Jon Caldara is the President of the Independence Institute, Colorado's free-market
think tank in Golden, Colorado. Caldara also hosts a 3 hour a day a radio talk
show on the 50,000-watt blowtorch News
Radio 850 KOA. His current affairs television program Independent Thinking
airs on KBDI Channel 12, Friday nights at 8:30. Caldara also writes daily about the latest Independence Institute efforts at the cauldron, by caldara. Jon also hosts a weekly Podcast on iVoices.org, the podcast of the Independence Institute. For an archive of Jon's recent podcasts visit his podcast archive.
He was asked to take the position of President of the Independence Institute
in November 1998 after then-President Tom Tancredo was elected to the U.S. House
of Representatives. Caldara's free market philosophies gelled when he was studying
economics and business at the liberal University of Colorado in Boulder during
the mid 1980s. As an outlet for his frustration with modern collectivist politics,
Caldara authored and drew a daily comic strip entitled, B Street, which he syndicated
to more than 50 newspapers across the U.S. This conservative version of Doonesbury;
was the constant target of the politically correct.
Caldara started his political career in 1994 when he was elected to the Regional
Transportation District Board of Directors. RTD is the fourth largest governmental
entity in the state of Colorado. Caldara almost immediately became the most
controversial and outspoken board member in RTD's history, as he fought against
wasteful projects and for free market reforms such as competitive contracting
of services and privatization. In 1998, Caldara became Chairman of the Board
of RTD. In 1997, Caldara led the effort to defeat "Guide the Ride", a 66% RTD
sales tax increase referendum. The proposal originally had popular support of
73%. The proponents of the tax hike outspent Caldara's campaign by 15-to-1.
By election day the measure failed with a 58% "no" vote.
Caldara is the veteran of many issue campaigns, including in 1998, Caldara
led the statewide effort to defeat Referendum B, a proposal for the state to
keep a billion dollars of the taxpayers' surplus for unspecified projects. It
had original public support of 75% and the proponents outspent Caldara's campaign
by 4-to-1. By election day the measure failed with a 63% "no" vote. In 2000
ran the campaign against the educational spending mandate, Amendment 23. In
2001 he lead defeat a tax increase for a monorail system over the Rocky Mountains.
In 2005 he ran the campaign against Colorado’s attack on the Taxpayer’s Bill
of Rights, Referendums C and D, defeating the debt increase, Ref. D.
Among his many recognitions, 5280 Magazine named him as one of the top 10 most
influential men in Denver, Westword awarded Caldara Denver's Best Media Manipulator,
the Denver Post put Caldara on their list of people to watch, and the Colorado
Jaycees awarded him as the Outstanding Young Coloradoan. The State Policy Network
honored him in 2005 with the Thomas Roe Award.
For a high resolution picture please use this
link.
Articles by Jon Caldara
Issue Paper
Title
Date
RTD's Competitive Contracting Program (IP-2-1999)[PDF]
01-20-1999
Opinion Editorial
Title
Date
Intolerant Boulder In a city that prides itself on throwing around the words "tolerance" and "diversity" like they are rice at a wedding (or bird seed in Boulder), my 24 years here have taught me that Boulder is still a massively intolerant place.
