Wednesday, July 30, 2008
New Strong Pro-Life Candidate!
In case you just got the newsletter, and are looking for information on a candidate in Lakewood or Wheat Ridge, I just spoke with Natalie Merten, who is running against Sen. Betty Boyd -- the MOST pro-abortion legislator in either chamber. Natalie is strongly pro-life, and we'll be posting her questionnaire within a day or two, as soon as we get it back from her. Watch for it!
Welcome to New BlogWatchers!
As you receive your newsletters (the second to mention this blog resource), please take a look at the range of information we present here.
We'll soon be posting the Wilberforce article from the last newsletter here, so you can send or link it to friends who may be surprised to hear it!
The first round of Candidate Responses to the CRTL Candidate Questionnaire are located here". There are also some additional responses from some more courageous candidates who are on our side, but who didn't make the first round.
Just as useful (perhaps more so!) will be the Legislative Scorecard -- Colorado Right to Life's grading of the important life-related bills of the 2007 and 2008 sessions of the General Assembly (Colorado Senate and Colorado House), and how our legislators voted. Some surprising information there, including some "pro-lifers" who aren't as pro-life as they say (and not just because we disagree on strategy -- some "pro-lifers" supported pro-abortion bills)! That should be arriving on this blog within a week or two, so watch for it!
There are many other important posts here -- the blog archive on the right lists posts month by month -- including the $10,000 Challenge to NRTL, how GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams is opposing Personhood and preferring pro-aborts to pro-lifers, and lots of information about Personhood, such as Amendment 48 makes the ballot!
We would welcome comments or questions on any of these posts! Comments are un-moderated right now, to encourage people to ask questions. Ask hard questions if you have them -- that's what this is all about. We're confident of our position, and we have lots of practice explaining where we stand. If there are doubts, we'd love to address them!
We're also in process of archiving our old newsletters, so you can read them in an online archive! Watch for this in the next several days.
And remember we would like to have your e-mail address -- we may try sending e-newsletters or e-notices about important events, and it's just cheaper and easier (better use of your resources!) to communicate that way. That's also why the blog is here.
Lastly, remember that CRTL is busy with a wide range of educational (C3) and political (C4) efforts, all of which are running at top speed right now. We're definitely in need of financial help from our supporters. If you are at all able to contribute to the many major lifesaving efforts we have underway (Personhood, protesting Planned Parenthood, mailings, radio and tv ads to Planned Parenthood neighbors, DNC Convention protests,
Remember the Banquet is coming up -- two dates Sept. 19 in Colorado Springs at the exclusive El Paso Club, and Sept. 20 in Denver at the Renaissance Hotel! Will be a great experience all around!
Thanks for all your support! Please let us know if you can contribute to any of these missions!
We'll soon be posting the Wilberforce article from the last newsletter here, so you can send or link it to friends who may be surprised to hear it!
The first round of Candidate Responses to the CRTL Candidate Questionnaire are located here". There are also some additional responses from some more courageous candidates who are on our side, but who didn't make the first round.
Just as useful (perhaps more so!) will be the Legislative Scorecard -- Colorado Right to Life's grading of the important life-related bills of the 2007 and 2008 sessions of the General Assembly (Colorado Senate and Colorado House), and how our legislators voted. Some surprising information there, including some "pro-lifers" who aren't as pro-life as they say (and not just because we disagree on strategy -- some "pro-lifers" supported pro-abortion bills)! That should be arriving on this blog within a week or two, so watch for it!
There are many other important posts here -- the blog archive on the right lists posts month by month -- including the $10,000 Challenge to NRTL, how GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams is opposing Personhood and preferring pro-aborts to pro-lifers, and lots of information about Personhood, such as Amendment 48 makes the ballot!
We would welcome comments or questions on any of these posts! Comments are un-moderated right now, to encourage people to ask questions. Ask hard questions if you have them -- that's what this is all about. We're confident of our position, and we have lots of practice explaining where we stand. If there are doubts, we'd love to address them!
We're also in process of archiving our old newsletters, so you can read them in an online archive! Watch for this in the next several days.
And remember we would like to have your e-mail address -- we may try sending e-newsletters or e-notices about important events, and it's just cheaper and easier (better use of your resources!) to communicate that way. That's also why the blog is here.
