Colorado: Guantánamo Bay

Sen. Michael Bennet is again visiting Western Slope communities today, introducing himself to voters and local officials and taking questions on the recently passed economic stimulus plan. He's also appearing as his own headliner on this tour, notably getting out from under Governor Bill Ritter's introductory wing.

After town hall in Ridgway that just got underway a few minutes ago, Bennet will host another forum in Delta at 3PM before heading to the Museum of Western Colorado in Grand Junction this evening. Yesterday, Bennet appeared in Durango to a large crowd and directly addressed criticism of the plan, as the Herald recaps:

"It's only the first step," he told about 175 people gathered for a town hall-style meeting at the Durango Public Library.

It's refreshing to see the conservative Colorado Springs Gazette not catching the local GOP's collective vapors over the possibility that some detainees from Guantanamo Bay might be relocated to Florence's ultra-high security federal prison, Supermax.
Republican lawmakers pounced...gathering 35 signatures on a petition asserting that the nearly 250 Guantanamo detainees, many of them accused of membership in terrorist groups, would threaten "the safety and security of the communities in which they will ultimately be housed."

The petition, which was sent to Ritter this week, also expresses "grave concern about the economic and security risks that the relocation of Guantanamo detainees to Colorado pose for our state and local communities.

Among his first actions as President this week, Barack Obama ordered the Guantanamo Bay prison to be closed within the year with all detainees relocated. Normally, this would be a minor blip on the radar screens of most Coloradans, but Gov. Bill Ritter has announced his support to move detainees to the ADX supermax prison in Florence, sparking controversy among residents and lawmakers alike.

The initial knee-jerk reaction to oppose Ritter's proposal makes sense; who wants a bunch of suspected terrorists in our state? Resistance has been expressed by some of our state's brightest political stars, including state Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, who referred to Ritter's suggestion as "welcoming a pipeline of enemy combatants into Colorado.

State Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, wants President Barack Obama to know that he and his colleagues oppose the relocation of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Colorado.

Gardner unveiled a petition this morning on the floor of the state House. The petition, he said, requests that no detainees be moved to Colorado without the consent of the General Assembly and communities affected by any such move.

According to 9News in Denver, Gov. Bill Ritter is not opposed to moving detainees to Colorado’s supermax federal prison but has not been contacted about the matter.

UPDATE: Reps. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, and Laura Bradford, R-Collbran, signed the petition, which Gardner told Political Notebook has been passed to the Senate Republicans to collect signatures there.

What do you think?

*Gardner photo shot by Political Notebook.