“We must always resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box — not through violence,” Rep. Steven Woodrow said in a statement Monday morning. “I know people are hurting, and (I) apologize that my words caused additional pain.”

Shortly after a gunman injured Trump and killed an attendee at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally Saturday night, Woodrow — a frequent X user who has regularly criticized Republicans on the platform — posted that the “last thing America needed was sympathy for the devil but here we are.”

He immediately drew criticism for the post, and later that night he deleted his X account. Colorado Democratic Party chair Shad Murib Woodrow’s post.

In his statement Monday, Woodrow condemned the attempt on Trump’s life and said that his post, “inarticulate as it was,” sought to convey that “acts of violence like this are awful and only make it more likely that Trump now wins” the election.

Other Colorado politicians denounced the attack, which killed retired fire chief and father Corey Comperatore and left Trump bloodied after he said a bullet damaged his ear; two rally spectators also were injured.

Gov. Jared Polis said in a Saturday statement that he was glad Trump was doing well and that “violence is never acceptable.” He also for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a move echoed by others that on Monday. Democratic U.S. Reps. Brittany Pettersen, Joe Neguse, Diana DeGette, Yadira Caraveo and Jason Crow all issued similar statements.

So, too, did U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet and an array of local and state elected officials.

Republican U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn and Greg Lopez both posted on X that they were praying for Trump’s recovery.

Crow told CBS on Sunday that “violence could spiral out of control” and that “leadership requires that we all step back. Enough is enough. We cannot do this.”

Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert expressed support and prayers for Trump on X, while blaming Biden for the attack and reposting social media messages that explicitly — and baselessly — blamed Democrats for attempting to kill the former president.

The gunman has been identified as a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man; for opening fire on Trump.

State Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican, posted on X that Biden should be investigated for “criminal incitement of violence.” He wrote that he “would expect” Woodrow to resign over his comment, though he told that he understood getting caught up in an emotional moment. (Soper clarified to The Denver Post Monday evening that he wasn’t calling on Woodrow to resign.)

Patrick Neville, a former Republican lawmaker and one-time minority leader in the state House, that he didn’t agree with Woodrow’s comments. But he suggested that the Denver Democrat and his family had received threats since Saturday and that those threats “are more deplorable than what (Woodrow) said.”

Calls for softening inflammatory rhetoric are not new to Colorado’s state legislative leaders, who have long struggled with lawmakers’ social media postings.

Republican state Reps. Brandi Bradley and Ryan Armagost both criticized Woodrow on X over the weekend, too. Earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers criticized both Bradley and Armagost for repeatedly using social media to accuse their colleagues of supporting pedophiles. Democratic legislators said they received death threats as a result of those postings.

Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed “Daylight Saving Time Year Round,” , into law. But that doesn’t mean an immediate end to standard-time tyranny. The law will keep Colorado locked in daylight saving time, which it is in now, only if a federal law is enacted to allow states the option and at least four other states in the Mountain Time Zone also opt for year-round daylight saving time.

The law “really moves the discussion forward,” Polis said, noting the stipulations attached to it.

“There is increasing consensus that just sort of arbitrarily switching the clocks twice a year is confusing and somewhat counterproductive for everybody and upsets people’s sleep cycles,” Polis said.

Bill sponsor Rep. Cathy Kipp, a Fort Collins Democrat, further called it a public health issue, with more car crashes, heart attack and strokes and mental health issues associated with mass circadian resets.

So far, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a measure in the spring to lock the nation’s clocks in at daylight saving time. An identical measure has been introduced in the House of Representatives, but no action has been taken.

The other metric is nearly met, though. Montana, Wyoming and Utah have all adopted lock-the-clock bills for permanent daylight saving, . Arizona, which is on federally allowed permanent standard time, New Mexico or southern Idaho would need to take action to check that box.

If Colorado were to stop moving its clocks around, sunrises and sunsets would each move by about three hours between the solstices. Under constant daylight saving time, sunrise wouldn’t be until 8 a.m. from about Nov. 30 until Feb. 8, though with a trade-off of the sun setting after 5 p.m.

The law is a culmination of more than a decade of effort by various lawmakers to lock the clock, though it had typically faced opposition from the ski industry and airlines. In addition to Kipp, it was sponsored by Castle Rock Republican Rep. Patrick Neville, Greenwood Village Democrat Sen. Jeff Bridges and Grand Junction Republican Sen. Ray Scott.

Updated 9:10 p.m. June 2, 2022 The headline on this story has been corrected to indicate the new law would make daylight saving time year-round.

The first, , amounts to a $700 million cut to property taxes in 2023 and 2024 as policy makers try to dull how much owners owe due to skyrocketing property values. It cuts how much of a property’s actual value is used for tax purposes.

“It’ll help make sure that no one is priced out of the home that they live in, just because the value of that home has gone up,” Polis, a Democrat up for re-election this fall, said. “This is the first reduction in nonresidential assessment rate for 40 years. That means for 40 years, the assessment rate has gone up and up for small businesses across our state and now it is going down in a big way.”

Due to the recently repealed Gallagher Amendment, Colorado historically relied on commercial property taxes for most of that funding base. This new law — which fended off threats of competing ballot measures to shape property tax policy — gives state officials breathing room to find a longer-term solution.

“We’ve responded to this moment with a very thoughtful package,” state Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat, said at the Monday bill signing. “Keep in mind what this bill also does though is make sure that we’re not relying on unresponsive formulas in our Constitution to handle this issue, because we know the downside of that.”

