Station:   KNUS, 710 AM

Show:      Dan Caplis Show

Guests:    Beauprez

Link:        http://dancaplis.podbean.com/?source=pb

Date:       May 14, 2014

Topics:     Mandatory Early Release, Evan Ebel, Tom Clements, Nathan, Leon, Department of Corrections, Violent Criminals, Sentencing, Parole, Solitary Confinement, Administrative Segregation, Murder, Public Safety, Amendment 64, Driving Under the Influence (DUI), Felony DUI Bill, Kill Committee, Leadership, Opportunity, Circular Firing Squad, Nominee, GOP, Candidates, Debate, Forum Colorado Christian University, Centennial Institute, Women, Mitt Romney Endorsement, Rick O’Donnell, Precinct, General Election, Primary Election, White Supremacist Gang, Mental Illness, Therapy, Gang Problem, Democratic National Convention 2008, The Denver Post, Bill Ritter, Senate Appointment, Amendment 64

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HOST DAN CAPLIS:  […] Congrats on the Mitt Romney endorsement.

FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM COLORADO, FORMER & CURRENT GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE, BOB BEAUPREZ:   Thank you, yeah. Yesterday was a good day. I’m honored to have that endorsement. Mitt’s not only a well known figure in our Party and within America, but he became a personal friend of Claudia and I’s, a man of great character, a wonderful family man, and so I’m honored to have his support, obviously.

CAPLIS:  Yeah, you know, I remember that gorgeous Saturday night out at Fiddler’s or ‘Something Dental’ – or whatever they call it now, where Amy and I brought the kids and some of their friends and we sat there for the Romney rally.  It must have been a few days before Election Day, and you did one of the intros. And I just sat there, thinking, “You know, this is what America is all about.” Unfortunately, that election didn’t work out the right way.  But let me ask you about this, the big reason I wanted to have you on today, Bob, is I was really happy to see you step up and speak the truth on this link between John Hickenlooper’s policies and the murder of, by all accounts, a really superb man, Colorado Department of Corrections chief, Tom Clements.  Can you tell the folks where you see that connection?

BEAUPREZ:  Well, and let’s not forget, that another gentleman, less well known, maybe, but another Coloradoan as well, Nathan Leon was murdered for no other reason than his pizza uniform, his delivery uniform. So, two murders. And I want to be clear, Dan, the murder of Nathan Leon and Tom Clements really was an alarm that should have been sounded inside the governor’s office about a much bigger issue. I don’t want to imply that somehow it was the governor’s policy that singularly took Tom Clements’ life, Nathan Leon’s life.  But there –it’s a much broader public safety problem in the state of Colorado.  And thank you for giving me the time to highlight. Here’s the issue.  As I think anybody who followed that case will remember, Evan Ebel –we’ll still say ‘the accused murderer’, because interestingly enough, we still don’t know.  No one has been named officially as the killer of Tom Clements, although I think everybody that’s followed the case assumes, presumes that it was indeed Evan Ebel. Evan Ebel was released directly from administrative segregation in our state prison–  administrative segregation, otherwise known as solitary confinement. How do you get in solitary confinement? Let’s put it politely and say, “by not playing well with others.” This is a member of a gang.  That’s been well documented as well –a white supremacist gang that exists within our prisons. And He’s not alone.  As The Denver Post documented in a series of successive stories, Evan Ebel was but one of an example of I think just horrific public safety mistakes, or problems with serious repercussions that’s been going on for some time. To be exact, over 100, according to The Denver Post, of our most violent prisoners have been paroled from solitary confinement onto our streets, into our neighborhoods–your neighborhoods. And to do what? Violence, again, in many cases. Because Colorado has one of the worst recidivism rates in the entire nation. We are among the bottom three of all states. Fifty percent of all parolees end up right back in prison. So we’re kidding ourselves, Dan, to think that somehow we have rehabilitated prisoners, prepared them to reenter society and become again safe, productive citizens. We’ve done just exactly the opposite. Now when the alarm was sounded

CAPLIS:  Hey, Bob, can I ask you a quick question before you move on with that next point?  I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding of this issue – this issue of releasing people straight from solitary confinement to the street, is this isn’t one of those areas where experts disagree, or there are different philosophies, or whatever.  Anybody with a brain knows that’s a disaster waiting to happen.

BEAUPREZ:  Precisely.

CAPLIS:  So why was it happening?

BEAUPREZ:  Precisely. And this should have been the alarm that was sounded with the tragic death – and let me emphasize again, this was a huge tragedy in Colorado that captivated a great deal of the nation. It should have sounded the alarm that something is seriously wrong with our sentencing and parole processes in Colorado. But what the governor did, wasn’t fix a broken system. He just redefined terms. And to be specific, again, Dan, they decided, “Well, you know, maybe the problem is that we’ve got these people in administrative segregation, solitary confinement, and what we need to do is put them back into the general prison population earlier so somehow they will assimilate, acclimate and be ready to go back out in general society.” You know what happened! Is that prisoner-on-prisoner violence has skyrocketed. Prisoner-on-guard violence is up. Our corrections people are absolutely petrified. And we’re still paroling 750 people on average on a monthly basis out of our corrections system, dumping them back into Colorado, many with mental health problems that don’t even get treatment before they get released, Dan. This is a serious public safety issue, and it’s happening on the watch of – and I don’t need to remind you, it’s happening on the watch of a governor who, when he was mayor of Denver, said we didn’t have a gang problem in the City and County of Denver either,  just in advance of the 2008 Democrat National convention. You know, you might not like the reality you’ve got to deal with as an elected official, as a governor, but you need to be willing to at least deal with that reality and solve the problem, not hide it behind some curtain or stick it in the closet and hope it goes away.

