“When I began my campaign for Colorado attorney general, it was to take on monopolies of power that have eroded the health, safety, and economic security of Americans,” Duran said in a statement. “Since the launch, the knowledge I’ve gained has been tremendous and there is no doubt that access to democracy must be strengthened.”

Duran, a Democrat, did not say in her Sunday statement why she decided to end her campaign, which she launched in February.

The four-term state legislator previously represented northwest Denver and, from 2017 to 2019, was House speaker.

The crowded Democratic primary next year for Colorado attorney general includes former federal prosecutor Hetal Doshi, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty, former state House Speaker Crisanta Duran and David Seligman, the executive director of the legal nonprofit Towards Justice.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser is term-limited and can’t run for reelection. Instead, he’ll be running for governor in 2026.

“I remain committed to ensuring meaningful progress in our state and nation, and now know the pathway forward to ensure fair outcomes must be rooted in federal solutions,” Duran said in her statement. “The fight is far from over to ensure there are elected leaders who are ready to take bold action in this moment to move us forward.”

Amie Baca-Oehlert, the former president of the state’s largest teachers union, announced her run for Congress, and Hetal Doshi, a former federal prosecutor, said she will run for attorney general.

Baca-Oehlert planned to formally announce her candidacy Thursday evening at Adams City High School. The U.S. House seat, the newest and most competitive in Colorado, was formed after the 2020 census and spans from Thornton to Greeley.

U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican, currently holds the position after defeating Democratic incumbent Yadira Caraveo in 2024. Baca-Oehlert is the fifth person to enter the Democratic primary alongside Caraveo, Colorado Treasurer Dave Young and state Reps. Shannon Bird and Manny Rutinel.

In the race to be Colorado’s next attorney general, Doshi enters with prosecutorial experience. She worked as an “anti-monopoly litigator” as a deputy assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice from 2022 to 2025, according to a news release. She has led cases against Google, Apple and Ticketmaster.

She earlier worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Colorado.

“Right now, the rule of law is under attack by those who have abandoned patriotism for power,” Doshi said, according to the release. “Colorado’s next Attorney General must have a proven record of taking on the toughest fights — and winning.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, is term-limited and is now running for governor in 2026.

Doshi will compete in the Democratic primary against Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty, former state House Speaker Crisanta Duran and David Seligman, the executive director of the legal nonprofit Towards Justice.

Conner Pennington is the only Republican candidate in the race so far.

For David Seligman, that focus would be a continuation of what he called his “life’s work.” A Harvard Law grad, Seligman since 2018 has led the Denver-based nonprofit Towards Justice, which has backed litigation and legislation to support ride-hailing app drivers, renters, migrant workers and meatpackers.

“I’ve seen throughout my career that there are two sets of law in this country,” he said in an interview. “There’s one for those with wealth and power, and one for the rest of us. Especially as the Trump administration is dismantling … the parts of the government that are there to protect workers, consumers, small businesses and the environment, it’s critical right now that we make sure those with wealth and power play by the same set of rules as the rest of us.”

Seligman enters an increasingly crowded 2026 Democratic primary field to succeed term-limited Attorney General Phil Weiser. Secretary of State Jena Griswold is an immediate front-runner, but other candidates include Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty and former state House Speaker Crisanta Duran.

He said he wants to build upon and expand the work of Weiser, who is running for governor. Weiser has filed or joined lawsuit after lawsuit against the Trump administration since January. Before that, his office had pursued consumer-protection investigations and lawsuits — some of which Seligman’s firm was involved in — against landlords and companies like Wyatt’s Towing.

Seligman said he would continue that work while focusing on medical debt, corporate price gouging and responding to the the federal government’s withdrawal from regulatory oversight.

Against the longstanding political figures in the AG’s race, Seligman — who’s never run for office — stands as a relative unknown among the broader voting public. His early challenge will be elevating his message and finding a constituency in a crowded political environment and in a Democratic Party still searching for a path forward.

Seligman’s charted path will likely be the most liberal of the AG field. He spoke at U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Greeley rally earlier this year, and he joins the race with endorsements from most of the progressive lawmakers in the state Capitol. That includes the state House’s third-ranking Democrat, Rep. Jennifer Bacon, along with former state Democratic Party chairwoman Morgan Carroll.

“Right now, people know that the world feels deeply unfair and deeply scary,” Seligman said. “And I want to fight to be their lawyer to make sure the law is on their side — and not on the side of billionaires and corrupt politicians.”

That snapshot in the 8th Congressional District — reflecting activity before former Rep. Yadira Caraveo jumped in this week — was among early data that emerged this week in several federal and state races that are beginning to take shape. Candidates who’ve begun raising money for statewide office and for Congress had campaign finance reports due Tuesday.

Rutinel, a state representative, reported raising nearly $1.2 million in the first quarter of the year, through March 31. Evans raised about $810,000, about a third of which was from joint fundraising committees associated with Republican leadership.

