Former Senate minority leader, state Treasurer in bid for RNC seat
Face The State Staff Report
After announcing earlier this month that he is running to serve as Colorado’s Republican National Committeeman, former state Senate Majority leader Mark Hillman faced something he has not frequently been subjected to throughout his political career: Controversy.
The laid back Burlington farmer who was elected to the state Senate before being appointed to serve as the acting state Treasurer from 2005 to 2006 has managed to remain below the radar of liberal foes since he was first elected. But on April 7, a new political blog, PolitickerCo.com, took a swipe at Hillman, claiming that he upset conservative Republicans by failing to fight aggressively enough against Referendum C, a 2005 $6 billion tax increase that split the party faithful and passed by only a slight majority of voters.
HillmanState of CO
The article, written by the anonymous columnist "Wally Edge," maintains that “at issue between Hillman and some parts of the GOP is Hillman’s abandonment of his opposition to Referendums C and D after receiving an appointment from then-Governor [Bill] Owens to serve as acting Treasurer.”
"Edge" exclusively used similarly unnamed sources in the piece, including one who is quoted as saying, “Yeah, Hillman took his 30 pieces of silver...but the difference between he and Judas is that at least Judas had the good sense to hang himself. Hillman acts like he deserves a promotion.”
When the article was brought to Hillman’s attention, he responded to Face The State by saying, "I don't pay attention to anonymous attacks. When the Founding Fathers wrote anonymously, they did so to debate issues and principles, not to hurl cowardly, baseless accusations at each other. The Founders understood honor; anonymous bloggers do not."
Jeremy Pelzer, who runs the Colorado edition of The Politicker, an online project of the New York Observer, said it is company policy not to comment on the "Wallys." The same pseudonym is used on a number of other state Politicker sites, including its flagship New Jersey edition.
As far as the suggestion that Hillman was not aggressive enough in opposing Referendum C, Hillman defended his recorded, saying that he publicly opposed the tax increase prior to its 2005 passage by attending opposition rallies, writing columns, and publicly speaking out against the measure. “In 2005, I wrote at least two op-eds explaining the flaws of Ref C and why I was opposed to it, with one published in the Denver Post,” he said.
And while the Politicker's anonymous scribbler noted that “some say that implied in the agreement between Owens (who appointed Hillman) and Hillman...was that Hillman stop campaigning against Referendums C and D, a measure which Owens used his considerable prestige to pass," Hillman rejected this as a conspiracy theory. “Wally implies that I took the Treasurer's job and was obliged to ‘shut up’ about Ref C,” he said. “Obviously, I didn't ‘shut up.’ However, I did take the Treasurer's job - managing and investing about $4 billion on any given day - seriously, and since that was a full time job, doing it well did become my number one priority."
Hillman is running for the RNC position against current state Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colo. Springs. According to Hillman, the two are friends and he doesn’t believe that either candidate will attempt to make the race turn ugly. “I’m not going to talk about why I might be better than Dave because I intend to run on my own merits,” he told Face The State. “We have a gentleman’s agreement that we will run for the job, not against each other.”
Former Senate President John Andrews, R-Centennial, adamantly disagrees with the attacks on Hillman, calling him “a tiger for the taxpayer.” Hillman served as senate majority leader during Andrews’s tenure as the chamber’s president. “He served very honorably as acting state treasurer and nothing he did or didn’t do made a difference in the passage of Referendum C.”
In political circles, Andrews is seen as the lead opponent of Referendum C, having spent recent years traveling the country to speak on the value of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a citizen-passed constitutional amendment that limits government spending. Referendum C asked voters for a “five-year timeout” to the limits, allowing government to collect more taxes than it would have otherwise been allowed to.
Out of respect for both Schultheis and Hillman, Andrews says he’s “sitting this race out” and will not be endorsing either candidate.
Hillman attack
On April 28th, 2008 Troy Marshall says:
When I read this last week, I just chuckled and went on, attacking Mr. Hillman for not being conservative enough, is like claiming that Ali lacked confidence in his ability to box. However it does point out a disturbing trend that is occuring more and more frequently in today's political arena that tends to move information at the speed of light. The reason for anonymous attacks is simple, if they weren't anonymous they would hurt the reputation of the attacker more than the attackee. It is sad, but we are now taking our lessons on political discourse from the terrorists, they learned long ago that they couldn't win if they met their enemy on a battlefield on a level playing ground, so they attack them when they are not looking not worrying about legitimate targets but one simple goal, to hurt and create fear. Today many bloggers post comments with the same hit and run, hurt and maime type of mentality.
While Mr. Hillman's conservative principles, values, and integrity cannot be questioned. Perhaps a worthwhile question should have bee is Mark a conservative ideologue or is he a conservative but pragmatic ideologue, and can you be both an ideolugue and a pragmatist, and if so what is the ideal combination to actually achieve not only the raising of conservative principles but also their implementation. Well enough of all those riddles. In today's cynical world most people believe that where there is smoke there is fire, so if anyone can create enough smoke, they have a chance.
Way to go Hillman. I was
On April 16th, 2008 brophette says:
Way to go Hillman. I was very offended when this story came out on politickerco.com, making Hillman out to be a traitor to the party, when in reality he has always stood up for conservative principles. I'll be more than happy with either one of these candidates as an RNC committeeman. Good luck to both of these trustworthy candidates!