Polis previously said he expects the law to save the owner of a $500,000 home about $274 a year and the owner of a $500,000 commercial property about $1,200. It does that by dropping the assessment rate from 29% to 27.9% for commercial properties, and from 6.95% to 6.765% for residential properties.

To pay for the cuts, the state is setting aside about $400 million to go to counties so they don’t cut the budgets of things like schools or fire services. On the latter, Hansen noted “the high probability of a big fire season” — an incongruous note in an event themed around tax and fee relief. The $400 million comes from a mix of one-time money, refunds due taxpayers through the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Another $300 million is expected in lost revenue.

The $200 million in tax refunds drew criticism from some Republicans who accused the Democrats of padding the deal with money already owed to taxpayers. Even at the bill signing, Hansen and Polis framed it as $700 million in tax relief, while fellow sponsor state Rep. Patrick Neville, a Castle Rock Republican, called it a half-billion-dollar cut.

Regardless, the bill ended up sailing through the legislature with unanimous votes in each chamber. Neville, a staunch conservative, said the opportunity to sign on to a bill that cut taxes by that much wasn’t much of a choice at all.

“It’s probably no surprise to anyone that I hate taxes, but the worst kinds of taxes are property taxes, where you are literally paying the government rent on something that you bought that they didn’t help you pay for,” Neville said. “And so this is the worst kind of taxes and anything that we can do to provide relief on these taxes, I’m all on board for.”

Polis also signed , which delays a 2-cent per gallon fee on gasoline from being implemented until April 2023. The fee was part of a 2021 bill that was projected to raise more than $1.6 billion by 2032. It was supposed to go into effect this July, but Polis and lawmakers pulled back on that plan in January as inflation rose.

While arguing Colorado actually has lower per-gallon gas prices than the country’s average, Polis still encouraged Coloradans to shop around and specifically to avoid those stations selling it for $4.40 a gallon.

In an effort nearly as regular as the heralded — or revulsed — ritual of flipping the clock forward every spring for daylight saving time, and back again in the fall for standard time, some state lawmakers are hoping to lock Colorado’s clocks in one or the other.

It����ap fallen every prior attempt, most recently in 2020, but the outlook on locking the clock is a bit sunnier this go around, sponsoring Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village, said. Lobbyists for airline companies, a traditional opponent of the effort, aren’t outright opposing the measure for example (though that shouldn’t be read as support, either). And, for the first time in decades, Congress has made moves on the matter.

“There is a growing national moment, a growing understanding by folks who have opposed these kinds of bills in the past, that something will pass this year,” Bridges said Tuesday.

In Colorado, the effort is two-pronged, and Bridges said conversations are ongoing which one takes the forefront: would ask voters this November whether they’d like to keep Colorado in standard time, while would move Colorado to constant daylight saving time, if the federal government allows it.

If Colorado were to stop moving its clocks around, sunrises and sunsets would each move by about three hours between the solstices. In the extremes, under a constant daylight saving, sunrise wouldn’t be until 8 a.m. or later from Nov. 30 until Feb. 8, but with a trade-off of the sun setting after 5 p.m.

Under a constant standard time, the sun would rise before 5 a.m. from May 1 to Aug. 3, with the sun setting no later than 7:30 p.m. in that time.

U.S. Sen. Bennet on “The greatest thing that ever happened”

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate cast its lot, and potentially the nation’s, in with constant daylight saving. The body voted unanimously to approve the Sunshine Approval Act.

“Speaking personally, I think it����ap the greatest thing that ever happened,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said in an interview, laughing a moment before adding. “I think it is great and I think it has outlived its usefulness.”

The bill still needs approval in the U.S. House of Representatives and, if it clears that hurdle, President Joe Biden’s signature. If approved, it would make next year’s spring forward the last for the foreseeable future.

Colorado’s U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt, is a co-sponsor on the House version of the bill.

Colorado’s other Congressional delegates either did not respond to a request for comment or said they were still interested in hearing from constituents on the matter.

“While this isn’t an issue I have thought much about, I’ve heard from dozens of constituents this week with strong feelings opposing our current practice of changing the clocks twice a year,” U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, said in a statement. “I will keep their views in mind as the House reviews the legislation which passed the Senate and considers the best path forward.”

While its future lays over the horizon, it won’t be the first time Congress has tried to keep clocks sprung forward. It had approved permanent daylight saving in the 1970s to try to blunt an energy crisis rattling the country but soon reverted to rotating times when public opinion turned against it, .

Will Colorado lock the clock? And which way? Backer just wants “the madness to end”

In Colorado, the two bills will be put on hold until probably next month while sponsors weigh their level of support and if one method should be prioritized over the other.

For Bridges, who is sponsoring both bills, he didn’t favor daylight time or standard time — he just wants “the madness to end.”

“I’m so tired,” he laughed Tuesday morning, as body clocks across the country continued to adjust. “I scheduled a meeting (Monday) for 8 a.m., like an idiot, and this morning had a 7:30 a.m. (meeting) … I’m pretty sure the first 10 minutes I just rambled because my brain was not functioning.”

State Rep. Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, signed onto the bill that would let the state switch to daylight saving time. He worried standard time would create too much of a time gap for Coloradans whose jobs have ties to the East Coast. He said he didn’t know the U.S. Senate would take up the effort, too, when he signed on to it, and its backing makes the conversation all the more relevant.

“People are done with time changes,” he said.

Bridges isn’t the first state legislator to try to lock the clock, and he acknowledges its fraught history.

