Election Stuff around the country:
COLORADO:
WE BEAT JARED AND THE LYING DEMS
Thanks to the power of talk radio (sure, I'll make that claim...why not?!?) and some local reporters like Shaun Boyd of CBS4 Denver and well-funded TV ads, the disgusting and cynical lie known as Prop HH, which Gov Jared Polis and his henchmen in the state legislature tried to foist on us, even coopting Art Laffer, has failed. The pressure on the legislature to do something REAL regarding property taxes will now be massive. They don't want to do it. Jared doesn't want to do it either despite all his constant talk about being a tax cutter. He's never ever a net tax cutter. Meaning that he'll support some tax cut but only when paired with a tax hike or other changes to the tax code that result in MORE money to government. This is an amazing victory for Coloradans but now it will come down to whether our radical Democratic legislature will do the right thing.
Colorado 2023 election results: Prop HH, Aurora mayor's race and more (denverpost.com)
Proposition HH fails in Colorado, dealing huge blow to Democrats (msn.com)
Unsurprisingly, Prop II, which will let the state keep excess tax revenue from cigarettes and vaping, passed easily.
In Denver, it appears that every union-endorsed candidate for school board LOST election. AWESOME. (I suspect that the endorsement of the eventual winners by Mayor Mike Johnston helped a little but these victories for the non-union candidates were so lopsided that it must mostly have been the result of parents really angry and frustrated at the School Board. Let's hope that the racist grifter Tay Anderson loses in his quest to serve in the State House of Representatives next November. I note that Marlene De La Rosa says "I am not a reformer" which isn't great but it's still better than being a union hack.
That said, all the good school board candidates lost in Douglas County, Jefferson County, and Cherry Creek (and I didn't check other places). It's a shame, and it will continue to make it very difficult for good things to be done for Colorado schools. I haven't followed closely enough to know why it played out this way. I expect that the unions massively outspent the good guys, not least through the sham front group called "Students Deserve Better" which spread all sorts of lies about the candidates who are not union pawns. I also note that the boneheaded DougCo Republican Party didn't support the good candidates for school board there because they were upset that Andy Jones (and, I think, the two others) did not support the small property tax known as Prop 5A which did pass and will allow a salary increase for DougCo teachers so that the district doesn't keep losing teachers to surrounding districts.
Aurora Governor Mike Coffman won re-election, beating socialist Juan Marcano. I don't know who voted for more crime and homelessness in Aurora but Mike did win by a large 16-point margin.
Governor Polis put out two statements in the aftermath of the defeat of the Dems' signature legislation/ballot measure:
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NOT COLORADO:
In Ohio, voters passed Issue 1 which enshrines a right to abortion until the viability of the fetus into the state constitution. Opponents say that the viability criterion is irrelevant because the abortion provider will decide with no ability for review, and the same for the right to have an abortion at any point during a pregnancy to protect the life of the mother. Will be interesting to see if a court says that this new right bars parental notification when a minor gets an abortion.
In Kentucky, Democratic Governor Andy Beshear defeated state AG Daniel Cameron, one of the few people to be endorsed by both Mitch McConnell (whom Cameron used to work for) and by Donald Trump. Still, Cameron has always struck me as a little too "in a hurry", kinda like Vivek Ramaswamy, and a little too interested in climbing the political ladder. While I didn't pay very close attention to the race, I didn't get the sense that he made a compelling case as to why he should win, especially against a guy who is seen by voters as having done a very good job during very difficult times (multiple natural disasters) in the state. Republicans won by huge margins in two other statewide races, for AG and Secretary of State. It's a red state but they like Beshear...just as they liked his dad who was also governor.
In Pennsylvania, where Supreme Court judges are not only elected, but elected in partisan elections where they are identified by political party, a Democrat beat a Republican challenger.
In Virginia where Republicans hoped that Glenn Youngkin's coattails from his 2022 upset victory would give them control of the state senate, that did not happen. Not only did the GOP not win back the Senate (where they were in the minority) but they also LOST the state House (where they had a small majority, but no longer.) A big part of Youngkin's push, asking voters to give the GOP a majority in both chambers so that he could move his agenda forward, was that a majority would allow a "reasonable" 15-week abortion ban. Between this and Issue 1, it sure seems that abortion remains a potent political force in the Democrats' favor. Also, this weakens Youngkin modestly as a presidential candidate.
