The state’s six incumbent U.S. House members on the ballot won reelection to Congress on Tuesday evening.

Rep. Jason Crow, an Aurora Democrat, was declared the winner by the Associated Press over Republican challenger Steve House for the 6th Congressional District in Denver’s eastern suburbs. Crow had 58% of the vote and House had 40% with 84% of the vote counted. Two other candidates split the remainder.

Rep. Ken Buck, a Windsor Republican, beat Democratic challenger Ike McCorkle in the 4th District, on the Eastern Plains. Buck had 60% of the vote and McCorkle had 37%, with two other candidates splitting the rest, with 87% of the vote counted.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter, an Arvada Democrat, was declared the winner over Republican challenger Casper Stockham and three other candidates for the 7th District, in Denver’s western suburbs. Perlmutter had 60% and Stockham had 37% with 90% of the vote in.

In Colorado Springs, Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn had 57% of the vote vs. Democratic candidate Jillian Freeland and three others with 79% of the vote in.

Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, was ahead of Republican challenger Charlie Winn and two other candidates in the 2nd District, which includes Boulder and parts of the northern mountains. Neguse had 62% with 83% of the vote counted.

In Denver, longtime Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette was the winner over Republican candidate Shane Bolling and three other challengers. DeGette had 75% of the vote and Bolling 22% with 71% of the vote in.

You’ve heard all of this before. The same arguments were made — and rubber-stamped by the local media — after 2018 delivered Democrats historic majorities in the Colorado legislature, all statewide elected offices on the ballot that year, and victory in the GOP-held 6th Congressional District. Mike Coffman held that seat for a decade, but lost in an 11 point drubbing to now-Congressman Democrat Jason Crow. This year, Congressman Crow is cruising to reelection, facing a token challenge from former GOP State Party chairman Steve House. Even the red 3rd Congressional District held by the GOP for a decade is in play, thanks to the nomination of an unqualified, far-right candidate Lauren Boebert against the immensely credentialed Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush.

In 2018, Republicans attempted to spin the defeat of a few ballot measures — an education tax increase, a confusingly-written road-funding initiative, and an oil and gas setback law that faced millions of dollars in opposition spending — as a conservative victory despite massive Democratic wins up and down the ticket. In truth, there were roughly an equal number of ballot initiatives from conservative and progressive interests, and the vast majority of them failed. The exceptions, were electoral no-brainers: Amendments Y & Z to create an independent legislative and congressional redistricting and reapportionment commission, cracking down on payday loans, industrial hemp, and literally the abolition of slavery from Colorado’s constitution. It was progressives who fought for Amendment A to abolish slavery, and Proposition 111 to regulate predatory payday loans. It was a bipartisan group that fought for independent redistricting. In the end, the scoreboard was still advantage-progressives when all the votes were tallied.

In 2020, the game remains the same. Conservative operatives will point to the likely passage of a favorably-worded tax cut as evidence that Colorado is “fiscally conservative,” and on that basis claim Democrats, who will have just won basically every competitive election in the state, somehow do not have a mandate to govern and enact their agenda. Coloradans also are poised to approve a generous and universal system of paid family and medical leave.

One difference this year is that the same self-appointed “business community” frequently cited by Republicans as their core supporters now oppose the regressive tax cut found in Proposition 116, as well as Proposition 117 which takes the terrible idea of TABOR and makes it even worse. They may have finally begun to understand the harm to our economy these “conservative” fiscal policies do at the expense of schools, roads, and health care for the rest of us.

Unlike TABOR’s semantic rigging of revenue-increasing ballot measures, nothing in the language of Proposition 116 tells you that it will cost the state upwards of $250 million per year.

Tax cuts are perennially popular with voters, especially when you don’t have to disclose the consequences. Paid leave is popular too. Those are understandable choices for individual voters, who are not and shouldn’t be expected to be fiscal-policy experts. For that matter, nor are they health care experts, bioethicists, ecologists, sociologists, public health professionals or any of the other experts needed to make these policy decisions.

That����ap why we elect representatives to chart fiscal policy. If you live in Denver, you had to vote on twenty-three separate initiatives this year, and nearly every one of them was a decision better made by policy experts and elected officials. Having to weigh this many obscure and confusing choices makes voting miserable and discourages thoughtful participation.

