Posted on 11/17/2015 8:20:29 AM PST by SeekAndFind
You may recall that just before the election at the beginning of this month we talked about the school board recall initiative in Jefferson County, Colorado. Three conservative board members had been elected in 2013 and they had proceeded to work on school choice initiatives, expanded support for charter schools and a variety of other agenda items which completely outraged the teachers unions. The ensuing battle over attempts to have them recalled was epic, bringing in millions of dollars for campaign war chests on both sides, with the national teachers unions facing off against Americans for Prosperity and a few other backers on the side of the conservatives.
In the midst of all the other news which broke in the wake of the election we never got around to catching up on that race, but to make a long story short… the unions won decisively. (WaPo)
In a striking upset, voters in suburban Denver on Tuesday recalled three conservative members of a school board who had worked to weaken the local teachers union while boosting funding for charter schools and pushing through other market-driven policy changes for public schools.
By a margin of 64 percent to 36 percent, voters opted to replace Julie Williams, Ken Witt and John Newkirk, who had been elected in 2013 to form a majority power bloc on the five-member Jefferson County school board. About 40 percent of registered voters turned out.
"It looks decisive," Witt said Tuesday night, moments after he conceded.
Ron Mitchell, who won Witt's seat, said the new board will take the county in a new direction. "Our mission will not be to privatize and charterize and voucherize our schools," he said.
This recall election turned out 180K votes for JeffCo school district R-1 in an odd numbered year. Compare that to the turnout for a different ballot initiative for the same school district in 2012 for a presidential election. They managed around 270K. Any of you who follow elections on a regular basis have already caught on to the remarkable nature of this. That’s a simply insane turnout for an odd numbered year. They didn’t just get all of the four in four voters… they managed to get most of the two in four and a fair number of the one in four constituents.
Even more to the point, as we discussed prior to the election, this isn’t just any random county out west. Colorado is evenly enough divided that we color it purple, but it has its blue city centers and red rural areas like most states. These are the suburbs which are fought over vigorously by campaigns. In that battle the two sides were both able to muster a huge GOTV effort, but the Democrats came out on top. Hillary has been courting the teachers unions heavily this year in one of her latest flip flops so you can expect them to be out in force trying to win this same region for her next year. If the GOP can’t find a way to counter that union money and their volunteers, it’s going to slip away again.
Just take this small time school board race as a warning sign. Round one went to the Democrats.
All depends on where your Governor puts all the refuges he is saying he will accept from those states that refuse them.
It means you’re going to have to work twice as hard. But it can be done if conservatives work hard and smart.
Of course, the RINOs will try to make sure the state gets written off.
RE: An election centered around Boulder -might- not be the bellweather they imagine it is.
Colorado REALLY disappointed in 2012.
For a moment, I thought it would go Romney because near election day, there was a huge overflow crowd that participated in the Red Rocks rally that was not only standing room only, but had people who needed to park their cars MILES from the venue and walk to the amphitheater.
I thought the overflow crowd was an indicator of the enthusiasm of the state to vote out Obama.
RESULT: The State still went Democrat.
This is a lesson for me — don’t overestimate and equate a huge crowd in a political rally as an indicator of voter enthusiasm.
RE: If the election was held today between Trump and Granny Trump wins 60/40 60% of people don’t believe a word she says and this Trump not Willard. Trump wants to win and will smother her with crushing TV spots
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Colorado REALLY disappointed in 2012.
For a moment, I thought it would go Romney because near election day, there was a huge overflow crowd that participated in the Red Rocks rally that was not only standing room only, but had people who needed to park their cars MILES from the venue and walk to the amphitheater.
I thought the overflow crowd was an indicator of the enthusiasm of the state to vote out Obama.
RESULT: The State still went Democrat.
This is a lesson for me — don’t overestimate and equate a huge crowd in a political rally as an indicator of voter enthusiasm.
Why yes, yes it is. I am guessing 5-10% of the cars in some parts of town don’t have Colorado plates yet.
:-)
From my understanding, the Governors would put them where the Feds say they put them.
We’ll see.
The Ed Reform slate won in Denver. Yes, Democrat Denver.
The problem with the Jeffco reformers is they were poor with messaging and did not reach out to natural allies like Democrats for Ed Reform, which is very active here. They got way too far in front of the electorate in a swing county. Probably why they couldn't raise much money.
Not saying Colorado necessarily goes for us; I think the race is winnable here provided we nominate an electable candidate who hasn't been too bloodied by the primaries.
My take on Colorado is that the conservative core is too conservative for most Coloradans. There are a lot of independent folk who tend to be left-libertarians who are more afraid of the conservatives than the GOPe Chamber of Communism candidates.
The best that can be hoped for is someone like Ben Nighthorse Campbell who switched parties. A sort of Reagan Democrat lite.
Colorado did give us Tancredo, Bob Enyart, and who was that morning guy on KOA that was more-or-less conservative but lost me when he went all in for public funding of the stadiums?
I live in SW Colorado and have never considered Denver ever part of my Colorado.
FMCDH(BITS)
While it’s not Trump’s fault, the Republicans are giving their base no reason to go to the polls next year.
Howdy, neighbor. I agree.
My family came to Colo. in 1858 and settled in Salida and the San Luis Valley. I’ve lived in the Denver area but no longer want to go there.
And Boulder has been a place for freaks to congregate for years and years.
buckalfa to laplata
“Who decides where they go, the Feds or the Governors?”
The Feds of course per the 1980 Refugee Act and subsequent court decisions supporting Federal superiority over states rights. All a state or local government entity can do is be uncooperative. Let us hope there is a big lack of cooperation across the nation.
Another answer to my question if it is Feds or Governors who decide where they go:
My understanding is it’s all Feds. Refugees have legal status once they’re here and can go anywhere. The feds choose the agencies resettling them. Don’t think there’s much the states can do. Refugee compensation and welfare are federal. Everyone, even illegals get schooling. Maybe some states could fiddle with Medicaid eligibility.
The one check is Congress, the President’s ability to admit refugees is legislative. I believe currently it’s about 80,000 or 90,000. Think the feds determine from where. Congress could restrict the countries we admit them from, or reduce the number. But they’d have to be able to override a veto. And if the President brings in 200,000 instead of 80,000, all Congress can do is impeach him, which won’t happen. Hopefully we’ll avoid an attack in the near term, which means it won’t even be an election issue. The next President or two can deal with it.
I hope Colorado doesn’t go “Red”, it already has too many Reds in office. Time to turn it to a nice Conservative Blue.
Have you read this?
The problem is we’ve lost the Constitution and its foundation. We’re lawless and instead of a single king’s whim, there are thousands of kings dictating to us.
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