>> Hi, everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer, welcome to "Colorado Inside Out" on this Friday, January 12th.

It is a sign of our year that is ahead of us, Colorado.

Let's get right to introducing our panel, we have Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of westword.

We have Eric Sondermann, Alton Dillard, principal consultant of the Dillard group and former Denver elections spokes canperson and Sage Naumann as well, a conservative commentator and columnist.

The legislative session is under way now, in the first few days, lawmakers are saying let's work together as they unveil bills, Patty?

>> On the first day they could not work together for the first 39 minutes because of protests in the gallery.

It was quieter on Thursday, so far, we're taping this has the governor finishes the state of the state speech.

It was very uplifting.

He quoted Spac, he did Yoda.

He was talking about the environment, he was talking about education, he was talking about the budget, and housing and affordability which will be huge issue this is year.

In general everyone in the auditorium and the house was listening to him and they behaved.

There was clapping and cheering.

Let's hope the civility can continue at least for the first week.

>> It started with the disruption in the house, same thing in the special election.

Palestinian allies and advocates interrupting the scenes in the house, and then you have the ongoing Snark fest of Elizabeth Epps who was trolling the whole thing.

But didn't bother, apparently, to show up.

The word of the day on Wednesday was civility.

I expected music to be playing in the background, I think there is two stories, the second will be the tone.

When you lose two legislatures as we did at the end of the last session, who just -- both freshman legislatures threw up their hands and say this is not what I signed up for, and I don't need to be part of this for my own mental health, there is a warning sign there and let's see if it is taken to heart beyond the opening remarks.

>> Both caucuses are talking about tackling crime.

The republicans are saying let's lock everyone up and throw away the key, and the democrats will have blue ribbon panels to discuss the root causes of criminality.

And the one that I'm really keeping an eye on is the whole construction defects.

That is supposed to be the big cure all.

It is supposed to speak to how easy it is when it is passed for people to find the loopholes and the cracks for certain pieces of legislation.

The bills were saying hey, every time we build condos we're subject to class action lawsuits.

And the companies are saying we won't help ensure you builders if you build condos, and the condo stock seems to be 40 and 50 years old for the most part.

And the civility piece, I don't see it happening to be 100% honest.

>> I'm also really looking at housing policy.

I think that democrats, they want a second bite at that apple to try to make some progress.

But it can really go either way.

We have seen big changes, too.

These committees were basically the backstop to prevent a lot of progressive policy.

Rent control, first refusal, tenant proposals, and because they modify those committees we could see a lot of those become law.

A lot of those possibly threaten to increase the pricing of housing.

They want to free up the market as much as possible, and the other side saying we need to give tenants more protections, make sure they can't be evicted more easily.

And going back to the civility piece, I think it will be fascinating to watch how leadership handles this.

These are delicate situations, it will come down to leadership to maintain the decorum to they will have their hands full.

>> Okay, who would have predicted that this year all three of Colorado's republican held U.S. house districts would be open?

So first we had Ken Buck, right?

Announced that he was not running for a fifth term.

Then Lauren Fober who said she is leaving to run in the 4th, and then, Eric, last week Doug lambborn said he won't seek a 10th term in the 5th district.

>> The Buck thing was not really a surprise.

The Lanborn thing, he has been relatively inconsequential low key Congressperson, I don't think his departure will create that many headlines, and the Fober thing is a stunner.

Anyone that tells you they saw that coming is lying.

No one saw that one coming.

This will be the headline story of this political year and it is all resolved between now and the primary in June.

You have the whole Dave Williams Saga that is so unseemly.

He should be stepping aside at a bare minimum as state party chair if he wants to pursue this, and then you know we have multiple candidates jumping into the race.

I think it is still Jeff's to lose, and Frishe was a loser.

But it will be a wild ride in district three, four, and five.

>> You're giggling over there?

>> I am, my last time on we were talking about how spicy the third congressional district would be.

Who knew?

We definitely moved on to four and five, and yeah, just everything from the pure carpet bagging move that Boebert is making, and Dave, I'm calling him Dave, let's go Brandon Williams.

He sued to have that be his nickname on the official ballot into it speaks to today's Apolitical environment.

B, it speaks to the ongoing state of the GOP, I am really missing the hank brown and Wayne Allard and Norma Anderson when it came to politics.

This will be a popcorn alert on this level between now and the primary.

>> So when I kind of relate everything to this analogy that I like to use which is when you smelt metal, the slag rises to the top.

And the GOP has had a melt down and the slag has risen to the top.

You have a 1995 sharp shooter, no one can fire at printers as well as he can, and the captain of the GOP titanic.

They will be fascinating.

There will be tons of commentary online about it.

I think my opinion is clear on some of these candidates.

What I'm interested in is what Eric was talking about.

When you spread out the vote, anyone can win.

You can really have people win this by a few percent and twin with only 20% of the total vote in the primary.

I'm interested to see do democrats try what they tried last election.

Do they put money behind the latest candidates P if you put money behind Ron hanks -- no county flipped more than El paso county.

