I’ve just finished reading each side of the John Morse recall effort that appeared in the Gazette over the weekend, one pro-Morse by Laura Long, the other anti-Morse by Laura Carno. I found out some interesting things about each author which helped me sort through their positions. I already have an opinion about Morse, and considered briefly joining in the recall effort, but declined.
Here’s what I found. In Long’s article she makes a number of claims about herself. Before reading what she had to say, I decided to do a little digging around to find out what I could about her. (I did the same for Carno.)
Long describes herself as a “PR professional and government relations specialist.” So I checked the veracity of that. She needs to be squeaky clean if she is going to be credible about anything she writes. Her LinkedIn page tells us that she is the Principal behind Message Solutions, a PR company which she claims she started in May 2012. Trouble is, I couldn’t find her company. When I Googled it, it looped back to her LinkedIn page. When I went to my current issue of Yellowbook, there was no listing. I find that curious.
Her LinkedIn page said that prior to starting Message Solutions she worked for the Colorado Springs Independent, for 9 months. That tells me a little – she’s a liberal. But she was only there for 9 months. Hmm.
Prior to that she worked as a “Beerocrat” for Bristol Brewing Company for almost 6 years, accomplishing quite a lot for them, if her bio is to believed.
But prior to that, she said that she was the co-owner of a start-up company (Money Mailer of North Colorado Springs) from November 2005 to January 2007, (15 months), where she says she increased gross annual revenues to $180,000 “in two years.” That’s pretty good, I think, but 15 months is different from two years. Her credibility is beginning to fade a little for me. As I said, she needs to be squeaky clean if she is to be believable.
So I checked to see what I could find about Money Mailer of North Colorado Springs, and under Manta.com I learned that her company “was established in 2007 … [and] has an annual revenue of $120,000…”
Now my “bs meter” is full on about her. So I started to read her article touting how wonderful Morse is, that he has a “uniquely positioned voice for Colorado Springs”, that “John Morse may be an irredeemable lefty, but he’s our irredeemable lefty.” She thinks it’s wonderful that “he is the third most powerful person in state politics [and] has tremendous influence over the laws that affect us and where [our] money gets spent.”
So I was surprised when she mentioned that Morse “won in a landslide over Republican incumbent Ed Jones” in 2006 (which he did, 16,420 to 10,648) but failed to mention that in 2010 he barely squeaked by Owen Hill, 13,866 to 13,526 – a margin of just 340 votes – and would probably have lost to Hill except for an independent candidate who siphoned off 1,320 votes. But she was trying to make a point, and lost all credibility, with me at least, in the process.
In retrospect her comment that “even if the recall organizers do manage the 7,000-plus valid signatures necessary to force a special election, it’s probable that Morse would prevail again” is now wide of the mark. The recall group gathered more than 16,000 signatures.
So I discarded her comments as unworthy of further consideration.
Now on to the other Laura. She claims she is “a political strategist” and founder of “I Am Created Equal” with her website here. I went to Wikipedia to see if she might have an entry there. She doesn’t, but their search engine revealed that she had something to do with Harry Browne’s organization, the Downsize DC Foundation, “which aims to limit the size of government in the United States…” Carno doesn’t mention that. She actually says less rather than more – a nice contrast to Long who seemed willing to stretch her resume.
And her website is very robust, filled with intelligent commentary and YouTube videos and an ad about John Morse that she apparently funded herself. Now I’m ready to listen to what she had to say about Morse. She tells me things about Morse that I didn’t know. For instance he wasn’t particularly offensive during his first term, offering “moderate” legislation, according to Carno. But it was only when Bloomberg money began coming into the state that Morse moved sharply to the left, sponsoring a bill that was so radical “that his own Democrat caucus wouldn’t support it.” While she provided no links to support this, I don’t need them. She already has credibility with me, and I believe her now, without having to check.
She reminds us about how he ran seven bills through two committees in one day, limiting public input to them. And she reminds us about those offensive “robo calls” that somebody paid for (she doesn’t say who) telling people not to open their doors to those soliciting signatures for Morse’s recall. I remember those.
So she concludes that Morse has got to go. I’m already inclined to agree with her, but her credibility helps me along. As for Laura Long, the next time she has an opinion about something, I’ll just pass.
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