Thread: Beauprez hits Ritter on immigration

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Beauprez hits Ritter on immigration
Gubernatorial candidates debate


October 4, 2006
By Joe Hanel | Herald Denver Bureau

DENVER - Republican Bob Beauprez attacked his rival in the governor's race, Democrat Bill Ritter, over Ritter's record as a Denver prosecutor in a Tuesday debate moderated by ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

In recent days, Beauprez has charged that Ritter devised about 150 plea bargains so that legal immigrants could avoid deportation.

"He had serious crimes, people who were arrested on heroin trafficking, cocaine trafficking and he went and found an obscure charge - farmland trespassing," Beauprez said. The trespassing charge is a felony but would not result in deportation for a legal immigrant.

Illegal immigrants can be deported at any time, regardless of whether they have committed other crimes.

Ritter said his prosecutors did their best with an overwhelming caseload, cases with weak evidence and the capacity to do only a couple hundred trials a year.

Beauprez and Republican groups have hammered Ritter throughout the campaign for what they call excessive plea bargaining. But other district attorneys have said that most cases need to be plea-bargained because the court system can't handle more long trials. Ritter said Beauprez doesn't understand criminal law.

"I think the next governor of the state ought to have more than a cocktail-party familiarity of the criminal justice system," Ritter said.

Ritter said that on many occasions, the former federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (whose duties were assumed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Sept. 11) didn't have enough money to deport people who were convicted of felonies.

"So it's INS's fault?" Beauprez asked.

"No," Ritter replied. "It's not their fault. It's Congress's fault."

Ritter said that Beauprez, a two-term congressman, should have worked harder for immigration reform in Washington.

The debate also touched on other topics, such as education.

Ritter said he opposes vouchers to pay for public school students to attend private school. Beauprez supports vouchers.

Ritter pointed to his support of Referendum C last year, which lets the state keep extra tax money for five years in order to avoid large cuts.



"It was the chance to save a very desperate situation," Ritter said.

Beauprez opposed Referendum C. Instead, he supports an Arizona plan that gives a $1 tax credit for every $2 someone contributes to a special educational fund. The fund, Beauprez said, could be used for teacher raises, school construction or any number of priorities.

Stephanopoulos asked Beauprez about the latest congressional scandal, in which Florida Republican Mark Foley resigned after sending sexual electronic messages to boys in the Congressional page program. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is under fire because he knew about some inappropriate messages months ago.

Beauprez said Hastert should go if there's evidence that he covered up for Foley.

"I have not seen hard evidence that he has done this, but if hard evidence surfaces, then he needs to go," Beauprez said.

Ritter said the GOP's House leadership should be replaced.

"It appears they were complicit," Ritter said. "We've seen speakers come and go over the years over a lot less than this."

The debate aired on Channel 7 (KMGH) in Denver. Although some Four Corners viewers can't get Denver television, Internet users can watch it on www.thedenverchannel.com.

Stephanopoulos is the host of ABC's Sunday-morning interview program "This Week." He was a senior adviser to President Clinton.

jhanel@durangoherald.com

http://www.denverpost.com/portal/news/c ... loopback=1

Candidates plead their cases
The contenders in the race for governor debate the value of plea bargaining with immigrant criminals.
By Chris Frates
Denver Post Staff Writer

Republican Bob Beauprez on Tuesday assailed Democrat Bill Ritter's record as a prosecutor, saying his approval of plea bargains that kept immigrant criminals from being deported calls into question his ability to lead the state.

"Why should the people of Colorado trust you to exercise good judgment on things like economic development and education and health care?" Beauprez asked during a debate that featured one of the sharpest exchanges to date between the two gubernatorial candidates.

The topic of immigration, particularly reports that Ritter's office charged some immigrants accused of drug, assault and other crimes with a nondeportable agricultural trespassing violation, dominated the hour-long debate.

Ritter said it is unfair "to demagogue this kind of an issue when you're looking at the vast volume of cases and the passion that law enforcement and -"

"So I guess a few more criminals on the street is OK," the congressman interrupted.

The more than 150 plea bargains in question, Ritter said, represented less than 1 percent of the cases his office handled during the last half of his 12-year tenure as Denver district attorney.

"Tell the people in Bailey that that was just an isolated incident," Beauprez responded, referring to the school shooting last week that killed 16-year-old Emily Keyes. The man involved in that case was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record in Denver.

Ritter said that if some of the defendants involved in plea agreements with his office were in the country illegally, they were "deportable no matter what they plead to - and they should be deported."

"That's a bunch of spin," Beauprez retorted, saying Ritter offered the deals to help immigrant criminals stay in the country.

Ritter fired back, saying, "I think the next governor of the state ought to have something more than a cocktail-party familiarity with the criminal justice system."

Federal immigration officials, Ritter said, told him they didn't have the resources to deport illegal immigrants convicted of felonies. He blamed Congress for not giving immigration authorities the funding necessary to do their job.

"I've never seen a single instance where you stood up on behalf of law enforcement ... to provide the resources to do this," Ritter said.

But Beauprez said he helped quickly extradite cop-killer Raul Gomez-Garcia, an illegal immigrant, by applying leverage through an amendment he offered.

Ritter, however, pointed out that Gomez-Garcia is back in Colorado only because the prosecutor agreed not to charge him with first-degree murder or seek the death penalty.

During extradition talks, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey asked the state's congressional delegation to stop making public statements a day after Beauprez announced legislation to cut foreign aid to Mexico.

The debate, which aired Tuesday night on Denver's KMGH- Channel 7, was to be repeated on cable channels through Monday. The event can also be downloaded from www.thedenverchannel.com or from Comcast cable's video-on-demand service.

Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-954-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.

Here is the Video of the debate.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/video/9 ... index.html

ABC news...www.thedenverchannel.com

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_4448255

Dem pollster's memo cites some slippage in numbers for Ritter
By Karen E. Crummy
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated:10/05/2006 10:21:19 PM MDT

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter has slipping poll numbers in parts of the state and his supporters should start tearing Republican opponent Bob Beauprez's "head off," says a recent memo between two Democratic consultants.

A Monday memo sent from Washington pollster Andrew Myers to Colorado consultant Dominic Delpapa said that Ritter's poll numbers were dropping in some targeted state House districts and that Myers feared a trend was developing.

He wrote that he was "concerned about the attacks Ritter is enduring and to what extent they are not only energizing Beauprez's base, but also creating some real doubts among the swing independent voters."

"To the extent possible, I believe you need to really begin to tear Beauprez's head off," he wrote, adding that illegal immigration would be a good place to start since the congressman has "an abysmal record."

On Thursday, Myers said the poll numbers were only from a small fraction of the state - "one-thirty-fifth."

He also said that the Beauprez campaign should not put much stock in the numbers.
"If that's good news to them, then that's pathetic," he said.

Delpapa declined to comment. Neither he nor Myers work for Ritter. Myers said his tracking poll results came from work he's doing for other candidates in the state.

Evan Dreyer, spokesman for Ritter, said he first saw the memo Wednesday.

"That polling information is completely contrary to every other public and private poll we have seen," he said. "In fact, people are gravitating to Bill because they like his style and he has a real plan to lead Colorado."

John Marshall, campaign spokesman for Beauprez, said the memo shows that voters are getting to know Ritter, the former Denver district attorney, and don't like what they see.

"As long as he stands by his policy of allowing alien felons to avoid deportation, his poll numbers will continue to sink like a rock," he said.

Marshall was referring to Ritter's office's charging some immigrants accused of drug, assault and other crimes with a nondeportable agricultural trespassing violation.

Staff writer Karen Crummy can be reached at 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com.