The Colorado Index

My Take on the Election

The results are in.  Here is my take:

5th CD:  Lamborn's win was not a surprise.  He ran a very smart campaign.  The best campaign was run by Jeff Crank.  Bentley Rayburn gets my vote for the least disruptive campaign in terms of party unity.

There is a saying that you can't beat something with nothing.  At no point was there any daylight between any of the candidates on the issues.  It was all about personality and charisma.  Voters aren't often moved by personality and charisma when there is an incumbent.  If they were, contested primaries would be the norm as there are always at least 50 people in each district who are more likable than the incumbent.

The thing that I am most curious about is the almost universal support in the out of district blogosphere for Jeff Crank.  There aren't many bloggers from the 5th CD itself.  Boulderite Ross Kaminsky was so far in the tank for Jeff Crank that he compromised his integrity with at least two anti-Rayburn anti-military posts.  He will disagree, but we are both entitled to our opinions. 

Rocky Mountain Right, with roots in Denver, continues to spit out anti-Lamborn venom even the morning after the election.  It seems that 5th CD voters are simply not smart enough to vote for his candidate.  The wrong assumption that he continues to make is that when there is a three-way split vote, all of the vote that goes against the incumbent will go to the challenger in a two way race.  If you read between the lines, he wants a two-way race in 2010.  The outcome won't change, but he doesn't see that.

As to my neutrality, I'd not change a thing.  At different points in the campaign, all three campaigns, if not the candidates, were mad at me.  I got what I really wanted:  An El Paso party that can easily be united to help Bob Schaffer and John McCain cancel out Denver.

6CD

No real surprise there either.

The biggest fallout will be the number of name endorsements that went to Wil Armstrong.  The voters didn't follow the leaders.   I heard some discontent over the endorsements, and I think it is justified.  If Wil Armstrong had a different name, would he have gotten the same level of support from those name endorsers?

The Republican party leadership has, it seems to me, too big a tendency to anoint Princes based on blood and connections.  It isn't good for the party, and the voters very often don't follow the leaders.  They didn't this time.

4th Judicial DA

Again, the voters were smarter than the leaders. 

John Newsome self destructed.  He was radio-active, and yet some party leaders were willing to spend personal political capital to try to save him.  That habitual desire to close ranks around a tarnished politician is stupid politics.  We see it regularly in Congress and the Republicans are out of power there exactly because of it.

Republican voters simply will not vote for tarnished candidates.  If they make it through a contested primary and into a contested general, enough Republicans sit on their hands to turn the office over to a Democrat.

HD 15

Doug Bruce managed to tarnish his personal brand.  It is a shame, but not a surprise.  He could tarnish it further by not showing up at the unity rally.

HD 6

The good guys came out on top.  This is a primary that never should have happened.  Too many activist Republicans are so focused on being Pro-Life that they are unwilling to nominate a pro-choice candidate in a pro-choice district.  They'd rather have a Democrat in that seat who always votes against their interests than a Pro-Choice Republican who usually votes with their interests.

What they almost got was a pretend Pro-Lifer, and very possibly, a pretend Republican.

I blame the state party for this one.  It needs to vet the candidates and, if it wants to win, ensure that the candidate that fits the district is nominated.

HD 17

Kit Roupe may turn out to be the candidate with the best chance to win.  Sheila Hicks made a good showing. 

If I weren't determined to be neutral, I'd have slammed Kit Roupe hard, and she would have deserved every word.  You can ask her why, but you won't read it here (for a while).

On to the General Election

The Political Pot Calling The Kettle Black

Boys will be boys.  Politicians will be politicians.

I had hoped not to have to write this until after the 5CD primary.  Things are getting out of hand.

i am not impressed with Greg Garcia's supposed neutrality in that race.  It would be one thing if he were equally critical of all three candidates.  I use three because there are three, although I have yet to see anything to be critical of Bentley Rayburn about.

