In case you haven't decided who to vote for yet let's take a look at the lineup for 2012 and we at the Arvada Report would like to make a few recommendations
Lang Sias is running for Senate district 19. He is a moderate conservative. Given the composition of the district we feel that Lang will make an excellent Senator, especially when you take a look at the competition:
Senator Evie Hudak smiling at a friend
Lang Sias
Robert Ramirez is running for House of Representatives in district 29. Ramirez is the incumbent in this race. We fully expect Ramirez to pull ahead of his opponent who is a an attorney:
Robert Ramirez
Tracy Tharp (Carp) smiling at new taxes
Joe Coors who we now know is not a beer. This is a business guy who is fed up with Washington and what they have done to business. I know Joe and believe me he didn't want to run for office, but over the years he sat and watched things get worse and worse. Finally he decided to do something.
Ed Perlmutter screaming or crying
Joe Coors
Libby Szabo is also running in Arvada. In her first term Szabo sponsored some fantastic bills for Arvada including an effort to fight the Arvada trash Nazi's. Libby does have an opponent, he tried walking doors but after going down one street he was so winded he almost had a heart attack.
Conflict of interest and the appearance of bias have tainted a candidate forum in Arvada says mayoral contender Dave Chandler.
"The city government's TV station has asked the Arvada Chamber of Commerce to organize a candidate forum on October 6, but this Chamber is clearly compromised and biased and should not be involved in this kind of event," Chandler said. "The movers and shakers of a powerful faction of the Arvada Chamber leadership have contributed thousands of dollars to my main opponent. There is big money involved and Chamber staff cannot be expected to act in ignorance of this reality."
Chandler said that the sponsorship by Arvada city government's KATV channel 8 is acceptable if the host for such a forum is impartial, fair, open, and unbiased. "Did the city government do any checking to find out if this private group had a bias before they invited them to organize this forum?"
"There is an odor of machine-type politics arising from this government-private organization partnership. Is this the "business as usual" kind of politics that good citizens of our community should tolerate?"
Chandler pointed out that Chamber board member Ted Terranova and family/business have contributed $1,750 to mayoral candidate Marc Williams; Chamber board member Franke Barone and relatives have contributed $2,250 to Marc Williams (Barone is also Williams's campaign manager); a member of Williams's law firm is a board member of the Chamber and that law firm has contributed the maximum $750 to Williams; and chair-elect of the Chamber board, Brett Haigler has given Williams $150.
"I am running for mayor of Arvada in large measure because I want to give voters the choice whether or not to kick out of office the special interests, big money, and insiders taking care of themselves and their cronies that we are sick and tired of in this country."
CODY MCNUTT ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR ARVADA CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 2
Concerned Citizen Runs for Council
ARVADA, Colo. (August 1, 2011) – Cody McNutt announced his candidacy for Arvada City Council this week. Cody McNutt has deep roots in Arvada. His ancestors homesteaded in Arvada over 100 years ago and McNutt says, “Arvada was such a great place we never left”. Cody McNutt is a 4th generation lifelong resident of Arvada and active participant in city affairs. He has attended city council meetings regularly for the past 6 years and is well aware of the issues facing Arvada. For three years Cody McNutt served as Executive Director of the Arvada Harvest Festival. He holds a bachelors degree in business administration from the University of Denver and works as a business consultant.
If elected to council McNutt says he wants to represent hard working families. “I believe people in Arvada deserve better” McNutt said, in regards to the current representation. “There are many issues and people feel like elected officials aren’t listening to them”. He believes current issues, facing the city council such as the trash ordinance and plans to take out the community garden are bad policy. “We need to worry about more important issues facing families like the economy, jobs, and the fact that foreclosure rates are at 14% in Arvada. It is time to roll our sleeves up and get down to work”.
After carefully researching each candidate and where they stand on the issues relevant to their race such as:
The size and scope of city government
The budget surplus
The second amendment
Fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets
Sustainability
Public transportation
The accountability of elected and paid officials
Transparency
we’ve decided to release the following endorsements.
Mayor: Either Dan Bidstrup or Dave Chandler. Anybody is better than Marc Williams. I see his signs in my sleep.
City Council:
At Large: Ed Tomlinson
Ward 2: Cody McNutt
Ward 4: Humpty Dumpty (you’ll have to write this one in…)
School Board:
District 3: Preston Branaugh
District 4: Jim Powers
Proposition 103: Not just no. Hell no.
Charter Amendments:
2A: Yes. For heaven’s sake clean up that charter text.
2B: No. Do we really want pipelines of information running between us and other cities in Jefferson county?
2C: No. Just the words “Emergency Ordinance” throw me into a tailspin. I want as many people as possible to agree that there is a need for an “Emergency Ordinance” before it is adopted.
2D: No. To manage the city you should actually live in the city and that’s potentially a year’s worth of travel expenses paid for by the Arvada taxpayer while the new city manager travels between Arvada and his home town of Sidney, Australia. Exaggeration, but still.
2E: Yes. It took a team of lawyers to understand exactly the purpose of this one, but we’ve all concluded that there must be some city employee who’s driven the council crazy and they want the ability to tell the city manager so. Maybe it’s sustainability coordinator. Yeah, that’s it.
Things are shaping up nicely for 2011. It looks like Williams won't be alone in his race by a long shot. Perhaps we will finally get to see some new faces on council after this election. Out with the old and in with the new.
Here is a list of who's up this year and respectively what they will most likely run for to the best of our knowledge at this point: * RECOMMENDED BY ARVADA REPORT - DON'T VOTE FOR THIS ONE Bob Dyer- UNOPPOSED - He isn't to bad; at least he may actually do something about Arvada's unconstitutional paid membership to ICLEI Cody McNuttVS Mark McGoff
