CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Jared Polis Becomes 1st Openly Gay Man Elected Governor

Former Congressman Jared Polis has become the first openly gay man to be elected as the Chief Executive of a State. Polis, 43,  is now the Governor-elect of Colorado, having been elected as a Democrat on Tuesday November 6 with 51.7% of the vote. He is a dot-com millionaire and he and his partner Marlon Reis are parents to a son and daughter.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: The Next Governor of Colorado Could Be Openly Gay Jared Polis

Openly gay Congressman Jared Polis, 42, has announced that he is running to become Governor of Colorado. Polis has represented a Boulder-area Congressional district (CO-02) since 2007 and is one of the wealthiest members of the U.S. House, with assets estimated in the $400 million range. If elected to succeed termed-out John Hickenlooper in 2018, he would become the first openly gay governor of a state, although Kate Brown of Oregon is the nation's first elected LGBT governor (she is bisexual). Brown was Oregon's Secretary of State when the previous governor resigned and then won election as the incumbent governor. Polis' task of winning a competitive election as an openly LGBT person to become chief executive of a state would be a landmark achievement.

GODLESS WEDNESDAY: Mormons Trying To Influence Ballot Measures in Western States (AZ,CO,CA,NV)

The Mormon Church notoriously (and somewhat disastrously) got involved with a California ballot measure in 2008 called Proposition 8 that purported to amend the United States California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage that was eventually struck down in a 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 26, 2013. has decided that it didn't learn its lesson 8 years ago and is getting involved in opposing a series of ballot measures involving social issues in various West Coast states.

The Deseret News reports:

The LDS Church's First Presidency is asking the faith's members in four western states to oppose bills that would legalize doctor-assisted suicide and recreational marijuana use.
Church President Thomas S. Monson and his counselors sent a letter Wednesday to Mormons in Colorado, where Proposition 106 would legalize physician-assisted suicide. 

"We urge church members to let their voices be heard in opposition to measures that would legalize physician-assisted suicide," said the letter signed by President Monson, President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who make up the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

They sent a similar letter Wednesday to Mormons in Arizona, California and Nevada about marijuana legislation.
"We urge church members to let their voices be heard in opposition to the legalization of recreational marijuana use," the letter said.

The Mormon Church does not get involved in political issues very often (which is one reason their involvement in the Proposition 8 fight over same-sex marriage was so striking) so it is noteworthy that they are urging their adherents in California, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada to follow the Church's leadership instead of voting their conscience in these particular matters. It's also interesting that the LDS Church did not weigh in on Proposition 62 (abolish death penalty) and Proposition 66 (maintain death penalty) in California.

Fourth Circuit Strikes Down Virginia's Ban On Marriage Equality!

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has affirmed a February 2014 district court decision that struck down Virginia's ban on marriage equality. The ruling puts the marriage bans in four sates covered by the 4th Circuit (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia) in question. However, it is likely that there will be stay on proceedings in the Fourth Circuit until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a final ruling in the case.

Just a  few weeks ago the Tenth Circuit issued rulings affirming that Utah's and Oklahoma's bans on marriage equality are unconstitutional but this did not stop the Attorney General of Colorado (the Tenth Circuit is physically housed in Denver!) from asserting that Colorado's ban on marriage equality is still intact (even though a state judge and a federal judge has struck it down).

In today's 2-1 decision from the 4th Circuit, the majority says:

We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable. However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws. Civil marriage is one of the cornerstones of our way of life. It allows individuals to celebrate and publicly declare their intentions to form lifelong partnerships, which provide unparalleled intimacy, companionship, emotional support, and security. The choice of whether and whom to marry is an intensely personal decision that alters the course of an individual’s life. Denying same-sex couples this choice prohibits them from participating fully in our society, which is precisely the type of segregation that the Fourteenth Amendment cannot countenance.

Human Rights Campaign, the nations largest LGBT advocacy group helpfully noes that there have been nineteen consecutive ruling from federal courts affirming marriage equality since June 27, 2013 and lists the state of play in the pending federal lawsuits on marriage equality at the appellate level or higher:

Cases pending before federal appeals courts:

• DeLeon v. Perry, Texas [Argument date at the Fifth Circuit not set]

• Tanco v. Haslam, Tennessee [Arguments at the Sixth Circuit set for August 6]

• Bourke vs. Beshear, Kentucky [Arguments at the Sixth Circuit set for August 6]

• Obergefell v. Kasich, Ohio [Arguments at the Sixth Circuit set for August 6]

• Henry v. Himes, Ohio [Arguments at the Sixth Circuit set for August 6]

• DeBoer v. Snyder, Michigan [Arguments at the Sixth Circuit set for August 6]

• Wolf v. Walker, Wisconsin [Arguments at the Seventh Circuit set for August 26]

• Baskin v. Bogan, Indiana [Arguments at the Seventh Circuit set for August 26]

• Sevcik v. Sandoval, Nevada [Argument at the Ninth Circuit set for September 8]

• Latta v. Otter, Idaho [Argument at the Ninth Circuit set for September]

• Jackson v. Abercrombie, Hawaii [Argument at the Ninth Circuit set for September 8]

• Burns v. Hickenlooper, Colorado [Argument date at the Tenth Circuit not set]

Cases petitioned or likely to be petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court:

• Kitchen v. Herbert, Utah [Tenth Circuit struck down marriage ban June 25]

• Bishop v. United States, Oklahoma [Tenth Circuit struck down marriage ban July 18]

• Bostic v. Schaefer, Virginia [Fourth Circuit struck down marriage ban July 28]

Basically it's a race now to see if the Supreme Court will get the marriage cases in the 2014-15 term or in the 2015-16 term. Sooner is looking more likely, but maybe we'll need to get a circuit split (an actual federal appellate ruling where marriage equality loses) for that to happen.

Hat/tip to Chris Geidner

And Now Colorado! Federal Judge Strikes Down Marriage Equality Ban (Issues Stay Through 8/25/14)

Colorado's ban on same-sex marriage has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in the case of Burns v Hickenlooper. If you're counting that is now eighteen consecutive federal court decisions in favor of marriage equality since last year's Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Windsor.

Equality on Trial quotes the judge on the question of whether there should be a stay issued pending a final resolution of the Kitchen v. Herbert case which the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already decided. The judge issued a stay on his decision through 8:00am August 25, 2014.

Based on the most recent stay, it appears to the Court that it may well be that a message is being sent by the Supreme Court. But this Court is not some modern day haruspex skilled in the art of divination. This Court cannot – and, more importantly, it will not – tell the people of Colorado that the access to this or any other fundamental right will be delayed because it “thinks” or “perceives” the subtle – or not so subtle – content of a message not directed to this case. The rule of law demands more.

Much props from this fellow sesquipedalian for the use of the word "haruspex"!

Colorado Marriage Law Struck Down (Decision Stayed); Marriage Licenses Being Issued In Boulder and Denver

Well, well, well! Good things are happening in Colorado regarding marriage equality this week. Just yesterday, a state judge ruled that Colorado's ban(s) on marriage equality are unconstitutional. Colorado enacted a civil unions law last year (doesn't that idea seem quaint now, post-Windsor?) and the judge used its existence as part of his reasoning for why Colorado's marriage laws are discriminatory in his opinion in Brinkman v. Long:

“The Court holds that the Marriage Bans violate plaintiffs’ due process and equal protection guarantees under the Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution." 

“The existence of civil unions is further evidence of discrimination against same-sex couples and does not ameliorate the discriminatory effect of the Marriage Bans.”

But wait, there's more! After the 10th U.S. Circuit issued a ruling striking down Utah's marriage law a few weeks ago, the County Clerk of Boulder read the decision (which was stayed pending appeal) and decided to start issuing marriage licenses. In order to get her to stop doing that, the Governor and Attorney General agreed to file a statement with the court that the marriage laws of Colorado are unconstitutional but to agree to wait until a final ruling is issued by the Colorado Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court to issue marriage licenses. However, the judge in that lawsuit ruled in favor of the Boulder County clerk and said she can continue issuing marriage licenses:

Boulder County clerk who has been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of Colorado’s gay-marriage ban can continue, a judge ruled Thursday. Boulder County Judge Andrew Hartman decided county clerk Hillary Hall can ignore a federal stay on a ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver that states cannot set gender requirements for marriage. The judge said gay marriage is still technically illegal in Colorado but that Hall’s behavior was not harming anyone. But he said all who receive a license should be warned that they could still be invalid if a judge finds after trial that Hall didn’t have the authority to issue them. Hartman also noted that every judge — including one in Colorado the previous afternoon — in the past year has ruled that gay marriage bans are unconstitutional and that Colorado’s prohibition is “hanging by a thread.”

In light of this decision, according to the Denver Post clerks in Denver and Pueblo counties have also started issuing marriage licenses. So, unless a court steps in soon (which at this point would probably have to be the Colorado Supremes) marriage equality is coming to the Centennial State in hours instead of months!

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

10th U.S. Circuit Panel Hears Marriage Equality Oral Argument Next Week

Next week, oral arguments before a 3-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the marriage equality case of Kitchen v Herbert will occur, starting on Thursday April 10th. Exactly one week later, the 10th Circuit (a different 3-judge panel) will hear the appeal of the federal district court ruling that struck down Oklahoma's ban on marriage equality. This is the first hearing of the nine pending cases being heard before five, count 'em five federal appellate courts on marriage equality in the next few weeks.

HRC summarizes:

The Tenth Circuit is one of five federal appeals courts that will preside over nine marriage equality cases in the coming weeks and months. Other cases that will go before circuit courts include: Sevcik v. Sandoval of Nevada in the Ninth Circuit, DeLeon v. Perry out of Texas in the Fifth Circuit, Bostic v. Rainey of Virginia out of the Fourth Circuit, and four cases out of the Sixth Circuit - Tanco v. Haslam of Tennessee, Bourke vs. Beshear of Kentucky, Obergefell v. Kasich of Ohio, and DeBoer v. Snyder of Michigan. The Sixth Circuit holds the distinction of being the only federal appeals court to date that will consider marriage cases from all states within its jurisdiction.

The oral argument next week is important because it is the first time an appellate court is hearing a marriage equality case following last year's Supreme Court case in Windsor.

Missouri To Recognize Marriage Equality For Tax Purposes

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) announced this week that he supports marriage equality as a matter of public policy and issued an executive order that would allow legally married same-sex couples who file taxes in Missouri to do so jointly, despite the existence of a state constitutional amendment passed in 2004 which said that "to be valid and recognized in this state, a marriage shall exist only between a man and a woman."

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports

Nixon said he was making the change because state tax law is linked to federal tax law. 

After the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated part of the Defense of Marriage Act in June, the IRS ruled that legally married same-sex couples will be treated as married for federal tax purposes, no matter where they live. 

At a news conference in his Capitol office, Nixon told reporters he will issue an executive order today telling the Missouri Department of Revenue to accept the couples’ joint state returns if they file joint federal returns.

Think Progress explains how the legal situation for same-sex couples has changed since the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Windsor:

When the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, it opened up the possibility for same-sex couples to file their federal tax returns jointly for the first time. In the past, such couples living in states that recognized their marriages could file jointly at the state level but had to file separately at the federal level. The situation is now switched, so any couple who legally married in one state but then moved to another that didn’t recognize their union can file jointly for federal taxes, but will still have to file separately for state taxes. Missouri will become the first exception to this. 

As I have been saying, we are running out of blue states to make advances in marriage equality and the next frontier in ending discrimination against LGBT people will be occurring in conservative red states. The only remaining blue states that do not have marriage or civil unions are Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. It's curious that these are some of the most populous states in the country and currently all of them (except Virginia) have Republican governors but have gubernatorial elections in 2014. Virginia is the location of a high profile federal marriage lawsuit, and there are active lawsuits in many of the other states as well. Blue states which are expected to have enacted marriage equality in the foreseeable future are New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada.