Jeff Crank can be criticized over the tactics that have been used by his supporters and surrogates.  I found Ross Kaminsky's attack on Bentley Rayburn over his supposedly being a carpet bagger and over not paying taxes to Colorado while he was in the military obnoxious and offensive.  I found the latter attack personally obnoxious, to the point of being an attack on me and others who had served honorably.  In the 20 years I spent in the military, I neither filed nor paid state taxes, and my actions were sanctioned by my home of record state, Missouri.

I was not surprised to discover that Bentley Rayburn entered the Air Force Academy from...Missouri.

The Crank echo chamber on Colorado Pols decided that they could take the subject farther with the claim that:

It's as big--and could be bigger--than where he paid taxes if they aren't the same place.

IS THERE A LAWYER IN THE HOUSE WHO HAS SOME ANSWERS ON A SERIOUS QUESTION?

A lot of these military guys play footloose and fancy free.  I'm no lawyer, but, I think some of them probably are committing a felony where they do as follows: 
1)  They claim a state that has no income tax as their home state, so, they avoid state income taxes, but
2)  They vote in other states to which they move on assignment and then vote in those states--which isn't the same state (like Nevada or Washington) that they claim as home to avoid paying taxes.

So, if Rayburn claimed Nevada or Washington State as his home state to avoid taxes, but, for example, he were voting absentee in Colorado, or, when he was based in Alabama, as an example, and was possibly voting in Alabama--but not paying income taxes there while possibly claiming Nevada or Washington State as his home state, would that be a felony?  I don't have the answer on that, but, it sure is a good one to pose to Rayburn at some date.

We took them and Greg Garcia to task.

The reason that Jeff Crank supporters give for his entry into the race was Lamborn's failure to publicly disavow one of his supporter's actions.  They call it dirty politics.  What is this Colorado Pols entry?  Does Crank owe a public apology when his supporters call Rayburn a carpetbagger and claim that "A lot of these military guys play footloose and fancy free?"  We'll let Greg Garcia decide.

Apparently Greg Garcia decided it was no big deal.  Last month, a Jeff Crank press release repeated the charge which suggests that this offensive line of attack was at least approved if not orchastrated by Jeff Crank.

Rayburn deliberately chose against Colorado residency so he would not have to pay taxes in Colorado! 

On to Senator Andy McElhany.  We had a lot of fun, last summer, when he tried to set standards for Doug Lamborn that he couldn't possibly meet himself.  We threatened, with tongue in cheek, to follow his last year in the legislature to see if he could work the kinds of miracles he was demanding of Lamborn.

One could easily and fairly observe that if McElhany believes that Lamborn should have derailed the anti-Fort Carson expansion bill, then Senator McElhany should be able to meet those high standards himself.  He should have been able to use his powers of persuasion to turn each of the above bills back on the Democrat majority.  We would like to understand why he didn't, given that he has years of legislative experience and more than a dozen close allies in a chamber of only 35.

Isn't it ironic that this week Andy McElhany published a letter that said, in part:

¨ With regard to the accusation that Jeff is "lying" about his opponents, the El Paso County Republican Party has asked the Lamborn campaign to document the charge. Lamborn has not. He won't because he can't.

Quite frankly, if I were Doug Lamborn or Bentley Rayburn, I wouldn't trust Greg Garcia to be a fair judge at a hog calling contest.  So what if he is demanding that the charge be documented?  I just documented that Crank and his surrogates are using unsavory tactics by pulling up posts from last summer as well as a reaffirmation of a spurious charge by Jeff Crank this month.  None of that counts as far as Greg Garcia is concerned.  His favorite candidate is Jeff Crank and he is doing what he can to see that he wins. 

Greg Garcia was elected to a position whose incumbent is supposed to treat all primary candidates equally.  He doesn't try, and that is dirty politics, the kind of politics I remained neutral to be able to speak out against.

Glad to Note

We note that Ross Kaminsky has shortened his Gang of Four entries, making them more readable.  Since we have criticized Ross in the past for his long essays, it would be unfair not to complement him for shortening them.

One of the reasons that the blog format is so successful is that it gives busy people a chance to understand a point in a very short time.  If folks want to read about an issue in depth, they can follow the links.

Honored to be Mentioned

Our friend Rossputin has finally taken notice on his blog of at least part of the Colorado conservative blogosphere. 

