The White River Electric Association, a non-profit cooperative, lost several miles of power lines in two fires that burned public and private land just outside of Meeker in August 2025. Power lines are uninsurable, for obvious reasons, and White River has had to take out a $23.6 million loan to rebuild transmission lines and get power to critical gas development projects in the Piceance Basin.

“The loan itself is not a long-term loan. It was issued with the hope that FEMA would help us,” said Alan J. Michalewicz, general manager and CEO of White River Electric Association. “Now, with FEMA being declined, we are exploring the options that are available to us and what it would take to turn this into a long-term loan. It could have up to a 5% rate impact on membership, across the board to all our members.”

Michalewicz said he is grateful for the bipartisan support in Colorado following the fires and lauded the state’s work in the aftermath of the fires. White River rebuilt transmission lines quickly, and full power will be restored next week to oil and gas operators in the area.

We worry that even a 3% rate increase will hurt families, small businesses and oil and gas operations in a time when everyone, including utilities, is facing the pressure of increased fuel prices.

Trump’s denial is the first time in 35 years that the federal government refused to use Federal Emergency Management Act funds to assist a community in Colorado recovering from a natural disaster, but under Trump’s leadership, such denials are now the norm – that is, if you live in a “blue” state.

According to , Trump’s administration has denied 77% of disaster funding requests when the request comes from a state with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators. When the request comes from a state with a Republican governor and two Republican Senators, Trump’s administration only denied 11% of requests.

Such partisan wielding of federal dollars intended to provide communities and individuals with assistance to rebuild in the wake of natural disasters is unprecedented. Politico went through 45 years of FEMA records and found that no other president, going back as far as Reagan, has denied a majority of requests from any states, let alone singled out states for political retribution using FEMA dollars. While the rate of approval for Republican-state requests has remained mostly unchanged compared to previous administrations, Democratic-state approvals have plummeted.

We are outraged, but far more than anything, we are sad for our neighbors in Rio Blanco, La Plata, Archuletta and Mineral counties.

Sadly, the counties that Trump is denying funds to had a majority of voters support him for president in 2024. In Rio Grande County, 60% of voters cast their ballots for Trump. Now he has denied their request for disaster relief, which will directly result in increased utility costs for the foreseeable future. Did they vote for this? Surely they did not expect Trump to wield federal funds as a cudgel to punish them for the politics of their neighbors.

Colorado’s leaders cannot drop this issue until Trump reverses this bad decision.

Every single member of Colorado’s congressional delegation — Republicans and Democrats — signed off on . Now that Trump rejected the appeal, our elected officials must increase the political pressure.

No one should be talking about this more than U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, who represents all four affected counties in Congressional District 3. Hurd is facing a primary for re-election, and he has until June to prove he can deliver for his constituents. Hurd should be spending time on the campaign trail explaining how he is fighting for these federal funds.

But he can’t do it alone. Colorado’s U.S. senators — John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet — have decrying Trump’s denial of these funds.

“The president is solely responsible for this abdication of responsibility; the consequences of which will continue to be severe and long-lasting,” the statement reads.

But that doesn’t go far enough.

We need our elected officials to be a thorn in Trump’s side, requesting meetings, talking at every public event about the detailed repercussions of this decision and lauding Gov. Jared Polis for his ongoing support of these counties.

The emphasis from our leaders should be on the unprecedented and politically motivated nature of Trump’s decision. Trump is setting a dire precedent. Will future presidents withhold federal disaster aid unless a state’s leaders laud her achievements, bow to her every demand, and kiss the ring?

We want to live in a country that is free from the tyranny of an executive branch with unlimited power and unlimited spite. Now is the time for Colorado leaders to push back on this bad decision and fight for a future where disaster declarations are considered on their merits and qualifications, not on the angry whims of one man.

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Re: “In defense of the Democratic caucuses and grassroots organizing,” and “Republican Party hung the heavy price on health care,” April 12 letters to the editor

Pop quiz:

Letters to the editor published in the Post are

a) an accurate reflection of the political leanings of its readership

b) a reflection of the Post����ap editorial bias and accompanying discretion

c) all of the above

Hint: there is no right answer.

But whatever the reason, it����ap obvious the published letters skew left and even hard left, Sunday after Sunday. One fellow in defense of the caucusing process in our state asserts, regarding Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, that “their centrist pandering to Republican colleagues in the Senate is deeply unpopular.” Wait, what? Plenty of adjectives apply to Colorado’s Democratic senators, but centrist isn’t any of them. Unless, of course, you skew hard left — really hard left.

And then there’s the writer who, as the headline summarizes, hangs the heavy price of health care on Republicans. “The reasons for our health care situation fall in the lap of the Republican Party ” before backtracking with “This is not a Republican or Democratic issue…” That����ap not atypical for those who are somewhere left of center who want it both ways and deny the fact that health care policy is a political issue and nothing more. Rather than recognize that reality, they choose to occupy an imaginary moral high ground with empty phrases like “people will die…” .

The good news for those of us who are somewhere right of center is that the Op-Ed page doubles as the entertainment section for us.

Jon Pitt, Golden

‘Leftward’ movements that have benefited Colorado’s residents

Re: “Can Colorado’s GOP recover?” April 12 commentary

Columnist Kafer, mourning the loss of Republican power during the Trump decade, attributes the rise of Democrats in part to “some very smart, strategic decisions to move the state leftward.” The tone implies that leftward is undesirable and in need of correction by a revived Republican Party.

What if, though, leftward succeeded over the past 10 years because leftward policies create results that Coloradans want and value? What if leftward means good for the people? What if leftward eases people’s burdens and makes Coloradans’ lives better, fairer and healthier?

Leftward created:

1. , a state-wide, universal paid family leave program that allows workers to have babies, care for loved ones, and recover from illness in dignity.

2. Universal free full day kindergarten and pre-school, relieving some of families’ still enormous childcare burdens while improving early childhood education for all.

3. A mandate that employers post in job announcements, thus increasing applicants’ control in their job searches.

4. Prohibitions against landlords’ most abusive and practices, making tenants’ lives easier without endangering the landlord class.

5. A 2026 minimum wage of and hour, where the federal minimum wage remains at an aughts-era .

6. An attorney general who courageously fights the abuses of a federal executive branch and the monopolization efforts of grocery conglomerates, compared to a Republican attorney general who sought to destroy the Affordable Care Act (he failed).

