Re: “Attack on Pope Leo, posting of Jesus image criticized,” April 14 news story

When in the course of human events, could someone have ever foreseen the time when the president of the United States would have to explain why he posted and unposted a picture of himself as Jesus? Will there be additional low points of this presidency before Congress realizes it is time to face the reality of the president¶¶Òőap mind and protect what¶¶Òőap left of the reputation of the office?

Cindy Robertson, Denver

Just when you think President Trump can’t get any crazier, he does (e.g., attacking Iran, insulting the pope, etc.). What will be the crisis du jour tomorrow? I think it¶¶Òőap time for Congress to begin 25th Amendment proceedings. Please. Before it¶¶Òőap too late.

Flint Whitlock, Denver

Let’s understand the impeachment clause

Re: “,” April 9 commentary

Kirsten Matoy Carlson is mistaken about the consequences of a guilty verdict by the U.S. Senate after an impeachment trial. She states, “If the person is convicted and removed from office, only then can senators vote on whether to permanently disqualify that person from ever again holding federal office.”

That is not what the Constitution says! states: “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States
” There is only one vote.

Nowhere in the Constitution with regard to impeachment is there any reference or mandate that after conviction, senators “may” or “can” vote to bar the convicted person from holding federal office in the future. Legal scholars hinge that false opinion on their false understanding of grammar. The word “and” is a conjunction. It joins independent clauses, indicating a connection between the two, especially between items of the same type or class. Removal from office and barring from holding any other office are of the same class and type! In essence, the Senate is saying, “You violated your oath of office and the public trust, therefore you are removed from office and cannot be trusted in any federal office in the future.”

Tom Hubbard, Denver

Tax return takes nonsensical route to Ogden, Utah via USPS

I sent my tax return to the IRS in Ogden, Utah, via certified mail on March 13. It took a vacation and flew to Sarasota, Fla., then to Tampa, then back to Sarasota before making a leisurely trip to its original destination. It arrived there on March 27.

Using flying distance, an approximate 400-mile trip became a 3,550-mile journey.

Conspiracy theorists want to know whether the USPS has been tasked with delaying our refunds as long as possible. Or are they just practicing for what they plan to do with our ballots for the midterms?

Dee Nelson, Centennial

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The lawsuit, filed Friday, is the latest front in the intraparty fight over an October legislative retreat. Derrick Blanton’s suit asks a judge in Denver to order Sen. Lindsey Daugherty and Rep. Sean Camacho to turn over records related to the Colorado Opportunity Caucus and a retreat the group organized in Vail.

According to the lawsuit, Camacho, Daugherty and the Opportunity Caucus — a group of more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers who are generally more moderate on business issues — denied Blanton’s requests for records about the retreat, arguing they had no documents responsive to his request.

Blanton’s attorney, Scott Moss, wrote in the suit that Camacho and Daugherty — who co-chair the Opportunity Caucus — and the caucus itself should have records about the costs, fundraising and attendance of the retreat. He pointed to a grid he obtained elsewhere, which he said shows that the caucus charged organizations between $25,000 and $100,000 to attend the event and give presentations to the lawmakers in attendance.

“It’s obviously a lie to claim you held a multi-day retreat with overnight stays and meeting space at a luxury mountain resort without generating any records of payment,” Moss said in an interview Friday.

In a statement Friday, Daugherty said that she, Camacho and the caucus turned over the records “we were legally required to provide.”

“This frivolous lawsuit only validates the initial reasons for forming the Opportunity Caucus — to focus on collaboration and tackle the big problems on behalf of the people we serve — not performative politics,” she wrote. “It¶¶Òőap unclear who benefits from this lawsuit moving forward besides Mr. Moss; it¶¶Òőap certainly not Coloradans.”

The suit renews a simmering fight between progressive groups and the Opportunity Caucus, which formed in early 2025 with the help of One Main Street, a dark money group that financially supported the campaigns of several caucus members.