But the balance flips when it comes to their war chests, as Rutinel spends more rapidly to launch his campaign. He began April with about $658,000 on hand, while Evans had about $755,000, according to their filings.

The 8th District has been among the most competitive in the nation since it was established following the 2020 census. Caraveo won it in 2022, then lost to Evans in 2024. In each case, fewer than 2,500 votes separated the two major-party candidates. The district stretches from Commerce City to Greeley.

Caraveo announced on Tuesday that she hopes to recapture the seat. Her initial finance filing shows her spending about $4,000 in startup costs and bank fees, with only a few hundred dollars in cash on hand this month — all figures bound to change as the campaigns kick into high gear.

Here’s a look at two of the statewide races:

Governor’s race

Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who’s term limited in his current office, has a clear and massive head start on fundraising over all of the potential Republican nominees for the governor’s office, according to state campaign finance records. He reported raising more than $1.9 million through March 31, including a transfer of nearly $158,000 leftover from his attorney general campaign, and had $1.7 million still on hand.

But how his war chest stacks up to that of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, won’t be clear for a few more months.

Bennet announced his campaign Friday. The next fundraising filings are due July 15. One note: Bennet has about $400,000 on hand in , but don’t allow transfers of federal campaign funds to a state candidate committee.

On the Republican side, state Sen. Mark Baisley and state Rep. Scott Bottoms reported raising about $9,000 and $5,000, respectively, since the beginning of the year.

Former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez, who won a special election for a short-lived stint in Congress last year, also announced this week that he will run for the governorship again. His announcement was outside the reporting window, also.

Attorney general’s race

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty reported raising about $155,000 since he launched his campaign for attorney general in February. It’s more than four times what Crisanta Duran, a former speaker of the Colorado House and fellow Democrat, reported raising in this fundraising window for the office.

But Dougherty’s total is about a third lower than than what term-limited Secretary of State Jena Griswold — who announced her campaign April 7 — initially hauled in for the AG’s race, according to her campaign Wednesday.

Griswold raised that money outside the official reporting window. Her campaign boasted of raising more than $230,000 from more than 1,100 contributors in the first 48 hours of its launch.

No Republican has reported raising any money for the race.

Duran, a Democrat, is a four-term state legislator who represented northwest Denver. She was House speaker from 2017 to 2019, and she briefly attempted to unseat U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in 2019.

She now seeks to succeed outgoing Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat who’s term limited and running for governor in the 2026 election.

“Like many Coloradans, I’m deeply concerned about the future of our country and know that a new path forward is required in times like these, when it can seem as though nothing is sacred,” Duran said in a statement. “As our next attorney general, I will work to protect consumers, increase affordability, combat corruption, and stand up to greed and those who manipulate outcomes at the expense of the people of Colorado.”

A Colorado native, Duran earned her law degree from the University of Colorado and worked for a Colorado Supreme Court justice after graduating. She later worked as the political director for Mark Udall on his successful 2008 U.S. Senate campaign, shortly before she won her first state House race in 2010.

After serving as the House’s majority leader, Duran became the chamber’s first Latina speaker in her final term.

More recently, she worked at and served as an adviser to , a group that advocates for “pro-voter policies.”

Duran’s announcement comes two days after Boulder County District Attorney Michael Daugherty, also a Democrat, became the first candidate to enter the AG’s race. They — and any other Democratic candidates — will face off in a primary in June 2026.

No Republican candidate has filed to enter the race yet.

“A U.S. senator that represents Colorado once said to me, ‘Should I be concerned that when I walk through the airport no one recognizes me?'” said Garnett, a 37-year-old Democrat who lives near the Capitol. “I don’t want them to know me. If they know me it means they’re worrying about what I’m doing.”

Garnett, who served as House majority leader the past two years, was recently elected by his colleagues to serve as speaker for the next two, succeeding the term-limited KC Becker. It’s a role that comes with enormous responsibility and influence. Among other duties, a speaker is largely responsible for setting the majority’s agenda, managing the politics of how and when to push on a policy, or not. The speaker must make tough choices: saying no to a member who wants permission to bring a certain bill, for example, or settling disagreements among caucus members. The speaker negotiates with the governor’s office, the minority party and with state Senate leadership, and has a bully pulpit like few others in the building.

In other words, there’s plenty of opportunity, as speaker, to throw one’s weight around.

That’s not Garnett’s preferred approach.

Garnett had planned on being a lead sponsor of Senate Bill 217, the landmark police reform bill that resulted directly from protests against police violence and racial injustice. He stepped back, he said, after speaking with Latino lawmakers.

“They came to me and said, listen, this really isn’t about a white guy. The Latino community has had a distrustful relationship with law enforcement for a very long time,” he said. “They made a ton of sense. Instead of leading from the front, I led by standing behind other members and lifting up what they believed was most important.”

