If you care about education or have kids who go to school in the Denver area, you may have heard about the rift in education policy between those who are in favor of school reform, predominantly defined by supporting the growth of charter schools, and those who  rather strengthen traditional public schools. The issue is at the heart of the past couple of Denver School Board elections, and is again creating divisions between candidates for the election this year in November.

This is a complicated issue, with both sides making good arguments. This blog is not to dissect the case for or against school reform, but rather to bring attention to an issue that deals directly with the focus of our organization, taking large amounts of special interest money out of elections.

If you haven’t already heard, it seems the state of New York is taking some serious steps toward campaign finance reform. Well-funded progressive groups are joined by Governor Andrew Cuomo and many state legislators, mostly Democrats, to pass legislation replacing the state's current campaign finance system with publicly financed campaigns. Cuomo, a Democrat, is proposing a system of public financing that is modeled after the one used in New York City, where if candidates abide by strict spending limits, they can receive $6 in public funds to match every dollar they collect in donations up to $175. Mr. Cuomo would also lower contribution limits and expand disclosure rules.

In a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll taken April 11-14, 86 percent of Americans favored legislation to close firearm background check loopholes.

So, of course, yesterday a bill to do exactly that, sponsored by two conservative   members of the Senate, one Republican and one Democrat was defeated.

Andrew Romanoff raised over $500,000 in campaign contributions during the first quarter of 2013 without taking PAC contributions. He did this even though he was only a candidate for two months.  His opponent, an incumbent taking PAC contributions for three months in a highly targeted race, raised about the same or a slightly smaller amount.

The fundraising that Andrew accomplished was, according to political insiders, supposed to be impossible. 

This is the sort of thing we like to see and unfortunately see rarely. Kudos to Ross Cunniff. If more people would reject special interest influence it would tend to go away.

In the movie “Deep Impact” a journalist overhears a cabinet member talking about “Ellie,” whom she assumed was his mistress. It turns out that what she overheard was “ELE,” which stands for “extinction level event.” The film’s actual plot is about an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. I mention this because I have struggled to express the magnitude of the danger presented to our democracy by privately purchased political campaigns.

Mark Mehringer of Peak Campaigns, working for CleanSlateNow.org, just completed a Colorado poll--400 active voters called on February 10-11. Here's a link to the article in Westword.

With the gun debate currently underway in the Colorado legislature, we thought it would be valuable to point out which current legislators have taken PAC money from gun lobby interest groups. The following information was found on TRACER, through open records on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website. 

Prepare for battle. The weapons are out already.

Andy Borrowitz of The New Yorker, Jan. 30, 2013: