hello.

It has been quite a week.

Some things you almost couldn't believe were happening.

A bear hanging out in Denver's Platte Park neighborhood.

The hard to accept news of Dolly Parton's staff, and questions surrounding whether we'll be able to vote by mail in November.

The first two yes, they really happened.

And as for the election, we're told that everything is moving forward as normal here in Colorado.

Now.

The group behind me is also ready to kick off our last conversation of the month of August.

So let's get started with this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

Let me get right to introducing you to this week's insider panel.

We start with Penfield Tate Denver attorney and former state representative and state senator at the Colorado Legislature at C lever, vice president of strategic initiatives at the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, and an editor with the sum and substance.

Chris Rourke, consultant with Work Media and contributor at iHeart Denver.

And Carlos Martinez, president and CEO of the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado.

Colorado's ballots for the midterms are scheduled to hit the mail in five weeks from now, and state election officials say that is not expected to change.

But the Trump administration is trying to change how states administer mail in elections.

And Colorado and 24 states now are now suing the U.S.

Postal Service over a rule announced this week that could give the federal government more control over who receives ballots in the mail.

With all of the uncertainty around the rules, the lawsuits and then the Supreme Court getting involved, election administration officials are pretty concerned that voters are just getting very confused.

Let's start with Penfield.

What does this do for voters?

What does it do for the process?

We're getting so.

Close.

You know, I think, Kyle, that voters are not going to be confused.

Okay.

I'm going to wait and get their ballot.

They're going to vote their ballot on the issues and the candidates, and that'll be done.

I think this is our noise in the system, and it's insider stuff.

It's the ongoing Trump disinformation campaign.

You know, he has alleged forever that Mail-In voting is rife with fraud.

Every claim he's had has been disproved.

30% of all votes in this country are done by mail.

Republican and Democratic secretaries of state swear by their mail systems.

And trust them.

So I think he is just trying to sow confusion and dissension, and he's actually trying to take over the election process to suit his own ends.

The Supreme Court's decision is weird, because what they basically said is the lawsuit and the injunction were premature because the US Postal Service and Homeland Security had not compelled states to do anything yet.

But now they're beginning to tell states, you have to do things under the president's executive order to be able to do Mail-In voting.

Okay.

All right.

Ed, if there is a good part to all this confusion is being sold out.

There is that people are paying attention to the ballots a little bit more.

I mean, I think it's tradition that people start carrying about the election sometime after Labor Day.

With all this talk about the ballots, people are now looking and saying, wait, what's going to be an issue?

What do I have to know if I can't even use my mail in ballot now?

And for someone like me in my little corner of the world, and that is business policy in the state legislature, it's really important that people start talking about these things.

I mean, we've got an election this year where there could be supermajorities in both the House and the Senate.

And, and I don't even need to mention which party that is, because if you have super majorities, regardless of what party is in charge, you cut conversation generally and people don't look to the minority party and they don't look for help in passing things.

And we have policies that are not as complete because of that.

That's why I want people to pay attention more, and I hope that people are realizing that there is a lot of issues on this year's ballot that are extremely important, and that this conversation should be getting them to start delving into them now.

Okay.

All right.

Chris.

The interesting thing is attacking mail in ballots in Colorado is a pretty bad move, because I think it's like 80% of all Coloradans polled agree.

That's the, you know, the gold standard of, voting because it's more convenient.

Elderly people can get their vote in.

It's just overall more convenient.

However, to say there's no fraud.

I will say this.

I'm never going to be one that thinks our elections have been stolen.

I have never ascribe to that.

However, there are irregularities reported every election cycle.

Mike O'Donnell, who ran for secretary of state in 2022, continues to point out how there are hundreds of people registered to vote at a single apartment in, say, Aurora.

So we need to verify who is voting in our elections.

And we also need to do it without all this bureaucratic red tape.

Okay.

And Carlos, so I do find some confusion in my community, the Latino community, with what's going on right now with, deportations and people being pulled over all the time.

People are really confused.

Do I should I vote or not?

And then there's this whole thing about confusion.

Yes.

Or no?

I think in my community right now, there is a lot of hesitancy and a lot of confusion whether it's safe to vote or not safe to vote.

And so I'm really concerned.

Well, well, my community come out and vote or not.

So I think there are communities who are very confused and not sure if they can really trust the process or not.

What is your community in all communities?

Think about, something you just got on the ballot regarding that we'd be voting on, we're in future elections.

