Colorado

Word is leaking out about more attempts to suppress the student vote, this time in Colorado and New Mexico, two battleground states that went for Bush in 2004 and look to be swinging blue this year:

Washington - Colorado Democrats accused a Republican county clerk Wednesday of falsely informing Colorado College that students from outside the state could not register to vote if their parents claimed them as a dependent on their tax returns.

At a news conference in Colorado Springs, Democrats also criticized Robert Balink, the El Paso County clerk and recorder, who was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, for taking other steps they said would dampen voting by college students, who are expected to heavily favor Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"When election officials spread false information about who is eligible to vote and remove, not add, polling places, we need to be concerned that eligible voters will be denied their right to vote," said Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party.

Sujatha from the Student PIRGs did a little ninja work on this. Check out what she found:

Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director of the Student Public Interest Research Group's New Voters Project in Washington, said she encountered similar problems when she posed as a college freshman last week and called registrar's offices in Greenville County, S.C., home to Furman University, and York County, S.C., where Winthrop University is located.

Jahagirdar said a Greenville official asked if her parents listed her as a dependent, and when she replied in the affirmative, told her: "You should vote where your parents live." She said a York County representative asked if she was in town for school, and when she said yes, stated flatly: "You can't vote here."

This election is going to be won on the ground, and it's really a matter of whether or not the voter registration advantage Obama is building - particularly among young and first time voters - can hold up attempts to suppress the vote by Republicans, either through outright disenfranchisement, or by subtle discouragements such as long lines caused by a lack of polling places. If you encounter this in your neighborhood, remember to get in touch with the people at Student Voting Rights.

Hi,

I am online now. Happy to answer any questions on any topic.

Yesterday I announced my plan to reduce gas prices:

GAS PRICES: WHAT TO DO?

Yesterday I outlined some tough actions I will take if elected to the U.S. House of Representatives to lower gas prices and move our nation towards energy independence and green energy policies.

While big oil conglomerates are recording record profits, middle- and low-income families, consumers and businesses are struggling with staggering gas prices at the pump and the ‘oil tax,' which is increasing the price of everything from groceries to airline tickets. The American economy is gravely threatened.

I will stand up to the big oil and gas industry if I get to Congress. I will fight for solutions to bring down soaring gas prices and halt the price gouging. I will push to end the tax subsidies, the giveaways and the rollbacks of royalties that big oil and gas have extracted from taxpayers. Congress has been far too timid. These are solutions we desperately need today if we are to make the investments in a green future in America.

There’s a real difference in this campaign. In the State Senate, one of my opponents sponsored legislation that was called the ‘Oil and Gas Dream Bill’ by newspapers. Now she’s complaining about $4 per gallon gas prices, but what did she expect after doing the bidding of the oil and gas lobby? I'll take a different approach and stand up to the special interests added. My career has been based on bringing new solutions to old problems, and I will do that in Congress. Consumers have been held hostage by oil and gas companies for too long.

Some things that I support:

• Strategic Petroleum Reserve –release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring market prices down immediately, and maybe additional future releases to drive speculators out of the market.
• Tough anti-trust laws and enforcement – Congress must act forcefully to end market manipulation and illegal, anti-competitive practices in the oil industry. We need new antitrust legislation and enforcement to do it. There is too much concentration in the oil and gas industry today. I will push the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look closely at gas prices, and conduct thorough investigations for illegal market manipulation by the oil and gas giants, and swift, tough enforcement of penalties. More competitive markets will bring lower gas prices.

Mergers – like that between Exxon and Mobil ten years ago — have created entities that are too big and too powerful, and have directly resulted in higher gas prices at the pump, as was confirmed by a 2004 Government Accountability Office report. These corporate giants produce the crude oil, own the refineries, and sell the gasoline at the pump. As the FTC itself admitted in 2001, when oil companies own the refineries, it makes it simple to manipulate market prices. We need old-fashioned trust busting. We need new a new generation of anti-trust legislation to deal with this new environment, and tough enforcement.
• End tax giveaways to big oil – I support the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Act of 2008, HR 5351, legislation to strip $18 billion in oil company tax breaks that were enacted in 2004. I will push for repeal of all existing oil company tax breaks. We should be putting that money into solar, wind, alternative fuels and energy efficiency.
• Regulating energy exchanges – We need tough new regulation, oversight and enforcement of OTC as well as regulated energy exchange markets. Financial speculators are driving up the price of oil. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) must be strengthened and criminal sanctions should be enforced on speculators who violate the law.
• Protect public lands from drilling – Further drilling, exploitation and despoliation of wilderness areas like the Roan Plateau and ANWR proposed by the oil industry is not the answer. I strongly oppose the Bureau of Land Management’s current plan to expand gas-drilling leases in the Roan Plateau. Instead, I want to strengthen environmental protection of our pristine public lands. The oil and gas industry is exploiting the gas price crisis to rush along leases on our federal lands and argue for additional exploitation. I believe that these are false solutions and only feed our reliance on fossil fuels.
• Get the special interest money out of politics – The price of gas and the neglect of clean energy policies in Congress is the direct result of too much special interest money in politics. The oil industry pours millions of dollars into political campaigns every year. Too many members of Congress fear them. I am not afraid to stand up to them. That is also why we need, and I will fight for, public financing of campaigns and ‘Clean Money Clean Elections’ legislation in Congress. I am the only candidate for the 2nd Congressional District not accepting money from Political Action Committees (PACs).

For too long, our country’s energy policy has been written by and for the oil and gas industry. That must end. I will work with allies in and out Congress, like Public Citizen, and with citizens across the 2nd District to accomplish these urgent goals.

At The Washington Post, Chris Cillizza takes a look at the new top ten swing states. This idea of a "swing state" is a little dated, especially since the Democrats adopted the "50 State Strategy" and saw positive results in 2006. But at the end of the day, even if we do compete in all states, a few will be more competitive than others, and it is inevitable that these states will receive an inordinate amount of attention from the media, the campaigns, and 527 organizations looking to influence the outcome.

That said, here are your new swing states. Learn them well.

This looks somewhat familiar. Remember this from November 2004? These are the states where John Kerry would have won the election if only voters under 30 had cast their ballots:

I can't prove any direct connection or major demographic shift in these states at this point, but it definitely bears more looking into. It's also nice to see some states with active youth organizing making the list of "new" swing states (Colorado, Virginia, New Mexico).