VOL. 119 NO. 26 COLORADOPOLITICS.COM $3.50

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1 coloradopolitics VOL. 119 NO. 26 COLORADOPOLITICS.COM $3.50 JUNE 29, 2018 SPECIAL REPORT: PRIMARY ROUNDUP STAGE SET FOR NOV. Voters have spoken in Colorado s first primaries to include unaffiliateds. Here s what they said and what it means. Primaries winners and losers. Page 3 7 primary takeaways. Pages 4-5 Tom and Bernie flavor the fall campaign. Page 7 Polis, Stapleton face off for Colo. governor. Pages Decisive wins in races for Congress. Page 15 A voter drops her primary election ballot in a collection box outside the Denver Elections Division headquarters on June 26. C tl! STRAHGIC. UNIHO. COMMITHO. FOR A STRONG BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT COLORADO S TOP BUSINESS EXECUTIVE ALLIANCE

2 2 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 Will Hickenlooper walk Jimmy Carter s path? BY JOEY BUNCH Colorado Politics John Hickenlooper says he hasn t made up his mind about what he s going to do next with his life, when he s no longer Colorado s governor next January. I believe him. I ve been covering Hickenlooper since he was a candidate for mayor 15 years ago. I read him like a novel. He s not a liar, and I doubt he would be a good poker player. Most recently he said in Aspen he ll think it over this summer. But, man oh man, does he act like a candidate. He was spotted on a plane back from D.C. recently. I pressed the journalism pedal to the metal and queued up an to his people with a joke about measuring the White House for drapes. My wiser, less excitable colleague Ernest Luning checked Hickenlooper s official schedule; he went to the SelectUSA Investment Summit in National Harbor, Maryland. According to the governor s itinerary, This event is dedicated to promoting foreign direct investment in the United States. This signature event provides an unparalleled opportunity to bring together companies from all over the world, economic development organizations from every corner of the nation, and other parties working to facilitate business investment in the United States. Featuring senior government officials, C-Suite business executives, and other thought leaders, each summit focuses on a timely theme related to the U.S. investment environment, industry trends and new opportunities. Earlier in June, Hickenlooper went international at the Bilderberg Group conference in Italy, on his own dime, as well. INSIGHTS JOEY BUNCH joey.bunch@coloradopolitics.com He might not be a presidential candidate, but every time he rubs elbows with kingmakers, he looks more like a king. I ve known this kind of presidential candidate in my lifetime: a peanut farmer from Georgia named Jimmy Carter. Some differences are obvious, even though Colorado was largely founded by gold miners from Georgia. Carter was 52 years old when he became president. Hickenlooper would be a couple of weeks shy of his 69th birthday on inauguration day That puts him closer to Ronald Reagan in age. Reagan took office a few days before he turned 70. That made him the oldest serving president, until Donald Trump, who was 236 days older when he took office. In 1976 the summer I turned 13, found my first girlfriend and worked at a ringtoss game at a local carnival the country was looking for something new after the tainted Nixon years. Carter was the right the guy at the right time. Hickenlooper could hope to be the same. Here s how Carter got to the White House (a template for Hickenlooper): Carter saw his party move to the left after the 1960s. In 1972, liberal George McGovern was crushed by Richard Nixon, the last Republican to win Pueblo County before Trump did it two years Former President Jimmy Carter was one of 10 Democrats to take on Vice President Gerald Ford. ago. In primary voting, Mc- Govern had beaten Alabama s George Wallace by less than 2 percent, but cinched the nomination easily at the convention thanks to the party establishment. If the Democrats surge farther into the liberal abyss of Bernie Sanders, Hickenlooper might be the choice of cooler-minded party leaders at the convention. Carter was one of 10 Democrats hankering to take on Gerald Ford, the vice president who succeeded the tainted Nixon. This was a time when the lines of politics and celebrity first crossed; it was the years after Nixon said sock it to me on Laugh-In in A reality TV star, Trump today is the celebrity-in-chief. Middle Americans who hadn t burned their bras or had gotten over wearing flowers in the hair were drawn to Carter. I ll never tell a lie, Jimmy promised. I ll never avoid a controversial issue. Carter had been a fiscally moderate governor, after other Southern Democrats courted Americans worst instincts and married infamy. He and Hickenlooper studied engineering in college Hickenlooper geology, Carter electronics and engineers have an innate way of seeing how pieces fight together. As governors, both men focused on cutting bureaucracy. Carter consolidated 200 state agencies into 20 and instituted tougher budgeting standards to reduce the size and cost of state government. Hickenlooper has championed similar initiatives. Carter was a centrist on high-profile issues, just as Hickenlooper is in on oil and gas, the death penalty and marijuana. In a new book, First in Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents, and the Pursuit of Power, author Kate Andersen Brower spoke to Walter Mondale, who said how Carter assigned real responsibility to his second-in-command more than any president before him. Hickenlooper made his first lieutenant governor, Joe Garcia, head of higher education. His second, Donna Lynne, is the state s first chief operating officer. Carter humanized himself by saying in a Playboy interview he had committed adultery (in his heart many, many times ). Hickenlooper admitted taking his mom to a porno movie in his book. Our commitment to human rights must be absolute, Carter said in his inaugural address, words that resonate now against footage of small children being taken from their parents at the border and housed in human kennels. Carter s one term crumbled under an energy crisis, an Islamic revolution and a stagnant economy. His diplomatic victories the Camp David Accords, a strategic arms deal with the Soviets, the Panama Canal Treaty were eclipsed by the times and a media that labeled him a rube and a weakling as 53 Americans were held hostage in Iran. His tenacity for what he thought to be right was mistaken for political stubbornness, a trait Hickenlooper shares. Carter s undoing was that he did not make decisions that would help him politically as president. He was insistent his staff didn t do that, either. When our governor is pressed about whether he s running for president, whether his actions speak louder than his words, Hickenlooper says he nor his staff are thinking politically, either. Carter ultimately was hit by a freight train full of political strategy in Washington, a risk Hick takes, as well. But if there s a template for Hickenlooper to follow as a politician and a man, Carter s wide-eyed decency is as good a one as our governor will find. INSIDE THIS WEEK S ISSUE FDA APPROVES CBD OIL PRODUCT The Food and Drug Administration has approved a plant-based cannabidiol product for treating two rare seizure disorders that begin in childhood. Page 17 A DOUBLE HIT FOR TAXPAYERS Taxpayers must pay for legal costs involving a lawsuit filed by then-secretary of State Scott Gessler. But how much will never be known. Page 18 LAWS, BUDGET TAKING EFFECT A batch of 25 laws on a range of issues from squatters to big money legislation and the Colorado state budget take effect July 1. Page 19 colorado opolitics CHAIRMAN Ryan McKibben STAFF Vince Bzdek, Editor at large Mark Harden, Managing editor, mark.harden@coloradopolitics.com Joey Bunch, Senior political correspondent, joey.bunch@coloradopolitics.com Dan Njegomir, Political blogger, opinion editor, dan.njegomir@coloradopolitics.com Ernest Luning, Political correspondent, ernest.luning@coloradopolitics.com Marianne Goodland, Chief legislative correspondent, marianne.goodland@coloradopolitics.com Adam McCoy, Denver correspondent, adam.warren.mccoy@gmail.com Tom Ramstack, Washington correspondent, tramsack@aol.com Rachael Wright, Columnist, authorrachaelwright@gmail.com Erin Prater, Digital editor, erin.prater@coloradopolitics.com Stephanie Swearngin, Design director, stephanie.swearngin@gazette.com GENERAL MANAGER Jared Wright, jared.wright@coloradopolitics.com Office Phone Letters to the Editor info@coloradopolitics.com Subscriptions Colorado Politics. Reproduction of this publication in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Colorado Politics maintains strict neutrality on all partisan issues. CCOLORADO POLITICS (USPS and ISSN ), founded in 1898, is published every Friday. Periodicals are paid at Denver, CO. ADDRESS: Colorado Politics, th St, Ste 425, Denver, CO POSTMASTER: Please send address change form 3579 to th St, Ste 425, Denver, CO Entire contents copyrighted. Phone: info@coloradopolitics.com

3 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 3 primary roundup COLORADO S WINNERS AND LOSERS BY JOEY BUNCH, MARIANNE GOODLAND AND ERNEST LUNING COLORADO POLITICS A scorecard of who soared and who soured in the Colorado party primaries that ended June 28 WINNERS Jared Polis and Walker Stapleton: Presumed front-runners from the beginning, they lived up to their billing, turning back the largest field of primary challengers in either party since at least World War II. And they both played to their bases, the hard left and hard right. Both survived runs at their integrity in negative ads, but proved they could use their own campaign treasure to push back. LGBTQ Coloradans: Polis is the first openly gay candidate for Colorado governor, which has brought out the pride among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Coloradans. In Arvada, transgender candidate Brianna Titone was the only Democrat in the race, setting up a November showdown with incumbent Republican Lang Sias. What s more incredible is our unique opportunity to increase LGBTQ representation in office, including Colorado s first openly gay governor and the first transgender person in the state legislature, along with the many other openly LGBTQ candidates running for office across Colorado, One Colorado, the state s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, said in a statement. George Brauchler: The Arapahoe County-area district attorney cinched the GOP nomination for attorney general without a challenger, while Phil Weiser appeared to have eked out a win over Bernie Sanders acolyte Joe Salazar, who at press time had not yet conceeded. In a state that typically elects Republicans as its top prosecutor, that puts Brauchler in a good position for November. Moreover, Stapleton s awkward stumbles in the governor s race to date had plenty of GOP insiders asking whether the party would have been better off with Brauchler, the more polished of the two who dropped out of the governor s race to run for AG. All this sets up Brauchler, the prosecutor in the Aurora theater shooting case, as a strong contender for the state s highest office in the future. Independent expenditure committees: At the gubernatorial level, as much as $10 million was spent by IECs in both primaries in June alone. The spending by these groups, sometimes with donors hidden from public disclosure, changed the face of this year s primary election. At the legislative level, they spent more than $800,000, with more than $250,000 for just one candidate: Democrat Zach Neumann in the south Denver s Senate District 32. Neumann lost in a squeaker to Robert Rodriguez, however. But virtually every other legislative candidate supported by groups such as Democrats for Education Reform (backed by New York hedge fund managers) and two IECs Supporters cheer for U.S. Rep. Jared Polis on June 26 as he wins the Democratic nomination for the Colorado Governor s race at an election night rally in Broomfield. controlled by the medical liability insurer COPIC won their races demonstrating that, quite often, you get what you pay for. Partisanship: Republicans were more conservative than usual and Democrats were more liberal than typical this time around. Republican candidates for governor marched to President Donald Trump s beat on immigration, tax policy and gun rights, while Democrats blew the primary trumpets for renewable energy, reproductive rights and everything wrong with Trump. That will give voters clear choices in November, unless the talking points moderate over the summer to reach that crucial slice of swing voters in the middle. Legalized marijuana: Colorado s booming weed industry let loose a collective cheer after Polis and Stapleton had been declared the winners in their primaries for governor. Polis, who won an endorsement from The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws PAC and financial backing from pot dispensaries, has long been seen as a national champion for legal recreational and medical marijuana. But Stapleton, too, as industry insiders told Colorado Politics, is seen as basically friendly to Colorado s regulatory regime and is, in the words of one dispensary spokesman, someone they can do business with. Joe Neguse: The Democrat and former University of Colorado regent moved a giant step closer to becoming Colorado s first black member of Congress. He won easily over former Boulder County Democratic Party chairman Mark Williams in the Boulder County-based 2nd Congressional District race. Sitting in a very safe seat for Democrats, Neguse faces Republican Peter Yu and unaffiliated candidate Nick Thomas on the general election ballot. LOSERS The teachers union: The Colorado Education Association, the union for public school teachers, endorsed second-place Democrat Cary Kennedy, and spent heavily and ran attack ads against the ultimate winner, Polis. That s going to leave a mark at a time when the union needs all the friends it can get under the Capitol s gold dome. Polis founded two charter schools, a leaning that rankled the union activists yet could help him attract moderate voters who lean toward school choice, while a $1.6 billion tax increase for schools could still occupy a spot on the same ballot as Polis in November. The anti-establishment: From Levi Tillemann s loss to newcomer Jason Crow in the 6th Congressional District and Saira Rao s crushing defeat by incumbent Diana DeGette in the 1st, Joe Salazar s close-but-not-enough bid to topple fundraising giant Phil Weiser in the Democratic attorney general s primary, to the inability of Republicans Greg Lopez and Victor Mitchell to knock off Stapleton, June 26 was not a day for those claiming to be outsiders. Time and again, the anointed establishment favorite was also favored by voters. Clean Campaign Pledge: Riding on the coattails of Gov. John Hickenlooper s two wins while eschewing attack ads, Democrats took the party s pledge to keep it civil last year. But that oath became dust in the wind as the gusts of politics blew hotter this year. By the end, Polis and Kennedy had each filed complaints about negative ads with the state party, and Mike Johnston was seeking retractions for ads against him. Campaign promises are meant to be broken. Most self-funders: Polis put more than $11 million and Stapleton put about $1 million of their own money into their campaigns, and it paid off with a nomination. GOP treasurer candidate Brian Watson, likewise, parlayed some of his personal fortune into a spot on the November ballot. Others weren t as lucky, led by Republican Victor Mitchell, who loaned around $5 million to his campaign, only good enough for second place. Statewide and congressional candidates who contributed to or loaned their campaign big bucks but came up short also include Doug Robinson, Donna Lynne, Cary Kennedy who sunk $100,000 into her race at the last minute Saira Rao, Bernard Douthit, Justin Everett and Greg Lopez.