We'd be putting our last four digits of our Social Security number on.

I'm totally against that.

It's like, why are we continue to provide more and more information to the government?

How will they use this information?

How it would be stored.

And I think for me, the more information that we're providing, it's like we're giving more control of who we are to the federal government for no reason at all.

And there were just this week just enough signatures gathered to get on the ballot.

We need to learn more about this.

And the other thing to consider is years ago Colorado quit putting Social Security numbers on driver's licenses.

That's why your driver's license has a number that doesn't correspond to your Social Security number.

I think all of this makes a great argument for why we need voter ID when we go to vote.

Okay.

All right.

Since our last show, more measures have made the ballot, including this one we just spoke about.

On the flip side though, one measure that we actually talked about on last week's show has just been yanked off the ballot.

It was the proposal to protect funding for roads by enshrining in the state constitution and fill us in what happened.

So the idea behind the initiative 175 was that you would use all of the sales tax revenue, from, from auto sales and two thirds of the sales tax revenue from auto parts sales and put it to highway funding.

There was a lot of umbrage about this because it wouldn't create new funding, but it would move about $700 million in funding that's currently in the budget.

In fact, Democrats had put forward and passed a bill that kind of undercut that many ways and said for three years, there will be no new funding movement there.

On Thursday morning, after months of really good faith negotiations, there was a deal announced where they will in 2027, put forward a bill that would move about $120 million from state enterprises that now fund things like electric vehicles, electrification, things like that, toward highways.

And they will go back to the ballot in 2027 with another funding measure, probably dealing with bonding to get a new funding stream, state highways.

So it's a way to ensure that highly funding is crystallized and is something that is getting more money.

Maybe not as much as the backers of the initiative.

175 initially said, but a sure thing.

Now, assuming this gets to the legislature with the possibility of growing funding later and keeping this very high in conversations about a transportation system.

And so now that number is out, what number was it?

It was going to be, help me out with this one.

I think.

It was going to be.

83 is going to be, amendment 83 that is no longer on the ballot.

So this affects one of the amendments you're watching.

Yes.

So, the right constitutional right to hunt and fish has been verified by Secretary of State.

That made the ballot.

It was going to be assigned 84.

However, it may shift to 83.

I don't I don't have anything certain on that right now.

Let me disclose right now that I am a consultant for a wildlife group that supports the constitutional right to hunt and fish.

The reason we need this amendment, people have argued that that right is already in state statute.

The reason it needs to be in the Constitution is because we have extremists who are trying to reshape how wildlife management occurs.

The Constitution was designed to protect our rights, and hunting and fishing has long been a part of Colorado's heritage.

However, there's a guy named Eric Washburn.

He was writing a bunch of op eds in opposition.

This is the guy that brought you Wolf reintroduction.

He was a leading voice on wolf reintroduction.

And we have seen how that program has failed.

17 wolves are died.

It's millions of dollars over budget.

And I think that people are realizing, hey, maybe these issues shouldn't be left to the voter.

what it does this amendment does is it puts in place, which is currently legal in our state, to, to manage wildlife.

This amendment protects wildlife management, and it does so within current law.

So we'll see where this goes.

Okay.

What are you watching.

So I'm watching 232 and seeing if 195 goes through or not.

The text.

So 232 has gotten the signatures.

So right now that caps it up 4.4%, for both individuals and corporations and 195 could it be a gradual tax where if you make $100,000 or less, you'll be taxed less?

If you make $500,000 or more, you will be taxed more.

If they both make it on the ballot, I think it's going to be confusing for a lot of folks.

Where do I go?

My feeling is that both of them will pass if they both make it on the ballot, because I think people are going to say, well, 232 kind of like gives me that security blanket that I won't go up more than 4.4%.

But 195 I'm not one of those wealthy people.

Those wealthy people should go ahead and pay their fair share.

They should go.

So I probably see, you know, both of them actually passing.

So if there is confusion, if both passed, we'll probably be talking about it.

November 6th.

You go.

Yeah.

All right.

Penn.

You know, all of this conversation leads me back to the point I'll make for the 900th time.

Okay.

Show, which is the biggest injustice we, as Coloradans have done to ourselves was when we passed Tabor.

Because prior to the passage of Tabor, the General Assembly did something very innovative when times were tight and core function need to be funded, they raise taxes and when times were good and we had enough revenue to fund core functions, they reduced taxes.

