Congress
Hickenlooper-Kasich health care proposal calls for retaining individual mandate, funding CSRs
DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s health care reform proposal put together with a bipartisan panel of governors implores Congress to keep the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act in place while work is done to further stabilize insurance marketplaces and make the health care law feasible in the long run.
Hickenlooper, a Democrat, and Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich unveiled the proposal on Thursday after months of crafting that was done with governors from Nevada, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Virginia, Louisiana and Montana. Continue reading
Andy Kerr joins Pettersen, Moreno in dropping out of race for Congress after Perlmutter recommits
LAKEWOOD, Colo. – State Sen. Andy Kerr became the third of four Democrats to drop out of the Democratic race for Colorado’s 7th Congressional District seat on Tuesday—a day after Rep. Ed Perlmutter announced he would seek re-election in 2018 after all.
Kerr announced Tuesday morning he was suspending his campaign—less than 24 hours after Perlmutter re-entered the race he had dropped out of just two months earlier.
What had appeared to have been one of the hottest 2018 races in Colorado cooled just as fast, as both state Rep. Brittany Pettersen and state Sen. Dominick Moreno suspended their campaigns Monday after Perlmutter’s announcement.
Kerr held out through Monday, but had conceded had thrown his support behind Perlmutter Tuesday morning.
“There’s a good reason to be excited about Ed’s decision to run for Congress again,” Kerr said in a video he posted to Facebook. “He’s a true-blue Coloradan that has spent more than a decade in Washington D.C. fighting for our values and making sure that we have a strong advocate for Jefferson and Adams counties.”
“I know that Ed will continue to push back against President Trump and Paul Ryan’s regressive agenda, and champion progressive solutions,” Kerr continued. “I hope you will join me in supporting him in his re-election.”
Kerr thanked his volunteers, staffers, supporters and friends for their help on his campaign, and thanked his family as well before saying he would continue as a state senator.
“Their love and dedication has meant the world to me. Thank you, I look forward to continuing working for the people of Colorado in my role as state Senator. It’s been an honor to have this opportunity,” Kerr said.
Both Moreno and Petterson endorsed Perlmutter as well. But Dan Baer—the fourth Democrat who had declared to run for Perlmutter’s seat and a former Obama administration hand—still hasn’t pulled out of the race.
A spokeswoman for Baer said Monday that Baer was traveling for his grandmother’s 90th birthday and wouldn’t have an immediate response.
When Perlmutter announced Monday he was re-entering the race after taking time to “regroup and recharge,” he said he had talked with Kerr, Pettersen and Moreno before making the announcement, and that he’d corresponded with Baer.
“They are all wonderful people and I know for them and some others my decision is not convenient or well timed, for which I’m sorry,” he said.
Pettersen had led the pack of four in fundraising, though all had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the campaigns.
Campaign finance records show Perlmutter ended June with $423,416 in on-hand cash. He started the year with approximately $72,000 less.
No Republicans have so far filed to run against Perlmutter in the district.
Ed Perlmutter will seek re-election to Congress after taking time to ‘regroup and recharge’
DENVER – U.S. Congressman Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., says he’s taken time to “regroup and recharge” and will again seek re-election to Colorado’s 7th Congressional District in 2018.
It’s been a back-and-forth few months for the Congressman from Denver, who is currently in the midst of his sixth term.
In April, he announced he would be running for governor of Colorado in 2018 in an effort to replace John Hickenlooper, who will be term-limited. Continue reading
DeGette, House Dems introduce resolution to censure Trump over ‘both sides’ Charlottesville comments
DENVER – U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., is co-sponsoring a resolution with three other Democratic members of Congress to censure President Donald Trump for his repeated condemnation of “both sides” at Charlottesville, in which white supremacists held a large rally and one of them allegedly killed a 32-year-old counter-protester.
DeGette is just one of more than 79 co-sponsors of the resolution, which was introduced at a Friday pro forma session in the House of Representatives. Its original sponsors are Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey and Pramila Jayapal of Washington—all Democrats. Continue reading
Anthem staying in Colorado health insurance marketplace next year, a boon to market stabilization
DENVER – Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado is definitely staying in the state’s health insurance marketplace in 2018, the state Division of Insurance confirmed Wednesday.
The company had already tentatively committed to offering plans in Colorado next year when it submitted a rate request to the state in June, but Division of Insurance spokesman Vince Plymell told Denver7 Thursday the final commitment “actually came in the last week or so.” Continue reading
White supremacy in the headlines: A look back at the time the KKK ruled Colorado
DENVER – As white supremacist organizations and the Ku Klux Klan are again in the news across the U.S. due to their emboldened resurgence over the past couple of years, we are taking a look back at the history of the Klan in Colorado—one of several western states that saw among the largest population of members in the early 1920s.
According to a 1965 article by James H. Davis published in Colorado Magazine called “Colorado Under the Klan,” John Galen Locke became the first Grand Dragon of the Klan in Colorado after it was founded in 1922. Other historians have written that Klansmen started organizing in Colorado in 1920. Continue reading
Colorado Springs mayor won’t commit city assistance to upcoming white nationalist conference
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – As President Donald Trump continues to stoke outrage over the white nationalist rally that led to the death of a young woman by failing to outright denounce the neo-Nazis who organized the event, the history and future of white nationalism in Colorado is coming under new scrutiny.
The mayor of Colorado Springs said Tuesday the city won’t provide any support or resources to a conference set for next year planned by “patriotic immigration reform” group VDARE, which also sympathizes with white nationalists, according to its website. Continue reading
Sessions to Hickenlooper: Marijuana still unsafe; task force report says crackdown unlikely
DENVER – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions made clear in a letter sent to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper that the governor received this week that he still believes an Obama-era Justice Department memo does nothing to protect states with legal marijuana from being prosecuted by the federal government, but documents obtained by the AP show a federal task force on marijuana might think otherwise.
Hickenlooper and the governors of Alaska, Oregon and Washington sent a letter to Sessions and the Treasury Secretary in early April urging Sessions and the Justice Department to work with them and come see their states’ programs before changing any federal rules regarding marijuana. Continue reading
Sen. Cory Gardner moving Denver office after protest arrests
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner is moving his Denver office out of a private building downtown after a series of protests raised issues about what was public and what was private space.
Ten disability advocates with ADAPT were arrested in late June after a three-day sit in at Gardner’s office after building management allegedly ordered the protesters to be removed—lest Gardner’s office be in violation of its lease. Continue reading
Colorado delegation, EPA administrator to tour Gold King Mine and host town hall Friday
DURANGO, Colo. – Several of Colorado’s top politicians will hold a joint town hall meeting Friday afternoon directly after they tour the Gold King Mine with Environmental Protection Agency staffers, including the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt.
Sens. Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet, Gov. John Hickenlooper, Rep. Scott Tipton and Durango Mayor Dick White will be among those attending the tour and subsequent town hall meeting, which will come a day before the two-year anniversary of the mine spill. Continue reading