Will Ken Buck’s extremism beat Barack Obama’s?

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 8:29 am, August 14, 2010

Ken Buck is going be a big target for the Dems, especially on social issues. That could scare away the independents’ votes for Buck. In the eyes of independents, moderates and Democrats, Buck is an extremist on social issues. Indeed, that is how I see him, but i”m willing to put that asside because I’m more worried about Obama’s extremism than Buck’s.

Voters are very unhappy with everything Obama’s doing, and outside groups will hammer Bennet on that.

At this point Buck has the anti-Obama tide at his back. But Bennet has more money and better name recognition as well as the Obama organization behind him.

As I’ve said before, outside groups will make the campaign vicious and nasty. While that will turn off the non confrontational know nothings in the electorate, it will ensure that most voters will know more about the candidates, including a lot of lies, than they ever wanted to know.

This election will be about values, goals and the future of Colorado and America. It will be decided not by traditional Colorado Democrats and Republicans but by the more than a million of us who’ve moved to the state over the last 20 to 25 years. 

You might think of this year’s senate race as a battle between Midwestern Republicans and California Democrats, although it’s probably not as black and white as that. 
Ken Buck is going be a big target for the Democrats, especially on social issues. That could scare away the independents’ votes for Buck. In the eyes of independents, moderates and Democrats, Buck is an extremist on social issues. Indeed, that is how I see him, but I’m willing to put that asside for now because I’m more worried about President Barack Obama’s extremism than Buck’s. The Tea Party didn’t made the difference in the GOP primary. The social issues Republicans did. But nobody but the Democrats want to talk about that. And they already are making it an issue by calling Buck an extremist.
Most Colorado voters are very unhappy with everything Obama’s doing, and outside groups will hammer appointed Obama Democrat Senator Michael Bennet (D-Washington, DC) on that. Obama and Bennet are doing all they can to give the federal government the power to micromanage our lives and limit our liberties, and that should cost them big in the November elections.
At this point Buck has the anti-Obama tide at his back. But Bennet has more money and better name recognition as well as the well-organized and well-funded Obama campaign organization behind him. 
This will be a fight between Buck’s believers and the government employes and unions who want to use Bennet to control the federal government.
Buck’s supporters want to take our country back.
Bennet’s supporters have strong financial incentives to work for them. Indeed, the federal government is paying them to vote for him.
Government employes and unions want to be their own bosses, and they can do that at the expense of taxpayers by electing Obama Democrats like Bennet. If government employes and unions control the Democrats and the government, they write their own rich tickets at the negotiating tables when union contracts with the federal government come up. No wonder federal employes on average make nearly twice as much as the taxpayers they work for.
They negotiate with themselves and give themselves rich salaries and benefits.
As I’ve said before, outside groups will make the campaign vicious and nasty. While that will turn off the non confrontational know nothings in the electorate, it will ensure that most voters will know more about the candidates—including a lot of lies—than they ever wanted to know.
The Buck versus Bennet election will be about values, goals and the future of Colorado and America. It will be decided not by traditional Colorado Democrats and Republicans but by the more than a million of us who’ve moved to the state over the last 20 to 25 years. We’re a Blue, hard left state until the voters change their minds and turn Colorado Red again.
It is in no way a sure thing that Colorado will turn red in 2010. Buck’s extremism on social issues might keep Colorado Blue. And he can’t move to the center on social issues because he doesn’t want to be called “Both ways Ken.”
Republicans’ only hope is that Bennet’s rubber stamping of Obama’s job-killing extremist positions on spending, taxes, health insurance, energy, climate change and union card checks will help Republicans turn Colorado Red.
Bennet is trying to move to the center, but his hard left record is there for all to see. It’s the record of a senator who represents government workers and his home town of Washington, DC, not Colorado values. It’s the record of a shameless Obama rubber stamp.
If Buck’s supporters want me to elaborate on his extremism, I’ll be glad to. If they’re smart, they won’t ask.
 