The ski industry has historically been a chief opponent to the measures, and is officially opposed to the standard time measure, but wanting amendments to the year-round daylight saving time bill, according to lobbyist filings. The spokesperson for Colorado Ski Country USA, which represents 23 ski areas, declined to comment on this year’s efforts, saying they’re still working on it. In 2020, its public affairs director, Chris Linsmayer, said the extra hour in winter mornings and the extra hour in summer evenings worked for them.

Spokespeople for United Airlines and Frontier Airlines, which registered opposition or that the Colorado senate bill should be amended, declined to comment.

The Colorado Parent Teachers Association, a 20,000-member statewide group representing parents, teachers and families, hasn’t staked out a position on the time change, President Staci Ruddy said.

She worries about more self-sufficient kids being expected to walk, bike or drive to school in the dark during a winter of daylight saving time, but also acknowledged the circadian chaos of mid-semester time changes. Conversely, there’s a lack of afternoon sun — not to mention families losing long summer evenings — under a constant standard time.

Just moving school start times back to compensate, like Denver Schools did recently, has its appeal, Ruddy said, though its effect on parents dropping off little ones before work and school bus schedules gives her pause. That struck her as more of a district-by-district solution.

“It’s just an imperfect situation,” Ruddy, whose day job is as an emergency room nurse, said. “I don’t know how to fix it.”

Denver Post reporter Alex Burness contributed to this report.

Under the Democrat-led Vote Without Fear Act, it would be a misdemeanor to openly carry a firearm at or within 100 feet of a ballot drop box, building with a polling location, central counting facility or other places where election administration is happening.

It would exempt private property owners openly carrying firearms on their property and law enforcement officers. The prohibition also does not include concealed firearms.

The bill, , passed its first committee Monday on a party-line vote. The House State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Committee sent the bill to the full House of Representatives for consideration, with seven Democrats in favor and four Republicans opposed.

Proponents argued some people are openly carrying guns as tools of intimidation, and cited the country’s history of Jim Crow-era voter suppression and today’s on-edge discourse around election laws and lies about the 2020 presidential election.

“We have a long history of people being intimidated with firearms, and quite frankly the people who tend to intimidate bring them for a reason, because of how final the outcome could be,” sponsor Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, said.

Supporters of the bill included local election officials, including Adams County Clerk and Recorder Josh Zygielbaum saying he wears a bulletproof vest on occasion and Denver County Clerk and Recorder Paul D. López likening some of the intimidation efforts to terrorists when people can’t tell if the armed people are friends or foe.

Sponsoring Rep. Tom Sullivan, D-Centennial, characterized the bill as about voting rights, not gun rights.

“We’re not taking anything away from anybody,” Sullivan said. “We just want people who are there to vote to be able to go and vote freely.”

While the bill aims to help voters who may feel intimidated by openly armed people at polling places, its opponents largely questioned it from the opposite pole: What about people who fear areas where only people willing to flout the law are armed?

“Frankly, I fear gun-free zones, and this bill essentially creates a fear for people who believe the same as me,” committee member Rep. Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, said.

Neville cited the shooting at the STEM School Highlands Ranch, which he called a “gun-free zone,” where two students killed classmate Kendrick Castillo and wounded eight others in 2019.

While the bill would not prohibit people from carrying permitted concealed firearms at polling places, some gun owners are reluctant to register for it for fear of landing on a government database, Neville said.

Committee member Rep. Dan Woog, R-Erie, questioned why the bill was so narrowly limited to firearms and not other weapons that might be openly wielded, such as bats. Measures like this prey on people’s fear to take freedoms and give government power in return, he said.

Rep. Mary Bradfield, R-Colorado Springs, decried voter intimidation but said that her constituents sent her to the Capitol to protect their Second Amendment rights.

“Voter intimidation is wrong at any time. It was wrong in the past, it����ap wrong today and it����ap going to be wrong in the next election,” Bradfield said. “… But I see what happens here with the passage of this bill is what my constituents will see as their Second Amendment rights beginning to be eroded. That is troublesome.”

For people, policy and Colorado politics

What’s The Spot? You’re reading an installment of our weekly politics newsletter. .

Arguably the single wildest hour of Colorado’s legislative session was right after it ended.

While most lawmakers headed home for the summer, the House GOP convened Tuesday in a basement room at the Capitol for a meeting called by one of their newest members, Rep. Ron Hanks, who is best known for having attended the pro-Trump rally at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The second thing the Penrose Republican is known for is he made a joke about lynching on the House floor this year, before a speech about how the Three-Fifths compromise wasn’t racist.

To the 24 caucus members gathered, Hanks complained they were ineffective, unwilling to fight the Democrats in the majority and generally rudderless. He called for the ousting of the caucus leader, Loveland Rep. Hugh McKean. , the Republicans snapped at one another, cursed, fought over the basic rules of how the meeting should be run — all in front of the media and House GOP staffers.

Recall that McKean became the leader because the caucus decided to move on from former leader and current Rep. Patrick Neville of Castle Rock, who has a record of going after his own colleagues and has been accused by former and sitting Republican lawmakers of mismanaging campaign funds.

The pro-Neville faction, of which Hanks is a part, appears to be even more out of power than a year ago. Other than Lauren Boebert, the far-right, no-compromise culture-war stuff just hasn’t worked on voters, which is one big reason the Colorado GOP is out of power.

McKean survived the attempted overthrow, by the way, in a 15-8 vote, which didn’t include himself. The moral of the story? It’s hard to get your way in the minority, period. It’s much harder when your teammates can’t stand one other.

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Questions?

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Top Line

The pervasiveness of the Ku Klux Klan was hard to miss in Denver — members worked everywhere: the mayor’s office, the governor’s office, pie companies, pharmacies, the zoo, the jail and The Denver Post. Read about the ripple effects that linger today.

