As If Coloradans Needed Another Reason To Vote For Recall

If Coloradans needed another reason to vote to recall the odious Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and his anti-gun compatriot Sen. Angela Giron (D-Pueblo), here is one you’ve probably not considered. If either or both survive the recall elections, they are each eligible under Colorado law to collect 10 cents per vote cast.

If everyone registered to vote in Morse’s El Paso County Senate District 11 actually voted, then Morse — with a victory — could be reimbursed $6,901.For Giron, whose Pueblo Senate District 3 has 81,846 registered voters, she could receive $8,100 in reimbursement cash.

Morse and Giron, who face recalls for their support of Colorado gun laws passed this year by the Democrat-controlled legislature, would have 60-days after the date of the recall election to file a request with the state.

“It’s just not something we’re going to look to do,” said Kjersten Forseth, a consultant to both the Morse and Giron recall campaigns. “The taxpayers are already being forced to pay for these unnecessary recalls, and we’re not going to look to punish them.”

Given the amount of money that the incumbents have received from the likes of Mayor Bloomberg and LA billionaire Eli Broad, it is pocket change.

Their consultant did say it might be different if the money was coming from the organizers of the recall petitions. However, she went on to add, “that’s not at all democratic.”

I find that last comment rather rich considering Sen. Morse’s own comments to Rachel Maddow shown below in which he told Democrats in the State Senate to ignore their constituents when it came to voting to abridge their Second Amendment rights.

“Sickness In Our Souls” – John Morse

Jon Caldera, President of the Independence Institute, hosts a program on Colorado Public TV called Devils Advocate. In one of his shows, he quoted Colorado Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) saying that those who opposed his gun laws had a “sickness in their souls”. Morse is now objecting that he was taken out of context and that isn’t what he meant. Morse said he wasn’t referring to gun owners but violence in general.

Caldera has the transcript of Morse’s comment and says what Morse said is exactly what he meant. He has now challenged Morse to come on his show and explain himself.

John Morse: Guns And Gun Control? Hey, Look Over There – Squirrel!

The one thing Colorado Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) does not want to talk about is the one thing that has him facing a recall election in September. That is namely Morse’s votes for gun control and the role he played in shoving gun control through the Colorado State Senate.

As the Denver Post notes:

The reason Senate President John Morse faces a recall election that could end his political career is simple: He’s from a swing district, and he supported controversial gun-control laws.

But in the days since the recall battle began in earnest after a July filled with legal spats, Morse and a group backing the El Paso County senator — A Whole Lot of People for John Morse — have unveiled a strategy focused on everything but his gun votes.

Below is his campaign’s first TV ad. Notice that he is blaming “groups in Denver” rather than the grassroots efforts of local gun owners for the recall. Notice also that he says he wants to bring more jobs to Colorado despite the impact the gun control laws he pushed have had on the Colorado economy.

You have to wonder if Morse survives the recall effort  will he credit New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for providing the financial resources need to fund ads like the one above. After all, Bloomberg has indicated he plans to support both Morse and Sen. Angela Giron (D-Pueblo) in their fight to remain in office.

Times Editorial Is Laughably Inaccurate

The editorial board of the New York Times wouldn’t know the difference between actual grass roots efforts and astroturfing if it bit them on their privileged asses. They show their ignorance in an unsigned editorial about the Colorado recall elections titled, “The Gun Lobby Takes Vengeful Aim.”

The ink was barely dry, however, before the National Rifle Association was vindictively pressing for recall votes against two supporters of the stronger law, the State Senate president, John Morse, of Colorado Springs, and State Senator Angela Giron of Pueblo.

The recall vote, set for Sept. 10, could hardly be more important as a barometer of whether the public, which repeatedly registers support for tougher gun controls in surveys, will show up at the ballot to defend politicians who bucked the gun lobby.

If by gun lobby the New York Times means gun owning constituents, then they might be correct. However, this is not what they mean and we all know it. Unlike the gun controls measures which were written and lobbied for by Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the threat of money to primary opponents of any Democrat who didn’t support them, the recall efforts have been actual grassroots efforts led by Coloradans.

The Basic Freedom Defense Fund was set up in February of this year to fight the gun control measures being financed by Bloomberg. After those measures were rammed through by Democrats, the Fund decided to start recall efforts against four Democrats. While the Times only mentions Morse and Giron, the recall effort also targeted State Sen. Mike McLachlan (D-Durango) and State Sen. Evie Hudak (D-Westminister). They were unsuccessful in getting enough signatures in the time allotted to force the recall of McLachlan and Hudak.

These politicians were targeted for two basic reasons. First, they were considered vulnerable due to close past elections. Second, they had ignored their constituents. Chris Wiggins of Shooter Ready Radio who lives in Pueblo told me over 1,000 constituents had turned up for a townhall meeting regarding gun control with State Sen. Angela Giron. Of these, less than two dozen spoke in support of gun control while the rest were adamantly opposed to the proposed measures which Giron ultimately supported.

Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) you may remember famously told his Democrat colleagues in the State Senate to ignore all the phone calls, emails, and letters from constituents and to vote for the gun control measures. This is the same Morse that the Times editorial calls “a respected Second Amendment proponent” and who states “Recalls are for unethical behavior, and not disagreements.” I would agree with Morse but would go on to say that his behavior has been unethical and that a recall for him is right and proper.

The Times editorial concludes by saying this is an opportunity to rebuff the NRA and the gun industry.

For all the message of risk for politicians embodied in the vengeful recall attempt, there is a parallel opportunity for the public to rebuff the gun industry. But enough voters must show up in defense of two lawmakers who conscientiously stood for public safety.

The gun lobby’s defeat in Colorado would send a stirring message to statehouses across the nation that the public must not be denied in demanding better gun safety.

