Free Republic

The teasing is apparently over for former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. Even before his presidential bid crashed and burned in spectacular fashion, Democrats had been pleading with him to drop out and take a run at Cory Gardner’s Senate seat. Apparently, Hickenlooper is taking the Vox populi, vox Dei approach because he announced this morning that he will be doing precisely that. (Associated Press)

Senator Cory Gardner released a statement today announcing the Bureau of Land Management will be relocating to Grand Junction. “Today is a historic day for our nation’s public lands, western states, and the people of Colorado,” said Senator Gardner. “Relocating the Bureau of Land Management to the Western Slope of Colorado will bring the bureau’s decision makers closer to the people they serve and the public lands they manage. The problem with Washington is too many policy makers are far removed from the people they are there to serve. Ninety-nine percent of the land the BLM manages is West of...

The returns are in on Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana: (1) Large amounts of money are being made thanks to legalization, privately and by the state; (2) “horrible things are happening to kids.” The quotation is from psychiatrist Libby Stuyt. She treats teens in southwestern Colorado and has studied the health effects of high-potency marijuana. Stuyt says: “I see increased problems with psychosis, with addiction, with suicide, with depression and anxiety” stemming from legalization in the state. Stuyt’s report won’t surprise anyone who has read Alex Berensen’s book Tell Your Children, which I discussed here. Berensen noted that over the...

Frustrated Senate Republicans say the Trump administration has largely kept them in the dark about a possible military confrontation with Iran. What GOP lawmakers already know, however, has them on edge. Trump has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group, a Patriot missile defense battery and an Air Force bomber task force to the Middle East, while the State Department has ordered a partial evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. A few legislators have received briefings, but many can only guess at the extent of the threat and where a ramp up in combat forces may lead. “I don’t think...

There are 34 Senate seats up for election in 2020 — including a special election in Arizona — many of which are expected to be brutally competitive as Democrats vie for control of the Senate. Quick take: The U.S. Senate is currently made up of 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 independents who caucus with the Democrats. Dems must win 3 or 4 seats to take control of the Senate — 4 to recapture control — or 3, if they also win the vice presidency. Some of the fiercest races will come from Virginia, North Carolina and New Hampshire, according...

Denver attorney Daniel Domenico was confirmed Tuesday by the U.S. Senate as the newest U.S. District Court judge in Colorado.Domenico was confirmed by a 57-42 vote under new rules announced last week by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, aimed at limiting debate by minority Democrats on President Donald Trump's appointees to federal posts and speeding their confirmation.Domenico had been waiting for confirmation since Trump nominated him September 2017.Previously, former President Barack Obama nominated attorney Regina Rodriguez for the Denver bench opening, but her nomination never came up for a vote in the GOP-led Senate.Both of Colorado's senators voted to...

WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer, N.D., on Thursday became the fourth member of his party’s caucus to tell reporters he would vote against a nomination for former pizza executive Herman Cain to join the board of the Federal Reserve. “If I had to [vote] today, I would vote no” on Cain, Cramer told reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill. Cain has yet to be formally nominated by President Donald Trump, but last week Trump announced that Cain was his pick to fill one of two open seats on the central bank’s board. Trump intends to nominate conservative economist and author...

On paper, the Republican hold on the Senate in 2020 appears tenuous at best. With 34 seats being contested, Republicans must defend 22 while Democrats need to protect only 12. Currently, Republicans hold 53 seats while Democrats possess 45 with two independents caucusing with them. That means Democrats would have to win at least three seats to gain control. But two things are working against Democrats in their bid to control the Senate. First, only two Republican incumbents are considered to be in trouble: Colorado's Cory Gardner and Arizona's Martha McSally. Georgia's David Perdue's seat is shaky, as is the...

Colorado’s Cory Gardner has a difficult, but doable, roadmap for re-election Under normal circumstances, Sen. Cory Gardner would be a clear favorite for re-election. Personable and politically astute, the Colorado Republican ran a terrific campaign in 2014 to oust Democratic incumbent Mark Udall. But President Donald Trump has energized partisan Democrats and alienated suburban swing voters nationally, and that has made Gardner the most vulnerable GOP senator up for re-election in 2020. Still, it would be unwise for Democrats to count their Colorado chickens before they’ve hatched. Gardner has an uphill fight, but it’s not an impossible one.

