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.

Thus, I will not be endorsing the intelligent, hard-working State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer for Colorado governor. Sensible, principled, and conservative but able to work across the aisle, Kirkmeyer is the best Republican candidate to run for governor in years.

Likewise, I will not be endorsing the smart, affable, and fabulously mustached former president of the State Senate and current Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham for state treasurer. Both of these candidates have solid platforms and neither one raves hysterically on social media, so do not look for my name on their list of endorsements. They have a chance in 2026, albeit a slim one, so I won’t risk it. Although Colorado is solidly blue, weakened support for Democrats and a softening economy may give these two Republicans the chance they need to take a statewide office.

A recent Magellan Strategies poll finds that of those who voted for Kamala Harris last year, 47% now have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party. The same poll shows 52% have an unfavorable opinion of Gov. Jared Polis’ job as governor. Forty-four percent disapprove of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and 49% U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper. As a recent Denver Post editorial noted, “After years of enjoying popularity, Colorado’s top Democrats are now showing a remarkable drop in their approval ratings among voters.” Democrats cannot coast through the next election and a strong Republican may have a chance.

Given this possibility and the risks associated with a Kafer endorsement, I will not endorse the strongest candidates but the weakest for the position they are best suited.

I endorse State Rep. Scott Bottoms, who is also running for governor, to play the next Church Lady on Saturday Night Live. Of all his colleagues, he most frequently mentions Satan on the dais. Comfortable as he is with calling everything socialist and Marxist, he could also play Sen. Joe McCarthy in a dramatization for the History Channel, if he shaved his beard that is. Bottoms is an election conspiracy theorist who plans to release former County Clerk Tina Peters from prison if elected. With the Magellan Strategies poll showing 59% disapproval of Trump, choosing a full tilt MAGA candidate is the best strategy for keeping Colorado solidly in the Democratic column.

If that����ap the goal, State Sen. Mark Baisley, another gubernatorial candidate, would also fit the bill. He once blamed Antifa for the Jan. 6 insurrection and once wrote that having hit their “socialist stride” the Democratic Party’s ultimate goal was “Sharia.” Keep Colorado blue, vote Baisley!

For embodying the axiom “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” I endorse former U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez who has run for governor twice and lost twice in the primary. Go for three! Tied with Lopez for the “try, try again” distinction is former State Rep. Janak Joshi who plans to run against Sen. John Hickenlooper who never loses and could probably run from the grave and win. Unfortunately, a solid non-endorsable Republican candidate has not thrown a hat into this race.

Finally, I could endorse Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell for governor, but I’ll need to Google his name and figure out where Teller County is.

All joking aside, it would be better for the party to run great candidates like Kirkmeyer and Grantham who can win not just Republican votes but bring along unaffiliated and even moderate Democrats. As elections in other blue states like Massachusetts and Maryland show, the right Republican candidate can win on occasion. To boost their chances, the candidates I have endorsed should drop out and direct their supporters and funders to a candidate who has a chance.

Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

Grantham, of Cañon City, was the last Republican to lead the state Senate. After being term-limited from serving again in the chamber in 2019, he successfully ran in 2020 for , where he has served since.

“I was raised in a rural farming community in Southeast Colorado raising hogs — so I know a little something about how to cut the fat,” Grantham said in a statement announcing his candidacy. “Coloradans deserve leaders that will be careful stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars. They deserve a state (where) they can afford to live and raise a family without breaking the bank.”

Grantham highlighted growth in the state treasurer’s office and “reckless spending” by Democrats as a top issue. He pledged to speed up how fast taxpayers get back unclaimed property from the state, a function overseen by the office.

The state treasurer serves as steward of the state’s tax dollars. Treasurer Dave Young, a Democrat, has held the job since 2019. He is term-limited from seeking reelection.

Democratic state Sen. Jeff Bridges, of Greenwood Village, and state Rep. Brianna Titone, of Arvada, have also announced their candidacies for the job. They will face off in a primary with fellow Democrats Jerry DiTullio and John Mikos next summer. Voters will pick the next treasurer in the November 2026 general election.

The new portrait bears a close resemblance to for his second term in office, albeit with him wearing a blue tie in the painting versus a red one in the photo. The painting casts Trump against a black background instead of the textured brown and black in the portraits of his predecessors.

