Grassroots Radio Colorado, Dave Pigott, July 23, 2012
Station: 560 AM, KLZ
Show: Grassroots Radio Colorado
Guest: Pigott
Link: http://grrc.podomatic.com/
Date: July 23, 2012
Topics: House District 33, House District 22, Justin Everett, Diane Primavera, Small Business, Regulations, SB-200, Healthcare Exchange, Obamacare, Affordable Care Act, ACA, Energy, Public Education, Unions, House Majority, Civil Unions, Same Sex Marriage, PERA, Public Employees Retirement Association,
JASON WORLEY: […] We have some special guests here in studio. Some of what I like to call the young guns, running for the house. We’ve got Dave Piggot, HD-33, which is my district. And then we have Justin Everett, HD-22, who, you know, he’s got to walk. No, I’m just kidding.
JUSTIN EVERETT: I wouldn’t say that.
WORLEY: I was completely kidding. So, welcome to the show guys!
KEN CLARK: One thing I’ve got to say, Dave, we’re going to start this out with you, because you are in Jason’s district. So you know, I just get the feeling, he’s going to be watching you, and he’s got a microphone. Dude, be afraid!
DAVE PIGOTT: Of Jason? Well, you know, on behalf of House District 33, to all Coloradoans, I’d like to say I’m sorry, but we love Jason…
[laughter]
PIGOtT: …One of Broomfield’s finest residents
CLARK: Oooo, … now you’re …
WORLEY: Yeah, yeah,
CLARK: Now you’re really reaching on that.
WORLEY: Yeah, you guys, when you’re talking … yeah, I’m actually texting with somebody who just had some specific words about me, so we’ll see how that works out. But guys look at this. We’ve got a big … this is a big deal, coming up here. Right now, Republicans control the House by one seat, 33-32.
PIGOTT: That’s right.
WORLEY: HD-33 has to be protected. HD-22 better be won. You two are, you know, the conservative guys – I mean, you’re coming up with this. We need to win those two seats, and I know a lot of Republicans won’t love hearing this, but get good, solid, conservative folks in there.
PIGOTT: Well, absolutely. And we talked about this before, and you know this as well as anybody, Jason, — we say 33 is 33. And the reason that we say that is if you work your way down the list and you look at what’s competitive out there, who’s got the best shot at winning, we know that the 33rd district is that 33rd seat we need to hold a majority. Don Beezley did it in 2010. We’re going to do it again this year. It’s absolutely crucial, and we’ve seen historically what happens when the Democrats get control of the Governor’s Mansion and both houses of the legislature. And frankly, it’s not good for anybody.
CLARK: Well, it’s always a train wreck. It’s always really, really bad. What is the makeup of HD-33?
[description of affiliation percentages in HD-33]
[Anecdote about Jason and his young son walking with Pigott and “providing security”. Pigott says he’s really give credit to Jason’s son, — “he knew to watch to corner”.]
[discussion with Justin Everett and description of his district: +14% Republican advantage. Everitt gives his campaign website and contact info. Worley teases him about doing donations correctly, unlike his Democratic opponent, who didn’t disclose donors’ employers (MoveOn.org, or other prominent Democratic organizations). Then discussion of house in Jason’s district with Obama campaign sign where many young men live, and Jason speculates that they are paid campaign employees who have possibly moved in to the district specifically to bolster the number of Democratic voters (a la Michigan and Wisconsin.]
[Discussion of the “new face of the Republican Party” and the youth movement growing within the Republican Party, and a few youthful and young Republican candidates that are running]
PIGOTT: [discussing differences between him and his opponent] Wow! Where to begin? I would start with a basic assessment of human nature. I trust people. I believe that people are inherently good. I believe that if government gets out of the way, people are going to go forward, they are going to do good things. They are going to raise their families right. They’re going to build businesses. They’re going to build communities. They’re going to create value that can be exchanged – that basic building block of our economic engine, that drives everything forward. I trust people to do that. I think they’re going to do great things. She thinks people need to be compelled to do things. She thinks that people aren’t going to do the right thing unless government steps in there and tells them what the right thing is. And I think you can take it a million different directions from there, but it’s that fundamental belief that I think distinguishes her from me and in just about every stance we take on various issues.