“He creates teams,” said state Sen. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, who served previously in the House with Garnett. “One of the reasons he’s going to be a great speaker is he highlights other people’s strengths and creates ways to allow everyone to shine.”

He’s averse to drama in a building filled with it, and whip-cracking is not his thing. It is, however, part of the job.

“I’m not going to always get it right, but I’m ready,” Garnett said, of those tougher calls. “Hopefully people see me as being fair. They’re putting their trust in me to make those decisions.”

Garnett has plenty of experience watching others lead. Well before he served under Becker, or former Speaker Crisanta Duran before her, Garnett worked for U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, and his father, Stan Garnett, was the district attorney in Boulder for a decade before stepping down three years ago.

He describes the Perlmutter years as formative. They began in his early 20s, as a campaign volunteer when Perlmutter was first running for Congress. He made himself useful by learning how to fix the copy machine, and later moved to Washington, D.C., to work for Perlmutter in Congress.

“There’s a firmness about him, but he’ll make tough decisions in a way that doesn’t cause more anger or angst than is necessary. Some people don’t have good personal skills. He has good personal skills,” Perlmutter said.

Matt Knoedler, the Republican former state lawmaker, said he saw that firmness up close in 2015, during Garnett’s first term. Garnett was sponsoring a bill concerning regulation of yoga studios.

“When the bill came before committee, one yoga studio testified against it. Some of his colleagues on the Democratic side felt a little squeamish on a yes vote after that,” Knoedler said. “He just gave them this unblinking stare when they started wavering a little, and they snapped out of it and voted ‘yes’ unanimously. It was so impressive — you don’t have that kind of pull, unspoken, without some genuine respect.”

Garnett said he hopes to wield what pull he has, in his final term at the statehouse, to inspire his colleagues to listen more — to each other, to people crafting or advocating for or against a bill, to their constituents. He also said he will be focused largely on pandemic response and recovery, which will no doubt define much of state government’s work in general in the coming years.

The pandemic has damaged the state budget, and, according to state revenue projections, likely will continue to do so at least for the duration of his speakership. That means more hard decisions than usual, with 2020 having created so many new problems, but with much less money to go around to solve them. He knows the legislature will have to be picky.

He’s bullish — like his predecessor, Becker, was — on being the speaker who can finally say they helped solve Colorado’s chronic problem of underfunding transportation, though he said he doesn’t know how that will happen. He believes cash bail, which keeps poor people behind bars while wealthier people pay for freedom, is unfair, but he hesitates to call for ending it because of fiscal implications. He wants to lower health care costs, but he says he’s not sure whether he supports a return of 2020’s scuttled bill to create a public health insurance option.

“We’re going to have to be creative about how we solve some of these,” Garnett said.

This is what he signed up for, and long ago aspired to. He knew he wanted to work in politics as a young adult, and, indeed, it’s all he’s done. In addition to his work for Perlmutter, Garnett was executive director of the state Democratic Party and worked on his father’s unsuccessful bid for attorney general, before running for the House District 2 seat, winning at age 31.

Asked whether his lack of experience outside of politics limits his worldview as a legislator, Garnett said, “You wouldn’t want your plumber to come in and have this be the first time they’ve fixed a clogged sink.

“Sometimes having somebody who’s studied policy, policy theory, policy-making, watched it on the staff level on the federal side and from the state side, is actually helpful.”

So focused on politics is Garnett that when asked what he’d do if he didn’t work in this field, he didn’t offer any alternative career ideas for himself. He’s always wanted to be in the public sector, he said, because it struck him as the most direct way to effect change.

The Capitol is brimming with ambitious politicians, and Garnett is no exception. Lawmakers generally brush aside questions about their political futures, but Garnett told The Post that he’ll be on the lookout for opportunity. He also said he’s at peace with the fact that it may not present itself.

“Serving in the legislature is like playing college ball. It’s an honor to do it,” he said, “but more people get to do it than go on to play in the NBA. … That’s totally cool with me.”

The job of speaker, despite its prestige, has not always proved to be much of a launchpad. Multiple recent Colorado speakers have tried and failed to reach higher office.

Garnett theorized that lawmakers can easily delude themselves into believing that “people outside the building are paying closer attention to you than they actually are.”

He said he’s in no hurry to capture their attention, anyway.

“It’s very cool and it’s a huge honor and I’m very, very, very, appreciative of this opportunity,” Garnett said. “But it is not lost on me that people outside this building have really busy lives and are focused on getting their kids dressed, getting them to school, making ends meet, how they’re going to get their car fixed. And they actually don’t know who the speaker is.”

For people, policy and Colorado politics

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The latest evidence of Colorado’s leftward trend arrived this week in the form of 2020 presidential results broken down by congressional district, calculated .

In all seven Colorado districts, Joe Biden not only outperformed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton but also beat President Barack Obama’s performance from 2012. Again, this occurred in every congressional district.

Take, for example, the staunchly red 5th District in and around Colorado Springs. Obama received 38% there, and Clinton took an abysmal 33%. But Biden snagged 42% support. Put another way, Trump received 57.2% in 2016 but 54.7% in 2020.

