Face the State

Face the State Staff Editorial

For years, leftist extremist Michael Huttner has lobbed firebombs at Colorado’s moderate and conservative political players. He has remained largely ignored because his relevance has been relegated to the dark depths of his mother’s basement and his political Web site, ProgressNowAction.

Recently, however, Huttner came out of the dark and tried to play hard ball. In doing so, he made the mistake of attacking one of Colorado’s most noble statesmen, Bob Schaffer.

On Wednesday, Huttner hosted a press conference where he launched a visceral verbal assault on the former U.S. Congressman and current Colorado Education Board Member.

Huttner’s political advocacy has never been about pointing out differences in ideology. Rather, he has made a living hitting below the belt in vicious, personal, and often unfounded attacks. At this week’s press conference, it was more of the same as Huttner tried to insinuate that Schaffer had exchanged a vote for a campaign contribution.

Earlier this year, Schaffer was in the majority of the board when he voted to remand back to the Denver School Board a decision to deny Life Skills Center its charter. While Denver previously denied the mostly-minority school’s charter, it ultimately agreed with the state board and approved the school’s proposal to continue in existence.

After the vote, Schaffer received a campaign contribution to aid his current U.S. Senate bid from David Brennan, an individual who runs a charter school management company that has contracts with Life Skills. Huttner is trying to say that Brennan bought Schaffer’s vote with his contribution. The idea is ludicrious.

Schaffer has been a strong advocate for school choice since his days in Congress—a single contribution from a supporter who may share Schaffer’s existing policy views did not make Schaffer vote the way he did.

In making his media push, Huttner insisted that Schaffer sign a pledge to fully disclose all of his campaign contributors prior to making a vote. Huttner needs to get his facts straight and admit that his latest effort is nothing more than a media ploy. Colorado’s elected officials and candidates are already required to disclose their contributors—a requirement Schaffer has fully complied with.

Huttner, forever the political novice, has failed to realize the ills of his ways. By opening the door to attacking board members for their votes, he has lowered the bar to a point where no honest contribution will go unpunished.

If Huttner wanted to be fair, he would have mentioned that liberal board members are almost exclusively funded by unions who lobby extensively against alternative education programs like Life Skills.

Huttner also fails to point out that under Colorado’s campaign finance laws, liberal school board members and legislative candidates are at a distinct advantage when it comes to their disclosure requirements.

Their most frequent source of funding comes from union-funded small donor committees. These committees can donate to board members in $4,000 increments—all without unveiling the identities of specific donors. In many cases, individual union members don’t even know their dues money is being used to fund specific candidate campaigns.

Regardless of what you feel about Schaffer, one thing is clear. This is an ethical guy. When he ran for Congress, he pledged to remain there only three terms. This was a promise he kept. While in Congress, he was a lead co-sponsor of the No Child Left Behind Act. When the legislation became bogged down with unfunded federal mandates, he had the courage to vote against it. Also while in Congress, a taxpayer organization named him Congress’s most frugal member because he spent the least amount of taxpayer money to manage his office.

Now, on the State Board of Education, Schaffer is a commonsense voice for some of Colorado’s most vulnerable students—racial minorities and others languishing in our most tattered schools.

Huttner, on the other hand, is a man without character. A top GOP operative got it right when he called Huttner a “sleazeball who has engaged in character assassination for years.”

Mr. Huttner, if you want to come out of the shadows and play with the big boys, starting acting with class. Colorado’s voters deserve nothing less than the truth.