All eyes on Congress

Will Perlmutter & Lamborn measure up? (Andrews in Denver Post, Dec. 3) Meet Diana DeGette, Mark Udall, John Salazar, and Ed Perlmutter, majority Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation. Meet Tom Tancredo, Marilyn Musgrave, and Doug Lamborn, minority Republicans in the delegation.

Last month these seven Coloradans were elected to represent the other five million of us in Washington. Next month they will swear an oath to the Constitution and join the most important legislative body on earth, trustees for the nation’s liberty, security, and prosperity – and for all mankind’s hope of freedom. We need the best each can give.

It’s odd, when you think about it: sending a handful of our fellow citizens off to the Atlantic seaboard to make laws for you and me here in the Rockies, to impose taxes on us and determine what the state gets back (only 79 cents on the dollar at present, chew on that). Yet as I argued here on Nov. 5, representative government in this continental republic has worked about as well as the Founders hoped.

It must work even better in coming years, however, if America is to avoid the historical pattern of great nations declining from softness at home and weakness abroad after a couple of centuries on the rise. Such is the challenge confronting Congress when Speaker Pelosi bangs the gavel in January.

Assembling at Washington in 2007, our House members won’t face the hazards of their predecessors at Philadelphia in 1777 – who risked a British noose – but the stakes are huge nonetheless. With party control shifting, the President beleaguered, the war going badly and our enemies emboldened, the world will be watching.

So should we. In the spirit of the season, I’m making a list and checking it twice, with a particular eye on the two freshmen, Ed Perlmutter of Wheat Ridge and Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs. I have respect for both from serving with them in the state Senate, and high expectations as they head east. Here’s my open letter to each:

************ Dear Ed: In Congress, please stay as you were in our judiciary committee days, a thoughtful man of conscience as well as a solid Democrat. Don’t go too party-line or too liberal back there. A draft, higher energy prices, and bugging out of Iraq aren’t votes Colorado wants you to cast. (Tell me you weren’t for Murtha as majority leader.)

You won’t likely desert your caucus as Nighthorse Campbell did, but do buck them sometimes, Ken Salazar-style. As for the budget, our state was getting $1 of spending for every $1 of federal taxes before my party took the House in 1994. Work on that, will you? – Your fellow May 1 birthday guy, John.

************ Dear Doug: Bravo for a gritty win despite treachery from Congressman Hefley and some other Republicans. Forward now with magnanimity; legislating well is the best revenge. Remember your bill that named the Ronald Reagan Highway, and fight as the Gipper did for the undiluted conservative agenda, economic and social issues alike.

Major in national security and the Islamist threat, befitting our military-heavy state and the nation’s peril in World War III. Champion missile defense; someone must. Keep pressure on the Dems, ally with the Republican Study Committee and Mike Pence (tell me you voted for him over Boehner), and stand with Tancredo and Musgrave. Colorado needs all three of you full strength. – Your brother in the battle of ideas, John.

************ Mail matters, a member quickly learns in the state legislature (where all of our congressional delegation once served) and on Capitol Hill. Your communication to their offices can help swing crucial votes. Write Santa for Christmas if you like – but for a happier new year, drop a line also to Diana, Mark, John, Ed, Tom, Marilyn, and Doug.

Liberal zillionaires buying Colorado politics

NATIONAL REVIEW, December 4, 2006The Color Purple How liberal millionaires are buying Colorado’s politics By John J. Miller

When Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave votes on abortion, she votes pro-life — always. The National Right to Life Committee has given the Colorado Republican a top rating during her two terms in the House, and in truth her pro-life record stretches back even farther, to her days in the state legislature. “I’m 100 percent pro-life,” she says.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when a group calling itself Coloradans for Life launched an expensive ad war against Musgrave this fall. One radio spot even claimed that she had “turned her back on the unborn.” The charge was provocative; it was also utter nonsense. “This is a cynical political ploy to trick pro-life citizens into casting a vote against their conscience,” warned Colorado Right to Life president Brian Rohrbough in a statement.

Despite its name and rhetoric, Coloradans for Life sought to exploit the pro-life movement rather than advance it. Although several Republicans faced challenges this year from at least nominally pro-life Democrats, Musgrave did not: Her opponent, Angie Paccione, supports abortion rights. Yet Coloradans for Life targeted Musgrave and spent enormous sums against her. In late October, the Fort Collins Coloradoan estimated that the organization would devote at least $2.3 million to defeating Musgrave — more than Paccione’s entire campaign budget. “It’s just amazing to me,” says Musgrave. “Why can’t these people stand up and fight fair?”

