Ritter Watch

• Ritter's Money Grab Gets Shut Down

  A Judge in Denver has ruled unconstitutional Gov. Ritter's "freezing" of property tax valuations as a violation of the Constitutional Amendment known as TABOR.
  
  For the reasons set forth above, the Court concludes that SB-199 isunconstitutional, as measured by the standards of TABOR. Accordingly, the CourtGRANTS Plaintiffs’ request' [...]
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  Posted: May 31, 2008, 1:25am EDT
  

• Bill Ritter: Tough on SPAM

  From today's Rocky Mountain News:Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday signed into law the Spam Reduction Act, which provides state enforcement authority similar to federal authority against unwanted e-mails.To Ritter's credit, Spam Reduction is an act of bipartisan goodwill, a positive headline needed to take attention away from a [...]
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  Posted: April 24, 2008, 8:28am EDT
  

• Formal Complaint Filed in Bill Ritter's $300,000 Campaign Finance Violation

  The Denver Post reports today the latest in Gov. Bill Ritter's campaign spending problems:The complaint, from Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, prompts the process for reviewing campaign-finance violations. Without the complaint, it is unclear whether the Secretary of State's Office could have begun a formal inquiry.
  
  "There are" [...]
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  Posted: April 22, 2008, 8:51am EDT
  

• Denver Post Echo: Bill Ritter Campaign Violation Shows Poor Management

  Last week I wrote here:If this is the kind of oversight Bill Ritter gives to his own campaign funds, what does that say about his ability to manage how billions of taxpayer dollars are spent?Following up on the same story about a six-figure campaign finance violation, today [...]
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  Posted: April 21, 2008, 5:21pm EDT
  

• Pro-Business Ritter: Oh, Did I Mention This?

  That I'm actually going to be charging Colorado businesses MORE in tax this year.
  
  What, you didn't see the story? Perhaps that's because it was buried on page 2 of the business section.
  
  That's why we're here.
  
  It was pitched as part of a pro-business legislative' [...]
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  Posted: April 17, 2008, 10:20pm EDT
  

• What Was All That Money Doing in Ritter's Inaugural in the First Place?

  The problems with Gov. Bill Ritter's $200,000-plus in misspent inaugural committee funds raises more questions beyond his apparent gross lack of oversight.
  
  In total, about $300,000 in inauguration funds were spent on campaign expenses. Campaign manager Greg Kolomitz returned the $83,250 that was paid to himself' [...]
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  Posted: April 16, 2008, 9:01pm EDT
  

• Huge Campaign Finance Violation Raises Questions about Ritter's Public Oversight

  Whoops! Gov. Bill Ritter's campaign warchest is facing a serious violation to the tune of nearly a quarter million dollars:Gov. Bill Ritter paid more than $200,000 in campaign expenses out of his inaugural account in violation of campaign-finance laws, his office announced today as March disclosures come due.
  [...]
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  Posted: April 15, 2008, 5:11pm EDT
  

• After Political Prosecution, Cory Voorhis Still Able to Say "God Bless America"

  In his latest Human Events column, Colorado's own Ross Kaminsky highlights the amazing character of Cory Voorhis, the politically-targeted federal immigration agent who last week was exonerated in a case that stems back to the 2006 election:Cory Voorhis looked me in the eye and said “God Bless America”. It' [...]
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  Posted: April 14, 2008, 7:43am EDT
  

• Big Labor Ritter Low on Credibility

  As a leading political consultant notes in the Denver Post today, Gov. Bill Ritter planted the pro-union seeds, and now he is reaping the right-to-work whirlwind:Political observers don't have high hopes that the situation will improve.
  
  "If (Ritter's) goal is trying to get business to back off right-to-work," [...]
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  Posted: April 10, 2008, 8:21am EDT
  

• Big Labor Has Ritter Running Scared

  Writing over at Politics West, my Independence Institute colleague Jessica Corry (no, we didn't collaborate) calls out Gov. Bill Ritter's plea for business and labor to get along as one-sided and politically motivated:A battle over labor issues could cost Ritter and the Democratic Party serious political capital. [...]
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  Posted: April 03, 2008, 3:39pm EDT
  

• Ritter Throws Weight Behind Big Labor, Says: "Holster Your Weapons"

  Yesterday we learned that Big Labor has pulled out some more big guns to blast a hole in Colorado's economy, in the form of five new anti-business ballot initiatives. Supporters of right-to-work - who are well on their way to getting their measure on the ballot - and' [...]
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  Posted: April 02, 2008, 10:40am EDT
  

• Democrats Use Your Money to Defend Ritter Taking Your Money without Asking

  Democrats in the state legislature are pushing a line item in the state budget that would give $150,000 in taxpayer funds to pay Gov. Bill Ritter's legal costs. For what, you ask? To defend a policy Ritter promoted and signed that levies a property tax increase on thousands of' [...]
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  Posted: April 01, 2008, 1:08pm EDT
  

• Getting Their Stories Straight

  We've often noted the tendency of Democrat politicians to lie to the public. In two successive paragraphs, the Rocky Mountain News exposes a Bill Ritter, Big Blue Lie Machine lie about whether or not a tax increase will hit the ballot.
  
