Denver, CO – Eight Colorado Republican State Senators received failing liberty grades. If you are keeping score, this liberal group of Colorado Senate Republicans shifted farther left than the group of horrible scoring House Republicans. Here are the scores of the bad “Republican” Senators as of our first article (this scores may vary slightly over time):
- Don Coram (49)
- Larry Crowder (54)
- Robert Gardner (59)
- Owen Hill (55)
- Dennis Hisey (56)
- Kevin Priola (43)
- Robert Rankin (50)
- Jerry Sonnenberg (57)
- Jack Tate (39)
The House only had one Republican scoring in the 40s. The Senate not only has one “Republican” Senator scoring in the 40s, but they also have one who only scored a 38! We just don’t get this. At any time in the history of Colorado, now is the time to stand and fight against the extreme-far-left, not dance with them. Senators Priola and Tate appear to be pretty good dancers.
We wrote an article about Senator Kevin Priola, and how far lefty he has gone. This hurts the Republican brand going into November.
We haven’t published anything about Senator Jack Tate, yet, because a profanity-laden tirade isn’t appropriate for our website, we’re family-friendly!
Tate is not up for re-election. He announced last year he was not running. Tate barely beat out the highest-scoring Democrat in the Senate.
The Republican Liberty Caucus of Colorado produces the liberty ratings. We have written about these ratings on a few occasions (HERE, HERE, and HERE). We like ratings because it gives voters both a snapshot and a comprehensive analysis of what their legislator is up to at the Colorado State Capitol.
This may come as a shock to you, but politicians lie! What a lot of politicians say on the campaign trail, simply isn’t true. Too many politicians only want your vote and will tell you what they think you want to hear. Well, ratings help compare what the politician is telling you to what they’re doing.
So, let’s point out a couple of bad bills that affected these scores. We’ll start with the “Crown Act” (HB20-1048), an open-ended “anti-discrimination” law that opens up most businesses to lawsuits based on “ethnic” hairstyles. Coram and Priola were the only two Republicans who voted for this horrible bill. So with State Representative Colin Larson, only three out of forty Republicans in the legislature voting for it.
Then there is the bill limiting cell phone use in your car. We know some of you may disagree with us on this one, but it’s a classic government regulating your behavior bill. If you don’t like the government telling you the time, place, manner, and how you can use your guns – then you shouldn’t like this bill. Both regulate behavior, and both could be considered dangerous. We feel citizens can be responsible WITHOUT the government telling them what to do. Freedom and liberty are GOOD things!
SB20-065 is the cell phone bill. Senators Coram, Gardner, Hisey, Priola, Rankin, and Tate voted for this. We wonder how they would vote on guns this year. Full disclosure: some of them DO have a record on guns.
Then there is SB20-150, concerning Renewable Gas Standards. This bill forces your utility company to sell you energy from specific natural resources. This is usually called “fuel switching” and is used by the lefty environmentalist to get us away from “fossil fuels.” The only two Senators on the list NOT to vote for this were Sonneberg and Hill.
Speaking of Sonnenberg and Hill, are being strategically bad with their votes? Looking at the votes they’ve taken, they vote no on the more massive “headline” type bills. Meaning that if the bill made the paper, and it’s terrible, they don’t vote for it.
However, if you look at Sonnenberg and Hill’s votes, on the whole, they vote for a lot of little lousy stuff. The sum of their votes is just as bad. Bad small tweaks to laws can result in the same long-term adverse effects for Colorado. THIS IS WHY these ratings are important. The ratings expose all of the bad little votes you DON’T hear about.
Well, this article is double the size of what our editors requested, so let’s wrap this up. Check out the Liberty Scorecard HERE. Note: Scores may change as of our initial reporting. You can click on any legislator and find out about how their votes match up against liberty.
This is a great tool to hold your local politician accountable, especially with caucuses coming up tomorrow.
What do you think about these legislator’s low scores? Do you think ratings are important and useful? What are you going to do to hold these politicians accountable? Please post your comments below and on our social media!
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Are there alternative candidates?