On Election Day, Musgrave overcame the wave that drowned so many of her colleagues and cost the GOP its majority: She nipped Paccione by 3.5 points. Many of her fellow Colorado Republicans weren’t so lucky. For the second election in a row, Democrats made major gains in the state: They won the governorship, prevailed in a GOP-held congressional district, and picked up seats in the state legislature.

National trends certainly had something to do with it. At the heart of this accomplishment, however, lies a well-funded plot to transform Colorado from Republican red to Democratic blue. The creative use of extra-party organizations such as Coloradans for Life to shade the state purple is a strategy that the Left may decide to imitate elsewhere.

Just four years ago, Republicans were riding high in the Rockies: Gov. Bill Owens was reelected by a huge margin, both senators were Republican, and so were five of the seven members of Colorado’s House delegation. The GOP also controlled the state legislature.

Today, the situation is rather different. Not only is Colorado’s governor-elect Bill Ritter a Democrat, but so are one of its senators (Ken Salazar) and four of its seven incoming House members. Democrats also hold majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. “They’re on a roll,” says John Andrews, the former Republican head of the state senate.

There are plenty of explanations for this sea change. Demography is one of them: A growing Hispanic population leans Democratic, and a small wave of Californians has moved into Colorado and imported the west coast’s liberal politics.

Some will describe Colorado’s political reversal as the result of Western libertarians’ rejecting social conservatism. Yet that interpretation has its limits. This November, voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and rejected a referendum that would have created domestic partnerships for gays.

Many conservatives blame the GOP’s woes on its complacency. “Republicans are getting the comeuppance they deserve,” says Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute, a think tank based in Golden, Colo. When Republicans controlled the state government, they made progress in several areas — tax cuts, charter schools, public-school accountability — but they also presided over the weakening of an amendment to the state constitution that had checked the growth of government.

A large number of Republicans believe that their hard times ultimately come down to a single factor: money. “We haven’t seen anything like this before,” says Katy Atkinson, a longtime GOP consultant. “The money factor is absolutely enormous.” The problem began in 2002, when the voters approved a new campaign-finance law that gave unions a big edge in raising and distributing funds. It continued two years later, as wealthy liberals poured resources into “527” groups, unregulated campaign organizations named after a section of the tax code.

Only Florida and Ohio saw more 527 spending in 2004 than Colorado did, according to one estimate. The Rocky Mountain News calculated that Democrats raised $4 million for friendly 527s, compared with $2.9 million raised by Republicans, but GOP operatives believe the difference was much larger. “We think that they outspent us by three to one or four to one,” says Alan Philp of the Trailhead Group, a Republican 527 that was created to fight back. “It’s hard to know for sure because the law doesn’t require much transparency.” The only certainty is that Colorado’s political mechanics are totally different from just a few years ago.

Three millionaire liberals are working the state’s electoral levers. “They’re trying to buy the political structure of the state,” says Governor Owens. “Everywhere we look, we see their money and their resources.” The ringleader is Tim Gill, the founder of Quark, a software firm; over the last decade, he has donated tens of millions to gay and lesbian causes.

His political activism dates back to 1992, when Colorado voters amended the state constitution to restrict certain gay-rights laws. “Nothing can compare to the psychological trauma of realizing that more than half the people in your state believe that you don’t deserve equal rights,” he once told the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Gill’s allies are heiress Pat Stryker and dotcom entrepreneur Jared Polis. “If you were to put a gun to the head of most Democrats, they couldn’t tell you who their state chairman is,” says one Colorado insider. “But they all know about these millionaires — each is like a mini–George Soros for Colorado.”

Two years ago, Ray Martinez learned firsthand what their money can do. He was a former police sergeant and a popular three-term mayor of Fort Collins. When a state senator retired in his district, he threw his hat in the ring. “We thought he would win easily,” says Owens. The district is home to about one-third more registered Republicans than Democrats. But then Colorado’s liberal millionaires swooped in, bankrolling slash-and-burn ads about Martinez. Many of them aired in Denver’s pricey TV market — an extravagance previously unheard of in state-senate races. “You know how you hear about elections that are bought? That’s what happened to me — my opponent’s election was bought,” says Martinez. “My campaign cost about $350,000, and the other side spent as much as $1.7 million against me.”

