Not everything we saw and heard during our day on the campaign trail with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert made it into our story last week about the Republican congresswoman.
Here are some interesting details that got left on the cutting room floor:
ICYMI: How Lauren Boebert is handling her rough year — and how she views the future
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MORE: We met a handful of voters while we were out on the trail with Boebert. Here’s what some of them said about the congresswoman:
ELECTION 2024
Lauren Boebert is on the primary ballot. Will she gamble her political future on the caucus and assembly route?
State elections officials announced Monday that U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has qualified for the June 25 GOP primary ballot in the 4th District.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said the Republican congresswoman’s reelection campaign had collected well over the 1,500 signatures from GOP voters in the district to qualify.
Boebert has said she will also go the caucus and assembly route to make the primary ballot. She will need the support of at least 10% of the delegates at the Republican district convention in April to stay on the ballot.
The conundrum: If Boebert doesn’t drop her caucus and assembly bid, she is leaving her political future up to an extremely fickle process. She also runs the risk of keeping another candidate off the ballot — which may also serve to hurt her in a crowded primary she’s expected to win with only a plurality of support.
“If I were Boebert, I’d want to maximize the number of competitors on the primary ballot and therefore wouldn’t compete at the assembly,” Daniel Cole, a longtime Republican operative in Colorado, posted on social media.
But if she bails on the caucus and assembly route, she runs the risk of angering a base of GOP voters who frown upon candidates who make the ballot only by gathering signatures.
Boebert was the first of nine Republican 4th District candidates seeking to make the ballot by gathering signatures to submit them. She’s the only one who has qualified thus far.
Conservative commentator Deborah Flora submitted her signatures Friday, and as of Monday afternoon was the only other Boebert primary opponent to do so.
Major party candidates running in all 2024 races have until Tuesday to turn in their signatures to make the primary ballot.
MORE: Weld County Councilman Trent Leisy has dropped out of the 4th District GOP primary and will run for Republican state Rep. Mike Lynch’s House Distrit 65 seat instead. (Lynch is running in the 4th District primary and vacating his statehouse seat because running for two offices at once isn’t allowed.)
Leisy, the self-proclaimed “MAGA king” had virtually no shot of winning the 4th District primary.
“I have come to believe I am best positioned to fight for rightful President Trump, the patriots of Colorado, and stand up to the radical, satanic left as the next representative for Colorado House District 65,” Leisy said in a written statement.
SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA: Lauren Boebert faces scrutiny despite Trump endorsement
WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK
THE BIG STORY
Kent Thiry’s ballot measure bonanza is making the Title Board bananas
If at first you don’t succeed, keep filing ballot measures.
That appears to be the strategy of Kent Thiry, the wealthy former CEO of the Denver-based dialysis giant DaVita who has focused his energy— and money — in recent years on overhauling the state’s election systems.
His latest project: Passing a ballot measure or measures that would make Colorado’s primaries open, with candidates from all parties running against each other. The top four vote-getters would advance to a ranked choice general election. The proposals would also require candidates to gather petition signatures to make the ballot and eliminate the caucus and assembly route. Finally, they would do away with legislative vacancy committees and replace them with special elections when a state lawmaker leaves their seat in the middle of their term.
But many of Thiry’s proposed measures have hit snags upon review by Colorado’s Title Board, which is made up of representatives of the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, the Colorado’s Attorney General’s Office and the Office of Legislative Legal Services. The panel vets initiatives before they get to the ballot.
From late November through late last week, The Colorado Sun counted more than 60 Thiry-backed measures that have been filed — many of which are similar. Every week it seems like there are new ones submitted.
The board has already rejected 20 measures backed by Thiry and approved 10. A dozen have been withdrawn and another 20 await review.
One Title Board member had sharp words Wednesday for the lawyers advocating for Thiry’s proposals because of late changes made to the measures before the meeting. She also seemed fed up with the number of initiatives they have filed.
“You’re really abusing the patience of the title board and of this initiative process,” said Title Board Chair Theresa Conley, who works in the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Later, she added: “Maybe don’t submit 35 measures.” (It seems she was exaggerating about the number.)
For context: Groups pushing ballot measures frequently file multiple versions of the same proposal with the Title Board to try to get the best possible language approved. But this many is rare.
While Thiry and Unite America, the Denver-based organization he co-chairs, are supporting the reforms as part of a larger national effort, they’re running into opposition.