4 4 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 primary roundup 7 takeaways from the election BY JOEY BUNCH, MARIANNE GOODLAND AND ERNEST LUNING COLORADO POLITICS Colorado voters have set the stage for the fall election and we ve learned a lot in the wake of the primary that ended June 26. Here are some highlights: Governor s race, back where it started A year or more ago, most insiders expected a general election between Republican Walker Stapleton and Democrat Jared Polis. The insiders were right. Millions of dollars and dozens of bruised egos later, the pair of front-runners steamrolled their way onto the November ballot. While Stapleton comes from a wealthy family that goes back generations in local, state and national politics he s a cousin to the presidential Bush family Polis did it the old-fashioned way, with money. Voters will have a clear choice: a Republican who has gladly linked arms with President Donald Trump and a Democrat who says oil-and-gas workers should start looking for new jobs as he rolls out a renewable energy agenda. The internet millionaire-turned-politician is Democratic Party royalty in Colorado. He and fellow liberal rich folks Pat Stryker, Tim Gill and Rutt Bridges used their wealth and influence to help turn Colorado from Republican red to reliably purple. The governor s office would be his crowning glory and would give the state its first openly gay governor, a factor that will attract interest and outside support for his sense-of-history candidacy. While Stapleton has put a million bucks into his own race, Polis dug into his seat cushions to sink more than $11 million into his own. Republicans have already rolled out the campaign talking point: Polis is trying to buy the election. Apparently the cost of an election is somewhere between $1 million and $11 million. Can Weiser beat Brauchler? Former University of Colorado law school professor Phil Weiser got almost all he could handle in apparently beating fellow Democrat Joe Salazar for the Democratic nomination for attorney general. (Salazar had not conceded at press time.) Weiser enjoyed a rare endorsement from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and raised more than 10 times as much money as Salazar, a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders presidential run in Does that mean Colorado voters are in an ultra-liberal mood this year? Does it mean they haven t made up their minds about Weiser yet? He had little name recognition, while Salazar, Republicans contend, rode on the name ID of former state attorney general and Obama cabinet member Ken Salazar. It could mean both. Republicans, meanwhile, will field George Brauchler, the Arapahoe County-area district attorney who prosecuted the Aurora theater shooter and last year was considered a strong possibility for governor, before switching races. The Republican Attorneys General COURTESY OF THE CAMPAIGN George Brauchler campaigning for governor in September 2017 before switching to the attorney general s race. Association (RAGA), which bankrolled Cynthia Coffman s AG win four years ago, started its general election rollout by putting muscle behind Brauchler the day after the primary ended, including TV ads statewide. George Brauchler is a once-in-a-generation type candidate, Scott Will, RAGA s executive director, told Colorado Politics the day after the primary wrapped up. His bio lines up perfectly with what voters want for the job. He said Weiser s background in academia won t stand up on the campaign trail against Brauchler s background as a prosecutor. His experience is sitting in an ivory tower in Boulder, while George has been standing up for Coloradans in courtroom, putting away violent criminals. Year of the woman (more or less) After national Women s Marches against Trump and bruising #MeToo fights in the state Capitol, this was supposed to be the election year in Colorado where women run, women win, according to the battle cry. Women certainly voted. In the primary, more women than men turned out to vote 627,028 to 538,235 as of the evening of June 27, when vote tallies were just short of complete, according to Secretary of State Wayne Williams. And women voters favored Democrats by a wide margin: 361,926 Democratic ballots cast to 250,549 Republican ballots. In Colorado on primary day, women were in 25 contested primary races and won 13. Six women ran for statewide elected office this year, but after the primary only one remains Jena Griswold, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary for secretary of state. Three women ran unsuccessfully for governor this year. Cary Kennedy and Donna Lynne finished second and fourth, respectively, in the Democratic primary, while Attorney General Cynthia Coffman failed to make the primary ballot because she was crushed at the Republican state assembly in April. But Colorado Democrats nominated four women in seven congressional races this November: District 1 incumbent Diana DeGette beat Saira Rao in her primary, while Diane Mitsch Bush beat two men for the District 3 nomination, and Karen McCormick trounced Chase Kohne in the 4th CD. Stephany Rose Spaulding was unopposed in the 5th Congressional District to take on a heavily favored incumbent, Doug Lamborn, in November. A record number of women are running for U.S. House and Senate seats this year. The Center for Responsive Politics reports there are 527 this year headed into the primary, a 67 percent spike over Women make up 23 percent of all congressional candidates this year. Nationally, in Democratic House primaries featuring at least one woman, one man and no incumbent, women have been the top vote-getters in 66 of 93 races. Colorado will have to wait at least four more years before nominating a woman for governor it s never happened despite this year s moment in political history. What turnout bodes for November All eyes this November (or at least the ones who obsess over the Legislature) are focused on a handful of races that will determine control of the state Senate. In what will be the fall s hottest contests, Democratic turnout far outpaced Republican votes in uncontested races, where the number of votes cast can indicate relative enthusiasm. In Senate District 16 (Jefferson County and parts of Denver), Democrat Tammy Story received more than 18,000 votes heading into November s general election. Incumbent Sen. Tim Neville got 13,000, based on unofficial results as of June 29. Neville won the 2014 election a Republican wave year by about 2 percent but failed to clear 50 percent of the vote. But it s a small fraction of the total vote available in a district where unaffiliated voters lead all active voter registrations. In Senate District 24 (Adams County), Democratic Rep. Faith Winter received more than 14,000 votes. Incumbent Republican Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik got just over 9,300. Martinez Humenik won her election in 2014 by about 1.5 percent and less than 1,000 votes. Money makes the world go around The spending on this year s primary was unlike any other, due to the open gubernatorial seat and a number of other open statewide seat. Candidates spent millions of their own dollars, loaned their campaigns millions more, and independent expenditure committees spent like they had blank checks up and down the ballot more than $14.6 million just in May and June, according to the Secretary of State s TRACER campaign finance system. More than $10 million of that went to IECs spending on the gubernatorial contests. Some of those groups could go dormant (Teachers for Kennedy, for example), but others could gel around the candidates still in the running and keep the dollars going until November. What this means for November? The spending for the 2018 election has already shattered records, and if you love TV and radio ads, mailers, door-to-door canvassers and social media popups everywhere, you ll love this year s general election. IECs that support or oppose ballot initiatives and candidates in the general election are already racking up millions of dollars in preparation for November. If you don t love the barrage of ads coming your way as summer turns to fall, there s always a pillow to hide under. Unaffiliated voters come on strong It won t be clear for a while exactly what impact unaffiliated voters had on the primary, but one thing s for sure given the chance to cast ballots in Colorado s first semi-open primary, plenty of them took it. Exceeding expectations, 290,785 unaffiliated voters participated in the prima- SEE ELECTION PAGE 5

5 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 5 ELECTION FROM PAGE 4 primary roundup ry, as of June 28 s tallies accounting for just under one quarter of the 1.17 million votes cast in both primaries. Potentially boding poorly for Republicans in November, many more unaffiliated voters opted for the Democratic primary than picked the GOP ballot, even in Republican strongholds like Douglas and Weld counties. That echoed participation by partisans, with Democrats casting about 50,000 more ballots than Republicans statewide, according to preliminary figures. Kent Thiry, the DaVita CEO who financed the 2016 ballot measure that let unaffiliated voters take part in primaries, declared victory: This was a great day for Colorado s citizens and Colorado s future. Over a quarter-million engaged citizens were able to vote as independents, and now are a formidable voice that will help shape policy in our state for decades to come. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Nevilles aren t what they used to be Five years ago, RMGO was the kingmaker in the General Assembly. It included marshaling forces in 2013 to recall two Democratic state senators over their support for gun control measures. In the 2014 election, RMGO helped put Republican Laura Woods into the Senate District 19 seat from Arvada. The group contributed $15,000 to 10 legislative candidates, with all but two winning their seats. And in Jefferson County politics, one name stands out above all others: Neville. That s Sen. Tim Neville of Littleton and his wife Barb, also a formidable political operative. Their two sons are Election judge Michael Plous works on June 26 as judges organize primary election ballots for counting as they arrive at the Denver Elections Division headquarters. political animals in their own right: Rep. Patrick Neville, the House minority leader from Castle Rock, and Joe, a former RMGO lobbyist who now runs Rearden Strategic, a political consulting business that s making good money this year from campaigns for ideology-aligned candidates, including those backing Stapleton and state House candidate Shane Sandridge. But overall, Primary Night 2018 wasn t a good night for the Nevilles or RMGO. Tim Neville had hoped to see a hand-anointed candidate win the GOP primary in his House district Frank Francone who would then go on to succeed compatriot Rep. Justin Everett (who wound up losing to Brian Watson in the race for the Republican nod for state treasurer). Joe Neville donated to Francone s campaign. But Francone appeared to have narrowly lost in the primary to Colin Larson. Another Tim Neville/RMGO backed-candidate, Ray Garcia, who ran against Rep. Lois Landgraf in Colorado Springs, lost by more than 30 points. The one legislative candidate backed by RMGO in the primary who won was Sen. Ray Scott in Grand Junction. Watson, Young advance in treasurer s race BY ERNEST LUNING AND MARK HARDEN Colorado Politics The November lineup is now set in the race for state treasurer, an office that has served as a launching pad for gubernatorial candidates in recent decades. The twin primary contests for treasurer featured battles between the parties mainstream and more hard-core versions. The November winner in the treasurer s race will replace term-limited Walker Stapleton, who ran for governor and won the Republican primary. While the Democrats knew not long after polls closed the night of June 26 that their standard bearer in the fall s contest would be state Rep. Dave Young, D-Greeley, Republicans were left to wonder as the evening wore on. The Democrats running for treasurer faced off across the Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders divide etched into the party during the 2016 presidential ERNEST LUNING, COLORADO POLITICS Businessman Brian Watson won the Republican primary for state treasurer. primaries, with Young, a former teacher, occupying the establishment position and financial professional Bernard Douthit mounting a run from the unabashed left. As of the day after the election, Young had a percentage point advantage over Douthit. On the GOP side of the treasurer s race, state Rep. Justin Everett, R-Littleton, ran a lean campaign from the right against centrists state Rep. COURTESY OF DAVE YOUNG State Rep. Dave Young, D-Greeley, won the Democratic primary for state treasurer. Polly Lawrence, R-Roxborough Park, and Brian Watson, a real estate mogul, who both poured their own money into their campaign coffers. On June 27, Everett conceded to Watson, who led by 1 percentage point; Lawrence finished third. Republican Bill Owens and Democrat Roy Romer both successfully made the leap from state treasurer to governor, and Stapleton is trying this year.

6 6 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 primary roundup COLORADO VOTES BY THE NUMBERS Here s a look at key voting statistics from the June primaries as reported by Secretary of State Wayne Williams (vote totals as of June 28). Total ballots returned: 1,173,563 Ballots cast by Democrats: 468,403 Ballots cast by Republicans: 414,375 Ballots cast by unaffiliated voters: 290,785 Ballots cast by women: 627,480 Ballots cast by men: 538,562 Ballots cast by voters of unknown gender: 7,521 Democratic ballots cast by women: 362,631 Republican ballots cast by women: 250,985 Democratic ballots cast by men: 264,268 Republican ballots cast by men: 259,666 Democratic ballots cast by unaffiliated voters: 163,493 Republican ballots cast by unaffiliated voters: 98,334 Ballots cast by women ages 18-25: 28,384 Ballots cast by women ages 26-40: 95,650 Ballots cast by women ages 41-60: 203,341 Ballots cast by women ages 61-70: 159,286 Ballots cast by women ages 71 and over: 140,819 Ballots cast by men ages 18-25: 25,034 Ballots cast by men ages 26-40: 81,480 Ballots cast by men ages 41-60: 175,868 Ballots cast by men ages 61-70: 137,552 Ballots cast by men ages 71 and over: 118,628 Ratio that party-affiliated women Election judge Lelia Odom picks up a tray as judges organize primary election ballots for counting as they arrive at the Denver Elections Division headquarters June 26. ages voted Democratic over Republican: 50,042 to 17,745. Ratio that party-affiliated men ages 71 and older voted Republican over Democratic: 56,573 to 37,698. Ratio of Democrats to Republicans who voted in Denver County: 92,776 to 18,877 Ratio of Democrats to Republicans who voted in Boulder County: 50,736 to 13,108 Ratio of Democrats to Republicans who voted in Pueblo County: 16,306 to 9,385 Ratio of Republicans to Democrats who voted in El Paso County: 72,709 to 34,580 Ratio of Republicans to Democrats who voted in Douglas County: 34,266 to 19,367 Ratio of Republicans to Democrats who voted in Mesa County: 17,799 to 8,278 Highest percentage of the vote in a contested party primary by a congressional candidate: Diana DeGette, Democrat, 1st District, percent Second highest percentage of the vote in a contested party primary by a congressional candidate: Jason Crow, Democrat, 6th District, percent Third highest percentage of the vote in a contested party primary by a congressional candidate: Joe Neguse, Democrat, 2nd District, percent Highest percentage of the vote in a contested party primary by a state Senate candidate: Beth Harz, Democrat, 2nd District, 74.0 percent Second highest percentage of the vote in a contested party primary by a state Senate candidate: Ray Scott, Republican, 7th District, percent Third highest percentage of the vote in a contested party primary by a state Senate candidate: Julie Gonzales, Democrat, 34th District, percent Note: The figures above are for mailed or dropped-off ballots. An additional 13,543 people voted in person at a a Voter Service and Polling Center, including 9,647 Democrats and 3,896 Republicans. MARK HARDEN, COLORADO POLITICS CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP Nearly 1.2 million Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters cast ballots in Colorado s June 26 primary (as of not-quite-complete tallies by June 28), winnowing the list of major-party statewide, congressional and legislative candidates and setting the table for the Nov. 6 general election. The primary set records across the board more candidates running across more months yielding more contested primaries, and more money spent on securing nominations than ever before. In the governor s race alone, candidates have already plunked down $25 million more than twice what was spent for the entire election four years ago and from the sound of things, the spending is just getting started. The primaries determined which Democrats and Republicans will be on the fall ballot, but some of Colorado s minor parties have also designated picks, and a handful of unaffiliated candidates are petitioning on. In order to qualify, those hopefuls must have been registered unaffiliated since Jan. 2 and have to collect 1,000 signatures for statewide office or 800 signatures for congressional seats. Petitions are due to the secretary of state July 12. For now, here are the majorand minor-party candidates running for statewide and congressional office: Governor Republican State Treasurer Walker Stapleton, Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, Libertarian Scott Helker, the American Constitution Party s Michael Erwin Schroeder and the Unity Party s Bill Hammons Attorney General Republican 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler, Democrat former CU Law School Dean Phil Weiser, Libertarian Bill Robinson State Treasurer Republican Brian Watson, Democrat state Rep. Dave Young, D-Greeley and the American Constitution Party s Gerald Francis Kilpatrick Secretary of State Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams, Democrat Jena Griswold and Libertarian Bennett Rutledge University of Colorado Regent At-Large Republican Ken Montera, Democrat Lesley Smith, Libertarian James Treibert and the Unity Party s Chris Otwell 1st Congressional District Democrat U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, Republican Casper Stockham and Libertarian Raymon Doane 2nd Congressional District Democrat former CU Regent Joe Neguse, Republican Peter Yu and Libertarian Roger Barris 3rd Congressional District Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, Democrat former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, D-Steamboat Springs and Libertarian Gaylon Kent 4th Congressional District Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck and Democrat Karen McCormick 5th Congressional District Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn and Democrat Stephany Rose Spaulding 6th Congressional District Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, Democrat Jason Crow and Libertarian Kat Martin 7th Congressional District Democrat U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Republican Mark Barrington ERNEST LUNING, COLORADO POLITICS

7 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 7 primary roundup Tom, Bernie will flavor the fall campaign On page 3 of this week s edition, we take a look at the just-completed June primary and consider the winners and losers left in its wake. Two towering and political figures, Tom Tancredo and Bernie Sanders, don t fit neatly into either category they appear to have won some and lost some but have done as much as anyone to define the state s political landscape ahead of the November election. Tancredo and Sanders weren t on the ballot this month, but the polarizing politicians both loomed large over the races that were. Candidates up and down the ballot on both sides flocked to embrace them, and organizations aligned with the two took sides in primaries. But Tancredo and Sanders were judicious with their endorsements, each going all-in on just one statewide and one legislative candidate. After launching a shortlived campaign for governor himself last year ending his campaign in January, Tancredo said he couldn t raise the money he believed would be necessary to win the general election Tancredo threw his support behind Republican Walker Stapleton in April, ahead of the state assembly, where the term-limited state treasurer took top line on the way to a convincing 17-point win in the four-way primary. Tancredo also endorsed Frank Francone, a founder of a local tea party group, in the GOP primary for Jefferson County s House District 22, the seat held by Justin Everett, who narrowly lost his bid for the Republican state treasurer nomination. Two days after the primary, Francone conceded he d lost by the slimmest of margins less than 150 votes out of nearly 10,000 cast to Colin Larson, a more traditional, moderate Republican. Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who lost the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton, bestowed his endorsement on Thornton Democrat Joe Salazar in Colorado s attorney general primary against Phil Weiser, a former dean of the University of Colorado Law School and Obama administration alum. Emily Sirota, one of two Democrats running in southeast Denver s House District 9, also won Sanders endorsement on her way to winning the primary over Ashley Wheeland by about 10 points the heavily Democratic seat. (Sirota and Wheeland together denied incumbent Democrat Paul Rosenthal a spot on the primary ballot at the district assembly in April.) While voters appeared to TRAIL MIX ERNEST LUNING ernest.luning@gazette.com have handed Tancredo and Sanders split decisions in their candidates respective primaries at press time, Salazar trailed Weiser by a little under 1 percentage point, but said he was still in the race until the last vote had been counted the priorities they outlined in their endorsements look a lot like the outlines of the two parties fall campaigns. Tancredo said he decided to endorse Stapleton because he was the strongest opponent of so-called sanctuary cities, a signature issue for Tancredo and one that polling has shown tops the list of priorities for Republican voters. You look at the field and you say to yourself, you ve got some very good and certainly qualified candidates, and some that aren t, Tancredo told Colorado Politics in an interview when there were still seven Republicans in the running for the nomination. From my point of view, there is one thing that can separate a candidate from the others leadership on sanctuary cities. All the Republican candidates pay lip service in their opposition to it, but no one has been as upfront about it as Walker and put his money where his mouth is, in terms of the ads he s running, and I believe it when he says it. Democrats and even some leading Republican political consultants warn that Stapleton could have damaged his prospects in the fall election by so visibly embracing Tancredo, who nominated Stapleton at the state assembly, and by keeping divisive immigration issues at the forefront of his campaign. His closing ad in the primary looked like one Tancredo might have run if he d stayed in the race, featuring law-breaking undocumented immigrants. But Stapleton s supporters say the candidate is playing a winning hand by emphasizing public safety, a critical concern for the state s swing voters. During a recent campaign event for Sirota, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told Colorado Politics what he meant when he entitled his campaign memoir How Bernie Won: Inside the Revolution That s Taking Back Our Country and Where We Go from Here. ERNEST LUNING, COLORADO POLITICS Former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo threw his support behind Republican Walker Stapleton in April ahead of the state assembly. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders bestowed his endorsement on Thornton Democrat Joe Salazar in Colorado s attorney general primary. If you look at the issues that are being discussed in many of these primaries, we re talking about Medicare for All Sanders-sponsored legislation to create a national single-payer health care system we re talking about raising the minimum wage, we re talking about climate change, camping finance reform, Weaver said. These are all issues Bernie highlighted in his campaign, and the policy prescriptions we put forward at the beginning of the campaign were considered to be fringe and unobtainable. Over time, many of them have become articles of faith in the Democratic Party. It s hard to find a Democratic candidate who doesn t support a $15 minimum wage. The person doesn t exist. In that sense, he s winning the debate within the party. Although Colorado voters won t be asked explicitly to weigh in on Tancredo and Sanders this November, Democrats seem more than happy to run against Tancredo, while Republicans are already taking aim at Sanders. Conservative stalwart Vincent Carroll summed up the sway the two figures could have on the election in a recent column about the governor s race between Stapleton and Democratic nominee U.S. Rep. Jared Polis: In a previous life, Stapleton was a center-right politician and two-term state treasurer ideally positioned to take on a Boulder Democrat who embraces a quiver of Bernie Sanders-like positions. But for months Stapleton has been veering right to protect his flank and even welcomed hard-right firebrand Tom Tancredo to nominate him at the Republican state assembly. Oh, Lord.

