After Big Head Todd and the Monsters kicked off Senator Hillary Clinton's appearance at Auraria in October, she added "Blue Sky" — the song that Todd Park Mohr and company had written at the request of members of the Space Shuttle Discovery for their 2005 mission, the first since the Columbia disaster — to her campaign playlist.
And now the former University of Colorado at Boulder boys have really taken off, because "Blue Sky" has replaced "You and I" as the official sound of Hillary. In a much-publicized online vote in June, the people picked that saccharine Celine Dion tune (a former airline jingle) as the campaign's theme, and it was announced during the Clintons' famous Sopranos commercial. But that was then, and Big Head is so now, as an alert ABC reporter blogged in revealing the switch in tuneful allegiances.
Is the Big Head flip-flop a risky move with only a few weeks until the critical Iowa and New Hampshire caucuses? Probably not. Dion hails from Canada, while Mohr and his bandmates still live in Colorado (when they're not touring), and this state will be Democrat Central come August and the party's national convention. In fact, the selection could be a nod to the importance of the Rocky Mountain West in the Democratic game plan. Mining that same vein, Off Limits noticed that Hillary was sporting lovely turquoise earrings and a matching necklace at an appearance last week — a sly way, perhaps, to split some of that all-important New Mexico vote away from presidential rival and current New Mexico governor Bill Richardson.
From here on, it's nothing but "Blue Sky."
Dem bones: For three decades, John Wren was an ardent Republican. But that changed on December 5, when he officially switched his party affiliation right on the deadline for participating in the February 5 Colorado caucuses. "I struggled with it," he admits of the change. After all, it's not as though he's given up entirely on the Republican Party — but he's given up on it in the City and County of Denver, where "it's been years of decline," he says.
The day Wren changed his affiliation, he also resigned from the New Denver Republican Party Meetup Group that he had started to reinvigorate the right in this town. But he'll continue to host his Denver Grassroots Rally every Friday, pushing this state's arcane caucus system. "For thirty years, I was a Republican," he says. "But it matters more to go to the caucus. The party becomes the people who participate in it."
Dick Wadhams, head of the Colorado Republican Party, took Wren's decision in stride. "We lost a good guy," he says. "I don't think he's changed his philosophy; he's just decided the Democratic Party is so dominant in Denver, you have to be a Democrat."
Even the indefatigable Wadhams recognizes that. So while he remains committed to pushing the Republican Party in this state and "trying to defend truth and justice against the Democratic juggernauts," he's steering clear of the Denver juggernauts. "There are some things I can have an impact on, and others I cannot," he confesses. "This is one I cannot."
Scene and herd: When the new session starts in January, the Colorado Legislature could be fighting to save some of this state's most liquid assets. For starters, lawmakers will look at creating a lawful loophole for First Fridays so that art galleries can serve alcohol at the monthly events. There's also talk of finding a way to make ladies' nights legal so that bars can legitimately offer drink deals for women — which, of course, ultimately benefit the men who go to those bars to meet them. And that could send anti-ladies' night crusader Steve Horner back to his corner. But he'll be going there $182.17 richer, since that's the amount he collected in his recent legal case against Moon Time.
Which paid off its fine in pennies.