Lastly, remember that CRTL is busy with a wide range of educational (C3) and political (C4) efforts, all of which are running at top speed right now. We're definitely in need of financial help from our supporters. If you are at all able to contribute to the many major lifesaving efforts we have underway (Personhood, protesting Planned Parenthood, mailings, radio and tv ads to Planned Parenthood neighbors, DNC Convention protests,
Remember the Banquet is coming up -- two dates Sept. 19 in Colorado Springs at the exclusive El Paso Club, and Sept. 20 in Denver at the Renaissance Hotel! Will be a great experience all around!
Thanks for all your support! Please let us know if you can contribute to any of these missions!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Please keep CRTL VP and family in your prayers!
Dear friends of life,
It is with a heavy heart that we ask you to please keep Leslie and her family in your prayers. Leslie's grand-daughter is currently in the hospital and is gravely ill.
We appreciate your prayers and support at this time.
Board of Directors
Colorado Right to Life
It is with a heavy heart that we ask you to please keep Leslie and her family in your prayers. Leslie's grand-daughter is currently in the hospital and is gravely ill.
We appreciate your prayers and support at this time.
Board of Directors
Colorado Right to Life
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Update on Candidate Responses!
Since our last posting of Candidate Questionnaire responses, more have come in. Please continue to encourage your candidates to respond -- I realize many politicians have a fear of being on record because their enemies have that to use against them, but if they are really pro-life they need to be on record and be proud of their stand!
Scott Starin, a candidate for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District, has said his questionnaire is in the mail -- he says he supports all 7 of our points! Scott also has a relationship with National Right to Life, so please pray for him to not be swayed by arguments for compromise! EDIT: Scott Starin has disappeared from the pro-life radar screen, and we must issue a caution -- we have not received Scott Starin's candidate questionnaire, which we were told was in the mail, and so we must question whether he was even referring to this questionnaire. He also has stopped responding to e-mails, and we cannot now reach him for comment.
Wil Armstrong, a candidate for Congress in the 6th Congressional District, has been asked (yet again!) to respond to the CRTL Questionnaire. He did, when pressed hard by talk-show host Gino Geraci, give a solid statement in favor of Amendment 48 (the Personhood Amendment) on Gino's Crosswalk show (KRKS Denver), as well as life beginning at conception/fertilization. We're waiting for his response to the survey to be sure he's serious about it! His campaign website has improved its statement of pro-life values since our Questionnaire we handed out at the State GOP Convention (where we noted he did not have pro-life statements on his website), but his commitment to pro-life values is still somewhat understated. Please also pray for Wil!
Three more candidates for the State Legislature have responded favorably!
Bob Denny is running for the State Senate in District 4 (in the Colorado Springs region, north and west of the city). He has a primary against a candidate (Scheffel) who has not responded to the CRTL survey. If you know Mark Scheffel, it would be good to have him on record, one way or another!
Ray Warren has responded with 7 out of 7! Ray is running for House District 26 in the Lakewood and Wheat Ridge area.
State Rep. Kevin Lundberg is running for re-election. He responded 6 out of 7 (the first 6), which is great! On #7 his note said "For seven, you set a standard that I cannot fully agree to. I sponsored SB08-095, requiring informed consent. I made sure there was no "and then you can kill the baby" language, but it still violated your standard and therefore I cannot agree with number seven." We hope Kevin is open to dialogue on this and related issues, and that he and his current colleagues who also supported compromised legislation will eventually come around. Kevin DOES support Amendment 48 (see the next note).
We also have current legislators who are strongly supporting Amendment 48 -- the Personhood Initiative! Sen. Scott Renfroe, Rep. Kevin Lundberg, Rep. Kent Lambert and Rep. Dave Schultheis attended the Personhood press conference when they turned in the signatures (and Sen. Renfroe tagged along to present them to the Sec. State's office!). There are other legislators who support Am. 48, but were unable to make it to the press conference, including Sen. Ted Harvey. Sec. of State Mike Coffman's candidate survey also shows that he supports Amendment 48.
Many of these legislators and state officials may have supported compromised legislation in the past, but CRTL has only been pushing no-compromise for 2 years consistently. We all need to pray for our legislators -- especially those who are supportive of Personhood -- that they will understand the new pro-life standard we need to hold to, and that it has superseded the old NRTL "standard" of regulating child-killing.
