It's no secret. Rick Ridder is a well-known Democratic political operative, who operates a campaign consulting firm here in Denver, Ridder-Braden, serving Democratic campaigns and liberal causes. He was Howard Dean's first campaign manager. Ridder spoke at the Democratic Gain campaign training sessions in this year's convention in Boston, notably on, "Major Consequences: How Ballot Measures will impact Battleground States in the 2004 Election." He is a past president of the International Association of Political Consultants, and has written pamphlets for the UK's Liberal Democrats (the only party to oppose war in Iraq) and helped Sweden's Social Democrats develop local polling techniques.

For the record, attorney Mark Grueskin, who's also working with Make You Vote Count (Less), is a fairly high-powered corporate attorney, who has represented tobacco companies, Fox Channel 31, and the state's casino association. For fun, though, he represents anti-gun group SAFE Colorado, the liberal Bighorn Center, the City of Denver in opposing the Republican redistricting plan, and the 2002 Feeley campaign when that election went to the courts. He also helped draft both Colorado's and Oregon's medical marijuana bills.

There's nothing inherently sinister about any of this. People work for the team they're on. They just shouldn't pretend that they don't.