Colorado Gov. Jared Polis celebrated his first six months in office Monday. His critics marked the day with an effort to recall him from office. The Dismiss Polis group received approval to circulate a petition and collect signatures from registered voters to force a special recall election. To do so, the governor’s critics must collect […]
Colorado Secretary of State’s Office
Posted inCrime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
11,467 Colorado parolees can now vote after new law goes into effect
Nearly 11,500 parolees in Colorado now can legally vote under a law that took effect Monday broadening voting rights for people convicted of felony crimes. State lawmakers this year passed the legislation as part of a criminal justice reform package. Before Monday, parolees had to complete their sentences before being able to cast a ballot. […]
Posted inSun Investigation
Gov. Jared Polis recall effort mired by infighting and legal questions about donors, review finds
A committee to recall Gov. Jared Polis has raised more than $100,000 since March, but its reports are littered with errors and its online donors don’t always match the information it gives the state. Nearly 120 of the 1,337 itemized individual donations to the Official Recall Colorado Governor Jared Polis committee don’t have the required […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Illegal voting conviction in small Colorado town that prompted call for federal investigation is overturned
A judge has overturned the illegal voting conviction of a woman from a small Colorado mountain town in a case that grabbed headlines last year and prompted state officials to ask for a federal investigation into a district attorney. A Gunnison County District Court judge ruled last month that a lower court erred when it […]
Posted inBusiness, Education, Politics and Government
The TABOR battle is reaching new levels. Critics are testing 18 ways to rewrite Colorado tax policy.
Behind the scenes, the political left in Colorado is gearing up for a fight to overhaul the state’s tax system, a tangled mess of constitutional amendments that they believe holds the key to better-funded schools, less congested roads and more affordable college. Step one to unravel the knot? Figure out what threads they’re even allowed […]
Posted inBusiness, Politics and Government
Lobbying is big money in Colorado. But the spending is difficult to track.
Some chat with lawmakers while others huddle in small groups to discuss legislation. Together, these lobbyists will receive tens of millions of dollars this year from big businesses, nonprofit organizations and local governments hoping to influence Colorado elected officials. The combined total spent on lobbying from July 2014 through December is estimated at $138 million, […]
Posted inBusiness, Politics and Government
Dark money and disclosure gaps are priorities for new state election chief, Democrats
Political flyers with no mention of who paid for them. Mailers that mention candidates, but with no disclosure of the donors who covered the cost of the messages. Nonprofits donating millions of dollars to super PACs, with no ability for voters to learn where the money came from. And an enforcement system that relies on […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Armstrong: For better politics, let’s separate party and state
Imagine there’s no political party on the ballot. It’s easy if you try. And, unlike John Lennon’s utopia, my proposed reforms are both possible and prudent. Early in our state’s history people tried letting political parties largely run elections. That was a disaster. Now we try letting government run political parties in important ways. Our […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado political committees owe $2.3 million in fines. But the state collects little.
Five years have passed since Pueblo voters ousted Democratic state Sen. Angela Giron in a recall election. Yet her campaign committee, Friends of Angela Giron, still owes $192,500 in overdue fines for not filing timely finance reports with the Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, records show. Her committee is one of more than 1,000 […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Colorado’s final election 2018 results are even worse for Republicans
The unofficial final election report from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office shows even worse news for Republicans than initially thought. Democrat Jared Polis defeated Republican Walker Stapleton in the governor’s race by 10.7 percentage points, well above the 7-point margin touted on election night. The late boost in Democratic votes was expected because the […]