This month my town hall meeting will be on the subject of “Media and Democracy,” with panelists:

* Bill Menezes (Media Matters)
* Jim Spencer (Writer CO Confidential, Former Columnist Denver Post)
* Jay Marvin (Radio Personality AM 760)
* David Sirota (Author, Hostile Takeover, Syndicated Columnist)
* Adam Schrager (Channel 9 News Reporter)

We’ll hear from each of our panelists and will then have lots of time for Q&A from our audience.

Please join us this Thursday, January 17, at the Aurora Municipal Center (Aurora Room), 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, at 7:00 PM.

Below is the full text of the Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff’s opening day remarks:

Let me begin by congratulating our newest members, Representatives Mark Ferrandino and Christine Scanlan. We look forward to serving with each of you.

I would also like you to welcome my mother to the chamber.

Thank you for allowing me to share some thoughts with you on this occasion. This is the fifth year I’ve had the privilege – it’s also the last.

Representatives Borodkin, Garcia, Hodge, Jahn, Madden, Marshall, Stafford, White and I came in together – and we’re going out together. Congratulations to each of you.

Today I want to tell you a story. It’s not a story with a lot of characters in it. We’re going to have plenty of those stories in the months ahead. We’ll be talking about the 12,000 students who drop out of Colorado’s high schools each year, the 107,000 Coloradans who don’t have jobs, the 792,000 who don’t have health insurance.

This morning I want to focus on just one person. A child, to be specific. A baby.

(more…)

Today, the opening day of the 2008 state legislative session, the Colorado Senate elected as its president Senator Peter Groff (SD-33, Denver). Groff is the first African-American in Colorado’s history to serve as Senate President and the third in the history of the United States.

Below is the full text of President Groff’s opening day remarks.

Please stand and join me in observing a moment of silence to honor the men and women who have given their lives defending our country - including Major Andrew Olmstead of Colorado Springs who was killed last week in Iraq - and to the active duty members and veterans of the United States Armed Forces and their families. Thank you.

Let us also take a moment to acknowledge Colonel Steve Ward from Senate District 26 and Lt. Colonel Joe Rice from House District 38, the two sitting members of the Colorado General Assembly who are currently serving us on active duty in Iraq. We will keep the light burning until Sen. Ward returns home.

Mister Majority Leader, Mister Minority Leader, Senate colleagues, distinguished guests, friends and my family. Let me begin by thanking the Senate for my election as the 47th President of this great body. I thank both sides of the aisle for your support and I pledge to continue to work collaboratively with all of you to build and invest in a better Colorado.

(more…)

For the first time in Colorado state government history, all of the executive branch budget requests are now posted on the Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting website, making the budget process more open to the general public.

The FY08-09 budget requests are available for viewing or download by clicking here:

http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&
cid=1193823054606&pagename=GovRitter%2FGOVRLayout

This past June, the Governor’s office and State Treasurer Cary Kennedy released the State Taxpayer Accountability Report:

http://www.colorado.gov/treasury/starReport/STAR-Report-FY205.pdf

“We are doing everything possible to bring greater fiscal transparency to state government,” Gov. Ritter said. “We believe taxpayers have a right to know how we spend taxpayer dollars. My FY08-09 budget recommendations address high-priority needs in public safety, education, child services, health care, energy and natural resources, and it is in the best interest of the taxpayers to see how we propose to make those investments.”

For access to additional information, visit:

http://www.colorado.gov/governor/ospb

A detailed fact sheet is available here, via Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office:

http://www.coloradodems.org/docs/2007HouseAccomplishments.pdf

This week Governor Bill Ritter introduced an economic development plan to aid small businesses and bolster the renewable energy industry and promote development in bioscience research.

Here are the major elements of the plan:

1. Simplify corporate income taxes by eliminating the complicated multiple factors that businesses must use to calculate their taxes and establishing a simple single-sales factor, as well as streamlining other aspects of corporate income taxes in a revenue-neutral fashion.

2. Cut taxes for 30,400 businesses by raising the Business Personal Property Tax exemption threshold from today’s $2,500 level to $7,000.

3. Establish a $3.5 million a year Bioscience and Life Science Fund. The fund will be administered by the Office of Economic Development to promote the growth and sustainability of the bioscience industry, provide Colorado research institutions with funding to commercialize viable technologies, and provide incentives to help attract new businesses and retain and expand existing companies.

