Commentary: If the sheriff is voting for Newsome, then so am I

At CSBJ's Rising Stars event several weeks ago, District Attorney John Newsome brought me papers to come back to the Republican Party. There was a sticky note saying "we will have you back." This was after I wrote about the Democrats not following up and getting me the paperwork to join their party.

It is this type of good humor that I have come to expect from John. Every year when we pick the Ben S. Wendleken award recipient for the law community, John is there giving feedback and having a good, open dialogue with other leaders in the legal community and staff from CSBJ.

I recently got a pretty strong letter from Sheriff Terry Maketa endorsing Newsome in his re-election bid. The sheriff of El Paso County is endorsing Newsome with comments such as "Because of leaders like John Newsome, El Paso County continues to be one of the safest places in the country" and "In my humble opinion, not one of them can hold a candle to John and his true commitment to public safety," referring to Maketa having worked in law enforcement with other DA's for more than 20 years.

With all the budget issues that are facing our city and county, and jail overcrowding, for Maketa to take the time to send this strongly worded letter on behalf of Newsome tells me something. I am going to vote for Newsome.

Another reason I am voting for Newsome is that Dan May seems way too opportunistic, taking advantage of recent events that were sensationalistic. One could argue that they were aired during television sweeps week for ratings purposes.

Colorado Springs a scapegoat

I recently had a conversation with a liberal woman from Denver regarding a local nonprofit organization's capital campaign to raise something north of $10 million.

As is often the case with me, I can get sidetracked and we started talking about many things. Since this consultant works in Denver and Wyoming, I asked her what Colorado Springs' perception was and whether she thought that it was that we were too conservative. She responded: "We just scapegoat the Springs."

I never really thought about us being a scapegoat for the rest of the state, but I guess it could make sense -- as in someone from Boulder saying: "We aren't all that conservative, that is just the Springs people."

We also discussed the need for more corporate headquarters in Colorado to help finance the many needs of our community nonprofits. Right now, the consultant said, "general fund raising is abysmal."

Anyway, I recommended that this nonprofit reduce the lofty capital campaign goal spread out over five projects and focus on just one project.

I will be reporting on a trip to Charleston, S.C., next week where I will be attending the Alliance of Area Business Publications annual summer conference. I always have good "takeaway" ideas from these meetings with business publications from Los Angeles to the Caribbean and many cities in between.

Baaahh.

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