The Colorado GOP this week sent out a transphobic email attacking the Democratic opponent of state Sen. Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, who is running for reelection in the toss-up Senate District 6 — a race that could have big implications on the trajectory of policy at the Capitol.

The email Thursday repeatedly used male pronouns to refer to Vivian Smotherman, a transgender Durango farmer and Navy veteran. It also included a screenshot of a social media post from the far-right “Libs of TikTok” account saying Smotherman is “a man pretending to be a woman” and that “in Peru he would be considered mentally ill.”

“Given Senator Simpson’s commitment to improving prosperity in rural areas and his wide-ranging support across SD-6, there is not one good reason to vote for Smotherman,” the Colorado GOP email said. “However, we have seen several Colorado elections in which gender identity garners votes from people wanting to be progressive and fearing they’ll be labeled as ‘anti-trans’ for not supporting the media’s DEI candidate.”

The party said Democratic state Reps. Stephanie Vigil and Brianna Titone — referring to Titone by her dead name — benefited from diversity, equity and inclusion pushes to win their elections. Vigil identifies as gender fluid while Titone is the first transgender person elected to the legislature in Colorado.

Smotherman called the email a fear-mongering distraction.

Republican campaigns have been privately complaining about the emails the Colorado GOP has sent out recently in support of the party’s candidates running in toss-up districts. The missives have included offensive remarks and unsubstantiated allegations about their Democratic opponents.

The emails come as Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams has come under fire for not doing enough to support Republican campaigns across the state. But now some are wishing the party would just stay away altogether.

“I already called Vivian to let her know I did not have advance knowledge of this and the attacks do not align with my value system,” Simpson told The Colorado Sun, adding that he plans to voice his frustration to the party, too. 

He pointed out that he has sponsored a bill with Titone.

“I’ve been a Republican my entire life and largely a part of the calculus to run for reelection was to demonstrate you can be a conservative Republican under the gold dome and still be effective,” he said. “If you treat people with dignity and respect you can still build some small wins.”

Simpson called the state party’s email a “step backward” in his cause.

Williams or Colorado GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Sun on Friday. Neither did Darcy Schoening, the director of special initiatives at the Colorado GOP, who sent out the email.  

In Senate District 6, the Colorado GOP’s decision to wade into the contest could be particularly damaging. 

A nonpartisan analysis of election results in the district between 2016 and 2020, completed as part of the state’s redistricting process, estimated it leans 1 percentage point in Democrats’ favor. But the 2022 election results tell another story. 

Gov. Jared Polis won the district by 11 points, while U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet won it by 8 points and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser won it by 5. Polis, Bennet and Weiser are Democrats.

Democrats hold a 23-12 majority in the Colorado Senate, one seat shy of a supermajority. That makes Simpson’s race critical.

Democrats will be defending two competitive Senate seats in November and trying to pick up three others. 

The state Senate districts with races this year will be up for grabs for the first time since their boundaries were redrawn in 2021 as part of the state’s once-a-decade redistricting process. When Simpson was first elected in 2020, his constituency was more conservative and his district included counties in southeastern Colorado. Now, the district has shifted westward and the electorate is more favorable to Democrats.

The Daily Sun-Up podcast | More episodes

Senate District 6 includes all or parts of Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, Dolores, La Plata, Mineral, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, Rio Grande, Saguache, San Juan and San Miguel Counties. Major cities and towns in the district include Durango, Pagosa Springs, Cortez, Telluride and Alamosa.

Still, Simpson is known as a low-key moderate Republican who works across the aisle. He’s won the endorsement, for instance, of Democrat John Salazar, a former congressman who lives in District 6. His reputation means he is expected to have a solid chance of winning reelection. 

The Colorado GOP’s unwelcome approach to the district could jeopardize that. At the very least, the email is giving Democrats an easy line of attack.

“Dave Williams should be ashamed of himself,” Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Shad Murib said in a written statement. “Everyone from Cleave Simpson to Jeff Hurd to Gabe Evans has a responsibility to condemn this hatred and division.”

Hurd, a Grand Junction attorney, and Evans, a state representative from Fort Lupton, are Republicans running in competitive congressional districts this year.

Smotherman, in an interview with The Sun, said Simpson offered “a very sincere and genuine apology” when they talked. She said the Colorado GOP’s claims that she is focusing her campaign on her identity are false. 

“It’s something we’re not surprised at,” she said of the email. “We were hoping we could avoid it and stick to the issues.”

Smotherman said she and Simpson have agreed to keep their campaigns focused on the debate over how to improve the lives of people in Senate District 6.

Election Day is Nov. 5. Voters will begin receiving ballots in October.

After Colorado’s November special session on property taxes wrapped up, Gov. Jared Polis knew the tax cuts the legislature passed wouldn’t be enough to satisfy many homeowners.

So the next week, he issued a challenge to local government officials across the state: cut taxes yourselves, by “as much as possible.”

“Hardworking people in Colorado cannot afford a 40% increase in their tax bills, or even a 20% increase,” Polis wrote in a letter to local taxing districts. “Wages have not gone up by anything close to this amount, and high inflation and interest rates are creating an affordability crisis for many Colorado families.”

Only a handful of them took his advice, a Colorado Sun analysis of the Department of Local Affairs annual property tax report found.

Overall, local government tax revenues climbed around 20% in the 2023 tax year — a $2.5 billion increase from 2022.

That’s far less than it could have been, with actual property values surging by more than 40%.

But most of the tax relief residents received was thanks to the assessment rate cuts mandated by the state legislature — not than anything local governments did on their own.

After Polis’ demand, the average mill levy across the state fell by 4.3% — a 3.5-mill cut on the average local tax rate of 85 mills.

In 19 counties, the average mill levies actually went up slightly, including Republican strongholds like Douglas and El Paso counties.

Only 16 counties cut tax rates by more than 5% — mostly in the mountains, where home values rose the fastest. In 29 others, residents saw a slight mill levy cut of less than 5%.

STORY: Colorado governor calls special session on property taxes to avoid ballot measure fight in November

LOCAL TAXES, A STATE HEADACHE

State lawmakers say they’re tired of the annual fight over property taxes, which are levied at the local level.

“It is striking me as increasingly odd that a voter in Douglas County is impacting property taxes in the San Luis Valley, or a voter in Denver is impacting property taxes on the Eastern Plains,” Rep. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat, told The Sun in an interview.

But the local government response to the historic rise in property values suggests that while they often clamor for local control, their elected leaders don’t want to cut taxes any more than state lawmakers do.

When you look at individual taxing districts, a list of close to 4,800 local entities that includes counties, cities and special districts, over 1,200 of them actually raised mill levies in 2023, for taxes paid this year. (Notably, 140 of those were newly formed special districts collecting taxes for the first time.)

Around 1,000 districts cut their tax rates, some of them to zero after a debt issuance had been paid off.

Another 1,100 didn’t change their rates at all. (The remaining entities didn’t levy a property tax in 2024, according to state data.)

The behavior of local officials is a part of why those on both sides of the tax debate are coalescing around local caps on growth. Without them, history suggests local governments might prioritize the additional tax dollars over responding to homeowner complaints.

If local governments won’t cut taxes in response to future spikes in home values, it could send the political fight right back to the state Capitol — or the statewide ballot.

Weissman’s goal for the special session is to avoid another round of property tax “Groundhog Day.”

“My focus in session is going to be to try to win support for a constitutional reform so that we more squarely put control of local tax revenue back with local voters,” Weissman said.

THE NARRATIVE

How dire are the property tax ballot measures? Business groups don’t agree.

The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce — whose president J.J. Ament may have been the first to publicly suggest a special session back on May 13 — was notably absent among the 45 political advocacy groups to sign a letter calling for a special session this week.

The letter didn’t just call for a special session to reduce taxes, it also unequivocally denounced the two tax cut measures headed to the November ballot, calling Initiatives 108 and 50 “a very significant and real threat to all communities in Colorado.”

In an interview this week with The Colorado Sun, Ament explained that the chamber’s board endorsed a special session, but hasn’t taken a formal position on the two ballot measures.

But from Ament’s perspective, the reasons for a special session haven’t changed since he first called for one in May. He says the cap in Senate Bill 233 didn’t go far enough to slow the growth in taxes, and too many businesses were left out of the commercial tax cut lawmakers approved.

“We’ve got a really simple problem here: Property taxes spiked up without Gallagher,” Ament said, referring to the tax-limiting constitutional amendment voters repealed in 2020. “How do we fix that? That’s the issue. (Senate Bill) 233 didn’t accomplish that.”

That’s a far different argument than the one contained in the letter, which was signed by business groups such as the Colorado Competitive Council, Club 20 and the Colorado Association of Home Builders, as well as left-leaning groups such as the Colorado Education Association and the Community Economic Defense Project. In fact, there’s no mention at all in the letter that further tax cuts are needed.

Ament’s comments — in contrast to the deep concerns that other business interests have with the ballot measures — represent yet another sign of something we’ve previously reported in The Unaffiliated: The business community and conservative political groups remain divided over Initiatives 108 and 50, with few major organizations willing to publicly join Colorado Concern on its ballot pursuits.

