Perlmutter vs. O'Donnell last night.

Last night, I went to Golden to see the first debate between CD7 Congressional candidates Ed Perlmutter and Rick O'Donnell. Watching it, I felt Ed was fairly comfortable and O'Donnell was almost like a dear in headlights. I felt that O'Donnell in many ways spoke well, however much of what he had to say was lipservice. What really got me was the end. At the end O'Donnell mainly whined, pointed fingers and blamed Ed, and followed up by saying he was not going to whine, point fingers or blame people. In many ways it was interesting. There were parallels in what they had to say, and both had mentioned funding NREL, however Ed is on the board of trustees of the midwest research group, which funds NREL. O'Donnell's position on Renewable Energy is suspect. O'Donnell has been very defensive about Ed's attack on his Social Security position. While O'Donnell has tried to distance himself from remarks he made over 10 years ago, it seems as though he isn't doing so well. He has run ads saying that Ed Perlmutter is trying to scare people about his position on Social Security. During the debate he even tried laying it at Ed's feet. Rick O'Donnell failed to complete a candidate questionaire and one of the questions was on his position on Social Security. O'Donnell tried to make Ed's answer out that he wanted to make it so future generations did not get as much in Social Security and handed Ed a paper with his answer on it. Ed in turn read his answer on the paper and made it perfectly clear that he had no intention of short-changing future generations on Social Security and made it clear that he wanted the overall system to stay the way it is and handed the paper back to O'Donnell. Though it was far more eloquent than I could describe. On Iraq, Ed had a lot of good ideas and they were itemized, while O'Donnell was very vague. Ed spoke about orginized crime's involvement with immigration. Ed did very well. And today, I came home from work only to find that Ed is now ahead of O'Donnell by 17 points. 54-37. The campaign has been working very hard. And we are prepared to win.

Here's more on the debate: http://www.coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=719


And the poll here: http://www.coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=727

LTTE on Bill Winter updated.

In Praise of Bill Winter

I live in South Jefferson County, in Congressional District 6. Colorado’s a state that’s changing and growing more diverse, but this district has always been very conservative. That hasn’t changed in the time that I’ve lived here.

As I became more in tune with politics, I’ve become increasingly disappointed in the Representation in Congressional District 6. Tom Tancredo has been an absolute embarrassment to Colorado. I didn’t think the Democrats would field a good candidate to run against Tancredo. Then I met Bill Winter. Bill’s a good man with a lot of fire. I appreciate that. As I got to know him, I was struck by how much of a straight shooter he is.

Bill Winter’s on the team of regular people who make an honest living. He cares about the issues that are important to people, like healthcare, civil liberties and sensible immigration reform.

Bill served a combined 10 years in the Navy and the Marine Corps. He taught science and coached high school football. Bill Winter knows about service and sacrifice and he is running for congress to serve his country once again. I’ll proudly cast my vote FOR Bill Winter in November.

Marching for Perlmutter in Lakewood and attacks on Ritter.

Today, I participated in the district (CD7) wide canvass for Ed Perlmutter's campaign. Sometimes, I wish walking a whole precinct was easier, however, I feel that we were reasonably successful in getting the message out. The message being that Ed Perlmutter wants to help the hard-working people in the middle and not the wealthy 1%. Many responded well and we were able to get the open-minded people on the fence to look into what Ed has to offer them. Mainly this campaign has been a lively well-organized campaign. We need to win this race. Ed is the person to do it.

In other news, there have been some attacks on Colorado's Democratic candidate for Governor Bill Ritter. Beauprez and the group formerly known as Trailhead aka Coloradoans for Justice launched an attack ad on Ritter's record as Denver District Attorney. What's wrong guys? Can't say anything positive about Bob Beauprez? Okay, low blow but I am sick of this shit. They tell you the parts of the truth they want you to hear as though it is the whole truth to put a negative spin on it. But the attack has to do with a case Ritter handled where a driver got into a hit-and-run accident with a mother and young child who died in the accident. The driver was drunk and had drugs with her. She got an 8 month sentance after a plea-bargain deal cut by Bill Ritter when he was DA. The fact is, the woman in question was sentenced to 2 years in the county jail for misdemeanors and traffic offenses. She was sentenced to 12 years for a felony. The case was suspended on the condition that she would serve 6 years probation, including 2 to 5 years in a residential drug treatment facility. She actually served 15 months in the county jail, 8 of which were after the conviction. More interestingly, the family of the victim agreed to the plea agreement only to have a change of heart after the agreement was offered. A spokesman for Ritter has stated that the agreement would not have been offerred without the family's consent. http://www.denverpost.com/localpolitics/ci_4377645

