Andy Kerr Replaces Hudak As Senate Ed Chair

Sen. Andy Kerr (D-Lakewood).

As reported by FOX 31's Eli Stokols Sunday evening:

Senate Democrats are set to announce Monday that Sen. Andy Kerr will replace former Sen. Evie Hudak, who resigned her seat last month to avoid a recall election and preserve her party’s one-seat majority in the chamber, as the chairman of the Senate Education Committee…

Kerr was chosen over Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, a former teacher and principal who also sits on the committee.

Johnston will continue to serve as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, a post he’d have had to give up to head the education committee.

A higher profile for Kerr will be good for Democrats generally, and for Kerr's own competitive re-election bid next year.

Stokols briefly discusses the background of Sen. Mike Johnston's education reform efforts, like Johnston's role in passing the controversial 2010 Senate Bill 191 "teacher accountability" legislation, as well as this year's defeated Amendment 66. Stokols traffics a bit more than we would in unsourced rumors from a conservative blog to raise the possibility that Sen. Andy Kerr was a contentious pick over Sen. Johnston (we haven't ourselves heard that). That said, we tend to agree that for the purposes of unifying Democrats after a tough 2013, Kerr is probably the better choice to lead the Education Committee.

View the original article here

Who Will Replace Hudak in State Senate?

FRIDAY UPDATE: Kurtis Lee of the Denver Post reports that Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp will not seek appointment to the SD-19 seat vacated by Sen. Evie Hudak. Rep. Kraft-Tharpe reportedly endorses former Rep. Sara Gagliardi.

—–

Democrat Evie Hudak's resignation from the State Senate on Wednesday effectively ended the attempted recall in SD-19, but it still leaves Democrats with a significant election battle in 2014.

Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp

Hudak was re-elected to the State Senate in 2012 by a slim margin over Republican Lang Sias, which meant Democrats wouldn't need to think about the seat again until 2016. With Hudak's resignation on Wednesday, Democrats don't have to worry that a recall election might swing control of the Senate into Republican hands for the 2014 session, but they still have to think about maintaining a majority into 2015. Democrats will fill Hudak's seat through a vacancy committee, but whoever wins the appointment will have to run for a full term next year.

Democrats have represented SD-19 for the last decade, with Sue Windels serving two terms prior to Hudak's 2008 victory, but the district has not been an easy seat to hold. With the 2014 election right around the corner, Democrats have a critical decision to make when the vacancy committee convenes.

Former Rep. Sara Gagliardi

There is certainly time for other candidates to emerge, but as of now, it looks like a potential three-way race among Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp, former Rep. Sara Gagliardi, and Arvada City Council member (and a former campaign manager for Hudak in 2012) Rachel Zenzinger.

All three candidates will have their share of supporters, all three have strong credentials, and all three can make a good case for why they should get the appointment. But from a purely strategic perspective — we're not going to get into any potential policy arguments here — one makes more sense than the other two. Here's why:

Rep. Kraft-Tharp could make the case that she is the logical heir to the SD-19 seat after her 2012 victory in HD-29, but she wouldn't likely have had a free run to the Democratic nomination in 2016 (Zenzinger was planning to run for SD-19 regardless of Kraft-Tharp's intentions). The strategic problem with nominating Kraft-Tharp to succeed Hudak is that it leaves two Democratic seats without an incumbent in 2014. While it's true that control of the Senate is going to be more difficult for Democrats to maintain than control of the State House, it would be tough for Democrats to give up Kraft-Tharp's incumbent advantage in HD-29. Kraft-Tharp has been a strong campaigner in HD-29, but she's not so well-known that she would have a significant edge over a Republican opponent in SD-19; it's a bigger advantage for Democrats if Kraft-Tharp runs for re-election in HD-29 instead.

Rachel Zenzinger

Gagliardi is a popular Democrat who served two terms in HD-27 (which was redrawn in the last round of redistricting) before losing her re-election bid to Republican Libby Szabo in 2010. As a nurse with strong ties to organized labor (SEIU), Gagliardi will likely have support from key Democratic allies in a vacancy committee, and she certainly has the experience and credibility to make a good argument for the appointment. The problem with nominating Gagliardi isn't about her — it's about the narrative it feeds into. The 2014 election will be spun by Republicans as a validation of the recall process (fairly or not), and that narrative is strengthened if Democrats appoint someone who was recently defeated at the polls by another Republican; it makes it easier for the GOP to say that Democrats are only paying attention to Democratic voters. It may not be fair to Gagliardi, but Democrats need to consider the reality of the situation as they try to retain SD-19 next November.