Floy Jeffares, Lakewood

I suppose it is ironic that Krista Kafer’s column lamenting the changes in the Colorado GOP is published the day after the Colorado GOP has their state nominating meeting in Pueblo where they nominated two candidates, one of whom wants to “DOGE the mess out of everything” at the state Capitol (since that worked so well in Washington) and claims there is a pedophile ring at the state Capitol that he will reveal after he is elected. Both have stated they will free Tina Peters

The sad fact is that the Republican Party, both in Colorado and nationwide, has lost its mind and moral compass and is incapable of governing. When all you want to do is tear things down, rather than build things up, then you are incapable of making rational decisions and making things better. Unfortunately, this is where the Republican party is today, and they are no alternative to the Democrats in running the state (or nation), given the binary choice between the two visions of democracy.

I keep hoping for the day that the fever will break in the Republican Party and they return to the country-club Republican party I grew up around, where making things work was the call of the day, but it is increasingly looking like that will not happen in the remainder of my days on this mortal coil.

Martin Ward,��Aurora

Falsely claiming genocide

Re: “Bennet’s shortsighted move to back out of a forum,” April 12 editorial

In Sunday’s editorial criticizing Sen. Michael Bennet, the writer casually tossed out the accusation that “Israel waged a genocidal war” against the Gazans. Quite the opposite is true.

If Israel intended to eradicate Gazans, why hasn’t it over the past 2 1/2 years?��Israel has killed perhaps under 2% of Gaza’s civilians, while nearly all of Hamas’ deeply embedded military capability is gone. Why did Israel facilitate the delivery of over a million tons of aid, send millions of messages to civilians instructing them how to flee, execute elaborate evacuation plans, and abort a large portion of its military strikes due to civilian presence?

Clearly, Israel’s intent was to minimize civilian casualties while pursuing fighters in the complex, civilian-threatening, 3D battlespace that Hamas created.

“Israel has done��more to prevent civilian casualties��in war than any military in history,” according to , a U.S. war scholar.

Agreed, genocide is very bad. Falsely accusing genocide is also bad. Many agencies, media, and so-called experts are lining up to hurl the pithy genocide accusation at Israel. The editorial board should take a few moments to learn about the false accusation (see the 100-second by Dr. Sara Brown or the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies debunking genocide) before queuing up in that line.

Mark Brown, Littleton

Acknowledge the real potential harms to girls in transgender sports

Re: “Proposed initiative on transgender athletes puts our daughters at risk,” April 12 commentary

Mike Smith’s commentary against falsely claimed that it “puts our daughters at risk”. Initiative 109 focuses on designating a school athletic team or intramural sport, based on biological sex, whereby a team or sport designated for girls does not allow on the team persons who are biologically boys. That reduces the risk of injury to girls on the team or on an opposing girls’ team. That far outweighs Smith’s stated concerns about his tall daughter being falsely accused of being a biological boy. Most tall teenage daughters would not be mistaken for being a biological boy. Colorado schools have records of their students’ biological sex.

Read the full initiative on the secretary of state’s website to appreciate Smith’s many nonsensical remarks, such as his “When you write laws that treat every child as a potential suspect, you are not protecting kids,” and his “Initiative 109 is vague and poorly written, leaving critical questions unanswered about how it would actually be enforced.”

Smith mentions that a Utah State Board of Education member incorrectly implied on social media that a teenage girl was a biological boy. Smith falsely called it “one among many examples of the harm these policies cause to female athletes,” whereby he claims “you are not protecting kids – you’re endangering them.” He did not mention that the offending board member was by the Utah legislature and governor and was recently forced off the board.

Joseph B. Feiten,��Westminster

Managing water rights is an unenviable — yet necessary — task

Re: “,” April 12 commentary

Kudos for the article on depleted water supplies in the Colorado River Basin, as that has critical, far-ranging impacts beyond just that watershed. It has long been recognized that management of the Colorado’s water supplies had a “structural deficit” (more water was allocated than is actually available), in part because the 1922 Colorado River Compact was based on a series of exceptionally wet years.

Additionally, the compact ignored the rights of Native Americans (who hold the senior water rights), did not consider Mexico’s water claims, and did not address any water needs for the basin’s environment.

Furthermore, the situation has been made much more dire because of “aridification,” which has increased temperatures, modified precipitation, and reduced river flows throughout the basin.

Now state and federal officials are faced with the daunting task of determining how the river should be managed in the future. I do not envy those individuals, for politically, it is a no-win situation. They must deal with the realities of nature and can no longer “kick the can down the road,” for the can has fallen off the cliff!

Given the ongoing rhetoric, I can’t say I’m optimistic, but hopefully, collective wisdom may prevail, and a solution will be found that provides equitable water supplies for all involved (states, tribes, and our environment). However, if agreement cannot be found and the situation results in litigation, there will be a lengthy and costly process, and no one wins.

Water touches every aspect of our lives as it is essential for our very existence, a key aspect of our quality of life, necessary for the environment, and critical to our economy. Therefore, I hope The Denver Post will continue to cover water issues beyond just the Colorado River.

��Gene Reetz, Denver

Editor’s note: Reets is a retired EPA senior water resources scientist.

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Evans brought in more than $1.2 million during the first three months of 2026, according to federal campaign finance reports due Wednesday. He ended March with more than $3.4 million in the bank. That’s an eye-watering sum, easily surpassing the roughly $2 million that Evans’ Democratic predecessor, then-U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, had gathered at the same point in early 2024.

Evans has no primary challenger, meaning he won’t need to start seriously spending his cash until after his Democratic opponent emerges from the June 30 primary.

In other federal races, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper significantly outraised a state senator challenging him in the Democratic primary, while another incumbent — Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert — was outraised by an even greater factor by her only remaining Democratic challenger in the state’s most conservative-leaning district.

The race for Evans’ 8th Congressional District seat, which sits in a rural-suburban area north of Denver, will be among the most closely watched contests in the country this fall. Two of the Democrats hoping to topple Evans have started marshalling their own financial resources.

State Rep. Manny Rutinel posted a strong quarter, hauling in more than $952,000 to bring his cash-on-hand total to more than $1.76 million. He raised more — and has banked more — than his former state House colleague, Shannon Bird, who joined the race a few months after Rutinel last year.

Bird raised nearly $567,000 in early 2026, and she ended the quarter with just over $1 million to play with as the primary season entered its final three-month stretch.