Colorado’s legislative leadership has agreed to display Trump’s new portrait temporarily while officials discuss the future of the Capitol’s presidential portrait gallery. On Thursday, former Sen. Lois Court, the chair of the , said the group “will have a thorough discussion of all the presidential portraits at our next meeting” in September.

The White House donated the portrait after Trump objected to a prior painting that had been on display since 2019.

“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,” Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social, in March.

Colorado Senate Republicans raised $11,000 in 2019 to commission the original portrait of Trump. Colorado Springs artist Sarah Boardman painted that image, as well as the one for former President Barack Obama, a Democrat.

Boardman said then that she strove to make both paintings apolitical. Former Senate President Kevin Grantham, who led the fundraiser, recalled in March that the portrait’s unveiling was “nothing but smiles and applause and support for the artist and her work.”

Legislative leadership took down the portrait the day after Trump’s criticisms. Boardman said in April that Trump’s accusations were “directly and negatively impacting my business of over 41 years which now is in danger of not recovering.”

The new portrait was painted by Vanessa Horabuena of Tempe, Arizona. Horabuena’s describes her as a “Christian worship artist” and features patriotic and religious works.

History Colorado framed the new portrait Thursday ahead of it going on display and said in the late afternoon that it had been returned to Capitol building staff. The portrait will be displayed in the third-floor rotunda of the state Capitol, but there was no firm timeline Thursday afternoon for when it would go up.

President Donald Trump’s official portrait in the Colorado Capitol will be taken down Monday night after the president took to social media to complain about what he claimed was a “purposefully distorted” portrayal.

The General Assembly’s executive committee — composed of legislative leadership from both parties — signed a joint directive to legislative staff Monday afternoon to remove the portrait. The image will be removed after the Capitol closes Monday night, legislative staff said in an email.

The painting will then be stored “in a secure and appropriate location… until further notice,” according to the directive.

In a statement, House Democratic spokesman Jarrett Freedman said Republican leadership had asked that the portrait be removed.

“If the GOP wants to spend time and money on which portrait of Trump hangs in the Capitol,” he wrote, “then that’s up to them.”

Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Republican, said that he requested for Trump’s portrait to be taken down and replaced by one “that depicts his contemporary likeness.”

The portrait, commissioned during Trump’s first term, was paid for with a Republican-led fundraising effort and approved by Colorado Republicans before it was put on display in 2019.

The portrayal sparked Trump’s ire Sunday night.

“Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,”

Former state Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Republican, raised nearly $11,000 in an online fundraiser for the portrait in the summer of 2018 after he learned no donations had been received to fund the painting more than a year into Trump’s first term.

“I would much prefer not having a picture than having this one,” Trump wrote Sunday night, asking that Gov. Jared Polis “take it down.”

The unveiling of the portrait on Aug. 1, 2019 — at an event and artist Sarah Boardman of Colorado Springs — was described as nonpartisan by organizers.

In an interview Monday, Grantham recalled the event as “nothing but smiles and applause and support for the artist and her work.” Trump’s sudden criticism “caught me a little off guard,” Grantham said.

Grantham said that if any living president has an issue with their portrait at the Capitol, “it would be silly to keep it up.” It’s meant to honor the office of the presidency and the individuals in that exclusive club — but also, it’s a simple respect for the person to take down an image they don’t like, he said.

He also defended Boardman as an accomplished artist whose works would stand the test of time and didn’t deserve some of the vitriol lobbed her way.

“Even if we don’t like the current occupant of the White House, or the previous one, or the previous 10, let’s show some consideration to them as a human being first and foremost,” Grantham said.

Grantham said he’d be “happy to assist” in whatever the next steps are to replace Trump’s portrait.

Shelby Wieman, the governor’s press secretary, said in a statement Monday that Polis was “surprised to learn the president of the United States is an aficionado of our Colorado State Capitol and its artwork.”

“We appreciate the president and everyone’s interest in our Capitol building and are always looking for any opportunity to improve our visitor experience,” Wieman said.

Trump’s social media post complained about Boardman, who also painted former President Barack Obama’s portrait in the Capitol’s Gallery of Presidents.

“The artist also did President Obama, and he looks wonderful, but the one on me is truly the worst,” Trump wrote. “She must have lost her talent as she got older.”

Boardman previously told The Denver Post it was important to her that both Trump and Obama looked apolitical in their portraits because the gallery is meant to tell the story of the U.S. and not one specific president.