The biggest Democratic gains were in the 6th and 7th districts, an unsurprising fact to anyone who has read Jon Murray’s work on the political transformation of Denver’s suburbs. In the Aurora-based 6th, Biden beat Obama’s mark by seven percentage points and Clinton’s by eight. In the western and northern suburbs that make up the 7th, Biden topped Obama by four and Clinton by nearly nine.

In Denver’s 1st District, Obama and Clinton both received a nice 69%, but Biden improved that to 76%. In the northern 2nd District, with its two college towns, Biden won with 64%, compared to Clinton’s 56% and Obama’s 58% in 2012.

One positive sign for Republicans is that the 3rd District, likely to be a congressional battleground in 2022, hasn’t changed much in how it picks presidents. Obama lost the Western Slope and southern district with 46%, Clinton lost with 40%, and Biden lost with slightly more than 46%. Democrats might need redistricting help next year to win there.

Want to dig deeper into some election data? Of course you do. .

Elsewhere in this week’s Spot: Conrad Swanson writes about the departure of Denver’s longtime independent monitor, Nick Mitchell, and Saja Hindi looks at how this week’s congressional stimulus package will affect Colorado.

Questions?

Have a question about Colorado or local politics? Submit it here and it’ll go straight to The Denver Post politics team.

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Top Line

Citizens passionate about fair elections will come together over the next year to painstakingly plot out the political lines that will govern state and federal races for the next decade — without fear or favor to partisan interests. At least, that’s the ideal set out by voter-passed constitutional amendments on redistricting that will be set in motion for the first time in 2021.

Capitol Diary • By Saja Hindi

Relief delayed

The $900 billion pandemic relief package approved by Congress this week brought some welcome news to Colorado state leaders, even if its fate is not totally clear with about the legislation.

But once again, the relief bill, if signed into law, wouldn’t fill all the gaps in the state’s needs.

The package includes a $600 stimulus check to U.S. citizens who made under $75,000 in 2019, as well as $600 per child. Unlike the previous package, mixed-immigrant status families could receive a check for each U.S. citizen parent and their children. If neither parent is a citizen, however, the citizen children wouldn’t receive the checks, either.

The relief bill also adds $300 a week to unemployment benefits for 11 weeks. It gives states more time to spend their coronavirus relief dollars, extends eviction protections, allows for more small business loan funding, gives money to K-12 education and child-care programs, and raises food stamp benefits. But the bill .

“Hardworking Coloradans, our schools, and our small businesses deserve real relief. This is an important step and one that will help our state and country build back stronger than before the pandemic,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement. “I’m thankful to the majority of Colorado’s federal delegation who worked to pass this bipartisan COVID relief package and continue to urge Washington to provide additional help to those in need.”

Incoming House Speaker Alec Garnett, a Denver Democrat, commended Congress’ efforts but called them just a start.

“While I’m glad that this stimulus package will begin to chip away at the enormous need we have in our state, it����ap clear that a great deal of work remains to be done,” he said. “I applaud and appreciate the efforts of the members of Colorado’s congressional delegation who fought for increased direct economic relief and aid to states and local governments, and I encourage Congress to pass this in the next bill.”

The $600 stimulus checks — now a Trump sticking point, as he pushes for more — have been met with frustration by many.

“Is this where we are all supposed to drop to our knees in gratitude for $600 and herald the miracle of bipartisanship?” asked Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, . “Because, nah.”

Advocates and service providers in the state have similarly called for urgent federal assistance to help Colorado pay for services for its residents.

“Our communities need targeted investment, especially Black, Latino, Asian, Native, and immigrant communities that are becoming ill, dying, and losing jobs at higher rates,” wrote Hilary Glasgow of Colorado WINS, the state employees’ union. “Congress needs to work together to pass a relief bill that will inject funds into state and local governments, so Colorado can continue to deliver vital public services that keep our communities safe and our families healthy.”

The federal dollars are especially important following the state legislature’s limited emergency COVID relief special session, and now, this week’s decision to delay the 2021 session because of pandemic surge concerns.

More Colorado political news

• What happened to Colorado’s Republican Party? Post reporters examine the party’s decline in influence.
• Some Republican voters still doubt the integrity of Colorado’s elections.
• Polis announced paid family medical leave for state employees.
• The Trump campaign, Rudy Giuliani, and many others are being sued for defamation by a Dominion Voting Systems employee in Colorado.
• Here’s how Coloradans in Congress voted on the latest COVID-19 relief package.
• U.S. Rep. Ken Buck won’t seek another term as Colorado GOP chair. The congressman also won’t receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
• will come from the Trump administration and Sen. Cory Gardner’s office.

Mile High Politics • By Conrad Swanson

Police and sheriff oversight in Denver

With a new sheriff in place, widespread credibility problems within the Denver Sheriff Department and a scathing report on the Denver Police Department����ap handling of the George Floyd protests this summer, all eyes are on the city’s law enforcement agencies.