Tabor changed all of that because you can't do these, annual or intermittent changes, because once you decrease or increase, increase takes a lot of the people decrease.

Once you do it, it's setting constitution.

So we have gone through as a society all of these political and physical and other gymnastics to try to work around tabor with ref A ref, C ref D, ref 200, all of this stuff.

When we left the fundamental premise of representative democracy and elect people to make decisions The key to your argument, however, is funding core functions, and we fund far more than core function in our government.

And the legislature does not adhere to being, you know, taxing during lean times and then giving back during abundant time.

They don't now because Tabor precludes that.

And I agree with you, Chris.

And we have always had this debate in terms of what's a core function and what's unnecessary.

But we had that before.

You know, people of different political persuasions, even within the same party, may disagree on what's a core function that needs to be be funded.

That's why you get elected.

You run for election, you talk about issues and you then vote in the chamber.

Okay.

All right.

After the midterms, in November, Denver's political focus will turn to next April's mayoral election.

City Council member Shantell Lewis, one of the challengers to mayor Mike Johnston, has now received the endorsement of the Denver Democratic Socialists of America.

The DSA is having some notable electoral success this year, including in Denver's congressional primary.

So does Lewis pose a serious challenge to mayor Mike Johnston?

Chris.

And does the DSA have the legs to change the Democratic politics of Denver?

As far as Chantelle Lewis, I don't know that she's a serious threat to Johnston.

But the DSA does have momentum now, which caught me off guard during this primary.

This also happens while Johnston is courting the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

But the left here in Colorado is saying we're not happy with this being a Democratic state.

We want it to be aggressively progressive.

So Denver could move farther to the left.

If she's successful.

There is a very full field, though, already lining up to take on Johnston.

But if Denver moves farther to the left, I'm going to look at them and say, gee, how's that working for you?

Carlos.

So, can she be a major challenger.

She can be.

But I think it's going to be a very competitive race.

I think with, Johnson, he's going to be able to show we're on the right track, okay?

And he's going to have to point to some successes, around affordability, around housing, around safety issues and so forth.

So he's going to have to really say we're on the right track.

Stick with me.

I think with Lewis, she's like, we've given him a chance, okay.

He's not there yet.

Okay.

And are you better off today than you were four years ago?

Have you been able to buy a house?

You know, do you have more money and in your savings account than before?

And if you're not feeling that, I think she has the advantage.

you know, I think Chris and Carlos both make good points.

The one thing to remember is this municipal election will come on the heels of the midterm election in November, and that will give us a sense of where the state is and where the country is.

And to Carlos's point, Johnston's got to show that people are better off now than they were four years ago and that he has plans for the future.

But any challenger is going to have to articulate what's gone wrong, what they can do better, and how they will do it because platitudes aren't going to suffice.

It is my belief that much of what we're seeing in the electorate is not necessarily everybody is.

All of a sudden the democratic socialist.

I think people just pissed off.

They're tired.

They think that incumbents have not done enough, that they've stood by and let a few people run amuck and they want change, and someone is going to have to lay out and articulate a change agenda that people can sign on to, that they think will work for them in their communities.

Okay.

And and I want to point out something that Chris mentioned.

It's almost as important as this race.

And that is the fact that Johnson is now courting the DNC for 2028.

The Democratic National Convention.

This is estimated to have a $400 million economic impact to the city.

That's going to one of three finalists in Denver.

For that, I covered the DNC in 2008 when it came to Denver, and that was a different DNC.

It came during a very important time when we were in a recession and when America was just starting to open its eyes to Denver a little bit.

And what followed that, not strictly because of the DNC, but was this decade of prosperity where people were moving in droves to Denver because they viewed it as a city that had a lot of opportunities that may not have known before.

This one will be almost as important.

Not because people don't know about Denver now they do, but because Denver's downtown is so much different than it was even six years ago.

Most studies now show that only 64 to 74% of the foot traffic or sorry, foot traffic today is 64 to 74% of what it was before the, before the coronavirus pandemic.

We need to get people back downtown, and a big event like this could actually bring some of that business back downtown.

It could open people's eyes to coming back downtown again.

As much as we're talking about this race, we can't take our, take our eyes off of the DNC ball because that is huge as well.

Okay.

Governor Polis is asking President Trump directly for federal disaster following the Aspen acres and the gold Mountain fires and the flooding in some burn scars as well.

The Aspen Acres fire outside Pueblo destroyed more than 300 homes, making it Colorado's most destructive fire since the Marshall Fire in 2021.