WORLEY: [Colorado Peak Politics and Compass Colorado reported earlier this year on the top 12 tax-hikers in the Colorado House of Representatives, and Diane Primavera (who’s not even in the House currently) was one of them.
CLARK: [Talks about how now that the primary is over, all effort is in defeating Democ rats.
PIGOTT: [Talks about how “a tax is a tax” — you can call it a fee, but it is still a tax, and calling it a fee, under TABOR, is just an end-around to avoid taking the issue to a vote of the people.]
WORLEY and EVERETT and PIGOTT: [talk about “Time, Talent, Treasure” and the need for resources to make these campaigns successful. They give the website URL again and a description of the PayPal link to contribute, they review some of the volunteer duties that they need help with, etc. They talk about the individual contribution limit to a campaign, and how if two domestic partners share a checking account, they can write out to $800. Everitt wants to know if Pigott’s opponent knows that.]
WORLEY: Have you, Dave Pigott, taken a dime of union money?
PIGOTT: No.
WORLEY: Justin Everitt, have you taken a dime of union money?\
EVERETT: Well, considering I was planning on running “Right to Work” and eliminating collective bargaining in the State of Colorado, probably not something that …
CLARK: So you’re not getting much love from the unions.
EVERETT: No, strangely enough… I don’t know why.
[CLARK talks about the need to get the proper people in the House of Representatives and the Senate, “we’re never going to get PERA reform… [which] Walker Stapleton has been going nuts on that issue, trying to get some PERA reform in the state of Colorado.]
[discussion about winning back the Senate. 33 seats turning over. Everett is praying that the GOP will keep the House and win the Senate. More begging for campaign donations and support for the cause “we are fighting for, commitment to the Constitution, Republican values, etc.” ]
[Pigott says HD-33 electorate are looking for an alternative. Primavera has run 5 times. Pigott says he needs to define himself before Primavera is allowed to define him.]
CLARK: [ Humans, in their nature, yearn to be free, don’t want to be controlled by someone else. That’s just not who we are.]
EVERETT: Yeah, I mean, I always say on the campaign trail that I believe conservative values are true American values. You know, we get labeled as these crazy Tea Party people, but these are in fact American values and we should never be afraid to defend these American values. We just have to make our message, you know, known, and let people know what we actually stand for. Because once we start talking about the Constitution – “Oh, this is what’s really in the Constitution. Oh wait, this is a road map for government “ — then people start coming to our side. And I think they naturally come to our side.
[discussion about email Pigott received this weekend from a conservative Democrat constituent, thanking him for his service (five-and-a-half-years in the army), and worried about what Democrats are doing to the party. She is worried about her college age children and her small-business-owner husband. CLARK talks about the highjacking of the Democratic party by progressive left, the complete whacko ideologues, such as MoveOn, ACORN, environmentalists, etc. The Democratic Party isn’t recognizable to conservative Democrats and the GOP can win them over. WORLEY and CLARK talk about the importance of messaging –“because let’s face it, Republicans are not that great at messaging” WORLEY clarifies that it is the Republican Party that is not good at messaging, that Republican Don Beezley was good at it and he got his message out to win his campaign and that’s what Pigott and Everett have to do.]
PIGOTT: Absolutely. And we can. It’s about treating people as individuals. I think when you start taking the 50,000 foot view of a political landscape, you start trying to group people into categories. You say, “oh, well , they are unaffiliated voters. Or, they’re rich voters.” Right? And you lose sight of the fact that people are individuals and they are really smart. They know what is going on. You can’t fool them with a generic message. You’ve got to get face to face, and you’ve got to say, “Hey, this is who I am and this is what I stand for.” And when you do that, they listen.
WORLEY: Dave Pigott, give out your website one more time.
PIGOTT: [repeats his website’s URL again]
WORLEY: Justin Everett
EVERETT: [recites his website’s URL]
WORLEY: Two of the young gun candidates here for the Republicans in Colorado. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot from them in the future. We’ll be right back.