4. Eliminate the so-called “fly-away” sales tax. Colorado is one of only a few states that charges a “fly-away” sales tax on planes manufactured in Colorado even if they are housed in another state. Eliminating the fly-away tax would match current practices in other states.

5. Make it easier for businesses – especially rural small businesses – to qualify for job-creation incentives by modifying Colorado’s Performance-Based Incentives Fund. This will help small, rural businesses grow.

6. Dedicate $3.5 million from the new Clean Energy Fund specifically for economic-development opportunities.

7. Analyze spending of Colorado’s tourism-promotion dollars, and work with industry partners to devise new strategies to better invest and leverage state funds.

Ritter said, “As Governor, I am committed to leading a state government that partners with businesses, listens to their concerns and comes up with ideas to help our businesses get ahead in this increasingly competitive global marketplace.”

In an editorial, the Denver post said “the Ritter plan is so logical — and overdue — that Capitol Republicans were reduced to recycling their dislike of Ritter’s property tax freeze to conceal the embarrassing fact that they failed to adopt the same affordable pro-business policies during the long years when they monopolized power in the statehouse.”

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

Last night, I went to Pueblo to attend their county Central Committee meeting at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center. The primary purpose of the meeting was to fill a vacancy in the office of County Commissioner, which had been held by Loretta Kennedy. Commissioner Kennedy left the position to become the District Director for Congressman Salazar.

The vacancy committee election is one of the great parts of the Colorado political process. You get to see some unusual characters (more on that later), raw politics, and high-level drama all in one energy-filled meeting. Pueblo County Dems did a great job running a smooth and contention-free election.

Four candidates were nominated last night for the vacancy: John Cordova, Larry Howe-Kerr, John Rodriguez, and Rep. Dorothy Butcher. Each had their own points to make, and each did a great job with their nomination speeches. Cordova emphasized his experience working with the county government, and his architectural experience as the county builds several new facilities in the next few years. Howe-Kerr emphasized his focus on the future for Pueblo County, as well as the challenges that the county and Southern Colorado are facing. Rodriguez (who, in the interests of disclosure, did a great job working for me as my interim campaign manager for the first few months of my state senate campaign) gave an energized speech about the need for youth, new ideas, and a new generation of leadership in Pueblo. Rep. Butcher rounded out the quartet with an emphasis on her legislative ability to get things done and her records of accomplishment in the Legislature.

Not that those were the only four in the race. One other fellow tried to run, but learned that he couldn’t, as he’d only registered as a Democrat last month. The Party allowed him to speak for a couple of minutes, though, and he announced that he’d be running for the seat next November. The, um, odd part of the “announcement”? He began by talking about how he’d had 8 felony charges filed against him, but was “still in favor of law and order”. Like I said, you see some interesting stuff at these meetings…

Anyway, after all the speeches were done, the 160-plus folks there voted. A candidate had to get a majority for a win, so multiple ballots were a possibility. The Party had set rules that after the first ballot, anybody with less than 15% of the vote would be dropped from the second ballot. The first ballot results were as follows:
– Cordova 72
– Butcher 66
– Howe-Kerr 17
– Rodriguez 11

For those of you out there without blazing-fast math skills, I’ll tell you that Howe-Kerr and Rodriguez didn’t meet the 15% threshold for the second ballot. This left a final second ballot between Cordova and Butcher. As soon as the results were announced, the Party went into the second round of voting. There was a degree of tension in the air as folks waited to hear the outcome, and to find out who would be their new county commissioner. In the end, here was the final tally:
– Cordova 94
– Butcher 70

Both Cordova and Rep. Butcher spoke briefly after the results were read. Rep. Butcher emphasized that she “received a clear message” - that the Democrats in Pueblo wanted her to return to the Legislature and continue to fight for issues important to Pueblo. Commissioner-elect Cordova, who is by nature a pretty quiet and deliberate fellow, spoke even more succinctly. He thanked the Democrats on the Central Committee and promised to work as hard as possible to be as good of a Commissioner as possible.

It was a great evening, and there seemed to be a positive attitude among almost everybody in attendance, regardless of who they were supporting.

Congrats, Commissioner Cordova!

You will hear a lot of congratulations going around for the past and new HD2 representatives. I just wanted to add my own note of thanks.