The third Democrat in the race, Marine veteran Evan Munsing, has outlasted several more established candidates — including Caraveo, who mounted a brief comeback campaign last year. But his fundraising has slipped farther behind Rutinel’s and Bird’s: Munsing raked in $115,000 last quarter, and he spent almost double that.

As a consequence, his cash pile has been halved, from the $213,000 at the end of 2025 to $108,000 at the end of March.

Between the three Democrats and Evans, the CD8 candidates raised more than $2.8 million over the last three months. Between them, the four candidates have nearly $6.4 million on hand.

More than half of that pile lies, waiting, in Evans’ coffers.

“I’m grateful for the outpouring of support from Coloradans who are ready to keep fighting for safer communities, a stronger economy and a more secure future,” Evans said in a statement Wednesday.

Here’s what else was revealed by the latest federal campaign finance reports, which came out just after the major parties’ primary ballots were finalized through assembly votes and petitioning.

Hickenlooper’s haul grows for primary challenge

In his Senate reelection race, Hickenlooper raised nearly $1.4 million last quarter, the first full reporting period since his primary challenger, state Sen. Julie Gonzales, entered the race. That’s more than he raised in the prior quarter.

Though he spent more than $1.2 million in the early part of 2026, the incumbent Democrat will still enter primary season with a hefty $4 million in the bank.

Gonzales, meanwhile, has reported more anemic fundraising. She raised more than $264,000 this past quarter, compared with the nearly $180,000 she posted in her first month in late 2025, showing a slowing pace. Her most recent total in the bank sat at just over $114,000.

In a blog post Wednesday, Gonzales acknowledged that her campaign was “living paycheck to paycheck.” But she appeared undaunted and said she raised $130,000 in the first week of April, after the reporting period’s end.

DeGette’s balance grows as challenger picks up pace

A different primary challenge is brewing in Denver’s 1st Congressional District.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who’s been in Congress for nearly 30 years, is facing two Democratic opponents: University of Colorado Regent Wanda James and Melat Kiros, a lawyer and doctoral student who last month beat DeGette in an assembly nominating vote.

Whether that victory translates to an incumbent-toppling result in June remains to be seen. DeGette raised more than $263,000 last quarter, a bit more than she’d raised at the end of 2025. Her cash-on-hand total ticked up, too, and now sits at $636,000.

Kiros also saw a boost, bringing in more than $174,000, double her prior quarter’s total. With $118,000 in the bank, she trailed DeGette’s total entering primary season.

James’ fundraising went the opposite way. The regent raised more than $72,000 last quarter, below her fourth-quarter total last year. Her spending also ticked up, bringing her cash on hand down to just more than $54,000.

Boebert challenger keeps raking in cash. Will it matter?

Among Colorado’s incumbents in Congress, Boebert has long been a fundraising lightning rod. That remains true, even as she settles into the comfortably conservative 4th Congressional District, which covers Colorado’s Eastern Plains as well as Douglas County, after a district switch in the last election.

Eileen Laubacher, a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, raised more than $2 million for the second consecutive quarter. After a big spend of $1.5 million, she still ended the quarter with more than $3 million in her campaign’s pocket. Another Democratic candidate, Trisha Calvarese, also had raised big money in her second run against Boebert before she dropped out two weeks ago.

Boebert, in contrast, raised just under $90,000 in the last three months, and she reported $160,000 on hand in late March.

It’s important to remember that Boebert now represents a district where, in a 2021 analysis, by more than 26 percentage points. In 2024, Boebert’s win wasn’t even half that — and .

Hurd amasses cash to defend Western Slope seat

In Boebert’s old 3rd Congressional District, her erstwhile Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, is looking to defend a seat that’s reliably, if not comfortably, red. Hurd raised more than $609,000 last quarter, bringing his war chest to just under $2 million.

He also picked up a primary opponent at the Colorado Republican Party assembly last week — former state Rep. Ron Hanks — but his fundraising advantage is hefty.

Two Democrats are jockeying to take on Hurd in November. Alex Kelloff, a Snowmass businessman, has been in the race longer. He raised $192,000 last quarter, adding a bit to his cash-on-hand total of $458,000.

Kelloff’s newcomer primary opponent, fellow businessman Dwayne Romero, raised more than $505,000 in his first month in the race, and, after expenses, had slighty more on hand than Kelloff.

Democrat brings in cash to flip Colorado Springs district

Colorado’s other Jeff among Republican congressmen — Hurd’s fellow freshman, U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank —�� raised $345,000 last quarter as he looks to defend the conservative 5th Congressional District. Crank’s war chest now tops $1.1 million.

His likely opponent, Democrat Jessica Killin, brought in nearly $670,000, bringing her on-hand total to more than $1.5 million. Army veteran Joe Reagan, who is challenging Killin for the Democratic nomination, raised $86,000 and ended the first quarter with $33,000 in the bank.

Democrats have been targeting the district, which — after Boebert’s current seat — is the most conservative in the state.

Incumbents’ cash hauls

While DeGette looks to ward off her primary opponents, Colorado’s three other Democratic members of Congress are without well-known Republican challengers. But they’re still slowly building up their campaign bank accounts.

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, of the Boulder-based 2nd Congressional District, brought his cash on hand to just under $3 million last quarter. U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, of Aurora’s 6th Congressional District, raked in nearly $940,000 to start 2026 (which, his campaign said, was his largest single-quarter haul), and he had more than $2.5 million under his campaign mattress.

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, whose 7th Congressional District covers the center of the state up through parts of metro Denver, had more than $915,000 on hand.

Those sums will allow the Democrats to support not only their own campaigns but others’ races and causes, too. Crow’s latest campaign finance report listed a nearly $60,000 contribution to the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, for instance, while Neguse gave $35,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Kirkmeyer, of Brighton, will face off against state Rep. Scott Bottoms and political newcomer Victor Marx in the June 30 Republican primary. Bottoms and Marx, both pastors who live in Colorado Springs, qualified for the ballot through the GOP state assembly on Saturday.

Bottoms, who led a wide assembly field and won support from 45% of attendees, will get the top spot in the race.

Kirkmeyer took the petition route to the ballot. She submitted more than 15,000 valid signatures, including more than 1,500 from each of Colorado’s eight congressional districts, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, which certified the signatures.

“This campaign has been built by thousands of real people, in real communities, all across Colorado,” Kirkmeyer said in a statement about her ballot qualification. “I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who took the time to sign our petition, share our message, and be part of something bigger. This is your campaign.”