But I digress. Colorado voters handed Democrats a powerful mandate in 2018, and in all likelihood will do so again next Tuesday. Voters in Colorado elect Democrats to carry out a Democratic agenda. Everything else is cheap spin to console the election’s losers and their pricey consultants who continue to cash big checks as long as they can convince big conservative donors that Colorado is still, indeed, a swing state.

Ian Silverii is the executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s largest progressive advocacy group.

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Re: “Overly conservative,” Oct. 8 letter to the editor

A letter writer complained that The Denver Post has a conservative bias because of a letter from Republican Party Chairman Ken Buck and an editorial on the Aurora ICE facility written by Republican Steve House. I do not agree. The Denver Post has columnists on both the right and left of center.

My personal bias is liberal; however, I try to read the opinions of all Post columnists. Sometimes I agree even with the conservative among them. Sometimes I disagree even with the liberal among them. Sometimes I research information shared by an author and learn something of which I was not previously aware. The point is a person is not well-informed only reading opinions and articles that conform to an already formed belief. Thank you Denver Post for trying to balance the information you share, especially on the opinion pages.

Michelle M. Gershon, Littleton

Property taxes will rise

Proponents of Amendment B, “Repeal Gallagher Amendment,” should be honest and admit that passing this amendment will result in higher residential property taxes.

FAQs in an ad now running on Facebook, and similar statements provided in The Denver Post, are misleading. Questions like, “Will your property taxes go up if the Gallagher Amendment is repealed?” are answered with: “Assessment rates that homeowners and small businesses pay will be frozen in place under Amendment B.”

Note that the questions are about taxes, but the answers are about rates. Assessment rates are multiplied by the estimated actual value of your home to determine its assessed value, which is then multiplied by your local mill levy to determine your taxes. If the tax assessment rate (and mill levy) remains fixed, your taxes will increase in lockstep with increasing home values. Since 2010, median home prices in the Denver area have increased by about 88%. Without the Gallagher Amendment, your residential property taxes would have gone up by 88% as well.

I’m aware that school and fire districts’ (and others) expenses also go up year after year, but I challenge state and local lawmakers to develop a fair, equitable method to fund these services that isn’t a backhanded 7-9% per year residential property tax increase. Don’t mislead us with half-truths about frozen rates.

Doug Dougherty, Erie

Don’t tell me how to vote

My church sent information on voting. I read “All Faithful Catholics Must Vote Yes on Prop 115.” This was upsetting as I thought about the separation of Church and State.

Then I clicked on: “Candidates to Consider based on our Catholic Hierarchy of Values”–to find only Donald Trump for president, Mike Pence for vice-president, Cory Gardner for senator, listed!

I am heartbroken and angry that my Catholic community has so little regard for me as a person — and as a woman — that I have to be told how to vote. I know it is couched in terms of “candidates to consider,” but then it lists only one type of candidate. What am I left to think?

I will also “consider” those candidates whom I think will fight against racism, protect our health care, support DACA protections and respect international laws on asylum, who will fight for fairer immigration laws and a path to citizenship. This last reason has particular poignancy for me. My grandfather Chao CiFong was not allowed to become a citizen, much less allowed to vote because the Chinese Exclusion Laws were not dropped until 1943. I vote in honor of him, my father and my Irish immigrant grandmother.

Christine M. Chao, Denver

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Wearing a suit and tie, and speaking genially behind a black mask, the Republican underdog for Congress is known in many of the eclectic storefronts that line East Colfax, near his campaign office. Earlier in the day, he met with local business owners, most of whom were Black, for an impromptu and wide-ranging talk about the issues of the day, primarily systemic struggles in the city’s Black community.

On Nov. 3, House will try to do what Republicans did without exception for decades: win an election in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. But since Democratic Rep. Jason Crow’s 11-point victory here in 2018, political oddsmakers have written it off as a lost cause for Republicans. Cook Political Report rates it “Solid Democrat” and Crystal Ball rates it “Safe Democrat.” Calculations from FiveThirtyEight, the popular statistics website, say House .

