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The big question on Colorado’s police accountability bill, Senate Bill 217, was never “Will it pass?”
Of course it will. From the moment Democrats announced this bill before a sea of anti-racist demonstrators outside the Capitol, it was clear that a legislative response to these protests was not optional. There are too many people counting on one, and the issue is too important. This bill has to pass.
The real question: to what extent will the bill get watered down?
And the answer, so far: not much.
There have been a lot of amendments, but some have actually strengthened the bill. My Capitol beat partner, Saja Hindi, has the latest on that here.
As of this writing, SB-217 is two or three votes and a governor’s signature away from becoming law, having won nearly unanimous support — the vote was 32-1 — in the Senate.
That margin means a whole lot of “law and order” Republicans, including one former sheriff, voted for the bill. In normal times, the skeptic in me would infer from that fact that the bill can’t be too strong. But it really is.
Don’t believe me? Take it from Elisabeth Epps, the tireless activist and founder of Colorado’s best-known bail fund.
“This bill has not been weakened. It doesn’t go far enough” — she seeks to abolish police, not to reform the institution — “but it’s not been weakened,” Epps told me a couple days ago.
Thatap right: Colorado’s most prominent abolitionist is comfortable with the same bill as nearly every Senate Republican. Strange times.
The lawmakers in this building seem to have found a political will that, on this topic, simply did not exist as recently as two weeks ago. Itap impossible to watch whatap going on here and not conclude that the protests worked.
In today’s Spot, I also dig into the real story of Colorado’s vaccine bill, Cindi Andrews writes on Hick v. Romanoff and Conrad Swanson examines Denver governmentap response to the protests.
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You can send tips, comments and questions to me at aburness@denverpost.com or to the other Post reporters below.
Top Line
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck of Windsor must defend actions he took as Colorado Republican Party chairman or face a possible investigation by a state office that oversees attorneys’ conduct.
Capitol Diary • By Alex Burness
Vaccine bill will pass, but opponents shouldn’t weep
When the Colorado House voted for the pro-vaccine bill on second reading this week, yellow-shirted opponents, all unmasked and some toting children, shouted their disapproval from the gallery.
“We will vote you out!” one of them cried to the Democrats below.
The opponents of this bill are furious about it. They’ve rallied at the Capitol on more days than I can count since January, and over the past weekend at least a thousand of them, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., gathered to speak out ahead of and during a House committee hearing on the bill.
By the end of today, the bill will almost certainly have received final passage from the legislature, which means it’ll just need the signature of the governor — a famously both-sides guy, in this area — to become law.
I’d argue that this bill is not a defeat for the vaccine opponents, though they clearly aren’t looking at it that way.
Here’s why I say that: Colorado is dead last in the country for childhood immunization rates. The science on the benefits of vaccines is clear, and the vast majority of Coloradans recognize that, according to polling.
And yet, it has taken a Democrat-controlled General Assembly two years to muster support to pass a bill that allows parents to… still not vaccinate their kids.
This year’s bill preserves the right to nonmedical exemptions. You just have to take an online education course first. The opponents aren’t happy about that, but the bottom line is that no parent is going to be forced to watch a needle be plunged into their kid, even after this bill passes.
Other states have stricter policies; some allow no exemptions except for medical reasons. Colorado lawmakers have concluded that this is not a legislative option here, which is a credit to A) the governor’s stated “pro-choice” stance on vaccines and B) the fervent activism of the vaccine bill’s opponents.
The bill is going to become law. But the bill’s sponsors are under no illusion that itap a particularly tough piece of legislation. It isn’t. Itap a modest proposal that seeks to lift Colorado from the bottom of national immunization rate rankings, but it offers zero guarantee that’ll happen.
I call that a win for the opponents.
More Colorado political news
- Gallagher repeal moves forward. Pay attention to this, because you might be voting on it soon.
- Colorado state Sen. Rob Woodward apologizes for saying “colored people” and “step on the neck.”
- Colorado voters will decide on a 22-week abortion ban this fall
- COVID-19 rules threaten parents’ bonds with their kids in foster care
- Vaccine bill needs just one more vote to pass out of the legislature
#COSen 2020 • By Cindi Andrews
Last debate in suddenly spicy Senate primary
After two remote debates between Democrats John Hickenlooper and Andrew Romanoff, the two U.S. Senate candidates will square off in person Tuesday as Denver 7, The Denver Post, Colorado Public Radio and the University of Denver’s Center on American Politics host the final debate of the primary.