Last year, Colorado Common Cause — which Moss also represents — filed ethics complaints against almost every lawmaker who attended the retreat, accusing them of violating a constitutional provision that generally prohibits lawmakers from accepting gifts worth more than $75. The state ethics commission then began an investigation.

The caucus has refused to disclose how much organizations paid to attend the retreat, nor has it said how much it raised from the event.

The new suit invoking the open-records law, often referred to as CORA, asks for the judge to order production of the records — if, as Moss contends, additional documents exist — and, by extension, to declare that the Opportunity Caucus is subject to open records requests.

That’s an untested question: The state Supreme Court has ruled that caucuses are covered by the state’s open-meetings law, said Jeff Roberts, the executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. But whether they’re subject to CORA hasn’t been addressed by the courts, he said.

If we’re serious about participation, fairness, and legitimacy, this must be the last time we rely on them — especially when the stakes are this high.

Let’s start with a simple, telling fact: the last time a competitive Democratic candidate who won the caucus and assembly process also went on to win the primary for U.S. Senate or governor was Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 1992 — 34 years ago. That’s not a system working. That’s a system deeply disconnected from voters.

Caucuses exclude the vast majority of voters. Even in a high-energy cycle like 2026, participation barely scratched the surface. Roughly 15,000 Democrats showed up statewide — out of more than a million eligible primary voters.

This small number of participants means a tiny, highly motivated slice of activists effectively determines which candidates advance. At the same time, the ordinary voters — those with jobs, childcare responsibilities, disabilities or scheduling conflicts — are largely excluded. The message to those voters is clear: you don’t get a voice.

A system that filters candidates based on a razor-thin fraction of the voting population cannot credibly claim to reflect the will of the party’s voters. That’s not representative democracy, it’s gatekeeping.

Caucuses impose unnecessary barriers to participate. Unlike primaries — where voters can cast ballots by mail or at convenient polling locations — caucuses demand hours of in-person or virtual participation at fixed times. For the Denver Democratic Assembly, check-in began at 9:30 a.m., and some participants were still there at 6 p.m. trying to support their candidates of choice. That’s not civic engagement—it’s a test of endurance with a high dose of disenfranchisement. A grassroots democratic form of government should encourage and lower barriers to participate.

The 2026 process didn’t just exclude — it broke down. Despite good-faith efforts to modernize through an app, the result was chaos. The system crashed under heavy use, causing confusion and potentially costing delegates their votes. Entire counties couldn’t complete voting on time.

In La Plata County, voting had to be pushed to Monday night — effectively disenfranchising anyone who couldn’t come back because of work obligations, child care issues or other obligations. In Arapahoe County, participants couldn’t even advocate for their preferred state House candidates, only elect delegates to the county.

News outlets reported that in some cases, party activists waited hours to vote, while others went home and could not participate. Across the state, people waited hours. Some left in frustration. Others weren’t sure if their votes were ever counted.

Fiona Boomer, campaign manager for Democrat Trisha Calvarese in the 4th Congressional District, expressed concern about whether their supporters were able to cast their ballots.

In Denver, delegates were given conflicting instructions; many told voting would be remote, causing many to leave before voting was finally done on site. A supporter of attorney general candidate Jena Griswold described her frustration in attending a Denver caucus and staying almost eight hours in hopes that the technology would work. Iris Halpern, a state house candidate, also expressed concern over caucus attendees leaving throughout the day. That’s not democracy, that’s dysfunction and shutting voters out.

And perhaps most concerning, the caucus system is easy to game. When outcomes depend on a small, insider-driven process, manipulation becomes easier — not harder. We’re already seeing bad actors openly discuss ways to exploit the system by misrepresenting support to sabotage candidates.

At its core, the caucus system concentrates power in the hands of a small group of insiders and activists. It’s a direct vote. It’s a multi-step delegate process that rewards those with the time, access, and familiarity to navigate party machinery. As a result, outcomes diverge sharply from actual voter preferences.

Consider 28-year-old Democratic Socialist candidate Melat Kiros, who is running for Congressional District 1. Kiros outperformed Rep. Diana DeGette in the Denver delegate vote by nearly a two-to-one margin.

