of them, McCain’s maverick style has been appealing for years, even when it wasn’t striking much of a chord with most voters.
For all the talk of that straight-shootin’ Western political model offering hope to the Democratic Party, it is ironic that this Arizona senator long struggled with the GOP using the same sort of approach.
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from the new west blog: column, congressional campaigns
Colorado Congressional Race Could Help Obama
Tuesday’s late primary in Colorado resulted in an interesting matchup: aerospace engineer Scott Starin (R) and entrepreneur Jared Polis (D) will face each other in November for Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District seat.
The seat is open because Rep. Mark Udall is running for Senate.
Though Polis is openly gay, the primary campaign didn’t focus on sexual orientation, but the issue may move toward center stage for the general election. Colorado is a November swing state, and the progressive vote in its 2nd District in support of Polis could have national implications.
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Convention Logistics
Denver Gets Ready For DemCon08
State and territory flags flapping in downtown Denver -- as well as steel trestles carrying Internet cables over streets and sidewalks -- signal the beginning of the end of the preparation for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.
"We're in the final execution stage," said Natalie Wyeth, a convention spokeswoman.
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'A Candidate Who Happens To Be Black'
Obama Can’t Sidestep Race
Nov. 4's 85 days away, the dog days are upon us and, like a dog worrying at an old sore, the presidential campaign has suddenly come down to one tired and tiresome issue: race.
In Colorado this November, voters will decide on an anti-affirmative-action measure that would ban the use of race in college admissions, government hiring and contracting. The presence of that referendum on the same ballot as Barack Obama's historic candidacy, writes Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, on The Wall Street Journal's Web site, could generate "heated rhetoric" and "sharply divide the electorate along racial lines."
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2nd Congressional District Race
Polis Takes the Lead
As of 10 p.m., with 27% of the precincts reporting, Internet entrepreneur Jared Polis holds a four-percentage-point lead over former state senate president Joan Fitz-Gerald for the 2nd congressional district seat. If that lead holds, it will be an upset, though not a huge one considering the cash that Polis has been able to pump into the race. [more]
Changing Minds
Why Obama Is Fighting to Win Montana’s Three Votes
Montana's political landscape and its role in the national political scene is changing, and nowhere is it more evident these days than in Barack Obama's campaign.
His campaign, headed by a savvy political character who cut his teeth in campaigns in the Big Sky, has six fully staffed offices and plans for more.
[more]
Column: Transparency in Government
EPA to Staff: Shut Up
A crucial report on global warming is the political football in this story of an attempted cover-up.
The Environmental Protection Agency has an inspector general, whose office is an internal watchdog monitoring the EPA.
The Government Accountability Office has investigators who work for Congress.
The EPA’s website says, “The EPA inspector general's office conducts audits, evaluations and investigations of the EPA and its contractors "to promote economy and efficiency and to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse.”
Both agencies have had unhindered access to employees of the EPA, and employees have been able to speak anonymously to investigators.
But according to a Monday report from the Associated Press, on June 16 EPA staff received a memo directing them not to speak to reporters or IG/GAO inspectors:
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The 'Megapolitan' West
Huntsman, Ritter Demand Feds’ Attention
It was surprising to see Govs. Bill Ritter and Jon Huntsman show up yesterday in downtown Denver. Usually it takes a natural disaster or a major fundraising opportunity to get two Western governors, of two separate parties, together in the same room. But Colorado's Ritter and Huntsman, of Utah, showed up at a press briefing at the offices of a big Denver law firm yesterday to mark the debut of … a new policy report.
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from the new west blog: column, congressional campaigns
Medicare Override Vote Was Test of Priorities
Anyone who has helped a senior through a health crisis involving Medicare knows how crucial those payments can be (and how the paperwork is enough to infuriate the Dalai Lama, although that's another story).
Without Medicare, the astronomical long-term care costs for my mother, who had Alzheimer's, would have been out of reach for my parents, even though they were not poor. My elderly father would have collapsed under the burden of caring for her.
I'm betting that's a familiar story to many readers. That's why this political story needs telling.
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