Saturday Politics: Majorities In 12 States Support Marriage

In 2012, there was majority support for marriage equality in 12 states and the District of Columbia, according to a recent report released by UCLA's Williams Institute. Those states were Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Hawaii, Oregon, New York, Maine, Washington, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Colorado and California. (The District of Columbia had the largest support, at 62%.) The seven jurisdictions in bold already have marriage equality, while Hawaii (54%), Oregon (54%), New Jersey (51%), Rhode Island (50%), Colorado (50%) and California (50%) all have either civil unions or comprehensive domestic partnerships. Hawaii, Oregon, Colorado and California all have voter-approved state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. However, Oregon and possibly California and New Jersey may be voting to enact marriage equality at the ballot box in the near future.

The Williams Institute report's analysis indicates that ballot measures in several states (including Oregon, California and New Jersey) may be successful in the very near future.

This research brief identi ed that there 12 states plus the District ofColumbia presently with a majority (50% or above) in support of same-sex marriage. And, given current trends in public opinion on this issue, an additional 8 states will join this group by 2014. 

[...] 

Finally, there are 10 states that have previously passed constitutionalamendments to not introduce same-sex marriages that now have a majority or are within five percentage points of a majority in favor same-sex marriage (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). These states may be the future political arenas where existing constitutional amendments may be repealed in order to perform marriages for same-sex couples in those states.

This does put the poll question I previously asked back on the table: now that majority support is indicated for marriage equality, should those in favor of it use the ballot box to enact our public policy aims of enacting the civil right to civil marriages in those states? The dilemma is that it has long been a policy position of civil rights activists that "civil rights should never be subject to the tyranny of the majority." So, to now say that we will use the majority now that it is in our favor could be perceived as hypocritical. However, there are clear real and tangible harms to LGBT citizens by sticking to principle and not using every available means to end discrimination against same-sex couples as soon as possible. What do you think? Vote now:

Should New Jersey LGBT activists agree to allow a referendum on marriage equality in November 2013?
	Yes, since polls indicate a wide majority support marriage equality, the measure would pass easily.
	No,because allowing a vote on marriage equality violates a core principle of civil rights.
	Unsure, this is a tough question!
pollcode.com free polls

The Williams Report gives the level of support for marriage equality in every state in 2004 (numbers in green) and 2012 (numbers in blue) and uses that data to conclude that the rate of support is about 1.6 percentage points per year, on average, in every state. (It should be noted that that is the average rate; in some states the rate of increase of support for marriage equality is increasing at a more rapid rate, in some it is doing so at a slower rate. The key point is that support for marriage equality is increasing in every state.) This is shown in the figure below:

I think the proper thing to do is probably wait for the United States Supreme Court to weigh in on the civil rights of LGBT people in the Hollingsworth (California's Proposition 8) and Windsor (Defense of Marriage Act) cases. If the judiciary branch refuses to play its traditional role in our democracy of protecting the civil rights of minorities, then going to the ballot box to enact those rights seems perfectly justifiable.

FOOD REVIEW: Panzano (Denver, CO)

Ciriole alla Bolognese 
(Fresh farro pasta with a classic Northern Italian ragu
made with smoked wild boar, shaved Grana Padano; $34)

Torta di Zucchero Marrone
(Brown sugar pound cake with walnuts soaked in a stout toffee sauce,
topped with vanilla gelato; $9)

Caesar Griglia 
(Grilled hearts of romaine, anchovies, garlic, parmesan; $9.5)

I attended the 16th Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education in Denver and while there I had dinner at a fantastic Italian restaurant called Panzano which I found using the Yelp iPad app.

Panzano's reviews seemed very impressive, and happily was located a short 5 minute walk from the hotel conference. Happily, the reality lived up to the hype/

We ordered Cavolini di Bruxelles (fried brussel sprouts tossed with apple cider reduction, pistachios, rosemary salt and sliced green apple; $10) on the advice of our waiter but they were so good (and we were so famished) that unfortunately I didn't get a picture of them. I'm usually not a fan of brussel sprouts at all, but these were frankly delicious, with none of the slightly sour aftertaste that  I associate with that vegetable.