The incident in question was a tragedy. I feel horrible for the family of the victim for having endured that. The ad was truthful sounding but just incredibly despicable. If a DA is going to talk to the family about a possible plea-bargan and not go forward without their consent and the family gives their consent, it is a done deal. You can change your mind later. But hindsight is always 20/20. You can't publicly complain and blame the DA at that point. I am sorry. And once again, it shows how despicable Trailhead is. They have all the financial troubles and they decide to change their name to Coloradoans for Justice. The attacks and the character assassinations never end. Cara DeGette of Colorado Confidential reserved the rights to the name recently precluding the Republican 527 from continuing to use it. Trailhead people were not smart enough to reserve their first name and now haven't done it with their second name. Ironically, so has the name "Coloradoans for Justice". John Willard of the Democratic 527 Clear Peak had reserved a lot of names for the purpose of keeping Trailhead honest. Trailhead has many Republican backers such as Governor Bill Owens, Pete Coors, and Bruce Benson. Trailhead has also taken a lot of flak for it's connection to Bob Beauprez's Gubernatorial campaign. And now that they have put on a new face, and say in the Ritter ad that they are not affiliated with any party or campaign. Follow the trail and you will find out that they are lying to you about that as well as the ad itself. http://www.coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=31BCA14B706EE450B8A9000BC1E882B3?diaryId=705

Republicans and lobbyists and the CD7 Race.

Republicans seem to have an interesting view of lobbyists. There have been many of them that have taken illegal money from lobbyists and have recently gotten busted for it. Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney spring to mind. All three are Republican congressmen who have been indicted and one of whom has resigned and is going to jail. And at least one of the other two will be going to jail as well. Even some of our own Colorado Republican congresspeople have involvement with them. Bob Beauprez, Marylin Musgrave, I'm looking at you. Also, one Rick O'Donnell, our candidate for congress in CD7 has had some entanglements with lobbyists. See my last blog post, although this ought to refresh your memory:

Doug Benevento, who worked to approve the amendment to Deer Trail’s license while working for the Owens Administration, is a significant contributor to Rick O’Donnell and worked with O’Donnell to organize a widely criticized fundraiser in March of 2006, where the head of the EPA met with numerous lobbyists and companies who had pending issues in front of the EPA in exchange for campaign contributions for O’Donnell.

So, if you're a Republican, it is okay to take money from lobbyists unethically if not illegally and to influence policy in the state and in Washington. On the other hand O'Donnell's Democratic opponent Ed Perlmutter has taken some heat because his wife is a lobbyist. I read a really short Aurora Sentinel and Daily Sun article about Ed's wife being a lobbyist. A GOP political anylist said that it makes him a walking conflict of interest. We can debate about the function of lobbyists in America. One cannot equate at one time being a lobbyist or being related or connected to a lobbyist to having illegal or unethical dealings with lobbyists. I find it interesting that if there is even that small connection, then the Republicans will tar the Democrats with it. However, they refuse to clean house. So who cares that O'Donnell was involved in some shady dealings with lobbyists and is being influenced to call for the expansion of a radioactive waste dump? There's no conflict of interest there. It's bullshit. I think that we are all guilty of some level of hypocrisy, however, not all of us are this aggregious offenders.

Perlmutter continues to slam O'Donnell.

Republican Congressional candidate Rick O'Donnell continues to fuck up his chances at winning the Congressional seat. Mr. O'Donnell wants to expand a waste dump in rural Adams County despite objections from county commissioners, Congressman Mark Udall, Ed Perlmutter and even Senator Wayne Allard. Nobody wants nuclear waste in their backyard, and the Deer Trail facility expansion would make things far worse for Adams County and its residents, and O'Donnell supports it while Ed Perlmutter opposes it. Perlmutter is slamming O'Donnell with it. It is important since this facility is in their district. The backstory to this is quite interesting.

. In an article published in Environment & Energy Daily, O’Donnell is quoted supporting Deer Trail for additional radioactive waste, despite the objections from local governments and the Adams County Commissioners stating, “We’re not talking about materials from Energy Department defense-grade weapons – there’s no nuclear material, uranium or plutonium.” In addition, Doug Benevento, who worked to approve the amendment to Deer Trail’s license while working for the Owens Administration, is a significant contributor to Rick O’Donnell and worked with O’Donnell to organize a widely criticized fundraiser in March of 2006, where the head of the EPA met with numerous lobbyists and companies who had pending issues in front of the EPA in exchange for campaign contributions for O’Donnell.

