Hello Colorado.

Since we were last together around this table, Colorado politics have been rocked by what is quickly becoming one of the most defining political stories of the year, triggering a rift within the Democratic Party and reshaping conversations about elections, political power, and the judgment behind some of the that political power.

The panel is ready to go.

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 have Paddy Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword, Krista Kafer, a columnist with the Denver Post, Tyrone Glover, civil rights and criminal defense attorney here in Denver.

And Jesse Paul, political reporter at the Colorado Sun.

Governor Jared Polis is commutation of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters sentence continues to trigger major fallout.

In an unprecedented move, the Colorado Democratic Party voted to formally center the governor, barring him from speaking at party events and no longer recognizing him as a party representative.

Questions around political loyalty are surfacing nationally as well, including the president's threat to withdraw his endorsement of Congresswoman Lauren Boebert over a primary dispute.

Now, neither Lauren Boebert or Governor Polis are backing down.

In fact, Polis defended his decision, saying, quote, I think this will be remembered fondly.

Patty, we have not seen a rebuke of a sitting governor from within his own party in Colorado.

It's going to be remembered, but I'm not sure how fondly it will be remembered.

So last week, one day before he did this, when we were taping, we were asked for one word about Polis.

And I said, Maverick.

Little did I know the real word would be ech.

I mean, there is.

People were in shock Friday afternoon as they heard what he had done.

For a variety of reasons.

It hadn't been a secret that he thought the sentence was too long was unfair.

He compared it to another sentence with someone who was a public official who'd been misbehaved.

But why he didn't wait when it's going to a resentencing that we'd already had a court decision, it's going to a resentencing.

Why he didn't wait for that is, I think, the biggest question, even if he believed in his heart and I'm assuming he did.

I don't think he made a deal with Trump, because I don't think anyone with any common sense on this planet would make a deal with Trump, we are dealing with an imperial presidency.

We want people to follow our systems.

We want them to obey rule of law.

We want them to deal with the courts.

And why he didn't wait for the court.

I will never know unless he tells us.

Christa, you know it is going to be remembered fondly by all of those deniers out there.

They are super stoked about the fact that their hero, Tina Peters, is out of jail.

And in fact, they feel like this vindicates her.

I saw that the Colorado GOP put out a little press statement saying that, oh, thank you, thank you, President Trump, for putting a spotlight on this, this great injustice to Tina Peters.

What?

That spotlight was penalized in the state over and over again by denying funds, to victims of storms and to scientific institutions, to people in need of of care.

That's how he shined the spotlight.

And now that woman is out that same press release said, you know, the jury's still out on 2020.

So her very release now has contributed to a lie that will continue to haunt this nation.

He has provided aid.

He has provided aid and comfort to those who are seeking to undermine our very nation, are very voting systems.

and he does all of this like and to Patty's good point and atmosphere, where if you're just waited to go to the resentencing the rule of law could have gone forth, the process could have gone forth.

I spoke about this maybe a couple of episodes ago about let the appellate process go forward, right.

It went forward.

It's been kicked back for resentencing.

Right.

Judges are not allowed to discriminate because of viewpoint, but they could have taken into account her lack of remorse, her failure to allocate her, continuing to say she did nothing wrong and then they could have sentenced her accordingly.

If at that point Governor Polis still felt that it was too harsh, then you know, the clemency process, which is rigorous and, you know, there's a certain level of humility and respect for that process could have gone forth.

The fact that it happened when it happened under the circumstances for which it happened, just does such a disservice to Christina's good point.

Our to our voters, to our communities.

And I don't know if he's playing some sort of chess game where he's 12 moves down the board and this is somehow going to benefit not only the party, but just sort of the constituency and voters as a whole.

But I'm just not seeing it.

All right, Jesse, you've spoken with him directly?

Yes.

I spoke with the governor a few hours before the announcement became public, and I did ask him the question of why not wait for the resentencing.

I did not get a clear answer on that.