Kiros posted an outrageous and offensive digital ad with an image saying centrist Democrats “fellate Israel” and “suck (expletive).” There is a difference between being anti-establishment and not supporting Israel as opposed to outrageous, radical views laced with antisemitism.

Kiros’s records speak for themselves and illustrate how extreme radical candidates are not only out of touch with Colorado Democrats but also with our state values, too. Yes, more and more extreme candidates in both parties have effectively used these caucuses to fly under the radar and effectively organized a small cadre of activists, like the Democratic Socialists, to show up at the caucus, leading to stunning results that make most voters shake their heads in extreme disbelief.

Caucuses may have made sense in another era. They do not today. And, they help explain the growth of the disgruntled unaffiliated voters — who, by the way, aren’t allowed to participate in caucuses — and make up 53% of Colorado voters.

If we believe in expanding participation and reflecting the will of voters — not just a tiny fraction of activists — then the conclusion is unavoidable: It’s time to retire the caucus system and let voters decide.

Doug Friednash is a partner with the law firm Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Candidates seeking state and federal office through the state Democratic assembly

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Colorado Democratic Party

Bennet, the three-term senator, is the first candidate for governor to officially qualify for the primary ballot. His chief opponent for the Democratic nomination, Attorney General Phil Weiser, plans to qualify for the ballot through the Democratic state assembly on Saturday.

Republican candidates Victor Marx and state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer have also submitted signatures to qualify for the primary ballot, but the secretary of state’s office has not yet validated their petitions. A slew of other Republicans are vying for the nomination through their party’s state assembly in April.

Hickenlooper, who served two terms as governor and was first elected to the Senate in 2020, is seeking reelection. He is the first Senate candidate to qualify for the June primary ballot. His Democratic opponents — Karen Breslin, state Sen. Julie Gonzales and Jessica Williams — are looking to the assembly to win ballot access.

No Republican has submitted signatures to qualify for the Senate primary. George Washington Markert, Janak Joshi, Dathan Jones, state Sen. Mark Baisley, Sean Pond and Amanda Calderon have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, meaning they’d need to qualify through the GOP assembly to win ballot access.

Bennet submitted 14,851 valid signatures across the state’s eight congressional districts to qualify. Hickenlooper submitted 14,905. They each needed 1,500 qualifying signatures from Democrats in each congressional district to qualify for the ballot via petition.

In to Denver Mayor Mike Johnston dated March 11, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said a City Council vote late last year — rejecting a contract with Key Lime Air — violated DIA’s grant agreements with the FAA.

“Simply put, a federally funded airport cannot deny a lease to a tenant simply because it does not like that the tenant has a (contractual) relationship with Federal law enforcement,” Cruz wrote.

If the FAA agrees with his assessment, it could impact the airport to the tune of $90 million to $385 million, according to estimates from the committee’s staff.

In December, 11 of 13 council members rejected the contract with Key Lime, specifically citing its work with ICE amid the Trump administration’s mass-deportation campaign.

“I have to sign these deals when we’re done. 
 I will not have my name, Amanda Sandoval, on a Key Lime thing,” the council’s president said at the time. “I feel very, very, very adamant about that.”

Councilwoman Sarah Parady said then that she was aware the city could lose up to $90 million in grant funding but added: “That¶¶Òőap a large number that¶¶Òőap coming out of an extremely healthy airport budget.”

The airport¶¶Òőap budget is kept separate from the rest of the city’s finances. It relies on self-generated revenue from fees and other income, including from airlines and passengers.

The Senate committee’s staff said the city had been awarded $1.26 billion in Airport Improvement Program grants since 2006 and had received $872.5 million of those dollars, leaving $385.7 million still to be disbursed.

A spokesman for Johnston said the mayor’s office is working with the council to address the letter.

“Key Lime still has access to space at the airport,” Jon Ewing said. “We take federal law seriously and will ensure we move forward appropriately.”

A DIA spokesperson said Tuesday that airport officials were aware of the letter.

