Former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer wrote a fantastic piece for the Fort Collins Coloradoan about what awaits U.S. Rep.-elect Cory Gardner when he makes his way to Washington to represent Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. [Above is an interview with Gardner a month ago by Michael Sandoval of National Review Online.]

Schaffer, a Republican, knows that district well, having been its representative from 1997 to 2003, succeeded by Republican Marilyn Musgrave for three terms, then Democrat Betsy Markey for one and now Gardner, a Republican. Schaffer’s entire article is worth reading, but the last paragraph is particularly provocative…

Gov. John Hickenlooper, despite his pretensions for being bipartisan, will devote enormous resources and energy to gerrymandering the 4th Congressional District (based upon the 2010 Census) by pulling half of Boulder County into the new district — possibly even drawing Yuma (Gardner’s home) out of it. Gardner will need to “lawyer up” to survive this part of the campaign, too.

This is one of our favorite videos of freshman U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo. Here’s what she said, in May, at a canvassing kick-off in Longmont…

“We all worked very, very hard to get this seat,” said Markey. “We need to keep this seat in Democratic hands. We’ve got a great majority in the House. It’s going to be a difficult year, as we know. A lot of our independent voters, and you know a third of this district, 33 percent – a whole 33 percent – are independent voters. And last time they went with us. This year, you know, somebody told me the independent voters, we don’t own them; they’re like renters. We’ve got to earn them back every time. And we’ve got to earn their vote again. But we have a good story to tell. This has been a very, very productive session in Congress.”

[Original post on WhoSaidYouSaid.]

In an effort to stem the Republican wave about to hit shore Nov. 2, Pres. Obama went on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” where he discussed the election, health care, and (again) praised U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., who is high on the endangered list. [The 538 Forecasts gives Markey a 13% chance of retaining her seat.]

“I know a lot of folks feel frustrated about Congress, how it operates, the bickering, the weird rules, the filibusters, all that stuff,” said the President. “But the fact is that there are a bunch of folks who during the course of this year took really tough votes that they knew were bad politics because they thought they were the right things to do. There are a whole bunch of Democrats…guys like Tom Perriello in Virginia, or John Boccieri in Ohio, or Betsy Markey in Colorado, who are basically in Republican districts. They won in the big surge that we had in 2008. They knew it was gonna be a tough battle, that these are generally pretty conservative districts, and yet still went ahead and did what they thought was right. And my hope in this election is that people who vote on the basis of what they think is right and have integrity and aren’t just thinking about the next election but are thinking about the next generation, that they are rewarded.”

It’s interesting that the president used the term “bad politics.” In a video [at top] from March in which Markey defended her vote on health-care reform, she said, “As President Obama said, ‘Good policy is good politics.’”

In my view, voting out of line with your constituents and against their will is not good policy or good politics. And voting for ObamaCare was “bad politics” precisely because it is also wrong for the next generation. It wouldn’t be so unpopular if people believed it was best for them and their families. A recent Rasmussen poll found that “53% of likely U.S. voters favor repeal of the health care law.”

On the Colorado ballot, voters will consider Amendment 63, the Right to Health Care Choice Initiative, which would block elements of ObamaCare.

Republican Cory Gardner, aiming to replace U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., got off some great lines at Tuesday’s debate, including his response after Markey expounded on the benefits of green energy.

MARKEY: Wind energy “is not just good for the environment, it’s good for our national security and it’s good for jobs.”

GARDNER: “I generally defer to Congress on matters that are full of wind.”

An Oct. 7 story from Time.com’s “2010 Races to Watch” focused on Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. On the whole, the story was balanced, and – considering that it was written by someone outside the state – reasonably insightful about the district and the race between Republican challenger Cory Gardner and U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo.

However, the story did contain one important factual error. While pointing out that Markey has generally voted according to the Democratic agenda in Washington, the initial story reported that she did “vote against health care reform…”

Actually, she voted against it before she voted for it. [In the video above from March 20, 2010, the day before the key vote, Pres. Obama addressed House Democrats and singled out Markey for her support. He repeated the praise last week.]