More Senate skullduggery, Trump’s role in this, straight lines, and the Bundy case again Senate chicanery Last month I wrote of the skullduggery applied by both political parties in trying to pass a 680-page federal lands package in the waning moments of the last Congress. Up stepped our hero, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) who just wanted to add two words to the legislation. Alaska and Wyoming are by statute exempt from the Antiquities Act that has been so abused by recent Presidents. Senator Lee wanted to add “and Utah” to that statute. The leadership said no to his amendment,...

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) is throwing his support behind President Trump’s 2020 reelection bid, a move that could stir trouble for his own electoral prospects next year. Gardner, a onetime critic of Trump, told IJR that he was backing the president, because he believed Trump would do right by the people of Colorado. “Look, there are things here – look, I’ve made it very clear that where I agree with the president, we will agree or where I disagree, we will disagree,” Gardner said. “But I’m going to fight like hell for Colorado, and we’ve done some good things for...

GOP Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado is will support the Democrats’ proposal to temporarily fund the government until next month, even though it does not include additional border security funding as President Trump has demanded.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) will break with President Trump and vote to reopen the government without funding for a border wall, his spokesman told The Denver Post editorial board. Gardner is one of three Republicans expected to vote to advance the "clean" funding bill. Gardner’s spokesman told the Post that the senator planned to vote for a “clean funding bill … with no border-security funding attached.”

Total Air Force Expenses $184,587.81(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Air Force detailing $134,587.81 plus $50,000 for an advance of funds for an “escort officer” for a total of $184.587.81 for then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Congressional delegation (CODEL) to Italy and Ukraine in 2015. Judicial Watch filed a December 2015 FOIA lawsuit after the Air Force failed to respond to an August 2015 request ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Defense (No 1:15-cv-02236)) for: All records regarding mission taskings of flights escorting...

Colorado's Cory Gardner became the first Republican senator to break with President Donald Trump over border wall funding, saying Thursday Congress should end the 13-day-old partial government shutdown and work out differences over border security later.

The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on an amendment that would federally legalize marijuana by allowing states to regulate their own medical and recreational pot markets. But even one senator can block a vote on the amendment, which would address a longstanding conflict between federal and state law. Sen. Cory Gardner, D-Colo., is seeking to attach the measure to the First Step Act, a bundle of prison, prisoner re-entry, and sentencing reforms that senators voted 81-12 to advance Monday.

The Trump administration is considering plans to designate Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime in Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism over its support for Hezbollah and Marxist guerrillas, according to a report from the Spanish newspaper ABC on Tuesday. According to U.S. officials who spoke with the Spanish newspaper, administration officials are currently deliberating whether to add Venezuela to the list of state sponsors of terrorism over its support for groups including the Basque separatist movement ETA, Iran’s Lebanese terror proxy Hezbollah, and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Officials have so far refused to officially confirm whether they plan to...

Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado has vowed that special counsel Robert Mueller will "not be stopped" in his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between Moscow and President Donald Trump's campaign team.

In the wake of his vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Saturday, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., revealed to Fox News on Sunday that his wife had received a graphic text message with a video depicting a beheading, and that someone has publicly posted the names and addresses of his family members. Gardner announced his support for Kavanaugh in July, and reaffirmed it after reviewing the supplemental FBI report into uncorroborated sexual misconduct allegations against him.

This is the modern American left… On Sunday, Fox News reported that Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said his wife received a graphic text which included a video that depicted a beheading after his vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Additionally, the report said, someone publicly posted the names and addresses of his family members. Fox added: Gardner announced his support for Kavanaugh in July, and reaffirmed it after reviewing the supplemental FBI report into uncorroborated sexual misconduct allegations against him. Late last month, Gardner received a letter from an anonymous individual apparently in Denver, alleging that Kavanaugh had...