To Ament, the dire predictions of opponents of the measures go too far.

“(Initiatives) 108 and 50 are probably not as apocalyptic as folks made them sound initially,” he told The Sun. “What we’re really talking about here, no matter what happens, is a reduction in the future rate of growth, right? None of these things are cuts.”

That mirrors the message that initiative backers Colorado Concern and Advance Colorado have tried to make in their campaign pitches.

In the first year, local governments and school districts would lose out on an estimated $2.4 billion in property tax revenue if Initiative 108 passes. But many homeowners won’t actually see their tax bills decrease from one year to the next if their home values grow faster than the cut.

“Those aren’t real cuts, and they’re not real losses,” Ament said. “It’s just a reduction in the rate of growth.”

State lawmakers and government officials beg to differ, saying that if the state has to replace billions of dollars in lost property taxes in an already tight budget year, the consequences for public services would be widespread.

POLIS DISAPPOINTED?

We asked Gov. Jared Polis if he was disappointed that Colorado Concern was pushing ballot measures his administration considers so damaging to the state.

He didn’t answer directly.

“Well, I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to reach the agreement in (the regular) session,” Polis said. “I think had people worked together a little bit faster and better, this would have been relatively less controversial.”

Here’s more from our interview with him Thursday:

• On whether it’s bad practice to allow outside groups to force legislative action through the ballot: “This is another example of an issue where, of course, it’s the right of people who petition and go to the people to decide things, but if the legislature can work it out, and we can avoid that and provide more stability for the state, that’s a good thing.”
• On whether the deal will end the property tax wars forever: “I don’t know what forever means in politics. Just like when we brought together oil and gas and environmental groups, I don’t think any of us could ever have a pretense (that) said ‘forever forever’ is a thing. But I’m … I’m hopeful that it lasts 10 years or more. You look at the reign of the Gallagher Amendment — and again, it had many flaws — but it lasted two decades of stability.”

WHAT TO WATCH

• The Pension Review Commission meets this morning to discuss potential bills for the 2025 legislative session. One idea that is likely to get drafted into legislation: increasing the state’s $225 million annual pension contribution by the rate of inflation each year.
• The Colorado GOP and Colorado Democratic Party must report their fundraising and spending in July to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday.

COLORADO DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Ahead of its FEC filing, the Colorado Democratic Party reported this week that it raised $130,000 in July from more than 1,300 unique donors, 90% of whom were from Colorado.

The party didn’t provide information on how much it spent last month or how much it had in the bank headed into August. But party officials did disclose that they provided $10,000 in financial assistance to the state’s Democratic National Convention delegates to help offset their travel expenses.

YOU HEARD IT HERE

Walz made the remark Wednesday as he appeared at a fundraiser in Denver hosted by Tim Gill, the Democratic megadonor who made his fortune as a software entrepreneur.

Some other tidbits from the event that may have flown under the radar:

• Walz boasted that CNBC now ranks Minnesota as one of the top five states with the best economies. “You know who we bumped to six? Texas,” he said to cheers. “I don’t know about all of you, but if I’m an … employer and I had a female executive or female leadership, in Minnesota we’re not going to mess with your personal lives. You’re going to be treated the way you should. I don’t think Texas can say the same thing. Come live in states that are free. Come live in states that let you make your own choices.” The ranking was for 2023, however. This year, Texas has moved to No. 3, and Minnesota is No. 6.
• Gill, who helped fund the Democratic takeover of Colorado politics, said the state has had a political renaissance. “We kind of started kind of red and went to purple,” he said. “I think we’re pretty much blue now.”
• Polis said he told Walz that Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign shouldn’t invest any money in Colorado because the state will surely back her in November. 

Missing from the event was U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Thornton Democrat running in the toss-up 8th Congressional District. A spokesperson said she was attending a meeting about Colorado’s bird flu outbreak.

STORY: Tim Walz, speaking at $3 million Denver fundraiser, attacks Trump for false AI-crowd claims

THE POLITICAL TICKER

GUNS

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners says it has dropped its lawsuit challenging Colorado’s 2013 law limiting firearm magazines to 15 rounds “due to unforeseen circumstances.” The National Association for Gun Rights, which is associated with RMGO, blamed the decision on the National Shooting Sports Foundation refusing “to allow its director of research to give an expert deposition regarding critical evidence.” RGMO and NAGR vowed to bring another challenge to the law.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, sent out a campaign email this week touting his office’s work in the prosecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. “I’m proud of our close work with (Mesa County District Attorney Dan) Rubinstein, a Republican, to ensure the law was enforced and the case was prosecuted with integrity, protecting our elections,” Weiser wrote. The missive comes as Weiser is rumored to be mulling a 2026 gubernatorial campaign in Colorado.

Peters, meanwhile, said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show that she plans to appeal her conviction.

READ MORE

• Tina Peters found guilty in plot to breach Colorado’s election system to prove voter fraud
• Colorado Springs-area woman, known as “praying Grandma,” sentenced to one year of probation for role in Jan. 6 riot
• Four-day school weeks have exploded across Colorado districts — and are setting students back
• More than $1 billion has been generated by Denver’s special sales taxes. Is the money being spent as intended?
  — The Denver Post 🔑
• Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb pushes back on tax initiative for affordable housing
  — CBS Colorado
• Democrats turn to Jason Crow, their national security go-to, for Trump assassination inquiry
  — The New York Times 🔑
• Trump flew to Aspen on charter jet previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein
  — The New York Times 🔑
• Colorado Capitol removes ban on political apparel after lawsuit threat from pro-life advocate
  — Westword

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

ELECTION 2024

Colorado GOP sends out transphobic email attacking Democrat running to unseat Republican Sen. Cleave Simpson

The Colorado GOP on Thursday sent out a transphobic email attacking the Democratic opponent of state Sen. Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, who is running for reelection in the toss-up Senate District 6.

The email repeatedly used male pronouns to refer to Vivian Smotherman, a transgender Durango farmer and Navy veteran. It also included a screenshot of a social media post from the “Libs of TikTok” account saying Smotherman is “a man pretending to be a woman” and that “in Peru he would be considered mentally ill.”

“Given Senator Simpson’s commitment to improving prosperity in rural areas and his wide-ranging support across SD-6, there is not one good reason to vote for Smotherman,” the Colorado GOP email said. “However, we have seen several Colorado elections in which gender identity garners votes from people wanting to be progressive and fearing they’ll be labeled as ‘anti-trans’ for not supporting the media’s DEI candidate.”

The party said Democratic state Reps. Stephanie Vigil and Brianna Titone — referring to Titone by her dead name — benefited from diversity, equity and inclusion pushes to win their elections. Vigil identifies as gender fluid while Titone is the first transgender person elected to the legislature in Colorado.

Zooming out: We’ve been hearing complaints from Republican campaigns about the emails the Colorado GOP has been sending out recently in support of the party’s candidates running in toss-up districts. The missives have included offensive remarks and unfounded allegations about their Democratic opponents.

The emails come as Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams has come under fire for not doing enough to support Republican campaigns across the state. But now some are wishing the party would just keep its mouth shut altogether.

“I already called Vivian to let her know I did not have advance knowledge of this and the attacks do not align with my value system,” Simpson told The Unaffiliated, adding that he plans to voice his frustration to the party, too.

He pointed out that he has sponsored a bill with Titone.

“I’ve been a Republican my entire life and largely a part of the calculus to run for reelection was to demonstrate you can be a conservative Republican under the gold dome and still be effective,” he said. “If you treat people with dignity and respect you can still build some small wins.”

Simpson called the state party’s email a “step backward” in his cause.

In Senate District 6, the Colorado GOP’s decision to wade into the contest could be particularly damaging.

A nonpartisan analysis of election results in the district between 2016 and 2020, completed as part of the state’s redistricting process, estimated it leans 1 percentage point in Democrats’ favor. But the 2022 election results tell another story. Gov. Jared Polis won the district by 11 points, while U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet won it by 8 points and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser won it by 5.

Democrats hold a 23-12 majority in the Senate, one seat shy of a supermajority. That makes Simpson’s race critical.

Simpson is known as a low-key moderate Republican who works across the aisle — he’s won the endorsement, for instance, of Democrat John Salazar, a former congressman who lives in District 6 — so he has a real shot at winning reelection. The Colorado GOP’s hold-my-beer approach to the district could jeopardize that.

At the very least, the email is giving Democrats an easy line of attack.

“Dave Williams should be ashamed of himself,” Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Shad Murib said in a written statement. “Everyone from Cleave Simpson to Jeff Hurd to Gabe Evans has a responsibility to condemn this hatred and division.”

Smotherman, in an interview with The Unaffiliated, confirmed that she had spoken with Simpson and that he offered “a very sincere and genuine apology.”