But one widely trusted watchdog will watch no longer.

Denver Independent Monitor Nick Mitchell, who since 2012 has overseen discipline of Denver’s law enforcement, investigated deaths at the hands of officers, and more, will step down next month. He’s headed to Los Angeles, where he has been appointed by a federal court to oversee reform in the jail system there.

There are a lot of people in Denver with a lot of opinions about law enforcement. But it����ap difficult to find an unflattering comment cast in Mitchell’s direction. Replacing him will be difficult and it could come with a bit more reform.

First, the city will form a search committee to review candidates. That committee must include a representative from City Council, the chair of the Citizen Oversight Board, and a current or retired judge, among others. Already Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca, who has been critical of Denver’s law enforcement and has called for widespread change, to be the council’s representative.

But the call is up to council President Stacie Gilmore, who did not return a message seeking comment.

The committee will send a list of candidates to Mayor Michael Hancock, whose pick will then go to the council for approval. It appears a supermajority of the council — nine of 13 members — could reject a candidate without fear of a veto from Hancock, if the group felt strongly enough about a single person.

But that����ap off in the future. The search isn’t yet underway for Mitchell’s replacement.

Also off in the future could be some changes to the monitor’s position. CdeBaca and others have discussed whether the position should be an elected one. Or, perhaps, the position’s placement in the city’s public safety hierarchy could be changed, they’ve said.

In short, the monitor currently reports directly to the mayor. Some fear that could undercut the independence of the position and its role as watchdog.

While CdeBaca has said she’ll propose a few ways to strengthen the office, nothing concrete has been put before the council yet.

More Denver and suburban political news

• “Viva la raza.” Such was the rallying cry of the Chicano movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and now a park in Denver’s Sunnyside will serve as a prominent reminder of that effort.
• Denver’s mayor announced Friday that Public Safety Director Murphy Robinson will serve as the city’s deputy mayor next year.
• Thousands of pit bulls in metro Denver are getting a reprieve from longstanding laws that target them, and the change of heart toward the dogs is happening with speed.
• The Adams County coroner has told Broomfield County that her office will no longer provide services to its neighbor, the result of an apparent rift over questions raised by Broomfield officials about the handling of the probe into Elijah McClain’s death.

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Ruben Valdez, Colorado’s first Hispanic House speaker and “the godfather” of west Denver politics, died in his sleep Tuesday night at age 82 after a year of declining health.

Valdez, a Trinidad native who dropped out of high school to support his family, was a major presence in Colorado Democratic politics for decades. He worked either for or with the likes of Jimmy Carter, Dick Lamm, Ken Salazar, Bill Ritter, Michael Bennet and many others.

A strong advocate for workers, consumer protections and equity in education, Denver Public Schools honored Valdez in 2015 by naming a school off West Evans Avenue after him.

Colorado politicos across party lines and generations on Wednesday mourned the death of a man Denver Mayor Michael Hancock called “a giant.”

“Ruben Valdez wasn’t just an exceptional public servant and advocate,” Hancock said in a statement. “He was a leader and mentor to so many and a tireless champion for what he believed was right and just.”

U.S. Sens. Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet and former and current Govs. John Hickenlooper and Jared Polis all remarked on Valdez’s passing. Said Polis: “Our community has lost a public servant, statesman and trailblazer.”

Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, a longtime colleague and friend of Valdez’s, said he was “truly an inspiration” and a geyser of wisdom and advice who helped pave the way for future leaders — particularly those in the Latino and Westside communities.

“As a first-year lawmaker, I owe so much to his work,” tweeted Denver state Sen. Julie Gonzales. “(H)e leaves behind a rich and deep legacy.”

Former Denver City Council president Rosemary Rodriguez added: “I think he taught me and many other people how to run a meeting, how to use the rules to create an orderly process and how to move your agenda. … He always had insights and guidance, and he didn’t expect anything in return.”

Valdez grew up in Trinidad, the youngest of nine. His father died when he was 9 years old and at 15 he left high school to support his mother — an avid newspaper reader and, family members said, an enormous influence on her youngest son — by taking a job at the Pueblo brickyard.

As a young adult, he joined the United Steelworkers of America and rose through union ranks, eventually becoming president of Steelworkers Local 5099 in Denver. He returned to school and got his high school diploma through a GED program. Later he became the first member of his family to graduate from college.

He was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 1970, ascending to become House speaker in 1975, when Democrats, in the wake of Watergate, briefly seized control of that chamber. He stayed on as minority leader for two years following his speakership.

Colorado would not see another Hispanic speaker until Crisanta Duran got the job in 2017. He served for eight years in a pre-term limits era, so it was particularly notable that he broke the barrier so quickly.

“For someone to become speaker in such a short time is really unprecedented,” his granddaughter Amber Valdez said by phone Wednesday. “But one of the things he’d tell anyone is that all that it takes for you to win is to work the hardest. He did that, and he believed that.”