One commercial accused Martinez of bilking taxpayers through his mayoral expense account. Another savaged his views on abortion, with images suggesting that he likes to peek into bedroom windows. “That was such character assassination,” he says. “I’m pro-life. I was raised in an orphanage, adopted, and only recently did I discover that my birth mother was a rape victim and that I’ve got brothers and sisters. And they’re trying to portray me as a perverted Peeping Tom.” At one point during the race, Martinez enjoyed a double-digit lead in the polls. This soon vanished, and he lost. “Their lies worked,” he says.

This year, state representative Matt Knoedler, a Republican, came in for similar treatment when he challenged Democratic state senator Betty Boyd. Their race was billed as one of the most important in Colorado: “Control of the chamber probably hinges on the matchup,” wrote the Denver Post.

A 527 called Clear Peak Colorado — funded by six-figure donations from Gill and Stryker — came out swinging, in ads that accused Knoedler of weakness on immigration. “This is a complete lie,” complained Knoedler on his website. His supposed sin was to oppose a watered-down version of a bill to prevent illegal aliens from receiving certain public services. In fact, he backed a tougher version; he had also served on the staff of Congressman Tom Tancredo, a prominent supporter of immigration restriction. But the ad worked, and Knoedler lost the election by nearly 13 points.

The mini-Soroses of Colorado aren’t merely dabbling in elections — they’re building a permanent infrastructure. “We are finally realizing that how we win is by creating an environment of fear and respect,” boasted Gill adviser Ted Trimpa — described by one politico as “the Karl Rove of Colorado” — to the Bay Area Reporter, a gay newspaper in San Francisco, earlier this year.

They’ve established several websites, including ColoradoPols.com, that have started to shape political coverage in the state. “I can’t tell you how often reporters would call 36 hours after something appeared there,” says Owens. They’ve also founded Colorado Media Matters, an offshoot of David Brock’s national group of left-wing watchdogs. It currently employs about a dozen people. “That’s more media critics than there are in the rest of the Colorado media combined,” says David Kopel of the Independence Institute. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal group that tries to publicize GOP scandals both real and fake, has a Colorado field office as well. Gill would even like to influence the GOP: He hired former Owens staffer and conservative-movement veteran Sean Duffy to work on the domestic-partnership referendum, and convinced Patrick Guerriero to resign as head of the Log Cabin Republicans in order to run the Gill Action Fund.

Given their incredible success over the last two election cycles, Colorado’s liberals are no doubt already looking forward to 2008. GOP senator Wayne Allard may retire. Even if he doesn’t, the battle for his seat will be one of the hardest-fought Senate contests in the country. Denver is a leading candidate to host the Democratic convention that year, and there will be a major push to deliver Colorado’s electoral votes to the party’s nominee.

Potentially more important is Gill’s determination to export the Colorado model. “If I can make a difference in Colorado, you can make a difference in your home state,” he said earlier this year in Miami, at a meeting of financial heavyweights in the gay-rights movement, according to the Rocky Mountain News. To liberals, that may sound like a hope. Conservatives should hear it as a threat.

More on the ten essentials

By Dave Crater (crater@wilberforcecenter.org) Editor's Note: Andrews' "Ten Conservative Essentials for the Republican Comeback" are here given a different twist as to priority, interpretation, and in one case (No. 6, Disunity), inversion. Coming from such a credible quarter as the Wilberforce Center for Colorado Conservatism, the disputation is welcome to me. Bring on more! - JA

1. Piety. Must be first on any conservative list. Liberalism is the state as God. Libertarianism is the individual as God. Conservatism is God as God. The United States would not have been founded except for Christian faith, and it will not be preserved except by Christian faith. The continuing decay of true faith among Republican Party elites, who tend to be more concerned with what is thought of them in Denver, Washington, and New York than what is thought of them in Wray, Fruita, Ft. Morgan, and the Colorado River valley, is a major reason for their inability to inspire the grassroots.

2. Principle. Human nature is a constant. Moral truth is a constant. Prudence is the apprehension and experience of the unchanging truth of human nature and the cosmos. It does not adjust to the times. It interprets and judges the times.

