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Cory Gardner, Mike Coffman: Call Your Office

GOP Reps. Cory Gardner and Mike Coffman.

A press release from health care advocacy group Protect Your Care Colorado that you'll find curious to say the least:

Even as ads and right-wing OpEds are running praising Representative Mike Coffman for opposing Obamacare, and as Congressman Cory Gardner rails against it on television, their offices are helpfully referring constituents to Colorado’s marketplace, connectforhealthco.com, and helping them #GetCovered by the Affordable Care Act.

According to Carl Dixon from Aurora, “I spoke with a staffer at Coffman's office and he asked me if I was over 65. When I responded yes , he told me I had nothing to worry about. Then I pursued getting info for a family member under 65. He gave me a number for the Exchange.  He offered me a website.  He also stated that one of his coworker's son works for the Exchange and they are having success!” [Pols emphasis]

Another constituent, Stephen Parish, reports, “I called Coffman’s office and spoke to a staffer and asked for help getting started is signing up for the ACA. He was polite and gave me the 1-855-752-6749 number to get in touch with a navigator.”

Other current and former constituents report that the Congressman’s office quickly referred them to the connectforhealthco.com website and phone number, as well as the federal office of Health and Human Services…

“What we have here is a case of ‘don’t do as I do, do as I say’ from Congressman Coffman and Gardner,” said Laura Chapin, State Director of Protect Your Care Colorado. “The ads and their public statements say one thing, but their offices are helping people #getcovered. Instead of voting to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act and posturing for the TV cameras, Congressmen Coffman and Gardner should be helping even more Coloradans secure access to health care and #GetCovered.”

On the one hand, you can't help but commend the office staffs of GOP Reps. Cory Gardner and Mike Coffman, who are apparently giving inquiring constituents good advice on obtaining health insurance despite the devoted opposition of their bosses to the entire reformed health insurance system under Obamacare. Remember, Rep. Gardner is one of the most vocal opponents of health care reform, who tells a factually questionable personal horror story about his "canceled" plan. Gardner has claimed that the federal insurance exchange website was structured to "conceal the true cost of Obamacare from the American people." Coffman likewise proudly voted dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

But is it too much to ask that they have a conversation with their staff, who are helping Obamacare work in Colorado? Like the story of those much-hyped insurance policy "cancellations" this weekend, the gap between what these Republican politicians are telling the press, and what seems to be actually playing out on the ground, cries out for an explanation.

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Recall Successors Take Office; Dem Senate Majority Now 18-17

Photo by Rocky Mountain Gun Owners

As the Colorado Springs Gazette's Megan Schrader reports:

Newly elected state Sens. Bernie Herpin and George Rivera were sworn in Thursday after winning the seats of two ousted Democrats, bringing the GOP within a one-vote margin of power…

Herpin, a former Colorado Springs City Councilman, and Rivera, a retired deputy police chief, gave their oaths of office and swore to uphold the Constitution in a ceremony led by Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Bender.

"We are witnessing today the peaceful transfer of responsibility from one elected official to another, a freedom that many people in other nations have never known," Herpin said. "I realize I have much to learn, but I pledge to work hard, serve with honor and never forget the lessons of this summer that this is truly a republic of the people, by the people, for the people and we serve at the pleasure of those who represent us."

Adds AP's Ivan Moreno:

Herpin replaces Sen. John Morse and Rivera replaces Sen. Angela Giron. The defeated Democrats remained firm over their support for the new gun laws. The limits on ammunition magazines and expanding background checks to private and online firearm sales were reactions to mass shootings at a suburban Denver movie theater and a Connecticut elementary school last year.

Here's the statement from outgoing Senate President John Morse:

I leave the legislature with no regrets.

A neighborhood in my district bears the troubling distinction of having the most gun deaths in the entire state.  As a Senator, I served families who expect, at a minimum, we will prevent criminals from getting guns.

Bernie Herpin was used as a pawn in an election where almost 80 percent of voters did not even participate and only 11 percent of the district elected him. Make no mistake about it — he was elected in a myopic recall where he ran on only one issue. Senate District 11 has dynamic needs and is not defined by one issue.

And Sen. Angela Giron:

Pueblo is my home and, for now, I will return to my roots as a citizen advocate fighting for Southern Colorado families, schools and businesses.  Now, more than ever, Americans are demanding bold leadership of our elected officials and I'm very proud of the breadth of work I accomplished in just three years of service in the Senate.

I'm leaving, not on my own terms, but with my integrity intact and with the sure and certain knowledge that Colorado and Pueblo are safer with these modest gun safety laws.