“The city/DEN are working on a response. The city is working with Key Lime and the FAA on this issue,” Courtney Law wrote in an email.

The council’s vote didn’t affect Key Lime’s ability to fly in and out of Centennial Airport in the south suburbs or to continue its work for the federal government.

In his letter, Cruz said the Commerce Committee was beginning an investigation into whether the city violated its grant assurances. He asked the city to provide information, emails and documents related to the decision.

Cruz also to Bryan Bedford, the administrator for the FAA, about the council’s decision. He called it “discriminatory behavior” and compared Denver’s action to a similar situation with a contractor at the Wilmington Airport in Delaware.

“The Denver City Council knew it was voting to violate the FAA grant assurances but chose to proceed anyway,” he wrote. “The FAA must ensure that federally funded airports comply with federal law and do not discriminate against lawful aviation operators.”

that Key Lime was transporting ICE detainees in October. Since then, the company has been the and at the University of Colorado Boulder, which has a contract with the airline to fly its sports teams to away games. Key Lime operated 83 flights across the country for ICE in September, Colorado Newsline reported.

Locally, Key Lime flies only out of Centennial, but the company owns another airline called Denver Air Connection that operates out of DIA.

The rejected contract would have allowed Key Lime, which has operated charter services in Colorado since at least 2006, to use 1,200 square feet of storage space at DIA, said airport spokesman George Karayiannakis. Key Lime also provides cargo feeder services to UPS at Denver’s airport, for which it was seeking to lease the space.

More than 100 years later, Colorado voters could be left out of the process of selecting our representative to the upper chamber of Congress.

That¶¶Òőap not how democracy should work. And the Colorado General Assembly should do something about it.

Colorado will elect a new governor this fall. If that governor turns out to be Sen. Michael Bennet, voters will have no say in who serves them in the Senate. That¶¶Òőap because Sen. Bennet  says he “will be in the position to pick the replacement.”

No ballots will be cast. Voters likely won’t even know the names being considered for our state’s highest federal office until after the decision has been made. If Bennet is elected governor, that decision will fall to him alone – taking advantage of a flaw in the current system that must be corrected.

Bennet has been routinely pressed on the issue on the campaign trail, and campaign supporters were recently directed to tell anyone who asked: “There will be some really great, young Democrat who is there to vote exactly the same way that Michael votes.”

Voters deserve better. Bennet should either say now who intends to appoint or — to remove even a hint of impropriety — promise to resign his Senate seat should he win the governor’s race and let Gov. Polis make the appointment before leaving office. Then, the legislature should come up with a fix moving forward that puts the decision in the hands of voters — which is already how it works in Colorado for U.S. House vacancies.

It¶¶Òőap my view that once Sen. Bennet thinks on it a bit — he will agree.

Colorado law gives governors the authority to fill Senate vacancies without any restrictions other than that the appointee satisfy constitutional requirements for the office. Sen. Bennet, whose third full term isn’t up until 2028, has confirmed his intention to make use of that authority upon election — foregoing even the marginally preferable option of allowing current Gov. Polis to appoint a replacement — and retaining his Senate seat should he lose the gubernatorial election.

One of the major problems with the current system is it gives Bennet an unfair advantage over his competition – anyone who would like to be the senator of our state (which is a lot of people) will feel huge pressure to support Bennet for governor.

Although I have no reason to doubt his good intentions, one cannot help but think of the debacle of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was sentenced (and ultimately pardoned by President Trump) on charges of trying to profit from his power to appoint someone to President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.

While Bennet¶¶Òőap decision — should he be elected governor — to select his replacement falls within the legal authority of the governor’s office, the perception of a conflict (in which those considered or, ultimately, appointed must kiss the proverbial ring) is simply too great. Anyone and everyone with a desire to be chosen to serve as senator (which comes with a huge, unearned incumbency advantage in the next election cycle) will feel pressure to play along.

I believe voters, not politicians, should have the final say on who represents them in Washington, D.C. A special election was held when Rep. Ken Buck vacated his Congressional District 4 seat in 2024, and the state legislature needs to give voters the right to pick their senator back.