After that we ordered the award-winning Grilled Caesar Salad (this is not a typo--it's not a grilled chicken caesar salad). It was definitely a unique experience; the reason why you have never heard of a grilled caesar salad before is that one doesn't usually grill lettuce because it becomes soggy. The salad was tasty and slightly warm but the limp lettuce is a acquired taste.

I often like ordering very simple dishes at fancy restaurants, just to see what they can do with a staple dish. With that in mind I ordered the Ciriole alla Bolognese, which is basically pasta with meat sauce. It was astoundingly good. The meat sauce was delightfully rich and flavorful (made from wild boar!) and the pasta was completely al dente and perfectly balanced by the sharp cheesiness of the Gran Padano.

Dessert was the Torta di Zucchero Marrone or brown sugar cake. It was a great way to finish a meal, with a lovely combination of different textures and flavors. It was sweet (toffee), crunchy (nuts), moist (pound cake) and refreshing (ice cream).

I would heartily recommend Panzano anytime you're in Denver!

Name: Panzano.

Location: 909 17th Street, Denver, CO 80202.

Contact: 303-296-3525.

Visit: February 22, 2013.

AMBIANCE: A-.

SERVICE: A.

VALUE: A-.

FOOD: A+. 

OVERALL: A/A- (3.92/4.0)

Colorado Civil Unions Bill Signed Into Law

Primarily as a result of the 2012 elections which resulted in Democrats winning back control of the lower House, Colorado now has a civil unions law, joining other 8 states with "everything-but-marriage" statutes that attempt to give all the state-conferred rights and responsibilities of marriage without the use of the word.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

Colorado Civil Unions Bill Heads To Gov. Hickenlooper

Finally! As expected, the Colorado legislature gave final approval to a civil unions bill today and sent it off to to Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper, who has promised to sign it into law. The bill had passed the senate last month by a vote of 21 to 14 and in the lower House (which has an openly gay man as Speaker) it passed by a vote of 39 to 26.

Colorado will join California, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois and Oregon with laws that give same-sex couples all the same state-based rights and responsibilitiues of civil marriage while calling it something else ("civil union" or "domestic partnership"). In a recent brief in the Hollingsworth v. Perry case, the Department of Justice is arguing before the United States Supreme court that such laws are discriminatory and should be considered legally equivalent to marriages in fact.

Hat/tip to Think Progress

Colorado Senate Passes Civil Unions Bill 21-14

Good news from Colorado! As expected, for the second time in as many legislative sessions, the Colorado State Senate has passed a civil unions bill. In 2011, the Republicans killed the same legislation in the State House and killed it again in 2012.

This year, however, as a result of the November 2012 elections the Speaker of the House is now an openly gay man, Mark Ferrandino, and the lower chamber is firmly in Democratic control. The bill is expected to pass the House and then be signed into law by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.

DENVER - A bill granting civil unions to same-sex Colorado couples has cleared the state Senate for the third and possibly final time.

The Senate approved civil unions 21-14 without debate Monday. All Democrats voted for the legal recognition for gay partners. Republican Sen. Ellen Roberts of Durango joined them. The other 14 Republicans voted against the measure.

[...]

Monday's vote will likely be the curtain call for civil unions in the State Senate because the House is now under Democratic control and is likely to approve the measure, sending it to the governor's desk. Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has said he plans to sign civil unions into law.

Civil unions would grant gay couples rights similar to marriage. More than a dozen states allow either civil unions or gay marriage. Colorado's constitution currently bans gay marriage.

Hat/tip to Joe.M.God

WATCH: Denver Nuggets Player Supports His Moms

Colorado is currently considering civil union legislation, it recently passed its first committee vote in the State Senate and is expected to be enacted this year. Republicans killed similar legislation back in 2011 and again in 2012 but in the November 2012 elections Democrats won legislative control and selected an openly gay man as Speaker of the House.

Denver Nuggets basketball player Kenneth Faried supports the legislation and appears in a video where he says "Nobody could ever tell me that  I can't have two mothers 'cause I really do!"