“It’s something we’re not surprised at,” she said. “We were hoping we could avoid it and stick to the issues.”`

• A bylaw amendment could make it more difficult to dislodge embattled Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams

VICE CHAIR SAYS SHE WAS THREATENED

Colorado GOP Vice Chair Hope Scheppelman says her family “received direct life-threatening communications” over the weekend from a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

“This individual, who typically resides in Pueblo, was in Florida with family following the recent passing of her mother, which appears to have triggered this crisis,” Scheppelman wrote in an email to members of the Colorado GOP central committee. “We are relieved to report that the situation has been neutralized, and the individual is now receiving the necessary mental health care from top professionals in Florida. Most importantly, our family is safe.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE

• Trump or Harris? It’s a tossup for many CEOs
  — The Wall Street Journal 🔑
• After two years of far-right rule in a Michigan county, one chance to change it
  — The Washington Post 🔑
• Inside the worst three weeks of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign
  — The New York Times 🔑
• Vacation rental industry steps up lobbying in the face of stiffer regulation
  — Reuters
• Seventy miles in hell
  — The Atlantic 🔑

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

The Colorado Sun is part of The Trust Project. Read our policies.

Corrections & Clarifications

Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.

For the second year in a row, Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday called lawmakers into a special legislative session to cut property taxes.

Only this time, lawmakers won’t reconvene just out of concern over rising property taxes; it’s also out of fear that without a special session, voters might enact tax cuts so deep that they decimate state and local budgets.

“It’s really a win-win, if we can save homeowners money and small businesses money on their property taxes and make sure that we’re not going to devastate our schools and other local entities,” Polis said in an interview with The Colorado Sun ahead of the announcement.

The session will start Aug. 26, and would have to last at least three days in order to send a bill to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. 

In exchange for a modest package of additional tax cuts and stronger limits on property tax growth, conservative groups said they would pull two measures off the November ballot — Initiatives 108 and 50 — that have created panic among state and local government officials, developers and bond investors over their wide-reaching impacts.

Initiative 50, which would amend the state constitution, might be the more consequential of the two. It would limit property tax revenue growth to 4% statewide, with no flexibility for local governments or their voters to opt out without a statewide referendum. 

Initiative 108 would cut property taxes for homeowners and businesses by an estimated $2.4 billion. That’s the equivalent of 15% of the $15.5 billion that schools and local governments collected this year. The state would be on the hook to reimburse schools and local governments for much of the revenue lost to the cuts.

Polis said to preserve the agreement, he won’t sign any bills passed during the special session until Initiatives 50 and 108 are pulled from the November ballot.

Legal interpretations vary on how much the state government would have to pay if the measures passed. But state budget officials say the measures could create a budget crisis on par with an economic recession, mandating deep cuts to essential public services like K-12, higher education and Medicaid.

The proponents of the measures — Colorado Concern, an alliance of state business executives, and Advance Colorado, a conservative political nonprofit — have argued those concerns are overblown.

Business groups insist the property tax relief passed by the legislature in recent years hasn’t gone far enough to serve as a true replacement for the Gallagher Amendment, the tax-limiting constitutional provision that voters repealed in 2020.

Even after the legislature passed a round of cuts in last year’s special session, property tax revenue still went up 21% statewide in the 2023 tax year, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

“This property tax cut and cap agreement provides the permanent tax relief that Coloradans have been demanding and will prevent future spikes in property tax bills going forward,” Advance Colorado President Michael Fields said in a statement.

Under a proposed deal presented to the state’s Property Tax Commission on Monday, the legislature would cut taxes by an additional $255 million next year, for taxes owed in 2026. That’s on top of $1 billion in tax cuts the legislature approved at the end of its regular legislative session, which ended in May.

The legislature would also put a new cap on school districts, limiting their property tax growth to 12% over a two-year period.

In exchange, lawmakers have demanded that the groups provide assurance that they won’t bring back similar ballot measures in the next 10 years.

Lawmakers are racing against the clock to get the deal finalized before a Sept. 6 deadline to remove initiatives from the November ballot. The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office has to certify the ballot by Sept. 9, as ballots must be mailed to military and overseas voters by Sept. 21.

The special session will be the third under Polis since he was sworn into office in 2019. 

The deal was negotiated behind closed doors in recent weeks among the governor’s office, Advance Colorado’s Michael Fields, and Republican and Democratic lawmakers. A special session seemed unthinkable until all the sides restarted negotiations that flamed out during the regular legislative session, which ended in May. 

The talks started up again after lawmakers and the conservative groups behind the ballot measures presented to the Colorado Forum in recent weeks. The forum is a decades-old public policy panel made up of state business and civic leaders that takes positions on pressing issues. Forum President Gail Klapper urged the power players to try to find a solution.

When the mayors of Colorado’s three largest cities and a long list of top civic and business groups from across the political spectrum separately issued letters saying they supported a special session to find a compromise, it was clear lawmakers would be returning to the Capitol.

“I think it’s a good compromise,” said Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican who was the first elected official to publicly call for a special session. “It reduces risk in the future, makes sure that Colorado has a viable future and still further reduces property taxes, which is what my aim is, is looking out for the property owners of the state.”

On Thursday, the top four Democrats in the legislature issued statements in support of the special session, saying it was needed to keep “reckless” measures off the ballot.

“It is a grave risk to our state that wealthy special interests have proceeded with ballot measures that would devastate our economy, cut funding for schools, and risk financing for critical infrastructure projects like affordable housing,” House Majority Leader Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat, said in a written statement. “I’m proud to go back to work to help keep people in their homes, provide additional tax relief, and protect funding for our schools that we’ve fought so hard for.”

Top legislative Republicans issued statements of support as well.

But not everyone is happy about it. At the tax commission meeting this week, Rep. Cathy Kipp of Fort Collins said House Democrats were divided over whether it was worth taking the deal.

“There are some people who are risk averse and would like to proceed with a special session and there are others who don’t appreciate that this is the way things are moving forward,” she said.

Holding a special session isn’t free. Past sessions have cost taxpayers close to $25,000 a day to pay staff and lawmaker stipends as they trek to Denver from across the state. 

Polis said he would have preferred the deal to have been reached during the regular lawmaking term this year, but that the special session “de-risking the November ballot” is still better than nothing.

“It came close,” Polis said. “In fact, I now think we see how close by the fact that a lot of this is just refining the cap mechanism that already went in place and building off the work that was already done.”

The special session could also bring political intrigue beyond the property tax debate.

It’s an election year, and Republicans are trying to dismantle the Democratic supermajority in the House and prevent one from being secured in the Senate. The GOP could be tempted to force the issue with controversial amendments and floor speeches.

The session may also invite disruption from Democratic lawmakers who aren’t returning to the Capitol next year after losing their primary races in June or abandoning their reelection bids midcycle. There are also several term-limited Democratic and Republican representatives and senators who will be returning for the special session.

Finally, unions could push lawmakers to take up some pro-labor bills passed during the session this year that Polis vetoed. That’s part of why a special session wasn’t called to strip out a provision in a bill kneecapping a 2024 ballot measure that would overhaul the state’s election process.

The governor can limit what topics can be discussed in a special session, but lawmakers have some legal leeway to decide what qualifies within that scope. Polis said he’s happy to have discussions about those union measures next year, but that the special session is limited to property tax legislation in order to stop the measures from appearing on the November ballot.

“There’s only a small window of time before the ballot initiatives can be taken down,” Polis said.

Despite the risks, Polis is already pointing to the special session as another example of his ability to broker policy deals. During the regular lawmaking term this year, he helped shepherd agreements on oil and gas, medical malpractice lawsuits and Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds.

The legislature’s next regular session begins in January, when newly elected representatives and senators will begin their terms.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, speaking Wednesday at a campaign fundraiser in Denver, encouraged Democrats to maintain a breakneck pace heading into the final three months of the 2024 presidential election. 

“Sleep when you’re dead,” Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ recently selected running mate, told a fired up crowd. 

Some $3 million was raised at the event, according to host Tim Gill, a Democratic megadonor who opened up his central Denver estate — known as the Phipps Mansion — to about 150 people for the occasion. The Denver visit was part of a five-state fundraising swing for Walz, who is making his first solo appearances since he and Harris became the presumptive Democratic ticket in the presidential race. 

In a speech just shy of 15 minutes, Walz attacked Republicans for supporting school vouchers, wavering on financial support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and for restricting abortion access. 

“You need to make your own health care decisions, not us,” he said. “We don’t need their help deciding which books we’re going to read. We will decide that on our own.”

He also attacked former President Donald Trump for falsely claiming that photos showing large crowds at recent Harris-Walz events were generated by artificial intelligence.

“I assure you, in Detroit that wasn’t AI,” he said. “And I’ll also assure you every one of the ballots that they’re going to cast will not be AI.”

Walz said it’s been an “interesting” week since Harris named him on Aug. 6 as her vice president pick after President Joe Biden decided mid-election cycle not to seek reelection. 

“That’s a Minnesota word,” he said. “‘Interesting,’ Minnesotans know, has multiple meanings. They called me up, picked me up at my house last Tuesday, put me on a plane and flew me to Philadelphia and said ‘here, you’ve got 45 minutes. Give this speech off the teleprompter.’”