8 8 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 OUT WEST ROUNDUP NEBRASKA State advances execution plans despite concerns LINCOLN, NEBRASKA State officials are forging ahead with plans to execute Nebraska s longest-serving death-row inmate without disclosing where they obtained lethal injection drugs, despite a judge s order last week to identify their supplier. The Nebraska attorney general appealed the judge s ruling as it pushes in a separate case to set a July 10 execution date for Carey Dean Moore. State officials are scrambling to execute Moore before their supply of a key execution drug expires in August, while simultaneously fighting a legal battle that could force them to reveal who gave them the drugs. Gov. Pete Ricketts administration also has sued the Legislature to block a subpoena that would force the state corrections director to testify about Nebraska s execution protocol. Ricketts and Attorney General Doug Peterson have said the state is long overdue to execute Moore, 60, who has spent nearly four decades on death row for the 1979 shooting deaths of two Omaha cab drivers. But a leading death penalty critic contends state officials want to execute an inmate before the November election and before they re forced to disclose how they obtained their drugs. If they got these drugs in a legitimate way from a legitimate provider, then all they d have to do is ask for another batch, said Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha. If everything was legitimate, the supplier would say, Sure, coming right up. Ricketts and Peterson have denied the allegations, saying they re trying to carry out the will of voters. Nebraska s last execution took place in 1997, using the electric chair, and the state has failed to carry out any others because of legal challenges and lack of access to the required drugs. MONTANA Researcher attacked by bear to stay with career HELENA, MONTANA A researcher who was recently attacked by a grizzly bear says that her recovery has been slow, but the encounter has done nothing to change her mind about her career path. Amber Kornak, 28, was conducting research for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service alone in the Cabinet Mountains in Montana when the attack happened on May 17. She was collecting bear hair samples for a genetic study, and because she was alone, she would frequently blow a whistle and clap her hands as she worked to alert any bears of her presence. Even so, she managed to get within 12 feet of a grizzly without either knowing the other was there because of the sound of water runoff from a nearby a creek, rain and U.S. FISH AND WILDFIRE SERVICE VIA An adult female grizzly bear is shown in the Cabinet Mountains, part of the Rocky Mountains, located in northwestern Montana. wind, according to a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks investigation. We spooked each other, Kornak told The Associated Press. I got down on the ground and pulled out my bear spray. He bit down on my skull, and I just reached over with my left arm and sprayed him and he was gone. The bear spray saved my life, she added. Kornak spent a week in the hospital and has since been recovering at home. Far from dissuading her about her career choice, she said the attack just reinforced her goal of becoming a wildlife manager specializing in bears. Montana wildlife officials said the bear acted defensively, and not like a predator, so there will be no repercussions to the bear. Kornak said she agreed with that conclusion. He was just doing what bears do. I don t think there s anything that needed to be done, she said. NEW MEXICO Suit accuses state police chief of lewd conduct ALBUQUERQUE A New Mexico sergeant and two former colleagues claim in a lawsuit that State Police Chief Pete Kassetas engaged in lewd behavior, including sending an inappropriate photograph to a high-ranking female state official. A lawsuit filed in state court also accuses the Department of Public Safety under Republican Gov. Susana Martinez of refusing to address the chief s discriminatory and retaliatory treatment of employees who reported concerns about other officers misconduct. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensation for what Sgt. Monica Martinez-Jones, former Deputy Chief Michael Ryan Suggs and former Lt. Julia Armendariz described as distress and mental anguish from a hostile work environment. A Martinez administration spokesman said the lawsuit contained ridiculous allegations that are completely removed from the truth. The allegations against Kassetas include instances in which pulled down his pants and showed his behind to staff in Ruidoso after drinking on the job and sending a deputy cabinet secretary a picture of a man s testicles last year. The lawsuit also claims Kassetas had showed leniency toward men in the department who were arrested while off duty, while denying women promotions. One officer charged in a sexual assault in Colorado was given a five-day suspension, while another officer charged with battery in Rio Rancho got a two-day suspension, according to the lawsuit. Ben Cloutier, a spokesman for the governor, said an investigation into allegations involving state police that were brought to the Department of Public Safety is already underway. UTAH Copper mine planned for monument shrunk The red sandstone vistas in Utah s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument may soon be crisscrossed with dump trucks after a Canadian mining company announced plans to begin operations on land cut from federal protection by President Donald Trump. Vancouver-based Glacier Lake Resources Inc. announced last week it had acquired a former copper mine on land formerly contained in one of the two national monuments that Trump shrunk last year, a move that was bitterly contested at the time by environmental and Native American groups. Surface exploration work will start this summer on the Colt Mesa property and drill permitting will be initiated shortly, Saf Dhillon, president and chief executive officer of Glacier Lake Resources, said in a statement. The company plans to mine copper, cobalt and other minerals from an area about 200 acres in size. The mine was last used in 1974, according to the company. Already, some fresh stakes and a new metal gate have appeared in the area known as Circle Cliffs, which is popular with hikers, climbers and other who come to explore the area s scenic canyons, said Colter Hoyt, a backcountry guide. Mining equipment for the project would reach the site via roads that travel through the park and nearby narrow canyons, he said. Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, said the monument had been right-sized to protect resources, while restoring much of the excluded lands to multiple use. The Trump administration announced in late 2017 that it would reduce the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, created by President Bill Clinton in 1996, to about 1 million acres. It also announced it was shrinking the nearby 1.4-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument to about 220,000 acres. The land should be in the hands of the state instead of being under the federal government s control, Trump said at the time. Many Utah Republicans have opposed the monuments as federal land grabs. The move in Utah represents the largest rollback of public lands protections in history, said Dan Hartinger, national monuments campaign director for the Wilderness Society, one of several environmental groups suing to block the move.

9 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 9 COLORADO ROUNDUP Dark money fuels Weld County recall A committee formed to help recall Weld County Commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer is being bankrolled by a newly created dark-money group, raising questions about who is behind the recall effort. We Care 4 Weld County is an issue committee formed to aid the recall effort, which started in earnest June 20, with organizers handing out petition packets to volunteers. The goal, said Lesley Hollywood, one of the group s registered agents, is to gather 8,000 signatures. The group needs 5,767, but committee members want a buffer in case some of the signatures are deemed invalid. Issue committees are required to disclose donors, and this committee has just one, a newly formed 501 (4) organization called 5767 Task Force. It was set up specifically to collect donations for this, said Gerald Kilpatrick, the other registered agent for the We Care 4 Weld County issue committee. Kilpatrick said during an initial conversation that he thought Hollywood set up the 5767 task force. GREELEY TRIBUNE STEAMBOAT PILOT & TODAY In 2014, Deirdre Boyd gives a commencement speech at a graduation ceremony. Steamboat teacher named state s best Steamboat Springs High School teacher Deirdre Boyd has been named 2018 Colorado History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The award highlights the importance of history education by honoring exceptional American history teachers from elementary through high schoolse. Boyd, who has taught social studies in Steamboat since 2001, now is among the pool of teachers from which the national award winner will be selected. STEAMBOAT PILOT 18 gas leases nixed on Thompson Divide Eighteen gas leases in the heart of Thompson Divide southwest of Carbondale are formally out of play and won t be developed, says the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The BLM and a company called SG Interests reached a settlement agreement over the BLM s decision to cancel the leases in November The federal government agreed to pay $1.5 million to SG Interests as part of the settlement; SGI dropped its legal challenge of the lease cancellations. SG had 18 leases in the heart of the Thompson Divide. The development of those leases wasn t a closed book. Now it is, said Peter Hart, an attorney for Carbondale-based Wilderness Workshop, an environmental group that s part of a coalition battling to prevent oil and gas development in Thompson Divide. The leases covered more than 21,000 acres or about 33 square miles in an area considered critical wildlife habitat and a roadless region. The leases were awarded in ASPEN TIMES 2 charter schools seek bigger share Littleton Public Schools Board of Education supports a plan to increase property tax money shared with Littleton s charter schools, but charter parents and officials say the plan falls far short of the spirit and intent of a new law that would allow public and charter schools to distribute the money evenly among students. Parents and administrators from Littleton Academy and Littleton Preparatory Charter School made their case to disburse the money on a per-pupil basis between all of Littleton s students, both public and charter. At issue are $26.5 million in annual funds obtained through mill levy overrides. LITTLETON INDEPENDENT PARTS 1 & 2 FORMERLY THE COLORADO STATESMAN Print Subscription Colorado Politics, formerly the Colorado Statesman, founded in 1898, is an award-winning weekly newspaper with a rich history and tradition dating back more than a century. The newspaper serves as a premier source for news, objective facts and analysis, coverage of political and advocacy campaigns and legislation on the local and state levels. Colorado s finest political news source Since 1898 Visit or mail the form below Name: Title: Company: Address: Republican Candidate, Colorado Attorney General GEORGE BRAUCHLER City: State: ZIP: Phone: Yes! Please send me a one-year subscription for $149! Please send your payment and this form to th St, Ste 425, Denver, CO 80202

10 10 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 primary roundup Polis, Stapleton face off for governor BY JOEY BUNCH AND ERNEST LUNING Colorado Politics U.S. Rep Jared Polis gives a thumbs up after accepting the Democratic nomination for Colorado governor at an election night rally on June 26 in Broomfield. Republican Walker Stapleton and Democrat Jared Polis, two sitting office-holders with high name recognition and lots of campaign cash, dominated their opponents and claimed victories in their parties primary races for governor less than an hour after the polls closed June 26. In all-but-final tallies June 28, Stapleton, currently state treasurer, had received 47.7 percent of the Republican vote versus 52.3 percent for the other three GOP candidates combined; he was 17.6 percentage points ahead of his nearest rival, Victor Mitchell. And Polis, now the congressman from Boulder, had garnered 44.4 percent of the Democratic vote versus 55.6 percent for his trio of rivals; he was 19.7 points in front of No. 2 candidate Cary Kennedy. Just minutes after he was declared the Democratic nominee on election night, a jubilant Polis made his way through the packed ballroom at the Renaissance Boulder Flatiron Hotel as Bob Dylan s The Times They are A-Changin played over loudspeakers. I will stand up with our inclusive Colorado voice and show that, here in Colorado, we will have a bold way forward, Polis told the crowd as his partner, Marlon Reis, stood at his side. You all have answered the call to fight back against the divisive Trump agenda and stand up for the values that have and will make Colorado great, he continued, adding that the campaign against Stapleton will involve a coalition of Democrats, independent voters, of moderate Republicans and rational Republicans. Introducing Polis, campaign chair Lisa Kaufmann said: For those of us who ve had the pleasure of working with him, we would walk across hot coals for him, because we know he would do the same for us. Trailing Polis and Kennedy in the Democratic primary were former state Sen. Mike Johnston and Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne. Stapleton, meanwhile, wasted no time taking the fight to Polis in his victory speech at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Denver Tech Center in Greenwood Village. He said Polis clean energy plan would destroy Colorado s oil and gas industry and seek to raise taxes on Coloradans. The stakes could not be higher for my children and yours, he told the crowd. He added, Elections are about choices. They are about the direction we want to see Colorado head in the future. Tonight we celebrate the first step and we will offer Colorado a hopeful economic vision for all of our children. Stapleton had the backing of mainstream Republicans. He was introduced for his victory speech by the last Republican governor, Bill Owens, who held the seat for two terms until It s been too long, way too long, since we ve had a Republican governor, do you agree? Owens said to cheers. We need a governor who s going to cut taxes and lessen regulations, and one who will give us more options and choices for our children s educations. The last Republican nominee from four years ago, Bob Beauprez, also was at the Stapleton party Tuesday night. It s going to be a close race (in November), we know that, Beauprez said. He s not running against a popular incumbent, or any incumbent, and we know Colorado is a center-right state. The Democrats, especially Jared Polis, are way off to the left of the rest of state. If Walker can penetrate that big bubble in the center, and I think he can, we can elect a Republican governor in November. Speaking with reporters, Stapleton talked about Polis wealth and financial advantage against Democrats in his primary. I need to raise enough money, Stapleton said of the road ahead. Jared Polis is raising unprecedented amounts of money to buy this election... It s a David versus Goliath race and I m ready to be David. Stapleton dispatched Mitchell as well as Doug Robinson and Greg Lopez. A former Colorado House Republican leader, Mark Waller, now an El Paso County commissioner, was an early arrival at Stapleton s primary night party. I think he s the right guy with the right message, Waller said of Stapleton. He s got the right chops. He s a good conservative who can win in November. He can beat Jared Polis. Meanwhile, Colorado Democratic Party Chair Morgan Carroll congratulated Polis on his win, calling him an independent leader who has spent his life creating jobs and serving the families of our state. Jared has put forward an inspiring vision for expanding opportunity for families in every corner of Colorado. As a successful entrepreneur and a bold champion for hardworking Coloradans, Jared is ideally suited to ensure our state s economy continues to grow and that it works for everyone, not just those at the top. With so much at stake in this upcoming election, I ask voters across Colorado to join me in helping to make Jared Polis our next governor. Some had seen a chance for Kennedy, a former state treasurer, to overtake Polis. In the end, she fell well short. Delivering her concession speech alongside her husband and daughter at Denver s La Rumba nightclub, Kennedy called for action. I know we re disappointed but we have a lot of work to do, she said. Together, we need to make sure that Walker Stapleton does not become the next governor of Colorado. To applause, she added, We need to grow our democratic majority in the statehouse and take back the state Senate, the attorney general s office, the secretary of state s office. Jefferson County Democrat Bonnie Baldini, a Polis volunteer, told Colorado Politics she spent most of the day phoning voters at the campaign s Lakewood office, as she s done regularly for months, motivated by what she termed the devastating actions of the Trump administration. I just started getting involved this year because of the state of affairs in Washington, Baldini said. I m battling it any way I can. Not for me, she added with a smile. I m 75 I won t be around here long enough to see the results but for my grandchildren. I think we need to move fast on climate, and on everything else. She said she saved a message Polis recently left on her voice mail thanking her for volunteering. There s just something about Jared. He calls all his volunteers. He s just very approachable, so smart, truly a man for the people. He reminds me a lot of Barack Obama. You just look at him and you know, he s got your interests at heart. The race for Colorado governor has been going on for more than a year, and the primary election that ended June 26 finally cleared up who will lead their tickets from here to November. The eight primary candidates four Republicans and four Democrats represented the largest Colorado primary since World War II, who collectively have poured more than $25 million into the governor s race, the most in state history, counting general election spending. Democrats fielded candidates with views much to the left of their current titular party leader, John Hickenlooper, the moderate, business-minded former Denver mayor who might have a place on a national ticket in his future. SEE GOV. PAGE 11

