The Buzz

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

1968 – A Shout and Then Tragedy

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968.

On a hot June night 58 years ago, I stood with a crowd of supporters in the Embassy Ballroom of Los Angeles’s Ambassador Hotel cheering on Robert F. Kennedy as he basked in the California primary victory and shouted – “On to Chicago!” As a volunteer with the advance staff, I and many of us were looking to the next primary in New York and then on to Chicago for the Democratic Convention.

Kennedy had entered the race on March 16 and President Lyndon Johnson was out of the running two weeks later. So began the 82-day final campaign of RFK. The tragedy that night ended two-months of intense effort and hope that the Vietnam War could end quickly and America could be put on a new path of reconciliation. It also put my involvement in politics on hold.

About a month before that night, I walked in the door of the mostly empty Kennedy office on Wilshire Blvd. I had been working for a local LA autobody shop and drove an old Buick. Jerry Bruno, the top advance man for the campaign, was elated. He asked if I had a car, handed me a Joseph P. Kennedy credit card, and said go to the airport and pick up a filmed campaign biography produced by Charles Guggenheim. I didn’t own a credit card and hadn’t been to the LA airport but I was off. It took more than an hour to find the documentary and return. Bruno no doubt thought he’d seen the last of me.

The advance staff mostly traveled ahead of the candidate, who was often motorcading through streets on the way to outside photo ops and speeches. Our job was to hold the crowd for the always-late Kennedy. We mounted a loudspeaker on the Buick and announced he was near and handed out posters in busy locations.

Kennedy campaigns in the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1968.
David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

Bruno arranged for Kennedy to meet us Monday before what was to be the last election-day effort. At that moment he looked confident and we all thought he would win. Crowds were bigger and more enthusiastic. We worked in Los Angeles on Monday and Tuesday and then we headed to the hotel for the anticipated victory party.

I heard the shots and screams walking down the steps to the main ballroom – I quickly reversed course and joined a group to clear a space for people, some wounded, to exit the kitchen. Later, I stayed in the Kennedy bungalow with staff and others until it was clear the night watch was over.

Johnson’s withdrawal made establishment politics suddenly seem relevant. Senator Eugene McCarthy was an alternative but not a viable choice in my view. I was too pragmatic and wanted someone who could win both the nomination and the election. McCarthy had the educated class. But Kennedy could get most college students and, more importantly, the working class and ethnic voters with the Martin Luther King constituency – a rare talent.

The final shout of the year from Chicago in August was the “whole world’s watching.”

Monday, February 23, 2026

National Dashboard: Trump in Retreat

Minnesota Retreat, Greenland Collapse, Epstein Deluge

Demonstrators take part in an anti-ICE protest in Minnesota, US, on January 20, 2026 [Seth Herald/Reuters]

In most reputable polls President Trump’s approval is below 40 percent of the electorate. And it’s beginning to affect his control over the political environment. After the White House decided to surge 3,000 ICE agents into Minnesota for immigration enforcement, it had to withdraw. The debacle may have put the entire surge strategy on hold. His Davos Greenland push failed after an embarrassing display of bluster and then retreat. Finally, after months of delay and distraction, the Epstein files continue to dominate the news cycle and lead to more career retirements and removals.

President Trump’s 13 percent negative with a 42 percent approval is from the Republican-leaning RealClearPolitics. A different respected aggregator, Fifty Plus One, has him 19 points down, 38% approval to 57% disapproval.

The view grows that Speaker Johnson, so beholden to Trump, will lose his gavel in spite of efforts to change election districts and restrict turnout of Democratic voters. His majority, if the four vacancies are won by the incumbent party, would be 220 to 215 for the Democrats. Three seats will shift the majority.

RELATED:
Trump Starts New Year in Trouble January 21, 2026

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Denver Metro Sales Tax Ends Year Up

After two years of flat sales tax revenue collection in the Denver metro area, the modest 2025 increase will be welcomed by metro municipalities and other local governments facing budget shortfalls and higher expenses. Out of the seven counties, some are doing better than others.

