Watch a recording of the debate above.
FORT COLLINS — After months of struggling to differentiate themselves from one another, the two Democratic candidates for governor on Saturday presented voters with a clear clash of styles:
A vote for U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, he said, is a vote for ambitious ideas that would meet the moment — a state facing mounting crises in housing affordability, healthcare and the environment.
A vote for Attorney General Phil Weiser, he said, is a vote for someone who wouldn’t just offer “angry rhetoric and speeches” — he would also work with people across the state to actually get things done.
The Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls made their case at a forum moderated by The Colorado Sun at Colorado State University in what was expected to be their last major debate before the June 30 primary. The event was co-moderated by Noticias Univision Colorado, a Spanish-language news network, and sponsored by The Colorado Health Foundation.
Time and again throughout the debate, Bennet, 61, steered the conversation toward the challenges facing younger generations: chiefly affordability and the environment. And he accused Weiser of not being ambitious enough to tackle the scope of the problem.
“We need to be ambitious,” Bennet said of his plan to impose a cap and invest system that would charge polluters for their emissions. “We need to push the edge of the envelope.”
The 58-year-old Weiser, meanwhile, accused Bennet of making vague promises.
“I can’t get on board with something that’s this amorphous and uncertain,” Weiser said of Bennet’s climate plan. Instead, Weiser has proposed expanding Colorado’s solar grid, something he said he would accomplish in part by appointing renewable energy advocates to the Public Utilities Commission, which regulates energy companies.
Bennet replied that Weiser was thinking too small. “There is no way we’re going to get to net zero by 2050, which is the state goal, with solar and with (battery) storage,” he said.
That dynamic played out again and again on a range of issues. On healthcare, for instance, Bennet said he wanted to create a public option for those who make too much to afford Medicaid, while Weiser offered a scaled back plan to increase access to primary care.
Weiser repeatedly pointed to his own record suing the federal government as evidence that he would deliver on his promise to fight back against the Trump administration. Bennet, he argued, didn’t do the same when he approved a number of Trump Cabinet appointees.
“The fact is, Congress is not doing its job,” Weiser said. “Congress should be a check on a lawless, bullying administration. It hasn’t been.”
He also attacked Bennet for missing Senate floor votes in recent weeks. Bennet said that he missed several of them so he could attend a debate against Weiser.
“I’m sorry that I’ve missed a few votes in this moment when we’re right at the end of this race, but I stand by my record of service to Colorado,” Bennet said.
State housing policies
On housing, Weiser criticized Gov. Jared Polis for employing a “top-down” policy of state zoning mandates that had alienated local officials rather than partnering with them to solve problems.
“That’s the concern that these measures raise — local governments felt they were being dictated to, not listened to,” Weiser said.
Both candidates expressed support for proposed state laws that would allow homeowners to split their lots and relax single family lot size requirements to encourage construction of smaller homes.
But Weiser said it should come with a clause allowing local governments to opt-out if it doesn’t work for them.
“Let’s give local governments some room and time to come along, to bring them along before we shove down one-size-fits-all proposals down their necks,” Weiser said. “That just breeds more resentment.”
Bennet argued that Weiser was too concerned with not disturbing the status quo.
“We’re pushing (younger generations) out of Colorado,” Bennet said. “This is not an issue about the inability of states and local governments to get along. We’re pushing our own kids out of this state, and that’s why we’ve got to change.”
Bennet also expressed support for recent efforts in Lakewood to increase housing density by overhauling the local zoning code. Voters repealed that effort in April following backlash from homeowners.
Neither candidate said they would support withholding state funding from local governments as punishment for not cooperating with state housing policies.
Dodged questions
Throughout the debate, the two candidates declined to offer specifics on some of their plans.
Both called for changing the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to increase funding for public services, but neither has offered a specific path to do so, insisting that the only way to win at the ballot is to work across the state to come up with a solution voters can support.
Bennet declined to say how much money his cap and invest plan would raise for renewable energy. Weiser wouldn’t say how he would pay for his childcare plans — only that changes to TABOR would be needed. (Bennet pointed to New Mexico’s use of severance taxes for childcare as a potential model.)
Weiser also wouldn’t say who he voted for in the race to replace him as attorney general.
“My endorsements are public, my votes are private,” he said.
Near the end of the debate, the candidates were asked if they would select a woman or person of color to be their running mate for lieutenant governor; neither one committed to doing so.
Bennet also wouldn’t commit to selecting a woman or person of color to replace him in the U.S. Senate if elected governor — but he did make one promise.
“I will commit to selecting somebody who’s less than 50 years old,” Bennet said. “The last thing we need is one more person to die on the floor of the U.S. Senate.”
The question led to a moment of levity between the two candidates. Bennet referenced a Weiser campaign bumper sticker that reads: “Michael Bennet for Senate, Phil Weiser for governor.”
“I think we can do better than that,” he said. “I think we can have me in the governor’s office and have new representation in the Senate. It’s true that Phil and my mom both want me to die on the floor of the U.S. Senate, but I don’t think that’s the best thing.”
In response, Weiser quipped, voters had a rare opportunity to make both candidates’ moms happy — choose him as governor.