So I can't really speak to what his thinking was on it.

I think the governor's time as a leader in the Democratic Party is done.

I spoke with him this week on Tuesday.

So a few days after, the decision was made and once right before the censure vote, and I said to the governor, you know, this was pretty much akin to political suicide.

And he said, well, I wouldn't go that far.

And that's when he made the comment about, I think this will be remembered fondly, which I think is just a complete misunderstanding of what's going on here.

And, you know, the governor is a smart person.

He he knows what people are feeling.

So I think there's other two thi you know, he made a major miscalculation and is trying to spin it or, you know, he he just doesn't care.

I don't think he doesn't care what people have to say.

And so, one of those things is reality.

I don't know if the governor will ever admit, like, which one is actually the truth here, but, this was this was a huge political, gaffe on his part.

And I don't know if he, I don't know how he's going to be remembered.

You know, Democrats at the Capitol hate him.

Now, Democrats throughout the state, Republican County clerks.

This is just like kind of the worst case scenario.

I think for him, especially a guy who's thinking about his legacy as he leaves office in a few months.

Yeah, I might as well go ahead and build the bridge now, because people could not be more angry.

Yeah, I mean, that could be his legacy.

Build the bridge.

Senator Bennett said already, if I become governor, I will not be appointed him to my seat.

And we all thought that maybe that would happen someday.

Yeah, it was definitely a potential.

I mean, the governor expressed some interest in that appointment.

Whether or not Bennett wins the primaries on other comments.

Right, right, right.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't I that that was about is he I mean, Senator Bennett called it disqualifying, which is like the meanest thing you can say in politics, disqualifying the meanest.

But and then there have been Bill, there's still bill signing to do House legislative session.

And will he have be flanked with colleagues?

Foley signs his bills.

Yeah.

So we're recording this about a week after the session.

And the there have since the commutation announcement, the governor's held no public bill signings with any sitting lawmakers.

And I think there is a real question about whether Democrats in the capital will agree to stand next to him at these bill signings.

Okay.

Let's talk now about the potential electoral consequences of the commutation of Tina Peters sentence.

Chris touched on it a little bit.

You know, here in Colorado, our primary is just a little over five weeks away from now.

The county clerks collectively wrote to the governor urging him not to commute this sentence.

So the question now I have is, how does this decision, how could it impact the shape, the tone of this race?

Not only the primary in June, but then our midterms?

Chris, in November, it really cast the shadow.

And I, I just think about those county clerks, right.

This is an office a lot of people aren't even really aware of.

These people work hard.

They tend to be very bipartisan, even though that it is a partizan position.

They work together.

They really are, you know, whether it's somebody in Colorado Springs or somebody who's a clerk up in Boulder, they work together, they implement best practices.

They're really all about fairness and accuracy.

And to have somebody who undermined that who's, you know, basically sabotaged it, who, you know, altered equipment cost the taxpayer over $1 million for all the things that she did.

She is about to be freed.

And and beyond that, there's now talk of her getting taxpayer money.

So Trump, because of, a deal with the IRS, has set up a $1.8 billion slush fund to hand out to his friends.

And who are these friends?

They're the people who attack the Capitol.

They're people like Tina Peters.

JD Vance, the the vice president has already said, yeah, you know, she's on the list.

She's she's likely to get some cash.

I know that some of the police officers who were attacked that day, who were injured that day are suing to stop this.

And all I can think is they were a hero.

On January 6th.

If they succeed, they will be a hero again.

All right, Tyrone, it's just really unfortunate.

And, I don't see a path to hosting the DNC after all of this.

Yeah.

Colorado's electoral system, like the just the the voting system is like, it's the gold standard.

It's like one of the best in the country.

And, to Chris's point, they work so, so, so hard.

And I can just imagine the situation as soon as Tina Peters, you know, hits the pavement, she gets her check, she's going to be going on the show.