Capitol Diary • By Erica Hunzinger

Just the links

You may not have been glued to The Colorado Channel, political Twitter or The Post����ap website on the final days of the legislative session. Fear not, it����ap easy to catch up on what passed and what died thanks to the Post����ap statehouse reporters Alex Burness and Saja Hindi. Just click on the following links.

• If nothing else, find out the four major takeaways from the 2021 session and where the major pieces of legislation stand.
• Data privacy: It����ap more than a buzzword, it might become law.
• The number of gun bills that passed this year is more than lawmakers have done in a long, long time.
• In the end, Colorado won’t get a public option, but there’s likely to be a new health insurance plan.
• A new (to Democrats) tactic: Pass a bill to thwart a ballot measure you don’t like — and change the tax code in the process.
• High-potency THC is on notice under a marijuana regulations bill.
• Agricultural workers may get minimum wage, overtime and the ability to unionize.
• Institutions that knowingly hid child sexual abuse or didn’t try to stop it can be sued under a bill that passed this week.
• Democrats believe prescription drug prices are too darn high and want to try to help bring them down.
• Renters may have more protections in Colorado soon.
• Start counting out your change, you’ll need 10 cents per plastic bag in the coming years in Colorado under a bill to restrict the use of plastics and polystyrene.
• Two things that were killed in the final 36 hours: A bill meant to cut down on the state’s jail population and strengthen the avenues to sue for workplace discrimination and harassment.

Federal politics • By Justin Wingerter

BLM’s next leader on Grand Junction

President Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning, from U.S. senators on Tuesday. Very few involved the future of BLM’s headquarters in Grand Junction and her few answers left the matter unresolved.

“It����ap my understanding that the department and the secretary (of interior) are currently reviewing that — that they are surveying employees,” Stone-Manning told Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado. “If I have the honor of being confirmed and get there in a timely way, you have my commitment to dive in and carry the folks of Grand Junction and their concerns with me (during) the consideration.”

Stone-Manning the headquarters being moved two years ago, as did Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, but their noncommittal comments to senators this year have left onlookers guessing.

“Everyone knows how both of them felt before their nominations but I think it����ap different when you’re in the position,” said Robin Brown, executive director of the Grand Junction Economic Partnership and a top advocate for the Western Slope headquarters.

“I thought they’d immediately move it back to D.C. without looking at it and it����ap my sense, from the time it����ap taken, that they’re at least going to look at (it),” she added.

Scott Braden, director of the Colorado Wildlands Project and a critic of the headquarters move, said Stone-Manning’s comments show the Biden administration is sincerely studying the issue and preparing to make a good-faith decision.

“And it may not be a binary decision,” he noted. “It may end up being some combination of the headquarters being in both D.C. and western Colorado.”

More federal politics news

• The U.S. Senate confirmed Denver lawyer Regina Rodriguez for a federal judgeship.
• Major League Baseball derided a federal lawsuit that sought to move the All-Star Game back to Georgia instead of Coors Field.
• Colorado’s Republican congressional delegation is all about harping on Vice President Kamala Harris.
• A 10th Coloradan was arrested Friday in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot.
• Eight of Colorado’s nine members of Congress.

Mile High Politics • By Conrad Swanson

One appointment down, two to go

In the old days, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock picked whomever he wanted for his cabinet-level positions and those people got to work. It hasn’t been that way since late last year.

Voters agreed with city council members last November about wanting transparency, so now every new Hancock appointee must go through the city council. He can still have his pick, but if they’re not approved by council, that����ap that.

City council members who wanted the change said the confirmation process would also help them build relationships with those appointees, whom they also must work closely with. Hancock, however, saw the move as an intrusion and one that diminished his strong-mayor powers.

But there was hardly any intrusion this week when the council confirmed Andrew Amador as the city’s new head of Department of General Services. Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer — who proposed the confirmation measure last year — thanked Hancock for selecting an “exemplary candidate” and said she felt the process was working as intended.

The real test is yet to come: Hancock announced Monday that he wants to bring Phil Washington, former head of the metro’s Regional Transportation District, back from Los Angeles to run the Denver International Airport. That would put Washington in charge of multiple expansion projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars and a push to add new gates and a seventh runway to the airport.

Washington’s confirmation process is expected to start later this month, and is sure to draw more scrutiny from the council.

Hancock has also yet to name a successor to Eulois Cleckley, the head of Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, who is leaving for a similar position in Miami. That position oversees everything from the street paving and snow removal to traffic studies and clearing out homeless encampments — and will likely be a more intense confirmation process.

More Denver and suburban political news

• Denver City Council’s decision to allow up to five unrelated people live in a single home faces renewed scrutiny after a group opposed to the move collected enough signatures to place a referendum on the November ballot.
• The Denver metro’s suburbs are moving east and looking decidedly less suburban.
• Hancock proposed a $400 million bond measure in April without a specific list of projects. Two economists told The Denver Post that approach is “backwards.”
• Pit bull bans are nearly history in Colorado as Lone Tree nears lifting restrictions, leaving just Louisville with a breed-specific ban.

Forward this newsletter to your colleagues and encourage them to .

Here are the state’s top political stories of 2020, as decided by The Denver Post����ap politics team.

COVID-19 response

Colorado’s elected leaders, particularly Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, have had to grapple with how to respond to a pandemic that has resulted in more than 4,600 COVID-related deaths in the state.

Life as many Coloradans knew it began to change in March. The governor declared a state of emergency, businesses were shut down, people were furloughed and lost jobs, whole industries had to figure out new models to survive and the health care sector was faced with unprecedented levels of need. A fragmented federal response left much of the decision-making to individual states.

