Renee Parsons<\/p>\n
A year ago, last January, 2023, the House of Representatives began its 118<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> Legislative Session of Congress, forcing Rep. Kevin McCarthy and the entire Republican caucus into fifteen rounds of votes as it wrestled to gain essential compromises from McCarthy in exchange for his election as the next Speaker. \u00a0 <\/span>Those votes ultimately culminated in the remainder of this Session vacillating between gaining valuable administrative and budgetary considerations as well as exposing a fatally fractured Republican caucus that revealed insurmountable policy differences that refuses to amend its agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n With that history in mind and that fifty two Members of Congress (forty four in the House) are not seeking reelection<\/span><\/a>, the results of any upcoming 2024 Republican primaries for House candidates cannot be overstated.\u00a0 <\/span>To reduce the odds to just a handful of selective primaries is to miss the enormity of the potential consequences as not just vital and critical for the health of the GOP.\u00a0 <\/span>More importantly, it is the emergence of those Republican House candidates who win their primary and survive the November election which will be undeniably decisive as to whether the United States endures as a country, intact and whole and functional.<\/span><\/p>\n The American people deserve a generation of more staunchly devoted Electeds genetically unable to compromise when the crisis at hand requires nothing less than a solid America First commitment that does not sanction a cunning betrayal to an Israel First alternative or any other unacceptable deviation that does not directly serve the American people. The goal of a newly invigorated\u00a0 <\/span>GOP House should be no longer willing to settle for Congressional hearings of less compelling testimony without issuing subpoenas to legally order the administrative state\u2019s immediate acquiescence.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n On June 25<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> , Colorado Republicans will select their candidates for the November election to the US House of Representatives.\u00a0 <\/span>With a population of less than six million, Colorado has eight Congressional Districts<\/span><\/a> which have historically split between five Democrats and three<\/span><\/a> Republicans. Within those Republicans ranks, however, were two Reps who could safely be identified as representing the RINO wing of the party and who even voted with the Democrats on occasion.<\/span><\/p>\n Currently, there are energetic Republican primaries<\/span><\/a> scheduled for the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth CDs, all with exemplary candidates on the ballot. To complicate matters, Colorado has a semi-open primary<\/span><\/a> which allows unaffiliated voters to participate in one party\u2019s primary without affiliating in that party. \u00a0 <\/span>In other words, the Democrats have proven to be dual-primary voters and have an opportunity to decide the outcome, most especially in the Third District.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Third District has been represented by Rep. Lauren Boebert who, in a blast of sheer brilliance, moved on and is a candidate in the Fourth District<\/span><\/a> which was represented by Rep. Ken Buck.\u00a0 <\/span>Boebert, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, is endorsed by President Trump and is expected to win both the primary and reelection to the House which leaves a vacancy in the Third.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n A heavily rural district<\/span><\/a> which includes the Western Slope, the Third has attracted five energetic candidates<\/span><\/a> on the ballot.\u00a0 <\/span>One candidate, Jeff Hurd<\/span><\/a>, is a well financed recipient of the old GOP guard with endorsements and more in sync with establishment policies than the remaining four, all who qualify as America First; thereby splitting the conservative Trump vote.\u00a0 <\/span>Hurd made it on the ballot via the petition route rather than participation in the State Assembly caucus. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Alerted to Hurd\u2019s well-organized campaign, I attended a get-to-know-the candidate and became re-acquainted with numerous buds from my Democratic days who were planning to cross-over on June 25th.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n With Adam Frisch again on the Democratic line and having raised $1.2 Million in anticipation he would be opposing Lauren, there is still some Dem expectation that the choices on the November ballot will be acceptable to the Dems.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n However, former Air Force intel officer and State Rep. Ron Hanks<\/span><\/a> who attended the Jan 6<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> rally has received the GOP party endorsement.