She's going to be going on, Fox News, and she's going to be pooping all over, Colorado and all these hardworking, nonpartisan people that show up to make sure that we have, free and fair elections.

And so going into not only the primaries, but the midterms with this shadow over, what I think could have ultimately been a really galvanizing moment.

We were I think I felt like very much in the running for the DNC, but I just don't see that happening.

And just, the storm clouds are mounting.

what do you think?

Do you think she'll come out and campaign or talk about all this as soon as she gets out before the primary?

I'm not sure.

I will say this about Tina Peters.

If you've ever actually spoken to her.

She's incredibly nice human being.

She's a former flight attendant, and it comes across very well.

I don't know.

I mean, I think, you know, she's become this kind of national poster child for this issue, and, I don't see why she wouldn't stop.

Her lies about what's going on with the elections in the state.

I don't think it's going to affect, the actual carrying out of elections.

I know there's some current concerns about that, but if you talk to Republican and Democratic county clerks, they feel very confident in the systems here.

Even if she shows up and tries to kind of cast aspersions on what's going on.

So I think, again, this is more of a political, situation.

I think there's a lot of potential for this to get worse for the governor, depending on what she says when she's out.

Okay.

Well, because her apology and then her statement after the governor gave her clemency, she did not apologize for everything she'd done.

She did not apologize for the things she was saying.

She didn't apologize for kicking the policeman.

She basically did a slight apology for what she did to Jenna, as that she hadn't done what Jenna Griswold had wanted her to.

So this is not a very apologetic woman.

She might be polite, but she is so wrong.

And of what Krista said is true, she is going to give she's going to push the election deniers to feel better, to continue denying, even if she doesn't talk about it.

The release is doing that.

As for Boebert, who we didn't talk about much, she did go off.

She campaigned for Massey.

Trump was mad at her, but they've already kissed and made up.

I mean, she's already posted.

God bless Jesus.

You know, God bless Trump after Marcy lost, if we see that all of a sudden the spigots are turned on in southeastern Colorado, and the water bill that had been killed by Trump, that I guess Boebert and Polis would be getting something out of this.

But I highly doubt that's going to happen.

I will say, you know, Boebert is in fine shape until the 2028 election, the ballot was set in Colorado for the primaries on May 1st.

And even Donald Trump knows how important Republican seats are in Congress right now.

So he's not going to help a Democrat win the reddest district in Colorado.

Yeah, okay.

A Colorado Supreme Court ruling has put Colorado Children's Hospital in a very difficult position, caught between civil rights obligations and federal pressure.

Earlier this year, the hospital paused care for transgender minors.

Under the federal directive, to stop.

And if not, they would lose funding.

Now, the Supreme Court has ordered services to resume amid a lawsuit from transgender patients and their families alleging the stop and care is discriminatory.

As our civil rights expert, Tyrone, I'd like you to start here.

Well, this is really textbook civil rights, discrimination law.

And just to clarify the threat, you know, they issued a declaration.

It's not a statute.

The court found that it was largely speculative.

And so we can't sit there and back off our civil rights laws quarter our state civil rights, all because of this speculation.

I totally understand where Justice Moore and Boatwright were coming from in their dissent.

But at the end of the day, we have to look at the law.

We have to uphold the law.

The reality is, and we're not dealing with the stuff that, initiative 110 voters are going to be deciding, you know, in the fall, we're not talking about surgeries.

We're talking about, you know, puberty blockers, hormones, stuff that cisgender minors are getting where medically appropriate.

But they're refusing the exact same medications for transgender minors as open and shut.

You can't discriminate against folks because they're part of a protected class.

And so I think that the court was correct in their determination here.

Okay.

All right, Jesse, this is something that we've talked a lot about in the legislature over the last many years, transgender minor care.

And then again, when ten is coming up in the fall.

Yeah, 108 one 109 and 110 will be on the ballot this fall.

And the two of those have to deal with transgender issues.

One of them, I always mix up the numbers.