Walz said he had never used a teleprompter before.

“Politics is a means to an end, and that end is a better, fairer country for everyone,” he said. “You don’t get elected to office to bank political capital for the next election. You get elected to office to burn that capital” to make people’s lives better.

Walz also contrasted the life experiences of Trump and Harris, who as a kid worked part time at McDonalds.

“Can you picture Donald Trump working at a McDonalds?” Walz said. “You think he knows you? You think he knows who you are? You think he knows your family?”

Walz was accompanied at the event by his daughter, Hope. He was introduced by Gov. Jared Polis, the nation’s first openly gay governor. Polis attacked Trump for being a convicted felon and for “destroying voting rights, destroying LGBTQ rights.”

“The future is the bright future that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are going to bring for every American — no matter who they are,” said Polis, who has become a top Harris surrogate.

Gill made his fortune as a software entrepreneur and is a prominent LGBTQ activist.

“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are ready to carry the torch of liberty forward, ensuring that the gains we’ve made aren’t lost,” Gill said, standing in the backyard of his 33,000 square foot home.

Gill said Walz’s “ability to reach across the aisle while staying true to our Democratic values makes Tim exactly who we need at this moment.”

Gill’s husband, Scott Miller, was nominated by Biden to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein and has held the job since 2021.

Tickets for the fundraiser started at $1,000. Donors who gave at least $50,000 received an opportunity to get their photo taken with Walz.

The money raised will go toward the Harris Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee benefiting Harris’ campaign, state Democratic parties across the country and the Democratic National Committee.

The fundraiser was attended by a list of top Colorado Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, Secretary of State Jena Griswold, and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb. Also in attendance were former U.S. Reps. John Salazar and Ed Perlmutter.

Walz served in Congress with Polis, Salazar and Perlmutter.

Walz, who didn’t take questions from a small group of reporters at the event, was headed to Boston after his stop in Colorado. 

If opponents of embattled Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams fail to remove him from the party’s top post later this month, they may be unable to dislodge him for the rest of his term, which ends in March.

A major bylaw amendment being proposed by Williams’ allies would make it harder starting next year to call a special meeting to remove the Colorado GOP chairman or other party officers. 

Currently, it only takes a written request of 25% of the members of the central committee to force such a meeting and a vote. The amendment would require that request be made through a form developed and authorized by the party’s secretary, and that each member of the central committee who signs it disclose “sufficient identifying information so that the secretary can verify the requesters are voting members and that they do, in fact, desire that the requested meeting be held.”

Additionally, the amendment would create a seven-day challenge period after a request for a special meeting to remove a party officer is made. During that time, the Colorado GOP executive committee could postpone the gathering while the challenge is pending.

The bylaw amendment is scheduled to be considered at the central committee’s Aug. 31 meeting, which is about a week after Williams’ opponents on the committee are planning to take a vote on whether to oust the chairman. 

Getting the votes to remove Williams may not be easy. 

The Colorado GOP’s bylaws say a party officer can only be removed “by a vote of three-fifths of the entire membership of the (central committee) eligible to vote at a meeting called for that purpose.” There are two interpretations of the rule: It could mean 60% of those present at the meeting, or 60% of the entire central committee — which is made up of about 400 people. 

Passing a bylaw amendment is arguably easier. It requires the support of two-thirds “of those members present and voting” at a central committee meeting. 

There’s a scenario in which members of the central committee who dislike Williams show up to the Aug. 24 meeting organized by opponents of Williams to try to remove him and are unsuccessful, then skip the Aug. 31 meeting where the bylaw amendment is then adopted.

The bylaw change is particularly important because Wiliams’ opponents believe the party won’t take up a motion to remove him as chairman unless they run the meeting themselves. The bylaw change would be particularly impactful if Williams runs for reelection as chairman and wins.

The Colorado GOP executive committee has already ruled that the Aug. 24 meeting to remove Williams was improperly organized and that they won’t recognize the results of any action taken during the gathering. And it’s unclear if the party will take up the question of removing Williams at the Aug. 31 meeting if they don’t recognize the results of the Aug. 24 vote. 

“It is exactly designed to prevent him from being removed,” Todd Watkins, vice chair of the El Paso County GOP and the leader of the effort to remove Williams, said of the bylaw amendment. “Textbook despot.”

Watkins called Williams “Xi Jing Dave,” a nod to Xi Jinping, the authoritarian leader of China. 

Williams told The Colorado Sun “we are still deciding” if the amendment will be considered at the central committee’s Aug. 31 meeting. He argued that even though the change was borne out of the effort to remove him, it will have no effect on removing party officers, calling any claim to the contrary a “deceptive narrative.”

He also emphasized that the change wouldn’t take effect until next year to comply with a state law preventing political parties from altering their bylaws in election years.

“Our critics are free to continue doing what they wish for the rest of the year, regardless of any bylaw changes that may occur at the end of this month,” Williams said. 

The proposed amendment isn’t the first time Williams and his allies have tried to change the party’s bylaws to their benefit. Last year, they unsuccessfully tried to pass an amendment that would have made it easier for the GOP to block unaffiliated voters from participating in their primaries, a major objective of Williams and other ultra conservative Republicans in Colorado.

And the Colorado GOP isn’t exactly broadcasting that the amendment will be considered Aug. 31. 

In a notice about the gathering, the party said the principal purposes of the meeting will be to consider a bylaw change on fractional voting that wouldn’t be implemented until after the 2024 election. Also on the agenda are an update on the party’s open primary lawsuit and consideration of party officer removal requests “that were properly submitted and verified.”

The only way people would know about the bylaw amendment around removing party officers is if they read the entire report of the party’s bylaws committee.

Shoring up the effort to remove Williams

Williams’ opponents — led by Watkins and Jefferson County GOP Chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi — are taking steps to quash claims from current Colorado GOP leadership that the Aug. 24 meeting will be “invalid and illegal” because the legitimacy of the list of people who asked for it is unverifiable. 

Chris Murray, the former Colorado GOP lawyer now representing Watkins and Pallozzi, said in court last week, as the matter went before a judge, that he had collected nearly 50 declarations from people confirming they had requested the meeting to oust Williams. 

“We are in the process of gathering declarations from everybody who signed that petition,” Murray said. 

The Daily Sun-Up podcast | More episodes

But, he added, even if he can’t get declarations from everyone who signed the petition, if at least 25% of the central committee shows up to the Aug. 24 meeting, that will prove there is enough support for a gathering to vote on whether to oust Williams. 

Murray said Williams has been trying to prevent a quorum as a way to protect his position. “Tell people it’s a bogus meeting. Tell them not to show up. And if they don’t have a quorum, they can’t do anything,” he said in court, as he successfully asked for an order halting the special meeting to be lifted.

It takes a third of the committee to constitute a quorum to even hold a valid meeting — more than is required to request the gathering in the first place.

If Williams is removed, who will replace him?

If Williams is removed, any candidates vying to replace him would only have to win a majority of those present at a central committee meeting called to fill the vacancy to take over the party’s top leadership post.

Watkins has added filling any officer vacancies to the agenda of the Aug. 24 meeting.

The Republicans who are seeking to replace Williams so far include Eli Bremer, who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2020 and formerly served as chair of the El Paso County GOP; state Rep. Richard Holtorf, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress this year; former Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn, who ran unsuccessfully to be state treasurer in 2018; and Douglas County GOP Chair Steve Peck.

Another special legislative session on Colorado’s property taxes appeared imminent Monday after a long list of top civic and business groups from across the political spectrum said they supported a deal to stop a pair of measures from appearing on the November ballot.

The deal would cut property taxes by an additional $255 million in 2025 for taxes owed in 2026 — on top of the $1 billion cut the legislature already passed this year during its regular legislative session.

In exchange, Michael Fields, who leads Advance Colorado, a conservative political nonprofit, said he would pull Initiatives 50 and 108 off the statewide ballot. Doing so would prevent even larger tax cuts that elected officials in both parties feared would lead to recession-like cuts to state and local services.

“This seems like a good path forward to end — hopefully — the property tax battles, and de-risk the budget,” Mark Ferrandino, the governor’s budget director, told the state’s Property Tax Commission on Monday.

A special session — the second one on property taxes in the last 10 months — seemed unthinkable a month ago. But after lawmakers and the conservative groups behind the ballot measures presented to the Colorado Forum in recent weeks, the two sides reignited negotiations that had stalled at the end of the legislative session, which ended in May. (The forum is a decades-old public policy panel made up of state business and civic leaders that takes positions on pressing issues.)

Initiative 50 would amend the state constitution to enact a strict cap on annual statewide property tax growth, while Initiative 108 would cut property taxes by $2.4 billion. The measures are being supported by Advance Colorado as well as Colorado Concern, a conservative-leaning nonprofit that represents state business leaders.

