By Jonathan Easley
STATE BILL COLORADO
DENVER — Before Tom Tancredo’s meltdown, a group of about 200 people gathered around the pavilion in Cuernavaca Park Thursday to support Colorado senatorial candidate Ken Buck. The informal event saw politicos and constituents moving easily around one another, all in a sea of royal blue Ken Buck T-shirts. Beach chairs sat on the grass in front of the stage, red, white and blue balloons were tied to the pavilion posts, and an inestimable number of Ken Buck signs were planted into the ground; the “C” in his last name replaced by the “C” from the Colorado flag.
The crowd’s spirits were not dampened by the overcast conditions, and their raucousness was not allayed by the generous spread of hot dogs, potato salad and watermelon. In fact, the crowd only became hungrier for the red meat that was to be doled out by the event’s real draw, South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint.
Buck and DeMint arrived together, causing a minor stir beneath a small white tent as they settled in to meet the crowd. DeMint was clearly the focus, he fielded all of the questions and most of the gratitude, and even signed a few copies of his book, “Saving Freedom.” One of DeMint’s strengths is his folksy charm, which seems to be a direct result of his inability to over-engage. He offers only a short arm extension for his brief and delicate handshake, and he will not burn a hole through you with his gaze. He’s a comfortable man, and he seems to pocket nicely in his own little envelope, relatively unaffected by the masses swirling around him. When asked why Ken Buck was the right choice for Colorado, DeMint initially kept things on a macro level: “Ken Buck will say no. Washington is bankrupting the country and Ken understands that, he’s willing to stand up to that.”
Much more candid was former Rep. Tom Tancredo, who now retired has no problem playing the pistol, as he proved at the end of the event by returning to the microphone to inform the crowd that Barack Obama poses the greatest threat to both the constitution and the American way of life; it was a lightning rod remark that Buck stolidly backed away from. Earlier in the afternoon, Tancredo responded to the same question posted by State Bill Colorado by saying that, “Buck’s got balls. He’s a courageous guy and he actually will not change once he gets to Washington.”
DeMint was able to match Tancredo’s edge as he took the stage to introduce the aspiring senator. His small-government plea received the most spirited reception of the day: “We can see what they’re doing to our country. We can see what they’re doing with the spending, and the borrowing, and the debt and the government takeovers. Who would have thought just a few years ago that the federal government would own our largest auto companies, our largest insurance companies, our largest mortgage companies, take over our healthcare industry, take over our whole financial industry, you name it, they even control our education system. It’s time to take our country back!”
Buck then took the stage brandishing his heartland ideals and inborn patriotism. He introduced his wife as a proud practitioner of the second amendment; Mrs. Buck was a recent recipient of a gun permit. He also mentioned his son Cody, who is a fourth-year cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. More than anything, Buck presented himself as an outsider to the beltway.
This seemed to be the overriding narrative of the day, as even the prayer of invocation that kicked off the festivities asked for strength in standing up to the establishment. Pulling a page from the Scott Brown playbook, Buck talked-up his grassroots campaign effort: “We went to truck stops and coffee shops, farms and factories, living rooms and churches. We listened and we learned. We heard the same thing all over this state, and that was that you don’t like the answers coming out of D.C. always being that we need more government. Coloradans know that the answer to bad government is not more bad government.”
Buck’s campaign motto is “The Grassroots Choice,” and his simple, every-man message seemed to resonate with the crowd.

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STATE BILL COLORADO

Information giant Bloomberg plans to open a state government bureau in Denver.

The company, which got its start providing financial data and still derives most of its revenues from data terminals that are ubiquitous in financial services firms, today inquired about the process of getting office space in Colorado’s gold-domed capitol building.

The privately held company founded by New York’s current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, hasn’t yet designated a reporter to work in the bureau.

If it opens the bureau, Bloomberg will counter a trend of news organizations that have closed or sized down their Denver bureaus in the recent past. Those newspapers include The Denver Post, The Longmont Times-Call and the Fort Collins Coloradoan. The February 2009 closure of the Rocky Mountain News left two fewer capitol reporters.

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By Andrea Rael, LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER—Democratic senatorial candidate Andrew Romanoff literally drove home his key point from his speech during last May’s state assembly when he said, “Stiffen your spine or step out of the way.”

Romanoff is touring the state in a seven-passenger van dubbed “The Backbone Express,” with the tagline on the back, “A Senator for the rest of us.” Staffers describe the van as “slightly used.”

This week, however, Romanoff’s campaign vehicle is no longer the only one trying to tap into statewide grassroots enthusiasm reserves.

Incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet, Romanoff’s Democratic primary rival, put his own larger, green-painted bus into drive, launching his tour Saturday.

Is bigger better?

When Romanoff first debuted his pictorial van, Bennet’s team initially responded with blasé.

“I know Andrew’s doing his thing, but it’s actually pretty early for him to be doing this,” Bennet for Colorado spokesman Trevor Kincaid said back in June.