Throughout the pandemic, Polis’s actions were criticized by Republican leaders who believed he was going too far and was exceeding his authority. Some Democratic leaders and public health experts believed he wasn’t going far enough, resisting statewide mandates for too long that could help save lives. The governor’s office won some legal battles and lost others. But for the most part, Coloradans have applauded Polis’s leadership amidst a crisis that seemed to have much worse effects in other states.

Most recently, Polis received pushback from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado as well as Democratic lawmakers for deprioritizing prisoners and those living in congregate settings for vaccine distribution. This was a reversal from the draft vaccine plan his administration proposed, which garnered criticism from groups that inmates would receive higher priority over other Coloradans.

Police accountability and reform

The streets surrounding the Capitol building in Denver were filled with protesters for months after George Floyd was killed at the hands of Minneapolis police in May. People across the country demanded change amid a national reckoning over racial and social justice.

It was that push for change in Colorado policing practices that state lawmakers credited as the impetus for Senate Bill 217. The bill was historic in many ways — it was among the most comprehensive police reform packages in the country, and it was a bipartisan effort.

It also made a major change to the qualified immunity defense, a legal doctrine that typically shields government employees from being held liable for constitutional violations unless an appellate court had previously declared the same conduct unconstitutional. Officers determined not to have acted in good faith or with a reasonable belief that what they did was legal can now be held personally liable for 5% of a judgment or settlement, up to $25,000. Colorado is the first state to do this through the state legislature.

The bill also bans the use of chokeholds, requires officers to get equipped with body-worn cameras and limits when police can shoot at fleeing suspects. Since the bill’s passage, at least one local government has tried to take and others have found other areas of the legislation that need to be amended. Lawmakers intend to bring those changes in 2021.

Repeal of the death penalty

The Colorado legislature abolished the state’s death penalty early this year, before going on hiatus because of the coronavirus, after years of failed attempts. Polis signed the bill into law March 23. That same day, he also commuted the sentences of the three men on death row.

Colorado became the 22nd state to end the death penalty, a punishment that has lost significant support nationally over the years, particularly as death row inmates have been exonerated and people of color disproportionately affected.

The decline of the Colorado GOP

The Colorado GOP took another hit in November after the state’s voters handily elected Democrats to office, turning the state a deeper shade of blue. As more than 20 Colorado Republicans looked back on the GOP’s decline in the state over the past few decades, they attributed many of their woes to party infighting, demographic shifts, the growing power of Democrats, the unpopularity of President Donald Trump and allegedly mismanaged campaign money.

One such example of the party’s recent failures: House minority leader Rep. Patrick Neville placed his brother in charge of campaign cash meant for the entire caucus. But his brother, Joe Neville, funneled nearly $1 million of that cash to his own political consulting company through no-bid contracts, while losing seats in the House and dwindling the GOP’s minority to a historic low point.

Buck as the face of GOP infighting

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who also serves as chair of the Colorado Republican Party, made national headlines in May after an audio recording revealed that he had pressured a local election official in El Paso County to submit incorrect election results to the secretary of state.

That incident triggered a deluge of similar controversies.

Just days later, the Weld County GOP chair mentioned one of Buck’s congressional aides in a complaint alleging election fraud and corruption. Democrats passed the El Paso County complaint to the state board that regulates attorneys, asking them to disbar Buck. The Weld County complaint was then passed to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office for additional investigation. Both incidents churned out negative headlines and served a distraction at a time when Republicans said they should have instead been focused on the impending 2020 election.

Buck has since announced he will not run for a second term as state party chair.

The rise of Boebert

Lauren Boebert began 2020 as a millennial restaurant owner on a longshot campaign for Congress with little money and zero political experience. She ended 2020 as a congresswoman-elect.

The Rifle Republican’s shocking defeat of Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, by 10 percentage points on June 30 was the biggest upset of the year in Colorado. She ran as the most pro-Trump candidate, despite Trump’s endorsement of Tipton and Tipton’s role as a Colorado co-chair of Trump’s campaign.

Boebert has since claimed there was widespread fraud in the presidential race Trump lost and, on Jan. 6, will not vote to certify the presidential results, part of a longshot bid to overturn the election. There has been no poof of rampant voter fraud, particularly in Colorado.

Greenlighting family leave

Colorado voters this year approved the creation of a statewide paid medical and family leave program, after multiple attempts to pass such progressive legislation at the state Capitol failed.

What voters passed in November goes even further than what lawmakers had initially proposed at the legislature. The measure creates a state-run paid family and medical leave insurance program for Colorado workers that would provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave annually. Funding for the program would come from payroll deductions.

A bill to pass paid medical and family leave earlier this year was met with several obstacles but ultimately began to collapse, just before introduction, after two sponsors withdrew their support, citing concerns that the bill wouldn’t do enough to protect the state’s most marginalized employees. New sponsorships were in the works, but the pandemic halted the plans. So, instead, sponsors backed the ballot measure.

Teflon John’s bumpy ride

John Hickenlooper’s defeat of Sen. Cory Gardner by nearly 10 percentage points on Nov. 3 was predictable – almost a foregone conclusion – due to the state’s Democratic lean and Trump’s unpopularity in Colorado. The road that led Hickenlooper there was less so.

In the weeks before Democratic primary voters decided between Hickenlooper and Andrew Romanoff on June 30, Hickenlooper refused to appear at a virtual hearing of the Independent Ethics Commission, fought a subpoena, lost in court, refused to comply with the subpoena, was held in contempt by the IEC, and was found to have twice violated the state’s gift ban. The series of unforced errors earned the candidate negative headlines and left political observers scratching their heads.