For the first time in several election cycles, there has not been an influx of outside money into the 6th District this year. There has been no public polling and no debate. All is quiet in what was once a well-trodden political battleground.

The 6th District is shaped like a backward C surrounding Denver on three sides. It includes the northern suburbs, such as Brighton, where House lives; the southern suburbs, such as Centennial and Littleton; and the eastern parts of the metro area, such as Aurora, where Crow lives. Republicans fare best in the wealthier Douglas County sections; Democrats are strongest in Aurora and Arapahoe County.

“Eight-nine percent of the time, the House candidate with the most money wins the race, especially if they’re an incumbent,” House said in an interview, referring to Crow’s money advantage. “So, we automatically only have an 11% chance of beating him. However, when you’re a freshman in Congress, your biggest risk is your first reelect. So, if we’re going to beat Jason Crow, now is the time to do it.”

Crow is wrapping up a high-profile freshman term that hopped from crisis to crisis. He entered Congress during a record-long federal government shutdown, was a prosecutor in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump and self-quarantined after exposure to coronavirus.

“Maybe I have a knack for timing in public service, that I end up going into government and public service work during very turbulent times,” he said with a laugh Tuesday, thinking back to his three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It does seem to be my history.”

House, a former health care executive, has tried to make health care the central issue of the race, an unusual strategy for a Republican in 2020. His campaign website says he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but he said in a recent interview that he’s open to reforming the 2010 law instead.

House believes price transparency and increased U.S. drug manufacturing will begin to lower the cost of care. Under , medical savings accounts would then be created and insurers would pay bonuses into the accounts of people who remain healthy and hit wellness goals. Late in life, if people have remained healthy, they can move that money into a retirement account, under his plan.

Crow supports Medicare X, a reform favored by moderate Democrats that would allow Americans to either keep private insurance plans they currently have or purchase a government health insurance plan similar to Medicare. It would include benefits Medicare does not, such as pediatrics and maternity care. A recent House accuses Crow of wanting to gut medical benefits and cut Medicare.

“When I saw it, it just made me sad,” Crow said of the ad. “I’ve always gotten along with my opponent, and it����ap sad to see him give in to what I think of as Trumpism — straight out lies and distortions — during a political campaign. That����ap what people dislike about politics.”

Crow has run only positive television ads — a common tactic among incumbents who expect to win easily — that have highlighted his work on health care, the environment and coronavirus relief. Over the summer, he took his volunteers off the campaign trail and put them to work sending 67,000 text messages with COVID-19 resources and information to 6th District residents.

House, an unsuccessful 2014 gubernatorial candidate who went on to chair the Colorado Republican Party, has made some missteps. In August, his campaign removed a photo of Elijah McClain from a flyer after the McClain family said it did not have permission to use it. Last month, his campaign that incorrectly claimed he had been endorsed by an OBGYN group.

Win or lose, House plans to keep his campaign office on Colfax through the rest of the year. He has bought decks of , a vocabulary game developed in Denver, and plans to host tournaments there for local kids after the election.

Crow, meanwhile, is hoping for a sophomore term less chaotic than his first.

“I am looking forward to an opportunity that I hope to get,” the congressman said in an interview last week, “where we don’t have to spend all this time responding to crises manufactured by President Trump.”

Re: “Aurora’s ICE facility is a safe, clean and necessary facility,” Oct. 7 commentary

Steve House’s guest commentary on the GEO-run ICE detention facility in Aurora reads like a timeshare brochure, attempting to sell readers on what an incredible vacation immigrants will enjoy once detained inside. An “immaculately clean” facility with “first-rate” medical care and food so delicious that “most staff chooses to eat there each day because of the quality.” Only a tourist would fall for this fiction.

Those of us who know better understand that GEO’s Aurora facility is a dangerous cesspool beyond repair, because its foundation is rotten. No amount of paint or polish can ever cover up the years of abuse and neglect many people have endured in Aurora. Cruelty from which there is no recovery, like in the cases of Evalin-Ali Mandza and Kamyar Samimi, who died of medical neglect while in custody at the Aurora facility.