I'm not going to try, but one of them would deal with, outlawing transgender, gender affirming care surgeries for minors.

The other one would ban transgender kids from playing in gendered sports in Colorado.

I think this isn't super interesting.

Referendum on the ballot to see where Colorado voters stand on this.

Republicans tell us all the time that it's all that voters care about.

Representative Scott Bottoms is running almost his entire gubernatorial campaign on this issue.

Victor marks, another Republican gubernatorial candidate, is bringing this up left and right.

And State Senator Barbara Kirk Meyer, the third Republican running for governor, has also voiced support for these measures.

You know, Democrats say this isn't what what Colorado voters want.

This is a perfect way to test that out.

And I'm very interested to see the results.

It will be all right, Patty.

And in the meantime, I think the decision was right, especially with the hospitals, because, again, we're not talking about surgical procedures.

We're talking about the kind of care that had been offered before that was stopped because of the threats coming in federally.

And now Colorado courts have stepped in and said, you cannot discriminate.

So that's good.

Jesse's right.

The final decision will be fascinating because it makes you hear so much about especially transgender in sports.

And you really wonder how many people doesn't really affect personally, personally, a tiny portion and how many people really care that much when you're looking for equality in general.

So and the surgery is a different issue too.

We understand that we've seen those before, just even coming up with abortions for minors.

So it will be really be a referendum on where Colorado is right now.

And God knows with what Polis just did, we're shifting all over the place.

Krista, you know, Children's Hospital is a great hospital, but they really shouldn't be doing this.

And I'm sorry that they've been caught in the middle between a bad Colorado Supreme Court decision and the Trump administration.

These cross-sex hormones are ultimately not healthy for people a detransition there's a coming out right now and saying, I was on these hormones.

You know, I was a confused girl.

I was seen by a counselor who said, you might be a boy.

I went on these hormones.

Now that I'm 22, 23 years old, it's all my voice box.

I my throat hurts all the time.

It's altered other parts of my body.

You see the same thing with boys taking female hormones And so I'm really grateful that we've got an opportunity as voters to weigh in on this.

Girls don't belong in boys sports and boys don't belong in girls sports, And similarly, we really need to think about how we treat people with mental illnesses as children.

So I'm hoping that we will start to move in that direction for these young kids who were confused to say, hey, let's look at what it takes to accept our body, to accept the physiology that you're born with, to accept the genetic makeup that you have.

What can we do to help you live and thrive in the body that you have?

Okay.

All right.

Several metro area local governments are taking action, all centered on oversight and accountability.

Denver passed a one year pause on new data centers amid concerns of energy use and infrastructure.

Strain.

The Jefferson County Board of Commissioners also approved a ten month moratorium on data centers.

And then over in Aurora, the city council adopted new rules limiting how the police department can communicate with the public online.

Jessie, coming out of the session that just ended, we saw lawmakers wrestling with all sorts of questions about guardrails, technology, infrastructure and public communication.

And now we're seeing at the local level these entities are saying, okay, we're talking about this now.

We're going to take action.

Yeah, the legislature couldn't get it done.

And data centers, that's probably going to be something that plays out at the Capitol over a few years.

I think for Denver and Jefferson County, the data centers will be happy to go to Adams and Arapahoe County or Douglas County.

So I'm not really sure that's going to have the actual metro wide effect, that that some of these communities and city councils hope for.

I want to talk a little bit about what happened in Aurora because from a free speech, perspective, from someone who used to cover cops and courts, I am extremely concerned about that.

It's not just that it limits, what the Aurora Police Department can say.

It's that the city council wants to review, statements that are coming out of the police department.

And there is a, thankfully, an exception for public safety emergencies about posting news releases and mug shots.

But as a reporter who, you know, oftentimes talks to the police and relies on it and the community wants to know what's going on there, this is an extremely slippery slope.

There are tons of examples of situations where something like this could go wrong.