Following the Blagojevich saga, several states passed laws either removing the power of appointment from governors entirely or allowing brief placeholder appointments until voters could fill the vacancy through a special election. Methods vary, and details like election timelines and whether custodial appointees are eligible to run must be considered before passing such laws in Colorado. Polling shows the commonsense point you would expect: A clear majority of Coloradans want to vote to pick their senator, not have them appointed.

As a starting point, I would suggest a special election be held to fill the vacancy as soon as practical, and a placeholder appointed – either by the governor or the legislature – only to ensure Coloradans are represented in the Senate until voters quickly select the replacement to fill the remainder of the term.

While some might decry the cost of holding a special election, I assert that a democracy that’s in the hands of voters – not politicians – is worth it. At least 15 other states have proven that by already establishing such a system, several in response to the Blagojevich mess. But let¶¶Òőap get serious: It does not take being a criminal to want to use this absolute power without creating in the appointee some sense of obligation or without having them commit to policy positions they would not otherwise.

The infringement upon the democratic process that vacancy appointments impose must be recognized and addressed without any further delay. Bennet’s gubernatorial run has brought this issue to the forefront, but it¶¶Òőap hardly an isolated incident. We’ve seen a plethora of vacancies in our state legislature (so much that in the last few years as many as one in three lawmakers arrived via appointment) and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that U.S. Senate vacancies could surge as well.

Bennet was appointed to his own Senate seat in 2009, going on to be democratically reelected three times. For democracy’s sake, I hope he’s one of the last appointments.

Kent Thiry has co-chaired multiple successful Colorado citizen ballot initiatives including the 2016 efforts to restore the state’s presidential primary election (Proposition 107) and to open Colorado’s primary elections to unaffiliated voters (Proposition 108), and 2018 efforts to ban political gerrymandering and create independent commissions to draw Colorado’s congressional and legislative voter maps (Amendments Y and Z, respectively). He is the former chair and chief executive officer of DaVita.

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As the videos play, my chest tightens with shock, fear, and indignation. This is not the first, second, or third time I’ve witnessed someone’s death on my phone.

Brutality at the hands of ICE agents is all too common, completely normalized, and people are dead as a result. These aren’t isolated incidents: this is the predictable outcome of a system built for force and funded to grow at all costs.

I was a college freshman at Yale when America was engulfed in fear and panic after the unspeakably horrific terror attacks of 9/11. My mom was worried because I  was just a short drive from New York City. Fellow freshmen spent hours frantically trying to reach their loved ones in Manhattan, but phone service was down, and almost no one had cell phones. The terror was palpable.

After 9/11, fear metastasized into a new, massive federal agency: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Its mission was to “protect the homeland,” and in service of that mission, DHS normalized the idea that some communities — Muslims, noncitizens, or anyone who dissented — should live under permanent suspicion in order to prove their Americanness.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was formed inside that new DHS bureaucracy, and from the beginning, it pursued a vision that was neither modest nor targeted. Their 2003 strategic plan, “Operation Endgame,” treated deportation as the golden measure of success, pushing the agency toward maximum enforcement and maximum churn.

When your job is numbers, every person becomes a statistic and a justification in pursuit of their end goal. No matter their pending immigration application, their U.S. citizen children, their ties to their community, or their payment of taxes, for a noncitizen, any contact with law enforcement – even for a traffic offense – results in being labeled as a “criminal alien.”

The fear-driven othering feeds the deportation machine.

Over the ensuing two decades, both Democrats and Republicans served as willing cheerleaders, giving ICE ever-more resources for immigration enforcement, detention, and surveillance. Immigration detention funding ballooned more than 400% , according to a budget analysis done by The Forum.

The GEO Group pioneered for-profit immigration detention in Aurora in 1987, and in December 2025, ICE awarded GEO a no-bid contract to open a second facility in Hudson.