Colorado's congressional delegation has also sent a different letter directly to the president as well, asking for help.

it used to be that this was a pretty streamlined process that you would ask for money and you would receive the money when times were tough or there was a big disaster.

But cover is not was denied FEMA assistance twice last year, and that was the first time in a long time.

So, Carlos, this time around, do you think that the president will listen to Colorado?

These are people's homes that went down.

So I say yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

And I say yes because I think one of the things with the president right now, he's not coming across as a compassionate president.

This would be a major thing for him to show how compassionate he is towards Americans.

You do have the request coming from both parties.

So, you know, everyone's supportive of this.

It's something that will not be tied to Tina Peters, quid pro quo.

So that is not that because he does not do quid pro quo, but I think he needs the he needs the this opportunity to really show how compassionate he is towards Americans.

Okay.

And I think that whole story about being able to help 300 and maybe 50 families get back on their feet, is really something that he needs to be able to show that he's compassionate about.

Okay.

I am not as confident as Carlos, but I'm hoping the president approves the designations.

But I think his motivation will be strictly personal.

I think that he is becoming sensitive to the fact that, in the eyes of many, he has reignited the Civil war, that he is punishing blue states and benefiting red states and pitting Americans against one another.

And I think that troubles people.

The other thing is, you know, we all have good days.

We all have bad days.

And but for the grace of God, we've got to deal with catastrophes like this.

And I think most Americans believe if there's one thing our federal government ought to do, it ought to help people who are injured like this through no fault of.

Their own right.

And I think the more that we talk about how important it is that we get this approval from Washington, the more we ought to think, what if we don't depend on Washington quite this much?

And and I think it's actually possible.

Obviously, we can't prevent firefighters, period.

Here in Colorado, fire, wildfires.

I'm sorry.

But we did something this year to focus on hail damage, something we also cannot prevent in Colorado.

There were two bills put out.

One that ended up passing, is going to give grants for people to put hardened roofs on their houses, to bring down hail damage, to bring down property insurance, which were one of the highest in the country for our property insurance rates for that.

Another really good bill that did not make it through was going to incentivize people to start savings accounts where they could put on a hardened roof.

What if we take the same idea and we move that to wildfire preparation?

What if we allow people to save money?

To put specifically tax free toward wildfire preparation, start clearing out some of the scrubs around our communities, in our homes that make our homes, much more in danger of getting burnt down.

And think about, well, if we can prevent a little bit of this damage, maybe we won't be so eager to have to go grovel to the federal government, whoever's in office, for the money there.

So with this bill, maybe come back in the legislature next.

Year, I think.

I don't know that for sure, but I think people are going to start thinking about it as they go through this constant cycle of, please help us wait, please help us.

What can we do on our own?

Okay.

Chris.

I struggle with, you know, when there's federal aid available that we dip into state coffers or state pockets to do that?

To Carlos's point, disaster aid should never be quid pro quo.

And we need to know why Colorado was denied twice before for federal aid.

And we can speculate.

And we know Trump's involvement in his.

But that's never okay.

There needs to be transparency about FEMA standards and what standards they are applying to distribute this aid, and I really want to see it happen in this case.

Hopefully Carlos is right and he's being benevolent.

Okay.

All right.

But oh, sorry.

I was just going to say that, you know, we need to help victims follow the rules and keep politics out of it.

That's all we should do.

Okay, now, before we go to our highs and lows this week, I just have to ask you all about Dolly Parton.

You know, her Imagination Library put books into the hands of so many children here in Colorado and other states as well.

And she was one of those rare people that made everybody smile.

Everybody loved Dolly.

So I've been thinking a lot about this week about what made her so special.

Not just her music, but her civic mindedness, her commitment to helping others.

So quick.

Speed round.

What is it about Dei that sticks with you the most in terms of how she wanted to help others?

It giving the Imagination Library, but also professionally.

She wrote a bunch of songs that she just let defer to other artists and let them make them hurt.

Philanthropy.

I mean, we can talk about her foundation.

I heard a wonderful story this week, on NPR about how when there were wildfires ravaging Australia a number of years ago, she called her foundation.

Had she said, get money there.

Don't tell me it's from me.

She just wanted to help.

Oh, okay.

Well, to, Penn's point about supporting other artists using her work.

Apparently, she donated the proceeds from Whitney Houston doing the cover of I Will Always Love You to Black Communities and lifting them up.

She could have kept it herself.