The Democratic slate was mostly set at the end of March with that party’s state assembly. Attorney General Phil Weiser, who won support from more than 90% of that event����ap voting members, will face U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who petitioned onto the primary ballot.

Also on Wednesday, the Secretary of State’s office certified University of Colorado Regent Wanda James’s spot in a primary challenge to incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat. Melat Kiros, a Denver lawyer who stunned DeGette by outpolling her during the county assembly in March, has also qualified for that primary race. Republicans have nominated Christy Peterson, who is unopposed.

Earlier in the week, the Secretary of State’s Office certified Hetal Doshi and Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty for the Democratic primary ballot for attorney general. They will face Secretary of State Jena Griswold and attorney David Seligman in that party’s nominating contest.

Democratic and Republican primary ballots

Here are the candidates who qualified for the major-party ballots in the June 30 primary in statewide races. Voters affiliated with a party will receive its ballot in the mail in June. Unaffiliated voters can participate in primaries and will receive both parties’ ballots in the mail, but they can return only one of them.

The four state offices are all open races this year, with the incumbents term-limited.

Governor

• Democratic primary: U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Attorney General Phil Weiser
• Republican primary: state Rep. Scott Bottoms, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, Victor Marx

Attorney general

• Republican primary: El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen, David Willson
• Democratic primary: Hetal Doshi, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty,��Secretary of State Jena Griswold, David Seligman

Secretary of state

• Democratic primary: state Sen. Jessie Danielson,��Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez
• Republican primary: James Wiley (a former Colorado Libertarian Party official), unopposed

Treasurer

• Republican primary: Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham, unopposed
• Democratic primary: state Sen. Jeff Bridges, unopposed

U.S. Senate

• Democratic primary: state Sen. Julie Gonzales,��U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (incumbent)
• Republican primary: state Sen. Mark Baisley, unopposed

Both men will appear on the June 30 primary ballot. Bottoms, who is one of the most conservative lawmakers in the state Capitol, won slightly more than 45% of the 2,145 ballots cast, comfortably beating Marx’s 39% and topping a field of more than a dozen candidates who vied for gubernatorial ballot access. When Marx’s total was announced and Bottoms’ victory assured, the lawmaker’s supporters shouted and jumped around him in the bleachers of Colorado State University-Pueblo’s arena.

“This is our year. This is the year we’re going to do this,” Bottoms, who is in his second term in the statehouse, said in brief remarks earlier Saturday. He promised to work with federal immigration authorities, to build nuclear reactors and to “reclaim safety and security.” He also pledged to “DOGE the mess out of everything in this state,” a reference to billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” which gutted a number of federal programs last year.

State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who also is running for governor, did not participate in the assembly process and has instead submitted signatures to appear on the primary ballot. Marx also submitted signatures while also seeking the assembly nomination.

The party also nominated state Sen. Mark Baisley for U.S. Senate, former Colorado Libertarian Party official James Wiley for secretary of state, and Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham for state treasurer. All those candidates will be appear on the ballot alone in June, virtually assuring them places on the November general election ballot.

For attorney general, the assembly sent Michael Allen, the district attorney in El Paso County, and attorney David Willson to the primary election in June.

The day was marred by delays, mistakes, long lines and, as afternoon turned into evening, a voting discrepency: About 80 more ballots had been cast than delegates had been credentialed to cast them. The assembly then voted to accept the new ballots as legitimate (the official running the meeting said they likely were).

The winner of the June gubernatorial primary will face off against U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet or Attorney General Phil Weiser, each of whom are seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Gov. Jared Polis next year.

The Republican candidates who emerge from the primaries will face a Colorado Democratic Party that has held all four constitutional statewide offices since 2018. No Republican has won the governor’s office since 2002, and the last statewide win for a GOP candidate was Heidi Ganahl’s win for a University of Colorado governing board seat in 2016.

Repubican contenders repeatedly promised to reverse those trends Saturday. Eighteen gubernatorial candidates initially were slated to speak, although several didn’t turn up and their candidacies did not advance. One candidate — Kelvin “K-Man” Wimberly — appeared to have no supporters present to nominate him. That prompted someone from the crowd to run up to the microphone, gesture to Wimberly and offer to nominate “this guy.”

As party members slowly trickled into the building Saturday morning, campaign volunteers wandered, handing out bags with posters for Marx or walking in slow arcs with signs for fellow chief executive hopeful Robert Moore. Scott Pond, who hopes to take on U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper in November, signed a pair of baseball caps for one supporter. Many attendees — including the conspiratorial podcaster Joe Oltmann — wore “Free Tina Peters” stickers, a sentiment echoed by a banner hanging behind the assembly stage.

Several candidates, including Marx, pledged to free the former Mesa County clerk, who was convicted for orchestrating a plot to sneak a third party into a secure area to examine voting equipment after the 2020 election.

Oltmann briefly ran for governor before declaring his candidacy to become the state GOP’s chairman.

On Friday, former state lawmaker Ron Hanks was nominated to launch a right-wing primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, the freshman Republican who represents the Western Slope’s 3rd Congressional District. Hurd’s previous primary opponent, Hope Scheppelman, dropped out of the contest last month, after President Donald Trump re-endorsed Hurd.

A clear majority of likely voters — 55% — predicted the economy would worsen over the next year, compared to 46% who answered the same way in a similar survey also conducted for the Colorado Polling Institute in November.

Meanwhile, opinions of some of Colorado’s top elected officials — Gov. Jared Polis and U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, all Democrats — have grown only more unfavorable. And that fall has largely been driven by disenchanted Democrats.

“We’ve seen Democrats become quite frustrated with incumbent legislators and executives across the state and across the country,” Kevin Ingham, principal of Democratic polling firm Aspect Strategic, said.

In a poll conducted around the same time last year for the Colorado Polling Institute, Polis sat at 51% of Coloradans holding a favorable opinion of him, to 40% unfavorable. In its November poll, he landed underwater by 1 percentage point. Now he’s down a net 4 percentage points, with 44% favorable to 48% unfavorable.

Bennet and Hickenlooper saw similar slips, though neither landed in explicitly negative territory in this latest poll.

Bennet, who is running for governor this year to succeed the term-limited Polis, moved from 45% favorable in March 2025 to 40% favorable now, and from 31% unfavorable then to 39% unfavorable now. Hickenlooper, who is running for reelection, moved from 49% favorable a year ago, with 36% of voters holding an unfavorable view, to an even split of 43% for each view.

