This has been a big week for communities across Colorado, with some new people and new ideas getting approved by voters on Tuesday.

And when it comes to big A supermoon also appeared over our skies on Wednesday.

A supermoon is said to bring issues to the surface and presents a time for clarity, resolution and closure.

Will the decisions made this week lead us to all of that?

Let's hear what our insiders have to say on this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

We start with Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Krista Kafer, columnist with The Denver Post.

Tyrone Glover, civil rights and criminal defense attorney here in Denver.

And Luigi Del Puerto, editor at Color Politics and the Denver Gazette.

We have a lot to get to.

As Patty, I predicted this due to statewide measures passed with voters saying yes to keeping funding, going to free school lunches for about 600,000 kids across Colorado.

And then there's the near $1 billion of voters okayed for the vibrant Denver infrastructure bond package.

But then there were the surprising outcomes where progressive candidates beat out conservatives on the Aurora City Council, including outspoken council member Danielle Durrance losing her seat.

And the same kind of progressive upset happened at the Douglas County School Board as well.

Was Democrats taking over Republican seats.

So there was a lot that happened in a off year election.

I will start with, Patty.

What outcomes kind of stick with you this week?

Well, it was nice to be nice a right for once.

But listen, were pretty easy because just people are feeling bad about snap and feeling that they could do something, especially if they weren't earning $300,000 so they wouldn't be paying for it.

That was an easy that was a no brainer vote.

I think the wanting to help people carried through to Denver.

I was surprised by just how easily all five passed, and we had been talking about it last week.

We thought, oh, people would be looking askance at some of the things Mike Johnston had said, but I think this was much less a referendum on Mike Johnston than a referendum on how people felt about Denver's future, and that people wanted to invest in Denver's future.

Interesting to see Federico Pena behind Mike Johnston at the The Victory Party because Federico Pena got up there, got Denver out of the 80s, and much the same way when we went such a slump and he built infrastructure and that was the way spend your way out now we'll see if Mike Johnston can do a competent job.

And he broke ground Thursday on the very first project.

So tracking him will be extremely important.

And Aurora, we made Danielle Turin ski our CoverGirl for the people to watch in 2025.

And now we get to watch her walk out the door.

You did?

We did.

Whoa.

Okay.

All right.

Krista.

Yeah.

Speaking of that, I think voters are just done with crazy.

I'd like to think so.

So maybe.

Maybe Lauren Boebert could be next.

Generally, I want Republicans to win.

But crazy Republicans who do crazy things, who go off madcap about whatever.

I think people are losing interest in that.

I would love it for it to be a bipartisan thing.

I would love it for Democrats to be tired of crazy Democrats and Republicans tired of crazy Republicans.

But, you know, maybe driven is the first step for that.

Most interesting race I tracked was the three day race in Littleton, basically an anti-growth, measure.

Something similar didn't pass in Lewisville, but I do think it's interesting, though, that the slate of candidates associated with that all lost.

They were mostly MAGA candidates, and I think the, Littleton population, myself included, is just not down with MAGA candidates once people who are there, they're for the city.

The city has been well governed.

I think people were comfortable voting for the people who were in charge and had been in office for a while, even if they were to the left of them politically because they were doing a good job, and they were willing to separate that issue from three a, they voted for the candidates and for the amendment, which is interesting.

Yeah.

And if we were to unpack kind of a larger theme of, I think a lot of the, victories from earlier this week, I think this was really a pro community election, a rejection of political extremes and really just resoundingly saying that we are here to invest in our communities regardless of what's going on in Washington.

So I think that's ultimately what we saw happen here.

There's a real opportunity to maybe put, stop or cessation of some of these pendulum swings and just really look at and get back to supporting our communities, to helping our neighbors.

And I think that's what the voters in, Denver and greater Colorado, really said loud and proud.

Luigi.

Yeah, it was a very big win for Democrats, for sure.

And this is a party that's been sort of anchored less since 2020 for the clobbering of 2024.

And now it's energized and you can see that all across the country.

That's it.