The whole press release is here: http://www.perlmutter2006.com/node/274

It is interesting that Ed had to fight his way through a primary, which cost money and O'Donnell had a clear field and has more money in the bank, yet it seems that O'Donnell has been waging a defensive campaign while Ed Perlmutter is waging an offensive one. He won't let anything slip by. I am not one for negativity, but if it is the truth, then I want to know it.

Well, this morning, Future-Governor Bill Ritter was doing a campaign event in Jefferson County and I was there with a Perlmutter contingent to represent the campaign. Then a few of us went walking in Lakewood later. The walk went decently. Though 80% of the people were not home. The ones that were, the D's and the U's were mostly interested, though I need to do a better job of engaging.

Been polishing up my Letter to the Editor for Bill Winter. I wish I could do more for that campaign, but with the crush I have on one of his campaign staff and lack of presence in Jefferson County, I just don't think I could. I am trying to help Perlmutter win because this is an extremely competitive race and now that the primary is over, it is an exciting one since we can fight for the seat and not bicker over who the Democratic nominee for that seat should be. I will be sending Bill some more money at some point though.

In Praise of Bill Winter.

I live in South Jefferson County, in Congressional District 6. Colorado is a state that is changing and growing more diverse, but in this district and this part of Jefferson County have always been very conservative. And that has not changed in the time that I have lived here. As I became more in tune with politics, I have become increasingly disappointed in the current Congressional Representation in Congressional District 6. Tom Tancredo has been a single-issue candidate. Calling for impossible solutions to the issue of illegal immigration and getting nothing done on that front or any other front. Tom Tancredo has been a do-nothing congressman who believes that his seat is safe for life. It has disappointed me deeply to see that he is just a loose cannon and an embarrassment Tom Tancredo is. He is even an embarrassment to his own party. I agree with him on NAFTA and CAFTA, however I feel the way I do about them for different reasons than he does. I was losing hope that the Democrats could field a good candidate to run against Tom Tancredo. Then I met Bill Winter. I had met Bill Winter a couple of times before he decided to run against Mr. Tancredo for CD6. He struck me as a good man with a lot of fire. I appreciate that. As I got to know him, as a candidate and as a person, I was struck by how much of a straight shooter this man is. Bill Winter is on our team. Not the Democrat’s team or the Republican’s team, but the people’s team. Bill Winter is on the team of regular people who just want to make an honest living. He is very down to Earth. Unlike Tancredo, he is not preoccupied with his own ambitions. He donated a kidney to someone who really needed it and now he has no health insurance because of it. So he cares about the health care crisis that we are all facing. He believes in protecting our Civil Liberties and believes in reasonable immigration reform. He served a combined 10 years in the Navy and the Marine Corps. He also gave up a six-figure job as a lawyer to teach Science and Coach High School football. Bill Winter knows about service and sacrifice and that is why he is running for Congress. He is running for congress to serve his country once again. Bill Winter is representative of the kind of people we need representing us in Washington. He is a real salt-of-the-earth person, and not a typical politician. I will proudly cast my vote FOR Bill Winter in November.

The environment and why we should protect it.

Nature is a beautiful thing. I went on a hike with my family up in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park with my family today and saw the utter beauty of what nature has to offer. The wild life (most of which was small), the trees, the bushes, the water, even the dirt and rocks. All of these areas are precious and so integral to our ability to subsist in this world, not to mention all of the animals. For years there has been talk amongst the conservative Republicans that we need to drill for oil in order to continue our way of life instead of looking for cleaner renewable alternatives. The Republicans now have designs on drilling in the Roan Plateau for oil. The Roan Plateau is in Colorado near Rifle. A small town out west along I-70. Last Thursday, the Department of the Interior approved Oil and Gas drilling here. The pictures I have seen of that area are quite breathtaking. And thanks to our so-called administration in Washington, it may soon be gone forever. http://www.squarestate.net/showDiary.do?diaryId=2326

It is amazing to me considering how Dick Cheney in particular has said at least 2 years ago that we need to drill in the Rocky Mountain West and yet Bush won the 2004 election and won Colorado. I wonder how we can fight this. I don't want this in my country and certainly not in my state. Destroy the Environment in all of its splendor, and for what? Another 6 months of oil reserves? To line their pockets? Is that what for? No long term, renewable, environmentally friendly solutions? As my Dad said "I think it's about time we got rid of Republicans". Boy is he right.