What they really mean is that the gun owning peons in Colorado should sit down, shut up, and kow-tow to their “betters” who know whats best for them. I hate to tell the Times editorial board this but we fought a revolution over 200 years ago over similar attitudes. The rabble won against the world’s greatest army then and the rabble (aka the grassroots) will win again against Mayor Bloomberg and his bought and paid for minions in Colorado.

The Recall Elections In Colorado Are A Go!

Colorado District Court Judge Robert Hyatt ruled that the petitions submitted for the recall of State Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and Sen. Angela Giron (D-Pueblo) are valid and the recall election is a go.

Judge Hyatt said in his oral decision as reported by the Denver Post:

“The petitions here substantially comply with law,” Judge Robert Hyatt said…

“Recalls are a fundamental right of Colorado citizens,” Hyatt said in his oral decision from the bench…

The judge in his ruling pointed out that the templates used by petitioners date back several years and span Democratic and Republican secretaries of state.

“The form used not only fully complied with secretary of state, but in the court’s opinion it complied with the Colorado constitution,” Hyatt ruled.

“The court does give great weight that petitioners made a good-faith effort to comply with law. The court finds the proponents did not in any way consciously mean to mislead the public.”

Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) set September 10th as the date for the recall elections.

It is expected that Morse and Giron will appeal this decision to the Colorado Supreme Court. That said, as Sebastian Bitter rightly noted, the longer these two and their supporters fight to delay the recall election, the more negative sentiment they generate from voters in their districts.

It will also give the Republicans more time to vet the candidates who will face Morse and Giron. The importance of this vetting has already become evident as one of the announced candidates in Colorado Springs – Jaxine Bubis – writes erotica under the pen name Jaxine Daniels. You can imagine the field day that John Morse would have with this tidbit if it had come out during the final days of the campaign.

Fortunately, the El Paso County Republican Committee chose former Colorado Spring City Councilman Bernie Herpin to face Morse in the election. Herpin and Bubis had a prior agreement to abide by the decision of the Republican committee as to which one of them would be the nominee.

CO Secretary Of State Confirms Enough Signatures For Recall Of Morse

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office has confirmed that the backers of a recall election for Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) submitted more than enough signatures to force a recall.

The Denver Post reports that the El Paso Freedom Defense Committee obtained 10,137 valid signatures out of over 16,000 submitted. They only needed 7,178 verified signatures to force the recall.

Morse supporters are trying to say that the recall petition had “improper language” and should be tossed out.

A Whole Lot of People for John Morse, the group backing him, said Tuesday its protest “would nullify the purported sufficiency of the signatures.”

They argued the organizers failed to use proper language as defined by the Colorado Constitution requiring petitions “expressly include a demand for the election of a successor to the recalled official.”

Mark Grueskin, a prominent election lawyer who is representing a Morse constituent who filed the legal challenge with the secretary of state Tuesday, said, “The constitution is clear, just as the courts are clear: No recall petition is valid without this specific language.”

In a recall election, the ballot asks two questions: Should “so and so” be recalled, and “if so, then who should” be the successor.

Grueskin said organizers failed to use such wording in their petition language that notifies signers that a recall is a two-part process.

The legal counsel for the Colorado Republican Party dismisses this argument saying that the state constitution protects the people’s right to call for a recall election. 

Second Anti-Gun Colorado Senator May Be Recalled

The Denver Post is reporting that more than 13,500 signatures have been submitted to the Colorado Secretary of State in an effort to force a recall of Sen. Angela Giron (D-Pueblo). The number needed to trigger a recall election in her district is 11,285.

Giron joins State Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) as the second anti-gun Democrat for whom opponents have potentially gathered enough signatures to trigger a recall. The Secretary of State’s office must verify that there are enough valid signatures. After that, both Giron and Morse each have 15 days to challenge any signature. If there are still enough valid signatures remaining after the appeals, then an election date is set that is between 45 and 75 days afterwards.

Both Giron and Morse could resign in which case a “vacancy committee” would pick a successor to serve the remainder of their terms. The replacement would be a Democrat. However, both Giron and Morse have said they don’t plan to resign.

Political analyst Eric Sondermann says it’s hard for him to see Morse, or any Democrat for that matter, resigning when faced with a recall.


“If he resigns because he thinks he can’t win, then that says it’s likely in 2014 another Democrat isn’t going to win either,” Sondermann said.

The Pueblo Chieftain reports that Giron doesn’t regret her vote and doesn’t plan to resign.

A second Colorado Democrat who is facing possible recall over gun control says she wouldn’t change her votes and has no plans to resign.

Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo says she’ll fight for her seat and that most constituents support the measures she backed. Giron oversees the Senate committee that first approved a measure to require background checks on most private and online gun sales.

Giron’s district is heavily Democratic whereas Morse’s district is evenly split between Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliateds. 

UPDATE: The Colorado conservative blog, Colorado Peak Politics, is speculating that Senate President John Morse will resign rather than fight the recall battle. They point to comments made by Kjersten Forseth saying they are evaluating options. They liken Forseth as equivalent for Morse as Karl Rove was to Pres. George W. Bush. In other words, his chief political strategist and advisor. Forseth has a deep background in union and leftist politics in Colorado.

I Feel Sorry For The Citizens Of Colorado Springs



I had read that Colorado Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) was arrogant but I never quite got it until I saw him in the video below. It is after the signing ceremony at which Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) signed three gun control bills including the new magazine ban.

Morse starts out by saying, “Zero, the number of guns these bills take from law abiding citizens.” While he is technically correct, the readily converted provision of HB 1224 would make the part of the semi-automatic firearm that holds the ammunition banned rendering it useless.