COMensarations
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Thoughts on a Campaign
The Holtzman-Spradley for Governor campaign, to date.
The state’s Republicans are experiencing a primary-level contest between two camps; Holtzman-Spradley and Beauprez.
I’ve not had meaningful contact with the latter’s camp, but I have had some interesting contact with the Holtzman-Spradley camp....
The first contact came before the Republican Election-Year County Assembly. Susan and I are co-chairs of our precinct in Pueblo. And, also delegates to the County and State Assembly.
While relaxing after dinner one evening before the County Assembly, Lola called us to solicit our support for her camp in the contest for the Republican candidacy.
We thought it was very nice that she should take the time to call us personally. And, when she asked what issues were hot on our mind, we told her of the two resolutions we had submitted for the Assembly’s consideration. She was very understanding and definitely supportive of one of those particular positions. The nature of which is not important to this discussion. [Note: Both our resolutions were adopted by the Assembly.]
When she asked if there was anything else, I threw her the proverbial hot-potato. I asked her of their campaign’s position on Baker v. Carr (1962).
For those unfamiliar with this decision on the part of the Supreme Court of the United States, you can read up some aspects of it here.
Suffice it to say, that from my perspective, it is the most insidious internal threat to our governance.
Lola, said she had no information on the SCOTUS decision that overthrew the state constitution. But she did the right thing, then. She said she’d research the matter and see what she could learn about it before she’d answer the question. Makes sense to me.
So, time passed and the County Assembly was held. Lola showed up for it to pitch her camp’s efforts to become the Republican candidates for governor. I had a chance to buttonhole her and asked her if she’d come up with an answer to the Baker v. Carr issue. She said she had not had sufficient time. She was pressed for time so I gave her my e-mail address and asked her to contact me when she had the time.
We traded some e-mails, but with no real substance to the matter.
In the meantime, the Holtzman-Spradley campaign began an innovative way of reaching the delegates to the State Assembly. They began a very pro-active series of teleconferencing calls. The modus operandi was to call the delegate at their home, when they might be in and have a mechanical recorded message invite them to join the interactive teleconference with Marc and Lola by staying on the line. If the callee wanted to ask a question of the candidates, all they had to do was punch the pound-sign (#) and wait. Quite a while, in some cases, I imagine.
The first two times I was picked to participate, I had to demure, as I was busy doing other things. However, YESTERDAY, I was in the right place at the right time and with nothing more pressing to do than listen in and ask questions. So I stayed.
It was an interesting conference call. We had people from all over the state asking questions of the candidates. Some of the questions were very topical. One or two were, in my opinion, not so important.
The candidates fielded the questions asked by delegates. Usually quite well. In the instances where the delegate was not really asking a question but expressing an opinion, the candidates were very understanding. Even supportive.
A number of the comments and questions mentioned by the delegates I heard touched upon my concerns regarding the imbalance of legislative power between the metropolitan and rural areas. There was Chuck from Colorado Springs expressing his concerns that the vast majority of moneys realized from Referendum A were going to Denver to fund their T-Rex project. Then there were Al and Doyle who expressed concerns about how difficult it is becoming to be a rancher or framer in this state. My personal concern is over how the metropolitan areas are sucking up an ever-increasing quantity of natural resources, e.g., water. All of this is to support their continued efforts at maximizing growth of their populations.
Why is that? Well. Perhaps it has to do with the way the SCOTUS Baker v. Carr decision made the state senate into nothing more than a glorified version of the state house of representatives; elected based on population, not on geographic area, such as the Senate at the federal level.
At any rate, I decided to ask the question again, in this teleconference’s ‘public venue’. And I punched the pound sign. A mechanical voice informed me that I had been placed in the queue to talk to the candidates. It also informed me that I’d be given instructions prior to going on-the-air.
So I waited. And I waited. And I waited some more. Apparently there were skads of people who wanted to make some statement to the candidates. And the candidates accommodated all those in the queue before me. Even to carrying on conversations at points. And answering follow-on questions. Everything was going very nicely.
Then it came to my opportunity. And the mechanical voice said, a few short seconds before i was brought on-the-air, that I was about to address the candidates.
I thanked the candidates for this opportunity to talk with them and for all the information I’d gathered from listening to the discussions that had transpired before me.
So I got to the meat of my question and asked if there was a position on the part of the candidates with respect to the Baker v. Carr business. For the listening audience who were not familiar with the matter, I explained it as being the decision by the SCOTUS to overthrow the constitution of the state of Colorado by making the state senate nothing more than a glorified version of the state house of representatives, vesting an inordinate amount of legislative power in the metropolitan areas at the expense of the rural ones. Destroying the balance of power between the two. And causing many of the woes that had been expressed by a number of other callers who talked with the candidates before me.
When I finished my comment/question, the mechanical voice came on and informed me that I had been placed in “Listen-Mode Only”. I.e., I had been ‘cut off’. When Marc had finished his response to my question, a response that I found somewhat inadequate, he asked if that answered my question.
I, being cutoff, could not say anything to him. Not that I had much to say. The question had obviously taken him totally by surprise. Despite my having asked it of Lola on at least two occasions almost a month before. One would think that Lola would have done the research by now and would have jumped into the discussion with a better answer than what Marc offered. But that didn’t happen.
The lack of an answer from me to Marc, after his response, lead him to suggest that there was a ‘system issue’ going on.
I’ll say. Seeing as how I was the ONLY person to encounter such a ‘system issue’ as being told I’m cutoff, I guess you could say it was technically a ‘system issue’. Someone had disconnected me. And, I suspect, deliberately.
The question devolves into who dun it? And why?
Was it Marc? Was it Lola? Was it their ‘manager’?
And why? Was it politically incorrect? Was it outright ‘wrong’? Or was the answer too dangerous to their campaign? After all, a LOT of the potential voters are from the metropolitan areas.
This leads to further interesting discussions. Many of which I’ll hold off on until a more suitable time and circumstance.
But I will say this. I have not heard Bob Beauprez’s position on this matter. And I’ll hold off on final decision as to whom to vote for until the August Primary. I say this because I want to give the Beauprez camp the opportunity to fumble the question.
Maybe they’ll be more graceful in their ‘fumble’ than Marc was. Maybe they’ll have the quickness of wit to say, “Gee. That’s a tough question that we don’t have an answer to right now. But we’ll research it and get back to you on it.” Like Lola did the first time it was asked of her.
We’ll see what develops and keep you all informed.
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