Valdez remained active in politics after his time in office, even working as a lobbyist with his granddaughter. Younger politicians called him “Mr. Speaker” years after he left the role.

“Some people demand respect or impose it on you. He earned respect,” said Rob Witwer, a Republican state lawmaker in the 2000s. “There was no question that he was respected throughout the halls of the Capitol.”

Added Witwer, “I think of him as a throwback to a bygone age, when elected officials were looking to collaborate, to find win-win solutions.”

That attitude was exemplified when Valdez worked on a bill in 1975 to promote bilingual, bicultural education in public schools. The Denver Post ran a story that year about his efforts, headlined “How to pass an education bill.”

His family remembers him as a patriarch and indispensable family adviser who, his daughter Peggy Valdez joked, was always willing to give his opinion whether or not it had been solicited. More often than not, the recipients appreciated it.

“He really did help so many people rise,” Amber Valdez said.

Valdez’s wife, Virginia, died in 1999. He is survived by three children, Peggy, JR and Trish, and seven grandchildren. Valdez outlived his eight siblings.

The family said a public memorial will be held in Denver, but details are still being worked out.

Ganahl, a University of Colorado regent, never heard back. Email after email went unanswered. The committee had adjourned unceremoniously in the fall of 2016 and would never meet again.

“We all worked really hard and came up with some great ideas, and we had to just shut down,” Ganahl said in an interview last week.

Other members of the committee reached out to legislators and rarely heard back. When there was a response, it was dismissive, they say. The committee, which was to meet for several years and , met for 14 months and didn’t recommend a single piece of legislation.

“I had thought we were going to meet again, but then I saw the writing on the wall in the latest hearing and thought, ‘Oh, they’re just going to drop this,’ and that����ap what they did,” said Linda Newell, a former Democratic state senator from Littleton and member of the committee.

Years later, the Colorado General Assembly has again created a school safety committee, again tasked with studying one of the daunting issues facing American society and finding solutions. Both committees were created just after school shootings — the Arapahoe High School shooting then and the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting now — and given broad parameters to operate in.

But members of the legislature’s previous school safety committee — nine of whom were interviewed by The Denver Post — say it spent time and taxpayer money without clear aims. They candidly spoke of their frustration with its term-limited leadership and its lack of production.

“We all kind of felt like, ‘OK, what now?’ Because nothing got accomplished,” said Dave Crews, superintendent of the Norwood School District and a former committee member. “I was traveling six hours from southwest Colorado and really excited about doing something to help everybody out and … it was frustrating to find out nothing was getting done, you know?”

“It was very frustrating,” said former Rep. Yeulin Willett, R-Grand Junction. “I don’t know why all that happened. As a longtime litigator and then a somewhat politician, I have suspicions there really wasn’t the political will to do anything more or explore more at that time. That����ap why it kind of died on the vine.”

The School Safety and Youth in Crisis Committee is alive . It will be formally ended July 1, nearly three years after its last meeting. New members were added last year but never met. The committee’s never tweeted. was a handful of pages. It spent an estimated $24,826 in taxpayer money on travel and staff support during its existence.

The committee began, its members say, with high hopes. Formed after the 2013 shooting of Claire Davis at Arapahoe High School, it was bipartisan — four Democrats and four Republicans — and led by two people, Democratic House Speaker Crisanta Duran and Republican Senate Majority Leader Mark Scheffel, who had the power to get things done inside the Colorado Capitol.

Its nonvoting members included a school counselor, a teacher and a juvenile justice advocate. Ganahl was there as a parent, Crews as a superintendent, nonvoting but nonetheless engaged.

“There was a lot of great testimony and a lot of good momentum around conversations about things schools could put in place and things schools were doing well, in trying to understand the differences between urban schools and rural schools,” said Kate O’Donnell, the committee’s mental health expert. “There was a lot of really great discussion that ended up going nowhere.”

During seven meetings from July 2015 to September 2016, members met for about 30 hours total and heard testimony from 75 presenters, according to . Former members overwhelmingly agree the testimony they heard was informative. Several advise the incoming school safety committee to read their summaries, rather than interview the same experts.

“We spent a lot of money on that committee, in bringing all the testimony together, in all the nonpartisan staff’s time, all of our time. And here we are again,” Newell said.

“Don’t recreate the wheel,” Willett advised. “Maybe take the testimony and some of the debate that happened during the bill, encapsulate that and start from there. Because, even though we didn’t get anything done, we did generate quite a bit of data and expert testimony. Why waste that?”

Seven bills were drafted over the course of the committee’s meetings. At the end of , four of those were withdrawn by lawmakers who said they needed more time to work on them. , clarifying language in that year’s Claire Davis Act, failed to pass after the Davis family objected. So, too, did further weakening schools’ immunity to lawsuits. Even requiring schools train their staff on handling troubled students was voted down.