The other 43 presidential portraits in the Colorado gallery were painted by Lawrence Williams. He died before he could continue the collection with Obama’s portrait.

In 2018, after Colorado Citizens for Culture’s initial effort had failed to raise any money for a Trump portrait, an aide to then-House Speaker Crisanta Duran, a Democrat, helped a liberal political group sneak a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin into the Capitol, where it was displayed on an easel beneath the spot reserved for Trump.

Grantham launched his own fundraising campaign days later.

Trump’s Sunday night comments prompted a steady stream of visitors to pose for photos with the painting before the announcement that it would be taken down.

Aaron Howe, visiting from Wyoming on Monday, stood in front of Trump’s portrait, looking down at photos of the president on his phone, then back up at the portrait.

“Honestly he looks a little chubby,” said Howe of the portrait, but “better than I could do.”

“I don’t know anything about the artist,” said Howe, who voted for Trump. “It could be taken one way or the other.”

Kaylee Williamson, an 18-year-old Trump supporter from Arkansas, got a photo with the portrait.

“I think it looks like him. I guess he’s smoother than all the other ones,” she said. “I think it’s fine.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Or more simply put, Fremont County is not a “sanctuary county.”

That����ap the message expressed by the Fremont County Board of Commissioners via a formal approved during Tuesday’s meeting.

“Fremont County is not a sanctuary county for illegal immigrants,” said Board Chair Dwayne McFall. “We do not have the resources, we do not have the capacities.”

McFall also cautioned nonprofit groups that may bring unsheltered individuals to the area to remember it affects the entire community.

Commissioner Kevin Grantham agreed that resources are limited and also reminded private organizations, faith-based organizations and churches who help those in need to be mindful.

“We have a limited number of tax dollars available,” he said. “We are going to take care of Fremont County citizens first. We are going to take care of the U.S. citizens who live here first. The problem here – and it����ap addressed very well in this resolution – is that we have a federal government right now that is purposefully touting the law and their duty and how they should address the border in the border crisis.”

To further that, he said, particular people in cities in this state are in league with “flouting the law, ignoring the law, calling themselves sanctuary cities,” like Denver, Pueblo and others.

“Then in the meantime, when those folks do arrive, they cry about them being there,” Grantham said. “We’ve heard about those folks possibly being shipped across the state from Denver. That is unacceptable. We have chosen not to be a sanctuary location, meanwhile, they have. Now that they have them, they do not want them and now their lack of planning for what they accepted to be their reality is now supposedly going to be placed upon our shoulders out in rural Colorado.”

He said that����ap the force behind the resolution – that it����ap not acceptable in Fremont County.

“My heart goes out to the folks who truly have a need, but those who claim to be sanctuaries should be those sanctuaries,” he said. “Otherwise, they were hypocrites to begin with, if that����ap not too blunt.”

The resolution states in part, “Denver counts the highest number of illegal aliens per capita of any large city in the nation and the Mayor of Denver, on January 31, 2024, stated that, ‘This is both a humanitarian crisis for the individuals that are arriving, and it����ap a fiscal crisis for the cities that are serving. Those two crises are coming to a head right now.’”

The same people who originally opened their arms as a sanctuary with a pledge to welcome and care for these individuals have received a very hard, cold dose of reality, Commissioner Debbie Bell said.

Cañon City Mayor Preston Troutman has heard similar concerns from his constituents. They also shared with him that Monument recently voted to affirm its status as a non-sanctuary city. Troutman reached out to the mayor of Monument to get a resolution that he plans to share with the city council.

He received a photo from a resident of some men being dropped off from a white van at Macon Plaza on Nov. 22, believing that illegal immigrants were being unloaded.

“After our research was done, they weren’t necessarily illegal immigrants, they were homeless people that were dropped off here,” Troutman said. “It����ap a difference without a distinction, it����ap the same thing.”

Cañon City Police Commander Tim Bell confirmed Monday that the individuals were homeless, not immigrants, and were dropped off by a church van.

Law enforcement responded to Macon Plaza and made contact with two of the people who were dropped off. Bell said there was no crime committed and therefore, no action was taken.

He also confirmed that up to this point, the police department is not seeing any immigrants being dropped off here.

While Troutman doesn’t want the community to be alarmed or panic, he admits “We no longer live in Mayberry.”

“We don’t live in a world that was 10 years ago,” he said. “We need to be aware and prudent.”