In September, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform issued a devastating report on for-profit immigration detention centers. It documented consistent and unchecked negligence regarding the mental and physical health of detained people. It cited the Aurora facility’s shockingly deficient medical care as one of the worst cases in the country of systemic health and safety failures at an immigration detention facility. Failures that only continue.

On the same day The Denver Post published House’s brochure, news media reported that the significant COVID-19 outbreak at the Aurora facility had swelled from 19 to 37 cases. Based on the facts, not the fiction, 2020 is on trend for more serious life and death issues at GEO’s Aurora facility.

Mark Silverstein, Denver

Editor’s note: Silverstein is legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and is one of the attorneys representing the family of Kamyar Samimi in a wrongful death suit against GEO.

Who can a nation’s “lonely eyes” turn to in these times?

“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? “ Is a lyric written by Paul Simon. It has been much discussed as to what that lyric means. In our confused time of disheveled ethics, a lack of common civility, a forgotten sense of humility, and the loss of respect for honored virtues, we need to call upon our past heroes. “Where have you gone …? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.”

At a time when cheating in sports has become a norm, when our democratic process has become a frightful and embarrassing discourse of sound bites, tweets, and name-calling, as our social narrative descends into a muddy playground of shouting, we need to take a deep breath, isolate the anger, respect and tolerate our differences, and return to what is good, true and real.

Let����ap be heroes.

Bill Senter, Denver

Celebrate Coney Barrett qualifications as a justice

It����ap time for America to return to its foundational principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans. Amy Coney Barrett is exactly the type of justice who would ensure such foundational principles are preserved for all Americans.

She is highly qualified to serve on our nation’s highest court and will discharge her duties with integrity and respect for our laws. Our country would be blessed to have Coney Barrett serve on our Supreme Court and we should celebrate having such a highly qualified nominee.

David Callahan, Parker

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Re: “Aurora’s ICE facility is a safe, clean and necessary facility,” Oct. 7 commentary

In the October 7th edition of The Denver Post, I came across an op-ed by congressional candidate Steve House praising the Aurora ICE facility. In the very first line I read my name.

Imagine my surprise!

I could not read beyond the first paragraph though, as there were only two correct items: my name was spelled correctly and the words, “a brutal crime…” The rest of the first paragraph was filled with inaccuracies. I eventually read the entire op-ed.

Attempting to tie a random act of violence to Steve House’s testament in the cleanliness and safe operation of Aurora’s ICE facility is an absurd analogy. One that an apparently desperate candidate would make.

While I feel compelled to correct the inaccuracies, due to the upcoming trial, I shall, right now, remain silent.

I have never spoken to Steve House about what happened to me, but his use of my name caused me to relive my attack, detail by detail. For that and other substantive reasons, I am voting for Congressman Jason Crow this November.

Rep. Crow is a caring individual who works continuously for the constituents of Congressional District 6. I urge you to join me.

Debi Hunter Holen, Aurora

Another debate fail

While the vice-presidential “debate” Wednesday evening was quite a bit less chaotic than the first presidential “debacle,” it was no more informative for people looking to understand what the candidates will do, if elected, to dig the United States out of the pig wallow we are in. Vice President Mike Pence, while more polished than his boorish, bullying leader, still interrupted both the moderator and Sen. Kamala Harris several times.

Many of the questions the moderator posed were good ones, and deserved a straightforward answer, which would have been informative to those watching.

Too often, unfortunately, both Pence and Harris ignored the question and trotted out their stump speeches instead, and Susan Page was unable to rein them in.

I think that what the Commission on Presidential Debates should do is cancel the next two debates because there is no reasonable hope that they will be any more informative than the past two have been.

They could give the time that����ap been blocked out for both parties to record and show an explanation of what they will do going forward, with concrete examples of actions (not vague pie-in-the-sky wishes) for 30 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of objective fact-checking of their presentation. That would be much more informative than further debates.

Gary Teegarden, Erie

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This crime is just one illustration of why Aurora’s ICE Processing Facility is so important to our community. It keeps us safe; it keeps our friends, families and neighbors safe, and the employees who work there are a vital part of our local economy.

On Sept.14, I toured the Aurora Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Facility. I am happy to share with you more about what I learned. The facility administrator and his staff are some of the best examples of people who live and work in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. They are highly qualified professionals who do tough, demanding and often thankless work.

