Archive for July, 2007

Caldara still planning to sue

Friday, July 20th, 2007

The dailies have been silent on developments related to the property tax-rate freeze, signed into law by Ritter this year.
 

I heard a rumor that the Dick Wadhams’ had found that polling on the issue wasn’t looking as good as he hoped. I asked Jon Caldara in an email if this was true. He wrote:  
 

“Hadn’t heard that rumor.  I doubt it is true, but polling doesn’t matter about a legal question of constitutionality.”
 

Caldara also wrote me that his lawsuit to stop the freeze is still a go.

“We have retained Hale-Friesen to represent us,” he wrote.  “We are working out our legal strategy.  We plan on taking the time to do it right.”

Ward Connerly Denies He’s Right-Wing

Tuesday, July 10th, 2007

In my column on Sat., I claimed that Ward Connerly, who’s backing an initiative for the Nov. 2008 Colorado ballot dismantling state affirmative action, is a “right winger.” In the email pasted below, which he gave me permission to post, he denies this.

 But if you check out his campaign contributions on opensecrets.org, you find that he’s more aligned with the hard right of the Republican party than any moderate. (caveat: I did not confirm, with 100 percent certainty, that the person who sent this was, indeed, Ward Connerly.)

Mr. Salzman,

I acknowledge that you will be engaged as an opponent in the campaign to end distinctions by the government based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin, in public employment, public education, and public contracting.  The Supreme Court called this practice “race preferences.”  Thus, it will be central to your strategy to play games with words, inasmuch as it will be a virtual impossibility for you to prevail on the merits of the issue.  I was amused, however, that you characterize me as a “right-winger.”  For your information, I support “affirmative action” based on socio-economic conditions; I support equal rights for gays/lesbians; I opposed Proposition 22 in California that sought to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.  Does this fit the stereotype of a “right-winger.”  Moreover, our initiative was approved in California by a margin of 55-45; in Michigan 58-42; and in Washington 59-41.  None of these s tates are loaded with “right-wingers.”  If honesty is of little value to you, perhaps the reality of what is going on in our nation will be of such influence on you.

Best,
Ward Connerly