In November 2009, Markey had voted against the health reform bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives 220-215. At the time, she said that while she liked certain parts of the bill, she did not support it because “it simply does not do enough to cut the health care costs that are crushing our businesses and families.” She said she hoped to support a bill that is “fiscally sustainable in the long-term.”

The Senate then took up the House bill, amended it substantially, and sent it back to the House. At that point, following the election of U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., on a platform opposing the health control law, passage of the bill appeared perilous. Speaker Pelosi delayed the vote as she twisted arms to round up the final Democratic votes. One of those votes came from Markey. A few days before the final vote, she announced her support, because, she said, this is ”probably the largest deficit-reduction bill that I’ll ever have the chance to vote on in Congress.”

We contacted Time reporter Jay Newton-Small, and brought this to her attention. A few days later, the article was revised online, removing the line about Markey voting against health-care reform. At the end of the article, the following was added: “The original version of this story misstated that Markey voted against health care reform. While Markey did vote against the House version, she eventually voted for final passage.” So kudos to Time.com making the correction.

Separately, the kindest construction that one could make of Markey’s claim that deficit reduction was the primary reason for her vote on health-care reform is that she is extremely naive and did not study the bill carefully. A study published by the Cato Institute (for which I am Associate Policy Analyst) dissects the finances of the new law. As “Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law” explains, during the first ten years in which the law is fully implemented, it will over ”add $352 billion to the national debt over that period.”

Certainly there are reasons why a Congressperson might consider the extra debt a worthwhile cost to pay for the perceived benefits of the bill. However, the Colorado media should ask Markey to back up her assertion that the bill, once fully implemented, would greatly reduce deficits.

We were floored to see a report that U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., would have former Vice President Al Gore doing a fundraiser for her on Oct. 16, which can only remind undecided voters in her 4th Congressional District of her 2009 vote for cap-and-tax legislation.

Passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, led by House Democrats under the guidance of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, exposed vulnerable freshman representatives like Markey as being far left on “global warming” and energy policy, pressured by enviro groups such as Gore’s Repower America.

“We need you to contact your representatives in Congress,” Gore said in the video above, the week of the vote. “Overwhelm their phone lines with your message.”

What’s overwhelming is that cap-and-tax passed at all, given an analysis by the Heritage Foundation (reported by The Wall Street Journal) that it could “cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four.”

The Senate version of the legislation has been bottled up and (hopefully) will stay that way. There’s a detailed explanation of that in the current New Yorker magazine, including a description of the Edison Electric Institute getting “almost everything” it wanted in potential Senate legislation. Edison, based in Washington, D.C., is “the association of shareholder-owned electric utilities,” according to its website.

We told you in June about Markey getting guidance from Pelosi’s former right-hand man, Brian Wolff, a high-powered lobbyist and senior vice president at Edison.

Wolff was listed as a co-host of a fundraising event on Friday at the institute for Markey, with donations sought of $2,500 per political-action-committee host, according to the invitation published by the Sunlight Foundation’s Party Time.

“This year, U.S. Representative Betsy Markey specifically requested millions of dollars of government spending to benefit the electric power industry, including money to fund a “Energy Conversion Laboratory” and a “Smart Grid Simulation Laboratory,” reported a blog called “That’s my Congress”, which cited the invitation. “Why on earth would Markey specifically ask for this money, when the residents of her congressional district have so many other needs?”

Separately, CompleteColorado.com raised sharp questions recently about the connections between Markey’s fundraising, her policy positions and a green energy company in her district.

If Markey is so keen on the green economy, perhaps on leaving office she can pursue the path of Gore, whom the Telegraph speculated last year “could become the world’s first carbon billionaire after investing heavily in green energy companies.”

As long as it’s not with the taxpayers’ money.

Congress skipped town without a budget and having ducked a vote on tax cuts. But still, the federal spending tap is gushing.

They Spend. You Pay!