Marching with Perlmutter in Arvada.

This morning, I marched with the Perlmutter campaign in Arvada. I did some advance work with a group of people, meaning I went with some people, handed out stickers, got volunteers (hopefully) and whatnot. My knee started hurting so I sat down. I waited for the parade to go by until the actual Perlmutter contingent got to where I was, and I joined them. I saw Rick O'Donnell's contingent walk by, including Rick himself. He was shaking hands with people, and he saw me in my Perlmutter shirt and said "Hi" to me weakly and I said "Hi" back and he moved on. Didn't even try to shake my hand. When the Perlmutter contingent got there, I joined them and Ed and I hi-fived in keeping with our usual greeting of each other and I walked with the contingent the rest of the way. The response to us was great and I was told that Rick O'Donnell had only 23 people marching with him, while we had a whopping 86! The parade felt like a huge victory for the Democratic party and the Perlmutter campaign. Especially in light of Rick O'Donnell continuing to look like an idiot. Accusing Ed Perlmutter of representing an insurance company who cheated clients when he was really trying to get money for the people who were screwed in the bankruptcy of that company. Just another mistake that blew up in his face.

http://www.denverpost.com/localpolitics/ci_4297459


But it was a great day. Very empowering for our party and the Perlmutter campaign.

Following the Perlmutter campaign in Colorado's 7th.

I have been volunteering a lot for Ed Perlmutter's congressional campaign. The 7th congressional district is one of the most competitive races in the nation. This is one of the two that Dems nationally have their eyes on. The other being the Governor's race, which is becoming Bill Ritter, the Democratic candidate's, to lose. Perlmutter has been running a good campaign. He has been proactive in delivering his message and making the problems with his opponent, Rick O'Donnell, known. His desire to abolish Social Security, and his desire to draft high school boys to do border patrol. On the latter note, I will say, national service in some form may not be a bad idea. However, it should be for everybody, there should be options and those that do it should have graduated high school. O'Donnell was the chair of the CCHE and it is scary to think that someone would say this who held this position. What would these boys do afterwards? Without a High School Diploma. O'Donnell is very scared of how Ed may use it. Rick O'Donnell is a Republican that has been very connected to Bush and Cheney even if he presents himself as an independent voice for the district. He will continue the race to the bottom that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay and Bob Beauprez have started. Education is not important to him appearently. He holds several extreme positions that he doesn't want the voters to know about. He failed to answer 28 questions on a candidate questionaire due to this. It is interesting. Helping out a competitive race, that you can win, but you have to fight for. What more could you ask for? But Rick O'Donnell and the Republicans must be defeated whatever the cost.

More happenings in politics and in life.

As Acting President of the Jeffco Young Democrats, I changed the meeting to Tuesday September 12th due to feedback indicating that Tuesdays might be better meeting days for many people than Wednsdays. I had to haggle with insurance companies over my car. The person who hit me and my own. My insurance company was quite accomodating as was their approved body shop. So I should be able to get the car fixed. The other one, however wanted to total my car. So, I'm going through mine and they will get the other one to pay the money. Well, I am going to see if I can phone bank for Bill Winter from home. I need to help him. I think he deserves to be in office. I am about to mail a $50 check to his campaign soon. Well the outlook for politics at least as far as Colorado Goes is pretty good. I believe we will hold both chambers of the legislature. We will gain the Governorship and either the Secratary of State's office, or the Treasurer's office, or both. The AG's office we will not gain. There is no momentum to that campaign. As for congress, I am getting more positive by the day that Ed Perlmutter will win in the 7th. That's a definite Democratic pickup for us. The seats we hold now, we will continue to hold. Angie Paccione may win in the 4th but that one is a little iffy. As for the 5th, things broke loose for Jay Fawcett when Doug Lamborn won the Republican nomination. In the 6th, Bill Winter has the trajectory, but things have not broken loose for him. He is all around the best candidate the Democrats could hope for in a district that I have long considered NIMBY Republican land. I have donated more money to Bill than any other candidate. Have marched in parades with him. He is a genuine salt of the earth guy. Look at his opponent. Tom Tancredo is a whack job who has extreme views on immigration and social security and the minimum wage. I think that even if Bill does not win on 2006, he will have the trajectory to win a 2008 run. I have to leave and put my donation envelope in the mail.