Why Ken Buck leads Michael Bennet 46% to 41% in Rasmussen poll

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 10:36 am, August 13, 2010

Why is Ken Buck leading appointed Obama Democrat Senator Michael Bennet (D-Washington, DC) by 46% to 43% in Rasmussen Reports’ Aug. 11 survey of 750 likely Colorado voters?
Some reasons that Buck starts the general election campaign with a small lead:
Andrew Romanoff’s attacks on Bennet in the Democrats’ primary were much tougher than Jane Norton’s snips at Buck in the GOP primary. Bennet is living down Washington and Wall Street and a bungled financing deal for the Denver Public Schools. Buck is living down high heels and half a dozen “dumbass” Tea Party birthers.
Bennet has voted for numerous job killing amendments and bills, and he promises to vote for more. He voted for a job killing stimulus bill early last year and for ObamaCare. ObamaCare imposes huge tax increases on all Americans while giving Obama the power to sharply restrict access to care for very sick people and most seniors. After the election, win or lose, Bennet will vote during the lame duck session for job killing climate and energy bills and for job killing union card check bills. He’s a rubber stamp for Obama’s job killing efforts to redistribute wealth in America.
Buck knows Colorado and wants to represent the state. 
Bennet grew up in Washington, DC, and wants to represent the over paid employes in his home town. He wants to create more government jobs and spend more on our failing public education morass.
Even though Bennet made more than $11 million in the  private sector, he wants to crush it. Bennet knows how to give us the same kind of centrally-planned and mismanaged Federal government that destroyed the old Soviet Union. While he enjoys being rich, he thinks being powerful would be more fun and satisfying. Bennet is Washington, DC’s first Senator just as the man he replaced, Sen. Ken Salazar was Mexico’s first Senator.
Ken Buck is very accessible to reporters, editorial writers, columnists and most bloggers. He isn’t afraid to discuss anything with anyone. He believes that if he answers questions honestly, he’ll win.
Michael Bennet is relatively protected by his highly-paid political consultants and handlers, most of whom probably are from out of Colorado. (I don’t really know, but high-powered campaigns usually bring in talent from outside the state.) 
Ken Buck has spent the last year driving to all 64 Colorado counties multiple times. He has friends and believers in every county, and they are working hard for him.
Bennet’s been too busy micro managing our lives in Washington to spend much time in Colorado. He has establishment Democrats who depend on government jobs and handouts working for him in every county.
Financial incentives in the form of jobs and expensive government handouts for party hacks will work to Bennet’s advantage, but true believers will work to Buck’s advantage.
LINKS:
www.Rasmussenreports.com.
Bennet versus Buck. Editorial, The Daily Sentinel.
Bennet, Romanoff join hands, shift target to GOP’s Buck. By Michael Booth.
Colorado Dems make nice as contest gets tougher. By Michael Booth.
Can Ken Buck buck the system? By David Cantanese & Jonathan Martin.

Rasmussen: John Hickenlooper 43%, Dan Maes 31%, Tom Tancredo 18%

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 10:11 am, August 13, 2010

Governor-elect Obama Democrat John Hickenlooper leads Republican Dan Maes 43% to 31% while American Constitution Party candidate, Tom Tancredo, comes in third with 18% in the latest Rasmussen poll of 750 likely voters in Colorado.
Rasmussen Reports now ranks Colorado “solid Democrat” for governor. Impact graph:
Just 59% of Republican voters in the state now support Maes, while Hickenlooper picks up 82% of voters in his own party. Tancredo, an outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, captures 25% of GOP voters. Among voters not affiliated with either party, Hickenlooper earns 35% of the vote, Maes 28% and Tancredo 24%.
Look for that 59% of Republican voters who are supporting Maes to shrink dramatically. Hickenlooper probably will gain among unaffiliateds while Tancredo will gain more support from Republicans as voters learn more about Maes’ fumbles and stumbles during his campaign and when he was in business. Tancredo should gain support as voters learn more about what he wants to do for Colorado. LINK: http://www.rasmussenreports.com.

Hasans give $10,000 to anti-tax initiatives 60, 61 and 101

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 9:59 am, August 13, 2010

Former Republican candidate for Treasurer of Colorado, Ali Hasan, and his mother have contributed $10,000 of the $12,000 that proponents for Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101 have raised, Peter Roper reports. Opponents of the tax cutting measures have raised $4 million, he reports. LINK: Hasans top contributors to state’s anti-tax ballot questions. By Peter Roper. Good story.

Freda Poundstone backs Tom Tancredo, calls Dan Maes a ‘liar’

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 9:10 am, August 13, 2010

Freda Poundstone was an early supporter of Dan Maes. And she tells the Denver Post that she gave her financially struggling candidate more than $300 in cash so that he could pay his $3,300 mortgage. But she became unhappy with Maes, voted for Scott McInnis and now supports Tom Tancredo for governor. Maes denies that the money was a gift and says it was a campaign contribution. Poundstone says he’s “a liar.” Now, Maes’ campaign is trying to trace the $300 and figure out why it failed to report it as a campaign contribution.
This story shows how a prominent defector can announce her unhappiness with a candidate and her support for his opponent in a way that makes Maes look both careless with money and record keeping and unfit to be governor. Poundstone is a former mayor of Greenwood Village and a long-time lobbyist. In other words, she’s been a political force in Colorado for a long time, and she still knows how insert a knife and twist it.
At the same time, when the Post gave Maes a chance to respond, he put his reputation up against Poundstone’s in a she said he said exchange he couldn’t win. Then Maes clumsily declared the conversation over. Christopher N. Osher shows how a good reporter gives each side their say and lets the reader decide who to believe. 
In this story, Maes loses once again. Like most losers, he will show that he thinks readers are stupid. He will blame the “liberal, biased Denver Post” for his latest embarrassment.
LINK:
Ex-backer of Maes’ says she gave him cash for mortgage help. By Christopher N. Osher.