3. Courage. Indeed, send us! If we believe zeal guarantees minority status, we will not be ferocious on behalf of the good. We will not ever truly know the good, which by its nature inspires zeal. And backbone. Otherwise known as courage. Courage is steadfastness in the face of moral confusion and personal hostility. Political courage is steadfastness in the face of the moral confusion and personal hostility generated by liberalism and by empty Republican pragmatism. Political courage means calling compromise and bad faith what it is.

4. Humility. Desire not to sit and eat and talk with the great. Desire to sit and eat and talk with the humble. Relinquish dreams of personal greatness. Recover dreams of spiritual, social, economic, and political greatness. Be not so proud that you fear empty souls who happen to be powerful. Be humble enough that you fear God and love your neighbor. And be humble enough to be unwilling to cover Republican misdeeds simply because they are done by Republicans, with whom rest your hopes for future political advancement.

5. Gratitude. I have nothing I was not given. Selfishness is wanting more beyond the abundance I already have. Contentment is knowing life itself is a gift, and that I have been blessed even if none but my family and friends ever know my name.

6. Disunity. Unless we are willing to distance ourselves from falsehood, calculation, self-promotion, and self-service, and those in our political culture who engage in them, and instead be true to those who favor truth, self-sacrifice, courage, and the service of future generations, neither conservatism nor the Republican Party can revive. One need not be popular to govern, and one certainly need not be popular to govern rightly. If Winston Churchill can lose an election, we will not save our electoral jobs through, as he called it, “easy and fickle froth and chatter” generated by our attempt to be popular. “Unity” in modern political parlance is a synonym for popularity and the avoidance of controversy. No more evil has been done in our generation than that perpetrated in the name of unity.

7. Vigilance. Enemies and evil are real indeed, including those in our own ranks.

8. Integrity. Integrity is more than just telling the truth. Integrity is believing in something substantial, and saying and doing what is consistent with what I believe, both in public and in private. A liberal can have this kind of integrity, and often does. Michael Moore has more of this kind of integrity than many Republican leaders, who strangely and strikingly lack the ability to see even a week into the political future.

9. Unity. Once we have recovered the willingness to be disunified, and a sense of our responsibility to confront enemies in our midst and regain our integrity, we can again hope for real unity. Unity is not buying dinner for a Democrat, or securing a “seat at the table” with a vacuous Republican official, or signing a shallow consensus document. Unity is the natural bond between and among those who know what is true and are willing to sacrifice to bear witness to that truth.

10. Optimism. If steps 1 through 9 are followed, there is reason for real optimism. Optimism for optimism’s sake is worse than meaningless; it is dangerous. Optimism grounded in a recovery of spiritual, social, economic, and political truth, and unity therein, is optimism worth campaigning on.

Ten conservative essentials for the Republican comeback

By John Andrews (andrewsjk@aol.com) The election was ugly, but our party has been through worse and come back stronger. We can do so again.

Losses in statewide races and the legislature, at the county level, and with the Democrats taking Congress, all stung. Never mind, we can take it. We’re Republicans. We don’t melt in the rain. America needs what our party has to give, and we’re not about to let her down.

The November 7 outcome raises several questions: What did the voters say? What did Republicans do wrong? What did Democrats do right? What’s the silver lining? And what must we do to win next time?

My answers: Voters said they wanted better stewardship of government’s awesome powers. Republicans forgot our identity and failed in our stewardship. Democrats were ready when opportunity knocked. But we needed this setback to break some bad habits. With a better vision, we’ll rebound.

George Washington, our exemplar of peace through strength, limited government, and civic virtue, was clearly a Republican in spirit. He led the founders with a vision that was anything but poll-driven, proclaiming:

“If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of God.”

The spirit we need as the party of America’s founders – or the conservative party, which is synonymous – is summed up in ten essentials: principle, piety, prudence, unity, vigilance, optimism, humility, gratitude, ferocity, and backbone.

Of course our issues and message, strategy and tactics, political mechanics and money are all important. Strong candidates, comity between right and center, balance between economic and social values – these are important too.

But all of this will follow if our party stays true to the essentials. Taking the time-tested attitudes of the founders for our standard as Republicans, we can regain public trust and earn victory in 2008.