It was the biggest switch from Hillary to Joe Biden.

Can you make that race competitive?

I don't know, but democrats might try again.

>> It was so hard to imagine democrats putting money today Williams even in the most cynical and possible race, but it could happen.

The only people with worse timing than we have, is Lauren Boebert who could have run in the 5th.

People are talking about term limits, will you willingly stay you will be limited, look now, they're saying I'm not going to do the 10th, go for another term, you have Wayne Williams, you have really interesting people that want to continue to be public servants and I think we'll have probably a good outcome with someone who, I might not agree with them politically, but will they be upstanding public servants?

We have to hope the vote is not split that way.

I was arguing with George last week saying I don't think Boebert will take it.

I think not only are people concerned about carpet bagging, but some people might be retro jump to say that maybe she needs to take care of her children on the other side of the state rather than have her run in the 4th.

>> Before the primaries in June, we have the primary on super Tuesday, March 5th, and the Supreme Court will hear arguments as to whether or not Donald Trump should or not shot be included in the Colorado primary.

So Alton, I'm going to start with you.

You worked in many, many, many elections, and to hear that we're, I don't know, how many weeks out from March 5th, but this is so down to the wire that the Supreme Court won't even get case in the first week of February, his name is on the ballot.

>> Name is on the ballot, but election DOS have consequences.

So it is very interesting to see what happens at the federal Supreme Court level and see what happens as far as what happens if they go for or against the Colorado decision.

I found it to be fairly fascinating.

All of this heat got directed at the secretary of state and the secretary of state was a defendant in the case.

She explained her personal views about whether or not he should be on the ballot or not and I think it was also mentioned on the show, maybe a couple episodes ago, that there is concern about what it is going to look like if this ends up being a 6-3 decision based on the way that court is put together.

And so I just -- yeah, given the fact that right now there has been no conviction on any of the 55 million legal cases that are floating out there now, I'm just concerned about the precedent that it sets for someone yet to be convicted.

>> I feel the same way.

I was interviewed by Canadian radio, oddly enough, and they said you don't like Donald Trump, why would you not support this?

And it goes to the same point about, you know, democrats playing in primaries promoting the worst of the worst candidates.

There is an ends justifies the means in politics, get him off of the ballot and do whatever it takes is very dangerous.

You can't talk about how important democracy is and then take someone off of the ballot.

I don't care how much you don't like him, I don't either, but it's not the way to go about doing it.

I'm interested to see if this is more than a 6-3 decision.

Maybe it is a 7-2 or 8-1.

All seven out of our justices here were elected, and a scathing decent on those, he said he HADZ never seen something like this in his entire time.

It is alarming, I think you could see more lop sided decisions on this.

Who knows in politics these days, everything is a surprise, but it will be fascinating to watch.

>> Neil Gorsuch who was an appointed republican on the court weighed in in 2012 and said someone was not eligible to be a candidate on Colorado's presidential primary because he didn't fit the constitutional guarantees.

He was not accused of ensighting that insurrection.

Does the President qualify as an officer of the fate, that is a disputed provision, and then the other gets into the involvement in an insurrection.

And whether I would guess -- whether or not the Supreme Court goes into both of those, finding the Colorado Supreme Court is one of them will end it and will allow him to be on the ballot in Colorado.

I somehow just don't see them really taking on the whole insurrection issue.

But we have four weeks of excitement ahead.

>> I'm hoping that John Roberts, the chief justice, can use his skills to narrow the decision and make it something that is seven, eight, or conceivably even nine justices can sign on to.

That would serve the country best.

My surmise is that Donald Trump will be on the ballot.

That's what I wrote recently and for all of the democratic hearts that went pitter patter, I think it is really misplaced.

Donald Trump thrives on being the martyr.

And when you put him into the role of martyr, his poll numbers go up.

His comebacks started.

If there is a comeback with the New York indictment.

And the more be set upon he is, the stronger he emerges politically.

So be careful what you wish for.

>> If you have not already, I encourage you to raze a series in the "Denver Post" about how Colorado has one of the worst drinking related death rates in the country.

Alcohol is just as deadly, Sage, let's start with you.

>> This is a personal issue for me, my mother passed away from alcoholism at 44, and my father is 15 years sober and he was formally in prison.

This is an issue constantly swept under the rug.

I can't believe how many of my mom's friends said I knew something was off.

At the end of the day the most powerful thing for something that can help is having a friend or family member try to help them.

Constantly these people die quietly or suddenly they're in a hospital and they're liver is in failure.

I read stories about this, maybe we should increase the tax on alcohol, make it not as easy to get so different stores can't carry it.

You don't understand addiction if that is where you first go to.

If someone is addicted to alcohol, they're not sitting there saying I was going to get alcohol, but it is a few more miles away.

They're just going to go get it.

This is about education.

Having options available to people to get help when they need it, and giving support to family and friends as well.

They can be the biggest support system.

>> Patty?

>> I think they have seen the headlines, new zombie drug when one person overdoses or drugs, it is the people like the drunk drives that run into people.

