Friday, February 18: Come To CRBC's Monthly Lunch

Friday, February 18, 2011
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Brooklyn's Restaurant

9th & Auraria Pkwy, across from Pepsi Center,
$1 parking Lot A - tell attendant you're going to Brooklyn's

Member: $17; non-members $20; elected officials and students $15

Menu choices.

RSVP: repgop@gmail.com (not required, but appreciated)

Our featured speakers are as follows:

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Amy Oliver Cooke, Independence Institute

Amy Oliver Cooke is the director of the Colorado Transparency Project and founder of Mothers Against Debt (MAD) for the Independence Institute, Colorado's free market, state-based think tank. She has been with II since 2004.

Oliver's primary role is to investigate government spending at all levels and then explain how that spending affects family budgets. Her work on transparency earned h...er an appointment to the Long Term Fiscal Stability Commission from House Minority Leader Mike May.

She is also the host of the award winning Amy Oliver Show heard on News Talk 1310 KFKA Monday through Friday from 9 to 11 am. In 2008, the Colorado Broadcasters Association recognized her as the Best News Talk personality in a major market.

Oliver is a regular blog and article contributor. Her article Unabashed Bias exposed how the Denver daily papers campaigned for rather than reported on Colorado's largest tax increase and won her "Best Right-Wing Media Criticism" from the Denver Westword.


Oliver earned a degree in journalism in 1985 from the prestigious University of Missouri-Columbia. In 2003, she earned a graduate degree in American History from the University of Northern Colorado.

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Rep. Keith Swerdfeger

Hon. Keith Swerdfeger won the Pueblo city seat vacated by termed-out Democrat Buffie McFayden. He narrowly lost to her in 2004, but true to his nature, he persisted, this time winning the seat with 63 percent of the vote against Carole Partin.

Swerdfeger is vice-chairman of the House Finance Committee and also serves on the House Economic & Business Development and the Local Government committees.

He is prime sponsor of HB1051, which affirms that DNA samples of felons are never expunged; HB1083, which allows public utilities to consider the use of hydroelectricity and pumped hydroelectricity among alternative energy sources; HB1237, which establishes a fund for National Guard facilities repair and replacement; and SB051, which allows the intercept of a person's gaming winning for the purpose of paying any unpaid debt to the State, typically child support or restitution.

Swerdfeger is a co-founder/owner of K.R. Swerdfeger Construction, Inc. The business began in 1968 and has completed numerous multimillion-dollar projects since its founding. KRSC specializes in infrastructure development, the excavation for and placement of underground utilities, telecommunications construction, golf course development, and state-of-the-art trenchless technologies. He was instrumental to bringing wind-turbine maker Vestas to Pueblo.

Swerdfeger served in multiple positions at the Pueblo Economic Development Corp., or PEDCO. He served as chairman of Pueblo's 2009 United Way campaign. His wife of 45 years, Sharon L. Swerdfeger, is on the foundation board of the Pueblo Community College. The couple has four children and nine grandchildren.