Congress
Colorado Dems call for Trump election integrity commission to be disbanded, citing voter withdrawals
DENVER – Three of Colorado’s members of Congress are calling for President Donald Trump’s controversial election integrity commission to be disbanded or handcuffed in the wake of nearly 4,000 voter registration withdrawals in their home state over the past three weeks.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., sent a letter to the commission, its vice chair, Kris Kobach, and Vice President Mike Pence asking they “immediately terminate” the commission, which he said was “wasteful and harmful” and formed only “as the result of delusion, conspiracy theories, and truly ‘fake news.’”
He said the “entire premise for its origination has zero basis in any peer-reviewed study or analysis” in the letter before going on to call the commission’s quest to get voter roll information from each state a “taxpayer-funded fishing expedition” that he said was “eroding trust and confidence in our democratic institutions and perpetuating fear in communities throughout the country.”
Bennet pointed to the nearly-4,000 Coloradans, most of whom are Democrats or unaffiliated voters, who had withdrawn their voter registrations since the commission’s request was sent to Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams as reasons why the commission should be dissolved.
“Given the spike in these registration withdrawals, I request that you immediately end the commission and describe how you intend to reverse the damage that it has already caused in my state,” Bennet wrote.
Most of the registration withdrawals since June 28 have been chalked up to the commission’s vice chair’s request, and Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams’ saying that he’d hand over the voter roll information that he’s required to under state law.
In Colorado, that means he’s required to send a voter’s full name, address, party affiliation and date the person registered, phone number, gender identity, birth year, and information about if a person has voted in prior elections.
The commission had also requested two things that Colorado won’t hand over: a voter’s Social Security number and a voter’s birth date—things that aren’t public record in Colorado.
But Williams still hasn’t sent over any of the information, as the commission asked last week that no states send the voter roll information over until a federal lawsuit in Washington D.C. is decided.
But Bennet was joined by fellow Colorado Democratic members of Congress in expressing their displeasure with the commission this week, when Reps. Diana DeGette and Jared Polis joined more than 70 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives in also calling for the commission to end its quest for voter roll information.
“The federal government has an obligation to protect the personally identifiable information of the American people. We believe your June 28th request to the states would do the opposite by ignoring the critical need for robust security protocols when transmitting and storing sensitive personally identifiable information and by centralizing it in one place,” the members of Congress wrote.
The commission has gone back-and-forth about how it wanted the states to transmit the information, eventually opting for a secure network on the same day the commission asked states not to send any information over until the lawsuits were resolved.
Calling the commission “bogus,” DeGette said its request was deterring people from participating in democracy.
“It’s clear that many Coloradans simply don’t trust this ill-conceived effort, and for good reason,” DeGette said. “Maintaining the integrity of our elections is a critical priority, but this ‘investigation’ is the wrong solution.”
Williams, as have many others, has repeatedly said that voter fraud in the U.S. is extremely rare.
He noted in a letter to Kobach on Friday in which he outlined Colorado’s voter system that there were only 18 election-related crime cases prosecuted or under investigation in Colorado since November 2000. He also said that the information the commission requested wouldn’t be able to be used to verify the accuracy of voter rolls in the U.S., as most states are withholding some of the information the commission requested–including Kobach’s own Kansas.
There are more than 3.3 million active registered voters in Colorado, meaning that the number of withdrawals amounts to about 0.1 percent of the state’s total voting population.
Cory Gardner laments people ‘spiking the football’ after latest GOP health care failure
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Tuesday that people were “spiking the football” after learning that Senate Republicans were again unable to bring a bill to the floor that would repeal Obamacare without an immediate replacement—a move leadership had pivoted to after their second version of a new health care bill failed Monday night.
The Republican from Colorado was notably displeased at the failure of the latest attempt to fulfill the party’s promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act during a news conference he held with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other top Republicans in Congress’ upper chamber. Continue reading
88 percent of Colorado voter registration withdrawals are from Democrats, unaffiliated voters
DENVER – Democrats and unaffiliated voters in Colorado have made up the overwhelming majority of the people who have withdrawn their voter registrations or become confidential voters in the state in response to the Trump administration’s request for voter roll information on behalf of its controversial election integrity commission.
By the end of day Friday, 3,738 Colorado voters had withdrawn their registration, and 200 had become confidential voters—something people in Colorado can do by signing a sworn affidavit at their county clerk’s office saying they could be in danger by having their addresses made public. Continue reading
Gardner, Buck among speakers advertised for Western Conservative Summit; will Trump attend?