In each case, the difference between favorable and unfavorable now is roughly within the margin of error of the poll, which surveyed 613 likely voters statewide through online interviews March 20-25. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3.96 percentage points. It was released by the Colorado Polling Institute and conducted by a team of Democratic and Republican pollsters.

The increasingly unfavorable feelings toward the officials could have some ties to overall economic malaise, but other data points indicate that “maybe what we’re seeing here is more general frustration among the Democratic base toward their party in the way they are resisting — or not — the Trump administration,” Ingham said.

The poll did not offer a head-to-head question surveying support in the Democratic primary for governor between Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser, his chief rival.

But the poll found name recognition continues to plague Weiser. While he had overall higher favorability than unfavorable feelings, at 26% to 23%, a majority of respondents, 51%, said they either hadn’t heard of him or had no opinion of him. That is an improvement from six months ago, when 58% said they had no opinion of him or had not heard of him.

For Bennet, 21% of respondents had either never heard of him or had no opinion.

Views on economy dive as gas prices surge

Views of the state’s economic future have also grown more sour amid general nationally and rising prices.

Three-quarters of Colorado voters were extremely or very concerned about the availability of good-paying jobs in their communities. More than 90% considered the price of housing, health care, home and car insurance, food and utilities to be a problem.

The cost of gasoline is now considered a very big problem by 41% of Coloradans, up from 17% a year ago.

Over the past year, the average price of regular unleaded gasoline has risen from $3.10 a gallon to $3.82, according . The price of diesel has risen from $3.38 to $5.14 per gallon. Prices spiked after the United States and Israel launched in late February, prompting Iran to choke off a key access point for .

In the aftermath, 55% of Coloradans predict the state economy will worsen in the next year, up from 46% who felt the same way last November.

Lori Weigel, principal of the Republican polling firm New Bridge Strategies, a partner in the new poll, said economic worries split most heavily along educational lines — not partisan ones. Among Republicans, 48% of respondents felt the economy would worsen, while 51% of Democrats and 62% of unaffiliated voters felt the same.

Meanwhile, the higher a person’s education level, the more likely it was that they would think the economy would worsen, Weigel said. The poll found 36% of people with a high school diploma or less were sour on the economy’s prospects, rising to 52% among people with some college education and 62% for people with a college degree.

“There was a pretty direct relationship with education level for predicting the state’s economy was going to get worse,” Weigel said.

In a separate poll question, Weigel also found strong ongoing support for the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the amendment to the state constitution that limits the growth of government and requires a vote of the people to raise taxes.

The poll asked a general question about support for TABOR, finding 62% viewed it favorably, compared to 22% who felt unfavorable about it. Republicans supported it at the highest level, 74%, while 63% of unaffiliated voters supported it. A plurality of Democrats, 48%, also supported the amendment.

Weigel warned that such support might bode ill for pushes to reform the state tax code at the ballot box this year.

One measure, which is being pursued through the legislature, would exempt state education spending from TABOR’s spending growth cap, freeing up potentially billions of dollars for other state priorities; it would still need approval by voters in November to become law. A second proposal, being pursued as a ballot initiative, would create a graduated income tax in which high-income Coloradans would pay a higher income tax rate than low- and moderate-income Coloradans.

“I would say most people think about TABOR as the thing that gives them checks sometimes, or money back, and then they think about being able to vote on tax increases,” Weigel said.

Bimestefer has overseen , or HCPF, since January 2018, when she took the job under then-Gov. John Hickenlooper. The agency’s longest-serving leader, she is set to leave the role on April 10.

She led the agency through the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic and as it weathered recent controversies, including program overpayments and allegations of massive fraud in a transportation program.

Problems within the agency — and criticisms of Bimestefer — have mounted, particularly as lawmakers have debated how best to fill a $1.5 billion budget shortfall this year and handle Medicaid’s ever-increasing costs. HCPF’s total budget last year was $18 billion, with $4.2 billion of that coming from the state’s general fund. As of May 2025, more than 1.1 million adults and children were covered by Medicald in Colorado, .

A group of state senators began drafting a resolution of no confidence in Bimestefer after several Medicaid billing problems came to light in recent weeks. The agency was significantly overpaying providers in its Medicaid transportation service for several years to the tune of tens of millions of dollars — an error missed by state officials even as they conducted an extensive review of the same program because it was riddled with fraud.

Twenty-eight senators — a majority of the chamber’s 35 members — had signed on to the resolution calling for Polis to remove Bimestefer from her post, said Sen. Kyle Mullica, a Thornton Democrat.

Mullica said the resolution listed the transportation billing errors as well as potential overpayments for autism care that totaled $75 million and have drawn federal scrutiny. It also noted that more than 500,000 people lost Medicaid coverage during the post-pandemic Medicaid “unwind,” as temporary eligibility expansions expired.

He said he presented the resolution to Polis’ staff last week, and lawmakers had planned to introduce it either Monday or “in the very near future.”

HCPF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the resolution. A spokesman for Polis said he would check to see if the governor’s office had additional comment beyond its initial announcement about Bimestefer’s departure.

Through a spokesman, Bimestefer declined an earlier interview request Monday. Her compensation last year was $228,706, according to .

In a statement put out by Polis’ office, Bimestefer said she had “the privilege of advancing systems that help Coloradans — often in the most difficult times in their lives — get the care and support they need to rise and thrive.”

“Working alongside HCPF leaders, staff and stakeholders, we have navigated one unprecedented challenge after another for over eight years to protect the state’s most vulnerable, with this current chapter proving to be incredibly difficult,” she wrote.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, were more critical of her tenure. Mullica said it had been difficult to grapple with the painful Medicaid cuts contemplated this year alongside apparent mistakes from HCPF.

Flawed analysis caused Colorado Medicaid program’s costs to surge and made it ‘attractive’ to fraud

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican who sits on the powerful Joint Budget Committee, said Bimestefer should've left long ago and that her departure "marks the end of a failed era for this department."

Bimestefer's time overseeing HCPF included the entirety of the pandemic, which hit the U.S. in 2020 and saw the rapid expansion of Medicaid to include a broader swath of the population. The program has been expanded in other ways at the direction of lawmakers, and it has weathered similar rapid increases that plagued other Medicaid programs nationwide.

She also oversaw the pandemic unwind in the years since.

“In her tenure, Colorado has taken major steps to increase price transparency, reduce hospital and prescription drug costs, and hold the health care industry accountable," Polis said in a statement. "Her legacy is one we hope to build on moving forward, and know that she will continue having an important impact on health care and serving her state in her next chapter."