Romanoff’s van is a “late 90’s Chevy ‘High-Top’ conversion van—the ‘Gladiator’ edition, campaign spokesperson Katie Fleming said. The total cost of the vehicle and graphics was about $10,000 – about the cost of two prime-time 30 second television spots and less than a billboard. Of course, this billboard on wheels is always in a new location.”

At a recent tour of the Boulder Electric Car Co., Romanoff admitted, “it’s not extremely environmentally-friendly.” The vehicle is said to get approximately 20 miles per gallon.

Romanoff staffer Jennifer Herrera designed the images, which were affixed by Qube Visual.

Bennett’s bus is older than his challenger’s, but perhaps reaps more amusement, Kincaid. “It’s a 1964 bus that holds 10 people including the driver. It doubles as a playhouse for the Bennet children and their friends,” Kincaid said.

Bus envy

Other statewide candidates have expressed envy of Romanoff’s new ride, which is covered with decals of the candidate, his supporters and even his dog, Zorro.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper’s spokesperson George Merritt said, “We do not have a cool van like Andrew Romanoff, but we will be heading on the road pretty soon, too.”

On June 4, Romanoff announced he would use the van to visit more than 100 communities over the span of 10 weeks this summer. Supporters who witness the “Express” in the community are asked to take photos of it and post them to a specific page at Romanoff’s site: http://www.andrewromanoff.com/page/s/backboneexpress.

Candidates in both Colorado’s J.S. Senate and governor race say they will announce the official kickoff of theirs shortly.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jane Norton expected to announce her tour by the end of last week.

Dan Maes, Republican candidate for governor, recently discussed a tour launch with his staff. “We don’t have anything planned yet, but we think it’s a great idea,” Maes said. In response Romanoff’s van, he added, “Maybe he’ll share his with us.”

Republican Senate candidate Ken Buck won’t be using a tour van to travel across the state. Buck just acquired his own driver to help out, but that up until this week the candidate has been driving himself, .campaign spokesperson Owen Loftus said.

“That’s grassroots stuff,” Loftus said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis has been touring the state in a private vehicle and has no current plans for acquiring a van.

Positive feedback

The start of Romanoff’s bus tour rolled up positive feedback in response to the controversy surrounding Romanoff’s discussion about possible jobs with the White House, said Larry Dunn, who heads Romanoff’s Broomfield/Adams county campaign office.

Most of the photos on Romanoff’s van were taken at the Democratic State Assembly in Broomfield on May 22. At the assembly, Romanoff achieved a 60-39 margin over Bennet.

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STATE BILL COLORADO

Colorado candidates are now making public their fundraising totals for June. Here’s how news organizations are covering the story.

The Colorado Independent: Widely seen as the front-runner for the GOP nomination for Colorado state treasurer, J.J. Ament has fallen badly behind Walker Stapleton in fund raising. As of the end of June, Stapleton had amassed more than $226,000 in cash to spend between now and the August primary. Ament has just $76,000 on hand.

The Colorado Independent: While none of the gubernatorial candidates had filed June fund-raising reports as of 3 p.m. today, the campaign for Democrat John Hickenlooper released preliminary numbers to the press at 2:30 p.m.

The Denver Post: Democrat John Hickenlooper raised about three times the amount of money Republican Scott McInnis collected last month in the race for governor.

Published below is a press release from the camp of gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper:

Hickenlooper

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A new health insurance plan for Coloradans who were denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions began accepting applications Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.

In related coverage:

The Aurora Sentinel: The state’s new health insurance plan was met with enthusiasm by local Aurora legislators on both sides of the political spectrum.

KDVR: Karen Lewis has been fighting diabetes for a long time. And for just as long, she’s been fighting to get affordable health care.

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STATE BILL COLORADO

The state’s largest daily newspapers, including The Denver Post, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Greeley Tribune and the Boulder Daily Camera, are accusing a political website of “flagrant and persistent theft” of their intellectual property.

The site, ColoradoPols.com, released a copy of a letter sent to it by the Denver office of law firm Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, which represents those newspapers and others. The letter, dated May 21, asks the site to discontinue the practice or face a lawsuit. (The site doesn’t indicate why it held off releasing the letter before now.)

The letter cites a number of examples where posters on the ColoradoPols site copied more than half of a story’s contents.

In its story today discussing the incident, the website responds: “In essence, the Denver Post and 16 other Colorado newspapers have opted to take their ball and go home because they don’t want to play with us anymore.”

The site said it would refrain from mentioning The Post and the other newspapers. The letter below was made available, and redacted, by ColoradoPols.

Pols Post Letter

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Republican gubernatorial contender Dan Maes is expected to be ordered to pay what could be the largest campaign finance fine ever levied against a candidate by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports.

In response to a complaint filed with the state by a Grand Valley voter, the Evergreen businessman has admitted to numerous campaign finance violations and agreed to pay nearly $27,000 in fines, according to his campaign’s response to a complaint filed last month by Grand Junction resident Christopher Klitzke. He could be ordered to pay the fines as early as today.

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