The Denver metro seven county sales tax revenue ended up $13 million for a one percent sales tax over last year. The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District will see $1.3 million more from its one-tenth-of-cent sales tax.

Denver Metro Area Sales Tax Revenue Changes

RELATED:
Metro Sales Tax Revenue Finally Up November 25, 2025
Metro Denver Sales Tax Revenue Flat Again May 7, 2025

Monday, February 16, 2026

Colorado and California Flatline

The populations of Colorado and California have both flatlined after decades of increases. Colorado growth this century was spectacular and has not yet hit zero but dropped to its lowest level since 1959 and was only 0.4% in the last 12 months, below the slow U.S. growth rate. There have been declines in some key metro cities like Boulder and Denver.

In 1965, I couldn’t wait to move to California, find a job in Hollywood and start college. Not today. Millennials and Gen Z are not flocking to the Golden State. California has seen a significant fall off after being the country’s growth leader for decades, primarily because people have stopped moving there.

After the 2000 Census, Colorado gained its eighth Congressional seat and California, for the first time in history, lost one. Both states in recent decades received high net in migration. It has stopped both internationally with the closed borders since 2024 and internally due to much lower U.S. inflow matched or exceeded by outflow, especially in California. If California growth doesn’t increase, it could lose up to 4 Congressional seats in 2030.

Friday, February 13, 2026

SCFD – Fueling Recovery from Pandemic

The Denver Art Museum is located in the Golden Triangle Creative District. Photo by Visit Denver

After the pandemic shutdown of the Denver metro area’s economy, a slow recovery in the cultural community is notable, fueled by prodigious work by the cultural organizations and the steady funding of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). The latest economic impact study from the Colorado Business Committee of the Arts (CBCA) shows a $1 billion increase to $3.1 billion from its pre-pandemic 2018 report.

Although attendance is still recovering, the SCFD is an economic powerhouse providing more than 14,000 jobs, an increase of nearly 3,000 since 2018. The growth in metro adult residents participating in cultural programs has doubled in the 35 years of SCFD existence and children attendance increased four times. Economic impact, with its employment component, is the major boost for the region’s hospitality and tourism industry!

Economic Activity and Impact of the Arts

Every two years since 1992, the CBCA in partnership with the (SCFD) conducts a study on the economic impact of the arts and cultural organizations funded by the SCFD in the seven-county metro area. In 1991, shortly after the District was established (1989), Deloitte Consulting conducted the first economic impact and activity study of the arts.

Ciruli Associates produced the report and A.B. Hirschfield Press provided the printing. Since then, a similar study sponsored by the CBCA has been conducted every two years, with the latest report just being released covering from 2025.

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

The Baby Boom Celebrates Their 80th Birthday

The earliest of the baby boom, born in 1946, are about to celebrate their 80th Valentine’s Day. The Clintons, W. Bush, Trump, Cher, Dolly Parton all have a reason to make it an especially loving day. It’s near my birthday and we will have a long family lunch near Newport.

Pick a song, a poem, a movie, a meal, a place that is romantic and share with your loved ones. I watch Casablanca every New Year’s. This song, “As Time Goes By,” is the movie’s signature love theme, “Play it, Sam.”

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

And when two lovers woo
They still say, “I love you.”
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by

Happy Valentine’s Day

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Colorado Presidential 2028 Election Turnout

Denver Metro Area Map courtesy of www.larryhotz.com

The 2028 presidential election will bring out Colorado’s largest number of voters. The following chart shows voter turnout among Colorado, regional and Denver voters in the 2016 and the more recent 2020, 2022, and 2024 elections. Denver’s most recent bond election had 192,000 votes (2025), an unusually high number of voters for an off-year/off-year event. The falloff of votes in 2024 from 2020 reflects Colorado’s population slowdown and a presidential candidate less attractive for Democratic voters.

Colorado’s 2026 mid-term election for U.S. senator, governor, statewide constitutional offices can expect about 2.5 million voters.

The next presidential election will likely be very competitive within party primaries and between the parties in the general election. Highly polarized voters, especially on cultural issues, can be expected. The Denver region should see more than 1.7 million votes, the turnout in 2024.