I’ll give him credit, it appears as though Colorado’s Senate President is going to cling to power with everything he’s got after his gun control games. According to “A Whole Lot of People for John Morse,” his recall campaign team, they plan to challenge to every single signature filed.
…Morse backers note that they plan to contest every signature submitted if enough are verified to move forward with a recall election.
It doesn’t seem to matter how obviously qualified a signature is, their comments to the press indicate they will still challenge the validity in an attempt to disqualify recall petition signers. Now, I generally don’t have too much of a problem with challenging some signatures. That’s because a certain number of signatures on any legal petition will be invalid. However, if they truly plan to contest every single name, that’s purposely just wasting the time and resources of the courts and agencies overseeing elections in an effort to truly disenfranchise valid and legal voters.
To his credit, not even the Democratic Party leader appears to be willing to go that far. He simply says that they plan to “scrutinize and comb through all of the purported signatures.” Then he follows that up with complaints about the cost of having elections and claims that they are absolutely not in any way talking about asking the Senator to resign in order to keep the seat in Democratic hands–even though Democratic advisors have been very vocal about the possibility of resignation and how it would be less embarrassing for Morse than losing a recall.
If only we could recall in PA.
If I remember correctly didn’t they submit well above the requried amount of signatures?
Which shows foresight given this kicking and screaming.
In any petition drive, even if it is to get on the ballot, you submit far more signatures than you need. Depending on the district, typically 30-50% more than you need. They submitted 126% more than what they needed. From what I’ve read, the lead petition drivers were extremely careful in verifying that people who signed were eligible.
It’d have been better from the dem’s position to have Morse resign, & I’m sure there are a lot of dems who tried to talk him into taking one for the team. But Bloomie obviously feels that fighting a recall is preferable. I think hizzoner sees a Morse resignation as proof bloomie can’t protect his minions, so it’s part ego, part strategery that’s making him leave Morse on the pitchers mound despite having a crowded bullpen.
Whether Morse or any of the party dems in Colorado wanted him to resign is irrelevant; this will proceed as Bloomie wants it to.
From what I know of his district the only way Morse will win a recall is if the local repubs put up a candidate so clownlike (complete with shoes & rubber nose) that no one feels like it’s worth it to wander to a polling place that day. Hopefully the local repubs won’t be that stupid, but it is a possibility (after all, hat’s partly how we wound up in this mess).
If the Morse/Bloomberg ticket loses, it’ll send a very clear message that gun owner control is still a political loser. Not just here, but nationally. Even Bloomberg giving Morse a cushy consolation job after a loss won’t boost the dems morale when they’re asked to pull the lever against gun owners again.
Course Bloomie could reconsider & have Morse resign at some point twixt now & the election, if he thinks Morse is going to be trounced badly. It’ll still send the “gun owner control = unemployed democrat” message, just not as loudly. But methinks bloomie’s ego (& his faith in his quad mounted credit card)will make him double down & keep Morse in the game.
If I heard right, another Colorado dem was recalled – Giron. I wonder if bloomie will back her to the same extent, or if he figures Morse is the main attraction…
For the Giron petitions they only went over by a small amount. Kind of iffy and they may be successfully challenged. Both of these people were up for reelection in 2014, from what I can see, so as much as I hope these recalls works (a nice victory for us, and I’ll bet it will shut down a lot of anti-gunnery in the Democratic party nationwide) I’m not sure it was a smart strategy. Especially since one recall petition effort against another candidate (can’t remember name) failed to get enough signatures.
If we can win these 2 we only need 1 more in 2014 and we’ve got the senate back. Still have to get back the house (difficult given teh gerrymandering done) and take out governor Hickenlooper to roll back the anti-gun laws — and the governor will be the toughest nut to crack. Hopefully someone will step up to the plate to take him on soon.
“Both of these people were up for reelection in 2014, from what I can see, so as much as I hope these recalls works (a nice victory for us, and I’ll bet it will shut down a lot of anti-gunnery in the Democratic party nationwide) I’m not sure it was a smart strategy. ”
Even if the recall vote fails, you still cost them money.
And the other recalled Senator is screaming racism. Wow. They really are just a bunch of spoiled children, aren’t they?
they plan to contest every signature submitted.
This from the party that believes Voter ID is too difficult and racist. I suppose it all depends on whose Ox is being gored?
…and they call US bitter clingers.
He’s an asshole, and assholes never resign no matter how wrong or stupid they might be.