Senate candidate Bob Schaffer still won't acknowledge any support for Amendment 48 (the Personhood Initiative!). No word yet on whether he will support S.3111 -- Sen. Wicker's federal Personhood legislation. Dick Wadhams, Schaffer's campaign manager and chairman of the State GOP, is on record calling Personhood supporters "the fringe" and has said he wants Colorado Republicans to "avoid social issues" in their campaigns. Please write, call or e-mail to Bob Schaffer to endorse BOTH Amendment 48 and S.3111 ! His response may tell you that he has a 100% rating with National Right to Life, and that he has a solid pro-life record, etc... But if he can't say he favors Amendment 48, he's denying the Right to Life! We need to make sure he understands we won't accept his silence on this issue!
Please keep up the great work! The political face of Colorado is changing in favor of Personhood, and against compromise and regulation! We need to keep it up, and keep the dialogue with these legislators and candidates open. Please pray for us, too!
Scott Starin, a candidate for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District, has said his questionnaire is in the mail -- he says he supports all 7 of our points! Scott also has a relationship with National Right to Life, so please pray for him to not be swayed by arguments for compromise! EDIT: Scott Starin has disappeared from the pro-life radar screen, and we must issue a caution -- we have not received Scott Starin's candidate questionnaire, which we were told was in the mail, and so we must question whether he was even referring to this questionnaire. He also has stopped responding to e-mails, and we cannot now reach him for comment.
Wil Armstrong, a candidate for Congress in the 6th Congressional District, has been asked (yet again!) to respond to the CRTL Questionnaire. He did, when pressed hard by talk-show host Gino Geraci, give a solid statement in favor of Amendment 48 (the Personhood Amendment) on Gino's Crosswalk show (KRKS Denver), as well as life beginning at conception/fertilization. We're waiting for his response to the survey to be sure he's serious about it! His campaign website has improved its statement of pro-life values since our Questionnaire we handed out at the State GOP Convention (where we noted he did not have pro-life statements on his website), but his commitment to pro-life values is still somewhat understated. Please also pray for Wil!
Three more candidates for the State Legislature have responded favorably!
Bob Denny is running for the State Senate in District 4 (in the Colorado Springs region, north and west of the city). He has a primary against a candidate (Scheffel) who has not responded to the CRTL survey. If you know Mark Scheffel, it would be good to have him on record, one way or another!
Ray Warren has responded with 7 out of 7! Ray is running for House District 26 in the Lakewood and Wheat Ridge area.
State Rep. Kevin Lundberg is running for re-election. He responded 6 out of 7 (the first 6), which is great! On #7 his note said "For seven, you set a standard that I cannot fully agree to. I sponsored SB08-095, requiring informed consent. I made sure there was no "and then you can kill the baby" language, but it still violated your standard and therefore I cannot agree with number seven." We hope Kevin is open to dialogue on this and related issues, and that he and his current colleagues who also supported compromised legislation will eventually come around. Kevin DOES support Amendment 48 (see the next note).
We also have current legislators who are strongly supporting Amendment 48 -- the Personhood Initiative! Sen. Scott Renfroe, Rep. Kevin Lundberg, Rep. Kent Lambert and Rep. Dave Schultheis attended the Personhood press conference when they turned in the signatures (and Sen. Renfroe tagged along to present them to the Sec. State's office!). There are other legislators who support Am. 48, but were unable to make it to the press conference, including Sen. Ted Harvey. Sec. of State Mike Coffman's candidate survey also shows that he supports Amendment 48.
Many of these legislators and state officials may have supported compromised legislation in the past, but CRTL has only been pushing no-compromise for 2 years consistently. We all need to pray for our legislators -- especially those who are supportive of Personhood -- that they will understand the new pro-life standard we need to hold to, and that it has superseded the old NRTL "standard" of regulating child-killing.
Senate candidate Bob Schaffer still won't acknowledge any support for Amendment 48 (the Personhood Initiative!). No word yet on whether he will support S.3111 -- Sen. Wicker's federal Personhood legislation. Dick Wadhams, Schaffer's campaign manager and chairman of the State GOP, is on record calling Personhood supporters "the fringe" and has said he wants Colorado Republicans to "avoid social issues" in their campaigns. Please write, call or e-mail to Bob Schaffer to endorse BOTH Amendment 48 and S.3111 ! His response may tell you that he has a 100% rating with National Right to Life, and that he has a solid pro-life record, etc... But if he can't say he favors Amendment 48, he's denying the Right to Life! We need to make sure he understands we won't accept his silence on this issue!
