Colorado Politics, News and Inside Information

Polsfut for Congress

Last night, at the Colorado Young Dems reorg, Jim Polsfut spoke about his burgeoning Congressional bid, and all but announced that he was running. He's setting up a website, hiring staff, and doing a "listening tour" of the district, and the letter he was circulating there (which you can see here: Download jimletter.rtf ) basically stated that he was the only candidate who could mount a winning campaign.

Personally, while he seems to have an engaging personality, he does have a slightly squeaky voice which wears on you after a while. And I'm agnostic on whom would make the best candidate in a seat which will be a top pickup opportunity for Democrats in '06. The way I look at it, Perlmutter seems to be diffident at best, even though he's the only serious officially announced candidate. Polsfut, from what I can gather, has been a lackluster candidate. Carroll is still a bit raw for my taste to mount a tough campaign in a key district (one speech does not make for a contender, especially when the speech wasn't all that great to begin with), and Conti has a better shot as a Green.

UPDATE: One of the complaints that's been lodged here against a Polsfut candidacy is that he doesn't live in the district, which presumably would make his candidacy a tougher proposition. On a hunch, I decided to look up the address he has listed on the letterhead of his literature. You guessed it--it's in the district.

Jostling the Table

Just when you thought that things couldn't get weirder in the Democratic primary for Governor, now comes word that the man we all thought would run for Governor way back when may end up doing so after all. Ken Salazar, who hasn't occupied his dearly-won Senate seat six months, called up a bunch of reporters from the Republic of Georgia, where he stopped after visiting Iraq on the ever popular fact-finding mission.

Tiptoeing into Politics

According to the Cortez Journal, businessman Scott Tipton is all but certain to run against Rep. John Salazar (D-Manassa) in the 3rd District. If he ends up running, he'll provide a bit more of a challenge to Salazar than the other presumptive candidate, State Rep. Josh Penry.

Tipton, who hails from Cortez and owns a pottery business, is taking a long, hard look at the race. "I'm taking a serious and aggressive look at this," Tipton said Saturday at the GOP's State Central Committee meeting. "I plan to visit many of our (29)   counties in the 3rd District to get some feedback and see about, in some capacity, forming an exploratory committee."    

The Insanity that is March

Speaking of winners and losers, let's take a break from politics and talk the other great game: sports. Ever since childhood, I've been a near-fanatic when it comes to sports, especially college basketball. Growing up, my older brothers played basketball with former Duke standout and NBA star Grant Hill, so I naturally rooted for the Blue Devils. While that's no longer exclusively the case (I usually root for the underdog, especially when that school is the oft-shadowed Ohio University), I still enjoy watching ACC basketball in particular, and college basketball in general, as well as any other college sports.         

All Church and No State...

As many of you know, the town of Estes Park is holding a recall election tonight to see if one of their town trustees, David Habecker, will hold on to his seat.

How did we get here? It all started when one of the other town trustees, Lori Jeffrey-Clark, succeeded in getting the other town trustees to open their regular meetings with a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Update below, with tonight's results.

From the Blue Corner...

Now that Alva's graciously introduced Red Hawk and myself, it only seems proper to say hello to all of you.

First, as the name indicates, I'm a liberal. Not just a liberal--a proud liberal. None of this "progressive" stuff for me. I would have said something stronger, but my wife just reminded me that this is supposed to be a "family" blog, despite the bare-knuckled nature of the game.

As the introduction noted, I'm both a combat veteran and a political veteran. In keeping with the psuedonymous nature of this blog, I'll elaborate on that description only to say that my combat experience comes, sadly, from our war against al-Qaeda, and that my political experience isn't just limited to my side of the political divide--like many other folks my age, born in a lefty family, I rebelled by becoming a teenage Republican. But, what the heck--I was young, and I thought that Newt and I had the world figured out.

I've been involved in politics since I was a tiny kid. I got the bug from my folks, particularly my dad, who was hip-deep in all the big lefty groups in the Sixties--SNCC, SDS, you name it. Relatives have run for office and gotten blown out (and just as often, won), and have worked on campaigns as diverse as Alan Cranston's and Mel Carnahan's.*

Hobbies? Well, I collect political memorabilia, so if you have any spare campaign swag from Colorado campaigns, on either side of the political divide, let me know. I also love to read, particularly about politics and history, so if you have any recommendations, shoot. I'm married, and my wife and I have a beautiful black labrador as our faithful companion.

I'm looking forward to sparring with Red Hawk in the weeks and months ahead, and, more to the point, I'm looking forward to filling you in what we liberals are up to. I'm also looking forward to answering any questions that you guys may have about Colorado politics, or anything else within the baliwick of this blog.

Again, thanks for the soapbox, and the chance to listen to what you guys have to say.
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*Alan Cranston  was a very liberal Senator from California, who ran for President in 1984 (warning: PDF file). His legacy was marred by his involvement in the Keating Five Scandal , along with Sens. John Glenn (D-OH), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), Don Riegle (D-MI), and one John McCain.

Mel Carnahan was Governor of Missouri, and a candidate for U.S. Senator in 2000. Tragically, like Paul Wellstone, he perished in a plane crash in October. Unfortunately, he's mostly known because he was running against the loathed (by liberals, at least) John Ashcroft, and it turned out that voters were so disenchanted by Ashcroft that they elected the dead man to the Senate. His wife, Jean, held his seat, ran to complete the term in 2002, but was defeated by Jim Talent.

Should you be interested, I can tell you a rather spooky story about Carnahan. But that's for another time.