1) Why did Randy Baumgardner support the personhood Amendment in 2012, after voters rejected it by overwhelming margins at the polls in 2008 and 2010?
FACTS
Randy Baumgardner signed the petition to get the personhood amendment onto the ballot in the 2012 election. The personhood amendment would give fetuses legal personhood from conception on, and would outlaw some common forms of birth control. It would also outlaw abortion even in the case of rape or incest. Colorado voters have twice rejected the personhood amendment as too extreme for Colorado.
Colorado Right to Life, the organization supporting the personhood amendment, sent questionnaires to legislative candidates. According to Colorado Right to Life, “Randy Baumgardner is 100% pro-life with no exceptions, and supports Personhood.”
SOURCES
Denver Post March 3, 2012
Colorado Right to Life “Candidate Positions – Pre-Primary June 2012″
Colorado Legislative Council “2008 State Ballot Information Booklet” [page 4-5]
Colorado Legislative Council “2010 State Ballot Information Booklet” [page 16-17]
2) Why did Randy Baumgardner house a registered sex offender in the same home as a seven-year-old kid?
FACTS
In April of 2012, the Grand County Sheriff arrested a Michael Frierson at Randy Baumgardner’s home for failing to register as a sex offender at his new address.
In 2003 Frierson pled guilty to sexual assault on a victim that was more than 10 years younger than him. He was 24 at the time, so the victim was 14 years old or younger.
In total, Frierson has been arrested 13 separate times, for everything from burglary and theft to property damage.
Frierson had worked for Baumgardner for well over a year when he was arrested, and Baumgardner’s wife paid the $2000 bond to get him out of jail.
Republican Senator Jean White, who was running against Baumgardner at the time, pointed out that “it is just poor judgement to house a sex offender in your home when you have a 7-year-old-child. It’s a total disregard for your own family, plus the neighbors.”
SOURCES
Fox 31 KDVR June 21, 2012
Denver Post June 16, 2012
Grand Junction Sentinel June 16, 2012
11 News KKCO June 18, 2012
7 News KMGH June 18, 2012
News 5 KOAA June 18, 2012
3) Why did campaign operatives supporting Randy Baumgardner use the engagement photo of a New Jersey couple without permission and photo-shop it to mislead voters in an attack mailer?
FACTS
An organization supporting Randy’s primary campaign against Jean White used the photo of a same-sex New Jersey couple announcing their engagement, photoshopped out the New York City background and photoshopped in mountains, and sent it to voters in the Senate District 8 primary with the headline “Senator Jean White’s idea of family values.” The couple has sued the organization for using their engagement photo without permission, and said after finding out that their engagement photo had been used in a homophobic mail piece, “I’m in shock and I’m angry and I’m hurt and I’m flabbergasted and I’m livid.”
SOURCES
Denver Post June 6, 2012
FOx 31 KDVR September 25, 2012
CW 2 KWGN September 25, 2012
Pueblo Chieftain September 26, 2012
Denver Post September 26, 2012
4) Where does he live?
FACTS
Randy Baumgardner reported his official residency for his Senate campaign to the Colorado Secretary of State as in Cowdrey, in Jackson County, but on his website he lists his house as being in Hot Sulfur Springs in Grand County. His wife Lori listed a residence in Hot Sulfur Springs in her run for the Hot Sulphur Springs town board.
Lori was quoted in the Ski Hi Daily News saying, “[Randy] spends the majority of his time here when he is not in Denver,” adding that the land in Cowdrey has an “empty house” on “vacant land.”
Randy Baumgardner is registered to vote at the address in Cowdrey, which google maps considers to be an hour and a half away from his address in Hot Sulfur Springs.
SOURCES
Colorado Secretary of State, Candidate Affidavit
Randy Baumgardner, candidate biography
Sky-Hi News February 29, 2012
5) Why did he resort to lies to win his Republican primary?
FACTS
Senator Jean White stated after she lost the primary, “He lied about me. He lied about where he lives, what he does and how he votes.”
SOURCE
Denver Post June 26, 2012
6) Why was he willing to jeopardize Western Slope water projects in order to block a fair vote on another, unrelated bill?
FACTS
Randy Baumgardner joined his party bosses to block a vote on civil unions at the end of the 2012 legislative session, preventing a vote on a key water projects bill.
The Colorado legislature works to prioritize the most critical water projects for the State of Colorado every year and this is usually passed on a bipartisan basis. But Randy Baumgardner was part of a partisan push at the end of the session set on blocking a vote on another bill and was willing and as a result the water projects bill was killed as a result of partisan gamesmanship. This forced the General Assembly to come back into a Special Session in order to pass the critical water projects bill for the state.
SOURCE
Denver Post May 8, 2012
7) Why was Randy Baumgardner the only Western Slope legislator to vote against the Forest Restoration program?
FACTS
This program is designed to provide competitive grant funding for community-based approaches to forest restoration, and established a technical advisory committee to review grant applications. These community projects work to reduce fire hazards, preserve large and old trees, and maintain the forests. Republicans J Paul Brown, Don Coram, Ray Scott, and Laura Bradford all voted yes on this key bill for the Western Slope [HB12-1032].
SOURCE
Colorado House of Representatives, House Journal [Page 212]