1. Principle. Because human nature is a constant, limited government is too.

2. Piety. Unless our rights and liberties come from God, they are illusory.

3. Prudence. Free societies bend to circumstance and avoid utopianism.

4. Unity. If you don’t win you don’t govern. Zealotry guarantees minority status.

5. Vigilance. Enemies and evil are real. Protection is government’s first duty.

6. Optimism. The party of hope and possibility usually prevails.

7. Humility. Know our limits as imperfect people in an imperfect world.

8. Gratitude. We’re the heirs of a precious tradition, standing on the shoulders of giants.

9. Ferocity. America is absolutely worth fighting for and dying for. Send us!

10. Backbone. We’re Republicans. We don’t melt in the rain or fold under pressure.

One party, ours, is more protective of America in a dangerous world, more confident in Americans to choose freely, and more proud of America without apologies.

We are the natural governing majority for this era of 9/11, just as George Washington and his fellow patriots were for the era of 1776. Our comeback starts today.

Blue Tuesday was our own fault

By Krista Kafer (krista555@msn.com) It is easy to point out where individuals went wrong – the mortal wound dealt by Marc Holtzman’s divisive, ego-driven bid for governor, for example. Or perhaps what we had going against us. Both Colorado papers were conspicuously biased. One editor-in-chief told a Beauprez insider that it was his paper’s mission to get Ritter elected. Nice commitment to objectivity.

We could point to spurious attack ads – a friend of mine was labeled by his opponent as the pro-cancer candidate. Of course the war and the Administration’s handling of it certainly had an impact.

We could hand the blame around, but in the end Republicans must recognize their own responsibility for the loss of the 2006 election. We had help from the press, the 527’s, even death squads a world away, but most of the blame rests with us.

Republicans are responsible for our abandonment of principle, festering corruption, and divisiveness among the ranks. The Democrats moved right and the Republicans moved left. Republicans abandoned their commitment to fiscal integrity and small government. They got themselves involved in nation building (Iraq) and new entitlements (Medicare prescription), things to which they were formerly opposed.

When Republicans deserted their values they left them for Democrats to pick up. Colorado treasurer-elect Cary Kennedy, for example, made fiscal transparency a theme for her campaign even though she is no champion of thrift. She was after all the author of Amendment 23 which has had the most disastrous impact on the Colorado budget process. Nevertheless, she capitalized on the wastefulness of Republican politicians.

Democrats could point to massive spending increases and pork barrel pandering (of which they were equally guilty to be sure) and promised to balance the budget themselves. In the end, you can’t have your Bridge to Nowhere and keep your committee chairmanship.

Corruption further weakened the Republican Party in the public’s eyes. Thank you, Bob Ney, Tom Delay, Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham, Ted Haggard, and others for screwing up. Your transgressions brought down good people.

Corruption hurt and division sealed our fate. While the Democrat Party stood by conservative Democrats, Republicans fought among themselves. The National Republican Committee and various state parties chose sides in primaries. That’s a good move if you want to embitter people.

Here’s another: In Colorado Springs a conservative 527 leveled a spurious attack against Jeff Crank. His loss prompted a sour grapes refusal on the part of outgoing Congressman Joel Hefley to endorse Crank’s opponent, Doug Lamborn. This is not a monarchy; you don’t get to pick your successor. (That goes for you too, Senator Norma Anderson.)

And then there’s the lasting testiness about Referendum C. Let’s let that go - everybody. Oh yes, and Senator Steve Johnson please refrain from likening fellow Republican Tom Tancredo’s book to Hitler’s Mein Kampf when talking to the press.. That was inexcusable. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.

I feel better. Now for the solution: While in the wilderness of minority status, Republicans must remember who they are – the champions of constitutional and free-market principles. Elections are about contrast – being a nice guy is not enough. Republicans need to articulate why conservative principles work and how they will have the courage to fight for them should they return to the majority.

Freedom is harder to sell than free stuff. The sanctity of life is harder to sell than the fallacious promise of immortality. Opportunity is a harder sell than security. Republicans, however, can meet the challenge. Over the next two years, Democrats will push for new entitlements, wage and price controls, stem cell research or other false policy prescriptions. Republicans must neither back down nor do a poor job articulating their oppositions.

We can rebuild the party around solid conservative principles. We can choose among ourselves leaders who can best articulate our vision. We can purge corruption and hypocrisy from our party. We can for heaven’s sake stop undermining fellow conservatives. We can return stronger.

Don’t forget: The election of Carter brought us Reagan four years later.