This facility has been operating in our community for three decades under presidents from both parties. Unfortunately, Congressman Jason Crow has chosen to turn this service into a cheap political ploy, and he has regularly maligned the facility for over two years now. It����ap cynical self-serving political rhetoric at its most shameless.

The hard-working men and women at the Aurora processing facility deserve to have the record set straight on the type of facility they run and how they treat people under their care. A large majority of the approximately 400 detainees are serious and dangerous criminals that no American would want to walk the streets of their communities.

If you believe the stories told by Jason Crow and his democrat colleagues you would think that the facility was dirty and that detainees were barely fed. You would be led to believe that medical care was sub-standard and only available when near-death situations were at hand. You would be told that the staff must be terrible and uninterested in the experience or living conditions of the detainees as well. These things just aren’t true.

The truth is that the facility was immaculately clean. The medical facilities were first-rate and even included a modern all-digital x-ray machine, dental care and full mental health staff, including psychologists. Approximately 20% of the staff is foreign-born, and now are citizens of the United States. They can sympathize with the situation many detainees face, and apart from the fact that staff members do not have criminal records, have often gone through a similar experience. Many of the staff members I met have been at the facility for more than 20 years and are consummate professionals. Their interaction with the detainees is often highly engaging and respectful.

We also saw the kitchen, another unexplained sore point for Congressman Crow. It is a spotless commercial kitchen where the staff was baking cake for the detainees’ lunch. The kitchen staff is proud of what they do and are ready to show off their food. I was told that most of the staff chooses to eat there each day because of the quality of the food.

The facility does not house children under any circumstances. Young adults under the age of 18 are housed safely in separate locations. On the day of our tour, there were only 13 women in the population. According to onsite staff, these women were being held because they were a flight risk or due to the violent nature of their crimes committed while in the U.S. The center processes and houses non-violent and non-criminal detainees, but these individuals have an average stay time of less than 45 days.

Crow has made hyperbolic claims that medical care was not adequate, but when people are brought to this facility who have had no medical care, few if any vaccinations, and come from poor conditions, there are bound to be diseases that must be managed. For many of the residents, going to this facility will result in getting the best care, sometimes the only care, they have ever had for any health condition. Like many large facilities, there have been COVID-19 cases, however, there have been no deaths at the facility. To be critical of an outbreak and want to shut down the facility, as a result, is misguided and uninformed. Congressman Crow owes the team here an apology in my opinion.

It is true we need to reform our immigration system. I will lead an effort to do that if elected to Congress. While we work to accomplish that, we will still need this facility, because the first job of the government is to keep us safe, and this facility plays a key role in our community’s safety and security.

All people deserve to be treated in a respectful and responsible way even when accused or convicted of a crime. The truth is that the Aurora ICE Processing Facility does that in the most professional way possible. In my opinion, they deserve our respect and for the truth be told.

Steve House is for U.S. Congress to represent the 6th Congressional District. He is a former Colorado Republican State Party Chair and ran for Colorado governor in 2014.

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Two years ago The Denver Post editorial board endorsed Mike Coffman for House District 6.

We found it hard to envision a more dedicated public servant than Coffman, a Republican, for the heavily gerrymandered 6th Congressional District that surrounds metro-Denver like a backwards “C.” And we liked the way Coffman stood up to his own party, especially when it came to pushing back against President Donald Trump.

Jason Crow, whose military service and straightforward manner proved compelling to voters, won in a landslide that year and we are happy to report the Democrat from Aurora is just as hardworking and effective as Coffman. He has proven not to be a hyper-partisan individual, and in terms of pushing back against Trump’s corruption, well, Crow was one of a handful of representatives to present the compelling case for impeachment to the U.S. Senate.

We’re proud to endorse him for a second term in office.

Crow will face Republican Steve House on Nov. 3. House has some creative ideas for how to fix America’s health care system, and we hope he gets the chance to lead these reforms someday. He’s a former health care executive who is thoughtful.

One of the most impressive things Jason Crow accomplished in his first two years in office, was opening up the privately owned and operated Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Aurora to visits from members of Congress. The detention facility lacked oversight, and Crow rapidly got a law through Congress that required these prison-like facilities to open their doors.

