Â
Announcement from Sen. Josh Penry
Dear Friends,
This morning in a small park in Grand Junction I endorsed Scott McInnis to be the next Governor of the State of Colorado.
Experience and new energy are now on the same team, and that's good news for our state, our party, and the cause [...]
Wow, go to bed with it mostly counted, wake up to some real movement in places 3 – 5. Ok, first off a big thank you to everyone who ran. You put yourself out there in front of everyone and had to take a lot of grief. Campaigning is a [...]
Final Update: I'm calling it a night. There's a tiny chance Becker & Cowles could flip, but we know which 5 people won. The giant news is that the freeze in amber crowd went down to a strong defeat with Macon barely retaining his seat – for 2 years. And [...]
Ok, ½ hour to go so time to make my guess. First for BVSD – who cares. No matter who wins, all of the candidates I saw will continue the BVSD tradition of being totally ineffective and we'll see no improvement in our schools. The children of the well off' [...]
Over 500 visitors to my blog yesterday, over 600 1,000 so far today. People are using Google to figure out who to vote for...
Of course, to put this in perspective, I have over 4,000 9,000 visitors so far this morning on my programming blog reading my latest post there - [...]
Forget the election, let's talk about something important – the best place in Boulder to get a burger. I read Want Fries with That? In Yellow Scene and aside from his praise for Lark Burger, I agreed with the ones I had been to.
So we went to Salt' [...]
There is so much going on in the high-tech world every day. And change continues to accelerate at an ever increasing rate. So it is with a large degree of hubris that I say there is one thing larger than any other that is occurring right now. But here goes.
The [...]
I am out in Vegas with some co-workers at the SharePoint Conference this week staying at the Luxor.
This morning one person, who is diabetic, did not show up. After ½ hour we were worried and called both his cell and the hotel room phone. No answer. So one of us [...]
We use Wells Fargo at my company and while they haven't hit us yet with increased fees (we borrow no money and pay credit cards off in full each month), their present efforts to stick it to virtually everyone has us concerned. And even if we're safe, I hate to [...]
I got the chance to interview Ryan Frazier yesterday. The gigantic impression I got of Ryan, both at first and throughout the conversation, is he is a really nice guy. That counts for a lot in running for office. (And for those that say nice guys lose – that [...]
Note: I'm off blogging for 2½ weeks so I'm just blasting this email I received up as a post.
FairFAR.org has released its endorsements in the 2009 City Council Elections.Â
For your convenience these are also attached as a PDF and are available online at:
[fairfar.org]
ABOUT FAIRFAR:
FairFAR.org was formed to critically [...]
So great news but AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!
ps -' [...]
One problem with issues like today's bomb threat is we have to make judgments about the competence of the Fairview administration based on partial information. But it's our children's lives at stake and so we do need to make judgments on what we know. Here is the email from Fairview.
Dear [...]
To quote Jon Stewart:
The Democrats seems to be the kind of people who switch to Geico [...]
We face an interesting question in this race, should we freeze Boulder in amber or should we continue to have a city that is unique & special, but also evolves as we move forward into the future. Or to put it another way, if NCAR didn't exist and it was' [...]
I always loved that line - The Shadow Knows.
Ok, so what's up with PLAN Boulder. It has always been this nebulous group where most of us have no idea who they are or how they operate. But we all figured that they are the "important" people in town. The [...]
I had lunch with Macon Cowles yesterday at Eben Fine park. Macon is a pleasant thoughtful guy and it was nice to be outside for an interview – good idea on his part.
I asked Macon why he is running and he immediately responded that he wants to bring [...]
I got a chance to interview Ken Buck this morning. Speaking as a Democrat I have to admit Ken is worrisome – he is a thoughtful, intelligent, personable candidate. And he makes credible arguments for his views on the issues. I think he will be competitive with Senator Bennet. [...]
I interviewed Valerie Mitchell yesterday. Valerie is a member of the demographic we are doing our best to drive out of Boulder – a blue collar worker. She is a high energy person and has depth on the issues she discusses.
So what does Valerie bring to the council? [...]
Ok, this is not going to make me Mr. Popular.
As I've mentioned to a couple of campaign managers, we owe our primary allegiance not to a candidate or party, but to our country and to the world. This is essential at times like this when we are in a world' [...]
I interviewed George Karakehian yesterday. George is a local businessman who has been in Boulder forever. He's served on boards, worked on issues, etc.
The first thing that jumps out about George, and was there throughout the entire conversation, is he is very earnest in his effort to run. [...]
Hi all,
Below and attached are the questions we are asking all city council
candidates to answer for our election guide. We must receive your answers by
next Wednesday, Sept. 30. The answer to each question should be less than
100 words, and we reserve the right to edit for length. Please also provide
your [...]
Their endorsements: Download BOC CC Endorsements
Their process:
The Boulder Outdoor Coalition adjusted our process to select Candidates in this years election. In the past, we sent formal questionnaires to all serious candidates, and have often conducted group interviews. The following factors influenced our shift to a more streamlined selection process [...]
I interviewed Matt Appelbaum on Tuesday. The main impression I got from Matt was what did not happen in the meeting. He did not campaign or sell himself, not even indirectly. Unusual in a politician to say the least.
I asked what the big problems are that Boulder is [...]
Sierra Club Endorses Boulder City Council Candidates
Slate of candidates offers exceptional knowledge and experience in environmental and civic leadership
Boulder, CO—The Sierra Club is pleased to announce its endorsement of five candidates for the Boulder City Council. The endorsed candidates are:
Macon Cowles
Matt Appelbaum
Tim Plass
Jyotsna Raj
Suzy Ageton
These candidates offer the City [...]