Fights over property taxes have become a fixture of the state’s politics in recent years, starting with the 2020 repeal of the tax-limiting Gallagher Amendment. Last tax year, residential tax assessments rose 27% even after lawmakers enacted multiple rounds of tax cuts, leading to ongoing pressure for additional relief.

When the negotiations started up again, a special session seemed unlikely given how poorly the ballot measures have been polling and because Democrats didn’t want to give in to the groups behind the initiatives. But attitudes started changing late last week.

On Monday, the dam burst when social justice groups, business interests, the state’s hospital association, schools, teachers unions and foundations — both liberal and conservative — joined together in a letter asking for a special session to be called.

The Daily Sun-Up podcast | More episodes

“These initiatives present a very significant and real threat to all communities in Colorado,” the groups wrote. “For those reasons, we are supportive of a compromise and a special session.”

The organizations asked that the special session be narrow in scope and limited to one bill implementing an agreed-upon deal. The signatories included labor groups like the Colorado Education Association and the Working Families Party; K-12 school district and university leaders; and business groups like Club 20, the Colorado Contractors Association and the Colorado Hospital Association.

The mayors of Denver, Aurora and Colorado Springs also signed a letter to lawmakers Monday calling for a special session to prevent the ballot measures from passing.

“If passed, these two initiatives will drastically defund K-12 schools statewide, deplete local public safety resources and demand crippling cuts to local fire districts and special districts,” wrote Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade. “These are very real impacts that will negatively impact every resident’s quality of life. We are depending on our legislature to ensure this does not happen.”

The mayors said a special session would give the legislature the opportunity to find a “compromise that would avoid such negative impacts white still providing tax relief to our residents.”

Support for a special session isn’t universal. Some think any further cuts to property taxes are unnecessary and ill advised. And they question whether conservative groups could be trusted not to bring back similar initiatives for the next 10 years, per the terms of the proposed agreement.

State Rep. Cathy Kipp, a Democrat from Fort Collins, said her caucus was divided over whether a special session was a good idea.

“There are some people who are risk averse and would like to proceed with a special session and there are others who don’t appreciate that this is the way things are moving forward,” she said.

“I’m less agreeable, personally, to letting the deal be continually revised to the detriment of our state and our citizens,” she added.

On Monday, some members of the state’s bipartisan Property Tax Commission bristled at being asked to weigh in on yet another tax cut that had been negotiated behind closed doors — just months after the legislature passed a property tax measure in Senate Bill 233 that many believed was supposed to put the matter to rest. 

“If it wasn’t a deal (back) then, why did you pass 233?” said Mayor Guyleen Castriotta of Broomfield, who serves on the commission.

“The decision to have a special session has probably already been made by people who have a lot more power than me,” she complained.

Others, though, said further tax cuts were warranted. State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican who helped negotiate Senate Bill 233 as well as the new proposal, said Advance Colorado never agreed to drop the ballot measures the first time around.

“(My constituents’) number one issue is property taxes,” said state Rep. Lisa Frizell, a Republican from Castle Rock. “Their number one pain point is how much their mortgage has gone up on a monthly basis, and how really worried they are about how they can put groceries on the table.”

In exchange for dropping Initiatives 50 and 108, here is the framework for the deal that would be considered during the special session, according to Ferrandino:

• In the 2025 tax year for taxes owed in 2026, the residential assessment rate for local government taxes would drop an additional 0.15% to 6.25%. Today the rate is 6.7%, but under Senate Bill 233, which was passed by the legislature this year with bipartisan support, it is scheduled to fall to 6.4% in the 2025 tax year for taxes paid in 2026. Residential assessments for schools would remain separate from those of local governments, and would fall to 7.05% from 7.15%. (Both cuts could be larger if property values grow faster than expected next year.)
• In the 2026 tax year, the residential assessment rate for local governments would rise to 6.8%, but the increase is offset by a tax break that kicks in that year, exempting up to $70,000 of a home’s value from taxation. Under current law, it is scheduled to rise to 6.95%. The school assessment rate would remain at 7.05%.
• Nonresidential assessment rates would drop to 25% in the 2027 tax year. Under Senate Bill 233, only commercial and agricultural property assessment rates fall to that level, while the rates for industrial and some other properties increase to 29%. The oil and gas industry, which pays much higher property taxes, would not benefit from the cuts.
• Local government revenue would be limited to 10.5% growth over two years, instead of 5.5% annually under Senate Bill 233. School districts would be limited to 12% growth over two years, a new cap that doesn’t exist in current law.

Fields also confirmed the details of the proposal to The Colorado Sun.

The session will likely happen the last week of August, since several Democratic legislators are traveling to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention next week.

Logistically speaking, either Gov. Jared Polis can call for a special session or the legislature can summon itself back to the Capitol by a two-thirds vote.

To meet the demands of conservatives, the deal would have to be completed before Sept. 9, when the November ballot is required to be certified by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. It takes at least three days to pass a bill at the Capitol. 

Holding a special session brings political risks beyond the property tax debate.

It’s an election year, and Republicans are trying to dismantle the Democratic supermajority in the House and prevent one from being secured in the Senate. The GOP could be tempted to force the issue with controversial amendments and floor speeches.

The session may also invite disruption from lawmakers who aren’t returning to the Capitol next year after losing their primary races in June or abandoning their reelection bids mid cycle. 

For instance, state Rep. Elisabeth Epps, a Denver Democrat who was unseated in the June 25 primary, has already been critical on social media of the tax debate. During the last special session on property taxes in 2023, she used the occasion to disrupt proceedings in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza. 

Finally, unions will likely push lawmakers to take up some pro-labor bills passed during the session this year that Polis vetoed. That’s part of why a special session wasn’t called to strip out a provision in a bill kneecapping a 2024 ballot measure that would overhaul the state’s election process. 

Polis can call a special session for a specific purpose, but can’t limit the legislature to only consider a specific bill. Courts have said the legislature has some leeway to introduce measures beyond the narrow scope of a governor’s call, as long as it has a “rational” connection to the session’s stated purpose, according to a legislative legal memo.

So far, much of the planning for the special session has happened behind closed doors. 

Last week, the House and Senate Democratic caucuses met to discuss the situation, but reporters were kept out.

The Senate Democratic caucus met Thursday evening on Zoom to discuss “what would even be possible with schedules/logistics” around property taxes and the state budget, a spokesperson said.

The Sun tried to attend the meeting, but was barred because legislation wasn’t going to be discussed and nothing is currently pending before the legislature, the spokesperson said.

A similar situation played out when The Denver Post tried to attend the House Democrats’ gathering, according to a reporter for the newspaper.

The new open meetings law for the General Assembly that was passed by the legislature this year says the public does not have a right to attend meetings about subjects that “are by nature interpersonal, administrative or logistical.” Previously, an open meeting was broadly defined as “any kind of gathering, convened to discuss public business, in person, by telephone, electronically, or by other means of communication.”

Shortly after state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer told Colorado Public Radio earlier this week that a deal had been struck to pass a new round of property tax cuts in order to keep a package of even deeper cuts off the November ballot, reality began to set in.

While top legislative Democrats say they’re open to minor tax cuts like Kirkmeyer is proposing,calling the special session needed to do it before the ballot is finalized next month could be another matter entirely.

“At this point, I am not aware of any Democrat advocating for a special session,” Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, told The Colorado Sun on Tuesday.

Instead, a number of them are doing just the opposite, fuming in public and in private at the situation they find themselves in.

On the one hand, the benefits of keeping Initiatives 50 and 108 off the November ballot are obvious. A deal would mitigate a number of risks. The governor’s office fears that if both pass, the state government would face recession-like budget cuts. Meanwhile, investors have threatened to abandon the state’s municipal bond market, a top source of financing for both public infrastructure and private development.

“It’s a relatively minor change to Senate Bill 233,” state Sen. Chris Hansen, a Denver Democrat, said, referring to this year’s property tax cut measure. “The offer that we received is, ‘if you’ll make some minor changes then we would pull down ballot initiatives and not bring any back for 10 years.’ ”

But that might not be enough to overcome Democrats’ aversion to a special session.

Here are three reasons why:

• Democrats don’t want to reward the tactics of Colorado Concern and Advance Colorado, the initiative’s sponsors. The General Assembly already passed $1 billion in property tax cuts this year with broad bipartisan support, only to have Colorado Concern and Advance Colorado say it didn’t go far enough. If lawmakers give in and call a special session, they fear they will simply encourage those with deep pockets to weaponize the ballot box in the future to force legislative action.
• Early polling doesn’t indicate either ballot measure is likely to pass. A campaign could prove especially difficult for Initiative 50, a constitutional amendment that would cap statewide property tax revenue growth to 4% each year and needs 55% of the vote to pass. Meanwhile, the coalition of business interests and elected Republicans who would normally be expected to unite in support of statewide tax cuts hasn’t materialized. “I think 50 is in deep trouble,” said Hansen, who has been involved in the negotiations on a new property tax deal. “I think the proponents know it. I think their polling and our polling does not show a lot of strength for either of those titles. And it may be the reason we’re talking right now.”
• There’s a lack of trust on both sides. The proposed deal would not kick in until next year anyway, so Hansen says there’s no need to pass any legislation before January, when the legislature reconvenes. But conservatives still feel betrayed by the lack of a promised replacement for the Gallagher Amendment, and Michael Fields of Advance Colorado insists he won’t take the measures off the ballot unless there’s a special session. Meanwhile, Democrats want ironclad assurances that outside groups won’t bring additional property tax cuts to the ballot for the next decade — but they still feel burned by the conservative response to Senate Bill 233, the bipartisan tax cut package passed this session.

