When Jared Polis signs the papers to reduce Tina Peters’ sentence, he’ll also be writing his political obituary.
As I don’t have to tell you, Peters, the former Mesa County clerk, is a self-styled MAGA hero who calls herself a political prisoner. She has shown absolutely no remorse after being convicted of tampering with election equipment to try to prove the unprovable — that the 2020 election was rigged.
She betrayed her office, at the behest of the Pillow Guy, at the behest of Donald Trump, in service to the Big Lie, and the judge overseeing the case recognized the damage she had done. The nine-year sentence was harsh — but fair.
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A commutation — particularly for a convicted election official who continues to insist she has done no wrong — is absurd. And unfair. And as a septuagenarian in good standing, I object to those calling Peters elderly. Would she be too elderly if she ran for clerk again?
We know Peters’ crimes against small-d democracy. The question now: Is Polis prepared to be seen as an accessory after the fact?
Prepared or not, that’s exactly where Polis is headed if, as he’s clearly signaled, he commutes Peters’ sentence — leading inevitably to political purgatory for the governor as he caves in to Donald Trump on an issue as charged as the president’s psychotic refusal to concede the 2020 election.
Polis is committing heresy. But it’s much worse than that. The highest elected official in the state is about to undermine the notion of justice as most Coloradans understand it.
Is that how the term-limited governor wants to be remembered as he leaves office in January?
Polis is on an island now. The Sun contacted nearly every Democrat in the legislature, and not one defended him. Not one.
Michael Bennet and Phil Weiser, who are running in the Democratic primary to replace Polis, have condemned him in no uncertain terms.
Weiser called the likely move “a grave miscarriage of justice and dangerous for free and fair elections.” He didn’t stop there, saying the message — as Trump has often shown — would be that the “wealthy or politically connected” aren’t subject to the same rules as everyone else.
Bennet added this: “Donald Trump may be seeking revenge on Colorado, but surrendering to his political pressure will not make our state safer or stronger. We must defend our institutions and the rule of law — bending to Trump’s lawlessness will only produce more lawlessness.”
Rep. Jason Crow wrote that it would be appeasing a “wannabe king” who “is working to dismantle our democracy.”
Who else is condemning clemency? The GOP prosecutor who oversaw Peters’ trial. The chair of county executives. Members of Congress. On and on.
In many cases, the language Democrats have used to condemn Peters’ clemency is almost as shocking as Polis’ decision.
And nobody, it seems, is in a hurry to rescue Polis from that island, not even Polis himself, who has twisted himself into an Ilia Malinin-style pretzel — and to similar effect — to try to explain his thinking.
The governor wants you to believe that he is about to commute Peters’ sentence because former Democratic state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis got probation for fabricating letters meant to absolve her from the charge that she treated her Capitol aides badly.
“It is not lost on me that she was convicted of the exact same felony charge as Tina Peters — attempting to influence a public official — and yet Tina Peters, as a non-violent first time offender got a nine year sentence,” Polis wrote on X. “Justice in Colorado and America needs to be applied evenly, you never know when you might need to depend on the rule of law.”
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He added: “This is the context I am using as I consider cases like this that have sentencing disparities.”
It is not lost on me that Peters is hardly non-violent. It is not lost on me that the Jaquez Lewis crime in no way compares to the great violence Peters has done to the electoral system she had sworn to protect. Oh, and she also kicked a cop.
It also isn’t lost on me that Polis is being disingenuous — and that the only possible reason to commute Peters’ sentence is to try to persuade Trump to end his ugly war on Colorado. He was calling Peters’ sentence too harsh long before the Jaquez Lewis ruling was handed down from the bench.
There’s no question that Trump has done great damage to the state with his pettiness. He doesn’t like Colorado’s mail-in voting, so he’ll move the Space Command from Colorado to Alabama. Trump is offended that Polis has refused to pardon Peters. And so he vetoes a unanimously passed bill in Congress to provide fresh water to 50,000 people in southeast Colorado, which, by the way, is MAGA country. Refuses to fund disasters. Refuses to feed children. Threatens to dismantle the Boulder climate change lab formerly known as NCAR.
The list goes on. If you’re looking for the definition of petty, try Trump’s refusal to invite Polis to a White House dinner for governors.
Here’s the funny thing. Polis said all but nothing about the non-invite, which is in line with Polis’ lukewarm — if that — criticism of the president. Let’s just say he’s no Newsom, no Pritzker, no Hochul, no Moore. He has often said he wants to get along with the Trump administration, and we see where that has left us.
In a state that has roundly rejected Trump three times — and would reject him again if Trump somehow successfully schemes to run for reelection in 2028 — Polis does not exactly reflect the anger of the electorate. I wonder what the vote would be on Polis’ praise for our anti-vaxxer health secretary — praise that he has refused to back away from even as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues his dangerous-to-our-health attacks on vaccines.
I mean, does Polis actually believe Trump will let up on Colorado if he lets Peters off? Is he that naive? Could anyone be that naive? I know he knows better than to think Trump will reward him somehow. I’m sure he knows better than to believe Peters if she signals, under extreme pressure, even a hint of remorse.
She’d be back on the streets, spreading conspiracy theories, being celebrated by Trump, who’d probably give her a medal and maybe invite her to take Kristi Noem’s place in the Cabinet. Certainly, Trump will invite her to the White House.
And Polis? Even if Trump did ease off on Colorado, Polis has to understand that the ends in this case would hardly justify the means.
Does the governor really think he’s standing up for justice, as he tries to say? Or is he just backing away from a fight against someone who has shown repeatedly he has no concept of justice?
What we’d be seeing here is closer to appeasement. That’s what many in Polis’ Democratic Party are calling it.
How could Polis possibly want that to be his legacy?
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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