The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for unions to organize, will get a new look in the Democratic-controlled Congress and by President-elect Barack Obama, who told the AFL-CIO in April that he would make it "the law of the land."

To push the cause, American Rights at Work, a pro-labor group based in Washington, released a survey from seven Senate battleground states: Colorado, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Oregon. It was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc.

The conclusion?

A majority of the 2,104 respondents polled by telephone favor the EFCA. The results to one of the questions not published are linked here.

Interestingly, Colorado was the only state where the "strongly favor" and "somewhat favor" responses added up to less than 50 percent.
That survey question doid not explain the complicated rules on unionizing a workplace nor how EFCA would shift from a secret ballot to a more open (critics say potentially coercive) card-check process.

But American Rights at Work is touting the survey as proof that advertising attacks against successful Senate candidates who back EFCA - including Colorado Sen.-elect Mark Udall - were ineffective.

“No matter how hard corporate interests tried to mislead voters, it just didn’t work. State by state, millions were spent, but the fact remains the Employee Free Choice Act never became the wedge issue corporate interests sought," said the chairman of the group, David Bonior, a former Michigan congressman who is also part of the transition economic advisory board that is meeting Friday with Obama in Chicago.

EFCA opponents include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, headed by Thomas J. Donohue.

"I don't think you can make a very rational argument" for taking up the labor legislation on top of efforts to stimulate the economy, Donohue said today, reported the Associated Press.

Donohue is scheduled to speak Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Denver at an event sponsored by the Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm.

The Colorado AFL-CIO has 1,000 members beginning work this weekend to get out the vote, according to Mike Cerbo, executive director.

Walking precincts, knocking on doors, making phone calls and leafleting worksites are priorities through Tuesday, Cerbo said on Friday.

Union volunteers were urged "to early vote and vote by mail so they're not standing in line on Election Day," said Cerbo, a former Democratic state legislator who resigned last year to take the AFL-CIO post.

The intended beneficiaries of the GOTV effort are Democratic candidates from Barack Obama on down the ticket. Unions in Colorado are also focused on defeating three ballot issues, including Amendment 47, the initiative known as right-to-work.

Across the country, "tens of thousands of AFL-CIO volunteers will visit more than 3.9 million union households, make 5.5 million calls and distribute more than 2 million leaflets at worksites through Election Day," according to a statement from the national AFL-CIO headquarters.

To help elect Democrats, the AFL-CIO is spending $53.4 million, separate from $20 million being spent by Change to Win, a coalition of seven other unions, reported Marc Ambinder.

Change to Win said it sent a mailer this week to 49,200 registered voters in Colorado, supporting U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall.

Mike Coffman, the Republican running to fill the seat of Rep. Tom Tancredo in Colorado’s sixth congressional district, gave a fiery defense of Tancredo’s signature issue: opposition to illegal immigration. It happened Monday night when Coffman spoke to more than 2,000 of the party faithful at the “Battleground Talkers Tour” event at the Denver Marriott Tech Center, sponsored by KNUS 710 FM.

“I firmly believe that if we had more Tom Tancredos in the Congress of the United States, the Republicans would still be in the majority,” said Coffman, who is also the Colorado secretary of state. “When the Republican establishment in Washington ceased to govern by the conservative values that got them elected, Congressman Tancredo stood up to them and said no, that they were wrong.

“When the White House joined with Republican and Democratic leadership on a so-called immigration reform bill that would have done nothing to secure our borders but would have given a path to citizenship and amnesty to those who violated our laws, Congressman Tancredo said no to that.

“Congressman Tancredo never wavered on the issue of illegal immigration. And if I’m elected to be your congressman, neither will I.”

When Sen. Barack Obama departed his plane in Denver on Sunday, he carried some periodicals in his right hand, visible in a detail of a photograph by Helen H. Richardson of The Denver Post.

One was the Oct. 27 Time magazine cover headlined "Does Temperament Matter?" which features images of Obama and Abraham Lincoln in the top panels, with FDR and Sen. John McCain in the bottom panels.

Obama expressed admiration for Lincoln in a 2005 Time magazine essay, which was critiqued by Peggy Noonan.

With a week-and-a-half to go before Election Day, nearly 18 percent of registered Colorado voters have already cast a ballot, according to figures put out today by the Secretary of State’s office.

Through Thursday night, 566,966 people had turned in a ballot, according to the numbers. Of those, 481,684 sent their ballot in by mail. Another 85,282 cast their ballots at an early voting site.

Democrats continue to lead Republicans in mail-in ballot requests, by a margin of nearly 26,000. But Republicans continue to do a better job of returning mail-in ballots, by a margin of about 2,500 ballots.