Saturday Politics: 5 State Houses Have LGBT Heads

Tina Kotek, 46, will become the first lesbian to head a
 state legislative body in the United States

As a result of the elections in blue states in which Democrats made significant gains, opportunities have opened up for openly LGBT people in state legislatures to assume historic leaderships positions. Before the election, Gordon Fox of Rhode Island and John Perez of California were the only openly LGBT heads of state legislative bodies.

Since then Mark Ferrandino of Colorado, Tina Kotek of Oregon and Ed Murray of Washington have all been selected by their peers to lead the respective caucuses of their state legislative bodies. Ferrandino was selected to become the first openly gay Speaker of the Colorado House, Murray was selected to become the first openly gay Majority Leader of the Washington State Senate and Kotek became the first lesbian to head a legislative body, the Oregon house.

Local television station KATU reports:

Kotek said she didn't set out to break barriers but is honored to represent the gay community. It's important for the gay community to have role models in leadership positions, she said.

"We all look for people out there who look like us," she said.

"I have had emails and text messages from people who are very excited," Kotek said. "I think any time you have a 'first' it's an important thing for the community."

Kotek has represented a liberal district in the heart of Portland since 2007. She became the No. 2 leader in the Oregon House in 2011 after convincing her Democratic colleagues to oust her predecessor following a legislative session that left many of them frustrated by Republican successes. She oversaw campaign efforts that helped her party pick up four House seats and grab the majority last week.

Kotek ran unopposed for speaker, and her colleagues selected her for the job in a closed-door meeting Thursday evening. She won't formally take over as speaker until the new Legislature convenes in January.

"Now the real work begins," Kotek said in a statement after the vote. "Oregon continues to face many serious challenges, and the public is counting on us to tackle them head on." 

More LGBT history made in 2012!

Queer Quote: Legalizing Gay Marriage & Marijuana

This funny comment is going viral on the interwebs:

It all makes sense now: Gay marriage legalized on the same day as marijuana makes perfect biblical sense. Leviticus 20:13 "A man who lays with another man should be stoned". Our interpretation has just been wrong for all these years.

The quote is attributed to Katie Stephens and appeared on George Takei's Facebook stream.

Celebrity Friday: Gay Man Selected CO Speaker

Mark Ferrandino, openly gay Speaker of the Colorado House

Democrat Mark Ferradino has been elected as the first openly gay Speaker of the Colorado House. One of the little noticed results of the elections was the advances Democrats made in state legislatures around the country. This was particularly notable in Colorado, especially for gay Democrats.

Before Tuesday, Republicans had previously had a very slim 1-vote majority in the House and the Republican Speaker of the House had used that power to kill a pending civil unions bill in the legislature last year. After Tuesday the Democrats won a 37-28 advantage in the state House and have chosen openly gay Mark Ferrandino to lead their caucus and become the first openly gay Speaker of the Colorado House:

“Twenty years ago, Amendment 2 passed in Colorado,” an emotional Mr. Ferrandino said after his election, referring to a 1992 state constitutional amendment passed by voters that banned laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination. “And now we have our first openly gay speaker. I think that is an amazing turnaround for our state. It speaks volumes for how much we’ve grown.”

Amendment 2, which led some to call Colorado “the hate state,” was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. A separate 2006 amendment to the state Constitution defined marriage as being only between a man and a woman.

Mr. Ferrandino said that the economy and education were legislative priorities, but that in terms of expanding rights for gay men and lesbians, “civil unions is the thing we really are pushing for.”

Now that is what I call pay back! Amazingly, Colorado almost had gay men as heads of both houses of the legislature as openly gay Pat Steadman ran to become President of the Colorado Senate but lost the vote in the 20-member Senate Democratic caucus to John Morse.

Openly gay Speaker of the House John Perez congratulated Ferrandino and also acknowledged that Oregon State Representative Tina Kotek may become the nation's first openly lesbian Speaker of the House soon.