This won’t be the debate we initially envisioned in so many ways. The pandemic means there will be no live audience, and the events of the past two weeks — Hickenlooper’s ethics hearing and George Floyd’s death and the subsequent protests — will give the candidates a lot to talk about.
It also will be interesting to see if the candidates interact with each other differently when they’re in the same room with each other and journalists — a first since the coronavirus took hold of Colorado in March.
Reporter Justin Wingerter, who has this week off, will be asking the questions along with 7’s Anne Trujillo and CPR’s Ryan Warner. Justin has been covering the 2020 Senate race since he joined The Post in February 2019, and has attended dozens of forums and candidate events — all leading up to this week, when ballots finally dropped.
What should he ask? Do you care most about how we pay for health care and higher education in this country, or the federal governmentap response to the pandemic and nationwide protests against police? What do you want to know about the two candidates’ views that you haven’t seen them address? Email Justin at jwingerter@denverpost.com by Monday morning.
It has been quite a week for news in this race. See below for some of the highlights, and watch for additional stories in coming days.
More Senate race news
- Key policy differences between the Democratic primary candidates
- Democratic primary debate round one: Romanoff tells Hickenlooper he should drop out
- Democratic primary debate round two: Hickenlooper plays defense over ethics violations
- Even of Hickenlooper’s ethics mess (for WSJ subscribers)
Mile High Politics • By Conrad Swanson
Power to the people … and council
The sight of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock linking arms with protesters over the past week earned him only so many points with an electorate that forced him into a runoff in his final re-election run last year.
He is, after all, still in charge of the police department that beat, gassed and shot projectiles at demonstrators and journalists alike.
And as stories now flow in of a blinded demonstrator, excessive force lawsuits and a federal judge’s order limiting the Denver Police Departmentap use of chemical weapons and other projectiles, City Council members are moving to decentralize the power that currently rests with Hancock.
One proposal is old, though the need is renewed by the recent protests, they say. The other is a direct result of recent police actions.
The first proposal would require council approval of mayoral appointees, which many residents assume is already the case, Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer said. But itap not.
Denver mayors are allowed a number of appointees, but the ones most pertinent ones to the current discussion are the chief of police, sheriff and public safety director (who oversees both departments).
Those appointees are essentially solely beholden to the mayor, Sawyer and Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca have said. They are partnering on the proposal to give council veto power over their hires, which would require a change to the city’s charter.
As it is, the administration can essentially shut out disagreements, calls for change and mistakes, they say. When Sheriff Patrick Firman resigned in October, he started a high-paying new job with the city the next day — a fact that the public didn’t learn about for a month.
Making council part of the approval process would hopefully result in more transparency, a more cooperative relationship and better input from residents on appointees, Sawyer said.
Hancock and subsequent mayors would still select and oversee the appointees, the change would just give the council approval authority on the front end.
But CdeBaca’s chief of staff, Lisa Calderón, said one position is too important to report to the mayor at all: the .
Created under then-Mayor John Hickenlooper, Denver’s Office of the Independent Monitor is meant to provide citizen oversight to the city’s law enforcement agencies.
But the monitor also reports to the mayor, and the office’s recommendations can be all too easily ignored or swept under the rug, Calderón said. Shifting the position toward true independence is an important move to force accountability on Denver’s law enforcement agencies, she said.
“Really, that is the ultimate goal, the mayor having no authority over that position,” she said.
The finer points of that proposal remain in the works, Calderón said, but she anticipates something concrete later this month.
Both notions would require a vote of the people, too. If Sawyer and CdeBaca muster enough council support the body can place the questions on the November 2020 ballot, but voters will ultimately decide.
More Denver and suburban political news
- Calls to defund the police now echo inside Denver City Council chambers
- Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said she won’t launch new investigations into the deaths of three people at the hands of Denver law enforcement
- Aurora council committee calls for independent investigation into death of Elijah McClain
- Protesters gather in Aurora to remember Elijah McClain
- Social justice demonstrations gain traction across Colorado