At a signing ceremony for an unrelated bill on Monday afternoon, Polis did not take questions from reporters.

Bimestefer's departure comes as cash-strapped lawmakers grapple with a yawning hole in the state budget that's been partially fueled by increases in Medicaid spending. Lawmakers this year are discussing how to cut Medicaid to make up for the gap, and they've told reporters that they want a deeper analysis of how Medicaid, and HCPF, is operated.

Sen. Judy Amabile, a Boulder Democrat who also serves on the budget committee, called Bimestefer's resignation a good first step to righting the beleaguered agency.��She said she had lost trust that she was receiving accurate information from the department and its operations.

The lack of transparency, she said -- combined with the series of multimillion-dollar scandals -- ends up hitting families and people who rely on the life-and-death service that HCPF oversees.

"This is not a small thing," Amabile said. She pointed to the department's overpayment for extra-large wheelchair transportation, which may have cost the state upwards of $100 million. "And it's coming now at the cost to families and patients."

Lawmakers' desire for additional oversight, along with lawmakers' call for Bimestefer to be removed, comes after the legislature learned that HCPF serially overpaid for services in the Medicaid transportation program. At one point earlier this year, the state was paying 10 times what it should've been for the wheelchair transports.

The broader transportation program was also plagued with allegations of fraud in 2023 -- shortly after HCPF, relying on an apparently faulty analysis, recommended a significant increase in reimbursement rates in that service. After that change was made, costs to the program exploded from $70 million to more than $300 million, and the error was not corrected until last summer.

Those problems, along with the potential autism overpayments, have drawn the scrutiny of federal regulators and Republicans in Congress, who sent a letter to state officials asking for more information about how the state detects and limits fraud.

Mullica says Bimestefer's departure will give lawmakers and the state a fresh start.

"It allows us to really move on from (those issues) and start having conversations of what a sustainable Medicaid program is going to look like," he said. "That����ap really important, and I think it����ap been hard with a lot of the mistakes that we’ve talked about that have happened in that department, with (Bimestefer) at the helm. Now we’re able to move past that, hopefully."

In a statement, the Colorado Hospital Association said it hoped for a more collaborative HCPF going forward.

"Looking ahead, we urge legislative leaders to seek input from a broad coalition of patients, providers, advocates, payers and policymakers," wrote Jeff Tieman, the group's president and CEO. "Together, we can suggest paths forward to stabilize Medicaid and HCPF, strengthen our workforce, and make Colorado a national leader in smart, people-centered health care. That long-term, collaborative work must be a top priority for the legislature and for the current and incoming administrations."

Prior to joining HCPF, Bimestefer ran her own consulting business and worked for Cigna for more than 15 years, most recently as president of the insurance company's Mountain States division.

More than 1,600 Democratic faithful filled Memorial Hall in Pueblo on Saturday, even as thousands of Coloradans joined protests against the Trump administration as part of the national No Kings movement, to cast their lots for their party’s candidates for some of the state’s top offices. The event doesn’t completely settle the field, but it helps winnow out candidates and determine which candidate’s name will appear at the top of the primary ballot. Republicans will hold their state assembly to do the same thing, also in Pueblo, in two weeks.

Attendees at the assembly heard from more than a dozen candidates total seeking Colorado’s top statewide offices: treasurer, attorney general, secretary of state, governor and U.S. Senate. Candidates who won 30% support or more from the delegates in Pueblo won a spot on the June 30 primary ballot, and the overall winner will hold the top spot in the list of nominees when ballots go out.

State Sen. Julie Gonzales, a progressive from Denver, will hold the top-line spot in the primary election against U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper after she boxed out two other Democrats seeking the nomination. Attorney General Phil Weiser, meanwhile, won more than 90% of the delegates at the Colorado Democratic Party’s state assembly in his bid for governor. He will face U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. Hickenlooper and Bennet skipped the assembly in favor of petitioning onto the ballot.

And in the treasurer’s race, state Sen. Jeff Bridges was the only candidate to clear the 30% threshold necessary to qualify for the primary ballot. His competitors, state Rep. Brianna Titone and John Mikos, fell just short of qualifying for the primary ballot.

The other races, however, ended the day in approximately the same spot as they were at the start. Secretary of State Jena Griswold edged out attorney David Seligman to win the top slot on June’s primary ballot for Colorado attorney general, with 42% of delegates to Seligman’s 41%. Democrats Michael Dougherty and Hetal Doshi have submitted petitions for that race.

The race for the nomination for secretary of state, between state Sen. Jessie Danielson and Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez, will go forward with both candidates still in it. Gonzalez won the top-line spot with 63% of the assembly vote to 37% for Danielson.

As notable as the candidates on stage were, the people not there were equally notable. Neither Hickenlooper, who is seeking reelection, or Bennet, who is running for governor, appeared at the event. Both opted to petition onto the ballot vs. relying on party activists to win a spot in the primary.

Recent Colorado history shows victory at the state assembly may not matter much. Bennet in 2010 and Hickenlooper in 2020 lost the assembly vote before going on to win the party’s nomination at the primary and eventually a seat in the U.S. Senate. Gov. Jared Polis likewise lost the assembly in 2018 before going on to win two terms as the state’s chief executive.

The assembly hall also represented a small fraction of people who ultimately will determine the nomination. Some 1 million Democrats and 2 million unaffiliated voters will be eligible to vote in the primary.

Bennet’s and Hickenlooper’s decision, however, meant the Memorial Hall auditorium was stacked with supporters for their opponents. Gonzales, one of three candidates who challenged Hickenlooper and the only one to win a spot on the ballot at the assembly, walked onto the nomination stage to some of the loudest applause of the day and led raucous call-and-response of “when we fight, we win” as she walked off.

In her speech, she acknowledged long odds in her bid to unseat Hickenlooper, who was Denver mayor and governor before he turned to Washington, D.C.

“I am not going to outraise the John Hickenlooper incumbent protection program,” Gonzales said in an interview after her speech. “That’s fine. I’m not trying to. We’re going to outwork him. And the energy and fire you saw reflected in this room tonight, from Coloradans all across the state, is a testament and demonstration — exhibit A — in terms of what we will do.”

Other races, however, featured the candidates taking veiled shots at their competition and navigating outside political attacks.