Since passing the law, Crow or someone from his office has visited the facility 60 times, and he says conditions for those awaiting judgment on deportation cases, have improved. There was confusion about who was responsible for the facilities’ health inspections and Crow sorted through the bureaucracy to find a solution.

“We have delivered in so many ways, in ways that maybe don’t grab headlines, but that make real differences in people’s lives. I’m proud of that,” Crow told us last week. “I have a history of and a focus on uniting folks and trying to find common ground and leading with civility and respect.”

If more of Congress would take that approach, America would be a better place.

Crow has worked with Coffman, who later became the mayor of Aurora, to secure stimulus funds for the district and advocate for federal funds for local governments that faced a steep decline in revenue following the coronavirus shutdowns.

Many of Crow’s bills have been bipartisan, and of the nine that passed the House, three became law by being absorbed into larger bills and passed through the Republican-controlled Senate. That is no small feat.

The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act included Crow’s Military Installation Resilience Assuredness Act, which requires America’s military bases to prepare for the impacts of climate change, including severe weather events.

Crow is a lawmaker with good ideas and follow-through.

On health care, Crow prefers a public-option-like program similar to Sen. Michael Bennet����ap Medicare X proposal that would keep the private insurance industry intact but provide an affordable public insurance system for people to elect.

On gun safety, Crow, a former Army Ranger, is not looking to trample Second Amendment rights, but he has seen the damage military-style rifles, like the AR-15, have done in the hands of evil civilians. He cosponsored the Assault Weapons Ban and is advocating for national universal background checks, something Colorado already requires, and closing what he calls the “Colorado-loophole,” where folks can cross state lines and purchase weapons under potentially less restrictive state laws.

On the debt and deficit, Crow is concerned that for the first time in decades the deficit is going to be larger than the GDP, but he argues the current financial crisis is not the time to cut federal spending or increase taxes. Spending now will mean a faster recovery later on. He’s urging compromise in Congress to pass another larger coronavirus relief bill, but he said the Republican offer on the table early last week was inadequate to address America’s needs.

And on his efforts to impeach Trump as one of a handful of House impeachment managers: “I’m somebody who is going to do my duty, regardless of the politics of it and political expediency aside, I’m going to defend this country. Because it����ap a country I love. It����ap a country I believe in and for all our faults and our failings in history … I still believe in that promise that we can move forward and be better.

“On the last day of the trial, the impeachment managers asked a rhetorical question. We asked ‘how much damage can the president do between now and election day.’ It turns out a lot.”

We need men and women like Crow in Congress.

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Updated Sept. 20, 2020 at 8:39 a.m. This story has been updated to clarify that Rep. Jason Crow or someone from his office has visited the ICE detention center in Aurora 60 times.

The 38-year-old was kept afloat for a time by an unemployment payment from the federal government, which sent her $600 per week on top of the $96 per week she was receiving through unemployment insurance. But since that federal payment ended July 31, Sorice has been left to pay her bills and eat on $96 per week, an impossibility in the Denver area.

“I can’t afford rent, that����ap the biggest thing right now,” she said from her apartment in Edgewater.

Sorice’s story is not uncommon. Colorado, like the country, is hurting. Landlords are not being paid, businesses are for good, children are missing meals, unemployment remains high, municipal budgets have been decimated, and coronavirus testing needs remain unmet in some areas.

This is the predicament Congress returns to Tuesday. Crushed under the weight of economic shutdowns, many Coloradans expect the federal government to ease the financial burdens this pandemic has caused. For the past several months, their weary eyes have seen nothing but congressional stalemates and inaction.

“If we’re not keeping people in their homes, if we’re not keeping people from going bankrupt, then our health crisis is going to continue to spin out of control and we’re going to look at a decade-plus-long recovery,” said Rep. Jason Crow, an Aurora Democrat. “People are losing their homes; they’re losing their life savings. That����ap a long-term economic hit.”

Seven of the state’s nine members of Congress will be judged by voters Nov. 3 — in just eight weeks. Among nearly everyone in Congress or running for Congress nationwide, there is a consensus that something further must be done. There’s a consensus that, unlike in economic downturns of decades past, the federal government owes the gig workers and restaurateurs and hoteliers and manufacturers of Colorado.

