Vote Yes on Charter Change
Denver voters are being asked to eliminate the 3-person Denver Election Commision and create a new elected Clerk & Recorder who will oversee elections.
The arguments against the change just don't make sense.
Does it increase the power of the mayor? No. It does just the opposite. It creates a powerful watchdog who will be a check on the mayor's negligence that we saw last fall.
Is it unfair to the minority party? No. It will not be any harder for the minority party to elect a Clerk & Recorder than it is now to elect an Election Commission member.
Should we vote no because this change will not directly effect the problems with last fall's election disaster? No, this is just a first step towards fixing the problems for the 2008 elections.
When I was studying for my MBA at the University of Denver, I was taught the management principle called "unity of command". Oversight of the elections is a management job, and one person will do a better job than three. Too many cooks spoil the soup.
Vote yes and encourage your friends and neighbors in Denver who care about better elections to do the same.
John Wren
960 Grant Street #727
Denver, CO 80203
(303)861-1447
I just sent this letter to Denver newspapers.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
Vote Yes in Denver
I emailed this out to my online friends last night:
My friend Dennis Gallagher called me tonight,
urging a yes vote on the question now before
we Denver voters regarding a change to an
elected clerk & recorder who will be in charge
of future elections, instead of the 3 person
election commission we have now.
Dennis says this will give us some accountability,
and that we should vote yes in spite of the fact that
the Denver political establishment has joined ranks
against the change.
I agree with Dennis. If you live in Denver, please vote
yes and encourage your Denver friends to do the same.
It is clear that what we have now just doesn't work.
Too many chefs spoil the soup!
John
This morning a couple of friends emailed me that the
change would not really fix the problem, which is true.
I sent this email in response to one of them, who is
also a friend of Bill W.:
You raise good points. This whole mess shows once again
that our system of government is the worst except for all the rest!
The proposal seems to me to be progress, but certainly it is not
perfection! May be just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,
but given the choices of yes, no or trash my ballot, seems to me
the best choice is yes.
Life is not easy, is it. Let's keep doing the little we can each day to
try and be helpful, trusting that with God's help it is enough!
I'm still at York Street, really need to rotate out of the job. Do you know
anyone who might like to take it on? http://orgsites.com/co/yorkstreetclub.
Very good to get your email, how about coffee to catch up sometime?
John
I emailed this out to my online friends last night:
My friend Dennis Gallagher called me tonight,
urging a yes vote on the question now before
we Denver voters regarding a change to an
elected clerk & recorder who will be in charge
of future elections, instead of the 3 person
election commission we have now.
Dennis says this will give us some accountability,
and that we should vote yes in spite of the fact that
the Denver political establishment has joined ranks
against the change.
I agree with Dennis. If you live in Denver, please vote
yes and encourage your Denver friends to do the same.
It is clear that what we have now just doesn't work.
Too many chefs spoil the soup!
John
This morning a couple of friends emailed me that the
change would not really fix the problem, which is true.
I sent this email in response to one of them, who is
also a friend of Bill W.:
You raise good points. This whole mess shows once again
that our system of government is the worst except for all the rest!
The proposal seems to me to be progress, but certainly it is not
perfection! May be just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,
but given the choices of yes, no or trash my ballot, seems to me
the best choice is yes.
Life is not easy, is it. Let's keep doing the little we can each day to
try and be helpful, trusting that with God's help it is enough!
I'm still at York Street, really need to rotate out of the job. Do you know
anyone who might like to take it on? http://orgsites.com/co/yorkstreetclub.
Very good to get your email, how about coffee to catch up sometime?
John
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
I attended the GOP dinner & pep talk from Dick Wadhams last Friday night. It had special significance for me since it was a building my father built, 6265 E. Evans.
It was the most positive GOP event I've attended in many years. It seems to me Dick will make a big, big differece in attendance at the 2008 GOP neighborhood caucuses and the elections that fall. With his leadership we should be able to make Colorado a red state once again!
The Denver Post seems to agree, this is on their editorial page today:
GOP party post goes to a pro
He was urged to run for state Republican party chairman by GOP politicians of every stripe. He upstaged Sen. Wayne Allard at Allard's own retirement announcement, and even though his most recent client went down in flames (and cost Republicans control of the U.S. Senate), Colorado GOP leaders are treating him as a conquering hero returning to his roots.