“Oh, my God, it was so frustrating,” Ganahl said.

Scheffel could not be reached for comment last week. He and Duran, the vice chair, have since left the legislature. Duran said she doesn’t recall many specifics about the committee’s work and why it ended early but believes it laid the groundwork for school safety funding legislation.

“We knew there was a lot more work that needed to be done,” Duran said, adding that the incoming committee should focus on mental illness treatment.

That����ap a common refrain from former members, several of whom question why the committee was filled with people such as Scheffel and Senate President Bill Cadman, whose terms ended after 2016. Cadman, a Republican, declined to comment for this article.

“They were very invested in the outcome, they helped fight for the additional resources to school safety programs, but at the end of the day, they were both term-limited,” said Sen. Dominick Moreno, a Commerce City Democrat on the committee. “That����ap where some of the gaps came from.”

Members of the former school safety committee have plenty of advice for the incoming school safety committee. “Look at both sides of the coin, the physical as well as the psychological,” said Christine Harms, who is also director of Colorado’s school safety resource center.

Take a broad approach but craft significant policies, Moreno recommended. “Make the hard decisions and the big changes,” Willett suggested.

In other words, the former members say, make sure something gets done at the end of the day. Make sure it doesn’t end as the last one did.

“I’m very glad that Speaker (KC) Becker is bringing this committee back,” Newell said, “because I do think there’s unfinished business that was tabled unnecessarily.”

Truly puzzling political strategy.

Now it����ap the Republicans’ turn to leave Colorado’s political class with mouth agape.

We all knew recalls were coming. , Republicans have been threatening to pull petitions on lawmakers they felt overstepped their mandate.

Democrats would object to any recall, pointing out that many of the state lawmakers won their seats by wide margins and that they are doing what the voters sent them to do. However, on an objective level, the attempted recall of Rochelle Galindo made some sense. (See below for more on her weekend resignation amid unspecified criminal allegations against her.) She took a vote to reform the oil and gas sector while representing one of the state’s most oil-rich countries.

But the nascent attempt to recall of state Rep. Tom Sullivan, announced this week, even has Republicans shaking their head in disbelief.

Sullivan, who lost his son in the Aurora theater shooting, ran on a gun control platform. The Democrat beat an incumbent — something almost unheard of in modern politics — winning the Republican-leaning suburban district 54 percent to 45 percent. Sullivan then went on to sponsor gun control legislation that nearly every Democrat running in a highly contested race, including then-gubernatorial candidate Jared Polis, supported.

Yet, according to the Republicans behind the recall, Sullivan duped voters.

When I pushed Kristi Brown — the state GOP’s vice chair and leader of the charge to recall Sullivan — on this logic, she acknowledged Sullivan’s track record as a gun control activist. But she added that the legislation he sponsored went further than a previous version of the bill. She added that his votes on sex ed and oil and gas reform were part of the “overreach.”

Despite the high-profile legislative recalls of 2013 and the Jefferson County school board recall of 2015, such elections historically are difficult to win. One reason those efforts were successful was because each had a specific and concise message as to why those elected officials had to go.

The Republican base may be larger in Sullivan’s district and the unaffiliated voters who gave Democrats their victories in 2018 aren’t known for participating in recalls. Still, recall supporters will be in an awkward position asking voters to kick out a freshman lawmaker who lost his son to gun violence — and right after a neighboring community just suffered another school shooting.

Welcome to The Spot, The Denver Post����ap weekly political newsletter. I’m Nic Garcia, a political reporter at The Post. Keep the conversation going by joining our ! Forward this newsletter to your colleagues and encourage them to . And please support the journalism that matters to you and become a Denver Post subscriber . Send tips, comments and questions to ngarcia@denverpost.com.

Countdown

19 days until Denver’s runoff election; 42 days until the first Democratic presidential primary debate; 238 days until the General Assembly returns (too soon?)

Your political digest

• How Colorado’s Republican lawmakers managed to score some wins. Denver Post
• Attorney General Phil Weiser backs Coloradan fighting for gender-neutral passport. Denver Post
• Denver’s final two candidates for mayor each have a path to victory. Denver Post
• DEVELOPING: Denver mayoral candidate Jamie Giellis deletes personal social media accounts after Chinatown tweet emerges. Denver Post
• Denver camping ban fight already resurfacing in mayoral runoff. Denver Post 
• Vape pods are the new cigarette butts. For Colorado, that’s a whole new trash problem.
• How far left are Colorado’s presidential candidates? Survey says …
• Idaho repealed its entire regulatory code. Now what?
• Is President Donald Trump the end of the Reagan era or the start of something new?

Capitol diary

Will Polis veto anything?

Gov. Jared Polis has been on a bit of a bill-signing kick lately, signing a dozen or more bills each day since the end of the General Assembly. We’ve highlighted a few — college financial aid for immigrants here without documentation and a college fund for every newborn in the state.

