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Forget that Democratic Governor Bill Ritter upset workers with recent vetoes of legislation backed by unions. Here’s another log politicos to the governor’s left are throwing onto the anti-Ritter fire.
As David Sirota (via Salon) notes, Ritter has backed off his election-year promise to provide “every Coloradan with access to some basic form of health insurance and health care by 2010.” Why? He wants to see what President Barack Obama does–an “all-too-common pass-the-buck cop-out” in a nation where states shouldn’t always wait for the feds to act, opines Sirota.
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(Meanwhile, some federal politicians–like those representing parts of northern Colorado–are supportive of health-care reform but haven’t detailed any specifics, reports the Fort Collins Coloradoan.)
Ritter, who faces reelection next year, is also reeling from criticisms that employees from the Kenney Group, which is handling his campaign, anonymously posted flattering remarks about him online–a kind of nefarious campaigning that Kenney doesn’t support. “Between fantasy football, March Madness and political blogs, I apparently have to crack down on the use of my office computers,” boss David Kenney tells The Denver Post.
The charges are reminiscent of those that recently cropped up in the Senate campaign of retired Denver businessman Cleve Tidwell, the Republican Senate candidate accused of using aliases to praise himself online, although he claims it’s the work of an “enthusiastic” volunteer (via 5280).