Ross Kaminsky is a nice, personable guy who until very recently had very little interest in writing about Colorado issues and no interest in reading Colorado centric conservative blogs.  Some months ago, he appeared on a conservative oriented television show about the left wing portion of Colorado blogging.  He was quite expert when asked to talk about the major left wing sites.

At the end of the program, the host asked his guests to name some good Colorado conservative blogs.  One wouldn't, and Ross couldn't.

I sent an email to Ross.  I pointed out to him that the liberal part of the blogosphere gets a lot of public mention in the msm and a lot of opportunities for public mention.  Conservatives shouldn't miss opportunities to promote conservative blogs in the media because there are so few opportunities.

He had no idea who I was and had to use a search engine to try to find out.  The first email I got was entertaining.  In the second email, after he cooled down, he admitted that he didn't read conservative blogs by Colorado authors and that was the reason he didn't name any.

I hadn't been covering Ross on the daily sweep.  I had a rule that to be covered, a blogger had to write about Colorado issues more than occasionally.  Ross then began writing about Colorado from time to time and I covered his blog.  Over a period of time his blog reverted back to being a national blog and it was again dropped.  He later sent an email saying that he he expected to be dropped on that basis.

I would like to say that Ross began reading conservative Colorado blogs last fall, but he gave no evidence that he did.  He never mentioned one or linked to one that I know of, and why would he if he doesn't write about Colorado issues?

Along come the folks from Samsphere.  I can only describe my correspondence with them as unnecessarily opaque.  They wanted me to drive 200 miles round trip to talk to them and wouldn't be clear about the subject.  They told me later, after they left Denver, that they had been willing to come to me.  Useful information, but a bit too late.  I had no idea what they were doing in Denver until Ben DeGrow announced in his blog that he was going to Chicago.

If my correspondence with them was opaque, I would buy any argument that Ross might make that they were opaque about what they wanted him to speak on.  On the other hand, they publicly advertised that Ross would speak on the good, bad, and ugly of the Colorado blogosphere, a subject that, given the history, seemed especially ill suited for Ross. 

If Ross was later asked to speak on a more appropriate (for him) subject, the non-attending public couldn't tell it from the videos posted.  No change in that advertising was made, and no announcement was put on the YouTube videos that the subject of his talk had been changed.   My criticism of him on that subject might have been better aimed at the Samsphere organizers but there wasn't public evidence as to who the proper target was. 

It is my belief that when a speaker is asked to speak on a subject ill-suited for him, the speaker should be changed, not the subject.  Ross disagrees, which is why I have called him a relentless self promoter.

Now, let's look at the purpose of my criticism of Ross.  I don't criticize anyone without a purpose.  I hope that my criticism is always seen as fair by the public because only fair criticism is effective. 

Ross has a new platform as a Gang of Four writer.  He has a unique opportunity to promote conservative Colorado blogs to the Denver Post readership.  To promote them, he has to read and become conversant with them.  His history (more than is repeated here) suggests that he will not do that unless he is publicly prodded to do so.

Will he ever have anything nice to say about the Index?  Not likely, and who can blame him?  People who use criticism to move events pay a price, know they will pay it, and pay it willingly.  Some events are worth that price.  I think getting other conservative blogs and bloggers promoted in the msm, if it happens, is worth that price.  This won't be the first time I have willingly paid a price to promote other conservative blogs, and it likely won't be the last.

With that introduction, let's turn the platform over to Ross Kaminsky.  I will note that the most effective way to get a blogger to address an issue on his own blog is to refuse to publish a comment.      

On Style and Tactics

"Blogger Extraordinaire" Ross Kaminsky - the self promoter who admits he doesn't read conservative Colorado blogs but was only too happy to accept an invitation to talk about the "good, bad, and the ugly" in Colorado and then switch the subject - should have been paying attention at Samsphere.

Now that he is writing for the Gang of Four, we get to see what makes him such an extraordinary blogger.

1.  He is addicted to very long essays.  He can't seem to adapt his style to a format  He writes in the same format where ever he writes.  That is really good blogging style.  Readers are drawn to long essays and avoid blogs with shorter essays like the plague.  That is why so many blogs with long winded authors are successful (including this one).