After Hickenlooper easily beat Romanoff, Republicans saw an opening, pouring money into ads that claimed Hickenlooper was a crook. But the ads mattered little. Hickenlooper handed Gardner the first loss of his career and the largest margin of defeat for a U.S. senator from Colorado in 42 years.

Hancock takes flight

After weeks of cautioning residents to stay put and avoid travel or gatherings on Thanksgiving, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock joined the throes of elected officials across the country using a mantra of “do as I say, not as I do.”

About 30 minutes before boarding a flight at Denver International Airport, Hancock’s Twitter account posted a message telling residents to avoid travel if they can. Someone at DIA alerted local media about Hancock’s travel, and his spokesperson confirmed that he was going to visit his daughter in Mississippi, and his wife was already there. The story gained national attention, and the backlash was swift.

Hancock issued an apology, saying he should have shared his travel plans publicly and that he asked for forgiveness for “decisions that are borne of my heart and not my head.”

Crow and impeachment

Speaker Nancy Pelosi surprised many when, on Jan. 15, she announced Rep. Jason Crow would be one of the seven House impeachment managers prosecuting the case against Trump in the Senate.

Crow, an Aurora Democrat, was a defense attorney, not a prosecutor, before joining Congress. And, unlike the other six managers, was not a member of the Intelligence or Judiciary committees, which researched and drafted the articles of impeachment. At 40, he was also the youngest manager.

As he made his case to senators — ultimately without success; Trump was acquitted — it became apparent he was there due to his combat experience. He spoke, with first-hand detail, of soldiers at war, to illustrate the danger in Trump’s withholding of military funds to Ukraine.

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If you want more insight into Colorado politics, , our weekly politics newsletter.

But these are not normal times. For four years, the leader of the free world has vilified the free press as the enemy of the American people. President Donald Trump has accused journalists of lying and assigned ulterior motives to their work.

So when House Minority Leader Patrick Neville tweeted out photos of the voter registration information of two Denver Post reporters, it wasn’t just appalling it was downright dangerous. Neville then made a half-hearted attempt to blackout the addresses in the photos after many expressed dismay.

“The other reporter was also a Democrat. They want us to be silent on this but I think people should know this information,” Neville wrote.

Actually, it����ap an easily accessible public record to determine a person’s voter registration, so we’re not so much concerned with the public knowing that both reporters have been registered as Democrat or unaffiliated in the past — everyone has a right to participate in our Democracy, even reporters.

But Neville didn’t just tweet out the information, he deliberately took a screenshot of their home addresses and sent it out to the world.

This was the act of a man who had no valid criticism to hang on a very unflattering story.

Denver Post reporters Conrad Swanson and Alex Burness wrote a story that highlighted several Colorado Republicans’ answers to the question: “What happened to the Colorado Republican Party?”

Turns out many folks are concerned about how Neville handled money donated to help Republicans seeking legislative office in Colorado. Swanson and Burness used publicly available records to show how in three years under Neville’s leadership just under $1 million in funds from various campaign organizations under his control went to Rearden Strategic. Rearden is a company owned by Neville’s brother.

Note that Neville didn’t allege the story was inaccurate. He just alleged that the reporters were biased because they currently or formerly had been registered as Democrats. If Neville wants to defend his reputation, he’d be much better producing detailed receipts to account for the money given to Rearden to help Republicans win office. And if Neville doesn’t want other Republicans to accuse him of gross nepotism, then he shouldn’t hire his brother’s company for work many companies are eager to take on. It’s certainly not the reporter’s fault that Neville made poor decisions with money donated by loyal Republicans hoping to help their party.

It pays to be in power when you can grant multiple hundred-thousand-dollar contracts to your family members. It����ap unclear how efficiently or effectively Rearden used the money it was paid, but we know Republicans have not been doing well in competitive races with a few exceptions.

Neville has already been ousted from his leadership position. Good riddance.

Perhaps new leadership will bring better results.

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For people, policy and Colorado politics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Questions?

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

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Top Line

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

Capitol Diary • By Saja Hindi

Relief delayed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Colorado political news

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

Mile High Politics • By Conrad Swanson

Police and sheriff oversight in Denver

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

But one widely trusted watchdog will watch no longer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Denver and suburban political news

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

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“It was not uncommon for it to take an hour to get through all of those speeches,” said Rob Fairbank, the former state representative from Littleton.

Now, said Rob Witwer, former attorney for the Jefferson County GOP and also a former state lawmaker, “It would take five minutes. You could fit all the elected officials in a phone booth.

“And that,” he adds, “in a nutshell is the trajectory of the party over the past 25 years.”

This is a low point for the Colorado GOP, now with less electoral power than at any time since World War II. Democrats control both chambers of the statehouse by comfortable margins — 41-24 in the House, 20-15 in the Senate. The governor, attorney general, treasurer and secretary of state are all Democrats. Next year, both of the state’s U.S. senators and four of its seven U.S. representatives will be Democrats. In November, the University of Colorado Board of Regents, previously the last statewide body controlled by the GOP, flipped blue for the first time in 41 years.

Just 18 years ago, roughly the opposite was true.

The Denver Post examined data and spoke to more than 20 Republicans, including many current and former elected officials, and found most attribute the powerlessness of a party that was competitive here just a few years ago, and dominant as recently as 2002, to a mix of factors: allegedly mismanaged campaign money; fundamental disagreements within the party over its direction and message; the increasing strength of the Democratic Party; demographic shifts that contributed heavily to the GOP’s disadvantage in voter registration; and , whom one pollster referred to as a “rocket booster” for Colorado Democrats.