11 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 11 primary roundup GOV. FROM PAGE 10 Candidates didn t give their party s loyalists or the unaffiliated voters allowed in the primary for the first time a lot of policy differences to base their vote on, beyond personality and governing nuance. Republicans stood together on their allegiance to President Donald Trump, guns, tax issues and immigration policy. Democrats stood shoulder-to-shoulder on opposing Trump, a new tax for transportation, renewable energy, lowering healthcare costs and immigrant rights. Some of the state s toughest problems barely made an appearance in debates and campaign advertising, including transportation funding, the opioid addiction crisis, long-term water policy, the state s agriculture industry that stands to be pummeled by Trump s tariffs, and other economic challenges facing rural Colorado. The sharpest elbows of the campaign season were thrown the last few weeks between Democrats over education policy and the negative advertising it created. Kennedy was supported by the teacher s union, the Colorado Education Association, which asserted that Johnston and Polis support taking money out from traditional (read: unionized) public schools. Many in Colorado s Democratic base still see charter schools as a half-step toward vouchers, allowing the money families pay in taxes to follow their child to whichever kind of school they choose. A former state school board member, Polis is an avowed supporter of school choice and the millionaire businessman personally founded two charter schools, New America Schools and the Academy for Urban Learning. Johnston s roots in education run deep, too, but his ideas about education reform also frighten the union that likes things essentially the way they are, except for demanding more money for schools. Besides being a former state senator from Denver, Johnston is a former teacher and principal and in 2013 cobbled together enough bipartisan support to pass legislation that allows undocumented residents to receive in-state tuition rates to attend college in Colorado. Chalkbeat Colorado called Johnston the architect of the state s most sweeping education reforms, including evaluating teachers based on their performance. He was also one of the leaders to pass a $1 billion tax increase in 2013, which was opposed with fanfare by Stapleton. But Amendment 66 failed almost 2 to 1. Early in the race, all the Democrats boasted of signing the party s Clean Campaign Pledge, which included discouraging their supporters from engaging in such tactics. Kennedy and Polis exchanged complaints to the state party, but the incident turned into a fountain of ads, insults and whisper campaigns in the final two weeks of the session. We almost got through a positive Flanked by his family, Walker Stapleton speaks after he won the Republican nomination for Colorado s governorship during an election night watch party June 26 in Greenwood Village. race, Gov. John Hickenlooper said a Capitol press conference on June 13, when asked about the negative tone his party s candidates had embraced. And I think that would have said a lot about Colorado. Republicans, meanwhile, brawled mostly over truth and Trump. Stapleton has been laying the groundwork to become governor for pretty much the entire 7 1/2 years he s been state treasurer. He amassed well-known supporters such as Denver Broncos legend John Elway and an A-list of corporate tycoons to support his candidacy. Yet his campaign has been marred by stumbles. He was a late entry to the state assembly to get on the ballot, after saying his campaign said they didn t trust the company it hired to collect his signatures. He told Colorado Public Radio he might have been asleep when the legislature passed a vitally important state pension bill. That fed a years-long narrative that he wasn t engaged in being state treasurer, as much as exploiting the post to build his political persona. Then there was his inaccurate ad. Stapleton claimed to the the only state treasurer to support Trump s tax plan. In fact there were dozens. Despite being hammered by his opponents and the media, Team Stapleton continued to run the ad. Loyalty to Trump despite his shortage of overall popularity in the state has been a bone the political dogs on the right haven t been able to let go of so far. Stapleton is a cousin to the presidential Bush family, which has no love for the current president. Yet Stapleton has sung Trump s praises and used him in political advertising. He said in a Colorado Politics-cosponsored debate in Colorado Springs that he d be pleased to invite Trump to campaign in Colorado with him. Mitchell has said he didn t vote for Trump for president, instead opting for independent Evan McMullin. Yet, in recent ads Mitchell has courted Trump voters, noting his views on guns are the same as the presidents. All the candidates have embraced Trump s views on punishing sanctuary cities, so-called because local officials don t actively help other agencies enforce federal immigration laws. In Colorado, Denver, Boulder and Aurora are most often cited. Mitchell s strength was the millions of dollars from his own pocket that he put into his campaign. That allowed him to build up his name recognition in TV ads and online. He told Colorado Politics last year the campaign money from his own pocket is a down payment on Colorado s future. Playing the role of an outsider, Mitchell s camp played up his credentials as a successful entrepreneur and played down his decision in 2008 not to run for a second term when he was a state legislator. That year, Mitchell was an advocate for presidential candidate Mitt Romney, then worked for John McCain after Romney dropped out. Romney s nephew, Robinson, has worked behind the scenes in Colorado politics for years, including leading his uncle s statewide presidential effort in 2012, but he s been slow to gain traction. Romney has not campaigned with his nephew, and, like Stapleton, Robinson has not spoken about his extended family s feud with the sitting president. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is busy running for U.S. Senate in Utah. A former Democrat, Lopez was elected the mayor of Parker in 1992 and, like Mitchell, chose not to seek a second term. The son of migrant field workers from Texas, he switched to the Republican Party in 1994 after taking office as mayor. He later served as board chairman for the Denver Hispanic Chamber. Lopez gave a red-meat Republican speech at the GOP state assembly in April and made the primary ballot by bumping out Attorney General Cynthia Coffman. Candidates at the assembly need 30 percent of the delegates to make the ballot; Lopez received 33 percent. Coffman received just 5 percent. Since spring of last year, as the field of candidates grew crowded, a few dropped out. George Brauchler exited the governor s race to become the only Republican to run for attorney general, as Coffman left the post after one term to mount her ill-fated run for governor. On the Democratic site, Ed Perlmutter temporarily vacated his safe U.S. House seat to run for governor, then switched back four months later, after a handful of promising young Democrats state Rep. Brittany Pettersen and Sens. Dominick Moreno and Andy Kerr had signaled interest in the seat. Andrea Guzman, an intern for The Gazette of Colorado Springs, contributed to this story.

12 12 Colorado Politics June 29, visions Will one of these Dems win the White House? BY W. JAMES ANTLE III Washington Examiner Democrats groan when you ask them about it. The party is still sifting through the wreckage of the last presidential campaign while trying to win the midterm elections in November. Nearly every competitive primary this year including the battle between Jason Crow and Levi Tillemann in Colorado s 6th Congressional District was cast as a replay of the factional battles of 2016: the establishment Hillary Clinton wing versus the progressives galvanized by Bernie Sanders. But the 2020 presidential race is fast approaching, and what happens this year will reverberate into a likely challenge against President Donald Trump. And unless something major happens in the Russia investigation or the incumbent has second thoughts about another term, Republican insiders expect their nominee to be Trump.The only hypothetical primary challengers to Trump on the horizon are Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has alienated conservatives, and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who fell out of favor with GOP primary voters in his own state. Both will be out of office next year, as Kasich is term-limited and Flake is retiring. Speculation about a GOP nominee other than Trump is idle chatter at this point, a Republican strategist told the Washington Examiner. And while Trump remains poison for Democrats, his approval rating among Republicans hit 90 percent in a Gallup poll conducted June Democrats, on the other hand, may have a presidential field large enough to rival the Republicans 17-candidate scrum in Clinton seems unlikely to run after her second straight loss and the diminishment of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in the #MeToo era. A new generation of party leaders is emerging. And a plethora of senators and governors including Colorado s John Hickenlooper are expected to at least consider a bid. Many Democratic operatives spoke to the Washington Examiner about the 2020 field on condition on anonymity in order to avoid alienating potential future clients. Nevertheless, their overall mood was optimistic about the talent level of their probable candidates and prospects for unseating the Republicans. In a January Harvard/Harris poll, no Democratic presidential contender tested received more than 27 percent support. A subsequent SurveyMonkey poll found no one above 22 percent. At this very early stage, the race looks wide-open. Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a rally in Collier, Pennsylvania. Here are some oft-mentioned names of potential Democratic contenders in 2020: Joe Biden With primaries still two years off, the candidate at the top of the national surveys at the moment is former Vice President Joe Biden. The two-term Barack Obama sidekick is the closest thing to a frontrunner, although it is far from certain that he will actually run. Democratic insiders believe that the fire in the belly the presidential ambitions that led to Biden candidacies in 1988 and again 20 years later in 2008 still burns. Biden considered a third campaign in 2016, but two factors weighed against it. The first was personal tragedy. Biden was still mourning his son Beau when much of the early planning for a campaign needed to be done and he publicly questioned whether he or his family was ready to go through the rigors of what figured to be a competitive primary. Nobody has a right, in my view, to seek that office unless they are willing to give it 110 percent of who they are, Biden told late-night television host Stephen Colbert in 2015, admitting that he was not yet ready to commit to that kind of effort after losing his son. Yet also around this time, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd described Beau as exhorting his father to run because the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values a plea it was later reported the elder Biden leaked himself. The second major obstacle was the fact that the sitting vice president wasn t the front-runner to succeed Obama as titular head of the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and runner-up in the 2008 primaries, was in the lead, and Biden was off to a late start competing with her for donors and staff. Rather than have what would have surely been his last campaign end in defeat, he deferred to Clinton. Since Clinton lost to Trump, Biden has been in demand on the campaign trail. The heir to the establishment mantle, Biden has already notched a win against the Sanders wing of the party with his support of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, over progressive state Sen. Kevin de Leon. Feinstein finished more than 30 points ahead while de Leon barely advanced from California s nonpartisan jungle primary to the general election. The Bernie people were pushing Kevin de Leon and he got 11 percent of the vote and barely got into the thing, said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. Feinstein had the establishment support, especially Joe Biden. I ve got to say that turned out pretty well for Biden. I think he ll run, said a second strategist working on 2018 campaigns. I ll be pretty surprised, and a little disappointed, if he doesn t. The case for Biden is that he can compete with Trump for working-class whites, bringing states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan back to the Democratic fold, without alienating younger and nonwhite voters. Biden has only become a more engaging and sympathetic figure since passing on But Biden The main arguments against are age he would be 78 when sworn into office and a reputation for being handsy with women. He has never been accused of anything untoward, but he acquired this image in part based on effusive glad-handling captured on camera. Would a woman complain about his behavior now? Maybe neither matters in a race against Trump, a septuagenarian who has already been accused of sexual harassment, but Biden would have to make it out of the Democratic primary first. Bernie Sanders The junior senator from Vermont had never actually run as a Democrat for anything until the 2016 presidential primaries against Clinton, despite being a member of their Senate caucus. He had previously been the nominee of small third parties and was elected to both houses of Congress as an inde- SEE DEMS PAGE 13

13 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics vision DEMS FROM PAGE 12 pendent. Sanders has nevertheless left his mark on the party. Liberal primary candidates seek his endorsement and rely on organizations that grew out of his campaign. Even establishment Democrats now tout Medicare for All the socialist lawmaker s preferred nomenclature for government-run, single-payer healthcare and a $15 minimum wage, fearing his followers and impressed by his strong showing with independents and millennials. The perception that Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz favored Clinton over Sanders in the primary process, bolstered by leaked s, has done lasting damage to the DNC s fundraising and hurt other party organs efforts to shape primary fields this year. What doomed Sanders campaign against Clinton was that he was never able to compete with her among minority voters, who are not numerous in Vermont. Overwhelming black support is one factor that separated Obama from failed progressives such as Sanders and fellow Vermonter Howard Dean. Appearing in California days before the state s June 5 primary, Sanders tried to rectify that. He appeared at a rally with Black Lives Matter, as activist Shaun King extolled his involvement in the 1960s civil-rights movement. Don t tell me it is irrelevant; it is an origin story, King said. Sanders spoke out against the dysfunctional, destructive criminal justice system that leads to the mass incarceration of African Americans and other people of color. He said he hadn t always been familiar with the extent of the problem, but vowed he was learning fast. On the same trip, he protested for a $15-an-hour wage for Disney workers in Anaheim. Yet 2018 has so far been a mixed bag for the Bernie Democrats. Progressive congressional candidate Lara Moser forced a runoff in her Texas district after a clumsy attempt by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to undermine her, but then lost in the second round of voting. Sanders former Iowa campaign chair Pete D Alessandro finished third in a congressional primary of his own. If Sanders isn t a perfect kingmaker, there are also questions about whether he can become king without a binary choice between himself and Clinton. Sanders support is slipping in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, where he won 60 percent of the vote against Clinton but is now running third in some polls. Despite his youthful support base, Sanders will turn 79 before the 2020 general election. Elizabeth Warren One candidate who could threaten Sanders status as a progressive PHOTOS BY Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., accompanied by Democrat Ben Jealous, right, speaks to the crowd on June 18 during a gubernatorial campaign rally in Maryland s Democratic primary in downtown Silver Spring, Md. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., delivers the keynote address on June 23 to the Nevada Democratic Convention in Reno, Nevada. Warren said Nevada will play a pivotal role in the November elections on the road to taking back the White House in hero is Warren, D-Massachusetts, who ran on many of the same themes without embracing the socialist label and was a crusader for financial regulations in the dark days of the Great Recession. She has suggested she won t run, but is up for re-election this year, six years removed from unseating Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., an early Tea Party hero. In a fundraising appeal to Move- On.org supporters this month, Warren told progressives that her example was one they could emulate. I was 62 years old when I decided to run for the U.S. Senate for the first time. I was a professor and policy wonk, who made fighting for middle-class families my life s work, she wrote. My Republican opponent had a 65 percent approval rating, $10 million in the bank, and Wall Street on speed dial ready to help him win. The only way we had a shot at winning was to build the biggest grassroots campaign in Senate history. (She also benefited from Obama being at the top of the ticket.) Warren hasn t hesitated to pick fights with Trump, even on his home turf of Twitter. The president is playing a political game by saying he can pardon himself, she tweeted this month. Trump is practicing right-wing ideology disguised as health policy she wrote about new abortion funding restrictions announced by the administration. Trump in turn calls her Pocahontas, a less subtle version of the nickname she acquired for claiming Native American heritage while teaching at Harvard: Fauxcahontas. During the heated debate over Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmation, Warren turned a rebuke from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, into a battle cry. She was warned, Mc- Connell said after invoking a Senate rule against Warren. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted. Now the catchphrase She persisted appears on T-shirts. Warren has been active on the campaign trail this year. She helped her protege Katie Porter, a University of California, Irvine professor, advance to the general election for California s 45th Congressional District, a Democratic pickup opportunity. Elizabeth Warren really went to bat for her, said Bannon, the Democratic strategist. When Warren opened the year sitting on $12.8 million in cash, which was more than all of her would-be Republican Senate challengers had combined, it naturally raised questions about whether all of the money was for her reelection in Massachusetts. She insists that she is not looking past her Senate seat. Nevertheless, she could persist. Kamala Harris Harris is a freshman senator, having just been been elected by California voters in The former California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney has already attracted a national following by grilling Trump nominees and executive branch officials at Senate hearings. She is a 53-year-old African-American woman with a knack for digital fundraising who is already being talked about as a presidential possibility, and is already being compared to Obama. When Mike Pompeo, currently the secretary of state but then a Republican congressman nominated to become CIA director, appeared before her in committee, she questioned him on climate change and gay marriage. He probably found her a tougher customer than (North Korean dictator) Kim Jong Un, joked a Hill Republican. Harris has deployed her online army on behalf of her fellow Democrats. She has raised $3 million for Democratic senators up for re-election this year. She boosted Democrats in California s nonpartisan primary this month, helping her SEE DEMS PAGE 14