Two prominent attorneys who often represent Democrats, Martha Tierney and Mark Grueskin, attended Title Board meetings in February to oppose some of the proposals. A nonprofit, Coloradans for Accessible and Secure Elections, was formed by Tierney’s law firm in December — and it appears aimed at opposing the Thiry-backed proposals.
(Another issue committee, Colorado Voters First, was formed last month to support the reforms.)
There have also been three proposed ballot measures filed with Legislative Council Staff that would change the state’s constitution and go in the opposite election-overhaul direction. They would:
It’s not clear if the proponents of the measures — Candice Stutzriem, a Colorado Springs Republican who serves on the El Paso County canvass board, and Linda Good, of Centennial —have the millions of dollars needed to collect enough signatures to make the November ballot.
March 22 is the last day for people to submit measures to Legislative Council Staff for the November ballot. Initiatives then need Title Board approval by the end of April. Finally, proponents must collect enough signatures by Aug. 5 to get anything on the November ballot.
MORE: Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America, recently wrote a book about election reform titled “The Primary Solution: Rescuing our Democracy From the Fringes.”
Thiry spent several million dollars persuading Colorado voters to approve two of the reforms Troiano advocates for in his book: primaries that are open to unaffiliated voters and redistricting done by appointed commissions instead of by politicians.
An open primary featuring all candidates followed by ranked choice voting in a general election are the final reforms advocated in Troiano’s book, as well as by Unite America and Thiry.
According to Politico, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Windsor, attended a Washington, D.C., book party last week for Troiano, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress as an independent candidate in Pennsylvania in 2014.
CHART OF THE WEEK
Colorado voters have had the power to change state law or the state constitution through ballot initiatives since 1880, four years after the state was formed.
Through 2023, voters had considered 508 statewide measures, most of which were citizen-initiated and others that were placed on the ballot by the legislature. More than half — or 54% — were rejected.
The topics most frequently voted upon, according to Legislative Council Staff, or LCS, have been:
Note: LCS said in its analysis that it categorized ballot measures by the most appropriate category, though many fit under multiple categories.
The November ballot will include at least one measure on taxation, and possibly others on abortion and election administration.
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
REPUBLICANS: Kelly Maher, a Republican consultant and political analyst for 9News, has created a new federal super PAC and nonprofit, respectively, named Restoring Standards PAC and Restoring Standards. Maher said her goal is to use the organizations to temper the toxicity in politics. “At what point did we decide that being a jerk means that you are doing your ideology a service?” she said. “It’s on both sides of the aisle— it’s all around.” She said the super PAC’s first target will be Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams, who is running to represent Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.
POLIS ADMINISTRATION: Eric Bergman, who has served as policy director for Colorado Counties Inc. for the past 14 years, has been appointed by Colorado Department of Local Affairs Executive Director Maria De Cambra to serve as director of the Division of Local Government. Bergman will start in his new role May 20 —after this year’s legislative session ends. Bergman is a well-known player at the Capitol and his decision to leave CCI to join the Polis administration is a big deal. Before joining CCI, Bergman served as director of the Office of Smart Growth and was a grant program manager at DOLA.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Democratic U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet of Colorado have joined with Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, to form a joint fundraising committee to which donors may write a single check that will benefit all three candidates. Hickenlooper and Booker are up for reelection in 2026, while Bennet is up for reelection in 2028. Separately, U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton, is one of several House members and aspiring members who will benefit from the Blue to the Future 2024 joint fundraising committee.
STORY: Jared Polis’ environmental justice plans are in limbo at the Colorado Capitol. Here’s why.
STORY: Colorado’s public health department wants to help you with your taxes. Seriously.
THE ATLANTIC: The fallout of Trump’s Colorado victory
9NEWS: Fact Check: Colorado oil and gas industry running ad to stop bill that has no chance of passing
PBS12: Jesse was on Colorado Inside Out on Friday
THE DENVER POST: Westminster wrestles with housing reform as legislators eye a statewide intervention
COLORADO POLITICS: Payback? Democrats gut, then reject party mate’s proposal on county commissioners
THE GLENWOOD SPRINGS POST INDEPENDENT: Colorado lawmakers pump brakes on keeping I-70 truckers from the passing lane from Morrison to Glenwood Springs
CBS4: Lauren Boebert withdraws request for permanent restraining order against ex-husband Jayson Boebert
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Corrections & Clarifications
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