  Gov. Bill Ritter said he will wait' [...]
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  Posted: March 27, 2008, 8:22am EDT
  

• Spring Break - Few Promises

  The Grandchildren (for whose future I really write this blog if they knew it) will be visiting over the next several days.
  
  They are all very bright and very demanding. Blogging will take second or third place which means that we make few promises that you will see a [...]
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  Posted: March 26, 2008, 9:22pm EDT
  

• The Jobs Governor

  The Rocky Mountain News is reporting on the debate being held in the legislature over jobs. It is a debate worth having.
  
  In bad economic times, Governor Bill Ritter is trying to force 1300 more full time jobs onto the state payroll. Worse, he is being deceptive about [...]
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  Posted: March 26, 2008, 6:49am EDT
  

• Time for Bill Ritter to Lead

  The Denver Post has reported on the hole in the ground at Aururia campus and now it is editorializing on it.
  Revised state budget estimates predict less revenue than previously thought — $700 million over the next five years — so cuts are to be expected. But what [...]
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  Posted: March 25, 2008, 10:47am EDT
  

• Union Bosses Act Like State Property Owners Under Ritter's Order

  Face the State has the skinny on "Colorado WINS" union bosses acting like they own state government property:An executive order, signed by Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, last November, empowered unions to serve as “exclusive representatives” of state employees for the purposes of forming “employee partnerships.” Days after the [...]
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  Posted: March 24, 2008, 4:34pm EDT
  

• Environmental Lies Multiply Themselves - Crying Wolf

  Today, the Rocky Mountain News is reporting on Bill Ritter's written objections to the BLM trying to follow the law and lease 360,000 acres of oil shale land by 2007 (this being 2008).
  Comments from [ Bill }Ritter and various state agencies covered 60 pages and echoed some of' [...]
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  Posted: March 24, 2008, 12:13pm EDT
  

• Fire is still the problem

  In February, Bill Ritter appointed another study group, Colorado Forest Health Advisory Council.
  
  We're not sure if this is good or bad. Bill Ritter has a habit of leaning over backwards to appoint an over abundance of environmentalists to these kinds of groups.
  
  The Denver Post has a' [...]
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  Posted: March 23, 2008, 5:35pm EDT
  

• It Begins Again, This Time Oil Shale

  Bill Ritter doesn't want BLM to approve oil shale leases. The Grand Junction Sentinel reports:
  Gov. Bill Ritter encouraged the Bureau of Land Management on Thursday to hold off on allowing commercial oil shale development in northwest Colorado, citing the “serious risk” of “tremendous adverse impacts” on the state’s' [...]
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  Posted: March 22, 2008, 10:25am EDT
  

• Never Mentions Water

  Bill Ritter went to Lamar this week. He was there for the Liquid Maize ethanol plant ground breaking and the PCDI annual meeting.
  
  He had only good things to say about ethanol production but never once mentioned water:
  

  When asked what he sees as the future of [...]

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  Posted: March 21, 2008, 9:20pm EDT
  

• Is Google Alerts Useful?

  Over the past two weeks we have noticed a pattern in Google Alerts. That service seems to cull out the negative items about Bill Ritter. One would think that this site didn't exist. According to Google Alerts, Bill Ritter is a glowing politician who can do no wrong and gets' [...]
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  Posted: March 19, 2008, 7:40am EDT
  

• Hurting the Planet

  Recently, Bill Ritter went to Lamar to participate in the ground breaking ceremony for the sixth biofuels production plant in Colorado.
  
  If you are an advocate of green energy, you must be applauding that action. Perhaps you shouldn’t be.
  
  Newsweek, one of the most liberal main stream [...]
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  Posted: March 18, 2008, 8:24am EDT
  

• Denver Post Definition of a Tax

  One of the really useful things about blogs is that they create a more concise record of interesting speech and writings on the subjects their authors write about than might otherwise exist. If one knows how to use them, they become a poor man's Lexus-Nexus.
  
  If the truth were' [...]
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  Posted: March 17, 2008, 9:08am EDT
  

• There Ought to be a Law

  Well, it turns out that there is a law, the Colorado Constitution. The problem is that Bill Ritter is reluctant to follow it. He thinks that he and his allies in the legislature are above the law.
  