14 14 Colorado Politics June 29, vision DEMS FROM PAGE 13 party make it to the general election ballot in several contests where that outcome seemed far from certain. There are two knocks on Harris. One is that she risks losing support at home if she too quickly shifts attention to the national scene. The second is that something from her tough on crime days will emerge to contradict her progressive bona fides. Gavin Newsom If not Harris, another Californian might make a run for the White House: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor who is now heavily favored to beat Trump-endorsed Republican John Cox for governor in November. Too soon? Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown both ran for president halfway through their first terms as governor (although both lost). He is in a unique position to be, like Jerry Brown, to be a kind of George Wallace of the liberal/ blue state cause, said James Taylor, professor of political science at the University of San Francisco, in reference to California s resistance to Trump-era federal edicts on immigration and other issues. California is well-positioned to provide national leadership to a fractured Democratic Party after Bernie and Hillary. Taylor pointed to former California Gov. Gray Davis, who was recalled and then replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, as a cautionary tale. He dreamed of being POTUS more than California governor and took his eye off the state s major concerns and it rendered his ambitions stillborn, to use an ancient term, he said. Newsom has denied any interest in the presidency. California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, right, greets well-wishers prior to a news conference at Homeboy Industries on June 19 in downtown Los Angeles. Eric Holder If there is anyone who can rival Biden s connection to Obama, it is the 44th president s attorney general. Holder and Obama are partnered on an initiative to win back state legislative seats that are crucial to the congressional redistricting process. This project would accomplish two important Democratic goals: it would try to reverse the Obamaera hemorrhaging of Democrats in down-ballot races as well as what supporters view as Republican gerrymandering, improving the Democrats chances of holding the House. Holder, the first African-American attorney general, was a frequent target of Republicans and was once held in contempt of Congress. He has already visited New Hampshire and has made no secret that he is thinking about running for president, once telling NBC News that Biden told him not to wait for his decision. The president and other members of his administration have tried to use race as a wedge issue to divide the American people, and it is something that I think is reprehensible, Holder, 67, said in Manchester. He would need a major assist from Obama in raising money and putting together an organization that would rival what some of the other candidates could assemble. Howard Schultz If you are going to have a massive presidential field, then you need a billionaire to disrupt it. Republicans had Trump in Maybe the Democrats will have former Starbucks CEO and Executive Chairman Howard Schultz. Schultz was noncommittal about running after stepping down from the coffee giant this month, saying there were other things he could do as a private citizen. But he has been outspoken about political issues and often had to deal with contentious subjects at the helm of Starbucks. Unfortunately, little of what Schultz has had to say recently sounds like it would fit in with a Democratic Party that is increasingly invested in Medicare for All and universal employment. Both parties, President Obama, President Bush and now President Trump, both members of Congress, are complicit in their reckless approach to the amount of debt, he said, warning that a company with such loose spending practices would be approaching insolvency. I don t drink coffee, quipped a Democratic consultant when asked about Schultz. Cory Booker The Washington Post describes Booker, a senator from New Jersey, as having the highest upside of any 2020 Democrat. A solid orator with a reputation for working across party lines, the African American former mayor of Newark has been considered a rising star for years. We in this nation have work to do, Booker said in a recent well-received speech. Let us march. Let us march to organize. If we go together, we will bring this country forward. He was dispatched to Alabama to campaign in a special Senate election that resulted in newly minted Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, showing the breadth of his appeal. America, marching onward is not a bad campaign slogan for Democrats in the Trump era. Booker has nevertheless lost some of his bipartisan aura as he has tried to keep up with his fellow Democrats to protect his Left flank. At the same time, Booker has been pilloried by liberals for taking contributions from pharmaceutical companies many of which hail from New Jersey and being too business-friendly in general. Well, we put a pause on even receiving contributions from pharma companies because it arouses so much criticism and just stopped taking it, Booker told NPR last year. He has tried to make up for it by standing up to Trump appointees at televised hearings, with one particularly contentious exchange with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about the president s shithole country remarks, accusing her of amnesia and being complicit. The question is whether Booker can rev up the base while maintaining some of his pragmatic nice-guy image. Kirsten Gillibrand It would be easy for Gillibrand to remain in the shadow of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York. But New York s junior senator has been making waves. Having been active on women s issues through her tenure, Gillibrand has become one of the leading #MeToo voices against sexual harassment and assault on Capitol Hill. She was instrumental in getting Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, to resign amid groping allegations as part of a flood of Senate women coming out against him. And she has been part of the liberal reappraisal of Bill Clinton, having said he should have resigned during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Gillibrand has had to endure some liberal backlash on both counts, having taken on powerful Democrats. Pressed by Joy Behar from The View on whether Franken was entitled to a hearing on the accusations against him, Gillibrand replied, He s not entitled to my silence, Joy. The 51-year-old had been pushing legislation to combat sexual assault in the military long before the Harvey Weinstein story shined a spotlight on Hollywood and Washington, D.C. Nonetheless, even some liberals have labeled her a political opportunist and have pointed to more conservative positions she once took on guns and immigration. As for others Many other Democrats are said to be pondering their 2020 chances: former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, whose winning 2006 campaign was considered a prototype for Obama s in 2008; former Maryland Gov. Martin O Malley, whose 2016 bid to become a progressive favorite fizzled after Sanders surged; and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a top Clinton ally, to name a few. Few, however, is not a word likely to be associated with Democratic presidential candidates in the near future.

15 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 15 primary roundup Denver Democrat Diana DeGette was declared the winner of the 1st Congressional District primary race. PHOTOS BY Colorado Springs Republican Doug Lamborn was declared the winner of the 5th Congressional District primary race. Decisive wins in races for Congress BY ERNEST LUNING AND MARK HARDEN Colorado Politics Coloradans set the table in the June primary for seven fall congressional elections, settling most key races not long after voting ended by wide margins. Less than an hour after the 7 p.m. voting deadline on June 26, three of the state s most interesting congressional races were already decided, and a fourth was wrapped up a short time later. Two incumbents Denver Democrat Diana DeGette of the 1st Congressional District and Colorado Springs Republican Doug Lamborn of the 5th were quickly declared the winners of their primaries. And Democratic newcomer Jason Crow advanced in the suburban 6th District. Not long after that, Boulder Democrat Joe Neguse was deemed the victor in his party s race to succeed Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jared Polis as the 2nd Congressional District s representative. And by evening s end, Democrats Diane Mitsch Bush in the 3rd Congressional District and Karen McCormick in the 4th District both won their primaries in districts being defended by Republican incumbents. In DeGette s and Neguse s case, the primary wins all but assure victory in November in their heavily Democratic districts. Several of Colorado s congressional primaries appeared to be replaying the 2016 presidential primaries, with the Democrats again deciding between the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders wings of the party, and Republicans arguing again about their support for Donald Trump. There were contested primary races in all but one of the state s seven congressional districts. In most of the congressional contests, it was a battle between a party s establishment and its more aggressive wings including primaries pitting the senior members of the state s Democratic and Republican delegations against upstart challengers. DeGette, first elected in 1996 and seeking her 12th term representing the 1st Congressional District, faced her toughest opponent in decades in Saira Rao. Rao s bid to unseat DeGette also exemplified Democratic primaries across the country in which younger women, often black or brown Rao s parents emigrated from India in the 1960s are trying to show entrenched incumbents the door. Rao shot to prominence late last year when she wrote a widely shared article about breaking up with the Democratic Party, which she argued was in thrall to corporate masters, paying lip service to women of color and other marginalized populations. She charged DeGette has gotten comfortable in her decades in office and hasn t championed progressive causes the way the district s voters are demanding. DeGette, her party s chief deputy whip, pushed back hard, arguing that her experience and seniority mean the district s voters will have a powerful voice in Congress if Democrats win back the gavel in the House. Republican Casper Stockham is running for the Denver-based seat for the second time. Four Republicans tried to deny Lamborn a seventh term representing the Colorado Springs-based 5th Congressional District, including El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, state Sen. Owen Hill, retired Texas judge Bill Rhea and former Green Mountain Falls Mayor Tyler Stevens. Lamborn faced his fifth GOP primary in six runs for re-election since he won the seat in 2006 when he emerged from a bitter, six-way primary. Glenn, the GOP nominee for Colorado s U.S. Senate seat two years ago, and Hill both slammed Lamborn as ineffectual and pledged to take better advantage of the bully pulpit afforded by one of the most conservative districts in the country. But Lamborn pointed to his consistent top ranking on conservative scorecards and his success bringing a veterans cemetery to the region, as well as increased troop levels at the district s military bases and long-sought funding for transportation needs, including a $65 million federal grant to help pay for widening Interstate 25 announced earlier this month. Democrat Stephany Rose Spaulding is her party s nominee for the 5th District. Possibly the hardest-fought and most closely watched primary determined which Democrat will run against U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman a five-term Aurora Republican who hasn t been defeated in the three decades he s held elected office in the nearly evenly divided, Aurora-based 6th Congressional District. There, Crow, an attorney and Army Ranger combat veteran, ran with the backing of the Democratic Party s establishment, including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and most of the state party s VIPs, against the more aggressively progressive Levi Tillemann, an author and clean energy expert and the grandson of Nancy Dick, the state s first woman lieutenant governor. Tillimann made a splash in the race by posting a video showing himself being pepper-sprayed in the face to make a point about improving school safety without guns. Crow swiftly got a taste of what he faces in the fall via an election-night statement by Coffman campaign manager Tyler Sandberg: Jason Crow is a white-collar defense lawyer with a laundry list of shady criminal clients and a longer list of leftwing special interest financial backers that bought him the Democratic primary. But still, congratulations to Jason Crow and Nancy Pelosi on defeating the guy who sprayed mace in his own face. Mike Coffman and his army of supporters are ready for the next round. The 6th District is again shaping up to be the most expensive congressional race in the state Democrats have poured resources into unsuccessful attempts to unseat Coffman for the past three elections. Democrat Crow prevailed in the first primary the party has had since the seat was created in the early 1980s. The district is one of two dozen nationwide won by Clinton but represented by Republicans, and the Democrats path to the majority in the House runs right through it. In the 2nd Congressional District, Neguse, a former University of Colorado regent, an attorney and the Democrats nominee for secretary of state in 2014, ran against Mark Williams, an Air Force fighter pilot veteran, entrepreneur and former chair of the Boulder County Democratic Party. As the primary winner, Neguse will likely be headed to Congress, as the Boulder- and Larimer-County based district hasn t elected a Republican in nearly five decades. (First-time candidate Peter Yu is the GOP nominee in the district.) If he wins in the fall, Neguse, the son of Eritrean refugees, would be the first African-American elected to Congress from Colorado. McCormick, meanwhile, will try to deny U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Greeley Republican, a third term in the heavily Republican 4th Congressional District, which covers the Eastern Plains, including Greeley and much of Douglas County. She defeated fellow Democrat Chase Kohne of Castle Rock; both are political newcomers and veterinarians. And U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, a Cortez Republican, will face former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, D-Steamboat Springs, in the fall, in the sprawling 3rd Congressional District, which covers most of the Western Slope, the San Luis Valley and Pueblo County. The suburban 7th Congressional District was the only one in the state without a primary. U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, an Arvada Democrat who briefly ran for governor last summer, will be attempting to win a seventh term against Republican challenger Mark Barrington for the Jefferson and Adams County-based seat in November.

16 16 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 primary roundup Money mattered in statehouse races BY MARIANNE GOODLAND Colorado Politics Colorado s primary elections mostly determined who you see in the Colorado General Assembly come Jan. 4. That s because most of the contested primary contests for four seats in the Senate and 14 seats in the House are safe meaning the person who won the primary is the odds-on favorite to win the general election in November. But it s taken awhile to figure out who won in some cases, with several close races. One key contest was decided not long after voting ended June 26: Sen. Ray Scott, a conservative, defeated moderate Rep. Dan Thurlow in the Grand Junction area s 7th Senate District. Scott was one of five Republican legislative incumbents facing challenges. Another was Rep. Lois Landgraf of Colorado Springs, challenged in the 21st House District by the more conservative Ray Garcia, who has lost two previous tries to get into the state House when he lived in Denver. Landgraf won that race by more than 30 percentage points, based on unofficial returns. Garcia s loss was despite support from Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a gunrights advocacy group. They backed Garcia as well as Frank Francone in Jefferson County, who ran against Colin Larson in House District 22 in the closest race in the entire state on Primary Night Unofficial results June 28 showed Larson ahead by just 144 votes enough for Francone to concede. Two Republican newcomers who were Need to post your Legal Notice? We can CUT your advertising bills and save you time! For information regarding the publication of legal notices, please contact Colorado Politics via phone or . CALL: ext. 4 legals@coloradopolitics.com To review published legal notices, go to our classified section. The deadline for legal notices is Tuesday 5 p.m. prior to publication date. THE GAZETTE State Rep. Phil Covarrubias, left, speaking to then-rep. Steve Lebsock on opening day of the 2018 Colorado legislature on Jan. 10, lost his primary contest to Rod Bockenfeld by 24 percentage points. appointed to their House seats in the past year also faced challenges: Reps. Shane Sandridge of Colorado Springs in the 14th District and Judy Reyher of Swink, whose 47th District includes rural Pueblo County. Sandridge beat Kanda Calef by a wide margin, but Reyher lost to Don Bendell of Florence. And Rep. Phil Covarrubias of Brighton faced a more moderate challenger, Rod Bockenfeld of Watkins, in the 56th District; the latter pulled out a 24-point win. No House Democratic incumbents were challenged within their own party. There were nine seats eight of them relatively safe for Democrats held by Democrats and with Democratic primary challenges. For Republicans, four to five of the seven seats currently held by Republicans and with primary contests are considered safe and unlikely to switch hands. With few exceptions, the primary winners will be hard to beat in these mostly safe seats in November. For Democrats, it s money that played the big role in primary wins, both for the candidates and in races where outside political groups have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, unheard of for primary races for the legislature. The question for Democrats to answer is just how all that money (and the groups spending it) influenced the races. The biggest dollars were spent to see who will succeed Democratic Sen. Irene Aguilar of Denver in the 32nd Senate District. There were three candidates, but Zach Neumann raised the most money and his candidacy was also supported, to the tune of more than $225,000, by outside groups such as medical liability company COPIC and Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), which dumped another $26,000 into its independent expenditure committee in the five days prior to the election on Neumann s behalf. Nevertheless, unofficial returns show Robert Rodriguez winning by 7-1/2 points, and Neumann conceded. DFER also spent big dollars backing candidates in several other House races, such as House District 5, home to term-limited Speaker of the House Crisanta Duran of Denver and where four Democrats fought for the win; and House District 28 in Lakewood, home to Rep. Brittany Pettersen, who was running for the Senate and where two Democrats vied for her seat. In the 5th, Alex Valdez, whose campaign benefitted from more than $85,000 in backing from DFER, won the seat with a 13-point margin over former Rep. Joel Judd. And in the 28th, Kerry Tipper won by a 2-1 margin. The coattails of 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and other progressive organizations were enough to carry a couple of candidates to the finish line. In House District 9, Sanders-backed Emily Sirota defeated Ashley Wheeland. Sirota was endorsed by Sanders and he also did a fundraising call for her that generated thousands of contributions from outside the state. Sirota s husband, David, is a former Sanders spokesman. The Colorado Working Families Party is another group that touted its progressive stance and candidates backed through its independent expenditure committee (IEC). The IEC supported Sirota; Julia Gonzales in Senate District 34, home to term-limited Sen. Lucia Guzman; Robert Rodriguez in Aguilar s Senate District 32; and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez in House District 4, home to term-limited Rep. Dan Pabon of Denver. All four won. And two former Democratic lawmakers who hoped to win a return to the state Capitol learned from voters it wasn t meant to be. In addition to Judd, former Rep. Jim Riesberg hoped to return to the House, but Greeley City Council member Rochelle Galindo won by a wide margin in House District 50.