Jefferson County, once firmly red and later a bellwether, is run by Democrats now. In fact, Democrats dominate the Denver area suburbs in general. Arapahoe, Adams, Broomfield, Jefferson and Douglas counties cumulatively went for Hillary Clinton by five points four years ago — on par with the statewide margin. This year, those counties combined went for Biden by more than 15 points.

That leaves the party in soul-searching mode. A slew of party bigwigs, such as U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, former House Minority Leader and current state Rep. Patrick Neville, outgoing U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and incoming U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert have allied themselves with a far-right politics despite an electorate that’s now about 33% Democratic, 27% Republican and 40% independent. Those independents disproportionately lean left, favoring Joe Biden by about 25 points this year.

“You have to be a big tent,” said state Sen. Kevin Priola, a Henderson Republican and a moderate by close to 10 points — a rare bright spot for the GOP. “You have to have a number of interests and voters and coalitions that support what you’re trying to do and how you’re trying to do it. Unfortunately, that idea has kind of been pushed out in some areas of the GOP in the prior decade. That philosophy has been seen as equivocating or being soft or not fighting enough.”

The disappearance of the Priola brand of politics within much of the GOP — he said he’s felt marginalized at times — and the electoral consequences of it, are perhaps best exemplified recently by the state House Republican caucus, where the GOP seat deficit in the chamber of 65 ballooned from three to 17 in just four years.

House money and leadership in question

Whatever other problems the GOP faced, they appeared to culminate in the election of undisciplined or otherwise fringe candidates in safe seats over the last decade, said Frank McNulty, former Republican speaker of the Colorado House.

One of those candidates was Neville, of Castle Rock, who was elected in 2014. House Republicans then elevated him to minority leader in late 2016, handing him the keys to the caucus bank account.

That fund is meant to protect sitting Republicans, attract new candidates and contribute to their campaigns. Members of the caucus across the state add to its balance, so it����ap meant for the entire group.

.

The new minority leader renamed the fund “Values First Colorado” and registered the account to his brother, Joe Neville.

He also fired the old advertising vendor — who would send out mailers, buy media ad spots and more — and hired his brother’s company, Rearden Strategic.

“I said ‘OK this looks bad, but I won’t be upset if they win,’” said former Republican state lawmaker Greg Brophy, from Wray.

They didn’t win. House Republicans lost five seats in 2018 and broke even this year. Not since Lyndon Johnson’s presidency has their deficit been so great.

“You start looking at the money transfers and the way they hid expenditures so you can’t even tell what the money’s being spent on,” Brophy added.

After the 2018 losses, some House Republicans — including Rep. Jim Wilson of Salida — raised an eyebrow over retaining the Rearden connection.

“I said, ‘You know, with the Broncos, if the coach goes 1-11, you don’t hire that coach back,’” Wilson said.

But the checks to Joe Neville’s company kept coming.

Since November 2017, Values First cut at least $207,800 in checks to Rearden Strategic, campaign finance filings show. In addition, the House fund gave two other committees run by Joe Neville — Citizens for Secure Borders IEC and Take Back Colorado — at least $274,200 and $545,000, respectively.

In turn, Take Back Colorado has paid Rearden at least $306,554 between May and November of this year, the finance documents show. And Citizens for Secure Borders has paid Rearden at least $140,873.

Values First also wrote three checks in 2018 worth a total of $363,000 to Colorado Liberty PAC, controlled by Neville ally and , the financial documents show. Between 2018 and 2019, Yates’ PAC transferred at least $340,271 back to Rearden. Yates did not return messages seeking comment.

That means in a little over three years, Rearden Strategic cashed in just under $1 million from those four funds alone.

Corporations created by Neville ally Matt Arnold — Values First����ap designated filing agent — also received at least $21,250 in “consultant and professional services” payments from the House fund between 2019 and 2020, state filings show. Arnold did not return a call seeking comment on those expenditures.

Several House Republicans told The Denver Post the money was not spent in a transparent manner.

Rep. Larry Liston said he felt embarrassed on behalf of those who contributed to the funds and received nothing.

“ and the money was not spent on the appropriate candidates at the appropriate times,” Rep. Lois Landgraf said. “There are candidates who should certainly feel cheated and the caucus overall should feel cheated.”

Neville did not return a call from The Denver Post but in a series of text messages said he and his brother were transparent with the Values First cash. He’s also quick to note that House Republicans maintained their net total number of seats this year despite being largely outspent by Democrats, and he wrote that he’s “proud of what we did.”

Joe Neville said the 2018 and 2020 elections were difficult for Republicans all over and his company did the best it could. He also acknowledged that Rearden did not earn the House’s vending contract through a competitive bidding process in 2018 or in 2020.

“We weren’t trying to take money and fleece anybody, that����ap not the goal,” Joe Neville said. “Did it work out? No. And now it����ap somebody else’s turn.”

Priorities and infighting

Some payments from Values First were interpreted by House Republicans as an attack on a sitting member of their own caucus. Former state Rep. Justin Everett, an arch-conservative, and his company, Comma Consulting, received at least $17,500 from Values first between 2018 and 2020.

Everett was paid for some copywriting and marketing work, Joe Neville said, and the checks stopped once the former representative announced he would oppose incumbent Republican Rep. Colin Larson of Littleton in his primary this year.

