A recent Ken Buck rally at the University of Colorado at Boulder campus drew a student crowd that was 5x bigger than a crowd of students at a Bennet rally that was held the day before.

Ken Buck Rally:



Michael Bennet Rally:

“It is obvious that the Bennet campaign cannot take the youth vote for granted,” said College Republican Vice President Jess Johnson.

CR President Gregory Carlson said, “Every time I talk to my friends and students on campus, they are concerned about the economy.  The unemployment rate for young people is currently 19%, and Senator Bennet’s out of control spending threatens to bankrupt our generation.  No one is happy about the direction of the country, and we have had record turnout at our College Republican events.  I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Ken Buck’s message is resonating with younger voters including those on the CU Boulder Campus.  We think this bodes well for November. The excitement of Michael Bennet’s campaign is meek at best at CU Boulder.

Starting at 2:04:

“[...] look, not only do we have $12 trillion in debt, not only have we mortgaged ourselves to the Chinese, but the tragedy of it is, we have absolutely nothing to show for it, absolutely nothing to show for it. We haven’t invested in our roads, our bridges, our transportation, our ports, anything. What did we do? Well, we cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and we cost our kids $1.4 trillion. We said ‘we’re gonna cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, borrow it from the Chinese, and stick our kids with the bill.’ We have spent a trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’ve borrowed all of that money from our kids. Medicare Part D, the seniors’ prescription drug program that Bush advanced–might be a great program but we didn’t pay for it. The bailout that ended the last administration, about $800 billion, not paid for. And then, the piece of it that the President, we own, I own, was the recovery package last year which was roughly $760 billion. All that adds up to $12 trillion, and we’ve got to address it. It’s immoral to leave this to our children [...]”

This quote from the above dialogue was quickly turned into an attack ad against Bennet:

“We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet. In my view we have nothing to show for it.”

Gregory Carlson

First off, I would like to thank everyone for a great year.  We accomplished many things and made some significant improvements over previous years.  We built this awesome new website, hosted several candidates as guest speakers, and even raised more money than all other chapters–including the State Board–combined!

Jess Johnson, Vice Chairman

So with that said, I am pleased to announce the results of our chapter elections held earlier this evening.  Current chairman Gregory Carlson was unanimously reelected for the 2010-2011 school year, and we couldn’t be luckier to have someone like him at the helm.  Likewise, Jess Johnson, currently serving as Treasurer, was elected as Vice Chairman, and Christopher Collins and Amanda Markert, each of whom played a prominent role in our victory in the eSwarm fundraising competition earlier this year, were elected as Treasurer and Secretary, respectively.

Several of us will still be here and staying active throughout the summer, so if you’re interested in getting involved in a campaign or helping the College Republicans, please let us know.  We are more than happy to help you with that.  Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you next semester.  We’re going to make an impact on the 2010 elections so that we can celebrate a Republican sweep in Colorado!

Thank you again for your role in making this year a success, and good luck on finals!

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The Senate’s health care reform bill will likely be taken up (sort of) by the House this weekend, and the following amendment has been proposed to prepare the legal challenge that will very likely ensue should the House “deem” the Senate’s bill passed.  I encourage all of you to read it and make sure you understand just how badly Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the Democrats in Congress are shredding the Constitution in order to impose the single most destructive bill to the American Republic in at least the last half century.

START OF TEXT OF THE AMENDMENT:

Unprinted Amendment No.___ .

Intended to Proposed by Mr. _________.

Viz:

Add at the end of the bill the following new Section:

“Sec.___ . a) Inasmuch as Sections Five and Seven of Article I of the United States Constitution mandate a certain process for the enactment of a federal law and do not allow a measure to become a law by “deeming” it passed by either House of Congress, it is the Sense of the Senate and its judgment that the House of Representatives is required by the Supreme Law of the United States, to vote directly and up or down on H.R. 3590 in order to send that measure lawfully to the President, if, and only if, it shall have been approved by a majority vote of each such House taken on an identical measure; and, more particularly, it is the Sense of the Senate that, in conformity with Article I of the Constitution, the House of Representatives, unless the measure is returned to the Senate with an Amendment by the House, must vote directly on the language sent to it by the Senate precisely as it was duly enrolled at the direction of the Senate by its Enrolling Clerk, certified as an Act of the Senate by the Secretary of the Senate, and thereupon transmitted by the Senate’s Messenger to the House Chamber while the House of Representatives was in actual Session.

b) It is the further Sense of the Senate that the exact words that the Senate caused to be enrolled on parchment and taken by messenger to the House of Representatives, constitute the sole document and the only document upon which Members of the House can lawfully cast their vote, whether Yea or Nay, under the process expressly mandated by the United States Constitution; and it is also the Sense of the Senate and its judgment that to do otherwise by “deeming” rather than voting would void any purported enactment, deprive it of the force of law, justify disobedience to it, and cause irreparable violence and harm to our system of government and its fundamental law through fraud, deception, abuse of power, and usurpation of the civil rights of the People.

c) This Section maybe cited as the “Congressional Voting Rights Resolution.”.

END OF AMENDMENT TEXT.

Tonight, thousands and thousands of Coloradans came out to caucus for their preferred candidates.  It was only the first step in the long road that will ultimately allow the parties to narrow down their candidate fields for the primary election, but an important one nonetheless.

First of all, we would like to say ‘thank you’ to all of the College Republicans who came up huge at the last minute by overseeing caucus locations!

Now, what can we take away from tonight?  It appears that Ken Buck eked out a VERY narrow victory statewide in the Senate straw poll, pulling in 38%, while Jane Norton also received approximately 38%.  Tom Wiens was selected by 16% of caucus-goers.

For the Governor candidates, front-runner Scott McInnis was able to stave off a win by opponent Dan Maes, receiving 60% of the vote to Maes’ 39%.