17 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 17 FDA approves CBD oil for seizure disorders BY MARIANNE GOODLAND Colorado Politics The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given its first-ever approval of a plantbased cannabidiol product Epidiolex for treating two rare seizure disorders that begin in childhood. It s not quite medical marijuana. The strawberry-flavored syrup is a purified form of a chemical ingredient found in the cannabis plant but not the one that gets users high. It s not yet clear why the ingredient, called cannabidiol, or CBD, reduces seizures in some people with epilepsy. The approval, announced June 25, is the first of two major steps that could clear the way for parents to obtain medical prescriptions for CBD oil, a process also put into place by the Colorado General Assembly during the 2018 session. Epidiolex is produced by U.K.- based GW Pharmaceuticals. According to an FDA statement, GW Pharmaceuticals Epidiolex is a medicine made from the marijuana plant but without THC. it s the first time the agency has approved a drug that contains a purified drug substance derived from marijuana. CBD is one of more than 100 chemicals found in marijuana. But it doesn t contain THC, the ingredient that gives marijuana its mind-altering effect. British drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals studied the drug in more than 500 children and adults with hard-to-treat seizures, overcoming numerous legal hurdles that have long stymied research into cannabis. FDA officials said the drug reduced seizures when combined with older epilepsy drugs. The two seizure disorders that could be treated with Epidiolex are Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet syndromes. Some patients already use CBD oil that does not require a doctor s prescription to treat the condition. Before Epidiolex can be prescribed, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) must remove CBD from its list of Schedule 1 drugs. Currently, CBD oil is considered a dangerous drug along with marijuana, heroin, LSD and several other drugs that the DEA says have no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. The DEA considers CBD a marijuana extract, even though proponents point out that it also can come from hemp, which usually lacks the THC content necessary to produce the psychotropic effects of marijuana. The clock is ticking. With the FDA decision, the DEA has only 90 days to decide whether to change the CBD schedule. A federal lawsuit is challenging the DEA s 2016 decision to classify CBD as a marijuana extract. FDA approval (and the DEA change that must also take place) means that some parents who were reluctant to try CBD oil may be more willing to do so if it is prescribed by a doctor and covered by health insurance, said Heather Jackson of the Realm of Caring Foundation. The foundation was set up by the creators of Charlotte s Web, one of the first CBD products used to treat Dravet syndrome. Should the DEA reschedule CBD oil, Coloradans with the rare disorders will be able to have the drug prescribed. That s because the General Assembly passed a bill during the 2018 session that changes state law to remove from the criminal code FDA-approved drugs prescribed by a healthcare provider. House Bill 1187 initially raised concerns for the hemp industry because the bill, as introduced, appeared to benefit only GW Pharmaceuticals and had potential unintended consequences for the hemp industry. The bill was amended in part to assuage those concerns. Gov. John Hickenlooper signed it into law on June 4. Democratic Rep. Jonathan Singer of Longmont said the FDA decision showed the federal government is willing to take reasonable steps to make sure patients can access drugs that are safe. It s a shame that cannabis is still Schedule I, but I ll take a baby step over no steps. GW CEO Justin Glover acknowledged the last hurdle is the DEA s rescheduling, but the company said it expects that will happen in the next 90 days and that the drug will be available to patients by this fall. COLORADO POLITICS PUBLIC NOTICES Public notices are required by the legislature of the State of Colorado to inform residents of the state of the everyday activities of government, businesses and other events of legal importance. Public notices are essential to democracy our republic, and an informed citizenry. Public notices remain most effective in newspapers, as these permanent records cannot be altered or destroyed. Colorado Politics provides this valuable resource as a legally adjudicated newspaper in the City and County of Denver to keep local residents informed and hold public officials accountable. If you would like to publish a public notice in the City and County of Denver, please legals@coloradopolitics.com NOTICE TO CREDITORS In the Matter of the Estate of: Richard Joel Traystman aka Richard J. Traystman, Deceased Case Number: 2018 PR All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the Denver Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado, on or before October 15, 2018, or the claims may be forever barred. Suzann Lupton, Personal Representative 2990 E. 17th Avenue, #2603 Denver, CO First Publication: 06/15/2018 Last Publication: 06/29/2018 Publisher: Colorado Politics NOTICE OF DISTRICT COURT SUMMONS BY PUBLICATION In the Matter of: North Huron, Ltd., a Colorado Limited Partnership Attorneys for Petitioner: Frank W. Suyat, #27506 Brandon Sandberg, #42507 Address: Dill Dill Carr Stonbraker & Hutchings, P.C. 455 Sherman Street, Suite 300 Denver, CO Phone No.: (303) Fax No.: (303) fsuyat@dillanddill.com bsandberg@dillanddill.com Case Number: 2018CV31686 District Court, City and County of Denver, Colorado Division: CV Courtroom: 203 TO RESPONDENTS: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED and required to file with the Clerk of this Court an answer or other response to the attached Application for Judicial Dissolution of a Limited Partnership and Appointment of Paula Weidner to Wind Up the Limited Partnership s Affairs ( Application ). If service of the Summons and Application was made upon you within the State of Colorado, you are required to file your answer or other response within 21 days after such service upon you, which is the last date of publication. If service of the Summons and Application was made upon you outside of the State of Colorado, you are required to file your answer or other response within 35 days after such service upon you, which is the last date of publication. Your answer or counterclaim must be accompanied with the applicable filing fee. If you fail to file your answer or other response to the Application in writing within the applicable time period, the Court may enter judgment by default against you for the relief demanded in the Application without further notice. Dated: June 1, 2018 WARNING: A valid summons may be issued by a lawyer and it need not contain a court case number, the signature of a court officer, or a court seal. The plaintiff has 14 days from the date this summons was served on you to file the case with the court. You are responsible for contacting the court to find out whether the case has been filed and obtain the case number. If the plaintiff files the case within this time, then you must respond as explained in this summons. If the plaintiff files more than 14 days after the date the summons was served on you, the case may be dismissed upon motion and you may be entitled to seek attorney s fees from the plaintiff. First Publication: 06/15/2018 Last Publication: 07/13/2018 Publisher: Colorado Politics APPLICATION FOR JUDICIAL DISSOLUTION OF A LIMITED PARTNERSHIP AND APPOINTMENT OF PAULA WEIDNER TO WIND UP THE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP S AFFAIRS In the Matter of: North Huron, Ltd., a Colorado Limited Partnership Attorneys for Applicant: Frank W. Suyat Brandon Sandberg Dill Dill Carr Stonbraker & Hutchings, P.C. 455 Sherman Street, Suite 300 Denver, Colorado Phone No.: Fax No.: fsuyat@dillanddill.com bsandberg@dillanddill.com Atty. Reg. No.: #27514 & #42507 Applicant, Paula Weidner, for Gale T. Weidner, Jr., Director of Newcomb Weidner, Inc., as General Partner of North Huron, Ltd., by and through counsel Dill Dill Carr Stonbraker & Hutchings, P.C. by Frank W. Suyat and Brandon Sandberg, states for Application for Judicial Dissolution of a Limited Liability Partnership and Appointment of Paula Weidner to Wind Up the Limited Partnership s Affairs: 1. Pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute ( C.R.S. ) , a partner can file an application with the Court to judicially dissolve the partnership. 2. Pursuant to C.R.S , a partner may through legal representative or assignee file an application with the Court to allow the partnership to wind up the business affairs of the partnership. 3.In accordance with C.R.S and C.R.S , Paula Weidner as the legal representative and/or assignee of Gale T. Weidner, Jr., hereby submits this application for judicial dissolution and to wind up the affairs of North Huron, Ltd. ( North Huron ). 4. Upon information and belief, North Huron, is a Colorado Limited Partnership with a previous place of business at 2800 S. University, #33, Denver, Colorado 80210, and 14 Quince Street, Denver, Colorado Upon information and belief, North Huron purchased raw land in the city of Westminster, County of Adams, State of Colorado more than twenty (20) years ago ( Land ). 6. Upon information and belief, North Huron sold the surface rights of the Land in approximately 1996 ( Surface Rights ); however, North Huron still owns the mineral rights of the Land ( Mineral Rights ). 7. Upon information and belief, the General Partner of North Huron was Newcomb Weidner, Inc. ( Newcomb Weidner ). 8. Newcomb Weidner was in the business of raw land partnerships, specifically, creating limited partnerships with investors to purchase, lease, and sell raw land. 9. Upon information and belief, the Directors of Newcomb Weidner were Gale T. Weidner, Jr., and Warner Newcomb. 10. Gale T. Weidner, Jr. was the Registered Agent for Newcomb Weidner. 11. Warner Newcomb is deceased. 12. Newcomb Weidner was dissolved on October 15, Upon information and belief, North Huron was a Limited Partnership created by Newcomb Weidner as the General Partner, and various investors as Limited Partners, including Gale T. Weidner, Jr., and James R. Cannon. 14. Gale T. Weidner, Jr. does not remember the identity of any of the other Limited Partners of North Huron. 15. Gale T. Weidner, Jr. does not have possess10n of the North Huron limited partnership agreement. 16. Efforts that have been made to find information regarding the limited partnership of North Huron include: searching files and records for tax and partnership information; contacting attorneys that previously represented other limited partnerships created by Newcomb Weidner; reviewing attorney files; contacting the Internal Revenue Service for tax information; attempting to contact accountants that previously worked with Newcomb Weidner; researching documents through Land Title; searching the Colorado Secretary of State website; contacting the buyers of the Surface Rights; and contacting investors in other limited partnerships created by Newcomb Weidner to inquire if those investors were also investors in North Huron; none of which has resulted in the North Huron partnership agreement being located or information on additional Limited Partners. 17. Upon information and belief, North Huron does not conduct any business outside of the ownership of the Mineral Rights. 18. North Huron has received offers to lease the Mineral Rights. 19. Upon information and belief, in addition to leasing the Mineral Rights, North Huron would be able to sell the Mineral Rights. 20. Pursuant to C.R.S , Paula Weidner, on behalf of her husband, Gale T. Weidner, Jr., requests this Court enter a decree of dissolution of North Huron as it is not reasonably practicable to carry on the business. 21. Pursuant to C.R.S , Paula Weidner, on behalf of her husband, Gale T. Weidner, Jr., requests this Court appoint her as the representative of North Huron to wind up the business affairs of North Huron. Respectfully submitted this 7th day of May, First Publication: 06/15/2018 Last Publication: 07/13/2018 Publisher: Colorado Politics ORDER RE: APPLICATION FOR JUDICIAL DISSOLUTION OF A LIMITED PARTNERSHIP AND APPOINTMENT OF PAULA WEIDNER TO WIND UP THE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP S AFFAIRS In the Matter of North Huron, Ltd., a Colorado limited partnership Applicant: Paula Weidner, as legal representative and/or assignee of Gale T. Weidner, Jr. District Court, City and County of Denver, Colorado Case Number: 18CV31686 Division: CV Courtroom: 203 THIS MATTER comes before the Court on an Application for Judicial Dissolution of a Limited Partnership and Appointment of Paula Weid.ner to Wind Up the Limited Partnership s Affairs, filed May 7, The Court has reviewed the Application, the case file, and applicable law. Being so advised, the Court enters the following Order: The Application is GRANTED. Applicant seeks an order pursuant to C.R.S. S for judicial dissolution of North Huron, Ltd, a Colorado limited partnership Applicant further seeks appointment as representative to wind up the affairs of North Huron pursuant to C.R.S. S Z The Court finds as follows: 1. This Court has jurisdiction because North Huron s principal offices were located within the City and County of Denver. 2. The general partner of North Huron was Newcomb Weidner. Inc. 3. The directors of Newcomb Weidner were GaIe T. Weidner, Jr., and Warner Newcomb. Gale T. Weidner was the registered agent for Newcomb Weidner. 4. Warner Newcomb is deceased. 5. Newcomb Weidner was dissolved on October lb, North Huron was created as a Iimited partnership by Newcomb Weidner and various investors as limited partners, including Gale T. Weidner, Jr., and James R. Cannon. The identity of any other limited partners is unknown. Gale T. Weidner, Jr., does not possess the North Huron limited partnership agreement, and reasonable efforts to locate the limited partnership agreement, identify other limited partners, or obtain other information regarding North Huron have been unavailing. 7. Accordingly, the Court finds that it is not reasonably practicable to carry on business in conformity with the limited partnership agreement. Pursuant to C.R.S , it is therefore ORDERED that North Huron, Ltd., a Colorado limited partnership, be judicially dissolved as of the date of this Order. 8. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, pursuant to C.R.S , that Paula Weidner, as legal representative and/or assignee of Gale T. Weidner, Jr., a limited partner of North Huron, is hereby appointed as representative of North Huron to wind up the business affairs of North Huron. Any remaining assets of North Huron shall be distributed as provided in C.R.S Ms. Weidner shall provide status reports to this Court every 30 days until winding up is complete. This matter shall remain open until filing of a motion to dismiss upon completion of the winding up. SO ORDERED this 15th day of May, First Publication: 06/15/2018 Last Publication: 07/13/2018 Publisher: Colorado Politics NAME CHANGE Public Notice is given that a Petition for a Change of Name of an Adult has been filed with the Denver County Court. The Petition requests that the name of: Kimberleigh Ann Lacher be changed to: Kimberleigh Amber Latine Rodriguez Lacher First Publication: 06/22/2018 Last Publication: 07/06/2018 Publisher: Colorado Politics NOTICE TO CREDITORS In the Matter of the Estate of: PHILIP GORDON ARCHER also known as PHILIP G. ARCHER, Deceased Case Number: 2018PR30750 All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to Probate Court of the City and County of Denver, Colorado on or before October 22, 2018, or the claims may be forever barred. Romi Archer Fairmont Way Tustin, CA First Publication: 06/22/2018 Last Publication: 07/06/2018 Publisher: Colorado Politics NOTICE TO NON-CUSTODIAL PARENT BY PUBLICATION In the Matter of the Petition of: Parent/ Petitioner: Nicole M. Lopez, Minor child: Isaiah J. Gallegos to Change the Child s Name to: Isaiah J. Lopez. Notice to: Zachariah Gallegos, noncustodial parent. Notice is given that a hearing is scheduled as follows: Case Number: 07JR1920 Petitioner: Nicole M. Lopez Date: August 2, 2018 Time: 2 p.m. Location: Courtroom 2B, 520 W. Colfax Ave, Denver, CO for the purpose of requesting a change of name for Isaiah Jeremiah Gallegos. At this hearing the Court may enter an order changing the name of a minor child. To support or voice objection to the proposed name change, you must appear at the hearing. First Publication: 06/29/2018 Last Publication: 07/13/2018 Publisher: Colorado Politics

18 18 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 Then-Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler in his office in Denver in A double whammy for taxpayers BY MARIANNE GOODLAND Colorado Politics Taxpayers are on the hook for more than half a million dollars from legal costs involving a lawsuit filed by then-secretary of State Scott Gessler against the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission both sides of the lawsuit. But the exact amount will never be known, because the Secretary of State s Office disposed of the first two years of billing records related to the lawsuit while it was still moving through the courts. The Secretary of State s Office covered Gessler s legal costs in the matter. The attorney general s staff represented the ethics commission. The disposal of records in what was until recently an active lawsuit raises concerns with a leading open-records advocate. The public has an interest in knowing how much the lawsuit cost taxpayers, and because two years of records are gone, we have only a partial picture of those costs, said Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. On June 5, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Gessler, who challenged the ethics commission s jurisdiction over a complaint filed in 2012 that claimed Gessler had misappropriated funds. The commission ruled that Gessler had violated the state s ethics law and ordered him to pay a fine of $1, That fine has yet to be paid, according to responses to Colorado Politics open-records requests and review of court records. Gessler and his most recent law firm had not responded to s asking about the fine at press time. The estimated legal costs for attorneys on Gessler s side and for the attorney general s staff in representing the commission total about $502,507, based on responses to open records requests and other information. The reason that s an estimate: The Secretary of State s office could not provide copies of legal bills prior to July 1, The matter had been racking up legal bills since October 2012, when the first complaint was filed with the ethics commission by Colorado Ethics Watch, which has since closed. Gessler was secretary of state from 2011 until January 2015, when Wayne Williams took over the post. The complaint stemmed from a trip Gessler took to Sarasota, Florida, in 2012 to attend a seminar hosted by the Republican National Lawyers Association. The day after the twoday seminar ended, on Aug. 26, Gessler went to the Republican National Convention in Tampa. According to court documents, the cost of Gessler s airfare and lodging to Sarasota was $1, Gessler paid for it out of a discretionary fund within the Secretary of State s Office. He also directed his staff to give him whatever funds were remaining in the discretionary account, about $117.99, without providing receipts for those funds. The ethics commission ruled in January 2013 that Gessler s trip was for partisan political purposes and that his acceptance of the remaining discretionary money without providing receipts was for personal use. It levied a fine against Gessler for $1, A month later, a Denver District Court judge put a hold on paying the fine until the legal case was resolved. Court hearings continued until June 5, 2018, with the Denver District Court, the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court each ruling against Gessler. Colorado Politics filed a series of open records requests for all legal bills related to the Gessler lawsuit, both with the ethics commission and the Secretary of State s Office, which covered all of Gessler s legal bills for the outside counsel used during the four years the case was moving through the courts, even after he left his office in January When asked by Colorado Politics why the first two yeas of legal expenses were not available, the Secretary of State s Office cited a records retention policy of maintaining records of the current year and the previous two years before disposal. It s not clear exactly when the records were disposed of. Colorado Politics did obtain copies of the Secretary of State s Office s legal bills dated from July 1, 2014, through June 30, 2017, the month in which the final Supreme Court hearing on the Gessler matter took place. The final tally came with help from John Tomasic, who filed CORA requests on behalf of the Colorado Independent in In August 2015, the Colorado Independent reported that the legal costs on both sides, from 2012 through July 1, 2015, then totaled $343,473, based on responses to open records requests they filed with the secretary of state and the Attorney General s Office. Colorado Politics used that data, as well as information provided through recent responses to open records requests from the Attorney General s Office and the secretary of state, to come up with a final estimate of $502,507. As to Gessler s fine: a Denver District Court judge put a hold on the fine in February 2013, according to court records. That stay was to remain in place until the case reached its final resolution, which happened on June 5. Once the lawsuit was resolved at the state Supreme Court level, laws of court procedure say the stay is automatically lifted and Gessler is now responsible for paying the fine. Then there s the matter of the Secretary of State s Office destroying records related to an active lawsuit. Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert told Colorado Politics that the state s record retention policy contains no exception for ongoing lawsuits. But that view appears to be in conflict with Colorado State Archives, the agency designated with coming up with retention schedules for records pertaining to state agencies. Its policies state that no record shall be destroyed under this schedule authority so long as it pertains to any pending legal case, claim, action or audit. Staiert told Colorado Politics that her office did not ignore a directive. The exemption to records destruction relates to a court rule requiring parties to retain all discoverable documents in cases that have been filed or where a filing is anticipated, she said. Legal bills in defense of a case are not evidence in the case and are not subject to preservation, Staiert added. But Roberts, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition executive, told Colorado Politics that three years does not seem like a long time to retain records related to a lawsuit. Those things can go on for years, he said. State Sen. John Kefalas, Democrat of Fort Collins, said he was also troubled by the disposal of the legal records. We want to make sure the taxpayers know how their money is spent, especially with a lawsuit, he said.