Democrats, though, hold an edge in early voting turnout having cast about 6,600 more ballots at early voting sites than Republicans.

Unaffiliated voters, who make up the largest voting bloc among registered voters, trail Democrats and Republicans in mail-in ballot requests and returns, as well as in early votes cast.

In terms of overall turnout, the 218,963 Democrats who have so far cast ballots account for 20.8 percent of all registered Democrats in the state. Republicans are seeing similar turnout numbers, with the 214,804 ballots cast by party members accounting for 20.2 percent of all registered Republicans. Unaffiliated voters so far lag in turnout, with only 130,761 – or 12.2 percent – of unaffiliated voters casting ballots.

None of these numbers, of course, say anything about what is actually on those ballots, which is why both presidential candidates are hitting Colorado today and this weekend, holding rallies in which supporters are encouraged to go vote. At a rally for Republican presidential candidate John McCain today in Denver, former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway urged voters to go cast a ballot at an early voting site after leaving the arena.

“It’s the fourth quarter,” Elway told the crowd.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, one day before Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama visits Denver, actor Zach Braff, actress Laura Dern and musician Ben Harper are hosting “early vote” rallies for Obama in Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins.

County clerks can begin counting ballots tomorrow but cannot add the results up until after the polls close on Election Day.

Gloria Steinem comes to Denver on Saturday — and she’ll be here through the election to host Women’s Voting Circles (Dames for Dems, Chicks for Change, Mountain Obama Mamas) throughout the state, reports Bill Husted. More info here: http://www.womensvotingcircles.com/

Her big stop is ObamaDrama at the Michael Dunahay’s Sculptured House with Swanee Hunt, Judith Wahler and a “surprise musical guest!” on Halloween night.

And Zach Braff, Laura Dern and her husband Ben Harper will be at the Mary Rippon Theatre at CU-Boulder on 2 p.m. Saturday to get out the early Obama vote.

Gov. Bill Ritter, who has been actively campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in Colorado, took the show on the road today as he joined Obama at "Growing American Jobs Summit" in the battleground state of Florida.
According to our friends at Politico, while Obama hosted the summit in Florida, a state burdened by the economic downturn, he managed to amplify his message across a broad swath of the country by assembling a panel that included the Democratic governors of four swing states and Google chief Eric Schmidt, a tech celebrity who made his first campaign appearance on behalf of Obama.
Ritter and the other governors — Bill Richardson, D-N.M., Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich., and Ted Strickland, D-Ohio — conducted a round of satellite TV, newspaper and radio interviews in key swing states after the event.

In a post in the Atlantic Monthly's political blog this morning, Marc Ambinder reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee was pulling its ad money out of Colorado, leaving Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer to fend for himself. The news quickly shot around the blogosphere, repeated over and over and sourcing that single post.

The problem is, it's not true.

The NRSC has in fact paid for ad spending in the Colorado Senate race for next week, Republican sources confirm. And Democrats are no longer disputing that.

When a national committee decides to abandon a race, it's always big news - usually signaling a doomed campaign. The Republicans are suddenly facing several newly tight Senate races around the country on top of the half-dozen or so that were already in play, and they are being forced to make tough decisions on how to allocate resources. With Schaffer's gap in the polls appearing to widen of late, there has been no shortage of speculation that Colorado would be given up to save other seats.

But at least for now, the NRSC hasn't given up on Colorado or on Bob Schaffer. And given their decision to stay at least another week, it looks increasingly less likely they will do so before Nov. 4th.

Eduardo Verástegui, star of the movie “Bella,” discussed his opposition to abortion - and to Sen. Barack Obama's views  - while campaigning for Sen. John McCain in Denver on Tuesday. Watch the video below.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told about 80 canvas volunteers at the Barack Obama presidential campaign headquarters in Denver that the future of the country rested on their shoulders.

"If he wins the state of Colorado, he wins the election," said Kennedy, an environmental activist. "And it's up to you."

On his radio show recently, Kennedy claimed,“There are about 30 scams the Republicans are deliberately using, particularly in the swing states to get Democratic voters off the rolls," and cited Colorado as an example.

But Kennedy steered clear of the topic at the Denver event. "He's been talking about the issue nationally a lot, but he's not that familiar with conditions on the ground in Colorado," explained Jennifer Stutsman, Colorado spokeswoman for the Obama campaign.

Other organizers urged early voting, claiming that 20,000 Democrats dropped out of long lines at polling places here in 2006.

"If we lose 20,000 voters this time, we may not win Colorado," said Obama field organizer Jesus Mata.