Immigration Reform

Colorado ballot initiatives 60, 61, 62, 63 and 101 appear to be headed for crushing defeats, according to a Denver Post/ 9News polls conducted by Suvreys USA. 

CNBC’s John Harwood gives Ken Buck the best opportunity he’s had all year to explain his positions on economics, health insurance reform, illegal immigration, energy, climate change and taxes. Buck sounds like a thoughtful, smart conservative in this important 14-minute clip:

Taking the gloves off, former Colorado Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton said in an 85-minute interview in her Centennial office today that Ken Buck, her opponent for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, is the real Washington insider and that she’s the fiscal conservative in the race.

“I am not the Washington insider in this race. That would be Ken Buck. Ken has a Washington insider 527 running over $1 million of ads on his behalf. And he received over a third of all his donations from employees of one company that relies on stimulus money and millions of dollars of special interests contracts,” Norton said.

(Her campaign provided me with a list of employees of Greeley-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. who have contributed $141,800 to Buck’s Senate campaign.)

In reply to the Buck campaign’s charges that Norton is a Washington insider because she is backed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and is related to a Washington lobbyist, Norton said, “Ken Buck was Governor Bill Ritter’s best man. If we’re going to play the guilt by association game, that’s an interesting connection.”

Like Buck, Norton says she would not vote for a bill that would help Colorado if it included a tax increase.

Appointed Democrat Senator Michael Bennet “is totally out of touch with Colorado values. . . He’s a rubber stamp for anything the Obama administration wants.”

As executive director of the Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment between 1999 and 2002, Norton said, “My general fund request was down 28% when I left office. We eliminated programs that were not authorized by the state statute or in the state constitution.”

Norton also noted that when she ran for lieutenant governor, she took an unpaid leave of absence from her state job. Ken Buck continues to serve as the district attorney of Weld county even though he’s often absent so that he can attend campaign events, she said.

She also clarified her role at the Englewood-based Medical Group Management Association, where she was in charge of monitoring changes in states’ laws and regulations and informing managers of some 7,000 medical group practices about how they could comply with new state laws. She wasn’t in charge of the MGMA’s lobbyist in Washington and she never managed lobbyists or served as a lobbyist, she said.

“I have never been a lobbyist,” she said.

To see the 27 questions and answers, please click on the hed of this story. If you’re viewing this story at Rocky Mountain Right or Peoples Press Collective, go to www.businessword.com.

In 2007, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama supported Senators John McCain, Ted Kennedy and many Democrats in a failed effort to foist a so called immigration reform bill that was loaded with pork, written to give illegals amnesty and otherwise a disgraceful attempt to fool Americans.

Now, most of the same characters are making another attempt to change the immigration and border security laws. But, of course, the focus is on helping the illegals, not American citizens whose lives and incomes are put at risk by the shameful border security enforcement polices of the Obama administration.

Here are links to some stories about immigration reform. I’ll add more as I find them.

Arizona’s immigration frustration. Editorial. http://www.opinionjournal.com. 4.26.10.

“Nobody Wins” on immigration reform. By Nathan Martin & Kasie Hunt. 4.26.10.

Law profs on Arizona immigration bill: It’s unconstitutional. wsj.com. 

New Arizona immigration law makes sense. The Heritage Foundation.

Immigration reform’s big moment. WaPo.

Arizona’s immigration law may spur a showdown. By Nicholas Riccardi. LA Times.

Will Democrats err in immigration reforms? By Daniel Griswold. Cato Institute.

Jane Norton on immigration.

Ken Buck on immigration.

Ken Buck talks illegal immigration, hate crime laws, government spending. The Business Word, 2.16.10.

Tom Wiens on immigration.

Bennet urges Senate leadership to move on immigration reform. Sen. Bennet’s web site.

Dan Maes on immigration.

Scott McInnis and John Hickenlooper don’t address the issue specifically on their web sites.

67% say illegal immigrants are major strain on U.S. budget. Rasmussen Reports. March 23, 2010.