19 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 19 Colo. gets 25 laws taking effect in July BY JOEY BUNCH Colorado Politics From squatters to swatters and $29 billion, the Colorado state budget and 25 laws take effect July 1. They are the products of the 120-day legislative session that ended in May, when lawmakers passed 432 rules and regulations about 60 percent of those introduced after the session began in January and Gov. John Hickenlooper vetoed nine. The new state budget included an unexpected surplus this year, because of the state s growing economy and a windfall from federal tax changes that disqualified some state income tax deductions. Lawmakers put more money into education, transportation and shoring up the state s public employees pension, which faced a $32 billion shortfall, enough to crater the state s credit rating and hurt its economy. House Bill 1256 puts to rest a contentious statehouse fight by reauthorizing the Colorado Civil Rights Division and Commission, a panel accused of bias against religion. That reputed bias was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in turning over one of the Colorado s panel s decisions this month. In a narrow ruling, the high court said the Colorado commission showed bias in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. The Civil Rights Division said Lakewood baker Jack Phillips exhibited discrimination by refusing to make a custom wedding cake for a same sex couple in 2012, because of his religious beliefs. Last session, legislative Republicans demanded changes. After a partisan battle royale of negotiation, the seven-member commission was reauthorized for nine years with some new rules and minor changes in how appointees are chosen. Several of the new laws deal with safety and justice: Senate Bill 15 makes it easier for law enforcement to get rid of so-called squatters who refuse to leave property once the owner asks. The bill was sponsored by four Colorado Springs Republicans Sens. Bob Gardner and Owen Hill with Reps. Larry Liston and Dave Williams who made a successful case that squatters are a big problem for deployed military families who leave their vacant homes behind, when sometimes strangers break in and take up residence. In other cases, it s a house guest or a scammer who won t leave. They can claim to be a renter and buy themselves weeks or even months before the courts could force them out. Those who testified for the bill offered numerous examples. The measure gives law enforcement shorter windows COURTESY OF THE GOVERNOR S OFFICE Gov. John Hickenlooper signs House Bill 1256 into law on May 22. The bill reauthorizes the state s civil rights agency. and more authority to evict and remove someone when a complaint is signed by a property owner. The property owner accepts legal liability, including attorneys fees, if they re not telling the truth. Senate Bill 68 turns making prank calls that attract a large-scale police and rescue response a potential felony, increasing the maximum fine from $5,000 to $750,000. The game is called swatting, because the goal is often to attract a SWAT team. House Bill 1264 sews up loopholes in the state s four-year-old laws that criminalized revenge porn, the use of private, often sexual materials to blackmail or harass someone else. House Bill 1050 addresses how children with mental illness are assessed and assigned in the juvenile justice system. Sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, and Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, the new law creates a juvenile-specific definition of competent to proceed and incompetent to proceed for juveniles involved in the juvenile justice system, as well as context-specific definitions for developmental disability, mental capacity and mental disability. House Bill 1051 toughens the penalties on those who leave campfires unattended, an attempt to curb the threat of Colorado s massive wildfires. In the past, the maximum punishment was a $50 fine. Starting July 1, those who neglect or do a poor job of dousing a campfire on state forests and other public lands could pay up to $750 and spend a year in jail. The offense graduates from a class 2 petty offense to a class 3 misdemeanor. The new law also removes the requirement that counties post notices related to unattended campfires. More laws will take effect in about six weeks. Freshly minted laws take NATURAL GAS KEEPS YOU effect at staggered intervals. While July 1 is one of those target dates, because of the new state budget cycle, Aug. 8 brings the most new codes onto the books. That date represents 90 days past the end of the legislative session on May 9. Ninety days is set by the state constitution to give citizens the right to suspend the new law and appeal the matter to the ballot. Some bills are awarded a safety clause, meaning they aren t subject to petition or repeal, and they can be assigned an effective date, or they can become effective as soon as the governor signs them. Colorado s oil and natural gas industry is leading the way with affordable energy, increased job creation and a cleaner environment. POWERING CLEAN, RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE ELECTRICITY. TEXT ENERGY TO TO LEARN MORE NOTE: Message and data rates may apply. Text HELP for more info, STOP to opt-out. Copyright 2018 American Petroleum Institute (API), all rights reserved. DM PDF Anniversary 20 years of producing winning results. 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20 20 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 opinion THE PODIUM PROMINENT POLITICAL PLAYERS ADDRESS KEY COLORADO ISSUES If you don t know Jack; you should Jack Phillips the man at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court s hotly debated ruling in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case is a good, decent, and honorable man. OPINION JEREMY TEDESCO You likely won t discover that if you Google Jack or his case. Instead, you ll all too often find unflattering portrayals based on ugly stereotypes about people of Baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, manages his shop on June 4 in Lakewood. faith. Nothing could be further from the truth. I ve represented Jack for the past five years. During that time I ve gotten to know him personally. What I discovered is a man of simple yet profound faith that impacts every aspect of his life. A man we d all be lucky to call friend and that I thankfully do. My initial insight into Jack s character occurred during my first visit to his shop in Lakewood. As he climbed out of an old clunker of a minivan, I engaged him in some idle chitchat about minivans. He mentioned that he owns a newer one (still at least a decade old), but that he had loaned it to someone in need. Revealing my own sad materialism, I asked why he hadn t lent out his run-down vehicle. He told me about a previous situation in which he agreed to lend a car to a family in need. As he drove to their house to drop off his clunker, God convinced him that he needed to give them his best. He turned around, got his more reliable car, and dropped it off instead. He always lends people his best car now. This is Jack. A man guided by a genuine faith that drives him to treat everyone regardless of belief, background, or status with love and respect. You can see the authenticity of his faith in the way he treats his customers. Jack is reserved and quiet a man of few words until a customer enters his shop. He lights up then. He s often on a first-name basis with his customers and chats them up like long-time friends. I marvel at how much Jack knows about each customer and how frequently people linger just to have a good conversation with someone who obviously cares. Jack is right at home speaking with a diversity of people. He takes as much time getting to know the homeless people who frequent his shop as he does his paying customers. He always gives them a warm smile, a hot coffee, a delicious confection, and good conversation regardless of whether they can pay. He also makes sure their needs are met by recommending shelters and other homeless services that can help get them back on their feet. In typical Jack fashion, the first person he told that the Supreme Court had agreed to hear his case was one of his homeless friends who happened to be at the shop when the news came down. The authenticity of Jack s faith is also evident in how he approaches his artistic talents. From the moment he opened Masterpiece Cakeshop, he committed to using those talents in a God-honoring way. From this, Jack adopted a simple rule: He serves all customers but can t create cakes that express messages or celebrate events that conflict with his faith. Over the years, this rule has caused Jack to decline many cakes requests including cakes disparaging gays and lesbians; cakes promoting atheism, racism, and indecency; cakes with anti-american messages; cakes celebrating divorce; and many more. For nearly two decades, he faithfully applied his rule to every request and never had trouble until he declined to create a custom wedding cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. That decision is what ultimately landed him before the Supreme Court. Millions of good and decent people of faith Christian and non-christian alike share Jack s view that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. Like Jack, they want to live authentic religious lives. But to do so, they need to have the freedom to be true to all the beliefs that are core to their religious identity, not just those the government deems acceptable. Thankfully, the Supreme Court s message to Jack Phillips and the millions of people who share his views on marriage is that they belong in our society, right alongside those who view marriage differently that it s wrong for the government to target and punish them for their beliefs. And the court sent a message to the rest of us as well: that tolerance and respect for those who disagree with us remains a vital commitment in our society. I wish you knew Jack. I think you d really like him if you just had the chance to get to know him over a coffee and brownie. Folks like him shouldn t be harassed and punished by the government because of their faith. Just like the Supreme Court said. Jeremy Tedesco serves as senior counsel and vice president of U.S. Advocacy and Administration for Alliance Defending Freedom. Dark echoes of Camp Amache at the border It was windy the day I walked among the ruins, but it s almost always windy there. Row after row of foundations all that OPINION HAL BIDLACK remains of the hundreds of buildings that once stood on over 600 acres of high plains Colorado east of Lamar. The Granada War Relocation Center better known as Camp Amache once imprisoned 10,000 Americans. These citizens were guilty of nothing more than looking different from what 1942 America thought Americans ought to look like. We as a nation did not lock up German-Americans or Italian-Americans, but we did intern Japanese-Americans by the thousands. That shame, that blemish on our history, arrived in our beautiful Colorado on an August day in 1942 when the camp opened, and hundreds of dislocated Americans were placed inside a barbed-wire fence and under the gaze of eight watchtowers equipped with machine guns. On another August day 75 years later, I found myself alone among the foundations, walking through our history and into a wind that nearly always blows on that remote hilltop. A lone building remains, a reconstruction to show visitors what these Americans once faced. A water tower and a single guard tower also stand vigil over what stands as one of our nation s most shameful episodes. A few weeks ago, former House Speaker John Boehner lamented the end of what he called the Republican Party he knew. He said, there is no Republican Party. There s a Trump Party The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere. Mr. Boehner is no liberal, fake media, heart on his sleeve, leftie. Rather, he is a life-long Republican who rose to the most important legislative position in our government. And yet he worries about the path of his party as it finds itself tied to a president who seems unmoored from any moral code. Which is how we found ourselves learning about Mr. Trump s decision to order children to be taken from their parents if those parents are deemed to have illegally come into the United States. Now, there have been quite a few lies told about this situation, and frankly, more hyperbole than is helpful, but some things are very clear. And the Trump White House has been doing nearly all the lying. First off, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, among others, has been touting the alleged fact (alternate fact?) that Mr. Trump has only been following the precedents set by former presidents Bush and Obama, in terms of separating kids from parents. Yes, it is true that both former presidents did oversee occasional family breakups. But these were only in cases where there appeared to be a danger to the children from the parents, such as violent offenders or drug runners. Former officials have stated that such separations happened roughly every six months or so. Hardly what we see happening now. Next, Mr. Trump claims that he must follow the law, strongly implying that the law says kids must be taken away from their parents. Again, a bit of truth, but only in the case of violent felons. Guess what? Crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor. Should children be taken away from parents who commit misdemeanors? Parking tickets? Oh, and while we re at it, a number of those people who lost their kids did not cross illegally. They presented themselves at the border asking for asylum. That is not crossing the border illegally. These are people fleeing horrible violence at home. They came looking for a better life, and we took their kids. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump who had claimed U.S. law forced him to take the kids decided that he had been wrong (lying?) the whole time, and issued an order saying to not break up families. So which was it, Sir? Were you lying or are you now breaking the law? We ll see how quickly you reunite families and if you truly stop seizing babies. The winds that blow at Amache are the voice of a cautionary tale of where we can end up when we forget who we are as a nation. The cries of never again are now drowned out by the cries of little children. We ve built tent cities to house these children. Think about that sentence and think about what this country is supposed to stand for. The winds still blow at Amache, but now it is the sound of tears. Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

21 June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 21 opinion COLORADO EDITORIALS The number of reporters covering state legislatures was down 35 percent between 2003 and GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK THE DAILY SENTINEL, GRAND JUNCTION Newspapers are shrinking and communities are suffering Not having reporters at government meetings is like a teacher leaving her room of 7th graders to supervise themselves. Best case scenario: Tiffany gets gum in her hair. Worst case scenario: You no longer have a school. John Oliver, host, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver How accountable would government be if there weren t newspaper reporters poking around and asking questions? Unfortunately, there s a growing body of evidence to suggest an answer; and it s not pretty. The quote above came from the popular HBO series, which despite being a comedy show, does a good job of explaining social challenges related to current events. Oliver s 2016 riff on the importance of local journalism actually inspired a university-level researcher to wonder if there was a measurable societal cost associated with dwindling (if not altogether disappearing) reporting resources at newspapers across the country. Bell, California, offers perhaps the most egregious example of stress-free graft in the absence of a local newspaper. Authorities said the working-class Los Angeles-area city of 36,000 was looted of more than $5.5 million by a number of officials, including the city manager, who was giving himself an annual salary and benefits package of $1.5 million. An audit by the state controller s office found Bell illegally raised property taxes, business license fees, sewage fees and trash collection fees; illegally diverted gas taxes and other state and federal funds; and issued $50 million in voter-approved municipal bonds for a public park that was never built, according to The Associated Press. A good portion of that money, auditors found, went into the salaries and pensions of the top officials. Stories like this have impacted communities in insidious ways beyond the fleecing by corrupt officials. Dermot Murphy, a finance professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, co-authored a study of 1,600 daily newspapers serving more than 1,200 counties across the country between 1996 and Researchers found that lenders classified cities without a strong journalistic presence as riskier investments because of the possibility that corruption could go undiscovered, according to Colorado Public Radio, which interviewed Murphy this week. The riskier the municipality, the higher the interest rates on bonds and loans. That s a cost passed on to taxpayers. As newspapers struggle to make up for revenues lost to digital platforms that emphasize infotainment over hard local news, we can expect the potential for corruption to grow. The number of reporters covering state legislatures was down 35 percent between 2003 and Until newspapers regain their financial footing, the public remains vulnerable to shenanigans. The next 10 to 15 years in this country is going to be a halcyon era for state and local political corruption, said David Simon, a former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of The Wire. Every time you see a legislative bill that attempts to leave a local government s financial disclosures out of the newspaper, consider who benefits. Government corruption is much more alluring when no one is watching. AURORA SENTINEL Adding DACA reform to the fall ballot After decades of angst and political histrionics over immigrants entering the country illegally and elusive reform, change still eludes America. The country has actually been closer than ever to coming to grips with the need to enact comprehensive immigration reform. Congress, again, appears ready to resolve the issue of children who ve lived here illegally almost their entire lives. We have little faith this Congress or this president is capable of doing anything but making a bad situation worse. Former President Barack Obama compelled the country onto a path of common sense and decency in 2012 when he imposed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals by executive order. The measure gives children raised in the United States, brought here illegally by their parents, a reprieve from the threat of deportation. Obama had no choice but to impose the awkward rules because a GOP-controlled Congress held hostage by farright party extremists has, for years, refused to enact realistic immigration reform. While illegal-immigrant adults are still suffering in political purgatory, at least those children who qualify for the DACA program have been shown some mercy. It s a no-brainer. These children have known nothing but life in the United States, and they bear no responsibility for finding themselves in the affliction they are unfairly punished for. Because of Obama s DACA order, millions of children now have the opportunity for education and jobs, helping themselves and their families, and helping all of America. The logic behind the program is so compelling that even stalwart tea-party type Republicans who once wailed and railed against it as an executive order have been falling behind DACA as likely legislative action. In reality, a Senate paralyzed by Trump Republicans, bent on pushing through cruel, senseless and dangerous attempts to evict as many immigrants living in the country illegally as possible, will stymie a DACA bill. Rather than fear the wrath of an overwhelming majority of Americans who demand sensible immigration reform, these senators fear the Trump loyalists and President Donald Trump himself. It s but one more reason that the November elections will become a referendum on a laundry list of issues, including immigration, abortion rights, health care, Social Security, and, most likely, Trump s impeachment. Perhaps a starkly new Congress can finally get the immigration reform job done. This one won t. With so much growing bipartisan support, even if Trump decides to abandon the program, and even if Texas and eight other states make good on suing to end DACA, an overwhelming push to make it permanent is likely inevitable. It s not enough. Despite the shrill, xenophobic dramatics by Trump and his dwindling fan base, the reality of America s illegal immigration problem is inescapable. This is about jobs. People come here for jobs, legally and illegally. And while some conservatives and Republicans fume bravado about deportations and making life so hard that we chase unwanted immigrants out of the country, the reality is that numerous American businesses know that labor from immigrants living in the country illegally is critical to their industry and the American economy. With newfound wisdom and compassion, it s time to build on the momentum created by resolving DACA and push through other components of a comprehensive answer to the immigration quagmire. The country doesn t have to provide a path to citizenship to every immigrant living in the country illegally. But we must provide a path to legal status. By offering work permits and visas, we can properly tax working residents fairly. By creating substantial penalties for businesses caught employing workers who are in the country illegally, we can force the country into a workable immigration solution. But first, there has to be a solution to work toward.