2. While he avoids reading conservative Colorado blogs, he is quite familiar with the liberal Colorado blogs.  When Colorado Pols fisked him yesterday, he very quickly jumped in that mud hole and tried to defend himself.  It was a waste of his time.  The leftys were soon doing high fives over his still quivering corpse.   

While we did not attend Samsphere, we are quite confident that one of the lessons taught was how to operate when you are able enough to write in two venues.  Since Samsphere has come and gone and no one recorded the lessons for your review, we will remind you:  On your less read venue (or the one you want to be less read), you write the long essays with lots of links.  Then on your more well read venue, you write a short essay with a remark that you have discussed the issue in more depth on your blog and provide a link.  That allows both those who want the short version and those who want the long version to be equally well served.

We are also confident that Samsphere taught new bloggers that it is a total waste of time to put up a link and write "cross posted at sillyme(dot)com"   Would you follow that link to "sillyme" see if it really had been cross posted there?  What is to be gained?

Samsphere also almost certainly taught new bloggers to avoid writing in places like Colorado Pols, which exists solely to damage the conservative movement.  There are at least twenty liberals who regularly haunt that site in the hope that some fool will try to post a view that they disagree with.  You should have known that they would pounce on a global warming post in a heartbeat.  That is a religion, and they are the priests promoting it, science be damned.  If they could, they would have burned you at the stake, forgetting for the moment that they were adding to the CO2 emissions.

If Samsphere didn't, it should have taught you not to post a comment on a blog that might be hostile to you or your writing.  In military terms, every blog worth its salt is a prepared battlefield.  The blogger knows what points he would like to make and if he is at all competent, will either make you look foolish or use what you have written to make his point.  You can't possibly win.

Samsphere also taught that effective blogging is a team sport.  I know they taught that.  When you pontificate at length, it doesn't leave much time or room to promote other Colorado conservative blogs.  Oh, I forgot, you don't read other Conservative blogs.

Samsphere did teach those points, didn't it, Mr. Blogger Extraordinarie?

Added: Both Rossputin and Ben DeGrow have linked to this essay.  I have responded.

Show Horses vs Work Horses

It was good to see that Bob Schaffer stopped by Samsphere.  It is about time that politicians began to publicly acknowledge and court bloggers. 

I had to laugh, a month ago, when a Mark Udall staffer was claiming that I was being paid by Bob Schaffer to blog on Schaffer v Udall.  In the time that I wrote on that blog, I probably wrote at least 600 posts.  When I volunteered at a local event that both Bob Schaffer and Ross Kaminski attended, Bob didn't have any idea who I was and commented when I told him that I wrote for Schaffer v Udall "Oh yes, my staff shows me that blog sometimes."

On the other hand, relentless self promoter Ross Kaminsky, who professes to support Bob but has probably written fewer than six posts on the Senate race, was on a first name basis with Bob.

It is hard to blame Schaffer for being ignorant of the work being done in support of his campaign.  Candidates are forced by campaign finance laws to spend too much time away from the campaign.  Even so, it would have been fun to have been a fly on the wall at Samsphere to see if Bob Schaffer now knows what Schaffer v Udall is and who writes for it.

If there is a lesson there, it is that politicians need to figure out who the show horses are and who the work horses are.  Eventually the work horses get tired of watching the show horses bask in the candidate's attention while they are ignored.

Others, especially those in a position to promote the work of one blogger over, and sometimes at the expense of another, need to learn that lesson as well.

Speaking of Schaffer v Udall, I am still paying a price for the work I did there.  El Presedente, the guy who wrote less than five per cent of the posts but who wanted to set name calling policy for the rest of us is exacting revenge for my quitting.  He is the Colorado Editor of Blog Net News and has the power to order the blogs on its blogroll.  For three weeks, The Colorado Index has been relegated to either the bottom of the list or second from the bottom.

My readership hasn't declined at all, so it clearly doesn't matter.  It also didn't go down when he immediately removed Colorado Index from his blog roll.  I wouldn't want him to change a thing, but I do want others to know what a small person he is.