  We've written about his problem before. Recall that Bill Ritter appointed' [...]
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  Posted: March 14, 2008, 10:28am EDT
  

• Mr. Governor, Which Side? Lower Health Care Costs or Enriching Trial Lawyers?

  Based on this story today from the Denver Post, Gov. Bill Ritter seems to be taking both sides on a legislative proposal that would line trial lawyers' pockets with cash while raising health care costs for the rest of us:

  Amid all the talk at the state Capitol of health [...]

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  Posted: March 12, 2008, 8:52pm EDT
  

• What Ritter Heard At The Governor's Conference

  It is instructive to read what Bill Ritter was told at the national governor's conference about nuclear power as a source of green energy. Here is what he heard from three time Pulitzer prize winner Tom Friedman:
  
  

  I would say a couple of things, Governor. One is, I [...]

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  Posted: March 12, 2008, 2:29pm EDT
  

• A Local REA Election

  If Bill Ritter wants to do something useful for the state of Colorado, he might start by telling the truth about the cost renewable energy.
  
  On March 15, 2008, the Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association will be having board elections. Three "green" candidates, Roger Alexander, Tim Hurst, and Steve [...]
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  Posted: March 10, 2008, 3:23pm EDT
  

• Toxic Green

  The Washington Post today examines the pollution costs of solar cell production. The Chinese are literally dumping poison into fields outside their polysilicon factories, sometimes at the rate of ten truckloads a day.
  
  

  With the prices of oil and coal soaring, policymakers around the world are looking at [...]

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  Posted: March 09, 2008, 12:10pm EDT
  

• Creeping Closer Each Day - A Grim Future

  The Fort Collins Coloradoan is all aglow about "renewable." About Bill Ritter, they say:
  
  

  Gov. Bill Ritter is banking his first term as governor, and some say a successful re-election, on what he has dubbed the state�s �New Energy Economy� which promotes Colorado as a renewable energy hub.
  [...]

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  Posted: March 07, 2008, 6:15am EST
  

• My Personal View on Taxes

  The Denver Post is wringing its hands over the fact that the Bill Ritter $500 million "fee" increase is dead until after the election. Not me.
  
  Government needs a reasonable level of taxes to operate. Anyone who lives in a modern society knows that a reasonable sized government [...]
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  Posted: March 06, 2008, 3:19pm EST
  

• Governor: Increased Car Fees Idea "Dormant"

  The Democrats don't want to have the reputation in an election year of increasing fees on everything imaginable as a way of circumventing TABOR after all. They wanted Republicans to take some of the heat. When Rep. Joe Rice, (D-Littleton) couldn't find a Republican co-sponsor, he drooped the idea of [...]
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  Posted: March 05, 2008, 6:24am EST
  

• Ritter's Education "Reform" A Bit Too "Un"Formed

  Gov. Bill Ritter's proposal to overhaul the public school system is meeting with cautious support among education groups.
  
  But education leaders said the hard part will be filling in details of the sketchy plan, which Ritter and Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, have termed "revolutionary."
  
  "Sketchy" plan? Doesn't [...]
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  Posted: March 04, 2008, 12:53am EST
  

• Governing by Committee

  Upon seeing this cartoon the other day, I had a good chuckle. Thanks to the artist Benjamin Hummel for the permission to repost it here:
  
  
  
  If there's anything for which our current governor has a proclivity, it's hiding behind the decisions of [...]
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  Posted: March 03, 2008, 2:08pm EST
  

• Ratepayer's Chump Award

  Recall that in January Bill Ritter went to Fort Carson to present his Governor's Renewable Energy Award to the post for its 2 megawatt solar array? Recall also that Bill Ritter recently appointed Matt Baker, a vocal opponent of coal powered electrical generation to the Public Utilities Commission.
  
  There [...]
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  Posted: March 03, 2008, 10:37am EST
  

• Ritter Has No Respect For The Constitution

  Once again, Bill Ritter demonstrated his contempt for the Colorado Constitution. He spoke to the Colorado News Editors and Publishers at their annual convention on Thursday:
  
  

  He said state lawmakers could increase severance taxes or reduce the tax credits. If lawmakers don't act, others are willing to put a [...]

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  Posted: March 01, 2008, 6:26am EST
  

• Just a Delay, Not an Outcome Change

  The six Bill Ritter appointees to the oil and gas commission will not be voted on immediately, according to the Grand Junction Sentinel:
  
  

  Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, in an attempt to appease several Republican lawmakers, said the Senate will not take up its final confirmation vote for Grand [...]