Barring any unforseen circumstances, that leaves Zenzinger as the most logical choice from a purely strategic perspective. Zenzinger was just re-elected to her Arvada city council seat without opposition, and that non-partisan position gives her the best opportunity of the three candidates to create her own narrative in 2014. As a campaign manager for Hudak in 2012, Zenzinger is also plenty familiar with the politics at play in SD-19. Zenzinger's name ID won't be quite as strong as that of Kraft-Tharp or Gagliardi, but given the recent dynamics surrounding the recall, that might actually be an advantage. And while it's true that Republicans may try to use Zenzinger's ties to Hudak to say that she will be more of the same, it's important to remember that Hudak was not unpopular in her district — Hudak had served in elected office on the state school board for years prior to her Senate win in 2008, and she was demonized by a small, vocal minority (many of whom weren't even residents of SD-19).

Democrats are fortunate to have three strong candidates to replace Hudak through a vacancy committee, and all three would be well-prepared to defend the seat in 2014. But it is purely circumstance — and not criticism of Kraft-Tharp or Gagliardi — that makes Zenzinger the most logical option at this point.

View the original article here

BREAKING: Sen. Evie Hudak To Resign

Image via Twitter

UPDATE #3: From Kerrie Dallman, President of the Colorado Education Association:

While the events leading up to her resignation were not related to public education, our members and families across Colorado know her years of support for schools and students are her crowning achievements and her lasting legacy…

CEA warmly thanks Evie for her years of steadfast support for public education and public education employees. We will miss her passion and her commitment toward making Colorado a national leader in public education and giving every child the opportunity to grow and thrive. Colorado is a better place because of Evie’s selfless service.

And from LGBT advocacy group One Colorado:

From day one, Senator Evie Hudak has been a tireless advocate for all Coloradans – including thousands of loving, committed couples across our state who now have the protections they need to take care of each other and their families. From her steadfast support of civil unions to her leadership in making our schools safer for LGBT youth, Senator Hudak has always stood up for our community as a proud champion for equality. While her incredible dedication will be missed in the Senate, today’s courageous decision ensures that her constituents won’t have to see hundreds of thousands of tax dollars wasted on an unnecessary recall election. With appreciation and enormous gratitude, we look forward to Senator Hudak’s continued work to advance fairness and equality for Colorado families in every corner of our state.

AnnMarie Jensen, a lobbyist for organizations representing domestic violence victims:

I've worked to represent domestic violence survivors and families, among the most vulnerable in our society, for years, and Evie has always been their champion. Domestic abuse victims needed someone to given them a voice and Evie was always there. This is a courageous decision by Evie, a woman who supported the DV community when they needed it most, even in the face of personal threats. Her strength will be missed and and her values will always be needed for Coloradans.

Colorado AFL-CIO President Cindy Kirby:

Senator Hudak never stopped fighting for Colorado working families and the more than 12,000 AFL-CIO household voters in her district. As my state senator, I thank her deeply for her service to our members and her constituents. Her resignation saves her constituents from the ordeal of an unnecessary, nasty recall campaign. Additionally, Evie's selfless act saves her constituents hundreds of thousands of tax dollars that would have been wasted on this recall election. This resignation is just one of many examples of Evie putting her constituent'sinterests before her own. We look forward to continuing to work with Evie in our community to improve the lives of working people. I’m deeply saddened at how these recalls have broken the democratic process.

—–

UPDATE #2: From Karen Middleton, former legislator and executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado:

This is an incredibly courageous decision by a legislator who has always stood for mainstream Colorado values and voters when it comes to reproductive rights. Evie Hudak has been a champion for what we as Coloradans believe and fighting for Colorado women and families. Her values represent the people of her district and the people of Colorado and we need more like her, not extremists, moving Colorado forward and protecting the values we share.

—–

UPDATE: We've just received Senator Evie Hudak's resignation letter; read it here.

By resigning, I am protecting these important new laws for the good of Colorado and ensure we can continue looking forward.

—–

Sen. Evie Hudak (D-Arvada).

FOX 31's Eli Stokols breaks huge news on the day before Thanksgiving:

State Sen. Evie Hudak has decided to resign rather than risk facing a recall election that, should she lose, would flip control of the senate to Republicans, FOX31 Denver is first to report Wednesday.

Hudak is expected to make the official announcement with a press release sometime Wednesday morning.

Hudak, D-Westminster, could have been the third Democratic lawmaker to face a recall over a package of gun control bills they helped pass earlier this year…

By resigning before the signatures are turned in, she assures that a Democratic vacancy committee will appoint her replacement, keeping the seat — and the senate — in the party’s hands, at least through November, when her successor will be forced to win reelection.

