Free Republic

DENVER, October 21, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Jane Norton, the former head of Colorado’s Department for Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE), has sued both her former agency and Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, alleging that CDPHE officials authorized millions of dollars in payments to the abortion giant in violation of the state constitution, which was amended by popular vote in 1984 to ban both direct and indirect subsidies to abortion providers. A 1986 attempt to repeal the ban was rejected by voters. Norton, who presided over an investigation and public defunding of the abortion group in the early 2000s, is asking...

Centrist Senate Republicans are likely to get a new ally in Sen.-elect Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), according to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

*snip* Compare this with the House campaign body, the NRCC. After getting clobbered over the NY-23 race and Dede Scozzafava, the NRCC took a hands off approach and let local voters choose their candidates. Not the NRSC. It doubled up around the country igniting a civil war with the grassroots — a civil war that would have never happened but their getting into Florida and doubling down. The NRSC’s argument amounts to telling the world that voters exercising their right to pick their candidates are stupid and Jim DeMint is stupid for siding with the voters. One final thought —...

DENVER – Tea party favorite Ken Buck has defeated former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton to clinch Colorado's Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. The vote Tuesday was seen as another blow to politicians with close connections to Washington. Norton was endorsed by GOP leadership and co-chaired John McCain's presidential campaign two years ago in Colorado. Buck, a Weld County prosecutor, was little known before he began courting tea party groups more than a year ago. He trailed Norton in fundraising but used his law enforcement credentials in vowing to crack down on "criminals" at home and in Washington.

Lt. Gov. Jane Norton conceded defeat in her campaign against Weld District Attorney Ken Buck for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. With 4,115 of 5,458 precincts reporting statewide, or 75 percent, Buck was leading Norton in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, with 177,617 votes (52 percent) to Norton's 166,955 (48 percent). With about 90 percent of the votes counted in Weld County, Buck was trouncing Norton 76 percent to 23 percent.

The nation’s oldest anti-abortion group is lending its first-ever political endorsement to Colorado Senate candidate Jane Norton less than a week before the Republican primary. The president of Americans United for Life said the group chose to back Norton for her work defunding Planned Parenthood while she was lieutenant governor. Arguing that the abortion-rights group could not separate funding for abortion and other reproductive health services, Norton used a two-decade old state law that barred money to abortion providers to revoke a Planned Parenthood contract. “These things are always a tough call, but we were just very impressed with her,”...

Ken Buck, the district attorney for sprawling Weld County in north central Colorado, may be on the verge of doing to former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton what Sharron Angle did to Sue Lowden in Nevada by riding a conservative-activist, Tea Party movement-fueled campaign to an upset victory in the state's GOP Senate primary, according to a Denver Post/News9 poll conducted June 15-17. Buck leads Norton, the "establishment" candidate supported by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, by 53 percent to 37 percent with 10 percent undecided. Buck has the backing of South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund. Buck's TV...

LOVELAND — Like the phoenix that rises again, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck resurrected his Republican U.S. Senate campaign from the brink of death in September to win the nomination at the state GOP assembly on May 22 at the Budweiser Event Center in Loveland. Buck, who billed himself as a political outsider railed against Washington, D.C. powerbrokers — including Republicans — at “tea party” rallies and GOP events, gained traction and captured 77 percent of the delegate vote and secured top line on the primary ballot.

Looks like Ken Buck owes Sarah Palin an apology. Her visit to Denver this Saturday night can’t possibly be spun as rude. Rather, it’s serendipitous. Discussions for renting the Magness Arena at the University of Denver began in November and the date chosen was more dependent on Palin’s busy schedule than on a desire to hold it on any particular date. [...] Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said he thought it would be “rude” for Palin to steal all the media attention away from what he expects to be his taking the GOP nomination on Saturday. It struck me...

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s war chest in his bid to be governor has zero dollars. Meanwhile, the leading Republican candidate to be the Grand Old Party’s nominee topped $1 million, Scott McInnis’ campaign announced Friday. At the same time, Gov. Bill Ritter’s campaign contributions for the fourth quarter of 2009 swelled his coffers to more than $2.5 million. Unfortunately for Hickenlooper, though, state law bars the Democratic governor who dropped his re-election bid earlier this month from giving that money to his fellow party member. But that’s all right, Hickenlooper said in a telephone interview... “I’ve got a steep hill...