\u00a0 <\/span>He faces stiff competition from the remaining three candidates who are all unyielding, at least two of whom have little\/no chance of winning the primary. \u00a0 <\/span>With Dems actively planning to cross-over during a primary, therein lies a huge electoral dilemma for the GOP in the Third CD.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The Fifth District<\/span><\/a> is currently represented by retiring Rep. Doug Lamborn, with two primary candidates.\u00a0 <\/span>Jeff Crank leads in fundraising as an Executive with the Americans for Prosperity<\/span><\/a> PAC and has received the endorsement of Speaker Mike Johnson.\u00a0 <\/span>Crank qualified for the ballot via the petition route rather than attend the State Assembly caucus where he did not have the votes.\u00a0 <\/span>Former State Rep. Dave Williams is currently State GOP chair and has received the Trump and House Freedom Caucus endorsements. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n East of Boulder and north of Denver, the Eighth District<\/span><\/a> is newly created as a result of the 2020 census and supported Biden in 2020 by 5 points. The Eighth is targeted by the RNC and rated a \u2018toss up\u2019 by two pollsters and \u2018lean Republican\u2019 by another. \u00a0 <\/span>Rep. Yadira Caravea<\/span><\/a> won her first term with less than 1% of the vote and has raised over $2 M against considerably underfunded Republicans.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Former State Rep. Dr. Janak Joshi<\/span><\/a> who was endorsed by the GOP owns a dialysis clinic and his primary opponent is Colorado House Rep. Gabe Evans.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n *\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n After the one-dimensional effort to keep Trump off the Colorado Presidential ballot, the once powerful political class suffered a well-deserved setback in its efforts to stifle control of a newly emerging\u00a0 <\/span>GOP; threatening to break out of its partisan lethargy.\u00a0 <\/span>One such news initiative is the RINO Watch<\/span><\/a> that has publicly recognized those GOPers still tied to a history of middle road politics that persisted in maintaining their outdated influence and waning authority on party politics. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In early March, 2024, the US Supreme Court announced its unanimous reversal of the Colorado Supreme Court as it held that only Congress has the authority to determine eligibility for Federal office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n For non Colorado residents, the entire fiasco to deny former President Donald Trump a place on the state\u2019s Presidential ballot may have seemed an extraordinary arbitrary effort, unusual in its excessive force.\u00a0 <\/span>As the lawsuit\u2019s Lead Respondent<\/span><\/a> was a former Republican State Senate Majority Leader issuing a last-ditch call for the old guard Republicans, once previously influential, legislative power brokers in the State Assembly to step up and prove it still have the mojo.<\/span><\/p>\n All that shifted decades earlier when a well organized, well funded campaign of deep pocket Democrats targeted Colorado as the blueprint for a coordinated strategy<\/span><\/a> of integrating 501(c)(3) non-profit<\/span><\/a>s alongside the Democratic party for the sole purpose of winning elections.\u00a0 <\/span>Details of how that strategy unfolded decades of Republican domination can be found in \u201cThe Blueprint<\/i><\/span><\/a>: How the Democrats Won Colorado<\/i>\u201d as its lessons were later applied to other states comparable to Colorado.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n By 2004, the original Gang of Four<\/span><\/a> consisted of\u00a0 <\/span>Jared Polis, Rutt Bridges, Tim Gill and Pat Stryker providing unheard of levels of money in Colorado manifesting its Blueprint objectives.\u00a0 <\/span>Those efforts eventually expanded into the Roundtable<\/span><\/a> which included a range of civic, governmental, labor union and business entities all with a partisan interest in Colorado government. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In 2008, tech millionaire Polis (D) was elected to the US House of Representatives where he served until being elected Colorado Governor in 2018 where he still serves.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n With the election of Barak Obama in 2008, a new generation of younger, college educated suburban Democratic leaning voters were introduced to Colorado\u2019s extraordinary ecologic beauty with the largest mountain range in North American formed 50-80 million years ago spawning wilderness, wildlife and alpine lakes, confirmed its population to see God\u2019s handiwork everywhere; from the highest summits of the Rocky Mountain range creating the Colorado River<\/span><\/a> at the Continental Divide, travelling through eleven national parks and monuments and a portion of the Grand Canyon.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n With its natural demographic wonders cherished for its splendors, its history and its timelessness, Colorado was on its way to become a bluest of Blue States.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n With publication of The Blueprint<\/i> in 2010, the deed was nearly complete, needing only National Assembly alterations along the way. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