I suppose it was her work, but no, she wanted to give to others.

She loved without judgment.

And within the LGBTQ community, she is a diva and a queen because she embraced us.

So well and always loved us.

Okay, now let's go around the table and talk about the highs and the lows that we witnessed this week.

We'll start on a low note so we can end on a happy note.

And we'll start then.

I was stunned and saddened to hear reports about the possibility of the Gunnison River running dry by October.

We've done something very wrong as a community.

If we've got major rivers running dry.

Tariffs are always a questionable economic policy because you assume that keeping out competition is going to boost domestic manufacturing in one way or another.

While they probably can't sell in foreign countries because they're facing similar tariffs.

When you target one particular tariff, it gets even worse.

And with President Trump saying, I'm going to remove the tariffs on beef sales coming in from other countries, the only people are going to be hurt on this are the ranchers here in Colorado and elsewhere in the country, that are now going to face unlimited competition without any guarantee they can get their products into those countries at the same price.

And our ranchers who are dealing with drought for their cattle.

Which is one of the reasons why it's costing more to buy beef these days.

Yeah.

And they have to deal with wolves.

Got it.

If we got it in.

I have the most wonderful conversations with Penn every time he's here and I'm here and he and I may come from different political perspectives.

However, we agree on the Gunnison River.

It is tragic.

It's going to be watered by, is the technical technical term by October?

Okay.

So many positive or negative?

Negative, negative.

Okay.

I was just talking to someone from CU Boulder who does an economic, workforce, economic, report.

And for every Ice arrest that happens here in Colorado, seven males who are likely undocumented will stop working.

And seven and nine males U.S born will also stop working.

So major, major workforce impact here in Colorado.

Okay.

All right.

Let's talk about something good please.

Two things.

I saw with interest that the Bronco Stadium was going to have this new two foot long hot dog in a in a in a bun, with beef and a bunch of other stuff.

But also, I saw the most fascinating article in the post about where you can get the dish, the poutine, at different restaurants, French fries, gravy, eggs, other stuff.

It's heart attack in a bowl.

You got to do it.

Okay.

And.

About a week ago, Arapahoe Community College, specifically its Colorado Space Institute, was designated one of just seven NASA space clubs in the country.

Now, that's going to come with about $1.3 million over the next three years to boost workforce training.

But much more importantly, what it's going to be able to do is just going to let it be a state coordinated hub so that other educational institutions can help get technicians.

I'm thinking about welders.

You think about electricians, you think about people who might not normally think of their career being in aerospace, but get them trained for the aerospace industry where we have major employers that are looking for workers.

This is going to be a boom all the way around for workers and for the aerospace industry in Colorado.

Okay.

All right.

Chris.

Well, I took my daughter to, Western Colorado University to drop off, and she said it was okay for me to share this.

She's neurodiverse and to take her to college for the first time.

She's been out of, school for a couple of years and was in the workforce.

But it was wonderful to see how the people there wrapped around her.

And not just her, but all the incoming freshmen.

President Brad Baca, vice president Leslie Taylor, dean of students Gary Pearson, and, executive director of retention Sarah Phillips all just sort of wrapped around her.

I saw them and they said, don't worry, we got her.

That makes you feel good.

And her too.

Yeah.

That's wonderful.

So our honorable, Ken Salazar just wrote a book called Borderlands, where he talks about America's diversity is not a problem to be solved, but it's our greatest source of strength here in America.

All right.

Thank you.

My high this week is former Colorado rocky Eric Young.

The Denver Post has a great article on Eric and his new role managing the Los Angeles Queens in the inaugural season of the Women's Pro Baseball League.

He told The post that his players have got that same kind of energy, that then that spark that he did as a young player because they too felt like the odds were against them.

Eli was on the Rockies that very first season.

He was known for his stealing of bases, not so much hitting a lot of home runs, but he was the first batter and the first ever Rockies game in Denver.

And with a count three two, he hit the first home run in Rockies history.

Nobody saw that coming.

He even says it was magical.

I so enjoyed getting to know Eric a few years ago, and I was working on my documentary when Colorado went Major League, and he's genuinely the nicest guy, and it's so awesome to see Eric be part of building something new for women in baseball.

It just makes me happy and I just had to share because I think that's just great.

Thanks, insiders.

Thanks for filling in for Patty here.

And seat number one.

Yeah, you did a great job.

Thank you for watching as well or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer I will see you here next week on PBS 12.

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