Here are some of the provisions in the proposed deal, confirmed to The Sun by Kirkmeyer and Hansen:

• The residential assessment rate for local government taxes would drop an additional 0.1% next tax year to 6.3%. Today the rate is 6.7%, but under Senate Bill 233 it is scheduled to fall to 6.4% in the 2025 tax year for taxes paid in 2026. Residential assessments for schools would remain separate from those of local governments.
• Nonresidential assessment rates would drop to 25% in the 2026 tax year. Under Senate Bill 233, only commercial and agricultural property assessment rates fall to that level, while the rates for industrial and some other properties increase to 29%. 
• Local government revenue would be limited to 10.5% growth over two years, instead of 5.5% annually under Senate Bill 233. School districts would be limited to 12% growth over two years, a new cap that doesn’t exist in current law.

STORY: Investors fear a property tax cap could stifle attainable housing development in Colorado

POLITICAL RISKS OF A SPECIAL SESSION

Holding a special session doesn’t come without political risks beyond the property tax debate.

Some analysis:

• It’s an election year, and Republicans are trying to dismantle the Democratic supermajority in the House and prevent one from being secured in the Senate. The GOP could be tempted to force the issue with controversial amendments and floor speeches.
• It would invite disruption from state Rep. Elisabeth Epps, a Denver Democrat who was unseated in the June 25 primary. She has nothing to lose and has been turning to social media to express frustration about her time at the Capitol, including posting: “The only regret I have about the few bridges I burned is that I wasn’t brave enough to burn them sooner.” Departing Democratic state Reps. Tim Hernández and Jennifer Parenti could also use the special session to vent.
• Unions would likely push lawmakers to take up the bills passed during the session this year that Gov. Jared Polis vetoed. That’s part of the reason a special session wasn’t called to strip out a provision in a bill kneecapping a 2024 ballot measure that would overhaul the state’s election process. Polis can call a special session for a specific purpose, but the legislature can introduce measures beyond the scope of his call.

There’s also simply not much time for a special session to happen.

To meet the demands of conservatives, it would have to be completed before Sept. 9, when the November ballot is required to be certified by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. It takes at least three days to pass a bill at the Capitol. Labor Day is coming up. Lawmakers, many of whom have kids and other jobs, haven’t been warned to clear their calendars to return to Denver in the coming weeks.

SENATE DEMOCRATS MEET, COLORADO SUN KEPT OUT

The Senate Democratic caucus met Thursday afternoon on Zoom to discuss “what would even be possible with schedules/logistics” around property taxes and the state budget, a spokesperson said.

The Sun tried to attend the meeting, but was barred because legislation wasn’t going to be discussed and nothing is currently pending before the legislature, the spokesperson said.

The new open meetings law for the General Assembly that was passed by the legislature this year says the public does not have a right to attend meetings about subjects that “are by nature interpersonal, administrative or logistical.” Previously, an open meeting was broadly defined as “any kind of gathering, convened to discuss public business, in person, by telephone, electronically, or by other means of communication.”

WHAT TO WATCH

• Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear and speak at a campaign fundraiser Saturday in Aspen. Tickets start at $25,000. Hosts include Denver homebuilders Carol and Larry Mizel, Texas billionaire Jeffrey Hildebrand, and New York billionaire Warren Lichtenstein.
• The Pension Review Commission meets at 1 p.m. today, when it will hear recommendations from its subcommittee and a briefing from the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association.
• The state Property Tax Commission meets at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Capitol to discuss the proposed property tax deal.
• The legislature’s Colorado Youth Advisory Council Committee meets at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Capitol.
• State Rep. Gabe Evans is hosting a fundraiser in Loveland on Aug. 16 for his bid in the 8th Congressional District that will be attended by U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana. Tickets start at $500. Former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer are listed as hosts for the event.

THE ASPEN TIMES: Donald Trump’s upcoming Aspen visit to be hosted by energy tycoons, investment execs and more

8TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

U.S. Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton, is among a list of Democrats running for reelection in toss-up districts who won’t be attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month, as first reported by Punchbowl News. Caraveo is running against Evans in the 8th District.

“She’s focusing on her race,” Javier Luna, Caraveo’s spokesperson, told The Unaffiliated.

Caraveo has used her social media accounts to express support for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.

Meanwhile, Caraveo’s communications director, Luke Bishop, has left Caraveo’s congressional office heading into the election’s home stretch and is now working for another Democratic congresswoman.

Bishop is the second major departure from Caraveo’s communications staff in recent months. He took over from Kaylin Dines, who left the role at the beginning of the year.

THE NARRATIVE

A bylaw amendment that could make it impossible to dislodge Dave Williams before the end of his term

If opponents of Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams fail to remove him from the party’s top post later this month, they may be unable to dislodge him for the rest of his term, which ends in March.

A major bylaw amendment being proposed by Williams’ allies would make it harder to call a special meeting to remove the Colorado GOP chairman or other party officers.

Currently, it only takes a written request of 25% of the members of the central committee to force such a meeting and a vote. The amendment would require that request be made through a form developed and authorized by the party’s secretary, and that each member of the central committee who signs it disclose “sufficient identifying information so that the secretary can verify the requesters are voting members and that they do, in fact, desire that the requested meeting be held.”

Additionally, the amendment would create a seven-day challenge period after a request for a special meeting to remove a party officer is made. During that time, the Colorado GOP executive committee could indefinitely postpone the gathering while the challenge is pending.

The bylaw amendment is scheduled to be considered at the central committee’s Aug. 31 meeting, which is about a week after Williams’ opponents on the committee are planning to take a vote on whether to oust the chairman.

Getting the votes to remove Williams may not be easy. The Colorado GOP’s bylaws say a party officer can only be removed “by a vote of three-fifths of the entire membership of the CRC eligible to vote at a meeting called for that purpose.” There are two interpretations of the rule: it could mean 60% of those present at the meeting, or 60% of the entire central committee —which is made up of about 400 people.

Passing a bylaw amendment, by comparison, is arguably easier. It requires the support of two-thirds “of those members present and voting” at a central committee meeting.

There’s a scenario in which members of the central committee who oppose Williams show up to the Aug. 24 meeting to try to remove him, are unsuccessful and then skip the Aug. 31 meeting where the bylaw amendment is then adopted.

The Colorado GOP is not exactly broadcasting that the amendment will be considered Aug. 31. In a notice about the gathering, the party said the principal purposes of the meeting will be to consider a bylaw change on fractional voting that wouldn’t be implemented until after the 2024 election, an update on the party’s open primary lawsuit and consideration of party officer removal requests “that were properly submitted and verified.”

The Colorado GOP executive committee has already ruled that the request for a meeting to remove Williams was improperly made. The only way people would know about the bylaw amendment around removing party officers is if they read the entire report of the party’s bylaws committee, which could not be considered a document someone would read for fun.

• Judge reverses course, lifts prohibition on meeting to consider ouster of Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams

SHORING UP THE EFFORT TO REMOVE WILLIAMS

Current Colorado GOP leadership maintains that the Aug. 24 meeting will be “invalid and illegal” because the party couldn’t verify the legitimacy of the list of people who asked for it.

Williams opponents —led by El Paso County GOP Vice Chairman Todd Watkins and Jefferson County GOP Chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi —appear to be taking steps to stamp out that argument.

Chris Murray, the former Colorado GOP lawyer now representing Watkins and Pallozzi, said in court Tuesday that within a day of being hired he had collected nearly 50 declarations from people confirming they had requested the meeting to oust Williams.

“We are in the process of gathering declarations from everybody who signed that petition,” Murray said.

But, he added, even if he can’t get declarations from everyone who signed the petition, if at least 25% of the central committee shows up to the Aug. 24 meeting, that will prove there is enough support for a gathering to oust Williams.

Murray said Williams has been trying to prevent a quorum as a way to protect his position. “Tell people it’s a bogus meeting. Tell them not to show up. And if they don’t have a quorum, they can’t do anything,” he said.

It takes a third of the committee to constitute a quorum to even hold a valid meeting — more than is required to request the gathering in the first place.

IF WILLIAMS IS REMOVED, HOW WOULD HE BE REPLACED?

If Williams is removed, any candidates vying to replace him would only have to win a majority of those present at a central committee meeting called to fill the vacancy.

Watkins has added filling any officer vacancies to the agenda of the Aug. 24 meeting, but it’s unclear if that’s in line with the party’s bylaws.

