Politics

Frustrated by a lack of action from other Republicans, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch has personally raised more than $6.5 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee through an elite donor group dubbed “Orrin’s Army.” He also presided over the President’s Dinner, a feast that raised $13.5 million for Senate Republicans. The money will be used […]

Back when he was a Colorado congressman, we thought Republican Scott McInnis was pretty darned conservative. And he was. But it turns out he’s still more moderate than the folks that are taking over his party. He recently said that, had he stayed in the race for Colorado’s open U.S. Senate seat, he could have […]

For quite a while, I resisted the temptations of “early voting” or “voting by mail,” and remained steadfast in my preference for voting the old-fashioned way: at my precinct on Election Day. It made me feel something like the way I felt when I attended church as a kid, that I was joining others in […]

In the October 13th edition HCN reviewed western ballot measures. This year there apparently are only a few “environmental” measures on western ballots and at least one of these – the California initiative on “green measures” – is actually anti-environmental.  I don’t know about you but I find this troubling. In a national election year […]

As noted in Ray Ring’s recent HCN feature, the Mormon church is throwing its impressive institutional — and financial — weight behind the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in California. But like any religious group, the Latter-Day Saints are hardly monolithic. The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting (and further reporting) that a growing number of Mormons […]

The National Republican Senatorial Committee will not be buying ads to support Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer during the last week of his campaign in Colorado, presumably because they’ve given up hope for a win. This decision comes after the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee withdrew their funding from the Colorado race, presumably because they don’t […]

For a lifelong Coloradan, this has been a strange election year. We’re a “swing state” where the polls are close in the presidentail race, and that’s a novelty. In the past 60 years, the Democratic candidate has carried Colorado only three times: Harry Truman in 1948, Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and Bill Clinton in 1992. […]

The Bush administration just won’t quit trying to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Big rewrites require Congressional approval, so instead they’re quietly revising the regulations that implement the act.  In August, the administration proposed letting federal agencies decide for themselves if, say, a new dam or highway would harm any endangered or threatened species, rather […]

Did you know that politicians don’t pay for their gas? Well, now you do. You’ll know even more — no, you’ll be a veritable expert in energy policy — after you watch this music video, which Joe Romm of climateprogress.org describes as “the first (and hopefully last) song ever inspired by Newt Gingrich.” Wow. Just […]

The McCain campaign — by now looking for any dirt they can get their hands on — has just released a web ad  attacking Obama for his ties to Acorn, the progressive community organizing group. The ad tries to link Acorn to the mortgage crisis and accuses it of trying to steal the election by […]