CAPLIS:  No, well said. […]And it appears to be, this stuff we get from Hickenlooper and the Democrats and has played out recently in the Democrats shooting down a felony DUI bill, so now we’re one of 4 states that doesn’t have a felony DUI bill, that this bizarre far-left view of crime and punishment, which is so far out of the mainstream of Coloradoans across party lines.  But how would a Governor Beauprez fix this?

BEAUPREZ:  I think we immediately need to assess our sentencing and parole processes, and stand by it with our professionals in the correction industry. I run in—in my tours around Colorado, including down in Canon City recently, I’ve run into some of these guards. And after I make my comments, not even knowing that there’s Congres –er, Corrections employees in the audience, they have consistently come up and said, “You are so right on.” I think most people in Colorado, Dan, are appalled to hear that we are putting people — violent people, some still mentally ill, some that have been sent to prison for sexual assault and have not received the rehabilitation and the therapy that was prescribed, and we’re putting them right back out on the street because of something called “Mandatory Early Release”.  This was another problem that the governor could have easily fixed. Yes, Tom Clements was supportive of this idea when it was passed I think in 2011. But after his tragic murder, the Statehouse in a huge bipartisan vote said that probably was a mistake.  We want to repeal it.  They passed the legislation.  It was sent to the Democrat “kill committee” in the Senate and killed on a 3-2 party line vote.  Why? You and I both know how it works. The Governor didn’t want to see it on his desk so he told leadership to kill it.

CAPLIS:  Yeah, and where is this whole ‘soft on crime’ thing coming from, from the Democrats.  We know it’s their policy because we see what they do and don’t do.  But where is it coming from, to the point that they would even kill a felony DUI bill?

BEAUPREZ:  Precisely. Dan, there Has been this prevailing mentality that somehow,– you know, it’s even got a name: “Hug a thug” –that somehow we just need –we need to be nicer.  We need to be more understanding.  We need–. This nonsense of relativism, that has permeated society way too much of my adult life, it’s still out there.  And it’s very alive and well and palpable in that liberal, progressive, Democrat mentality. And if an elected official, –in this case, particularly, a governor, has a responsibility for anything, it really is to that public safety, first and foremost.  And you might want to wish things were differently. But the reality is some people should not be out on our states and able to commit these heinous crimes that we see too often in the news.

CAPLIS:  Well, what a great point!.  […] And some people shouldn’t be governor. And one of those people is John Hickenlooper, in my view, because it takes a certain skill set, it takes a certain attitude, it takes a certain caring.  And in my view – I don’t mean this in the pejorative – in my view, there are grave questions about what John Hickelooper cares about other than is own political advancement.  There are so many examples under the public safety umbrella, Bob, of the governor just not even caring, not even paying attention.  I mean, what you pointed out in terms of our justice system, you didn’t see the governor standing up and, you know, going to bat over, “We can’t be releasing people straight from solitary” or going to bat, saying, “We have to have a felony DUI law.” And Bob, separate and apart from the issue of whether the governor should have stood up to fight [Amendment] 64 getting passed. – I believe he should have, but separate and apart from that, once it’s passed, he had a sacred duty as governor of this state to make sure the kind of regulations and processes were put in place to protect the people of this state.  And the Constitutional amendment, as you know, gave him vast authority to do that.  Yet he essentially turned this state over to the industry. They are able to dump these chemicals on the street without any testing for potency, or rat hairs, or God knows what, just no attention to public safety.

BEAUPREZ:  Dan, you’re hitting at what I think is one of the critical questions about this governor campaign and its failed leadership. A proactive leadership is not part of what we’ve seen in a Hickenlooper administration in the past four years. And I don’t think a leopard is likely to change his spots. It’s one of the cases I make as to why he doesn’t deserve re-election.

CAPLIS:  Yeah, and I think, again, you know, it’s why he was so anxious to run off to the U.S. Senate. Remember when he was mayor, and he thought that [then-Governor Bill] Ritter was going to appoint him to the Senate, and then was crushed when he didn’t get appointed.  I mean, I don’t think he shouldn’t be in any high office just because of ideological differences.  But he sure as heck shouldn’t be the CEO of a big state like this when he just keeps ignoring these obvious threats to safety and just won’t deal with them.  But hey, can I switch gears with you for a second, in our last few minutes together?

BEAUPREZ:  I’m ready.

CAPLIS:  Looking at this GOP campaign right now, this primary campaign—and I think people are still getting used to –even though we’ve had a dose of it before, the idea of this early primary. June 24, is that right?