If there's confusion from the police department about what the directive is from city council, you know, what if the Aurora theater shooting happens again, and then how is the information going to get out to the public?

Police departments have blocked journalists from listening to police scanners.

We don't know where things are happening anymore.

So, I think that this was at a very shortsighted, near nearsighted decision.

and I don't understand why this was the route that they chose.

Funny.

Well, because they've changed so much and they could, but that doesn't mean it's right.

And I think we will see Aurora moving backwards with some time.

We already have the consent decree that's overseeing the Justice Department.

Is up, I think, in February.

So there will be some loosening of that.

But in the meantime, I would hope that AG's office weighs in on this, because you're right on a free speech issue.

If you can't, and especially now when you have not surveillance cameras, but say cameras in a store where someone might have, someone is suspected of robbing if you can't release those photos, if you have issues and it's going to be a real a very slippery slope, which ones can be released so you can go find the suspects?

Which ones can't be?

Obviously civil libertarians will weigh into, but there's a fine line.

But the fine line is not city council deciding what can be put out there.

That's a real problem.

As for data centers, let's remember this vote in Denver does not affect what's already going on in Globeville.

So the one that is being built and is expanding right now will continue just new construction in the moratorium, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank goodness for that moratorium.

And that's where I'm going to focus from my remarks, because Patty and Jesse are spot on on the other issue.

But, I would think that most of our communities should be I should put in a referendum for a couple of reasons.

Number one, these systems take a lot.

These these data centers take a lot of energy.

And, you know, energy has it's it's trade offs and that we put more carbon in the air when we, when we use many of the different forms of energy production.

Secondly, there's water.

Now, if they use a closed loop system, they use less water than simply, a direct system with water.

And that's good.

But they still use a fair amount of water.

And, third, there's an equity issue.

They're not going to drop one of these big ugly centers in the middle of Cherry Creek.

They're going to put it somewhere where there's a poor community.

And that poor community is going to be stuck with this big, probably windowless, ugly blight, you know, a heat island in effect.

And that's not fair to them.

And then there's the sort of gall that these very wealthy companies will come into those communities and demand a tax break when they are multi-million dollar.

They've got a lot of money.

They don't need a tax break.

there's also the issue of jobs.

They'll come in and be like, yeah, we're going to produce all these jobs.

Well, all of those jobs, are temporary.

They basically for the building of the data center, make them be a little bit more honest about all the jobs they're going to produce.

All right.

Tyrone.

Yeah.

And I absolutely agree.

I'm on the data centers and the community has spoken.

I mean, it's it's kind of an old school concept that, you know, the community governing board, the council has said, no, we're not going to do this.

We're going to have this moratorium.

We're going to have this study group.

I do see it from an environmental justice perspective, you know, coming in thinking there's not going to be a bunch of red tape throwing one of these things up, having a bunch of construction and then leaving, and then it's just sucking resources from the community and not creating jobs.

As it relates, just to touch quickly on the Aurora Council as well.

You know, there is a problem with these, police departments speaking in their official capacity and editorializing.

A lot of the content that they're putting out there needs to be some sort of solution is what they've put forth going to ultimately solve this, or is it going to be too restrictive on the First Amendment?

I think that's debatable.

But the reality is they shouldn't be trying to, you know, get ahead of certain narratives and go on these sort of PR tours when they're putting out, content that should just be informative to the public and to the media.

So maybe if there were more guardrails and not having the city council look over every press release that's going out.

Correct?

Okay.

Well, we'll find out where the rubber meets the road there.

But I think, you know, these are certainly shot across the bow.

And if they want these restrictions roll back, I think they're going to have to give folks assurances that they're not going to be out there editorializing.

Everything.

Okay.

All right.

Now let's go around the table and talk about some of the highs and the lows that we've witnessed this week.

We've talked about some of the lows, but there's probably room for some more Paddy.

There's room for so many more.

Remember when the Republican gubernatorial candidate, it was a huge clown car stuffed with candidates.