WhoSaidYouSaid has launched billboards throughout Colorado with that pointed message: “They Spend. You Pay!” When the campaign is completed in October, the billboards will have been in 100 locations: seven in Fort Collins, seven in Grand Junction, with the remainder in the Denver metro area. Here’s a map of current billboard locations.

Here’s some recent coverage of the billboard campaign by The Denver Post: WhoSaidYouSaid catches its “They Spend You Pay” stride.

In the video above, you can see this cast of elected officials on the billboard, in front of a blank check:

President Barack Obama

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey

U.S. Rep. John Salazar


The billboards invite citizens to “Stop Payment” on reckless 
spending by visiting WhoSaidYouSaid.com and send “Stop Payment”
 notices to those officeholders. Federal spending has ballooned to $3.7 trillion, we have a $1 trillion budget deficit and are $13 trillion in debt.

Take some time today and send these representatives a “Stop Payment” notice.

For months, WhoSaidYouSaid has been documenting, publishing and commenting upon the statements of public officials, activists and citizens regarding the role of government, taxation, the economy and regulation.

Now it’s time to take action.

It’s critical to remember that we can easily communicate with our representatives. If you visit the “They Spend. You Pay!” portion of our website, you can send a “Stop Payment” notice to your elected officials. If there’s anything that we’re learning this year, it’s that those representing us may be finally paying attention to an outraged public.

Also, just for fun, we’re sponsoring a Facebook scavenger hunt to see who can capture and post pictures of the most billboards. You should play.

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., an incumbent in a seat likely to flip on Nov. 2, didn’t want any part of a televised, one-on-one debate with Republican challenger Cory Gardner.

Markey, objecting to the ground rules of the sponsors, wanted two minor-party candidates included in the one-hour debate planned for mid-October.

“Her claim that she’s simply trying to be more inclusive sounds disingenuous,” editorialized The Denver Post. “Allowing equal time for twice as many candidates would have watered down the effectiveness of the debate in the hotly contested race.”

As it is, Markey can debate herself. She did that with ObamaCare, opposing the health-care reform legislation in November, only to reverse herself in March and help pass it. You can see that “debate” in the video above, which consists of Markey’s video statement after the bill passed, overlaid with the text of her reasons in November for opposing it.

A new ad by Americans for Prosperity asks citizens to call the office of U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey’s, D-Colo., and ask her “to start working for Colorado again.” The ad compares Markey with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – and not in a good way.

“To small businesses, Betsy Markey is the same as Nancy Pelosi,” according to the ad. “Betsy voted for cap-and-trade; the new energy taxes that would cost Colorado thousands of jobs. Markey betrayed us by voting for a government health-care plan…”

As we noted in June, the Markey/Pelosi connection may go beyond voting records. Pelosi’s former right-hand man, lobbyist Brian Wolff, said then he was taking Markey under his wing for the remainder of the election cycle.

The “$330,000 TV ad campaign against Rep. Betsy Markey [is] yet another sign that this year’s 4th Congressional District race will be one of the most fiercely contested and expensive House races in the country,” reported The Coloradoan in Fort Collins.

House Democrats carried Pres. Obama’s senseless economic agenda and now face an almost certain bloodbath in the midterm elections. And the White House is, um, otherwise occupied.

“One House Democrat compared their relationship with the White House to the 1970s Life commercials starring ‘Mikey,’ the kid whose brothers trick him into eating the cereal,” The Washington Post reported in a must-read story today about the dysfunctional Dems in D.C. “‘And now, Mikey ate it and he’s choking on it, and there’s no appreciation.’”

Correction, us taxpayers enduring this charade are choking on it: on the overreach, on the arrogance, on the massive legislative logjams on health care, financial services and energy policy while both the national debt and the unemployment rate march on. In Colorado, U.S. Reps. Betsy Markey, Ed Perlmutter and John Salazar (not to mention appointed U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet) must wonder what was in that Obama bowl they so eagerly scarfed down.

At least when Mikey ate the cereal (see the video above) he got fed; not fed to the wolves.