Colorado
A recall petition against a Colorado lawmaker who supported gun rights was deemed sufficient Tuesday, setting up the first potential recall of a state lawmaker in Colorado history.
Lawyers for Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, are challenging the recall effort. They argued that the petition was improperly worded and therefore invalid.
A second state lawmaker is staring down the barrel of a recall election after proponents turned in about 2,300 more signatures than needed to oust Democratic Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo over her support for gun control.
Whether the trigger is pulled on the recall election depends on if the secretary of state’s office validates the 13,570 signatures submitted by proponents on Monday. They need 11,285 valid signatures, which represents 25 percent of the votes cast for Giron’s seat in 2010. The secretary’s office has 15 days to validate. There is then a 15-day appeal period and stakeholders can also petition the courts.
Targeted Senate President Appears Vulnerable
Pro-Second Amendment activists in Colorado recently turned in 16,199 signatures in an effort to recall State Senate President John Morse, who helped pass three gun control bills earlier this year. Of that total, only 7,178 valid signatures are required to force a recall election.
Due to the narrow margin of Sen. Morse’s election victory in 2010 – he won by less than 350 votes and only 48 percent of the total – backers of Morse recognize he may have a difficult time winning a recall election.
Senate President John Morse remains adamant he will charge forward into what could be the first recall election of a state lawmaker in Colorado history, though organizers in support of the Colorado Springs lawmaker are weighing all their options ”” including the possibility of Morse stepping down ”” before any election date is set.
“Decisions are happening nonstop in a recall,” said Kjersten Forseth, a consultant to A Whole Lot of People for John Morse, who notes that resignation is an option, though it’s not a focus at this point. “As a team, we’re always re-evaluating where we are on a daily basis. It’s not something you can map out like in a normal campaign.”
If you want to know the definition of grassroots, don’t ask the folks attempting to recall Senate President John Morse or his supporters who want the recall to fail.
They have widely different opinions on what is a grassroots movement as evidenced by their statements this week when recall signatures were turned into the secretary of state. Recall backers collected twice as many signatures as needed to force a special election.
A Democratic state senator who backed a package of gun control measures will find out soon if he will face a recall election.
Opponents of Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs turned in 16,046 petition signatures to state officials Monday in an effort to force a new election. They need 7,178 signatures to force a recall election. The Colorado Secretary of State has 15 business days to verify signatures.
Morse vowed to fight the recall effort, saying he doubted opponents have raised 16,000 valid petition signatures.
Read More: here
Efforts to overturn new limits on the size of homes in historic neighborhoods near downtown Fort Collins have come up short.
A petition drive calling for the repeal of an ordinance setting tighter standards for the square footage, height and design of houses in the Eastside and Westside neighborhoods wound up 43 signatures short of the minimum needed to force action by the City Council, said organizer Jill Kuch.
Petitioners had until 5 p.m. Thursday to turn in 2,809 signatures of registered voters supporting the repeal. If enough signatures had been collected, the council would have been required to repeal the ordinance or have city voters decide the matter through an election.
Last week, Federal Judge Philip A. Brimmer overturned Colorado’s law limiting productivity pay – pay based on the number of signatures gathered – to no more than 20 percent of total pay for people circulating initiative and referendum petitions.
In Colorado, a citizen’s defense group, the Basic Freedom Defense Fund (BFDF), is forming a committee to recall State Senator John Morse (Colorado Springs), the Democratic President of the State Senate. Morse had sponsored Senate Bill 13-196, a bill which would impose penalties on owners of so-called “assault weapons”, making them liable for any damage caused by them.
“It really made a lot of people upset, it’s an affront to the Second Amendment, it’s an affront to the Constitution and it’s an affront to the oath that he took,” explained BFDF Spokesperson Anthony Garcia.
State representative Michael McLachlan (D-Durango) may also be under the gun of recall efforts by the BFDF over firearm issues.
State Senate Democratic President John Morse, of Colorado Springs, is facing a recall effort for his support of controversial gun control laws.
On Friday the Basic Freedom Defense Fund (BFDF) formed a local committee for recalling Morse, the group claims around sixty-volunteers representing state organizations and local businesses have pledged support for the campaign. The effort was inspired by several laws proposed by democrats that would put tighter restrictions on guns including expanded background checks and limits on ammunition magazines.
Read more: at KOAA
In Colorado, a group of self-described civic and business “leaders” are launching an effort to create an unelected state commission, which would be armed with the power to review Colorado’s constitution and place sweeping new constitutional amendments on the ballot – including measures that could propose wholesale revisions of the current state constitution.
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It’s potentially a big day in the world of marijuana. Proponents of a ballot measure seeking to legalize pot for people 21 and older will turn in another batch of signatures today to make up for what Secretary of State Scott Gessler said was a deficiency of about 2,500.
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Originally, the group behind the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act turned in nearly twice as many as the 86,105 signatures needed to take the matter to voters, but was told that more than half were invalid. Proponents were given time to make up the shortfall and, according to Westword, are prepared to turn in nearly five times the amount necessary.
A city councilman wants to make it easier for a NASCAR racetrack to be built in Aurora once the economy turns around.
Councilman Bob FitzGerald wants voters to repeal a 1999 ballot initiative that stops the city from offering incentives to racetrack developers.
He had planned to introduce the measure at a City Council committee this week for discussion, but the proposal was kicked back to the Aurora Economic Development Council for review.
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Ballotpedia’s final analysis on donations to all 2011 statewide ballot measure campaigns has been released; the donations add up $85 million.
The report reveals some interesting information like the fact that the state with the highest contributions from all campaign sides from all ballot measures was in Ohio. The least amount of contributions was in Arkansas.
You can also find an overview of the contributions from supporters & opponents, a ranking of ballot measures from the most to the least contributions, and the ranking of political topic contributions where “labor” shows the most donations in Ohio on Issue 2.
Denver-based activists submitted over 159,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office yesterday, well over the 86,500 required to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s Presidential ballot in November. The initiative is being spearheaded by Brian Vicente and Mason Tvert of Sensible CO and SAFER CO respectively.
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“This is a job well done and a crucial first step to ensure Coloradans have a chance to make history,” said Art Way, Colorado Manager of the Drug Policy Alliance, which supports the measure. “There’s simply no denying the intense groundswell for change.”