Can one man save the Colorado GOP? What if that one man is Dick Wadhams?
Wadhams, the local political consultant who went national, is running for state party chair. Insiders ooze with excitement, talking about Wadhams as a "nuts and bolts kind of a guy" who can unite and energize an organization in disarray.
The task will be considerable. Wadhams will inherit a party fractured along multiple fault lines. Aside from traditional schisms between social conservatives and business-oriented Republicans, there are divisions on state fiscal issues (starting with Referendum C) and such matters as abortion and same-sex marriage. More generally, the party has fallen out of step with the Colorado majority.
In just over two years, the GOP lost control of the state House and Senate, the governor's mansion, a Senate seat, two congressional seats and the treasurer's office. In 2008, the party at risk of losing its remaining Senate seat and presidential electoral votes that Republicans have held in every election but one since 1968.
Wadhams is a campaign manager by trade, and as GOP chair, the Allard Senate seat will be his first order of business. He'll have to operate at a time when the power of state parties has been weakened by reforms that shift big campaign money away from the parties to 527 groups, which operate independently.
As party chair, Wadhams will be allowed only limited interaction with the 527s. He can alert them to information that's already in the public domain, but of course so can your aunt and uncle. Anything that involves "expenditures" is off-limits by law. And "almost anything can be considered an expenditure because you're using resources to accomplish a task at hand," said state GOP attorney John Zakhem.
Wadhams says the GOP can be unified if Republicans return to their roots as defenders of small government, fiscal conservatism and private property rights.
"The Republican Congress went awry and we paid the price," Wadhams said, referring to the thumping that Democrats gave Republicans last November. "Sometimes those purges aren't bad."
Wadhams' own candidate, Sen. George Allen of Virginia, was among those who went down for the count.
With no opposition, Wadhams will take over the GOP reins in March. The work is already piling up.
It was the most positive GOP event I've attended in many years. It seems to me Dick will make a big, big differece in attendance at the 2008 GOP neighborhood caucuses and the elections that fall. With his leadership we should be able to make Colorado a red state once again!
The Denver Post seems to agree, this is on their editorial page today:
GOP party post goes to a pro
He was urged to run for state Republican party chairman by GOP politicians of every stripe. He upstaged Sen. Wayne Allard at Allard's own retirement announcement, and even though his most recent client went down in flames (and cost Republicans control of the U.S. Senate), Colorado GOP leaders are treating him as a conquering hero returning to his roots.
Can one man save the Colorado GOP? What if that one man is Dick Wadhams?
Wadhams, the local political consultant who went national, is running for state party chair. Insiders ooze with excitement, talking about Wadhams as a "nuts and bolts kind of a guy" who can unite and energize an organization in disarray.
The task will be considerable. Wadhams will inherit a party fractured along multiple fault lines. Aside from traditional schisms between social conservatives and business-oriented Republicans, there are divisions on state fiscal issues (starting with Referendum C) and such matters as abortion and same-sex marriage. More generally, the party has fallen out of step with the Colorado majority.
In just over two years, the GOP lost control of the state House and Senate, the governor's mansion, a Senate seat, two congressional seats and the treasurer's office. In 2008, the party at risk of losing its remaining Senate seat and presidential electoral votes that Republicans have held in every election but one since 1968.
Wadhams is a campaign manager by trade, and as GOP chair, the Allard Senate seat will be his first order of business. He'll have to operate at a time when the power of state parties has been weakened by reforms that shift big campaign money away from the parties to 527 groups, which operate independently.
As party chair, Wadhams will be allowed only limited interaction with the 527s. He can alert them to information that's already in the public domain, but of course so can your aunt and uncle. Anything that involves "expenditures" is off-limits by law. And "almost anything can be considered an expenditure because you're using resources to accomplish a task at hand," said state GOP attorney John Zakhem.
Wadhams says the GOP can be unified if Republicans return to their roots as defenders of small government, fiscal conservatism and private property rights.
"The Republican Congress went awry and we paid the price," Wadhams said, referring to the thumping that Democrats gave Republicans last November. "Sometimes those purges aren't bad."
Wadhams' own candidate, Sen. George Allen of Virginia, was among those who went down for the count.
With no opposition, Wadhams will take over the GOP reins in March. The work is already piling up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)