BEAUPREZ:  That’s correct,

CAPLIS:  Okay. And so, one thing that I like, as a guy who wants to see the GOP nominee win, is I like the fact that we haven’t seemed to have had a lot of ugliness, a lot of circular firing squad stuff.  You know, it seems to have been conducted on a pretty high level at this point.  That may change in the next month. But – but at this point, do you think – I saw a piece today in an opinion piece on one of the TV stations saying the GOP candidates need to heat this thing up because people aren’t paying attention right now.  Do you agree with that, or do you think that this primary is being run by everybody, you know, just about the right way?

BEAUPREZ:  Uh, well, I don’t know that I can – I’m qualified to speak objectively about how the other three campaigns are running, but I’ll tell you – I’ll give you a general sense of how I think the atmosphere is, at least from a candidate’s perspective. And that’s that we’ve all recognized that the real opponent in this is John Hickenlooper.  Hopefully we can maintain that for the next month-plus, because I think that’ll be the kind of respectful primary, the kind of primary where we can eventually select a nominee – naturally, I’d like it to be me—but that where we select a nominee to go after John Hickenlooper, go up against John Hickenlooper in the fall and can bring our party together.  Not a divisive, destructive, defeating kind of a primary – and we’ve had those before.  I think so far we’ve been able to maintain that kind of focus that the real opponent in this is not other Republicans.  The real opponent is John Hickenlooper and his failed leadership and the lost opportunities that Coloradoans have suffered on his watch.

CAPLIS:  Yeah, and I really love that approach, because my take on this –and I’m no expert.  I’m just a guy out here. But, my take on this is that this is going to be a tough race for whoever the GOP nominee is, the race against John Hickenlooper.  He’s going to be very well funded. He’s going to have most of the media in his back pocket, glossing over his failures and highlighting, magnifiying any failures of the GOP candidate, and it’s going to be a tough, up-hill battle.  I still think with the right candidate who has the skill set to call Hickenlooper out, speak the truth about him, put pressure on him, I still think a winnable race, but a tough race. So, the way I’m looking at this is, whichever one of you win, you know, you’ve got to come out of this thing strong.   The winner cannot come out, you know, limping, battered, bloodied, bruised, you know, of a difficult primary.  But we’ll see how the next month goes.

BEAUPREZ:  Well, right you are. The similarities between this year and this election cycle, Dan, and what I went through in 2002, in a very similar primary, in my first Congressional run, seven people were in it.  I was the seventh to get in, also in the month of March in that year.  But we all pretty well had a good respect for each other. There was very little of what people would call negativism. And at the end of the day, my chief opponent in that race, Rick O’Donnell, endorsed me the next morning.  He was immediately walking precincts for me.  His mother walked precincts for me.  In other words, we came together as a party.  And you’ll remember as well as anyone, we ended up winning a very narrow election which wasn’t supposed to be able to be won by a Republican.  Yes, a fairly thin margin – 121 votes, but we won it.  And I think the similarities this year are quite aligned with my 2002 experience.

CAPLIS:  [Announcing and promoting the next gubernatorial debate, sponsored by KNUS, Centennial Institute, Colorado Christian University, with the theme of “Women in Colorado’s future” on Tuesday, May 20, 2014, at 7:00 pm, and presented by Spirit Wealth Management]  Knowing CCU, you just know that this is going to be a very, very well conducted event.  And one thing, Bob,– I’m sure you guys get this question all the time, all the candidates, is, will you be doing what Bob Beauprez just described Rick O’Donnell doing, you know, for the other candidate, if one of these other candidates wins the primary.  Will you be out there walking precincts, doing everything you can to support him.

BEAUPREZ:  Yes, I’ll absolutely be supportive of our nominee. I’m convinced that John Hickenlooper cannot be re-elected for the good of Colorado. And I can fill the rest of your hour, Dan, explaining why. But his failed leadership, the lost opportunities to our State have diminished the liberty that – the empowering liberty that Colorado has always represented to me in my entire life, and I think that’s why people are here. That’s not a formula for re-election.  That’s a formula to be unelected.  And I—and whoever our Republican nominee is, I’ll be right there to make sure that that happens.

CAPLIS:  Well, and let’s get together and have that longer conversation in studio, because I think it’s apparent to people listening, if they didn’t know you already, that you’re not a cheap shot guy.  You’re not here calling Hickenlooper a bunch of names.  You know your stuff, you know these issues in detail.  And so, it would be, I think, information packed.  So let’s get together sometime soon and do that.

BEAUPREZ:  I look forward to it, Dan.

CAPLIS:  All right, my friend.  Thank you.   Congressman Bob Beauprez, wish you the best of luck!

BEAUPREZ:  Thank you, my friend.  Bye-bye!

CAPLIS:  Thank you, sir.  Take care.  And no doubt in my mind, and I’ve said this many times before, he would be a great governor.  Bob Beauprez, I think, would be a great governor.  And I’m not just saying this to be PC, I think any of the men in the primary right now would make an excellent governor.  And far better than the governor we have right now.