The Republicans who are seeking to replace Williams so far include Eli Bremer, who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2020 and formerly served as chair of the El Paso County GOP; state Rep. Richard Holtorf, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress this year; former Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn, who ran unsuccessfully to be state treasurer in 2018; and Douglas County GOP Chair Steve Peck.

THE POLITICAL TICKER

CAPITOL SCONCE

The “original” bronze wall sconce from the Colorado Capitol that was for sale on eBay for $9,000 is no longer being offered on the site. The listing was up for more than a year, but as of July 13 at 7:08 p.m. it’s “no longer available.” Members of Colorado’s Capitol Building Advisory Committee were intent on getting the sconce back, but were unsure whether they could seize it or if they would have to purchase it.

The Colorado Sun tried to get in touch with the seller but never heard back. Legislative staffers this week told The Sun that they didn’t purchase the sconce and expressed dismay that it was no longer for sale.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

Colorado Board of Education Member Rhonda Solis, a Democrat who is running for reelection to her 8th Congressional District seat, recently sent out a campaign mailer with a logo claiming she’s the first Latina elected to the board. That’s not true. She’s preceded at least by Val Flores, who was elected to the board in 2014 and served through early 2021.

Flores said the logo was a draft and that it has been corrected. She pointed out that she’s the first Latina member of the board from the 8th District. That’s true, but she’s also the first and only person on the board to be elected from the 8th District, which didn’t exist until 2022. Solis is running against Republican Yazmin Navarro, who is also Latina. The board’s pro-charter school majority hinges on the 8th District race.

PERA

Colorado’s Pension Review Subcommittee approved a handful of recommendations last week regarding the state pension. They include:

• Legislation to tie the state’s $225 million annual contribution to the Denver area consumer price index, so it would grow by inflation each year.
• Asking PERA to post recordings of its board of trustees meetings online. Currently, meetings are only available on YouTube during a livestream.
• Asking PERA to provide more detailed information on its investment benchmarks.

READ MORE

• Democratic vacancy committee picks nominee for key state House race that may shape Colorado legislature
• Could a potential school choice ballot measure lead to a voucher program in Colorado?
• Election fraud conspiracies take centerstage as friend of Tina Peters testifies at her trial
• New draft of Colorado oil and gas rules guts key protection for impacted communities, green groups say 
• Colorado resort communities want to impose a vacancy tax on unoccupied homes 
• All the new minimum wages in Colorado that kick in Jan. 1
• 15 wolves promised to Colorado by a Washington tribe aren’t coming. Here’s why.
• Wolf reintroduction has made it a lot harder to be a Colorado Parks and Wildlife employee
  — The Vail Daily
• Divided appeals court strikes down campaign disclosure requirement in Colorado law
  — Colorado Politics 🔑
• Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon reacts to suspension of his law license
  — The Douglas County News Press
• Steamboat needs more affordable housing. So why did residents reject a major plan fueled by a $24 million donation?
  — The Denver Post 🔑
• Dozens of new state laws poised to take effect in Colorado
  — Colorado Newsline
• Coloradan Jenna Ellis, a former Trump attorney, agrees to cooperate in Arizona fake electors case
  — The Associated Press

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

ELECTION 2024

Colorado Voters First begins airing ads as part of campaign to pass election overhaul measure

Colorado Voters First, the Kent Thiry-funded group supporting a measure on the November ballot that would overhaul the state’s elections system, has begun running TV ads across the state.

That’s according to Federal Communications Commission filings and one of the ads themselves, which Fish (the former Sun correspondent who will never really retire) spotted this week.

The 30-second ad starts with a narrator saying “elections belong to voters, not political insiders” as images of Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams and the state Capitol flash across the screen. Also featured in the ad is state Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat, with the words “DIRTY, BACKROOM POLITICS” superimposed over her.

Sirota was behind an amendment passed at the end of this year’s legislative session neutering the election overhaul measure, should it pass.

The ad doesn’t encourage voters to support a certain measure, in large part because Initiative 310, the question backed by Colorado Voters First, hasn’t qualified for the ballot yet. That’s expected to happen in the coming days, after which it will get a formal ballot designation (like Proposition 199).

Initiative 310 would change Colorado’s primaries so candidates from all parties run against each other, followed by a ranked choice general election. Colorado Voters First is in large part funded by Thiry, the former CEO of the Denver-based dialysis giant DaVita.

The committee’s latest campaign finance report shows it spent about $700,000 to gather petition signatures in July, as well as about $90,000 on “media placement,” which is likely TV ads.

The group has also brought on Democratic strategist Ted Trimpa as an adviser, the report shows.

Voter Rights Colorado, a group opposing Initiative 310 backed by a list of progressive organizations, has started raising money, too, albeit to a much lesser extent. The committee received $20,000 from Coloradans For Accessible and Secure Elections, a nonprofit created in December that doesn’t disclose its donors.

Group fighting property tax measures raises $150k

Coloradans for Local Communities, the issue committee battling two property tax cut measures headed for the November ballot has started raising money.

The group raised $150,000 in July, including $75,000 from Gary Advocacy LLC, $60,000 from the Colorado Education Fund for Children and Public Education, $15,000 from Colorado Civic Education and $10,000 from the Colorado Professional Fire Fighters.

The Alliance for Citizens’ Tax Cut, the group supporting the measures, raised just $24,000 and had about $30,000 in campaign cash to begin August.

• Proponents of 8 proposed Colorado ballot measures fail to turn in signatures by Monday’s deadline

THE BIGGER PICTURE

• Could Tim Walz go from teaching history to being part of it?
  — The Washington Post  🔑
• Josh Shapiro’s rise wasn’t accidental. Just ask those who helped him get here — or felt betrayed along the way
  — The Philadelphia Inquirer 🔑
• How we found 10,000 Arizona “childless cat ladies.” And there might be more.
  — The Arizona Republic 🔑
• The hidden role of public pensions in raising rent
  — Los Angeles Times 🔑
• What does Robert F. Kennedy actually want?
  — The New Yorker 🔑

🔑 = source has article meter or paywall

The Colorado Sun is part of The Trust Project. Read our policies.

Corrections & Clarifications

Notice something wrong? The Colorado Sun has an ethical responsibility to fix all factual errors. Request a correction by emailing corrections@coloradosun.com.

Jillaire McMillan was selected by a Democratic vacancy committee Thursday night to be the party’s nominee in the toss-up House District 19, which may decide whether Democrats keep their supermajority in the House next year.

McMillan, who lives in Weld County and runs a small business with her husband, beat out three other candidates in two rounds of voting to win the vacancy election. There were 31 voting members of the vacancy committee.

“I know it will take hard work to win this seat,” she said. “I’ll put in the time to knock doors and connect with voters.”

McMillan will replace state Rep. Jennifer Parenti of Erie as the Democratic nominee on the November ballot. Parenti dropped her reelection bid on July 19, about a month after she ran uncontested in the primary, saying she “cannot continue to serve while maintaining my own sense of integrity.”

“The two are simply incompatible,” she wrote in a statement, blaming personal agendas and special interests for making the job too difficult.

Parenti beat then-state Rep. Dan Woog, a Republican, in 2022 by 1,467 votes, or 3 percentage points. Woog is running again in the district, which straddles Boulder and Weld counties.

The district is estimated to lean 1.5 percentage points in the GOP’s favor, according to a nonpartisan analysis of past election results conducted as part of Colorado’s 2021 redistricting process.

McMillan said the time she spends at church means she frequently interacts with Republicans.

“I’ve been actively practicing what it takes to be a Democrat in a swing district for years, by building relationships and actively listening while never straying from my progressive values,” she said.

McMillan said school funding, public transportation and housing affordability are top issues for her.

Democrats have a 46-19 supermajority in the House. That means they can only afford to lose two seats to keep their two-thirds advantage in the chamber, which, among other things, gives Democrats the ability to override vetoes by Gov. Jared Polis.

There are six districts, including House District 19, in which Democrats won by fewer than 1,500 votes in 2022. All but two of them lean in Republicans’ favor, meaning they will be difficult to defend in November.

Democrats are pursuing a supermajority in the Senate — they are one seat shy now — and the odds are stacked in their favor, according to past election results.

If Democrats have supermajorities in both chambers next year, they would be able to refer constitutional amendments to the ballot without Republican support and ask voters to make lasting changes to the tax system and around social issues. Supermajorities would also give Democrats in the legislature the ability to override vetoes by Gov. Jared Polis, who has been a persistent roadblock to progressive bills.

McMillan is months behind Woog in fundraising and campaigning. 

If McMillan wins in November, she will join a long list of state legislators who at some point secured a position at the Capitol via vacancy appointment.

The 31 members of the vacancy committee who participated in the election Tuesday night represent just 0.06% of the Democratic and unaffiliated voters in House District 19.

The candidates McMillan beat were former Boulder Valley School District Richard Garcia,  former Boulder Valley School District Board President Jim Reed and entrepreneur Anil Pesaramelli.

