Tag: Kevin Lundberg
Fed court ruling in DOMA case a victory for states’ rights
A unanimous federal appeals court ruling issued in Boston today found the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional in that it discriminates against same-sex couples. The ruling is a victory for the Obama administration and supporters of both gay rights and states' rights and a blow for the national anti-gay marriage movement and for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who filed a controversial and critics say confused amicus brief in the case last year in support of the embattled federal law.
Session notes: Colorado moved ahead or stayed even on education, gay...
Colorado legislative debate this year on education, gay rights and women's health policies reflected larger well-worn national political back-and-forths, where showy speeches on immigration "illegals," "traditional marriage" and religious freedom often sidetrack efforts to serve the public good.
Nikkel casts key vote to advance Colorado civil unions bill
DENVER-- The House Judiciary Committee voted Thursday evening to advance a state civil unions bill that would grant legal recognition to same-sex couples. The bill died in the same Republican-controlled committee last year but on Thursday won the deciding vote of Loveland Republican Rep. B.J. Nikkel.
CD 2 pits Lundberg against upstart Weissmann for chance to run...
On the one hand, you have Jared Polis, an openly gay, socially progressive multimillionaire as the incumbent Democrat in Colorado's Second Congressional District. On the other hand you have two very different Republicans running for the chance to run against Polis. You have current Colorado State Senator Kevin Lundberg, an arch social conservative who has been among the legislature's leaders in fighting against civil unions legislation.
Colorado civil unions battle a heated all-Republican affair
DENVER-- At a state Senate committee hearing on a same-sex civil unions bill held here Wednesday, a series of witnesses battered Republican lawmakers opposed to the bill, suggesting they were confused in their ideology, nonstrategic in their thinking and enslaved to an outdated anti-gay "hateful bigoted mantra." The harsh criticism came not from Democrats and their allies but from Republicans testifying in favor of the bill on the basis of conservative principles and out of partisan interest in the future success of the party.
Hitchens dies, leaves craven people in power to sigh with relief
Christopher Hitchens died yesterday of cancer. He was a learned and caustic cultural critic who wrote for the popular press and who was at his best when eviscerating the hypocrisy and pretense of people in power. He famously hated organized religion. It's easy to imagine that, had Hitchens ever trained his talents on Colorado politics, he might have reserved his best stuff for the small-town Christian moralizing and persecutorial grandstanding that erupts in regular intervals from certain corners of the state capitol.
Senate kills high-driving bill, cites fuzzy science
The Colorado Senate killed a bill that would have established a legal limit in Colorado to the amount of THC drivers can have in their system. Lawmakers on the right and left who voted against the bill felt they were attempting to make policy without adequate information. House Bill 1261, sponsored in the Senate by Grand Junction Republican Steve King, died 20 nays to 15 ayes.
Sex offenders offered hope of redemption in new law
A bipartisan agreement designed by members of the Senate to give hope to sex offenders entering into state required treatment passed on 2nd reading Thursday. Likened to the entrance into the Hades of Dante’s Inferno by one member of the Senate, the existing law, until its sunset, asked the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board to treat sex crimes as a disease with “no known cure.” That section has now been removed and states sex offenses are often repetitive but in some cases are the result of a manageable condition.
Health exchange bill passes even as debate centers on Affordable Care...
Republicans attacked a bipartisan bill to set up a health benefit exchange in Colorado with a 3rd reading poison-pill amendment Wednesday while calling the bill an extension of the Federal program. Democrats voting to pass it said that the bill was anything but that.
Former Colorado Republican legislator Rob Witwer says yes to civil unions
Rob Witwer, a former state Representative and today's Republican appointee to redraw the redistricting lines for the Legislature, has published an editorial detailing his support for civil unions.