The Colorado Index

Lose An Election, Win A Job

Six weeks after Secretary of State Mike Coffman won a US House seat, Governor Bill Ritter finally picked his replacement: Bernie Buescher.

Gov. Bill Ritter today selected State Rep. Bernie Buescher as Colorado's secretary of state.

[ Bernie ] Buescher, a Democrat from Grand Junction, lost his re-election bid for his House seat, but will now have two years to persuade voters statewide to elect him for a full-term in his new job.

Even in this Democrat year, Buescher lost his reelection bid to Republican Laura Bradford, albeit by less than 600 votes.  In addition, this gives Governor Bill Ritter regional diversity in the State elected executive offices.  While not a shoo-in, Buescher could run a competitive race in 2010.

Of the three finalists, Buescher is probably second-best.  The worst, Ken Gordon, can now focus on restricting individual liberty in his job with the smoking police instead of using the Secretary of State's office to eliminate the electoral college.

Probably the best candidate was term-limited House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.  Today's move most likely makes Andrew Romanoff the front-runner for replacing Senator Ken Salazar.

While Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is also a highly-regarded candidate for the Senate seat, Andrew Romanoff is the more likely of the two picks.  First, Andrew Romanoff is out of a job at the end of the month.  Also, he is a good public speaker who will be difficult for Republicans to defeat in 2010.  Second, Mayor Hickenlooper is a good executive as the Mayor of Denver.  It is more likely that John Hickenlooper will stay as Mayor and wait until 2014 to run for governor of the state.

by Civil Sense

Smoking Policeman Ken Gordon Issues Citations to Casinos

Lame duck Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon had a productive first day in his new job on the smoking police. The City of Cripple Creek issued three citations to the cigar bar casinos today.

Cripple Creek police today issued $250 tickets to the owners of three casinos for allowing smoking. Cripple Creek Mayor Dan Baader said the tickets were in response to a formal complaint from Eric Rose, general manager for the Colorado Grande Casino, which didn't allow smoking.

This completely reversed the city’s previous position on the issue. Smoking policeman Ken Gordon admitted his involvement.

State Sen. Ken Gordon, who co-sponsored the Colorado Clean Air Act, said he called [ Mayor Dan ] Baader, the Cripple Creek city attorney and the 4th Judicial District Attorney's office on Tuesday after hearing of the city's position.

"Yesterday, when I talked to the mayor, I said, ‘Give them tickets let them go to court if they think they've got a case and let them argue it there,'" Gordon said. "It's clear that they're not cigar bars. They were just trying to find anything they could do to get around the clear intent of the law."

Gordon said the courts should be able to resolve the intent of the law without the legislature amending the smoking ban.

Perhaps Ken Gordon and other legislation authors should clarify the intent of the law in the statute instead of leaving it up to interpretation. In any event, one wonders what influence Ken Gordon had in this issue. Mayor Dan Baader’s comments, however, seem to parrot Ken Gordon’s language word-for-word.

Cripple Creek Mayor Dan Baader said a story in Tuesday's Gazette raised a firestorm of attention from television, radio, other newspapers and state legislators. It was time to get the matter resolved, he said, and issuing tickets and allowing the casinos to fight them in court seemed like the best solution.

"I said, ‘Let's flush this thing out, because this has gone way overboard,'" Baader said.

This is a far cry from the city’s live-and-let-live approach of only a few days ago. It is understandable that a rival casino would file a complaint since the blanket smoking ban hurt all casinos equally. From that viewpoint, why should several casinos have the benefit of a potentially legal cigar bar (with the revenue possibilities) when others cannot. However, why would the city abruptly change positions on this issue?

Someday, Colorado voters may see Ken Gordon’s name again as a candidate for public office. It will be interesting to see what strong-armed tactics Gordon used to force Cripple Creek to issue citations with no investigation. At any rate, it is clear that Ken Gordon prefers to use the force of the state government to meddle in local affairs.

by Civil Sense

Ken Gordon Running For Chief Tobacco Policeman

State Senator Ken Gordon is looking for a new job. Due to term limits, Ken Gordon cannot continue his position as lame duck Senate Majority Leader. Ken Gordon decided to begin a campaign for Chief Tobacco Policeman of Colorado.

As mentioned previously, three casinos in Cripple Creek now utilize small cigar bars containing casino games. The Cripple Creek City Council sent a letter to all 17 Cripple Creek casinos clarifying the city position on the issue. 