Griswold faced new allegations Saturday morning from a disgruntled former employee who accused her of creating “a hostile and volatile workplace” and a “climate of fear of retaliation” as secretary of state. The statement didn’t derail her assembly showing, as she still won the top-line spot

“I am speaking on behalf of those who we abused, bullied and ultimately discarded by Secretary Griswold,” Reese Edwards, the former employee, said in the statement. The statement was sent through the NMFAction Fund. According to the letter, Edwards worked as Griswold’s director of government and public affairs in 2019 and 2020. “I am speaking for them because they fear retaliation and retribution for their jobs and their careers. They fear what she might try to do to them if she gets her hands on the most powerful judicial position in Colorado.”

NMFAction Fund did not respond to a request for comment from The Denver Post. Its statement did not name employees other than Edwards. Griswold’s campaign also did not respond to a request for comment about the letter Saturday. When approached by a Denver Post reporter at the assembly, a staffer for Griswold simply said “no” and walked away.

But Griswold, who’s held a commanding fundraising advantage, alluded to other attacks she’s faced during the campaign.

“A candidate in this race has decided that his best shot is to launch misleading attacks on me,” Griswold said during her nomination speech. Her campaign later singled out Dougherty. “Let’s call it what is is: Desperation … If your focus is on bringing me down, and not on the racist lunatic in the White House, then you’re not ready for this job.”

On Saturday, at least, you call them Democrats. Then, in two weeks, you call them Republicans.

The Democratic Party faithful are gathering this weekend in the southern Colorado city for their first in-person statewide assembly since 2018 — and the party’s most consequential assembly since then, to boot. A slew of candidates are vying for the party’s nominations to the state’s top offices, nearly all of which are open because of term-limited incumbents.

The Colorado Democratic Party’s state assembly on Saturday at Memorial Hall marks the first major winnowing of those candidates. It’s also a chance for the victors to rally the base — and, they hope, ride a wave of victory headlines to the June primary election, where voters will have the final say on nominations.

In two weeks, on April 11, the Colorado Republican Party will follow suit with their state assembly, at Massari Arena on the Colorado State University Pueblo campus.

The stakes are similar in each case. Party members, picked among neighbors at precinct and county caucuses across the state in the weeks before, will name their preferences for a slew of elected offices, from U.S. senator and governor to members of the state House of Representatives.��

The assemblies aren’t the end of the nomination process — indeed, some of the highest-profile names in Democratic politics are foregoing it. But the event will exclude from June 30 primary ballots those candidates who rely on the assembly and fail to clear its 30% threshold of support. The assembly vote winners will land on the ballot’s top line.

“The most exciting thing about (the assembly) is how it levels the playing field for grassroots competitors to have a shot at sharing a message that, in some cases, resonates broadly,” Colorado Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib said.

The assembly puts candidates in front of swaths of some of the most dedicated Democrats in the state to make their case, one five-minute speech at a time.

The candidates also get the chance to rub elbows in hallways and have one-on-one conversations with voters about why they should hold the office they’re seeking — making potentially invaluable inroads, particularly for lesser-known candidates looking to knock off longtime officeholders.

Already, the caucus and assembly process revealed an organizing gap for one longtime politician. Candidate for Congress Melat Kiros walloped U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette at the Denver County assembly in mid-March, winning nearly two votes for every one the 15-term congresswoman pulled in. On Friday night, Kiros easily cruised to a place on the June primary ballot, earning 67% of the party’s nominating vote to DeGette’s 33%. Though she lost, DeGette avoided the unthinkable — falling below 30% and falling off the ballot.

Former Gov. Roy Romer, a Democrat who led the state from 1987 to 1999, praised the caucus and assembly process as a way for regular people to steer the party, rather than letting someone just throw tens of millions of dollars into an election. He’ll be introducing Attorney General Phil Weiser, a candidate for governor, at Saturday’s assembly.

“This way is a movement,” Romer said in an interview. “When you’re petitioning, you’re a little more distant from people. This is working with people, community by community. This is a way to come together and say this is our nominee.”

Alternatively, candidates can qualify for the ballot by collecting petition signatures. U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper both pursued that option. Bennet is running for governor against Weiser, while Hickenlooper is seeking reelection.

They each collected nearly 15,000 signatures, or some 10 times the number of people who will be at the assembly, and were the first candidates to qualify for the June primary.

On the Republican side, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer and pastor Victor Marx have both submitted more than 20,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office to qualify for their party’s gubernatorial primary. More than a dozen other GOP candidates have also filed for the office. The GOP assembly next month is expected to pare down that field substantially.

Seth Masket, a University of Denver political science professor, cautioned against making assumptions about the routes the candidates take to the ballot.

Further-left and further-right candidates tend to benefit from the caucus and assembly process because they tend to attract a more passionate followings, he said. That doesn’t mean they necessarily do or don’t have a broad base of support, but they do have supporters who care enough to spend a weeknight at a caucus or a spring Saturday in a convention hall.

Candidates who are more mainstream in their party — and especially those with money — generally find it easier to petition onto the ballot. They can also avoid the risk of being kept off the ballot by an organized, enthusiastic base of opposition that only needs a few hundred people to potentially keep them below the 30% threshold necessary for ballot qualification. (The threshold drops to 10%, however, if the candidate goes a hybrid route of pursuing both petitions and the assembly vote.)

“(A successful assembly candidate is) not necessarily the candidate that’s going to win the primary, but it is a candidate that has a passionate following,” Masket said. “Not every candidate has that and, to be honest, more mainstream candidates don’t tend to have that kind of following. What they do have is more general name recognition and support from party members.”��

Recent electoral history in Colorado has shown that assembly victories rarely translate into overall victory in the primary.

In 2010, Bennet, who had been appointed to the Senate but not yet won an election, . In 2018, then-U.S. Rep. Jared Polis lost the caucus vote in his bid for governor. In 2020, Hickenlooper likewise lost the caucus in his first bid for the U.S. Senate.

All three went on to win the party nomination in the primary, and then they won the general election.��

So far this cycle, public polls show Bennet and with wide leads over their competitors, even as they cede the assembly to their rivals.

“Both methods require any candidate to earn the backing of voters from every single corner of this state,” Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for Bennet����ap campaign, said in a statement. “… Colorado voters are looking for a governor with the experience, vision, and commitment to delivering the results we need. Michael has held a commanding lead since he first entered this race because Coloradans know he is the right candidate to protect Colorado from (President Donald) Trump’s chaos and build an economy that works for working people.”

Hickenlooper, meanwhile, had initially intended to go through the caucus and assembly process before putting his efforts into the petition process.��

In a statement, his campaign acknowledged the switch, saying the intent was voter outreach.