I don't want to overstate or over interpret the results of Tuesday's elections.

At the risk of misinterpreting what happened, Douglas County, for example, flipped, swung left.

But this is a school board that's been swinging, you know, back and forth.

What happened on Tuesday is an exact mirror image of what happened four years ago when the conservatives swept that, school board.

The two statewide ballot measures, as Patty alluded to, easy to vote.

Yes.

There was no organized opposition, to those measures.

The way the ballot language is constructed, basically said vote for children and their school lunch.

It's not very clear on there.

And my neighbor asked me about it and I said, this is what it does and what have you.

She didn't know that it's for all children, regardless of income.

Those information, that kind of information and detail are not on ballot measures.

You talk about the role of money, and in many places, money does help the candidates didn't help Danielle Duran ski in Aurora.

And I think Aurora is a real dichotomy.

This is a our third most populous city, a large immigrant population that's voted Republican for the last few election cycles.

Things catching up to, you know, where people expect, you know, this city should be, voting on are the Democrats energized?

Absolutely, yes.

Let's talk a little bit more about that.

What is the take away from how our voters, came out statewide?

I think I saw a 38% of registered voters turned out and turned a ballot in a many at the last minute.

There were the progressive wins in Colorado, and we saw that nationwide as well.

So the midterms are less than a year away now.

And we had the primaries in June.

What does what happened Tuesday mean for 2026?

I'll start with you.

You know, I think it's a little taste of what is to come.

And if Republicans don't smarten up, they're going to lose pretty big next year.

I vote for Republicans because I'm a Republican.

I vote for pro-lifers because it's an issue that's important to me.

But I will not vote for MAGA candidates.

And I don't mean people who might support the president or have some things in common with him.

I'm talking about people who have, you know, Twitter feeds that are filled with conspiracy theories, people who say nasty things about refugees and, and fellow Americans who are Democrats or people who are just or nasty, who are, not fit for office in my mind.

So coming forward, put people on the slate that are like, Congressman Jeff Hurd, for example, good solid Republicans who, know how to behave in office, who treat all of their constituents, whether the Republicans or Democrats with dignity, give us people we can vote for.

Do not put obnoxious people for in front of us, because we will not vote for them.

Do you think Barbara Kirk might be leading the Republican cycle?

Governor again, a good legislator, a person who is dignified, a person who has fought hard for conservative causes but has done so in a way that is fitting for that office.

Okay, gubernatorial candidates on your side 20.

How many candidates for governor on your side?

That's true right now.

20 and a lot of them are these people who are like, well, I'm kind of bored.

I'm not, you know, fishing season's over.

I guess I'll just run for office.

And I'm thinking maybe not the best way to go about it as a party.

Find somebody who is a solid candidate like Kirk Meyer.

Get behind her.

Put some of these, you know, I want to run for office because it looks cool.

Let them, find a new hobby, and there's, you know, there's a lot out there.

Okay.

All right, well, I think, you know, Chris's point about, you know, give us someone that we can vote for, give us issues that we can vote for.

I think really, encapsulates the energy around this turnout.

It felt like a very positive of it.

It didn't feel like an anti, type of election.

Right.

I remember after the first, Trump election, you know, the slogans of resist and, you know, pushing back and the Never Trumpers.

This didn't feel like this.

It felt like people were voting for something.

They were voting for the communities.

They were voting ultimately, to support.

And that to me feels more like a groundswell as opposed to just this, sort of almost cynical disillusionment that, I think we all kind of thought was the direction politics and even voting were going for some time, so I was pleasantly surprised.

I can't 36 or 38%.

Probably by the time, this airs, it will be the turnout.

And I think, you know, not getting complacent, not thinking that we're going to have all this momentum and just keeping kind of eye on the ball, you know, everyone getting out, coming together and voting, regardless of which party you're from, is just the way to keep our democracy thriving and moving forward.

Rudy, what we do know is that the Democrat Party is organized and the Republican Party, at least in Colorado, is in deep trouble, has been Krista is a classic example of the how do I put it, the Civil War.