"The City believes that the spirit and intent of the 2007 amendment to the (Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act) ... was to prohibit smoking in casinos," the letter states. "However, through ambiguous draftsmanship, the General Assembly has left the door open for interpretation of the Cigar-Tobacco Bar exception to at least arguably apply to those casinos that meet the requirements."

How dare somebody interpret the law differently than Ken Gordon?

What's ambiguous about it, asked Sen. Ken Gordon, who co-sponsored the smoking ban.

"It was clear that it had to be a bar, not a casino," Gordon said. "They don't make the first cut in qualifying. I wish the city attorney's office showed more courage in enforcing the law."

Is the law ambiguous? A plain reading of the statutory text lends credence to Cripple Creek’s argument. Colorado Revised Statutes 25-14-204 prohibits smoking in indoor public areas, including “Limited gaming facilities and any other facilities in which any gaming or gambling activity is conducted,” except for as provided in section 25-14-205. 25-14-205 allows cigar-tobacco bars. Prior to the 2007 amendment (effective January 1, 2008), the statute, Subsection (j), allowed smoking in “the retail floor plan, as defined in section 12-47.1-509, C.R.S., of a licensed casino.” Now that Subsection (j) is “repealed,” nothing in the section enables or prohibits smoking in a casino.

If a cigar bar can serve food or alcohol, what rationale exists to prohibit small-stakes gaming in the cigar bar. Cigar bars are separate areas from the main casino, and everyone who enters a cigar bar is aware of the second-hand smoke. The government does not need to protect those who enter with excessive legislation.

Ken Gordon is calling for the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s office to investigate this matter. How many thousands of dollars will it cost for this investigation? Does the fact that neither the gaming commission nor the City of Cripple Creek wish to investigate this situation trouble Gordon? How much should the State of Colorado spend to eliminate a vice (smoking) at a vice establishment (gambling and drinking) just to satisfy Ken Gordon’s hurt ego?

by Civil Sense

Ken Gordon's Gadfly

We are beginning to suspect that next January there is a possibility that Ken Gordon will be appointed by Governor Bill Ritter to replace Congressman-elect Mike Coffman.  That presupposes that Mike Coffman will win the primary and the general election.  It is exactly the scenario that got Dick Wadhams so riled up about earlier this spring.

Dick Wadhams, if you recall, wanted Mike Coffman, one of only two Republicans to win statewide election, to stay put, and who can blame him?  We would observe that Coffman had been asked to step aside in earlier races and had done so.  There is a reasonable limit to a man being required to put party first, and it is easy to argue that Coffman is beyond that limit, to his credit.

The race in the 6th CD is a multi-candidate race.  That probably gives the advantage to the candidate with the most name recognition - Mike Coffman.

We would love to quote ColoradoPols on their odds, but they are nearly worthless as far as we can tell.  Take the Schaffer v Udall race.  They claim that Mark Udall is a 3-1 favorite with Bob Schaffer being only 7-1.  That ignores the polling and the national commentary which now consistently call this race a toss-up.  The history of Colorado Senate race polls is that the Republican always seems to do several points better than polling would indicate.  This suggests that honest odds would produce a tie or have Schaffer slightly ahead.  If someone at Colorado Pols wants to back their odds with real money...

Since the Colorado Pols assessment of the Senate race is so obviously unreliable, it is hard to put much stock in their odds on the 6th CD, which show Coffman a slight favorite based on name recognition.

Even so, it would be foolish not to assume that in very early January, 2009, Bill Ritter will be appointing a new Secretary of State.  The new Secretary would likely follow the Doug Bruce and Joan Fitz-Gerald precedent and delay taking office until mid-January so as to be able to serve 10 years, rather than six in that office.

Frankly, this author would prefer almost anyone to Ken Gordon as the new SoS.  If the governor's choice can be influenced in another direction, the best mechanism available is likely a Ken Gordon blog.  In earlier days, we would have asked Ben DeGrow to start the blog just to avoid the administrative burden.  Ben seems to have his hands full these days, so we've started it ourselves.

Ken Gordon's Gadfly came into existence Friday night with a single post.  If we can get El Presedente to include it on BNN, he will have two of our blogs that he can rotate at the bottom of the BNN blog roll.  It will take us a while to get all of the bugs ironed out - building blog rolls, etc.  Expect daily posts to begin in mid June.  We very likely will not allow comments on that blog, just to cut the administrative hassle.