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  Posted: February 29, 2008, 11:16am EST
  

• Bill Ritter Made To Look A Fool

  Two weeks ago, Jim Martin, Bill Ritter's executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment exposed himself in the Denver Post as a part of the Big Blue Lie Machine:
  
  

  Jim Martin, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and one [...]

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  Posted: February 29, 2008, 6:46am EST
  

• Ritter's Approaching "Health Care Quandary" May Lead to Butt Covering

  Yesterday our fellow blogger highlighted Gov. Ritter's "health care quandary," as SB 164, a piece of legislation proposing to raise the amount of legal damages on doctors, moves forward. It is clear that signing this bill into law will certainly "drive the costs of health insurance higher and higher." [...]
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  Posted: February 28, 2008, 1:48pm EST
  

• Destroying Colorado's Economy and Values One Commissioner Appointment At A Time

  Bill Ritter got himself elected by promising to be pro business. He is not.
  
  When it comes to destroying the Colorado economy and Colorado values, Bill Ritter won't be doing his own dirty work. He does it by appointing anti-economy commissioners to the public commissions so that they can [...]
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  Posted: February 27, 2008, 8:56am EST
  

• Bill Ritter's Health Care Quandary

  We will be more than a little curious to see if Bill Ritter signs the latest gift to the trial lawyers, SB 164.
  
  If Bill Ritter signs this bill, he will be talking out of both sides of his mouth on health care. He decries the fact that there [...]
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  Posted: February 27, 2008, 8:00am EST
  

• Global Warming - British Style

  We thought we would give Bill Ritter a short and well deserved break to explore global warming in Britian.
  
  Yes, the global warming fanatics are hard at work in the British Isles. And, just like here in the good old US of A, the fear mongering is being [...]
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  Posted: February 26, 2008, 2:16pm EST
  

• Who Will Be Bill Ritter's Willie Horton

  It appears that Bill Ritter has appointed a new parole board whose mandate is to open the prison doors. They claim that there is no mandate, but Bill Ritter has a history of acting in secret against the public interest.
  
  We think that it is not too [...]
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  Posted: February 25, 2008, 4:22pm EST
  

• Bill Ritter's Silence

  Nice people that the environmentalists are, they have put together four initiatives that hog to themselves the potential billions of dollars of severance taxes that will flow from increased oil and gas prices and Colorado production.
  
  One of their proposals calls for a 10% increase in those taxes in [...]
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  Posted: February 24, 2008, 7:07pm EST
  

• Bill Ritter: Progressive or Brutally Regressive?

  Bill Ritter would like his allies to believe that he is a progressive politician. That isn't the tag he would like to be used to publicly describe his policies because it is associated with far left wing politics. "Progressive" is a dirty word in Colorado politics.
  
  We're starting to [...]
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  Posted: February 20, 2008, 10:02am EST
  

• Update on Yesterday's Manure Post

  The Gazette is reporting that Saturday's small scale test of a new pollution control device that scrubs out nitrogen oxide, sulfur, and may scrub out carbon dioxide was a success.
  
  

  �Our first live test Saturday at the Drake Power Plant . . . greatly exceeded expectations in terms of [...]

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  Posted: February 19, 2008, 1:26pm EST
  

• Ritter Avoids Responsibility for Tax Hike Policy, Hides Behind the "Children" Again

  From Mike Saccone's Political Notebook in Grand Junction:

  Republican state lawmakers plan to have a counter-proposal to Gov. Bill Ritter�s mill levy freeze ready and introduced in the Legislature by the end of the month.
  
  Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, said he and Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, plan to introduce [...]

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  Posted: February 19, 2008, 8:48am EST
  

• Bill Ritter & Horse Manure

  OK, we admit it. We had fun writing the title to this essay, and yet there is a connection that we wouldn't have thought of but for a Sunday editorial in The Gazette.
  
  

  Entrepreneurialism, inspired by profit and good will, has long improved environmental conditions. In just the [...]

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  Posted: February 18, 2008, 12:40pm EST
  

• More Ethanol, Less Alcohol

  The next time you drink to Bill Ritter's ill-advised attempt to convert Colorado to an ethanol society, make it a Bud.
  
  So much land is being converted to corn production for corn ethanol that the more mundane crops are being ignored. One of those crops is Hops, used in [...]
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  Posted: February 18, 2008, 12:24pm EST
  

• Trip Report

  Paul Chesser will obviously be keeping his eye on Colorado as well he should. He points out that Bill Ritter's unaccountable cabinet level climate czar, Heidi Van Genderen, was once in the CU Wirth Chair in environmental and community development policy.
  
  She has been replaced in that position [...]
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  Posted: February 17, 2008, 8:44pm EST