In addition to Fremont County and Monument, Aurora’s city council also recently formally affirmed that it will remain a non-sanctuary city.

“The constituents are concerned and I feel that there is some anxiety,” Troutman said. “I think we need to address it and I think we need to have that discussion among ourselves that we don’t live in that world we lived in 10 years ago and it����ap unfortunate.”

Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.

Many of the darkest-blue and the reddest of red states in recent years raised serious amounts of money without so much fuss. Massachusetts last month of major road, bridge and transit upgrades and expansions. Utah has acted more incrementally, chipping away at its transportation project backlog by increasing its gas tax, hiking an electric vehicle registration fee and making other money-raising moves to bolster its system for the long term.

Thirty other states have also raised their gas tax in that stretched from California to Alabama to Virginia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But not Colorado. When it comes to transportation, the state’s rare combination of tricky tax policy, stagnant revenue sources, regional rivalries and standoff-prone politics has proved difficult to navigate, keeping Colorado from fixing its crumbling transportation system in a sustainable way.

“We have to do three times as much work to get the same results as other states,” said Rep. Matt Gray, a Broomfield Democrat who is vice chair of the House transportation committee.

The result is recurring frustration felt by drivers stuck in traffic and those looking for more transportation options in a state whose population has grown 70% in the last three decades, to 5.8 million. Colorado has added little capacity on state roads in that time and still relies heavily on a gas tax that hasn’t changed from 22 cents per gallon since 1991; despite all the population growth, that tax actually raises slightly less, after collections are adjusted for inflation, than it did in the early 1990s.

As state lawmakers prepare their latest salvo — a package of transportation-centric fees that likely will include one to supplement the gas tax — the stakes have ratcheted only higher.

Democratic state leaders have laid out ambitious transportation policy goals that increasingly look beyond traffic-choked highways to address climate change. Doing so will require accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles and shifting more travel from highways to less-polluting alternatives, such as cycling and transit.

Colorado’s most unique challenge has been its stringent Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, popularly known as TABOR, a constitutional amendment initiated by a colorful conservative activist and passed by the state’s voters in 1992. It requires a vote of the people to create or raise any tax and places other fiscal constraints on government.

That has served, depending on one’s viewpoint, as either a roadblock to good governance or a welcome hindrance that saves taxpayers money.

In the face of voters’ rejection of a trio of money-raising ballot proposals in 2018 and 2019, including what would have been a large dedicated sales tax for transportation initiatives, the state’s elected officials have managed only a piecemeal approach in recent years. Their moves included limited budget transfers and smaller-scale borrowing, bowing in bipartisan compromises to Republicans’ preference for stretching Colorado’s existing resources further, instead of raising more money.

Each time, they’ve left a sizable future challenge — a recurring shortfall, once estimated at nearly $1 billion a year, to upgrade and expand the state transportation system — for another day. In the shorter term, the Colorado Department of Transportation has that’s only about one-third funded.

“At the end of the day, there are different ideas about how you go about funding” transportation, said Sandra Solin, a longtime lobbyist for Fix Colorado Roads, a coalition of business groups around the state that has pushed for more highway improvements. “And when you have TABOR in the mix, with the requirement to go to voters … it just ends up in a stalemate. That����ap what we’ve experienced whenever we’ve talked about new funding sources.”

Democrats, now in control of both chambers and the governor’s office, are optimistic the fee package being put together by Gray and Sen. Faith Winter, that chamber’s transportation chair, has a clearer path to success than past efforts.

Details about the fees and proposed charges are expected to be released in coming weeks, but the goal is eventually to raise hundreds of millions of dollars a year via new fees and, to a lesser extent, recurring transfers from the state’s roughly $13 billion general fund budget. The money would go to CDOT’s plans, to transit and multimodal projects across the state, and to more public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Winter and Gray have talked about the potential to assess new or higher fees in some way on gas purchases — alongside the tax — and on electric vehicles (which already net an extra $50 annual fee), the trucking industry, package deliveries, Uber and Lyft rides, and other services that make use of roads.

Over time, the new fees would offset the sputtering gas tax as it’s affected not only by inflation but also continuing gains in fuel efficiency and the increasing adoption of electric vehicles.

Gov. Jared Polis said in an interview that he liked the approach and was eager to see their fleshed-out plans.