While Polis has hinted he hasn’t been a fan of every bill he’s signed, he’s yet to issue a veto. A spokesperson for his office said earlier this week none are on the horizon but that the office is still reviewing several bills.

Why you haven’t heard more about Galindo investigation

There are a lot of rumors on exactly what led to Rochelle Galindo resigning her seat. However, so far, police have not released the initial complaint or their findings, and no charges have been filed.

The Greeley Police Department told The Denver Post on Wednesday they were close to releasing their report earlier this week when they received new information, so details aren’t expected for several more days. The Post has reached out to several key individuals believed to be associated with the report, but no one has agreed to go on the record.

On the political side of the situation, Weld County Democrats have finalized their timeline to fill Galindo’s seat. The party sent these details:

• Individuals who want to be considered for the seat must file paperwork with the party by May 28.
• Candidates must be 25 years old, a U.S. citizen, and have been a registered Democrat in the district for the last 12 months.
• The vacancy committee will meet June 2 to decide Galindo’s replacement.

Look which conservatives are coming to town

The 10th annual Western Conservative Summit is scheduled for July 12 and 13 in downtown Denver. And the Centennial Institute, the policy think tank at the Colorado Christian University, announced this week some of the speakers. Per an email from the organization’s leader, confirmed speakers include pro-life leader Abby Johnson, pastor Andrew Brunson, Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly, former independent counsel Ken Starr, Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton, Americans For Tax Reform’s Grover Norquist and author David Horowitz.

Colorado Fiscal Institute celebrates legislative victories, looks ahead

Progressive fiscal nerds gathered Wednesday evening to celebrate the end of the legislative session at Vine Street Pub. The event was hosted by the Colorado Fiscal Institute, a progressive think tank that advocates for economic equity and tax reform. Revelers toasted legislative victories, including $6 million for a campaign to encourage Coloradans to take the census and a new requirement that certain bills are studied for demographic impact.

The organization also acknowledged a setback on a proposal to establish a paid family leave insurance fund. While the proposal is still going forward, it’s not moving as quickly as supporters had hoped.

Looking even further ahead, the nonprofit is working on more affordable housing policy, a 2020 tax reform ballot proposal and a huge research project looking at various metrics to understand how Colorado has changed since 1960.

Colorado Petroleum Council names Lynn Granger executive director

Lynn Granger will lead one of the state’s leading oil and gas associations after being named executive director of the Colorado Petroleum Council. Granger most recently served as the chief operating officer at Colorado Concern, a pro-business political association. Granger had this to say in a statement released this morning:

“This is a pivotal time for energy policy, both in Colorado and across the nation. The Colorado Petroleum Council has quickly established its leadership in an industry that supports 232,900 jobs in Colorado. I am honored to have the opportunity to bring industry, community, and government leaders together to ensure that Colorado continues to lead the nation in balancing safe, responsible development with strong environmental stewardship.”

Mile High Politics

Clerk front-runner receives a boost

Denver City Councilman Paul López received a big boost Thursday in what is looking to be a fiercely fought runoff election for clerk and recorder — the endorsement of the third-place finisher.

In the May 7 election, López, who’s term-limited on the council, led in the tight three-way race, receiving nearly 37 percent of the vote. Public policy attorney Peg Perl received 33 percent, making the June 4 runoff, while preservation consultant Sarah O. McCarthy came in third at 30 percent.

In a statement Thursday, McCarthy threw her support to López, saying he has the experience and knowledge that matters to voters. — Jon Murray

Colorado in Washington

Searching for Space Command

The Air Force this week confirmed much of what we know about its Colorado-focused search for a Space Command headquarters, while also dropping a few new details.

What we already knew is that six bases are being considered, including three in the Colorado Springs area and Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora. The other two are in California and Alabama.

What we learned is that a decision will be made over the summer. The Air Force also revealed its process for choosing, which includes site surveys to determine a base’s “ability to meet mission requirements, capacity, environmental impact and cost criteria,” it said in a press release.

Sen. Cory Gardner has advocated on behalf of Colorado Springs. Reps. Jason Crow and Ed Perlmutter have pushed for the Aurora location. Colorado’s odds are good, but Gardner warned a Colorado Springs Chamber crowd last month about Alabama’s chances.

“I would never underestimate Richard Shelby,” he said of that state’s senior senator. — Justin Wingerter

The Stump

Hickenlooper says ignoring Fox News isn’t the answer

Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren made waves this week when she said she would not participate in a televised town hall on Fox News, the latest stomping grounds for the field of candidates that won’t stop growing.

Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper responded on Twitter, saying it was important for politicians to not shut out audiences based on political ideology, arguing it adds to the “crisis of division” in this country. , discussing his ideas for fixing American’s capitalistic system.

And just because the internet is a thing

A Twitter user decided to paint mustaches on all the male presidential candidates. featuring Colorado’s two 2020 nominees, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and former Gov. John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper retweeted the image saying the man in the picture was his evil twin, Burt.