Colorado is known for its diverse open spaces: its snow-covered Rocky Mountains, arid desert lands, and long river canyons that attract outdoor enthusiasts from all over the world. Politically, it is known as a swing state that provides one of the few opportunities for parties to win a Senate seat that in the right conditions tilt the balance of power.
Like two-thirds of the states across the country, Colorado will vote for a senator this coming November. The race has been unusual in Colorado, however, in that many Republican candidates avoided the traditional caucus-assembly process that somewhat resembles the presidential process. Instead, candidates have resorted to petitioning or signatures to get onto Colorado’s Republican primary ballot, in hopes of winning a chance to depose Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in the general election. Experts reached for this story said environmental issues like hydraulic fracturing and the Clean Power Plan have received little if any attention. In fact, much debate has recently revolved around which candidate had the most illustrious career or the validity of their ballot signatures.
Jon Keyser, who quit his job as a corporate lawyer and his first term in the state legislature to run for senate, has been at the center of both discussions. The former Iraq and Afghanistan veteran entered the race in January to significant fanfare soon after Keyser’s candidacy was hyped by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). But in recent weeks, Keyser’s candidacy has been marred by controversies over the alleged forging of signatures that allowed him on the ballot. Just last week a woman who gathered signatures for Keyser was arrested on 34 felony forgery charges. Keyser remains in the race, however, as the state determined he had enough valid signatures to qualify for the June 28 primary.
For the past few months, the 34-year-old Keyser has been touting his time in the military, his “rock solid fiscal conservative” beliefs, and even his time as a roughneck who worked on oil and gas rigs to partly pay for his education. Keyser also promotes himself as a conservationist who “will work hard to preserve Colorado’s natural beauty for future generations,” and an “advocate for clean air, clean water, outdoor recreation and access to open space.” But a ThinkProgress review of Keyser’s donations and personal financial disclosure documents shows that Keyser has strong financial connections to extraction industries like oil and gas corporations that often object to stringent environmental laws, or face lawsuits for polluting the air, water, and the open spaces.
Moreover, Keyser doesn’t seem to be convinced about the role humans play in human-caused climate change. “The climate is changing, but the question is, how much, and to what extent human factors are contributing to that,” Keyser said according to the Huffington Post.
As a corporate lawyer for Hogan Lovells US LLP in Denver, one of the largest legal practices in the Rocky Mountain region, his work with fossil fuel interests in 2014 accounted for nearly half of his client base. And now as a candidate, his ties to oil, gas, and mining interests have remained close, with at least 17 percent of Keyser’s donations attributed to the extraction industries. Keyser’s campaign didn’t reply to requests for interviews or questions submitted via email.
Keyser reported earning nearly $203,000 from Hogan Lovells in 2014. Out of the 23 clients he reported working for, nine were oil and gas companies, or industry-funded groups that promote fossil fuel extraction like Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development, or Protect Colorado. Other noteworthy clients included Delfin LNG, a liquefied natural gas company, ExxonMobil Corporation, and Anadarko Petroleum, Colorado’s biggest oil and gas company, that, along with some of its subsidiaries settled in 2014 with the Department of Justice for fraudulent conveyance of assets to evade environmental liabilities.
If Keyser worked 9/23 — or 39 percent — of the time for fossil fuel clients in 2014, they alone would have been responsible for about $80,000 of his income.
As a Colorado lawmaker, Keyser has meanwhile turned his back on many green policies, according to Conservation Colorado, an environmental nonprofit with a board of directors comprised in part of former and current politicians. In 2015, Conservation Colorado gave him just a 43 percent score in part because he voted against two energy efficiency tax credits. Keyser, who rejected President Obama’s proposed $10 “fee” on every barrel of oil to fund clean fuel, also opposes tax credits for renewable energy.
“We need to have a diverse energy portfolio,” said Keyser, according to the Denver Business Journal. “But I think we have got to focus on the fact that right now the energy that makes the most sense for us to develop safely and quickly is our oil and natural gas.”
https://twitter.com/Jon_Keyser/status/695367666203136000
Meanwhile, oil companies in Colorado have been struggling over the past two years due to low global oil prices, which has resulted in mass layoffs and closures of rigs across the state. Anadarko, one of Keyser clients in 2014, said in March it would cut about 1,000 jobs across the company, or 17 percent of its workforce.
As a candidate, Keyser’s campaign has benefited substantially from oil, gas, and mining interests, which have given him nearly $55,000, or roughly 17 percent of the $272,000 he’s accrued, according to his filings with the Federal Election Commission. Benefactors include managers, executives, and attorneys for energy and mining companies. Significant benefactors listed include Frederic Hamilton, co-founder of Hamilton Oil Corporation, an international exploration and production company; and Cannon Y. Harvey, the president and chief operating officer at Anschutz Investment Company, a corporation that sprawls across many sectors, including the fossil fuel exploration industry upon which the company was built. Lyndia Harvey, the wife of Cannon Harvey, also donated to the Keyser campaign, according to documents.
But despite the support that Keyser may have from oil, gas, and others in the mining or even real estate sectors, it’s still unclear if he has the electoral power to win the primary. And even if he were to win, Keyser may have a tough time in defeating Bennet, the incumbent Democratic senator. Robert Duffy, a professor at Colorado State who specializes in environmental policy and organized political interest, said Republican candidates seem cash-strapped. “At this point there hasn’t been a lot of advertising, and most of the candidates don’t have a lot of money,” Duffy told ThinkProgress.
The Fossil Fuel Industry Spent More Than Seven-Hundred Million Dollars During 2014’s Midterm…Climate by CREDIT: Shutterstock The 2014 midterm elections saw a wave of Republican candidates elected and re-elected…thinkprogress.orgAnd while Keyser is “sort of the favorite of the party establishment,” Duffy said turnout in presidential election years is generally larger, more diverse, and more favorable to Democratic candidates. “This would be a better electorate, a better environment for Bennet than 2010 was,” Duffy said while referring to an off-year election that has an older, whiter, and more Republican turnout, “especially if [Donald] Trump implodes and there is a large Hispanic turnout.” So far polling seems inconclusive, and most say the race is “wide open” for other candidates — the majority of which had trouble qualifying for the ballot — that include businessmen Robert Blaha and Ryan Frazier, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, and former NFL quarterback Jack Graham. Whoever wins the Republican primary might also face the unintended consequence of a voter initiative on restricting fracking that Duffy said is likely to be on the ballot in November. Republicans almost certainly would oppose this initiative that could, in turn, energize the environmental vote, Duffy said, and provide some help to Bennet. In addition, there is the possibility of an initiative on raising the minimum wage, and one that would move Colorado toward universal healthcare — each of which could entice the unaffiliated residents to vote.
“The most important thing to know about Colorado is that about a third of the voters are unaffiliated, a third are Republicans and a third are Democrats,” Duffy said. “What really matters is what happens with the unaffiliated voters … for the most part, unaffiliated voters have been breaking for the Democrats.”