Michael Fields for HD-37

Colorado State House District 37 in Centennial, where I've lived for 40 years, has been ably represented by Rep. Spencer Swalm since 2006. Now that he is term-limited, the safely Republican district faces a spirited primary between Jack Tate, an engineer in his 50s, and Michael Fields, a young lawyer and schoolteacher who's not yet 30.

They are two good men, and the voters can't go wrong. But when balloting begins for the June 24 primary, Fields will get my vote.

Michael's thoughtful, well-researched position papers on conservative approaches to education reform and other issues impress me. His time as a staffer in both the US Senate and the Colorado General Assembly gives him a lot more experience with the legislative process than Jack.

I like it that Fields is youthful and that he has lived the black experience, being the son of an African-American professor whose own father was a distinguished pastor. Talking with Michael about race issues, though, as I've done and as Rep. Swalm did before endorsing him a month ago, you find he's crystal clear that equal opportunity doesn't mean equal outcomes and that past injustices to blacks don't justify an endless victim narrative.

Like former Sen. Bill Armstrong, himself elected to the State House in his mid-twenties, and who has also endorsed Fields, Michael has the potential to begin serving with distinction from the day he takes office--and to become part of the new face of the Republican Party in years to come.

To win in the 21st century, conservatives must forge an optimistic, forward-looking, right-minded coalition of all colors and all ages. Michael Fields, well prepared and solidly grounded on America's freedom principles, embodies that. I hope you will join me in supporting him for House District 37.

To compare the candidates, go to www.fieldsforcolorado.com and www.jacktate.org. I think you will come to the same conclusion that I have.

Bill would enshrine abortion in Colo. law

My wife and I sent this urgent email to all 100 members of the Colorado General Assembly today. The bill has cleared Senate committee and now awaits floor action. Please join Donna and me in raising your voice against Senate Bill 175. Dear Legislator:

We are gravely concerned about SB-175, "Concerning Freedom from Government Interference in an Individual's Reproductive Health Care Decisions."

Please oppose this unwise, unnecessary, ill-considered, extreme, and inhumane bill.

Persons of goodwill can disagree about how widely and easily available abortion should be under law. But a great many Americans would agree with the general approach taken by Bill and Hillary Clinton years ago - that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare." SB-175 does not meet that standard.

With its simplistic, far-reaching legislative declaration and policy pronouncement, it ignores the millions of us who believe that two lives, not one, are in the balance when a woman is pregnant. It rules out any kind of reasonable regulation, restriction, or compromise seeking to make abortions safe and rare.

While it's true that one legislature cannot bind the next, and that a repeal or modification of SB-175 (were it to become law) is entirely possible a year from now, it's also true that the law is a teacher and that your vote on such a law is an index of character. To vote for this bill is to go on record for an extreme, intolerant, inhumane, and indeed brutal posture of government in our state. To vote against it is an act of courage and conscience.

Please vote no on SB-175.

John Carson for CU Regent

When the 6th Congressional District Republican Assembly convenes on April 5, there will be a contest for the nomination to University of Colorado Board of Regents. I am supporting John Carson. His education reform achievements as president of the Douglas County School Board have had national impact. His candidacy is distinguished by a strong determination to fight for intellectual diversity and true academic freedom in CU's halls of learning. Carson will carry on the visionary work begun on this issue by retiring 6th CD Regent Jim Geddes.

Please join me in doing everything you can to see John nominated and elected. Colorado needs Carson! You can learn more and get involved by going to www.CarsonforCURegent.com.

On the right: Who needs to learn what?

Soul-searching time on the center-right. The unorganized movement of fed-up citizens called Tea Party (not as another political party, but invoking the spirit of 1773 at Boston Harbor) has no way of choosing its tactics or learning a new style. It's just a frustrated outpouring of civic energy and urgency. So if there's any learning to be done, the Republican organization (sometimes called the establishment, but that's an unhelpful pejorative) must learn how to harness this movement's determination and passion. Only in that way can our side build a winning coalition to stop the Obama collectivist wave.

Thus when my friend Mike Rosen wrote a warning in his Denver Post column the other day,"Tea Party must learn to embrace coalition politics," based on things some Tea Party activists have said that are reckless, self-defeating, or apocalyptic, I'll grant he had a point "up to a point."