![eight Congressional Districts<\/span><\/a> which have historically split between five Democrats and three<\/span><\/a> Republicans. Within those Republicans ranks, however, were two Reps who could safely be identified as representing the RINO wing of the party and who even voted with the Democrats on occasion.<\/span><\/p>\nCurrently, there are energetic Republican primaries<\/span><\/a> scheduled for the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth CDs, all with exemplary candidates on the ballot. To complicate matters, Colorado has a semi-open primary<\/span><\/a> which allows unaffiliated voters to participate in one party\u2019s primary without affiliating in that party. \u00a0 <\/span>In other words, the Democrats have proven to be dual-primary voters and have an opportunity to decide the outcome, most especially in the Third District.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe Third District has been represented by Rep. Lauren Boebert who, in a blast of sheer brilliance, moved on and is a candidate in the Fourth District<\/span><\/a> which was represented by Rep. Ken Buck.\u00a0 <\/span>Boebert, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, is endorsed by President Trump and is expected to win both the primary and reelection to the House which leaves a vacancy in the Third.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nA heavily rural district<\/span><\/a> which includes the Western Slope, the Third has attracted five energetic candidates<\/span><\/a> on the ballot.\u00a0 <\/span>One candidate, Jeff Hurd<\/span><\/a>, is a well financed recipient of the old GOP guard with endorsements and more in sync with establishment policies than the remaining four, all who qualify as America First; thereby splitting the conservative Trump vote.\u00a0 <\/span>Hurd made it on the ballot via the petition route rather than participation in the State Assembly caucus. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAlerted to Hurd\u2019s well-organized campaign, I attended a get-to-know-the candidate and became re-acquainted with numerous buds from my Democratic days who were planning to cross-over on June 25th.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWith Adam Frisch again on the Democratic line and having raised $1.2 Million in anticipation he would be opposing Lauren, there is still some Dem expectation that the choices on the November ballot will be acceptable to the Dems.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nHowever, former Air Force intel officer and State Rep. Ron Hanks<\/span><\/a> who attended the Jan 6<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> rally has received the GOP party endorsement.\u00a0 <\/span>He faces stiff competition from the remaining three candidates who are all unyielding, at least two of whom have little\/no chance of winning the primary. \u00a0 <\/span>With Dems actively planning to cross-over during a primary, therein lies a huge electoral dilemma for the GOP in the Third CD.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe Fifth District<\/span><\/a> is currently represented by retiring Rep. Doug Lamborn, with two primary candidates.\u00a0 <\/span>Jeff Crank leads in fundraising as an Executive with the Americans for Prosperity<\/span><\/a> PAC and has received the endorsement of Speaker Mike Johnson.\u00a0 <\/span>Crank qualified for the ballot via the petition route rather than attend the State Assembly caucus where he did not have the votes.\u00a0 <\/span>Former State Rep. Dave Williams is currently State GOP chair and has received the Trump and House Freedom Caucus endorsements. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nEast of Boulder and north of Denver, the Eighth District<\/span><\/a> is newly created as a result of the 2020 census and supported Biden in 2020 by 5 points. The Eighth is targeted by the RNC and rated a \u2018toss up\u2019 by two pollsters and \u2018lean Republican\u2019 by another. \u00a0 <\/span>Rep. Yadira Caravea<\/span><\/a> won her first term with less than 1% of the vote and has raised over $2 M against considerably underfunded Republicans.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nFormer State Rep. Dr. Janak Joshi<\/span><\/a> who was endorsed by the GOP owns a dialysis clinic and his primary opponent is Colorado House Rep. Gabe Evans.