We'll update with statements, reactions, and analysis of this move shortly. The possibility that Senator Evie Hudak might resign, and thwart a recall election against her was always there, and this move gives Democrats the best strategic position to hold the seat–and the Democratic Senate majority–in 2014. For Sen. Hudak personally, we can only imagine the difficulty of this decision, but it's a selfless act to save her caucus majority. Sen. Hudak's long and faithful service to causes like education and women's rights make it quite likely she will find a new home on Colorado's political scene without difficulty.

Perhaps the best defense of Hudak's decision to resign is the way the recall process has broken down into a political free-for-all, with the odds tilted against incumbents due to the odd dates and (more importantly) the suppression of mail ballots via court action. Democrats and many Republicans (here's looking at you, Ryan Call) agree that lurching from recall to recall is no way to run a functioning democracy. The constitutional provisions that make mail ballots effectively impossible date back to 1912, and only affect recalls. Everything we've heard indicates that Democrats are fully prepared to begin retaliating against vulnerable Republicans with recall campaigns of their own. Unless both sides want to trade in the way we've always elected our representatives for a war of mutually assured electoral destruction, it's time to either make recalls fair, or restrict their application in Colorado to situations that truly merit one.

View the original article here

Peter Boyles Critiques Local Coverage of the Hudak Recall Effort, as Only Peter Boyles Can

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

In the heated battle and drama surrounding the efforts to recall Colorado State Senator Evie Hudak, accusations of malfeasance and misrepesentation have been thrown back and forth, a gubernatorial candidate has proffered obscene gestures, and local news outlets have entered the fray to parse out the truth and report on the contentious issues raised by the two sides.

Never the wallflower, KNUS 710AM radio talk show host, Peter Boyles, has become the media point man for the Recall organization, hosting the organizers Mike McAlpine and Laura Waters in daily appearances for updates and rallying cries. As you might guess, the tone of the show these days is combative and loud.

When KDVR Fox 31's reporter Eli Stokols and KCNC CBS4 Denver's Shaun Boyd ventured into Arvada and Westminster to report on the Recall and efforts to thwart it, they were not spared from Mr. Boyles cutting criticism and confrontation.

We've provided some audio clips from The Peter Boyles Show for you to hear exactly what Peter Boyles thinks of their journalistic efforts:

1. Peter and Joe Neville, lobbyist for Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, respond to Eli Stokol's report identifying paid signature gatherers for the Hudak recall effort as having criminal records, which supports claims purported in door hangers and robo-calls by Hudak supporters. The root of Mr. Boyles' complaints seem to lie mostly with the organizations defending Hudak against the recall, whose methods to investigate recall works Boyles refers to as "underhanded", "Brownshirt technique" "gestapo-esque" and "very, very KGB". Misters Boyles and Neville accuse the Democracy Defense Fund as 'gift-handing' information to Stokol's for his report. Further criticism from Neville and Boyles refers to Stokols' reporting that DDF "fundraised" $30,000 to fund their efforts when it appears the money was donated in large amounts by few donors. Finally, Boyles charges Stokols for not forwarding information concerning the potential crime of threatening phone calls from someone associated with the Hudak recall.

2. Boyles calls Stokols' piece "bad journalism", claiming that DDF gave Stokols information critically important to the report, while refusing to return Boyles' phone calls requesting answers to his questions. Further criticism from Boyles falls to Shaun Boyd's report on the recall in which she interviews Hudak. Boyles mocks Hudak's appearance in the piece a, saying that "Evie is now part of 'Shaun's people'".

3. Boyles facetiously adopts the song "Eli's Coming" to mock Stokol's supposed failures in his report. Also in this segment, Boyles lays out his case against Shaun Boyd's report, which reported that Hudak claimed that she had nothing to do with the organized opposition to the recall. Peter calls "BS" on that claim, but doesn't back up his assertion.

4. This clip includes audio from Shaun Boyd's interview with Evie Hudak, complete with Peters peanut gallery commentary and editorializing.

View the original article here

Media omission: Exposing criminal signature gatherers is “just another tactic of the left,” says Hudak recall organizer

(Deny, deflect, rinse, repeat – Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Yesterday on KNUS, a Hudak-recall leader said that facts, documented Wed. by Fox 31's Eli Stokols, that a criminal is collecting signatures to put the recall measure on the ballot, are "just another tactic of the left."

Yet, reporters should know, the two recall leaders, Mike McAlpine and Laura Waters, pledged not to hide from the public, and to be "up front" about the situation.

Here's part of what they said at 48 min in the second hour of the Peter Boyles show Nov. 13.

Boyles: Laura and Mike, what are you going to do about this?

McAlpine: Well, we’re going to be in a position, Peter, where we have to check on this. We need to make sure everything is above board. We’ll do what’s right.

Boyles: You literally have to. This makes the case that the left wants to believe…. What you must do is confront this. We'll call Dudley this morning This is, as my grandma used to say, is the fly in the ointment.