We had an illegal that killed a mother and child that we were just talking about.

Somehow even though he had four drives offenses, was deported four times, he was still on the roads in Colorado.

We get the headlines about the new sexy drug instead.

>> Sage is right, policy can only do so much.

It has to be about personal intervention and personal caring.

Caring enough to intervene.

I flash back and the homeless problem is only a tangent of this.

But in talking to people for a column I wrote, I don't know, a number of months back on homelessness and people in the field said what was bothering them and scaring them the most is not just the ramp up of numbers of people in that situation, it was the word they used was acuity.

It was the increase in acuity.

It was the increasing desperation and the depth that these people were in and I think that also came in in this Denver post series.

>> I think in terms of the expanded access in Colorado, liquor stores not being open Sunday, and then having full strength beer in convenience stores and grocery stores, and now wine available in grocery stores.

Like I mentioned on a previous episode that I appeared on, I'm not going to be in a store where they can't even get the buggies in.

But when it comes to the alcohol thing I think about the effects on my community.

Again, not being flippant, but who here at the table knows how to score a 40 of Old English and malt liquor, and things targeted to communities of color that have high octane in it.

We have a libertarian governor who thinks alcohol consumption is a matter of human responsibility.

There is a human component that overrides this and we have to get better as a society for helping people who are struggling and maybe getting outside of the realm of political correctness or outside of the realm of not wanting to interfere or not wanting to overstep when you're looking at these types of outcomes.

>> We have to, right?

We can't wait for a lawmaker to do something, we have to reach out to friends and family and it is so hard for some of them to find places to go.

In the meantime we need to be supportive for one another.

>> And there is a Venn diagram of those suffering from mental health issues and those who are struggling with addiction, and alcohol plays into that as well.

This is a fair conversation about mental health, it is also a fair conversation about people just struggling now a days.

Paying your bills, making ends meet, these things weigh on people and a lot of times the bottle is the easiest thing to turn to.

They should have friends, family, and community around them.

That has diminished in our culture in the last few decades and we have things like alcohol replacing it.

>> It is now time for our highs and lows of the week.

The panel will go down the line and talk about something.

Let's talk about something disappointing this week.

>> A big public issue that is swept under the rug is domestic violence.

If anything comes out of the Boebert incident, it is to remember that domestic violence is very real.

Her ex-husband says she punched him in the nose.

The police say that was not the case.

That is really important but there is so many other cases where victims, male or female, don't go to the police.

They think they can hand it will themselves, and they wind up dead.

>> Let me go to the person that Lauren Boebert holds to be a god-like figure which is Donald Trump.

He is at his tested antics here.

Not only did he make a whole career of questioning Barack Obama's credentials to be President and if he was born in this country, now he is playing that same card against Nikki Haley and he is retweeting and amplifying those playing that card.

Nikki Haley was born in this country to parents from India.

She meets the demand for being President, enough already.

>> And mine goes back to this absolute lack of critical thought in our society.

Listening to what we have been talking about as far as things that are going on in the body of politics, we truly live in an idiocracy.

I wonder if we will ever be able to pull ourselves out of this tail spin that we have been in for the last eight to ten years.

>> When you find the person who can answer that question when the can stop, let me know I want a coffee with them if.

>> My disappointment of the week is Jenna Griswold.

She is on MSNBC every three days talking about how terrible Trump is.

Here in a time where a huge portion of the population does not trust the election system.

Jenna Griswold is not doing us any favors.

She should be a fair referee.

>> Let's talk about something positive, Patty.

>> The weekend is full of events commemorating Martin Luther King junior and get out there, it will be cold, but March.

>> Halves off and praise to all of those rolling up their sleeving to deal with this migrant crisis.

There is a time and place for policy discussions, immigration, and border discussions.

I don't want to get into that.

For those migrants here and everyone, lead by Mike Johnston and again we'll have the policy discussion some other time, rolling up their sleeves and opening their hearts and in some cases opening wallet and all of the rest to deal with the influx, praise to them.

>> Mine is personal.

I'm an assistant basketball coach in the northeast.

We're off to a rough start, but I want to give a shout out to the kids because of the way they're still grinding and trying.

Varsity level basketball, everyone sitting at this table is taller than a third of my roster.

>> The win is right around the corner.

>> For me, I think my -- the best thing I saw was Christopher Carmona -- Chris Christie getting out of the race.

He is doing the math and looking at how things are, and he says I have to get out of the way to make sure Trump doesn't get the nomination.

>> He bowed out the same day all of the football coaches went away.

It was a weird day, wasn't it?

For me my positive is a new documentary that is eye-opening and I believe it will be a catalyst for positive change for the foster care system.

The "Colorado Inside Out" executive producer is director of "we becoming me."

I highly recommend it.

We will be airing it several times in the next couple weeks and it will be on PBS12 platforms after premiers this coming Wednesday.

I urge you to check it out.

The stories are compelling and it really raises questions and hopefully there will be change.

Thank you, panelists, for joining us this week.

Thank you for watching at home or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer and I'll see you next week here on PBS12.

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