Corporations like Flock and Palantir, which contract with governments to provide surveillance for immigration enforcement, now also celebrate their record profits. While justifying ICE’s endlessly-expanding budgets, politicians from both parties routinely claim that those resources prioritize immigrants with criminal histories, and that as long as you are a law-abiding, “good” American, you have nothing to fear. The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti tell us otherwise.

It simply doesn’t have to be this way. ICE is escalating its cynical politics of cruelty and fearmongering, pitting Americans against each other and lying to the public to justify billions in annual immigration-enforcement spending. Stopping this madness will take everyday Coloradans speaking up and pressuring elected officials to change course.

Now’s an important time to remember that the Constitution protects us all, regardless of immigration status. Download a Know Your Rights card, and add the Colorado Rapid Response Network’s phone number (1-844-864-8341) into your phone in case you witness ICE activity.

This session, the Colorado legislature will consider Aurora Sen. Mike Weissman and my bill, Senate Bill 5, to ensure civil remedies are available to Coloradans when their constitutional rights are trampled upon by immigration enforcement entities.

Congress is now contemplating giving ICE even more funding in a cynical ploy to avoid another government shutdown. The Colorado Congressional delegations’ votes fell along party lines, and both of Colorado’s senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, have indicated their intentions to vote no. However, a “no” vote on giving ICE a blank check is not enough.

This moment requires leaders with backbone who will not sell out Americans’ freedom, and instead advance actual solutions. Congress must extract the profit motive from immigration detention and surveillance, restore due process to the immigration system, create pathways to citizenship, pass strict standards on the use-of-force, and ensure that immigrants have access to legal counsel.

This rogue agency has no legitimacy left; the only answer that remains is to abolish ICE, and instead build an immigration system worthy of a nation that claims to believe in justice, dignity, and the rule of law.

Colorado state Sen. Julie Gonzales is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, and currently represents north, west, and downtown Denver in the Colorado General Assembly.

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ICE agents in unmarked vehicles reportedly arrested 10 people during imitation traffic stops, who are now being detained at the Aurora immigration facility, and left playing cards behind for their families to find, according to a letter six Congressmembers from Colorado sent Monday to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

The letter — written by U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Representatives Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow and Brittany Pettersen — called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General to open an independent investigation into the Denver field office. The group also requested a full briefing on the incidents in Eagle County and written confirmation of any disciplinary or corrective actions taken.

The ICE-branded ace of spades cards, similar to the “death cards” left on corpses by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, were stamped with “ICE Denver field office” and the address and phone number for the immigration detention center in Aurora, Voces Unidas President and CEO Alex Sánchez told The Denver Post last month.

, a Glenwood Springs-based immigrant-rights advocacy group, sounded the alarm in late January, when several of the playing cards were found in abandoned cars near Vail after federal agents arrested the occupants.

In a , Hickenlooper called the death cards “cruelty for the sake of cruelty.”

“It is unacceptable and dangerous for federal law enforcement to use this symbol to intimidate Latino communities,” Hickenlooper, Bennet, DeGette, Neguse, Crow and Pettersen wrote in the joint letter. “This behavior undermines public trust in law enforcement, raises serious civil rights concerns, and falls far short of the professional standards expected of federal agents.”

The six lawmakers said they were also “deeply concerned” by allegations that the federal agents were using sirens to falsely act as local law enforcement.

“This behavior leads individuals to believe they are lawfully required to pull over for a traffic violation when in reality, the federal government has no authority over local or state traffic regulations,” the letter stated. “Federal agents acting in disguise as local law enforcement is misconduct and should be treated as such.”

The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility is also conducting a “thorough investigation” into the incident, an unnamed homeland security spokesperson said last month. The Colorado lawmakers asked for a written report detailing the findings of that investigation.

“As the son of immigrants and the father of two young children, I am horrified by the abuses being committed by the Trump administration — from the streets of Minneapolis to right here in Eagle County,” said in a . “These outrageous, aggressive intimidation tactics are meant to stoke fear among our neighbors, and it is immoral and wrong. This administration must be held accountable, and we cannot allow this to continue unchecked.”