Politics

Colorado proposal threatens political free speech

By Bill Armstrong wlarmstrong@qwest.net

    Editor's Note: Denver businessman Bill Armstrong, a Republican former member of the US Senate, US House, and Colorado Senate, fired off an email alert from New York to friends at home on Monday afternoon, voicing his concern about last-minute legislation that would further restrict freedom of expression in state campaigns. With Armstrong's permission, here's the text of that email.

Dear John: As I was leaving town yesterday for a week on the road, I read an article in the Sunday Denver Post that made my hair stand on end. HCR06-1010 has been introduced with bipartisan sponsorship in the Colorado House and, if adopted, would have the effect of drastically curtailing the so-called 527s, the independent political committees that have flourished in the aftermath of efforts to reform political campaigns by limiting candidate spending.

Lawmakers to Bush: Please Act!

Re: Declaring a National Emergency April 11, 2006 President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President:

As members of the Republican Study Committee of Colorado, a caucus of the Colorado General Assembly, we have been shocked by the blatant, coordinated, and anti-American demonstrations on behalf of illegal aliens throughout the country, including the City of Denver, with little or no serious action on the part of the Federal Government to address the growing negative impact of illegal aliens on the American people, or to protect all states from invasion as required by Article IV, Section 4 of the United States Constitution.

Illegal aliens cost Colorado billions annually

Will we act or not?By Former Governor Dick Lamm

    Introduction by John Andrews: Defend Colorado Now, the ballot issue campaign to end non-emergency, non-federally-mandated taxpaid services to illegal aliens, of which I'm co-chairman, today held a Capitol press conference to release an economic impact study on this growing problem. Click here to join the campaign. And click here to see the full study, with the shocking total price tag for our state given on pages 2 and 8. Dick Lamm, honorary campaign chairman, commented as follows:

Last November, Colorado engaged in a contentious debate over Referenda C & D seeking the authority for the state government to keep some of the funds scheduled to be returned to the taxpayer under the TABOR Amendment. At the same time, without debate and with little discussion by the media or the political leaders, illegal immigration in Colorado was costing Colorado taxpayers two or three times the amount so bitterly fought over last November.

Now for the first time, Donald Rice sets forth in one study the most authoritative collection of estimates of the costs to Colorado taxpayers and workers of illegal immigration. Using only the most authentic of sources, Rice found that illegal immigration will cost Colorado over $1 billion in 2006 and promises to do so in growing amounts, next year and the year after, ad infinitum.

Attend your Republican caucus this Tuesday

Grassroots politics starts here. Do your part! By John Andrews

If you're a registered Republican voter, Tuesday, March 21, at 7pm is your chance to have a voice in choosing GOP candidates for the 2006 elections, and in straw polls on key issues. The precinct caucuses are the basic grassroots level of self-government in our Republic -- and you're invited.

Beauprez vs. Holtzman for Governor, Eid or Steinhauer or Davidson or Wachtel for CU Regent, as well as important local races, are at stake in the road from caucuses to county and district assemblies to the state assembly. Precinct decisions on the 21st are where it all starts.

    In the Arapahoe County neighborhoods of Hunter's Hill and Walnut Hills, Precincts 241, 242, 243, and 244, we will hold a single joint caucus at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, 8545 E. Dry Creek Road. Please join us!

For Prec. 241-244, click this email address andrewsjk@aol.com to confirm your attendance or request further details. If you live elsewhere, click www.cologop.org to find the location of your own precinct caucus. Do your part on March 21 -- it only takes an hour -- and our system of representative government and democratic institutions is depending on you.

Ballot issue would deter illegal aliens

Remarks by John Andrews,Co-chair of Defend Colorado Now campaign, Jefferson County Republican dinner, Feb. 21

As a proud graduate of the Dick Cheney School of Safe Hunting, I hold my fire for all targets – except endangered species, liberals, and lawyers. And right now there’s one group of liberal lawyers I’m particularly unhappy with. They’ve asked the Colorado Supreme Court to block the most important ballot issue you will be asked to vote on in this election year.

That issue is called Defend Colorado Now. It is our chance to do something about the silent invasion of illegal aliens flooding into this country – perhaps as many as a quarter-million of them in this state alone.

This ballot issue would establish the simple principle that tax-paid services in Colorado should only benefit law-abiding residents. That’s just common sense, and it’s long overdue.

Yet the liberals want a court order saying we should not even be allowed to vote on this proposal. It won’t work. Our campaign will soon have a green light to circulate petitions. We will then need your help on gathering 100,000 signatures from concerned citizens who agree we must Defend Colorado Now.

Let’s be clear. Illegal aliens are not bad people individually. But when you count them up by the hundreds of thousands, they are bad news for Colorado. We need to send these individuals a message politely but firmly – if you defied the government to come here, don’t expect to live off the government once you get here.

This flood of illegal aliens hurts public budgets, it hurts family budgets, it endangers our national security, it erodes our American identity, and most important of all, it undermines the rule of law. For all these reasons, the flood must be stemmed. It must.

A crisis this big, ignored for this long, can’t be solved by state action alone. Federal action is imperative. But you and I at the state level can do our part by carrying the petitions this summer and then building the majority this fall to say that from now on, tax-paid services in Colorado should only benefit law-abiding residents.

Opponents may play the race card, but we all know that’s baloney. It makes no difference if the lawbreakers are Latino or Eskimo, Norwegian or Nigerian. Defend Colorado Now warns all of them, regardless of ethnicity -- if you defied the government to come here, don’t expect to live off the government once you get here.

We’re gathered for a party dinner, and proud of it – but please understand this is not a party issue. It has the support of former Gov. Dick Lamm and other active Democrats, as well as my support on the Republican side -- along with that of Tom Tancredo and that of Gov. Bill Owens. It is simply the right thing to do.

America will either have the rule of law, or we will be ruled by force and fear. That’s the choice that faces us if illegal immigration continues to run out of control. Please help us defend the rule of law. Please help us Defend Colorado Now.

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