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Just One Thing: Mandy and I host the Facebook KOA-Kast of the 3rd GOP Debate tonight
TONIGHT AT 6..WATCH THE 3RD REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE WITH ME AND MANDY CONNELL…TURN IT ON AND JOIN OUR KOA-KAST ON THE KOA FACEBOOK PAGE…WE’LL REACT LIVE TOGETHER FROM START TO FINISH…SEE YOU TONIGHT AT 6 FOR THE 3RD REPUBLICAN DEBATE KOA-KAST ON THE KOA FACEBOOK PAGE..AND HEAR THE DEBATE LIVE ON KOA.
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Today's Guests
Mike Lynch is Colorado State House Minority Leader and represents House District 65 (parts of Weld County). We'll discuss the GOP's push to get Jared Polis to call a special session of the legislature to deal with property taxes.
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Michael Fields is President of Advance Colorado Institute and was a key fighter against Prop HH.
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Mike Coffman is the newly re-elected Mayor of Aurora.
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Joe Cunningham is a former Democratic Congressman from South Carolina and current National Director of No Labels
No Labels is a national movement of commonsense Americans advocating for bipartisan solutions to our country’s biggest problems.
- Established in 2009, No Labels has been working for years to bridge the political divide, including helping to found the House Problem Solvers Caucus, the strongest proponent of bipartisan cooperation on Capitol Hill since 2011.
- This summer, No Labels launched the Common Sense policy booklet, featuring a road map with 30 big ideas backed by the majority of commonsense Americans and a call to action for elected officials and candidates. You can download a PDF version of Common Sense here.
- In recent weeks, The Associated Press, The Washington Post and The New York Times have written about them.
I note that Democrats seem very afraid that No Labels will run a presidential candidate.
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Other Stuff
IDF "in the heart of Gaza City": Israel Says Its Forces Have Entered ‘Heart’ of Gaza City Amid War With Hamas - Bloomberg
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This is just the latest piece of news adding to a scary situation: U.S., NATO to Suspend Participation in Landmark Cold War Arms Treaty - WSJ
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Rashida Tlaib property censured by the House of Representatives: Rashida Tlaib censured by House over remarks on Israel (detroitnews.com)
Here's the text of the resolution: untitled (house.gov)
Meanwhile, Ken Buck continues his effort to get a job on MSNBC or CNN: 'Absolutely wrong': Republican Ken Buck slams censure of Rashida Tlaib (msn.com)
Chip Roy (R-TX) gets it right, as does Max Miller (R-OH):
Nobody in America has been red-pilled more completely than Bari Weiss. Reality has bitten her HARD. To be clear, she was never part of the radical progressive left, but her transformation, maybe not into a conservative but into a clear-eyed explicator of the evils of the progressive left is near complete: Bari Weiss on Why We Should End DEI - Tablet Magazine
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Interesting political analysis by Noah Rothman: Republicans Don’t Think They Can Lose in 2024, Even with Trump | National Review
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Moral clarity: Batya Ungar-Sargon: The Antisemites Scream. And I Stiffen My Spine. | The Free Press (thefp.com)
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This does not bode well for the long-term fiscal future of this nation: Share of Debt Held by US Consumers Younger Than 50 Rises by Most on Record (msn.com)
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Don't forget: Trump leading Biden in recent polling is NOT representative of Trump strength. Trump is a weak candidate. It's a representation of Biden's incredible weakness: Biden approval falls to lowest level since April -Reuters/Ipsos | Reuters
Inflation is killing Biden's chances...and killing Americans' finances. Note how many Americans are ignorant enough to believe that inflation is caused by "corporate greed": Yahoo Finance-Ipsos survey: Food inflation is hurting Biden the most
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It’s hard to overcome deep corruption within an industry, such as the industry of science. The people who do this stuff should lose their jobs at universities. Why is this guy still employed after having done this before, and now doing it again?
Nature retracts controversial superconductivity paper by embattled physicist
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In the game a Texans running back kicked a field goal because their place kicker got injured. It was the first field goal made by a running back since 1979.
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Four charged in 2019 theft of golden toilet: 4 men charged in theft of satirical golden toilet titled 'America,' at Churchill's birthplace | AP News
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Today's Videos
Roger Waters is a raging anti-Semite. NEVER go see him in concert. Never buy any of his solo albums. I'm still listening to Pink Floyd stuff but not feeling as good about it as I used to.
When you realize that your grandpa is Ozzy Osbourne
Now THAT is a useful dog!