We had a very interesting conversation in the comments of the Camera article Boulder Valley teachers turn down 1 percent cost-of-living raise. (This by the way is the Camera commenting at its best – an thoughtful discussion between people who disagree listing out the reasoning behind their points, and [...]
BCU now holds the record for the most transparent organization in Boulder - they are posting not only their questionnaire, but also their answers.
Boulder Community United blog Boulder Community United Questionnaire Macon Cowles' Response Tim Plass' Response Suzy Ageton's Response George Karakehian's Response KC Becker's' [...]These guys rock. Soerra Club is not just transparent, they're crystal clear. Here's their info:
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your patience. It’s been a particularly busy week, which included the successful staging our Boulder City Council Candidate Environmental Issues Forum ([rockymtn.sierraclub.org]) on Wednesday evening, and the Wild Step Fundraiser earlier today [...]
I had lunch yesterday with Seth Brigham. Seth is one of the people that makes Boulder interesting. He's not a rich knee-jerk liberal but instead someone who truly marches to his own drum.
Seth started out talking about how he would bring an unrepresented viewpoint to the council as' [...]
I had lunch with City Council candidate Kevin Hotaling today. I think it's a law here in Boulder that every election we have one recently graduated student running and Kevin is it this year. As such, he has enthusiasm up the wazoo, is very idealistic, and doesn't have the [...]
Update: The Camera did publish Rob's letter, but on the web only. Please see Erika's comment below. Article below has been updated.
I offered to publish Rob's letter the Daily Camera turned down put on the web only. He instead sent me the below and asked me to publish this.' [...]
I've asked every group that evaluates and/or endorses candidates to make their process public. I then added a simple rating based on how transparent the are. This creates 3½ categories.
Cronkite-esque – These are the groups that are fully transparent in their efforts. Kudos to them for' [...]
From Morey Bean:
Hi Dave,
As a 501c(3) the Urban Land Institute is private, non-profit organization, a professional membership group supporting best practices and education in growth, land use and development. Hence the group, our Boulder committee included, is prohibited from engaging in direct political or lobbying activity, and doesn't make candidate' [...]
Update: Rob's reply here.
The Daily Camera reports:
A Boulder activist and candidate for City Council has filed a complaint with the city clerk alleging that the Camera unfairly provided editorial space to one of his competitors.
In a complaint filed with the city Tuesday, Smoke, 53, alleges that' [...]
Dear Council Candidate:
The mission of The Community Foundation is improve the quality of life in Boulder County now and forever, and to build a culture of giving.
In fulfilling that mission, we have compiled research on quality of life indicators in Boulder County for the past 12 years and have [...]
Dear City Council Candidates:
Members of the Boulder Hotel & Motel Association look forward to meeting the many of you who have accepted our invitation to our lunch at the Millennium on September 22 at 11:30 A.M.
I am sending this information in the hopes that you will find the material [...]
Downtown Boulder has a very clever approach to this – their questionaire is filled out online. Here is their questionaire:
BOULDER CITY COUNCIL - CANDIDATE QUESTIONNAIRE
Thank you for offering to invest your time, energy and talents to serve the Boulder community on City Council.
Downtown Boulder, Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated [...]
From Andra Coberly ay Yellow Scene
Hi David,
So, here is some insight into our process.
We invite all candidates throughout Boulder County and the North Metro area to talk with us; though, some opt not to take advantage of the opportunity. We have an in-house policy to never endorse someone who [...]
The B.O.C. is endorsing:
Suzy Ageton Barry Siff KC Becker George KarakehianIn addition Buzz Burrell has promised more info on my request for how they decided to endorse these four.
[...]I had lunch today with Fenno Hoffman, candidate for Boulder City Council. Fenno is a renaissance man in the field of architecture. Wide wide range of work there including all the efforts that go in around the actual design.
But the renaissance man approach goes well beyond his work. As [...]
For those of you that have never run for office, you will be surprised by this. There is an amazing number of orginazations that ask the candidates to fill out questionaires. (Fortuantely a lot of the questions are duplicates, otherwise there is no way they could all be answered.) I [...]
I will update this page over the course of the election as more information comes in. Please set links to this page as Boulder City Council Election.
Candidates
Candidate
Website
Contact
Interview
Raised
Spent
Suzy Ageton
none
$1,400
0
Matt Appelbaum
9/22
0
0
KC Becker
$1,171
$571
Seth Brigham
I had lunch yesterday with Jyotsna Raj at Boulder Beer. She is very personable and a joy to talk to. She clearly is intellectually curious on a wide array of subjects – always a good thing when facing serious problems without clear answers. She also grew up in India [...]
I met Barry Siff for coffee Thursday at Steelyards Coffee Pekoe Tea for an interview. Very Boulder – he arrived on a scooter wearing a helmet. Talk about a high energy guy – Barry clearly is a top athlete who puts every bit of energy into everything he does. [...]
I interviewed Tim Plass at the Steelyards Coffee Shop (which is now apparently a tea shop). It was a very interesting conversation, with an incredibly interesting idea coming up part way through (read on to find out – this is what they call a teaser). Tim comes across as [...]
What is BVSD's response to Obama's upcoming speech to schoolchildren? Every principal is left to decide, and if the principal says ok then each teacher decides for their class.
Just goes to show they may have several hundred people working at the administration building - but not one pair of balls.
[...]I had lunch today with K.C. Becker who is running for Boulder City Council. She was a refreshing breath of direct answers. Most politicians couch what they say at least somewhat carefully. But a few (Jared Polis & Ali Hasan are two others) speak directly to issues and tell [...]