22 22 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 opinion ON COLORADO ISSUES JARED WRIGHT, COLORADO POLITICS DREW LITTON, SPECIAL TO COLORADO POLITICS Bill s failure a setback for mental health Take responsibility for incarceration OPINION KENT LAMBERT When a bill passes the statehouse with overwhelming bipartisan support, but is killed through the guile of a small minority that refuses to compromise and would rather see taxpayer dollars held hostage, we don t need lectures from the saboteurs about how a mythical impasse resulted in the bill s failure. Yet, that is what has transpired since the death of SB18-252, which was intended to provide mental health services to sick Coloradans who are being held in jail, awaiting a bed at the over-capacity state mental health institute. The fact is that a single term-limited senator engaged in a filibuster in the waning minutes of the 2018 legislative session to prohibit a vote, which blocked the clear bipartisan legislative intent to pass a solution requested and strongly supported by Gov. Hickenlooper. That doesn t reflect a desire to negotiate in good faith. That s an attitude of my way or the highway, which will continue the rancorous legal warfare that first got us into this mess. Currently, the backlog for competency restorations at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP) is tremendous. The 449-bed state facility is at capacity and daily has anywhere between pre-trial detainees waiting for over 28 days to begin restoration services. Since 2000, Colorado has seen a 431 percent increase in demand for competency evaluations and a 930 percent increase in demand for restoration services. This backlog is harmful to the waiting defendant, to individuals who need extensive services but can t be admitted to CMHIP because of lack of capacity, and to taxpayers who foot the bill it costs the state over $670 per day for restoration services at CMHIP. Many of the individuals waiting for admittance do not require an inpatient level of care and could be restored to competency in a more cost-effective and clinically appropriate setting, either in the community or through a jail-based outpatient program. To explain this issue in terms of physical health care it would be as if our healthcare system would only treat someone with a broken arm in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and expected the taxpayers to pay the bill. After working on this problem for over five years, we tried a new approach. Senate bills 249, 250, 251, and 252 were introduced by the Joint Budget Committee and members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees to substantially improve the delivery of mental health services. Three of those bills have already been signed by the governor, but the most important of the four, SB-252 was killed by Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, who deliberately prohibited the Senate from voting on its conference committee report. SB-252 would have applied almost $2 million to reform the process of competency determinations and treatments, and would have helped ensure that defendants are treated in the most appropriate setting. Although SB-252 wasn t perfect, it was a landmark bipartisan approach to address problems that the state might otherwise be fined for up to $50 million in federal court. The bill passed the Senate unanimously, passed the House 48-17, and was supported by Gov. Hickenlooper. Opposition came from Disability Law Colorado (DLC) and others who are interjecting themselves into the legislative process to block the solutions needed. In a recent letter, DLC claimed, we worked hard to find a compromise, and, the parties came to an impasse [...] that resulted in the bill s failure. These statements are complete distortions. Disability Law Colorado, the same group that is suing the state, is also working against a solution that would represent a good faith effort by the state. The people of Colorado deserve and should expect better than this. Unfortunately, those who would have benefited from this legislation were used as pawns in a board game. We are hopeful that the courts will recognize that the state has attempted to solve a problem that has been building for years, and that those who blocked the legislation possibly to their legal benefit are part of the problem rather than the solution. Kent Lambert is a Republican state senator from El Paso County. I was deeply offended by Sen. Kent Lambert s opinion article (elsewhere on the page) impugning my motives for defeating, by filibuster, Senate Bill on the closing day of the session. Passage of this bill would have made Colorado the OPINION IRENE AGUILAR only state in the nation to legally permit keeping non-convicted people with severe mental illness in jails for up to five months. Even now, the state is holding people with mental illness in jail for lengthy periods of time, infringing on their civil liberties and in direct contradiction to a 2012 federal agreement. This agreement prohibits the state from confining those with severe mental illness, who have been accused but not convicted, for more than 28 days in jail. They are being held because our state does not have the capacity to evaluate their competence to stand trial, or, once they are found incompetent, to provide adequate treatment to restore them to competence in a timely fashion. When the legislative session ended, 269 Coloradans were jailed in 23 different counties, and held for up to 139 days. What Senator Lambert fails to understand is that premier forensic psychologists maintain that people with significant mental illness need to be in a therapeutic environment to receive adequate treatment and evaluation. The inherent conflict of being in jail precludes people with severe mental illness from being able to respond to clinical intervention. This opinion was affirmed by the state s own expert, Dr. Joel Dvoskin. Both Senator Lambert and the governor s office were aware of our expert s view, though this information was not shared with the rest of the legislature. As a physician, I can tell you that this is shoddy medical care. To quote the nation s leading expert, Dr. Neil Gowensmith, treating people with mental illness in jails is in opposition to scientific evidence, recommendations from the American Bar Association, recommendations from the National Judicial Council, and any current practice employed in any state in our country. As an advocate for Colorado citizens, I was not willing to legalize a medically unsound practice for people with severe mental illness. It is time for the State of Colorado to take responsibility for our people. The state must find and hire mental health professionals who can perform community-based assessments and treatment on those wrongfully jailed in a timely manner. The state needs to comply with the court order and provide this service within 28 days of an order for evaluation and treatment, not 150 days. The State of Colorado must treat all people with the dignity and respect they deserve and respect their right to freedom. Sen. Irene Aguilar is a Denver Democrat.

23 Methane rule safeguards health The Bureau of Land Management s Methane Waste and Prevention Rule is the epitome of common sense. It requires oil and gas companies that maintain operations on tribal and federal public lands land that is OPINION MICHELLE NEUENSCHWANDER technically owned by the nation s taxpayers to use modern and cost-effective technologies to cut waste. This includes stopping leaks and ending the practice of burning off commonly referred to as flaring the natural gas. In 2016, the BLM held a public hearing in Denver regarding the rule that was under consideration for implementation. The process taken to adopt the methane rule was transparent and fair; over 300,000 people commented in its favor. Not surprising, when you consider that in 2017, a bipartisan pair of pollsters found that 81 percent of voters in western states were supportive of adopting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) methane waste rule. The rule succeeded in being adopted by the BLM and even survived an attempt by Congress to remove it from law. However, the Trump administration has turned its sights on the rule as it has proposed changes that would gut the rule without any form of public input. While there are some basic financial arguments that show why the rule should be maintained oil and gas companies operating on federal and tribal lands are wasting more than $330 million worth of natural gas nationwide each year the focus on health is more disconcerting. When natural gas, primarily in the form of methane, is released into the air, so too are harmful pollutants such as benzene, which are linked to cancer, and other ozone-forming pollutants that can trigger asthma attacks and worsen emphysema. Latinos are disproportionately affected by the health impacts of oil and gas development in fact 1.81 million Latinos live within a half mile of existing facilities. The National Hispanic Medical Association and LULAC report, Latino Communities At Risk: The Impact of Air Pollution from the Oil and Gas Industry, found that many Latino communities face an elevated risk of cancer due to toxic air emissions from oil and gas development. The oil and gas industry continues to expand, especially in states like Colorado and in places that have large and growing Latino populations. To make matters worse, NASA announced in 2014 that they had found a methane hot-spot the size of Delaware hovering over the Four Corners region and that oil and gas operations were major contributors to the methane plume. Pollution from these operations will only degrade air quality further. Greater protections for our nation s public lands will help address some of the larger health issues that affect our community as a whole. We can t continue ignoring these problems. Change begins when we acknowledge we are dealing with an issue, in this case, one that affects our health, our pockets and most important, our planet. We must not abandon rules that ensure that air quality doesn t harm our children and communities. We have a moral obligation to our generation and the generations that follow. There is no excuse to not modernize oil and gas development, especially when our health and safety hang in the balance. Michelle Neuenschwander is associate director, Youth Development Initiatives, for the Hispanic Access Foundation. CLAY BENNETT, CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS For years, national environmental activist groups have camped out in Boulder and the suburbs of Boulder, running a series of local campaigns against the oil and gas industry. From this corner of the state, they have tried to stage a much bigger campaign to drive June 29, 2018 Colorado Politics 23 oil and gas out of Colorado. But the activists have struggled because at the risk of stating the obvious Colorado isn t a big college town. To see this dynamic in action, consider two recent actions by local officials in Commerce City and Aurora concerning oil and natural gas development. In Commerce City, activist groups were pushing local officials to impose a six-month moratorium on oil and gas permitting. But when the proposal was placed on the city council s agenda, energy workers and their supporters turned out in force to speak against the de facto ban. Any ban on fracking is bad for Adams County, it s bad for Colorado and it s bad for America, one energy worker told the city council s June 4 meeting. Members of the Pipefitters Local 208 a union with strong connections to the energy sector and other industries supported by oil and gas development were also vocal opponents of the proposed six-month moratorium. Taking a six-month break on an entire industry is going to have a tremendous negative impact on those workers, a union representative told the council. In response, the council voted 7-1 to table the proposed moratorium indefinitely. On the same night in Aurora, anti-oil and gas activists were handed defeat again, with local officials rejecting a proposed overhaul of the city s Oil and Gas Advisory Committee. Environmental groups and other activist organizations targeted the Aurora City Council in last November s election, and for the candidates they supported, remaking the oil and gas advisory committee has been a major priority. The proposal would have reduced the representation of oil and gas industry officials and surface property owners on the advisory committee. But it was defeated in a 6-4 vote after supporters of the proposal rejected a compromise to increase the size of the committee and add new members rather than just kick people off. These two votes on the same night expose a massive problem for national anti-oil and gas groups like Food & Water Watch and 350.org in Colorado. opinion Anti-oil and gas push stalls outside Boulder OPINION SIMON LOMAX GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK.COM It s easy to talk about banning an entire sector of the Colorado economy, and to propose taking away the livelihoods of thousands of working families, when you re in a college town or the affluent suburbs nearby. Take that same message to Commerce City or Aurora communities with a much higher percentage of working-class families who don t take good-paying jobs for granted and people will call you out. They see no reason why blue-collar workers and their families, some working in oil and gas and many more working in industries supported by oil and gas, should lose their jobs to appease the political views of college towns like Boulder or the political views of keep it in the ground activist groups from the East and West coasts. These communities are much more representative of the state as a whole than the wealthy communities in and around Boulder where anti-oil and gas groups do most of their campaigning. Therefore, anti-oil and gas activists have historically hit a wall of bipartisan opposition whenever they try to take their campaign statewide. This isn t a new trend, nor is it unique to Colorado. During the 2016 election, construction unions were openly critical of environmental activist groups and their wealthy donors for opposing an all-of-the-above energy policy that not only creates good union jobs, but offers to keep the lights on and meet our nation s energy needs even as we transition to a cleaner, more sustainable future, according to The New York Times. To be sure, there s no room for complacency about proposed oil and gas bans, ballot measures and other activist campaigns targeting the state energy sector. Locally produced and affordable energy is critical to workers, business owners, household budgets and every sector of the state economy. We must not take it for granted. Simon Lomax is a research fellow with Vital for Colorado, a coalition of business, civic and economic development leaders supporting energy production in Colorado.

24 24 Colorado Politics June 29, 2018 a look back Suthers attorney general bid stuttered by civil suit BY RACHAEL WRIGHT Colorado Politics Twenty years ago: It s a frivolous case, said John Suthers, referring to a civil suit filed against him during his run for Colorado attorney general. The lawsuit alleged that Suthers violated ethics standards while functioning as a private attorney when he referred a civil suit to the Fourth Judicial District Attorney s Office asking for a criminal investigation. The referral was legal, but the lawsuit questioned the former district attorney s motives and influence within the justice system. It s dirty politics, said Suthers. He went on to express confidence that he would be vindicated in court, the outcome of which wouldn t be determined until January But Suthers was less certain about the electoral jury of thousands that might be swayed by the many provocative headlines. These charges raise grave concerns about my opponent s judgment and ethics as a lawyer, said Suthers s opponent Joe Smith in a press release. Suthers needs to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth and fast, before Republican primary voters go to the polls on August 1. The Bellus v. Suthers lawsuit was filed by the family of a THE GAZETTE FILE John Suthers was the Colorado Attorney General in woman accused of embezzling at least $88,000 from the Child Development Center of Colorado Springs. Suthers was legal counsel for the CDC in the civil action against Terry Sanoff until he was targeted by the lawsuit. The details of Suthers s case seemed pulled from the pages of a conspiracy novel. In January 1997, Sanoff, a CDC founder and director, was suspected of misusing and mismanaging the center s finances. While Sanoff was on administrative leave with pay until the outcome of an independent audit, she sued the CDC for wrongful termination, slander, false imprisonment, outrageous conduct and civil conspiracy. The CDC terminated Sanoff in early February 1997 based on the findings of the audit that, according to court documents, found substantial evidence that Ms. Sanoff had converted as much as $88,000 from CDC during The CDC board of directors retained Suthers, who a few weeks earlier, had completed his terms as Fourth Judicial district attorney and rejoined the Sparks, Dix Law Firm. A member of the CDC board, Tami Lamphere, was married to Rich Lamphere, who worked under Suthers when he was district attorney. On CDC s behalf, Suthers sent a letter to David Zook, chief deputy in charge of the Economic Crime Division of the Fourth Judicial District Attorney s Office, requesting a criminal investigation of the theft. It was standard practice for an attorney to request a criminal investigation into cases such as embezzlement, and could be considered negligent not to do so. But because of Suther s previous employment as DA, his letter became the cornerstone of two lawsuits filed by Sanoff s husband, David Bellus, which charged the CDC, Suthers and Sparks Dix Law Firm each individually with abuse of power. There is nothing inappropriate about [Suthers s] letter when that attorney has substantial evidence that crime has been committed, explained Craig Silverman, former prosecutor with the Denver DA s office. There are ethical limitations about using a criminal case in a way that is considered extorting a civil judgment. Ten years ago: Outgoing Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-CD6, tore into Democratic U.S. Senator Ken Salazar for opposing offshore oil drilling and accused him of flip-flopping on the issue. Senator Salazar may as well be John Kerry in a cowboy hat, Tancredo said. He was for expanded offshore drilling before he was against it. Maybe Senator Salazar should stick to potato farming, since he has no grasp of economics or energy policy. Tancredo s attack came a day after Salazar criticized President George W. Bush for suggesting that allowing more offshore drilling would help solve the country s energy problems and reduce high gas prices. Salazar called such measures unhelpful. Salazar offered an alternative to offshore drilling by pointing to undeveloped federal land. There are 68 million acres of leased but inactive federal land that have the potential to produce an additional 4.8 million barrels of oil and 44.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. This would nearly double total U.S. oil production, and increase natural gas production by 75 percent. Tancredo countered by citing a Wall Street Journal statistic that said only 2.3 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf was under development due to an environmentalist Congress. Matt Lee-Ashley, Salazar s new communications director, responded, This is the type of irrational, ill-informed hot air everyone has come to expect of Representative Tancredo In his remaining days in office, Mr. Tancredo should focus on serving the people of the 6th Congressional District. Lee-Ashley also stated that the senator s position had remained consisted over the years regarding offshore drilling, and that he was interested in developing domestic fossil fuel resources both on and offshore. Rachael Wright is a Colorado-based author of three novels and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics. POLITICAL PARTIES American Constitution Party Approval Voting Party Mark all the candidates yea or nay; most YEAS win at the end of the day. 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