Please keep up the great work! The political face of Colorado is changing in favor of Personhood, and against compromise and regulation! We need to keep it up, and keep the dialogue with these legislators and candidates open. Please pray for us, too!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Dick Wadhams Rejects Christians, Begging for Defeat
Media: Pro-lifers Blast Colo GOP Chairman
Colorado RTL's warning to the state Republican Party of a catastrophic loss in November has been reported (click for articles) by LifeNews, the Rocky Mountain News, and the Denver Post. Those articles are based upon this CRTL guest editorial:
Right To Life Warns Colorado Republican Chairman
by Leslie Hanks
CRTL V.P.
Colorado Right To Life is warning Dick Wadhams, the state Republican Party chairman, that by shunning their pro-life conservative base they're headed for another election defeat in November, three election-cycle catastrophes for the Colorado GOP, and two U.S. Senate losses for Wadhams.
Wadhams banned the nation's oldest Right To Life organization from their state convention while he welcomed a pro-abortion group. The state's top Republican is out of touch with his own party's base, where 4 out of 5 Republicans at the convention voted to defend life beginning at fertilization.
The thousands of convention delegates passed all forty resolutions offered, except for the only one that failed, the pro-abortion Resolution #21. Convention rules require literature to be approved by the party chairman. Wadhams allowed the misnamed Republican Majority for Choice to distribute flyers quoting him about the Personhood Amendment 48 sponsors as "on the fringe of the pro-life movement, and they do not represent by any stretch of the imagination the hundreds of thousands of pro-life Coloradans."
130,000 pro-lifers signed the Personhood petition. Delegates overwhelmingly passed all uncompromising pro-life resolutions including the 78% vote affirming that "life begins at conception." 20-year-old Personhood Amendment sponsor Kristi Burton was elected among the top ten most popular of the 46 national delegates.
The Denver Post last week reported Wadhams' assessment (Wadhams: Dobson's lack of support won't hurt McCain, June 11, 2008) regarding conservative leader Dr. James Dobson's refusal to support the Republican presidential candidate. "Dobson's comments that he would not vote for the party's presumptive nominee, John McCain, won't hurt," and that the party should "avoid social issues," and the liberal ColoradoPols.com headlined their report about the state Republican chairman: "Wadhams: Dobson Is So Yesterday."
While social issues have motivated Republicans in every presidential cycle since 1980, Wadhams is more accommodating to pro-abortion lobbyists than to Dobson and pro-life voters. In sharp contrast, our own ColoradoRTL.org candidate questionnaire has identified many heroic leaders running for office. But Wadhams has moved U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer to the liberal middle, and he's trying to drag the Colorado GOP to the left.
The party's affinity for abortion supporters will be the straw that elects Democrat Mark Udall. Why would Colorado elect a pretend liberal rather than a real one? And this move to the left helps explain the Rocky Mountain News report that Bob Schaffer's convention speech received, "the loudest applause... when he criticized his own party."
Virginia's George Allen could have been re-elected as a Republican U.S. Senator in 2006 despite his infamous macaca comment. With Dick Wadhams as his campaign manager, Allen had only given lip service but did not significantly support their state's marriage amendment. Salon magazine reported "a popular sentiment" that defeat came "when Allen failed to make the anti-gay marriage amendment, which passed handily, a centerpiece of his campaign." Just before that election New Jersey's Supreme Court gave homosexual partners the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. So in the last desperate days of the campaign, Wadhams, generally inclined to avoid social issues, hoped to hitch his candidate to the values momentum. According to the New York Times, "In Virginia, the [New Jersey] court decision could not have come at a better time for Senator George Allen, a Republican whose campaign for re-election had been thrown off course... The Virginia ballot includes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Mr. Allen supports it... 'It's an issue that's going to play a big role in the next 12 days,' Mr. Allen's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, said in an interview."
According to the Roanoke Times, "Less than two weeks away from Election Day, U.S. Sen. George Allen spent Thursday... making sure [voters] knew he supported a proposed amendment to... prohibit gay marriage." A bit late, no? The marriage amendment won by 328,000 votes, and Allen lost by a mere 9,000, squandering countless values votes because Wadhams restrained Allen from giving the amendment more than lip service.
In Colorado, Wadhams is begrudging 130,000 petition signers even lip service for Amendment 48, which is virtually identical to Schaffer's formerly claimed pro-life position, that personhood begins at fertilization. Now Schaffer is allowing the party boss to position the candidate's previous pro-life belief as a negative, so Schaffer, more than Wadhams, will be blamed for the Colorado GOP's third election strike out and game over.