“The government, by shutting them down, essentially took away their dreams and their livelihood,” said Steve House, Crow’s Republican opponent in the 6th Congressional District, “and I think the government and all citizens who pay into it have to be respectful of that.”

“It����ap unprecedented”

Sorice receives $96 per week in unemployment payments. If she qualified for $4 more per week in state unemployment, she would get an additional $300 weekly in federal money. That’s due to the wording of an executive order President Donald Trump signed Aug. 8 in the face of a congressional stalemate over a stimulus package.

created what����ap known as the Lost Wages Assistance program. Any unemployed person receiving $100 or more per week will also receive $300 in federal assistance. But people receiving less than $100, such as Sorice and an estimated 850,000 other Americans, do not receive the $300 federal boost.

As part of , the Democrat-controlled U.S. House voted in May to extend the $600-per-week enhanced unemployment benefit, but a majority in the Republican-controlled Senate, along with Trump, are opposed to doing so. They worry workers were receiving more money unemployed than employed, removing their incentive to find a job. They would prefer to extend the enhancement at a level lower than $600 or cap it.

“You can’t put so much incentive out there that people remain unemployed,” House said. “The $600 thing was really important, I think, at the beginning, but it got to a point where I talked to a lot of businesses that can’t get people to come back.”

Democrats say such concerns are overblown or pale in comparison to the crippling financial burdens unemployed people are facing in this unprecedented situation. Several Colorado Democrats say an extension of the $600-per-week enhancement must be the top priority when Congress comes back Tuesday.

“The legislation that Congress adopts ultimately must meet the moment. It ought to address the scale and gravity of the crisis,” said Rep. Joe Neguse, a progressive Democrat from Lafayette who has pushed the Senate to either pass the $3 trillion House bill, known as the HEROES Act, or craft its own large-scale legislation.

Since mid-March, 542,619 unemployment claims have been filed in Colorado, according to state labor data released Thursday, and $4.8 billion in benefits has been distributed. During the last week in August, , which is both the lowest weekly total since mid-March and higher than the average number of weekly claims during the depths of the Great Recession in 2009 and 2010.

“It����ap unprecedented,” said Kim Da Silva, executive director of Community Food Share, a food bank that serves Boulder and Broomfield counties. “Unlike the Great Recession, we’re in a health and economic stress that we’ve never seen before. The scariest part for us — for food bankers, for people in the basic needs industry — is that we don’t know when we’re going to come out of this.”

Community Food Share distributed 1.2 million pounds of food in April, more than in any month during the Great Recession or other time in its 40-year history. The food bank has handed out more than 1 million pounds every month since. Donations haven’t kept up with demand, so it has bought 21 truckloads of food to distribute.

“There is an influx of individuals who never thought they would be in this situation,” Da Silva said.

“The toughest rent checks”

The HEROES Act, the massive coronavirus relief bill passed by the House in May, would send to state and local governments across the country, refilling government coffers that have been drained by declines in tax revenue since March. Conservatives have panned the idea as a bailout for poorly run cities and states at the expense of an ever-expanding national debt.

South Metro Fire Rescue, which is primarily funded by property tax revenue, is looking at a possible shortfall of $3 million to $16 million in the next few years, according to spokesperson Kristin Eckmann.

“That����ap a fire district that has 85% of its money spent on personnel,” said Crow, the congressman who represents some of the fire department����ap jurisdiction. “… That means they’re cutting firefighter jobs. We just cannot allow that to happen right now.”

In tourist-friendly ski communities and resort towns, it is sales tax revenue that has plummeted. Scott Robson is the town manager in Vail, which derives 40% of its annual revenue from sales taxes. He expects his town coffers will lose about $19 million in revenue this year, forcing deferrals of capital projects, millions of dollars in cuts to operating expenses, and a handful of layoffs for seasonal staff.

“What we’ve heard from our business community here is that the next few months are going to be some of the toughest rent checks that they write in their professional careers,” Robson said.