It appears that Buck and Maes, both considered huge underdogs, have struck a chord with their more conservative message.  It will be interesting to see how things proceed from here, though you can be sure that none of the major candidates will consider March 16th the “knockout punch” in their respective races.

And just in case you’re wondering, the appointed incumbent Democratic Senator Michael Bennet was actually trounced in the Democratic Senate straw poll, losing by a 51%-42% count to former Speaker of the Colorado House Andrew Romanoff.  Most pundits have criticized Romanoff for an apparent lack of message, and an all-around poorly run campaign.  They have also noted how severely under-funded he is to be challenging an establishment candidate with all the luxurious benefits of incumbency.  However, he was expected to do well (perhaps not as well as he did) in the precinct caucuses because of his widespread, motivated base within the Colorado Democratic party.

The one major thing I would note is that this huge upset win comes in spite of the fact that Bennet has received a full endorsement from Barack Obama, and has been playing up his liberal credentials.  This is especially true on health care reform, an issue with which he has advocated the use of reconciliation to pass legislation that includes a public option.  Perhaps you can call it anti-incumbency, perhaps it means the Colorado Democratic party is shifting to the right, and perhaps it’s Obama’s reverse-Midas-touch.  I’m most inclined toward the latter, but I’ll let you be the judge.

Check out ColoradoCaucus.com for up-to-date results on the Democratic caucus straw poll, or ColoGOP.org for the Republican caucus straw polls.

The Colorado Daily is reporting that the CU Board of Regents is set to vote on a 9% tuition increase for next year.  The meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday).  It is unclear how the votes will shake out.  In recent years, tuition increases have been approved.

Republican Tom Lucero (CD-4), who is currently running for the United States House of Representatives in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, has been one of the most reliable votes against tuition hikes.  Democrat Michael Carrigan (CD-2), who represents the district in which Boulder resides, has been a supporter of increases, but says that this year his vote will depend on his perception of whether or not the University is “sharing the pain” of the students.

Although the issue of tuition increases is on the agenda, a vote may be delayed for some time.

From the Colorado Daily:

The University of Colorado regents are holding a just-announced meeting Wednesday to discuss and possibly vote on a 9 percent tuition increase for students on the Boulder campus.

“The intent is to vote on tuition,” said Regent Tom Lucero, who would not yet say how he’d vote. In past years, Lucero has voted against tuition increases but has been in the minority.

The administration is proposing a 9 percent tuition increase for in-state students, said CU system spokesman Ken McConnellogue. For CU’s College of Arts and Sciences, which charges $6,153 for in-state tuition this year, a 9 percent increase would translate to an extra $554.

Read the whole thing here.

If you’ve been paying attention to politics, even loosely, for the last year (or even the last month or two), you know the political landscape has become much more friendly to conservatives than it was during the 2008 elections. But if you weren’t aware of the extent to which this is true, you need only watch the latest campaign ad from Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). Remember–she isn’t in the midst of a general election. She is running this ad to appeal to DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTERS.

So we all knew it was going to be just a political side show.  Democrats can now say they’ve met with Republicans on C-SPAN.  Republicans couldn’t object or they would look like they were only politically, and not fundamentally opposed to the health care reform bills before Congress.  So today was the day.  Below are some of the best clips:

Skip to about 3:45 to see Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) tell one hell of a scary story about one of her constituents:

Lamar Alexander (R-TN) calls out Obama on the Democrats’ prior views on reconciliation.  As you can see, their opinions have changed dramatically:

Obama demonizes an insurance company for not covering his car:

The entire thing can be found in two parts on YouTube, but I’ll leave you with just one more good clip.  Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) calls out Obama over a dramatic disparity in time allotted for each party to speak:

I’m having trouble posting this particular video, but you can find it here.

So sayeth the Pew Research Center, according to this article from FoxNews.com:

While young adults remain decidedly more liberal, the survey found the Democratic advantage among 18- to 29-year-olds has substantially narrowed, from a record 62 percent identifying as Democrat vs. 30 percent for the Republicans in 2008, down to 54 percent vs. 40 percent last December. It was the largest percentage point jump in those who identified or leaned Republican among all the voting age groups.

So the gap in party affiliation among young voters closed by 18 points in only a year?  Woa.  But wait, it gets better:

Young adults’ voting enthusiasm also crumbled.

During the presidential election, turnout among 18- to 29-year-olds was the highest in years, comprising roughly 20 percent of the voters in many states including Virginia and New Jersey, due in part to high participation from young blacks and Hispanics.

That percentage, however, dropped by half for the governors’ races in those states last November, where Republicans celebrated wins as black groups pushed Obama to do more to soften the economic blow from mortgage foreclosures and Latinos saw little progress on immigration reform. Young adults also were the least likely of any age group to identify themselves as regular voters.

The College Republicans, naturally, fit right into this story.  The goal of the entire organization is to convey the conservative message in an attractive way to bring young voters into the (R) column–for life.  The impact of ‘recruiting’ (for lack of a better word) young people into the party is significantly greater than the alternative.  It’s both more difficult and less rewarding to do the same with middle-aged and senior voters, as they are more entrenched in their beliefs and will participate in fewer elections in the future.  2010 must be about convincing and encouraging students and young voters across Colorado and the nation to vote their interests–to vote Republican.

From City Hall News:

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), one of the largest social advocacy groups in the country, has been forced to suspend most operations as of today.

The website was down on Monday morning, but the phone number for ACORN’s New York office was still connected, offering guidance on mortgage payments, first-time home purchases, general housing inquiries and ACORN housing maintenance. An operator was still answering the phones “ACORN, good morning,” and redirecting calls.

By noon on Monday, the phone message had been replaced.

Read the original article here.