Garcia is the father of Democratic state Rep. Lorena Garcia of Adams County. Lorena Garcia also first entered the legislature through a vacancy appointment. 

In the second and final round of voting, McMillan won 53% of the vote to Garcia’s 47%. Candidates had to win a majority of the vacancy committee members’ support to win the appointment. The lowest vote-getters were dropped after the first round.

A judge Tuesday cleared the way for opponents of Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams to hold a gathering in about two weeks to vote on whether the embattled leader should be removed and replaced. 

Arapahoe County District Court Judge Thomas Willard Henderson IV rescinded the temporary restraining order he issued last month blocking the gathering.

Henderson wrote in his ruling Tuesday, which was issued after a hearing earlier in the day, that he was wrong to issue the order in the first place because he lacked jurisdiction.

Henderson’s decision opens the door for a meeting of the Colorado GOP’s central committee in as few as 15 days to consider a motion to remove Williams , whose work as chairman has been marred by accusations of self-dealing and disorganization. Indeed, the immediately after Henderson issued his ruling the gathering was scheduled for Aug. 24.

One-third of the committee will need to be present for any vote taken during the gathering to be considered valid, though 60% of the entire central committee will have to vote to remove Williams for the effort to be successful. 

Williams filed a lawsuit in Arapahoe County last month seeking to block a meeting scheduled for  July 27 at a church in Brighton to consider whether to oust him, citing a ruling by the Colorado GOP’s executive committee that the gathering was invalid. The executive committee has a maximum of 25 members, most of them allies of Williams, whereas the central committee is comprised of as many as 400 people.

The meeting to consider the motion to oust Williams  was organized by El Paso County GOP Vice Chairman Todd Watkins and Jefferson County GOP Chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi, who are the defendants in Williams’ suit. The pair gathered support from more than a quarter of the central committee to force the meeting, which the executive committee said it couldn’t verify and used as the basis for ruling the meeting invalid.

Henderson issued his temporary restraining order July 26. The meeting in Brighton a day later was transformed into a forum for the list of candidates vying to replace Williams as chairman. Republicans also used the occasion to air their grievances against Williams. 

This week, Pallozzi and Watkins asked Henderson to reconsider his order, forcing the hearing Tuesday. 

Chris Murray, a former longtime lawyer for the Colorado GOP, is representing Pallozzi and Watkins in the case. He argued that state law says only the party itself — and specifically the GOP central committee — can work out controversies, making Henderson’s ruling inappropriate. 

“This court lacks, as a fundamental matter, jurisdiction over this case,” Murray said.

Murray also argued that if Henderson were to uphold his ruling, it would effectively give the executive committee carte blanche to protect the chairman against efforts to remove him.

“That is not how the bylaws of the Colorado Republican committee work,” he said.

David Pigott, a lawyer for Williams, said he wasn’t asking the court to solve an internal controversy, but rather enforce the executive committee’s decision.

“We are asking the court’s assistance in enforcing the (executive) committee’s decision,” Pigott said. “We’re not asking you to decide the controversy.”

Henderson said when he issued the temporary restraining order, he thought he was enforcing a decision by the central committee, not the executive committee’s ruling. In the ruling he handed down Tuesday, he acknowledged that misunderstanding.

“When a dispute is within the jurisdiction of the state central committee of a
political party that central committee is the ‘sole tribunal to determine such controversies,’ and as a ‘necessary sequence, the courts do not have concurrent jurisdiction in the premises,'” Henderson wrote, citing the law. “The disputes here at issue … are clearly internal controversies within the jurisdiction of the CRC to make a final determination.”

Williams didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday night. Neither did Colorado GOP Vice Chairwoman Hope Scheppelman.

But in an unsigned email to central committee members, party leadership brushed off the ruling.

“Your state party will not sit idly by while Watkins violates proper process and procedure,” the email said. “If anyone wants a special meeting for whatever purpose then they must follow the rules to do so.”

The central committee was already scheduled to meet on Aug. 31 in Castle Rock, but it seemed the question of whether to remove Williams might not come up because of the executive committee’s determination that the effort by Watkins and Pallozzi to remove the chairman was invalid.

The Aug. 24 meeting will allow Williams’ opponents to try to sidestep any attempt by the chairman’s allies to stop the vote.

Williams is facing growing pressure to resign

Six of the state’s eight Republican congressional candidates, as well as state Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, signed a letter late last month urging Williams to resign. 

Additionally, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Windsor Republican, suggested in a Facebook post that Williams should step down.

“The past month of public dissension and infighting in the Colorado Republican Party has been embarrassing to watch as we have a golden opportunity this November to flip seats at every level of government,” she wrote. “This isn’t about competing policies or ideologies; this is about a failure from Chairman Williams to lead after our primary election and simply reach out to candidates and organizations throughout Colorado and beyond to offer support, mend bridges, and present a clear gameplan of how we can win together in November.”

The Daily Sun-Up podcast | More episodes

Williams was elected chairman in March 2023 and almost immediately began taking flak for his leadership. 

He first faced blowback for the party’s lackluster fundraising and because he was working as a full-time aide to a Republican state lawmaker while leading the state Republican party. 

The criticism intensified as he launched an unsuccessful run for Congress this year. 

When U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, announced in January that he would step aside, Williams used the state party email to announce that he would run for the 5th Congressional District seat in El Paso County. Williams rejected calls to step down as party chairman while he campaigned, and then spent party money to criticize his opponent, conservative commentator and activist Jeff Crank.

In April, Williams had a Colorado Sun reporter tossed out of the state party assembly.  The party also sent out a homophobic email during Pride month calling for people to burn Pride flags. 

Then, for the first time in recent memory, if ever, the Colorado GOP endorsed candidates in competitive primary elections, drawing anger from many in the party. Of the 18 candidates endorsed by the party, only four won their contests.

The party also spent $58,000 in late May and early June sending mailers urging voters to support Williams and criticizing Crank. Williams donated $60,000 to the party from his campaign account in June, which posed questions about whether the mailers and the apparent reimbursement represented a violation of federal postal regulations.

Williams lost to Crank in the Republican primary in the 5th District by roughly a two-to-one  margin.

The proponents of eight measures being pursued for Colorado’s November ballot failed by a deadline Monday to turn in the signatures they gathered to try to get their questions before voters.

That means voters this fall won’t weigh in on whether to ban children assigned male at birth from participating in girl’s youth sports and whether the state should require voter approval for fees raising money for public transportation projects.

Many of the measures that failed Monday were being pursued by conservative activists. Supporters of the initiatives needed to collect roughly 125,000 voter signatures to get their initiatives on the November ballot.

The eight measures that failed to make the ballot by default on Monday were:

• Initiative 142, which would have required public schools to notify parents within 48 hours if their child is experiencing “gender incongruence,” which the initiative would have defined as a “difference between a child’s biological sex and the child’s perceived or desired gender.” The initiative was being pursued by conservative activists.
• Initiative 144, which would have let veterinarians offer telehealth to patients in Colorado. The governor this year signed a bill passed by the legislature that will have a similar effect.
• Initiative 147, which would have prohibited sheriffs from denying a concealed carry permit to someone who lawfully uses marijuana.
• Initiative 160, which would have banned children assigned the male at birth from participating in girl’s youth sports. The initiative was being pursued by the same conservative activists who were working on Initiative 142.
• Initiative 201, which would have amended the state constitution to prohibit the use of ranked choice voting in Colorado. It was meant to combat Initiative 310, which, if its signatures are approved, will ask voters to change most of Colorado’s primaries so candidates from all parties run against each other, followed by a ranked choice general election. 
• Initiative 202, which would have amended the state constitution to enshrine the ability of political candidates to make the ballot through the caucus and assembly process, in addition to gathering petition signatures.
• Initiative 278, which would have amended the state constitution to prohibit unaffiliated voters from casting ballots in partisan primaries. The same conservative activists behind this proposed measure were also behind Initiatives 201 and 202 and they came in large part in response to the campaign behind Initiative 310.
• Initiative 284, which would have amended the state constitution to require that any government fees assessed for the purpose of funding mass transportation be collected only in areas served by that mass transportation and only after the fees are approved by voters. The measure was pursued by the rental car industry in response to a rental car fee hike imposed by the legislature this year that will generate millions for transit projects, including passenger rail.

The eight measures that failed Monday were approved for signature gathering among hundreds proposed for the November 2024 election. Most were either rejected by the state’s Title Board or abandoned by their proponents.

Already on the November ballot are initiatives asking voters to impose an excise tax on firearms, prohibit mountain lion hunting and enshrine unfettered access to abortion in the state constitution. 

The Daily Sun-Up podcast | More episodes

There are also likely to be two property tax measures on the ballot that would cap the annual increase in property tax bills, as well as Initiative 310 and a measure creating a new mid-tier veterinary professional position in Colorado.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office has until Sept. 4 to review signatures turned in on time for measures being pursued for the November ballot. The ballot will be set by Sept. 9.

To see a full list of the measures that have been approved for the ballot, are awaiting signature verification or that have failed, visit this website: https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/.