Colorado: Sen. Michael Bennet

Bowing to intense lobbying pressure from the mortgage industry, the U.S. Senate killed a bill Thursday to allow bankruptcy judges to modify loan terms on primary residences the way they can on second homes, yachts, cars and other pieces of property.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall voted to give relief to financially-pinched homeowners trapped in overvalued mortgages, while his counterpart Sen. Michael Bennet sided with the Scrooge McDucks.

The American News Project caught mortgage bankers in a celebratory mood as it geared up to kill the homeowners bankruptcy protection, known as cramdown, in an episode that could only be called “Take Your Banking Lobbyist to Congress Day and Let Him Stomp All Over Your Right to the Courts.

A bill seeking to eliminate secret union ballots for workers has not yet received the full support of all of Colorado's newly elected congressional Democrats.

While Rep. Betsy Markey, a Fort Collins Democrat, has pledged her support as a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, her fellow newly elected Democrats, including Sen. Michael Bennet of Denver, and Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder, have yet to announce whether they will support the controversial Employee Free Choice Act.

"Rep. Markey supports the Employee Free Choice Act. She supported it during her campaign, and she is supporting it now," Markey spokesman Ben Marter told the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

According to a press release issued today (full release after the jump), U.S. Election Assistance Commission member Rosemary Rodriguez is resigning in order to take the job as Sen. Michael Bennet's State Director.

Rodriguez had tried unsuccessfully (and with much foot stomping) to be appointed to the U.S. Senate seat that Gov. Bill Ritter eventually gave to Bennet.

Commissioner Rodriguez Resigns
Transparency and Voter Access Hallmarks of her Tenure

For Immediate Release                                                                                   Contact:  Jeannie Layson or Sarah Litton
DATE                                                                                                                                                      (202) 566-3100

WASHINGTON, D.

The bill signing attracted a who's who of Denver Democratic politics.

The president was accompanied on Air Force One by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and met on the tarmac by Gov. Bill Ritter and his son August; U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet; U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (whom the president called "de-jet" during his speech); U.S. Rep. Ed Perl mutter; and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. At the museum, there were also Bennet's wife, Susan Daggett, who received a kiss on the cheek from the president; Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien; former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and his wife, Wilma; former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer and his son, state Sen. Chris Romer; former Denver mayor and secretary of energy and transportation Federico Peña; Senate President
Obama in Denver

Peter Groff; House Speaker Terrance Carroll; Colorado Democratic Party chair Pat Waak; attorney and Democratic fundraiser Steve Farber; and political consultant David Kenney. The Denver Post