So how are we left now with two complete clowns, Victor Marx and Scott Bottoms, who believes, you know, the demonization and pedophilia in the Democratic Party when.

Hello.

Right.

Then the Weld County GOP chair was being arrested on suspicion of child prostitution.

And to have poor Barbara Kirk Meyer, I would hope in the driver's seat of the with these two clowns is just an outrage.

I'm going to give my shame of the week to the Save Our Bacon Act.

It's a provision that ended up in the farm bill, thanks to the House of Representatives, and it would abrogate the humane standard laws across the country that require pork producers to use humane practices for their female hogs, for their cells.

And so, Colorado led in, in some of these, you know, humane treatment practices.

And then other states have gone even beyond that to say, hey, if you want to import into our state, you actually have to use humane practices.

And this particular, provision would ruin that and take away the rights of those states to determine whether inhumane pork comes into their state.

So, you know, if you can, I'm going to pitch this if you can talk to our senators.

But, admitted Hickenlooper, urge them to get that out of the film.

The farm bill before it passes.

It's, you know, on on behalf of all of these animals that are as smart as dogs, let them have a little more space.

Okay?

All right.

I'm on.

My low is the passing of County Court Judge Andre Rudolph.

He died at age 59.

Far too young.

But one of the youngest county court judges, to start one of a handful of black judges, a former public defender.

And for those of us who had the pleasure of knowing him, he's just really a joy to be around.

I just so unique personally.

And, you know, the kind of guy you would, you know, call for something you only needed five minutes.

You'd be on the phone with him for an hour and just gregarious, full of life.

And, he'll be missed.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Jesse, it's the Tackett season, and, the Democrats running for state and governor in particular, are running some pretty disappointing attack ads.

My request is just if you're going to attack each other, do it with some substance.

Okay.

All right, now let's talk about something good, Patty.

Something happy?

Well, it's not happy, but it's a life well-lived.

Okay.

Bob Beran, who founded fulcrum Publishing, passed away.

He did so many great local Colorado books, a local publisher, including just reissuing the Colorado Book, which is perfect gift for Colorado and its hundred and 50th anniversary.

Just wonderful writings about this state.

So he did a great job.

Bob.

Godparent.

Okay, so, DeWitt, that's how you say hello in Gaelic.

I was just in Ireland, and, I've been to, like 40 countries.

I can say hi in like 40 languages.

And, I just think Ireland is delightful and I hope that everybody will consider going there.

Okay.

I'm glad you had a good trip around.

Yeah, well, I'm shouting on Memorial Day weekend.

That's it here.

Can't believe it's already here.

And it's more than long weekends and mattress sales.

You know, this is where we, you know, honor the folks that didn't come home.

And, as we've spoken before from a family of veterans and some of which didn't come home, I think this is just a really important holiday.

And I'm just glad that we we all honor it.

Okay, Jesse, the Colorado Sun is about to enter its ninth year of publication, and, that is pretty crazy, given that there were times when I wasn't sure if we were going to make it through our first year.

So, here's to your nine and to many more.

Congratulations.

It's a great paper.

My high of the week is a report showing that Denver had more than 12%, a little bit more, fewer people experiencing homelessness, compared to last year, according to the annual point, single, point in time count taken on a single night back in January.

Now, the same report shows declines in other areas within the metro area.

So it's not just a Denver thing.

There are some places that didn't fare as well.

In any event, it's important to see this snapshot for one night.

It doesn't represent the whole year.

And these numbers are being thrown about, you know, in different articles that you read or in different headlines.

But I think any decrease in people experiencing homelessness is a really good thing.

It's very meaningful.

And I'm very grateful to the organizations and the individuals working every single day to provide shelter and services and dignity to those who don't have a place to live.

Thank you, insiders, for joining us this week.

It was a big week, Jesse.

Thank you.

Have a good weekend.

Okay.

Hopefully nobody calls you for late breaking story.

Thank you for watching or listening along to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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