Both Sens. Bernie Herpin and George Rivera face a difficult battle to keep their seats in 2014. In Senate District 11 in Colorado Springs, 2010's very close win for Morse isn't a predictor of future results, as reapportionment made the district blue enough that it should be entirely retakable for Democrats. As for Rivera's Senate District 3, well, he's the first Republican to represent Pueblo in many decades–and he's virtually certain to serve one year and lose unceremoniously in 2014. We've explained since the historic recall elections last month the many reasons why what happened in these two Senate districts cannot be replicated in any general election. Short of a new era of continuous recalls in favorable districts, which we think the voting public would very quickly tire of, this was most likely the high-water mark of the GOP's "comeback," produced by a combination of unique circumstances.

With that said, as of this morning, Herpin and Rivera are your newest Colorado Senators. Welcome aboard.

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Recall Attorney Asks “Honey Badger’s” Office To Recuse

UPDATE 5:00PM: As expected, Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert (R) rules against the constitutional challenge to Morse's recall petition. The case will now move to district court.

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UPDATE: The Colorado Independent's Tessa Cheek supplies useful additional backstory:

Gessler and Morse also have a history of butting heads.

Morse spearheaded a move in 2011 to draw $4 million in surplus funds from the Secretary’s office. The cash was offered to the General Assembly by Gessler’s Democratic predecessor but the move was opposed by Gessler and his Republican supporters at the capitol.

Buescher was a frugal administrator, Morse said during debate over the proposal, referencing reports that Gessler had complained about his new public-sector salary. “This is the same secretary of state who said he couldn’t live on $68,500 a year.”

Morse later became the subject of a headline-grabbing but ultimately dismissed ethics complaint capitol insiders suspected was at least encouraged by Gessler. The Colorado Statesman reported that Stephanie Cegielski, the author of the complaint, was a conservative-political activist with past ties to Gessler. Cegielski dedicated half of the ethics complaint she filed against Morse concerning his per diem spending to “criticizing Morse for going after funds in the Secretary of State’s office,” as The Statesman, put it.

Christine Le Lait, campaign manager for A Whole Lot of People for John Morse, said the conflict of interest issues raised by the recent protest to the recall petitions should train a spotlight on the secretary’s office…

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Honey badgers (plural).

A bit of drama today at the Secretary of State's office today, where attorneys seeking the disqualification of recall petitions against Colorado Sens. John Morse and Angela Giron on constitutional grounds asked for Scott Gessler's office to recuse itself from the process entirely. The request is based (in part) on a trip Gessler took to Pueblo last March, more or less providing advice to recall organizers. FOX 31's Eli Stokols:

Gessler, who walked out of his office and encountered reporters following the hearing, declined to comment on the suggestion that he was biased in favor of the recall organizers and that his own bias was shared by his deputy.

Staiert, who didn’t expect attorneys to even show up for Wednesday’s scheduled protest hearing in the Giron case — because Grueskin’s argument to disqualify Giron recall petitions is the same as what he laid out last week in the Morse hearing, both sides had agreed to forgo a formal hearing and submit briefs by email — said that she and Gessler have never discussed either recall case…

Richard Westfall, the attorney representing the groups trying to recall Morse and Giron, told reporters that there’s no proof that Gessler’s bias extends to Staiert.

“She is the one who’s the hearing officer, she is the one making the decision,” he said. “I don’t think any allegations regarding the Secretary — there’s no indication that there’s any bias by the deputy secretary who’s hearing the protest.”

Deputy Secretary Suzanne Staiert, a former Littleton City Attorney, as Stokols reports has been a vocal supporter of Gessler during his recent ethics complaint and subsequent admonishment for having "breached the public trust for private gain"–to the point of raging against the Independent Ethics Commission as a "kangaroo court" on Gessler's behalf, part of a series of Tweets that were deleted from Staiert's account sometime before the recall hearings began. This undeniably creates the appearance that they share a personal, or at least partisan loyalty.

Bottom line: regardless of how the Secretary of State's office rules, this is in all likelihood headed to court, as the losing party on either side is virtually certain to appeal. But it's useful once again to point out the rank partisanship, and partisan actors, at least initially in charge of Colorado's elections process. Not just for his trip to Pueblo to talk to recall organizers, neither Gessler nor anyone who reports to him should get the final word here.

And we'll say it: this is why you hear more talk about nonpartisan elections administration in Colorado these days.

Full story: Recall Attorney Asks “Honey Badger’s” Office To Recuse

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