Combing through Colorado GOP Senate candidate Jane Norton’s campaign filings this week, Congressional Quarterly finds Rick Davis among the many notables on the impressive Norton donor list, a collection of interested parties that generated a cool half million dollars in 16 days. Who is Rick Davis? Grassroots Colorado Republicans not in the know already will be interested to learn he was an adviser to John McCain during last year’s failed presidential bid. Davis is yet another McCain connection for Norton, who has been taking heat from state conservatives as a doomed McCain-driven national party pick since even before she announced...

Next year’s U.S. Senate race in Colorado is a lot more crowded this week, and incumbent Michael Bennet has some serious competition on hand. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Colorado voters finds Bennet trailing former Republican Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton 45% to 36%. Norton formally announced her candidacy on Tuesday. In that contest, seven percent (7%) like some other candidate, and 12% are undecided. Another newcomer, former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, is expected to announce his candidacy today (Wednesday), challenging Bennet for the Democratic Senate nomination next year. In a match-up with Norton, the highest profile Republican...

Saying she was "alarmed about the direction our nation is headed," former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton officially launched her bid today as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. Surrounded by hundreds of supporters in a ballroom at the Marriott Tech Center, Norton, who has been serving as the executive director of the Denver Police Foundation, said she wanted to stop what she saw as an out-of-control government in the nation's capital. "At every turn, Washington's giant hand seems to be grabbing everything in sight," said Norton, who served as lieutenant governor under former Gov. Bill Owens. "Seizing control of...

Jane Norton is now officially a Republican candidate for Colorado's 2010 U.S. Senate race, in which Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet is defending the seat to which he was appointed in January. "I'm running for the United States Senate for one simple reason: the federal government is out of control," Norton said in a video posted on her campaign Web site. Norton, who was elected in 2002 to a four-year term as Colorado's lieutenant governor, planned formal announcement stops Tuesday in Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction. She will run as an opponent of the economic stimulus law enacted in February...

Former Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton will announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate in a series of visits to Denver, Colorado Springs and Grand Junction next week. Norton has filed federal campaign papers and set up a campaign Web site. Norton will face a crowded pack of five other Republicans for the nomination to challenge freshman Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet.

Prominent conservative blogger Ben DeGrow writes Monday afternoon that former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez won’t be taking on Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet next year. But that doesn’t mean the crowded field of GOP challengers won’t be growing. Former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton has decided to join the race and will announce her plans next month, writes DeGrow, a policy analyst at the libertarian-leaning Independence Institute, in his Mount Virtus blog. “I have received word from a reliable source or two that Jane Norton is definitely going to announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate,” DeGrow wrote Saturday. “My guess is...

Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton ended speculation that she would run for governor in 2006, saying today she had no plans to do so. Norton, a Republican who served as executive director of the state Department of Public Health and Environment for four years before joining Gov. Bill Owens' ticket in 2002, had been mentioned as a possible candidate. She did not elaborate on her decision. Republican state Treasurer Mike Coffman has formed an exploratory committee for the office, and University of Denver President Marc Holtzman, a Republican, has said he will leave the school by the end of this...

DENVER, CO – Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (R-CO) today issued the following statement: “Coloradans aren’t going to believe John Kerry’s misleading campaign trail promises on health care in light of his pledge to repeal the President’s Medicare reforms, which save seniors money on prescription drugs. By wanting to turn back the President’s guarantee of affordable prescription drugs, Kerry is ignoring the priorities of Colorado seniors for the sake of his own political advantage. “Kerry’s out of the mainstream Senate record includes votes against additional funding for state Medicaid programs--including more than $1 billion for Colorado--and votes against a $25...

Schaffer, Salazar in, Norton out.

DENVER (AP) - Forecasting a tight presidential contest in Colorado, Gov. Bill Owens and other state GOP leaders said Saturday they will focus on promoting their view that President Bush is the country's best leader during difficult times. Owens will serve as the campaign's Colorado chairman, campaign officials said Saturday. Co-chairs include Sens. Wayne Allard and Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Lt. Gov. Jane Norton. Bush defeated Democratic Vice President Al Gore in Colorado in the 2000 presidential election by 51 percent to 42 percent, continuing a GOP tradition. Only twice since 1952 has Colorado supported a Democrat for president, including...