In which Our Hero decides on local candidates.<\/p>\n
(I frankly admit I have not done all the review of the “confirm this judge” or “select this local district sub-lieutenant council member adjutant secretary” races)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With our current Senator retiring, and not actively campaigning for his successor, we get a fairly open race. And though Campbell was a Republican, he was actually elected as a Democrat, so there’s no assumption as to which way his seat will go.<\/p>\n
My general perception of Pete Coors<\/a> (official website<\/a>) was (and is) that he’s a nice, quiet fellow, an interesting guy to have over to the house, and someone who quietly and profoundly believes in what he says.<\/p>\n My general perception of Ken Salazar<\/a> (official website<\/a>) is that he is passionate, but a politician, with all the baggage that carries. With a longer record in public service, he has some bigger targets painted on his back, though no real smoking gun to go with them. He’s definitely the “political insider” on this, and I don’t know that I’d enjoy him over for dinner.<\/p>\n That said, going through a list of political positions, I find myself significantly more in line with Salazar’s stands than Coors’. And so he gets my vote. That’s aided by my desire to see a mixed-party Congress for purposes of institutional friction and a drive toward bi-partisanship. (i.e., I’d like to see, regardless of who’s in the White House, the Senate and House of different parties, and since the House is almost certainly going to stay Republican<\/a> …).<\/p>\n I also like that Salazar has avoided the “Bush is eeeeevil!” meme in his run. He opposes the Administration in varoius areas, naturally, but his partisan rhetoric has been much more restrained than some. That might reflect his effective campaigning (since Colorado is more of a Bush state than not), but it’s still refreshing.<\/p>\n (Obligatory disclosure: my company is a major contractor for Coors Brewing Co.)<\/p>\n I’m lucky enough, post-redistricting, to end up in the 6th Congressional District, pitching Tom Tancredo (R) (official website<\/a>), the incumbant, against Joanna Conti (D) (official website<\/a>). It’s strongly Republican (46% to 23% Dem), which means that Conti has little or no chance, unless Tancredo does something even more buffoonlike than usual.<\/p>\n Follow my drift?<\/p>\n Tancredo<\/a>‘s biggest problem in my book is that he’s obsessed over immigration<\/a>, to the point of xenophobia. He goes well beyond solutions that most GOP pols offer, and would likely be most happy if he could dig a huge moat from Texas to California, fill it with sharks, and put machine gun nests on the beach. He originally committed to a self-imposed term limit, but somehow changed his mind when 2002 rolled around.<\/p>\n He will almost certainly win, just because of the “(R)” after his name, which is a shame. Conti<\/a>, his opponent, is mostly Democratic boilerplate in her sound bites, and a political neophyte — a shame, since she’s been a Republican until this year, and isn’t nearly as cardboard cut-out<\/a> as her position papers look at first glance. She’ll get my vote.<\/p>\n The GOP has a 1-seat margin in the State Senate, a larger margin (37-28) in the House.<\/p>\n I’d planned to vote against the State Senate <\/strong>District 27 incumbent, John Andrews (R) but, huzzah, he’s term-limited. (I disapprove of term limits on principle, but I’ll take the benefit in this case). <\/p>\n That leaves it open as far as incumbency goes, but, again, it’s a Republican district<\/a>, by 2-1, so any Dem is in for a hard run. The GOP candidate, Nancy Spence<\/a> (official website<\/a>), is a 3-term State House member, and is endorsed by Andrews and Gov. Owens. Lisa Love<\/a> (official website<\/a>) is on the Dem side.<\/p>\n I’m not terribly impressed by either of them, to be honest. Spence is over-focused on school vouchers, but at least comes off as professional. Love needs to learn how to spell before submitting content<\/a> to the newspapers.<\/p>\n On the State House <\/strong>side over in District 37, it’s another 2-1 GOP registration advantage<\/a> (sigh). Lauri Clapp<\/a> (only candidate I reviewed without a website) is the GOP pick. Looking at her positions, she strikes me as something of a goofball. Tom Donohue<\/a> (official website<\/a> — and probably the worst official website I looked at) is running for the Dems; I’m much more impressed (website aside) with his position stances.<\/p>\n In which Our Hero decides on local candidates. (I frankly admit I have not done all the review of the “confirm this judge” or “select this local district sub-lieutenant council…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2004"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21720,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/25\/jury-duty.html","url_meta":{"origin":7085,"position":0},"title":"Jury Duty","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 25-Jul-11 11:41am","format":false,"excerpt":"I got my original jury duty summons a few months back, but it occurred during our already-planned vacation, so I was able to file for me (one! only!) postponement. Friday evening I checked, and my juror number was one of the ones selected to report in, so this morning I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/blind-justice-themis-219x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":38446,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/12\/on-the-naming-of-baby-names.html","url_meta":{"origin":7085,"position":1},"title":"On the naming of (baby) names","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Aug-13 10:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"Frankly, I think naming your baby \"Messiah\" is just goofy, esp. if you do it as this mother did, because \"She liked how the name Messiah sounded alongside the other two siblings and thought it was unique\"That said, it's not up to a judge to, unsolicited, decide that it has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11815,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/29\/i_suppose_this_means_i_ne.html","url_meta":{"origin":7085,"position":2},"title":"I suppose this means I need to start getting serious …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-Jan-08 6:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Colorado caucuses are less than a week away, and, frankly, I don't know who I'm voting for.\u00a0 I have gut feelings about both Clinton and Obama (and Edwards,...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/voting-butterfly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137709,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/01\/24\/trump-backs-down-chooses-to-delay-the-state-of-the-union.html","url_meta":{"origin":7085,"position":3},"title":"Trump backs down, chooses to delay the State of the Union","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 24-Jan-19 12:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"I have to admit, I'm a little surprised -- I was expecting an address (full of snark) from the Oval Office. But it may be that the dismal performance (and effect) of his Emergency Crisis Oval Office Fireside Chat a few weeks back (even Trump admits he looked wooden) soured\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9250,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/feds_appeal_rul.html","url_meta":{"origin":7085,"position":4},"title":"Feds appeal ruling loss in the EFF\/AT&T case","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Aug-06 3:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks back, Judge Vaughan Walker ruled that the EFF suit against AT&T for allegedly turning over phone records to the NSA -- an arguably illegal act -- could...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21966,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/04\/unblogged-bits-thu-4-aug-11-1731.html","url_meta":{"origin":7085,"position":5},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Thu. 4-Aug-11 1731)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Aug-11 5:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... NYT: Only \u2018Liberal Critics\u2019 Call AFA A Hate Group - But remember, we all know we have a \"liberal media\" ... Reid Raises Prospect Of Not Appointing Anyone To Super Committee If Republicans Remain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church & State"","block_context":{"text":"Church & State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
US Congress<\/h3>\n
\n
State Legislature<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Clapp<\/s> Donohue (D)\n