GOP candidates don’t want to be smeared as ‘Dan Maes Republicans’

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 6:50 pm, August 12, 2010

No Colorado Republican candidate who has read The Blueprint or lived through a recent losing legislative campaign will set themselves up to be smeared by Democrats as “Dan Maes Republicans.”
That is, no Republican candidate in this state will endorse or even speak well of the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate, Dan Maes, if they know what’s good for them. They need to remember that the Democrats have trackers with video cameras recording everything they say in the hope that they will say something stupid or radical.
An endorsement of Dan Maes will get a GOP candidate on YouTube, and it won’t be pretty.
Dick Wadhams, the chairman of the state GOP, has called Maes a “joke,” according to his friends, Peter Boyles and Tom Tancredo. Since they exposed his opinion of Maes and since the primary, Wadhams hasn’t ventured a kind, supportive word about Maes. He’s just said he supports the party’s candidates. The GOP’s candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ken Buck, already is distancing himself from Maes.
Impact graphs from a Allison Sherry story today:
Buck said he isn’t fretting about appearing too conservative or too close to GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes, who made headlines for comments about Denver’s bike-sharing program being part of a United Nations effort that threatens freedom.
“I don’t have to distance myself from anything,” Buck said. “I am who I am. I haven’t said those things. Those radical statements aren’t attributed to me.”
There are a lot of reasons that smart, ambitious Republicans are staying away from Maes.
A “Dan Maes Republican”:

Puts the GOP ahead of Colorado.
Doesn’t know right from wrong.
Endorses Dan Maes’ refusal to “pander” to moderate Republicans and independents.
Supports Dan Maes’ long campaign effort to con Colorado voters about his business record, which looks pretty dismal.
Winks at incompetence.
Wants to win political power at any cost.
Is willing to live with a governor who doesn’t know how the state government works and doesn’t think he needs to.

The Blueprint; How the Democrats won Colorado and why Republicans EVERYWHERE should care is a powerful book by Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer about how the Republican-controlled legislature infuriated four Colorado billionaires back in 2004 and motivated them to combine their resources to build an unstoppable political machine. That machine really was a coalition of rich liberals and nonprofits that figured out how to destroy even Republicans they liked.
Democrats took over Colorado by investing millions in opposition research, building databases that contain information about the political beliefs and voting records of all registered voters and creating and using huge mailing lists to get their negative messages out to Democrats and independents. They used news releases, numerous direct mail pieces and radio and TV ads as well as emails and blogs to smear and defeat their opponents.
Any Dan Maes Republican will mark herself or himself as another GOP loser and has been. Democrats will smear “Dan Maes Republicans” mercilessly just as they have crushed numerous GOP candidates since 2004. 
Indeed, so far, most of the Republicans who are endorsing Dan Maes are losers, has beens and a few naive Dan Maes groupies. They have nothing to lose, and they don’t seem to understand or care that by endorsing Dan Maes, they’re helping to destroy the GOP.
It makes no sense for GOP candidates to give Democrats more ways to demonize them. By endorsing Dan Maes, GOP candidates and party officials would be buying the rope that Democrats would use to “hang them together.” Not many Republican candidates will do that.
This is my 142nd post about Maes. Search http://www.businessword.com for Maes.
LINKS: 
Getting to know Dan Maes. By Ross Kaminsky.
GOP resources begin sift to Buck as he focuses on Bennet. By Allison Sherry.
Maes treated to silence from GOP after gubernatorial primary win. By Karen E. Crummy and Christofer N. Osher.