Colorado RTL's warning to the state Republican Party of a catastrophic loss in November has been reported (click for articles) by LifeNews, the Rocky Mountain News, and the Denver Post. Those articles are based upon this CRTL guest editorial:
Right To Life Warns Colorado Republican Chairman
by Leslie Hanks
CRTL V.P.
Colorado Right To Life is warning Dick Wadhams, the state Republican Party chairman, that by shunning their pro-life conservative base they're headed for another election defeat in November, three election-cycle catastrophes for the Colorado GOP, and two U.S. Senate losses for Wadhams.
Wadhams banned the nation's oldest Right To Life organization from their state convention while he welcomed a pro-abortion group. The state's top Republican is out of touch with his own party's base, where 4 out of 5 Republicans at the convention voted to defend life beginning at fertilization.
The thousands of convention delegates passed all forty resolutions offered, except for the only one that failed, the pro-abortion Resolution #21. Convention rules require literature to be approved by the party chairman. Wadhams allowed the misnamed Republican Majority for Choice to distribute flyers quoting him about the Personhood Amendment 48 sponsors as "on the fringe of the pro-life movement, and they do not represent by any stretch of the imagination the hundreds of thousands of pro-life Coloradans."
130,000 pro-lifers signed the Personhood petition. Delegates overwhelmingly passed all uncompromising pro-life resolutions including the 78% vote affirming that "life begins at conception." 20-year-old Personhood Amendment sponsor Kristi Burton was elected among the top ten most popular of the 46 national delegates.
The Denver Post last week reported Wadhams' assessment (Wadhams: Dobson's lack of support won't hurt McCain, June 11, 2008) regarding conservative leader Dr. James Dobson's refusal to support the Republican presidential candidate. "Dobson's comments that he would not vote for the party's presumptive nominee, John McCain, won't hurt," and that the party should "avoid social issues," and the liberal ColoradoPols.com headlined their report about the state Republican chairman: "Wadhams: Dobson Is So Yesterday."
While social issues have motivated Republicans in every presidential cycle since 1980, Wadhams is more accommodating to pro-abortion lobbyists than to Dobson and pro-life voters. In sharp contrast, our own ColoradoRTL.org candidate questionnaire has identified many heroic leaders running for office. But Wadhams has moved U.S. Senate candidate Bob Schaffer to the liberal middle, and he's trying to drag the Colorado GOP to the left.
The party's affinity for abortion supporters will be the straw that elects Democrat Mark Udall. Why would Colorado elect a pretend liberal rather than a real one? And this move to the left helps explain the Rocky Mountain News report that Bob Schaffer's convention speech received, "the loudest applause... when he criticized his own party."
Virginia's George Allen could have been re-elected as a Republican U.S. Senator in 2006 despite his infamous macaca comment. With Dick Wadhams as his campaign manager, Allen had only given lip service but did not significantly support their state's marriage amendment. Salon magazine reported "a popular sentiment" that defeat came "when Allen failed to make the anti-gay marriage amendment, which passed handily, a centerpiece of his campaign." Just before that election New Jersey's Supreme Court gave homosexual partners the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. So in the last desperate days of the campaign, Wadhams, generally inclined to avoid social issues, hoped to hitch his candidate to the values momentum. According to the New York Times, "In Virginia, the [New Jersey] court decision could not have come at a better time for Senator George Allen, a Republican whose campaign for re-election had been thrown off course... The Virginia ballot includes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Mr. Allen supports it... 'It's an issue that's going to play a big role in the next 12 days,' Mr. Allen's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, said in an interview."
According to the Roanoke Times, "Less than two weeks away from Election Day, U.S. Sen. George Allen spent Thursday... making sure [voters] knew he supported a proposed amendment to... prohibit gay marriage." A bit late, no? The marriage amendment won by 328,000 votes, and Allen lost by a mere 9,000, squandering countless values votes because Wadhams restrained Allen from giving the amendment more than lip service.
In Colorado, Wadhams is begrudging 130,000 petition signers even lip service for Amendment 48, which is virtually identical to Schaffer's formerly claimed pro-life position, that personhood begins at fertilization. Now Schaffer is allowing the party boss to position the candidate's previous pro-life belief as a negative, so Schaffer, more than Wadhams, will be blamed for the Colorado GOP's third election strike out and game over.
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