LESSER OF TWO EVILS

Well, my man lost. Andrew Romanoff, the candidate who sold his house in an attempt to win the nomination for U.S. Senate here in Colorado, the man who won the caucus, the county and the state assembly lost the primary because his opponent had big money behind him.

I just attended a local vacancy committee meeting for our house district. Our representative in the state senate gave up her seat a week before the primary and we had to replace her. One of the items brought up in this meeting was whether or not the candidates had the resources to raise the money necessary to win. This is a state representative position...the job pays about $30K per year. We discussed the fact that the person would have to have the wherewithal to raise between $40 and $60K to be a contender. REALLY??? Who has that kind of expendable cash? So then, you have to raise it, which means that if you want to have a place, even within your state, you have to get special interest money which immediately makes you beholding to those interests. Money makes the world go around.

Until we fix the money involved in campaigns...until somebody like me is not barred from running for U.S. Senate simply because I don't have or can't raise the millions of dollars involved in a race like this...I couldn't even raise the honest money to run for a state office. And Andrew tried to do that...raise honest money.

Other than still being an entertainer, if I had one wish, it would be to have the opportunity to be a legislator. When our country was formed, it was with the idea that anyone could represent the people of their district. The fact that our country has been distorted to Corporatism (completely against the wishes of our founding fathers) and that actual PERSONHOOD has been granted to corporations in order to advance their wishes and needs against those of the people is abominable. Yet, I can't get the message across,even to people who I perceive to be intelligent. They're burned out. Which is the plan.

Force people to work so hard, need so much, think and read so little. You can get away with any and everything. Ooooooh...this is a conversation for another post at another time but one that needs to be expressed. Crap, I know nobody reads this but it helps me to just get it out there.

When faced with the choice between a compromised candidate who will sometimes vote in our best interests as opposed to a misogynistic neo-con, I will choose the former and vote for Michael Bennett. The idea of Ken Buck as our Senator is beyond frightening. So I will vote for a guy who will be sort of like the hippocratic oath: "First do no harm." While the future of our state will be represented by someone who will always weigh his vote against the reaction of his big money advocates and his prospects of being re-elected, he is still better than the alternative and he is, hopefully, no Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln or Max Baucus. Only time will tell on that hopeful statement.

I will make that choice with sadness. We could have had a champion. So, I'll send my money to Joe Sestak and Russ Feingold. Perhaps Pennsylvania and Wisconsin will have champions.

We have a great candidate for Governor - Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper will have all my support. Money, work, and phone calls. He jokes that if good hair became a premise for winning, he would lose. But as for policy and ideas, he is my kind of guy and my kind of candidate. He did great things for the city and he will do that for the state.

Don't bother to call me, DNC. I choose my candidates independently now. I resign my membership. I'm now a member of the "Old Broad Criterion" party. Live with it.