But the only institutional vehicle capable of learning anything or leading anything, in this moment of tremendous opportunity as America senses the greatest upsurge of populist fervor in half a century, is the skeletal structure of the GOP.

The adapting that we all know is needed has to come from them, not from the fed-up citizens movement. Here's the Rosen column. Tell me what you think.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_24469443/tea-party-must-learn-embrace-coalition-politics

Election 2013: Here's My Voter Guide

Colorado's election season is here. Self-government stood a better chance of proceeding thoughtfully and responsibly, in my opinion, when most or all of our voting was done on one day, not over a three-week period. But this is the reality we have to live with now - made worse by the recent HB-1303 with its same-day registration at polling places and its scattergun distribution of mail ballots - so let's pool our best judgment as conservatives and fight on. Since friends often ask how I will be voting, or how I would vote if residing in another part of the state, I am glad to provide the following rundown on ballot questions and candidates seeking the citizens' approval when results are tallied on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013.

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Amendment 66: Would increase state income taxes about $1 billion annually, go back to a progressive tax rate instead of a flat tax, dedicate the new revenues to "improvements" in K-12 education, and lock in a fixed percentage of state revenues for school funding.

I VOTE NO: Better schools will only come from competition and choice, not from funneling more dollars to pay and pensions for teachers and educrats. America has tripled its real per-student funding to government schools since 1970 with zero improvement in test scores. State and local government in Colorado already costs too much, partly because of the very unions that are pushing this tax hike.

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Proposition AA: Would respond to last year's vote of the people to legalize recreational marijuana (RMJ) by levying upon RMJ an excise tax of 15% at the wholesale level and a sales surtax of 10% (above the existing 2.9%) at the retail level, dedicating $40 million a year from the excise tax to school construction.

I VOTE NO: New money for state and local regulation of the RMJ industry is arguably necessary, but the existing 2.9% sales tax will arguably cover that. Piling on an additional 25% tax rate is merely a revenue grab by the Democratic legislature, with much of the revenue going to unrelated purposes. Sin taxes for behavior modification aren't good policy. And the whopping take for government will only encourage black markets.

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Counties Seeking to Separate from Colorado: Commissioners in Weld, Elbert, Moffatt, and 8 other counties have asked voters to instruct them on applying to the General Assembly for permission to leave the governmental structure of Colorado and form themselves into a new state of North Colorado (or in Moffatt's case, to apply to join the state of Wyoming.

I WOULD VOTE YES: Would the legislature approve any county's motion to secede? Not as presently constituted, and probably not ever. Would the US Congress, if secession did occur, grant statehood to a new territory with vast expanse, sparse population, and two Republican senators? Again, it's scarcely imaginable. But I strongly favor the symbolic impact of numerous counties seeking to do this. I like the "vote of no confidence" message it would send an out-of-touch, liberal-dominated legislative and executive branch in Denver. I like the inversion of public debate whereby ever-bigger, ever-more-centralized government is challenged to justify itself for a change, instead of limited-government advocates always being on the defensive.

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School Board Elections

As indicated in the discussion of Amendment 66, above, government schools tend to perform poorly because teacher unions ensure they are run more for the benefit of the employees than of the customer (kids and families), by the clever strategem of packing school boards with union-picked directors. Here are the school board candidates NOT beholden to unions in several of the districts I have been watching.

Douglas County Doug Benevento Meghann Silverthorn Jim Geddes Judith Reynolds

Jefferson County John Newkirk Julie Williams Ken Witt

Denver Barbara O'Brien Mike Johnson Rosemary Rodriguez Landri Taylor

Adams 12 Rico Figueroa Debbie Christianson

Mapleton Martin Mendez Jen Raiffie

Municipal Elections

Centennial I like Kathy Turley in District 1, Brian Olson in District 3, and Cathy Noon for Mayor.

Lakewood I like Dan Smith in Ward 3 and Ramey Johnson in Ward 2.

Arapahoe County Races

Arapahoe GOP website has a complete listing of registered Republicans who are candidates in every "nonpartisan" school board or municipal race within the county. Click to their website and scroll down.

http://www.arapahoerepublicans.org