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n *\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAfter the one-dimensional effort to keep Trump off the Colorado Presidential ballot, the once powerful political class suffered a well-deserved setback in its efforts to stifle control of a newly emerging\u00a0 <\/span>GOP; threatening to break out of its partisan lethargy.\u00a0 <\/span>One such news initiative is the RINO Watch<\/span><\/a> that has publicly recognized those GOPers still tied to a history of middle road politics that persisted in maintaining their outdated influence and waning authority on party politics. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nIn early March, 2024, the US Supreme Court announced its unanimous reversal of the Colorado Supreme Court as it held that only Congress has the authority to determine eligibility for Federal office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nFor non Colorado residents, the entire fiasco to deny former President Donald Trump a place on the state\u2019s Presidential ballot may have seemed an extraordinary arbitrary effort, unusual in its excessive force.\u00a0 <\/span>As the lawsuit\u2019s Lead Respondent<\/span><\/a> was a former Republican State Senate Majority Leader issuing a last-ditch call for the old guard Republicans, once previously influential, legislative power brokers in the State Assembly to step up and prove it still have the mojo.<\/span><\/p>\nAll that shifted decades earlier when a well organized, well funded campaign of deep pocket Democrats targeted Colorado as the blueprint for a coordinated strategy<\/span><\/a> of integrating 501(c)(3) non-profit<\/span><\/a>s alongside the Democratic party for the sole purpose of winning elections.\u00a0 <\/span>Details of how that strategy unfolded decades of Republican domination can be found in \u201cThe Blueprint<\/i><\/span><\/a>: How the Democrats Won Colorado<\/i>\u201d as its lessons were later applied to other states comparable to Colorado.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nBy 2004, the original Gang of Four<\/span><\/a> consisted of\u00a0 <\/span>Jared Polis, Rutt Bridges, Tim Gill and Pat Stryker providing unheard of levels of money in Colorado manifesting its Blueprint objectives.\u00a0 <\/span>Those efforts eventually expanded into the Roundtable<\/span><\/a> which included a range of civic, governmental, labor union and business entities all with a partisan interest in Colorado government. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nIn 2008, tech millionaire Polis (D) was elected to the US House of Representatives where he served until being elected Colorado Governor in 2018 where he still serves.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWith the election of Barak Obama in 2008, a new generation of younger, college educated suburban Democratic leaning voters were introduced to Colorado\u2019s extraordinary ecologic beauty with the largest mountain range in North American formed 50-80 million years ago spawning wilderness, wildlife and alpine lakes, confirmed its population to see God\u2019s handiwork everywhere; from the highest summits of the Rocky Mountain range creating the Colorado River<\/span><\/a> at the Continental Divide, travelling through eleven national parks and monuments and a portion of the Grand Canyon.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWith its natural demographic wonders cherished for its splendors, its history and its timelessness, Colorado was on its way to become a bluest of Blue States.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nWith publication of The Blueprint<\/i> in 2010, the deed was nearly complete, needing only National Assembly alterations along the way. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nIt was adoption of Amendment 64<\/span><\/a><\/span> in 2012 when Democrats regained control of the State House by a large margin and have kept the majority ever since.\u00a0 <\/span>The Amendment changed the State Constitution to allow one ounce of recreational cannibas for citizens over 21 years of age which would appear to be statutorily unenforceable.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nBy April, 2017, 175 Colorado municipalities<\/span><\/a> (out of 272) prohibited retail marijuana sales within its borders even as Colorado flipped into a homeless blue state of marijuana residents which forever altered the political nature of Colorado\u2019s population.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe Secretary of States\u2019 office was unable to provide current voter registration numbers per the following: \u00a0 <\/span>\u201cDue to volume of data, PDFs have been discontinued as of January 2024<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Republicans claim to have 930,000 registered voters while the Dems claim1.0 Million voters.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State of Politics in Colorado<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Colorado%2527s_congressional_districts#\/media\/File:Colorado_Congressional_Districts,_118th_Congress.svg\"){kind=link}