Blog note, Education, Elections, Uncategorized

CU employees continue liberal giving to…liberals

Recent disclosures available on the federal campaign clearinghouse website OpenSecrets.org show that employees of the University of Colorado continue their “liberal” streak when it comes to political giving.

Specifically, 38 individuals who identified their employer as the University of Colorado have given a total of $35,900 to Mark Udall’s reelection campaign.  On the GOP side of the ledger, one person at CU has made a donation to the GOP nominee, Cory Gardner, totaling $350.

The tilt of donations towards Democrats continues in the CD-6 contest between Republican incumbent Mike Coffman and the Democratic challenger Andrew Romanoff.  18 individuals who identify their employer as the University of Colorado have given just over $24,000 to Romanoff.  On the Republican side, four individuals at CU have given $4,900 to Coffman.

On the single bright side for Republicans, two CU employees have given $4,500 to the GOP incumbent Scott Tipton, and no CU employee has given any money to challenger Abel Tapia in Colorado’s 3rd congressional district.

The numbers of contributors and contributions are far smaller — and far more balanced — when looking at political donations by CSU employees.

When your author wrote a similar story during the 2012 presidential election year (which also showed skewed giving towards Democrats), CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard gave me the following quote, which we’ll reprint for the sake of not bothering a busy man for the sake of (probably) repeating himself:

CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard took a less partisan approach to interpreting the data, suggesting that even though some professors may have ideological passions, it doesn’t mean they aren’t fair-minded in the classroom.

“Few meaningful generalizations can be drawn from this (data),” Hilliard said. “A lot of people in higher education are Democrats. A lot of bankers, financiers, and business leaders are Republicans. That doesn’t mean that all academics are incapable of interacting fairly with those who don’t agree with them politically any more than it means Republicans in the financial world aren’t capable of being fair to their Democrat customers and clients.”

On the other hand, in 2012, former GOP state chairman Dick Wadhams told me, “I guess it is no wonder why the University of Colorado had to go out and privately finance a professorship for conservative thought.”

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