Face the State

Face the State Staff Report

Denver – State Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, sponsor of an anti-Iraq war resolution, has close ties to the Progressive States Network, a national organization headquartered out of New York that now appears focusing on Colorado to promote its national “progressive” agenda.

On its Web site, www.ProgressiveStates.org, PSN provides information and model legislation as guidance for how states should oppose the Bush administration’s policies.

Research into the mission of PSN reveals that the organization propagates the “rightwing” conspiracy theory in order to further its agenda of “governing the nation from the statehouses,” and “governing” includes opposing President Bush and his Iraq policies.

Joel Barkin, executive director of the Progressive States Network confirmed the group’s agenda in a February 17 New York Times article, “These resolutions have generated an incredible amount of local media…so they raise awareness that this is a local issue. But it is aimed at pressuring the Congress.”

A February 22 AP story revealed Tupa’s association with PSN stating that Tupa “participated in a conference call organized by the group Tuesday [Feb. 20] with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and other lawmakers.” The purpose of the conference call was to discuss strategy on anti-Iraq war resolutions being introduced into various state legislatures.

The same story also stated that “Colorado is one of 25 states where state lawmakers have either introduced resolutions on the war or sent letters to their congressional delegations opposing the additional troops, according to the New York-based Progressive States Network.”

The New York Times also confirmed the conference call about the state-based anti-Iraq war resolutions, “The activity was spurred in a conference call last month that included state legislators; Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts; and advocacy groups like the Progressive States Network and MoveOn.org.”

PSN’s Board of Directors reads like a “Who’s Who” of the far left, including the presidents of Moveon.org and Media Matters, as well as big labor unions. Also on the board is Ned Lamont, the anti-war candidate who defeated U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in a 2006 democrat primary but lost to him in the general election where Lieberman ran as an Independent.

PSN focuses on other “progressive” issues as well. It believes that such mainstream ideas as lower taxes and voter choice in raising taxes are part of a conservative strategy to “to make it politically impossible to fund social needs through government action and pit progressives against each other in competition over scarce financial resources.”

To further its rightwing conspiracy theory, PSN claims that overzealous jury awards are conservative “urban legends;” that conservatives intentionally cut off funding sources for progressive politics by “shutting down the tort system” to cut off funds to trial lawyers, through ‘paycheck protection’ laws designed to “undermine union political action,” and privatization of public services to reduce the number of “public employee activists.”

Tupa and PSN have found success in Colorado. Their resolution passed out of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs committee along a party-line vote on March 14. The resolution is currently headed for a vote of the full Senate.