Support for small businesses is a rare area of agreement in a divided Congress. The Paycheck Protection Program, which provides forgivable loans to businesses that keep employees on the payroll, is popular among both parties in the Capitol and there is almost universal agreement it should be extended this fall.

“It’s hard to predict”

Congress is scheduled to be in session for only a few weeks between now and the election, the legislative equivalent of cramming before final exams. In Colorado, this will weigh most heavily on Sen. Cory Gardner, the vulnerable Yuma Republican who is asking voters for six more years in the Senate.

“I have three priorities that must be accomplished in the next coronavirus response effort,” the senator said in a statement. “Making sure that we’re stopping the spread and flattening the curve, helping Coloradans with the immediate relief that they need to get through this crisis, and getting businesses up and running again.”

A spokeswoman for Gardner said he supports more money for states and local governments, grants to support safety initiatives at child care centers, relief for senior care providers, more personal protective equipment for seniors and their caretakers, an extension of PPP and improved testing. His campaign has previously said he supports extending enhanced unemployment payments.

In , Gardner touts PPP’s role in saving a Colorado diner. Meanwhile, his Democratic opponent, John Hickenlooper, has used to accuse Gardner of taking “a vacation” in August without passing relief for unemployed workers and small businesses, or expanding COVID testing.

While the Senate’s August break routinely occurs each year, Democrats are quick to note it was Gardner that it would be “unfathomable” for the Senate to adjourn without passing a relief bill. It did adjourn, and Hickenlooper ever since.

“I would have thought that with the fall elections approaching, and with so many vulnerable Republican senators, like Cory Gardner, that (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell would have made a good-faith effort to help people,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat. “I have no idea what he is thinking.”

No Republican House members responded to a request for comment last week about their relief priorities. When DeGette, Neguse and Crow were asked directly what the odds are that a compromise is met and benefits, such as enhanced unemployment insurance, are extended, none wanted to wager a guess.

“What is lacking in Congress right now is the political will to ultimately get something done for the American people,” Neguse said. “It����ap hard to predict. It����ap an open question.”

Steve House, the Republican candidate for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, was set to host a prayer breakfast in remembrance of McClain at a campaign office Saturday morning. But the McClain family’s attorney said they did not have permission from the family to use McClain’s name.

“While it is certainly true that every member of our community should share the outrage against the Aurora police and medics killed who this innocent young man and the city that refuses to accept accountability, it is disheartening that candidate House would use Elijah’s name in his campaign against a progressive candidate who is actively working to combat police brutality,” attorney Mari Newman said in an email to The Denver Post.

The campaign reached out to Newman last week but did not receive a response, campaign spokesman Roger Hudson said.

House’s campaign was contacted by a friend of the McClain family Thursday night after the family became aware of the prayer breakfast, Hudson said. McClain’s name and photo were immediately removed from the flier about the event at their request, he said. They did not intend for the event to upset anybody, Hudson said.

“The last thing in the world we would want to do is cause them any pain whatsoever,” Hudson said.

Hudson said the event was created after the campaign’s volunteer office on East Colfax Avenue received a letter from the Aurora Police Department warning of the possibility for large demonstrations Sunday. The campaign staff talked with community leaders, pastors and other organizations in the area about holding a peaceful event commemorating McClain’s life and calling for justice in his case, Hudson said. A pastor from Aurora’s Heritage Christian Center is scheduled to speak.

The breakfast was not an official campaign event, Hudson said, though they are hosting it at the campaign headquarters. The first flyer for the event included a photo of House, his campaign logo and a quote from him about McClain, along with McClain’s photo.

“This wasn’t really a political thing for us,” Hudson said.

McClain’s mom, Sheneen McClain, for weeks has repeatedly posted on social media asking people not to use her son’s name without permission.

House’s incumbent opponent, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, was one of the first elected officials to reach out to the McClains, well before national media attention to the case began, Newman said. Crow has stayed in contact with the family and worked on a police accountability bill after McClain’s death, she said.

House is finalizing his own platform on police reform and accountability, Hudson said.

Correction: This story was updated at 7:21 p.m. to clarify that House’s campaign did reach out to the McClain family’s attorney prior to the event but did not receive a response. A previous version of this story had incorrect information due to an error from a source.