“The way that we’ve set up to fund our roads certainly doesn’t work with those trends,” Polis said. “So we’ve got to modernize that — we’ve got to figure out how to fund our roads in five years and 10 years. It’s a big danger to the state if the state doesn’t address this.”

In the meantime, he has pushed lawmakers to provide a relief measure or two up front as Coloradans weather the pandemic’s economic fallout. In his State of the State address Wednesday, he drew applause for suggesting a short-term reduction in the state’s high vehicle registration fees.

Before any fees raise money, other currents may bring large one-time sums for transportation sooner, including Polis’ proposal to use about $200 million from excess budget proceeds as stimulus spending for transportation projects and CDOT’s .

There’s also the potential that Colorado could receive large infusions from a new federal pandemic recovery package or an infrastructure spending bill that’s beginning discussions in Washington, D.C.

Utah has found a smoother ride

Colorado has a lot of catching up to do. To get a measure of how much it’s fallen short, drive into Utah, where the highways, by and large, provide a much smoother ride.

Nearly every state struggles in some way to pay for transportation maintenance and the need for more lanes or roads, national experts say. But Utah has kept up better than most, as reflected in its 17th-place ranking in of each state’s highway conditions and cost-effectiveness. Colorado .

The biggest gulf: Colorado’s rural interstate pavement condition ranked 47th in the study, while Utah’s came in seventh.

The Republican-dominated state has stayed on top of its roads better than Colorado in part by becoming less reliant on federal funding. A by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association found the Utah Department of Transportation relied on federal funding for 46% of its annual spending on highway and bridge projects over the course of a decade, below the national average of 51%.

CDOT was well above that average, relying on federal funding for 69% of its annual project spending, the ARTBA study found.

“I feel like Utah is one of the shining stars,” said Carolyn Kramer, director of the ARTBA group’s Transportation Investment Advocacy Center, which on transportation. “Utah is always going back to the table and reassessing and figuring out better ways.”

The state’s biggest move came in 2015, when its lawmakers and governor passed a gas tax increase that included regular adjustments based on the average wholesale price of gasoline. The changes were expected to raise $4.3 billion over 25 years, reducing the state’s long-term shortfall but still leaving about $7 billion unfunded.

Utah’s tax has increased from 24.5 cents per gallon to 31.4 cents as of January, giving Utah the 24th-highest state gas tax. Colorado’s 22-cent rate is now the eighth-lowest.

Total motor fuels taxes brought in $624.5 million last year. Before a drop in gas purchases in the 2020 fiscal year due to the pandemic, the inflation-adjusted total provided about 3% less than those taxes raised in 1993, according to a Denver Post analysis of CDOT data. The gas tax goes into the Highway Users Tax Fund, which now takes in about $1.1 billion a year for CDOT to share with cities, counties and other agencies.

In a report last year, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, in urging a tax increase, said Colorado’s per-gallon rate would be nearly 20 cents per gallon higher now if it had indexed the rate to inflation in 1991, allowing for automatic adjustments. The state would have collected $7 billion more in taxes since then, according to SWEEP’s calculations.

Biggest moves: Borrowing and FASTER fees

In the absence of that revenue, the state has relied mostly on one-time budget transfers and borrowing in recent years.

The largest move was a $1.9 billion program unleashed in 2017 for state and local projects. The Senate and House then had split partisan control and agreed to issue mortgage-like certificates of participation, a form of borrowing that avoided going to voters for a bond-authorization vote.

The biggest recurring influx of money for transportation was approved in 2009, when the legislature — then controlled by Democrats — passed a set of annual registration fee hikes known as FASTER fees. Those added fees, paid by vehicle owners, now bring in about $190 million a year for state bridge repairs. Total state collections have amounted to $1.9 billion, allowing undertakings that include the Central 70 project in Denver, which is replacing an aging viaduct.

“There were times when it was on death’s door,” recalled Terrance Carroll, a Denver Democrat who was House speaker then. “It took almost an entire session to get it through. … It was one of the times when we had to think creatively in terms of funding to get around the restrictions of TABOR.”

But in Republicans’ telling, Democrats paid a price for the FASTER move in the 2010 election, when the GOP retook the House majority narrowly.

Since then, Republicans have lobbied against creating any new fees — along with pushing for the state to prioritize highway projects over transit spending and local projects. Former Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Cañon City Republican who presided over that chamber in 2017 and 2018, said bipartisan compromises approved then, making use of existing resources, were better solutions and more in line with voters’ desires.