[Commercial break]
CALLER PHIL: [wants to know if either candidate will go wishy-washy on social issues and be social liberals “like Kevin Priola”]
EVERETT: I’ll tell you. No, I mean, I’m across the board conservative. I mean, pro-life, I believe in traditional marriage. I mean, that’s just one of those firm beliefs I have, I mean, you know, with marriage. This is just a perfect example of when government gets involved in something that has always been the domain of the church or what have you, it just mucks it up. So this is your classic government mucking it up situation. Um, I can’t answer for Dave, but …
PIGOTT: Yeah, well, I think, you know, those are very important issues. But I think that they can also tend to be a side show that distract us from really important issues, like getting our economy back on track, rebuilding our educational system, you know, talking about our energy future. These are the issues that I’m fighting for right now. Now, I’m a practicing Catholic. You know, I believe in the values of my Church, and I believe in family values. But these are not going to be the cornerstones of my platform, because I look out at Colorado right now, and I see a lot of people hurting. I see questions over what people are going to do, you know, when they get laid off. I see… who are going to create the jobs that are going to give these people the money to put food on the table. These are the things that I’m fighting for.
CLARK: Phil, did that answer your question?
[CALLER PHIL expresses his view that if domestic partnerships are legitimized in Colorado it will create a whole new categories of beneficiaries and that will put added pressure on PERA, which is already going bankrupt, and that’s why we have to stand firm with traditional marriage.]
[CLARK says that at some point civil unions will be legal – that WILL happen. As such, CLARK agrees with PIGOTT – – this is not a battle he wants to fight right now. He wants to get socialism out. Let’s get social experiments out. Let’s fix PERA. Let’s get economy fixed and get regulations out of the way of small business owners]
[Discussion of PERA and defined benefits versus defined contribution plans, and how it is the obvious liability to Colorado but easily fixable by raising the age of eligibility, making it a defined contribution plan, increasing the amount that public employees contribute, etc. CLARK talks about various states that are in fianancial jeopardy because of defined benefit pension plans.]
PIGOTT: The biggest problem, of course, is healthcare in general, and the constantly spiraling costs. Until you address the quantity of health services in the system, so basic supply-and-demand are going to tell you that the price is going to go up.
WORLEY: Well, and I…. here’s a question from a listener , just came in. Would you both vote to repeal SB-200?
EVERETT: Yes.
PIGOTT: I don’t know. I don’t know.
WORLEY: Really!?!?
PIGOTT: Before the Affordable Care Act decision came down, I would have said, “Absolutely.” Why would you implement a potentially unconstitutional scheme? Now, we’ve got the Affordable Care Act. We’ve got… we have this requirement … oh, okay, you guys want to give that a …
WORLEY: Dave’s… Dave’s about to … Let me… Let me…
[sounds of laughter and hosts wanting to interrupt to express their view]
WORLEY: Let me explain why we have to get rid of it. Because number one, what it does, is it will force us to take those Medicaid dollars from ,… through the healthcare exchanges, and we only get funding on that, full funding for the first – I believe it is the first two or four years, and then it drops exponentially each year after that, which is going to take all of our budget.
PIGOTT: Wait a minute. You want to talk about the exchange, or you want to talk about the Medicare expansion?
WORLEY: It’s both!
CLARK: It’s both.
WORLEY: The Medicare expansion is done through the healthcare exchanges. That’s the point.
CLARK: The exchange is the vehicle that the federal government will use to implement Obamacare in the states. Now, there are those states that have not implemented exchanges. Those states still have the ability to fight back against Obamacare. We have lost that ability because of SB-200.
WORLEY: Thank you, Amy Stephens.
EVERETT: And, you know, the state legislature is becoming more and more important because we’re seeing a huge push back against the federal government from the state legislatures, where we know it’s not going to be a top-down change. It’s got to be a bottom-up, grassroots, Grassroots Radio-type change. So, by obligating ourselves to healthcare exchange like 13 other states did, I mean, it puts Colorado in a huge pickle that we have to solve this pickle sooner than later, especially when these things start coming down the pike in 2014.