Waters: When we saw the piece last night, we immediately looked through our volunteer records. We did not recognize the man…. What we’re seeing this is that people in the community are recognizing this as just another tactic of the left.

McAlpine: …Most of us live in the area and work this out of passion for change…Anybody who’s interested can hear the truth from us. We’re not going to hide behind a series of veils. We’re going to be up front about it.

If exposing the criminal backgrounds of signature-gatherers is just an empty tactic, then you have wonder what's not just a tactic. What's meaningful? Boyles didn't ask.

View the original article here

Hudak recall organizers “could not be more thankful” to Dudley Brown

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Yesterday, Fox 31 Denver reported that GOP Chairman Ryan Call doesn't support the latest recall effort against Democratic Senator Evie Hudak, saying the recall could "undermine" Republican efforts to win elections next year.

But Fox 31 didn't report who is backing the Hudak recall effort. That would be Dudley Brown, Director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, according to the RMGO website as well as Laura Waters and Mike McAlpine, who are apparently leading the petition-gathering effort.

On Peter Boyles' KNUS morning show today, Waters and McAlpine thanked Brown for his in-kind support. They also said they did not vote for Ryan Call when he ran for GOP State Chair:

Laura Waters: I want to say a big shout out to Dudley Brown and the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.

Boyles: Oh, he's our guy. We love Dudley.

Waters: Those guys have come alongside us. They are helping us by mobilizing their members and getting the message out that we need volunteers. And we could not be more thankful to Dudley and his group…

Mike McAlpine: I gotta echo what Laura says. Nobody is as tall as man who stands on principle, and that's Dudley Brown. He is a rock star….

Boyles: By the way, who voted for Ryan Call to become the head of the GOP?

McAlpine: I'm looking around the room, no one is raising their hand, Peter.

Boyles: And what about you [to Waters]? Nobody's hand is up.

McAlpine: [laughing]

Boyles: How did this guy get this gig?

Listen here: Waters and McAlpine on KNUS 710 AM Peter Boyles Oct 08 2013

View the original article here

BREAKING: New Recall Attempt Underway Against Evie Hudak

SATURDAY UPDATE #2: A photo forwarded to us from this morning's SD-19 recall organizing meeting in Arvada (after the jump) depicts a poster of the 69th General Assembly, with Sens. John Morse and Angela Giron labeled "recalled Sept. 10th." The poster labels Sen. Hudak and Rep. Mike McLachlan as targets for recall, and–interestingly–singles out Rep. Daniel Kagan as "needs recall bad."

—–

SATURDAY UPDATE: A statement from Sen. Evie Hudak via FOX 31:

“The approval of a recall petition will not change my focus on the 2014 legislative session, during which I will advocate for women and seniors, and for the best education we can provide our children – just as I have always done.”

Sen. Evie Hudak (D-Arvada).

?

We've just been notified that a new recall petition has been approved for circulation against Sen. Evie Hudak of Arvada (Colorado Senate District 19). There has been chatter about this possibility on conservative social media and discussion groups, but formal approval of recall petition language allows the petition gathering process to begin again–this time with a deadline in early December. It's worth noting that the previous effort to get a recall of Sen. Hudak on the ballot failed; that said, the previous signers should be straightforward to recontact to re-sign.

The key thing to keep in mind is that Sen. Hudak faced re-election just 11 months ago, narrowly beating GOP opponent Lang Sias in one of the most expensive state legislative races of the 2012 cycle. Being a presidential election year, the total votes cast in this election (and the resulting threshold for a recall petition) is substantially higher than the districts in which recall elections took place in September. Sen. Hudak has longstanding ties to this district from her time on the State Board of Education, and has a reputation as a tireless retail campaigner–two assets operating in her favor that voters will remember due to the recency of her last election. As a result of the two hard-fought races she has won in SD-19, her name ID is higher than many other legislators in the General Assembly. This manifests in both favorable and unfavorable opinions of Sen. Hudak being pretty strong. Say what you will about Sen. Hudak, she's a known commodity to the voters in this district.

The big question, of course, is whether or not a paid signature gathering effort of the kind that was necessary to get the recall of Senate President John Morse on the ballot will be attempted in SD-19–which we do believe would be the only way to get it done. The obvious hypothetical consequence of victory, flipping the Senate to GOP control for at least part of the 2014 session, is offset by the risk of killing off their political momentum with failure. That's the choice Republicans face, and it's far from an easy one.

With so many unanswered questions about this latest effort, we'll leave further speculation to our readers. But those of you who were dreading a future of endless recalls substituting for our functional small-d democratic process may be about to have your worst fears realized.

View the original article here