He suggested Utah’s easier ability to raise money for transportation has its roots in longstanding efforts to keep costs lower across state government, maintaining voter trust in lawmakers there to tackle priorities.

In Colorado, “now we’re back to the (Democratic) trifecta, and they can effectively do what they want,” said Grantham, now a Fremont County commissioner. “So we’ll see if they’ve learned anything and see if the voters will hold them to account for what they do. I don’t know.”

More fees in Colorado’s future?

Rep. Ray Scott, R-Grand Junction, is among current Republican legislators who say they will oppose the attempt to create a new gas fee. They say the new fees under consideration would violate Proposition 117, a ballot measure approved by voters in November to clamp down on the practice by requiring TABOR-like votes for new fee-based enterprises of a certain size.

Democrats argue they’re in the clear because they would use existing state enterprises for the fees.

“If somebody says we need a higher gas tax, and you can prove it to voters, then let them vote on it,” Scott said.

But lawmakers are gun-shy about going to voters, given the recent ballot defeats.

“We felt that was a pretty strong message (from voters) to go solve it,” said Winter, D-Westminster, lamenting that there’s likely to be a partisan split inside the State Capitol. “And what we’re asking is that everyone that uses the roads … all pay a little bit more to solve this.”

Business groups, environmental advocates and local officials have been in talks with Gray and Winter and are eager to see final details of the Democrats’ fee proposals. They’ve been receptive, and several people from those groups said it’s time to do something big.

That’s especially true if the state wants to achieve steep state greenhouse gas goals that call for reducing the total miles traveled on roads each year by 10% by 2030, rather than making room for more traffic, said Matt Frommer, a senior transportation associate at SWEEP, the green energy group.

“We need to basically reverse that trend, which is really, really hard,” Frommer said. “One of the big challenges is … what����ap the necessary level of investment to increase transit ridership, bicycle use, teleworking and all of these (road use) reduction strategies to achieve that reduction goal?”

House Speaker Alec Garnett, D-Denver, called the fees package “the most pragmatic practical approach that we have seen in the last decade.” He and Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg rated its chances as high in the legislative session, which reconvened Tuesday after a pandemic pause.

“I’m optimistic that we’re going to get something very meaningful across the finish line,” said Fenberg, D-Boulder. “The devil’s in the details. Literally every single person who lives in Colorado has a stake in this. And some businesses entirely rely on the roads. … This touches everybody, especially now.”

For people, policy and Colorado politics

What’s The Spot? You’re reading an installment of our weekly politics newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered straight in your inbox.

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.

To support the important journalism we do, you can become a Denver Post subscriber .

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.

Forward this newsletter to your colleagues and encourage them to .

President Donald Trump’s portrait is now hanging with his predecessors in the third floor rotunda of the state Capitol, in the Gallery of Presidents.

“Whether this portrait brings a smile or scowl to your face, remember you have the right to do so because this is the United States of America,” former Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Republican, said just before the unveiling Thursday afternoon.

Grantham started an online fundraiser last summer to raise the money for Trump’s painting after he found out that Colorado Citizens for Culture, the group originally tasked with the job, . Grantham raised nearly $11,000 in a few days.

He said it was only fitting that a populist president like Trump be the first to use crowdfunding to cover the costs.

State Rep. Dan Pabon, a Denver Democrat, was one of the donors to the GoFundMe campaign.

“I thought it was important to donate to this cause,” Pabon said during Thursday’s ceremony.

He said he gave his own money not because he supports Trump — Pabon ran a bill to rename part of Interstate 25 after President Barack Obama — but because he didn’t want kids and their parents taking the Capitol tour and thinking politics had anything to do with why Trump was missing from the wall of presidential portraits.

Others took a more partisan approach to the missing portrait. An aide to former Colorado House Speaker Crisanta Duran helped a liberal group sneak a portrait of Vladimir Putin into the state Capitol last year and display it near the spot reserved for Trump’s painting.

Trump’s likeness was painted by a Colorado Springs artist named Sarah Boardman. She also painted the portrait of Obama that hangs in the rotunda and said it was important to her that both men look apolitical because the gallery of presidents is about the story of our nation and not one president in particular.

“In today’s environment it’s all very upfront, but in another five, 10, 15 years he will be another president on the wall,” Boardman said. “And he needs to look neutral.”