DENVER – The Western Conservative Summit is coming to Denver again this year, and the gathering of major conservative players is again hoping to bring out some big names for this year’s three-day event.
Though he hasn’t been confirmed to be attending yet, the summit’s organizers have been touting the possibility that President Donald Trump may appear at this year’s gathering. He spoke at last year’s event while he was still a candidate, as did Sarah Palin and a host of other Republicans.
High-profile people who “might” also show up and who have been invited include HUD Secretary Ben Carson, EPA head Scott Pruitt, the president’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, according to the event’s website. It’s unclear at this point if any will actually attend the conference.
But some high-profile Republicans from Colorado are certain to attend, according to the event’s planners: Sen. Cory Gardner and Rep. Ken Buck will be there.
The summit, hosted by the Centennial Institute and Colorado Christian University, will also host a roundtable interview involving three of the Republican candidates who have already declared their candidacy for Colorado’s governorship in 2018: Doug Robinson, George Brauchler and Victor Mitchell.
On that panel, each will get five minutes to speak about the ideas for Colorado, then will be interviewed by Colorado Politics’ Joey Bunch.
Online ads for the summit have touted Gardner as being one of the speakers, and have drawn even more questions from those on the left, as Gardner will again visit an event full of wealthy donors and political players weeks after he attended the Koch Industries convention in Colorado Springs.
The Republican senator has been chastised by Colorado Democrats since he hasn’t held an in-person town hall meeting in months and has been part of the Republican team crafting a new health care bill in the Senate.
Those calls for a town hall are unlikely to wane, nor is criticism, as weekend passes will cost $200, and daily passes will be $120 apiece. Discounts are available for some parties of 10 or more people, as well as for people under 30, veterans, active duty military, clergy, educators and CCU alumni.
More information on the event, the speakers expected to attend, and ticketing can be found here.
More than 3,000 Colorado voters withdraw registration in response to Trump commission’s request
DENVER – More than 3,000 people in Colorado have withdrawn their voter registration and 182 people have become confidential voters over the past two weeks in response to the request from President Donald Trump’s election integrity commission for voter roll information from each U.S. state.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office on Thursday said 3,394 people withdrew their voter registrations from June 28 through July 13, and 182 people had become confidential voters. People can become confidential voters in Colorado by paying a fee and swearing under oath that they could be in danger if their personal information is public. Continue reading
Cory Gardner ‘carefully reviewing’ new Senate health care bill; Bennet wants to start over
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner says he’s “carefully reviewing” the revised Senate health care draft discussion bill released Thursday as several of his fellow Senate Republican colleagues sit on the fence on the revisions, putting in question whether or not the bill will make it to a floor vote next week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took the Senate’s version of the bill aimed at “repealing and replacing” the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, back to the drawing board after a handful of Republicans said they wouldn’t even support bringing the Senate’s initial bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, to the floor for debate. Continue reading
Mike Coffman presents proposal to fix Obamacare to House GOP, Gardner; will hinge on Senate bill
DENVER – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman presented his new plan to alter the Affordable Care Act to House Republicans and also discussed it with Sen. Cory Gardner, who told his fellow Republican he’d pass the plan onto Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Coffman says he spoke with House Speaker Paul Ryan one-on-one about the proposal last night, and again today in front of the House Republican Conference at a 9 a.m. ET meeting. Continue reading
Sen. Michael Bennet slams Republicans, Trump and their ‘terrible’ health care bills
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet made an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, slamming the Republicans’ “terrible” health care bills and chiding President Donald Trump for not holding up his campaign promises on health care.
The speech from the Colorado Democrat came shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that he would knock off the first two weeks of the Senate’s August recess in order to try and pass a health care bill and work on other GOP priorities. Continue reading
Republican Congressman Mike Coffman proposes new approach to address Medicaid, health care bills
DENVER – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Colorado Republican, is offering up a three-pronged approach to break up the provisions of the health care and tax-related measures in the GOP versions of the bills aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in order to try and garner more bipartisan support to fix some provisions of the ACA.
Coffman voted against the House version of the bill, the American Health Care Act, when the lower chamber of Congress passed the bill onto the Senate by a narrow vote in early May. Continue reading
Source: Ed Perlmutter to drop out of governor’s race, won’t run for re-election in Congress
DENVER – Ed Perlmutter will pull out of the race for Colorado’s governorship in 2018 just three months after he entered the race, and won’t run for re-election in Congress either.
The Denver Post was the first to report that Perlmutter was pulling out of the race early. A source close to the campaign has since confirmed to Denver7 that will be the case. Continue reading