Nate Silver Vindicated: Prediction Matches Reality

Elections have consequences. I strongly suggest that there should be consequences for pundits like Newt Gingrich, Michael Barone, Karl Rove and Dick Morris who all made outlandish predictions based on "secret" data that Mitt Romney would win the presidential election, with some of these fantasy-based commentators suggesting the Republican would win a landslide.

The media should refuse to take anything these people (and other partisan hacks who eschew a reality-based view of the world in lieu of an attempt to choose their own "facts") say in the future about politics without acknowledging how wrong they had previously been in their analysis of the 2012 election.

Nate Silver, on the other hand, should probably be awarded a special McArthur "genius grant" fellowship for the accuracy of his predictions and for what he has done to promote the importance of mathematics and quantitative thinking to millions of Americans.

This tweet, demonstrating the unerring accuracy of Silver's predictions of the 2012 presidential election results compared to the actual results, is pretty stunning.

For the Nate-haters, here’s the 538 prediction and actual results side by side twitter.com/cosentino/stat…
— Michael Cosentino (@cosentino) November 7, 2012

2 Weeks Until Election: Obama 233, Romney 195

There are now two weeks until election day, a mere 14 days and the presidential race is getting even tighter. Last week the difference between Obama-Biden 2012 and Romney-Ryan 2012 was 25 electoral votes, with the blue team at 247 electoral votes to the red team's 222.

This week, both teams have had their electoral vote totals reduced as more states slip into the Undecided (or yellow) category from last week. Obama-Buden lost 14 electoral votes while Romney-Ryan lost 27, nearly twice as many. There are a total of 8 states in the yellow category: Ohio (18), Iowa(6) , New Hampshire (4), Virginia (13), Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20),  Arizona (11) and Colorado (9) totally 120 electoral votes. This is because once the polling average becomes 2 points or less, the TPM Electoral Scoreboard considers  the state to be in the "Undecided" category.

However the blue team now has a lead of 38 electoral votes with 14 days to go. Some of the states that are listed as undecided are very likely to revert to their historical pattern, with Arizona's 11 electoral votes going to the Republicans and Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes going to the blue team.

If there any dramatic changes in the next few days I may post updates on a more frequent schedule instead of waiting for next week.

Stay tuned!

CO: Civil Unions Bill Survives On 6-5 Vote

Rep. BJ Nikkel (R), the swing vote for Colorado's civil unions
 is swamped by reporters after voting yes. Photo: Daniel Gonzalez

What a difference a year makes! Last year, the Colorado House Judiciary Committee voted 6-5 to kill a civil unions bill, this year the vote was 6-5 in favor to pass it. Like last year, the Colorado State Senate has already passed the bill 23-12 on a bipartisan basis.

The swing vote was B.J. Nikel, a Republican female legislator who is not running for re-election and who voted against the bill last year.

The Denver Post reports:

Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland, joined with Democrats in passing Senate Bill 2 on a 6-5 vote. She had infuriated some social conservatives by refusing to commit to vote against the measure, saying she wanted to first listen to the testimony.

"I think it was the right thing to do. We're all Coloradans, right?" Nikkel said after voting "yes." "It's not something I'm passionate about, but I think we ought to move forward and bring it to a vote in the House."

[...]

Senate Bill 2 now must go to two other committees, Finance and Appropriations, before going to the full House. Supporters say they are worried about tight deadlines with the session ending Wednesday.

The reason why the committee vote was so close is that Republicans hold a slim 33-32 majority of the Colorado House, so with all Democrats voting for the bill, it still need Republican votes in order to reach Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper's desk, who has promised to sign it.

As Joe.My.God noted, part of the intense interest in Colorado's measure is that 1) it is the state which is the home (in Colorado Springs, CO) of the virulently homophobic hate group "Focus on the Family" and 2) Almost exactly twenty years ago (in November 1992) Colorado passed Amendment 2, which purported to ban "special rights" for lesbians, gays and bisexuals by eliminating protections against anti-LGB discrimination at the local, county or state level. The U.S. Supreme Court later struck down "the hate amendment" 6-3 in the 1996 landmark case Romer v. Evans.

TowleRoad has more extensive coverage of yesterday's lengthy and emotional debate over Colorado's civil unions bill.