Larson is young, relatively moderate and he’s shown he can win in the suburbs, unlike most of the rest of his party. And so the fact that he faced a challenge from the right this year from an old friend of the Nevilles disturbed many in the party.

“There’s no opportunity for any diversity of viewpoints within a party where any deviation from the most conservative line is considered heresy,” said Witwer, the former lawmaker and co-author of The Blueprint, a book about how Colorado Democrats rose to power. Witwer is now a registered independent.

“The roadmap is there for anybody who wants to follow it,” he added. “It was written by people like (CU Regent) Heidi Ganahl, Kevin Priola and Colin Larson. It����ap a pragmatic form of conservatism, where people are strong on their principles but understand the need to communicate and work with people who might disagree with them.”

Larson fended off Everett����ap challenge and said it����ap still unclear what concrete product his opponent produced for the caucus money, and why Patrick Neville didn’t publicly rebuke the primary attempt.

“It����ap the job of the Republican leader to defend his House caucus members,” Larson said.

than the candidates they were meant to support.

“The money is spent in a way that it and not the candidates for whom the help is intended,” McNulty said.

Patrick Neville did not run for House minority leadership this year; though it was his choice not to run, he was effectively ousted by his own caucus, which replaced him with Hugh McKean of Loveland. The end result of his leadership, many in the party agree, is lost time, money and energy, translating to lost votes for Republicans at a time when they could least afford it.

Pendulum swing

It was only six years ago in November that Colorado Republicans celebrated a mostly successful election. Cory Gardner had beaten Mark Udall in the U.S. Senate race. Wayne Williams had become secretary of state, beating now-U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a national rising star in Democratic politics. Cynthia Coffman won the race for attorney general by nine points, and Bob Beauprez lost narrowly to John Hickenlooper in the race for governor.

That feels like a lifetime ago, for many in both parties. All those big-ticket seats the GOP won in 2014 are now blue. And there’s real concern not just about the losses, but about how the state is trending. Colorado has the second-highest number of people with college degrees of all states, and the population growth here has been focused in urban areas that are trending away from the GOP. Even El Paso County, home of Colorado Springs and a Republican stronghold, is increasingly competitive; Trump won just 53.5% of the vote there this year, while Democratic strongholds got even bluer. Almost four in five Denver voters chose Biden.

“El Paso is the thing that, if I was a Republican, would’ve scared the (expletive) out of me,” said Craig Hughes, the longtime Democratic consultant. “They’re losing their base. And they’ve already lost the swing areas.”

It’s to the point, Hughes and several pollsters believe, that in a statewide election, a generic Democrat starts with a nine- or 10-point advantage.

“I think 2018 was basically plus-8, and 2016 was basically plus-4 and 2014 was minus-5,” Hughes said. “They’re in a very deep hole now.”

Added Brianna Titone, Democratic state representative from Arvada, and one of a slew of Democrats who’ve flipped previously comfortable Republican seats, “If the Republicans continue to go toward these ways of denying science and emboldening white nationalists — those kinds of things — the average suburban person, they don’t want that kind of stuff.”

Demographic and electoral shifts, in the suburbs and beyond, have lent urgency to a party searching for direction.

Part of the problem is that Republicans continue to ignore their own beyond the I-25 and I-70 corridors, said Kaye Ferry, an executive committee member for the state GOP and Eagle County Republican Party chair.

“They drive right past us on the way to Aspen to collect big checks,” Ferry said. “They’ve got 1,200 Republicans there last I checked. I’ve got 8,000 right here.”

Ferry is among a number of state party leaders keen to move on from the current state party chair, Ken Buck.

Buck embodied much GOP infighting this year. He made national headlines in May after a recording showed him pressuring a local election official in El Paso County to submit incorrect election results to the secretary of state. And then the Weld County GOP chair mentioned one of Buck’s congressional aides in a complaint alleging election fraud and corruption. Buck did not grant The Denver Post an interview for this story.

Democrats passed the first complaint to the state board that regulates attorneys, asking them to disbar Buck. And the second was passed to the Attorney General’s office for additional investigation. Both generated bad press and a distraction at a time when Republicans said they should otherwise be focused on the 2020 election.

Already other Republicans appear poised to run for Buck’s chair. He announced Thursday he would not run for a second term.

“He’s smarter than he looks because he wouldn’t have gotten elected anyway,” Ferry said. “He’s very unpopular.”

However the race for party chair turns out, there is a general feeling among many Republicans that without new leadership and a fresh vision they will continue to suffer.

“I firmly believe the Colorado GOP needs to have a deep bench and diverse bench and we need to field quality candidates that can compete with the Democratic candidates from the top of the ticket to the bottom,” Priola said. “That’s one area the Colorado GOP could focus on.”

Priola’s caucus will be entirely white next year, with one woman member. The statehouse Democrats, by contrast, are an increasingly diverse bunch, much more reflective of a diversifying electorate.

“There’s never been a circumstance where a candidate has been rejected based on their gender or their race,” said Sage Naumann, spokesman for the state Senate GOP. “We’re not going to tell someone who’s white, ‘Sorry, we have enough white people,’ but if we can show that we are a party that fights for all of Colorado, that diversity of candidates will be organic.”

Easier said than done, he and many others know. They’re encouraged that Coloradans continue to support fiscal conservatism through ballot measures, even as they reject conservative candidates. And they hope that a Biden presidency creates an opening for a red wave in 2022 — after all, recent history here shows just how quickly things can change — provided the party learns from its failures, especially those in the Trump era.

“If the extreme members of the Republican Party ever want to have power again,” Priola said, “they’re going to have to earn back the trust of the middle. And the middle, I would say, is larger than most realize it is.”