POLITIGAB: 100 percent behind growth

Rep. Doug Lamborn, seeking his second term, received the "Defender of Economic Freedom Award" from conservative group Club for Growth. The award is based on key votes tracked by the organization. Lamborn received a perfect score of 100, indicating he voted with the highest support for pro-growth policies.
He's the only freshman member of Congress with a perfect score.
In a related matter, Lamborn's office said he will vote Thursday in favor of an amendment introduced Wednesday that would strip all pork projects from the 2009 Military Construction-Veterans Affairs Appropriations Bill after Club for Growth urged members to support the measure proposed by Republican Reps. Jeff Flake of Arizona and John Campbell of California.
The $72.7 billion MilCon bill contains 103 member-requested earmarks worth $622 million. While many of these earmarks may be worthwhile, they are not subject to competitive bidding and oversight, Club for Growth said in a release.
In addition, the bill's price tag is 14 percent larger than last year's appropriations bill and 5 percent larger than the president's request.
Lamborn has proposed earmarks in the past, but it's unclear whether any of his requested projects would be axed should the Flake-Campbell amendment pass.
Just ask
Anna Lord, the Democratic candidate for House District 21, will take questions from voters beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday.in the meeting room of the Old Colorado City Branch Library, 2418 W. Pikes Peak Ave.
Lord is unopposed for her party's nomination to represent the district covering the western half of El Paso County and parts of Fremont County. So is the Republican Party candidate, Bob Gardner, who's been in the seat for two years.
The Gardner vs. Lord contest is a rematch from two years ago, when Gardner got 59 percent of the vote.
How to participate
Only Republicans or Democrats get to participate in the Aug. 12 primary election. That leaves out about 114,000 registered voters who are not affiliated with either party. But even unaffiliated voters can participate by declaring a party affiliation on Election Day at the polling place.
It seems simple enough, but El Paso County election officials are calling attention to a wrinkle in election law that creates a little more complexity for some voters. More than 18,000 unaffiliated voters in El Paso County have requested "permanent mail-in status," meaning they'll get a ballot by mail every time there's an election. The exception is primary elections, when only party members may vote. So what's an unaffiliated voter to do? Election officials offered two options:
· To get a mail-in ballot for the primary, visit the Centennial Hall election office at 200 S. Cascade Ave. and affiliate with a major party.
· At an early voting site or at the polling place on Election Day, voters may affiliate with a major party and be issued a provisional ballot, which is processed later and counted with the official election results.
To ask questions, call the Election Department at 575-8683 or visit http://car.elpasoco.com/election.
Sheriff with Crank
El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa backs Jeff Crank in the 5th Congressional District in the contest for the GOP nomination.
"I endorse Jeff because I believe he is committed to bringing meaningful conservative change to Washington and continues to provide specific ideas on the campaign trail," Maketa said in a statement.
125,000 John Henrys
Clean Government Colorado announced Wednesday it submitted nearly 125,000 signatures to the secretary of state to place Initiative 59 on the November ballot. The measure would bar government contractors from making campaign contributions to political parties and candidates while they hold no-bid contracts.
The organization's chairman Tom Lucero said in a statement that Initiative 59 will bring more transparency and accountability to Colorado government contracting and save taxpayers millions of dollars. Research indicates that nearly $400 million in no-bid contracts are awarded by the state annually. That amount does not include the millions of dollars in no-bid government contracts at the local government level. Taxpayers lose every time the competitive bidding process is by-passed.
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