Excuse me Mike, if I start with Mark. Soon after I was elected Chair, Sean O’Buckley decided to resign as the Colorado Democratic Party Treasurer. Mark Ferrandino immediately stepped forward. As an auditor, he brought much needed skills to the state party. As we began to embark on a 64-county strategy, we were also faced with some sticky issues from previous campaigns.

Mark brought his experience and expertise to bear on resolving those issues. He, along with Jamie Elkins our compliance officer, attended Federal Elections Commission training and put in place a stringent set of rules to not only resolve outstanding issues, but to prevent similar problems in the future. We have worked together daily on creating a healthy party structure, and I value his contributions. Given the commitment to excellence, the Colorado General Assembly gains an extremely valuable member.

And for Mike Cerbo, he is taking his extensive skills as a legislator and an organizer to the AFL-CIO. We look forward to working with him in his new role, especially in light of the Republican onslaught against our union brothers and sisters. Rep. Cerbo moves to AFL-CIO at a time when his leadership is most needed. Thank you for your public service.

I, for one, am excited that we have so many talented leaders in the Democratic party.

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

One of the best parts of being involved in this Party is seeing your friends — people who have worked hard in the trenches and who are genuinely good and decent people with their hearts in the right places — be elected to serve Colorado. I’m not talking about the folks out there who are campaigning hard and who you meet while they are campaigning, although there are some pretty amazing folks out there who fit that bill as well. No, I’m talking about the folks with whom you work in the trenches and who end up in positions to make a difference. For me, those people are folks like my State Representative, Buffie McFadyen, Rep. Morgan Carroll, and La Plata County Commissioner Joelle Riddle.

Last night, State Party Treasurer Mark Ferrandino joined that list when he was selected by the HD2 Vacancy Committee to serve in the State House.

Mark knows how to effectively fill a vacancy. In 2005, when we had a vacancy in the tough position of State Party Treasurer, Mark stepped forward and was selected to fill out the term. As a testament to his hard work and dedication, he was re-elected this year without any opposition. For a State Party officer, Mark is a quiet guy. He doesn’t demand attention. He just shows up and works hard.

I knew that from almost the first time I saw his work as Party Treasurer, but it was never made more clear to me than when I was walking for candidates last fall. As regular readers of DemNotes know, I spent about every weekend, and several weeknights, walking with Democratic candidates for the House and Senate across Colorado. Last fall, I showed up in a north metro parking lot to meet Sen. Lois Tochtrop to walk with her. Mark Ferrandino was there, too. We spent the morning knocking on doors together. I found out that he, too, spent about every possible spare moment walking with legislative candidates — unlike me, he just didn’t talk about it much. It was just something that a loyal Democrat does. I wrote about it then - you can see that post at:
http://demnotes.com/?p=190

Rep. Ferrandino deserves this selection — he is truly an unsung hero of the Colorado Democratic Party. I understand he will eventually be leaving his position as State Party Treasurer (he doesn’t have to immediately do that — it is not too uncommon for legislators around the country to serve double-duty as State Party officers). When he does leave, whoever is selected by the Central Committee to fill his position will have huge shoes to fill. But Rep. Ferrandino will continue to fight for the things that make this Party so important to the future of Colorado, and we’ll wish him well on this new chapter of his life.

Thank you, HD2 Vacancy Committee, for making such a wise choice. Rep. Ferrandino will serve you — and the people of Colorado — amazingly well!

“ARE COLORADO STUDENTS PREPARED FOR THEIR FUTURE?”

WHO: Representative Judy Solano, Metro North Chamber, The New America School

WHAT: Conversation 2007: Shaping Educational Excellence in Colorado is an opportunity for all Coloradans to help shape the future of education in our state by engaging in open dialogue. Be a part of this statewide effort to answer the following questions:

1. What do you believe should be the goals of public education?
2. What kind of educational system do we need to meet those goals?
3. What are the priorities for building that system?

This community meeting will provide policymakers with quantitative information as to what Coloradans value and expect from our state education system. We will generate information that elected officials, the Governor’s P-20 Education Coordinating Council and other stakeholders can use in deciding how to move forward with education reform. For more information, please visit www.conversation2007.org.

WHEN: Tonight, August 21, 2007   6:30pm – 8:30pmm

WHERE: Multi-Purpose Room – Southwest Side of the Building
11700 Irma Drive, Northglenn, 80233