The two defeated Democratic candidates for CD-7 held hands and sang Kumbaya yesterday in support of Ed Perlmutter’s candidacy as it moves forward to face Republican Rick O’Donnell. The press conference held in Lakewood also gave Democrats a chance to go after O’Donnell for his stance on Social Security, which he once said should be dismantled.
Colorado Confidential’s Erin Rosa was the first to report on yesterday’s events.
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The Bell Policy Center yesterday criticized a ballot initiative that would require all school districts to spend 65 percent of their budget on classroom instruction. As Berny Morson of the Rocky Mountain News reports, The Bell claims the authors behind Amendment 39 don’t take into account the fact that many successful school districts currently spend less than 65 percent of their revenue on classroom instruction.
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As noted here at Colorado Confidential yesterday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez may choose current lieutenant governor Jane Norton to be his running mate.
Beauprez is rumored to have decided to spend the month of September at his day job in Washington D.C., which is why a strong running mate is so crucial for him.
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Beauprez was scheduled to debate Democrat Bill Ritter yesterday in Denver, but instead sent state Sen. Shawn Mitchell. In what has become a strange trend, Mitchell talked mostly about Beauprez’s biography, including his past of running a dairy farm.
Did you know Beauprez used to milk cows? Oh, yeah, he milked them silly.
Beauprez and Ritter are scheduled to take part in a televised debate tonight on KBDI-Channel 12.
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Denver has promised 19,000 hotel rooms for the 2008 Democratic National Convention if the city is chosen to host the big party. George Meritt of The Denver Post reports that the 19,000 rooms are more than the required 17,000 needed for a city to host the convention. “I think that is going to be a far superior offer than what any other city is going to be able to offer,” said Richard Scharf of the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I can tell you right now if the Democratic convention does not come to Denver in 2008, it will not be because of the hotel rooms.”
Democratic officials were in Denver yesterday for another round of meetings on choosing the city to host the convention.
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We at Political Gravy know how upset you are that the job at McDonald’s you applied for was instead given to an illegal immigrant, so you won’t be happy to hear the results of a new study on the matter. According to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center, high levels of immigration over the past 15 years do not seem to have hurt employment opportunities for Americans.
“We are simply looking for a pattern across 50 states, and we did not find one,” the study’s principal author told The Washington Post. “We cannot say with certainty that growth in the foreign population has hurt or helped American jobs.”
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Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, one of several Democrats actively running for President in 2008, will be in Colorado on Wednesday to raise money for Democrat Bill Winter’s congressional bid in CD-6. Colorado Confidential will cover the action for you, so don’t touch that, um, dial.
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The potential terrorist attack in Britain that was foiled yesterday gave both political parties in the U.S. a chance to beat their chests over who was stronger on the issue of terrorism.
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Focus on the Family czar James “SpongeDob” Dobson spoke out yesterday on his thoughts about actor Mel Gibson’s drunken tirade against Jews from last week. As Eric Gorski of The Denver Post reports:
The founder of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family issued a statement in response to Gibson’s July 28 drunken driving arrest in which the actor blamed “(expletive) Jews” for “all the wars in the world.”
“We certainly do not condone that racially insensitive outburst,” Dobson said. “Mel has apologized profusely for the incident, and there the matter should rest. Mel has also indicated his willingness to seek help to overcome his alcoholism, and has asked the Jewish community for forgiveness. What more can he do?”
Dobson was among the Colorado Christian leaders Gibson enlisted to promote “The Passion of the Christ,” his box-office smash that depicts Jesus’ last hours in brutal detail. Some Jewish leaders called the film anti-Semitic. Dobson said the arrest is “not relevant in any way” to “one of the finest films of this era.”
Wow. Who knew that SpongeDob was such a big fan of “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome”?
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Will Adams, spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo, chose an odd way to tell friends and reporters that he was leaving Tancredo’s office. He did it in Spanish. “Adios, amigos! In a couple of weeks, I, like Congress, will enter into a period of massive deficit spending when I begin at Harvard Law,” wrote Adams in an e-mail.
Until next week, Adios, amigos!