PIGOTT: Except that, if we didn’t have our own free-market exchange, and we had to deal with the federal mandated exchange…
WORLEY: You’re going to get killed on that… It’s not … but it’s … you don’t …
PIGOTT: [laughs]
WORLEY: First off, the states don’t have to accept it because of that decision. Second, it’s not a free market exchange. The government controls it. It’s not free-market. Don’t … You can’t say a government-set-up, and –run exchange is free market.
EVERETT: It’s the antithesis of free-market.
PIGOTT: I’m not calling it… I didn’t say it was free-market. I said it had free market elements built into it, as opposed to what you might see if the federal government – Department of Health and Human Services – comes in and mandates …
WORLEY: But now they don’t. They can’t do that now. They can not do that now.
PIGOTT: Well, we’ll see. I mean, I know there’s a law suit now …
WORLEY: No, that’s what the decision said. It was 7-2 that they can’t do that, so that one’s done. So, we need – I mean, obvi…. We’ll talk more about that off-air. I’ll get all over you with that.
[Laughter]
EVERETT: Where’s that wood shed?
WORLEY: That’s fun, though. That is,… but that… here’s the thing. That’s why we as Republicans… That’s why, number one, we’re here on the radio. Our job is to make sure people… because we go and look into this stuff closely. That’s what we …. Ken spent what, half the day today at the Independence Institute, yes?
CLARK: Actually, no. Today I did not make it down to the Independence Institute.
WORLEY: Oh, okay. Well, usually you do.
CLARK: Typically, on a given Monday I’ve got two different, private meetings, that I do on Mondays at the Independence Institute. And today I just unfortunately was not able to get down there. There,… just meetings are coming too fast and too many for me to attend them all. So, I did not make it down today.
WORLEY: But, that’s where…. I mean, we go to these free market guys. We go to Dave Kop… is it … It’s Kopel. I’m not going to pronounce his last name right… I’m not going to do a … It’s Kopel. Any… John Caldara works with us, Amy Oliver works with us on this stuff. We know what we’re talking about and thankfully, we have the most well-informed candidates, because he’s going to be well,… very well informed
Well, he …[laughter among hosts and guests] He’s going to be very well informed. But you’ll…. I have…. I…. I actually worked with a group of legislators on the legislation to repeal SB-200 that Tim Neville – Senator Tim Neville actually floated. I testified in front of the Senate. Betty Boyd … God, that was fun. In front of Betty Boyd’s Senate committee hearing to … against… or FOR … I was testifying FOR the repeal of SB-200. I wrote the resolution that we pounded through the assembly to repeal SB-200 and guess what. Eighty-five percent of the Republicans in the state of Colorado that were at that assembly voted to repeal SB-200. Because it is bad law. It is horrible law. It is 17 or 13 pages, I can’t remember. It doesn’t … All it does is three things. It sets up the exchange. [It] sets up the board. And funds itself.
WORLEY: And spends a boat-load of money. 24 million dollars at the minimum here in Colorado.
CLARK: And it funds itself. That’s it. The rest they are making up as they go along, and they are following the Obama legislation to a “T”!
WORLEY: I just… I just got a … a listener… This is a text from that same listener, and said, “Please, let’s have the intestinal fortitude” — he used a different shorter four letter word starting with ‘B’, ending with ‘L’—to say “no” to the feds.
CLARK: That’s what we’ve got to do.
[…]
PIGOTT: No, look, I’m a states rights guy. And prior to the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the Act, I would have said there’s no way that we on a state level should be taking steps to implement an unconstitutional measure, and I still think that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. I’ll argue with Justice Roberts all day on that. But given the fact that it is there, I think SB-200 creates a bit of a prophylactic measure that prevents the federal government form exerting more autonomy over the state than it otherwise would, if we didn’t have it.
CLARK: You are listening to Grassroots Radio Colorado — Ken and Jason. We have had Justin Everett and we have had Dave Pigott. Dave, give us that web site one more time.
PIGOTT: [spells out URL] Although, you know, now all the SB-200 people are going to be, like, “I’m not donating to THAT guy!”
[laughter]
WORLEY: We’ll do some work… We’ll do some convincing on this, don’t worry. We’ll have another meeting .