“Our focus in participating in the caucus process at the beginning was to help energize the base, meet with voters, and support the work of our county parties,” spokesperson Jess Cohen said. “The senator appreciates everyone who has participated in the process and really enjoyed having conversations with folks across the state.”

Hickenlooper’s decision to pull back, meanwhile, left openings for his rivals — and a chance to rally a fired-up Democratic base that has shown it����ap open to change.

“It����ap clear to me that the base of the Democratic Party is interested in evaluating who talks a good game and who walks the walk,” said state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver progressive who’s running against Hickenlooper. “Who’s actually done the work and put in the muscle to listen to people and to translate those frustrations, those hopes, those anxieties, into concrete and durable policy. That����ap the work.”

Candidates seeking state and federal office through the state Democratic assembly

Besides state legislative races, here are the candidates seeking placement on the Democratic primary ballot at the state assembly in Pueblo. The party has been organizing multicounty assemblies separately for congressional candidates.

U.S. Senate: Karen Breslin, state Sen. Julie Gonzales and Jessica Williams

Governor: Antonio Martinez, William Moses, Erik Underwood and Attorney General Phil Weiser

Attorney General: Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and David Seligman

Secretary of State: State Sen. Jessie Danielson and Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez

State Treasurer: State Sen. Jeff Bridges, John Mikos and state Rep. Brianna Titone

Source: Colorado Democratic Party

While Calhoun is retiring as editor-in-chief — having just overseen the newly published, 43rd edition of Best of Denver — she’ll stay on as editor emeritus to contribute a column and lead Westword toward its 50th anniversary on Sept. 1, 2027, she said.

“Oh, I’ll have plenty more to say in the next three months… and after,” she wrote in an email to The Denver Post. “But right now, we’re celebrating the Best of Denver, which is much more interesting than I am.”

But . “In so many ways, the best is yet to come,” she said. “In the meantime … I’ll also be writing the stories I’ve been meaning to get to when I wasn’t distracted by cranky politicians and big protests and projects like the Best of Denver.”

Calhoun brought a face and a level-headed ferocity to the city’s culture that has gone far beyond Westword’s cheeky brand, its literary, long-form journalism and its in-depth coverage of Denver nightlife, said U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a longtime friend who met Calhoun after he opened the Wynkoop Brewing Co. in 1988.

“More than anybody else I know in Denver, she was a moveable feast in that true kind of Parisian sense,” said Hickenlooper, who also served as Denver mayor and governor of Colorado. “She has no limits, and Westword embodies that. Plus, how many people are that fun to hang out with?”

Westword’s award-winning investigations, edgy or absurd cartoons, unapologetic columns and reviews, and detailed event listings have been a landmark for readers, according to a by former Westword columnist Gustavo Arellano.

Calhoun blazed trails for women journalists at a time when newsroom equality was rare, and women’s voices were often shut out of news media. She bucked those stereotypes, instead appearing as a rough-and-tumble presence at Western events. She also wrung the best from her writers, and as a loyal Denverite who saw trends coming from miles away, gave young writers a chance to influence the city’s conversations.

“What I love is that she doesn’t approach her work emotionally, and invites criticism. In fact, she loves it,” said Bree Davies, a former Westword writer who now hosts the City Cast Denver podcast. “The reason she knows everybody here is because she gets the facts, writes really interesting stories, doesn’t hold grudges, and is fun to be around.”

“I read an article that said women in business should not drink beer because it wasn’t professional,” Calhoun told late Denver Post columnist Bill Husted in 2010. “And I am enough of a contrarian that I decided to embrace beer with a vengeance. And it����ap easier to keep track of your drinking because, unlike wine where they keep filling your glass, you can count the beer bottles or the limes.”

“She basically invented the ‘drinks on the table’ concept, which is part of how she got so much (access),” Hickenlooper said. “We’d always share dirt, but if there were a cocktail or bottle in front of you, it was all off the record.”

While major alt-weeklies such as the Village Voice (which became part of Westword’s parent company ) and smaller papers have closed in recent years, Westword has found a way to hang on in both print and online. Among her dozens of national awards, Calhoun was named the inaugural recipient of the Association for Alternative Newsmedia’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, according to Westword.

Greg Moore, former editor in chief of The Denver Post, said Calhoun is a towering figure in journalism and has no Colorado peer. Her dogged reporting and way with politicians, celebrities, sports stars and fellow writers has helped define Denver’s culture.

“I don’t know that there’s an editor in Denver who’s had a better run, from founding Westword some 50 years ago to running it at a very high level and touching almost every institution in Denver and Colorado,” he said over the phone Wednesday. “I don’t know that there’s a more knowledgeable editor about Colorado history, its culture, its authors, its music, its heartbeat, than Patty. She’s going to be really missed.”

Calhoun started Westword in 1977 with two of her former Cornell University dorm-mates, according to Arellano, “as the winds of Watergate blew through the nation and stoked the alt-press along the way. The partners soon departed, leaving Calhoun as the sole boss until she sold it to what eventually became the largest chain of alt-weeklies in the United States.”

“She was kind of like a boss from a movie,” said Laura Bond, who worked as a music editor and writer at Westword from 1999 to 2005. “She was brilliant, larger than life, fashionable, hilarious, sometimes tough. Her high standards were always rooted in a respect for both truth and storytelling, in service of a city she loves and knows better than anyone.”

As editor emeritus and a columnist, Calhoun plans to “finally finish that article about the status of Rocky Flats today, and why people visiting what����ap now a ‘wildlife refuge’ might come out with a certain glow,” she wrote. “I’ll dig into why there are so few live music venues downtown, when culture is a key to bringing people back there. And I might even write about the time I met with Joe Rogan — yes, that Joe Rogan — who wanted to be the Westword pot critic.”

Calhoun also previewed “side obsessions” in her announcement Wednesday, promising to dig deeper into the 15-year-old Colorado Music Hall of Fame and revisit “the much more elderly World’s Wonder View Tower, a roadside attraction that turns a hundred this summer.”

“A crew of history-loving Denver cronies and I bought it a decade ago,” she wrote of the structure, “then created a nonprofit to carry it into the future because we didn’t want to see another Colorado Classic wiped off the map. Like Westword, it����ap ready for the future.”

Westword, which is distributed free to newsprint racks around the metro area, currently has more than 1.5 million monthly active users and an estimated 278,000-plus monthly print readers, .

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