Scott Gessler campaigns for fair and honest elections

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 8:54 am, August 12, 2010

Republican candidate for Colorado Secretary of State, Scott Gessler, is making his point in a film clip. Link is here. 
http://www.scottgessler.com/

Tom Tancredo says Dan Maes is 3rd party candidate and should quit

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 7:39 am, August 12, 2010

Colorado gubernatorial candidate, Tom Tancredo, is quoted in the Grand Junction Sentinel as saying (apparently on 850 KHOW) that Republican candidate, Dan Maes, is the third party candidate and should consider quitting. This would let a GOP vacancy committee select another Republican to run against Tancredo and Obama Democrat John Hickenlooper. Or it would let Tancredo and Hickenlooper fight it out in a two-way race. Maes is not expected to quit even though very few Republicans are rallying to support him, according to the Denver Post. In an editorial, the Post reiterated its opinion that Maes is unfit to be governor.
GOP state chairman Dick Wadhams told the Sentinel that the 19,000, or 4.8% of the 407,000 Republicans who voted in the Senate primary but not in the gubernatorial primary was “a significant” undervote. Tancredo agreed and told the Sentinel:
“Four hundred thousand people were asking themselves, ‘Who’s the worst one?’” Tancredo said with a hearty laugh. “I’ve never seen a race like this in my life. I wonder how many people were holding their nose and voting. The 20,000 were holding it, but still the smell came through, and the stink was so bad they thought, ‘I can’t do it.’ “
LINKs: 
GOP voter desertion fuels Tancredo. By Charles Ashby.
GOP faces historic upset. By Joe Hanel.
Maes treated to silence from GOP after gubernatorial primary win. By Karen E. Crummy and Christopher N. Osher.
Maes, Buck victories raise questions about GOP unity. By Tom Roeder.
Maes seeks Republican solidarity. By Patrick Malone.
Despite win, Maes not a worthy pick. While Democrats rejected an insurgency in Senate primary, Republicans inexplicably chose Dan Maes in the governor’s race. Denver Post editorial.
Former Arapahoe GOP chair, Nathan Chambrs: Dan Maes unqualified to be governor, in over his head. The Business Word, 8.11.10.
Primary results; voters mostly opt for moderation, good sense. Editorial, The Durango Herald.
What the primary results mean. By Aaron Harber.

Michael Bennet Wrong for Colorado site launched

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 12:04 pm, August 11, 2010

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has launced a new web site: Michael Bennet: Wrong for Colorado. Link is here.
Sen. Jim DeMint’s Senate Conservatives Fund, which helped fund Ken Buck’s primary run, has posted its endorsement of Buck here.
Buck for Colorado is here.

Former Arapahoe GOP chair, Nathan Chambers: Dan Maes unqualified to be governor, in over his head

by Donald E. L. Johnson | 9:31 am, August 11, 2010

After Cliff Dodge resigned this morning as president of the Arapahoe County Republican Mens club to run Tom Tancredo’s gubernatorial campaign, another former president of the club and a former chairman of the Arapahoe County Republican Party, Nathan Chambers, declared that he thinks the GOP’s candidate, Dan Maes, is in over his head and unqualified to be governor of Colorado. Chambers is a highly regarded GOP activist and observer. Several Colorado editorial pages and conservative bloggers, including me, agree with Chambers.
But many elected Republicans and officers of the state and various county Republican parties are lining up behind Dan Maes despite questions about his ethics and competence as a businessman and candidate for governor. They are more concerned about the party and put the party above any concerns about a candidate’s competence and integrity. 
Mort Marks, a wealthy member of the Arapahoe County and state Republican establishment, backed both Scott McInnis and Jane Norton in yesterday’s primaries. They lost and Marks announced that he will support all Republicans, including Maes and U.S. Senate candidate, Ken Buck. Susan Beckman, an Arapahoe County commissioner and co-chair of McInnis’ campaign in the county, urged activists to vote a straight party line ticket. She irrationally demonized the Denver Post for exposing McInnis’ lies, plagiarism and incompetence. Blaming the liberal Denver Post and media was McInnis line of defense against his plagiarism scandal, but it failed to keep him from being tromped by some 5,000 votes in the primary.
While several people spoke up for Tom Tancredo at this morning’s breakfast, we clearly were out numbered by long-time activists who failed to get the message from Republican primary voters yesterday.
Simply put, more people who, like state GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams, consider McInnis “untrustworthy” voted against him than the people who, like Wadhams, consider Maes a “joke”, voted against Maes. I doubt many Republicans voted for McInnis or Maes or were enthusiastic about either guy.
One indication of the lack of GOP support for Maes and McInnis is that a huge 5% of people who voted in the GOP’s senate primary did not vote for either Maes or McInnis. Some of us could not vote for the lesser evil. We couldn’t vote for incompetence or men who are unfit to be governor.
The Colorado GOP leaders are badly out of touch with Colorado Republican voters. And they’re even more out of touch with independents who will decide the election. 
It will take a few credible polls to convince the GOP activists and sugar daddies who support Maes that he has no chance and that they need to get behind Tom Tancredo.

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