Is it a good word.

The Civil war within the.

Well let's be more polite introspection deep introspection within the Republican Party about what what they're what they're supposed to do.

But look, one year in politics is a really long time, right?

And what we do know is that Trump is a very polarizing figure, but he also has this sort of instinctual connection with voters.

And with when he is, he himself is on the ballot.

It makes a ton of difference.

And clearly, for the Democratic Party, they need to figure out a way to carry this momentum.

A lot of things could happen between now and next year.

Yeah.

Patty.

Well, Virginia was one of the first results that came in and was fascinating because you said, wow, this is going to be amazing.

So let's go back to Virginia and Aurora, where when you're talking about voting for and I think that was true in a lot of in a lot of instances in Colorado, I think people in Denver were voting for Denver.

In Aurora, I think they were voting for let's get the bums out because it wasn't just Danielle, cheer and ski.

That whole city council has switched now from conservative to 6 to 4 progressive, which no one was thinking was going to happen in Aurora.

And I think it's maybe in some ways let's reclaim our city, let's reclaim our narrative after the crazy rumors and just fights and national attention over the last year or so, it's going to be amazing to watch what happens in Aurora, how Mike Kaufman deals with this council in his last two years.

So that was an amazing race.

Boulder was interesting, too, because you actually saw some progressives lose ground and businesses longtime businesses, business people were heard more than they had been before and that was fighting for the community, too.

Like, we need help if we're going to keep this town going and we need better voter turnout, especially for the primary in June, because that's when a lot of the decisions are made.

So let's get above 38, and let's remember this was not rigged in any way, shape or form this election.

Okay.

Mail-In ballots were great.

Yeah.

So Wednesday was the target date for the Trump administration to start rolling out the partial Snap benefits as ordered by a judge in the midst of this government shutdown.

The technical changes has not really allowed for a rapid process for all to come through.

Meanwhile, Tyrone, Tyrone, 600,000 Coloradans, half of them children, are struggling to get the food.

And I think it's so heartwarming to see so many people getting drives, making donations, trying to help out one another.

Yeah, I mean, that's great.

And not only children, but, disabled folks, elderly folks.

I mean, those are the primary beneficiaries of this, this program.

And it's great that we're coming together as a community, some support.

But even if you, you know, pulled all of the food banks together, I think that's just 8% of what we actually need.

Right.

And even with, you know, if things get through the judiciary system and some of this gets released, we're still just talking about 50% of the benefits.

This has not happened in the 60 year history of Snap.

And it's great that we're all coming together as a community, but I just fear that it's not going to be enough to ultimately kind of bridge the gap, maybe in the short term.

But unless this shutdown ends soon, we're in for some really dark days.

Let's not forget where the problem is.

The problem is Congress.

They need to figure out a way to get the government open.

And Tyrone is absolutely right.

It's going to be real painful for 600,000 people.

Now I think we're going to start to see some of those benefits come in at least from November.

Right.

And our state is trying, scrambling, if you will, to find a way to give food assistance to people.

They have set aside about $10 million, for food banks and those networks to try and get to those people while admitting that this is not going to cut it, I we spent about $120 million on snap, and we set aside 10 million, which is not going to be enough at a very personal level.

I grew up very, very poor in a very, very poor country like the Philippines.

And there is something to be said about self-reliance and the need to not rely on anyone, government or your relatives to get by.

Because when they stop helping, it's going to be a real problem.

And so it's a tough situation for anyone.

Ultimately, Congress needs to open, and I don't know how many votes they've had now 14 votes to open to government.

And we failed.

That's the problem.

Well, two judges ruled almost simultaneously last Friday that they had to restore at least some of the money.

And on Monday they said it would be 50%.

Now Trump said we're not doing it.

We think we'll still see some of the money coming.

But everyone's right.

There's not going to be enough money.

It is heartwarming to see how many people are stepping up with different drives and different freebies at restaurants.

I've been taping those listings, so I know just how much people want to help, but they want to help right now.

In the first five days of the crisis, the question is, how long can you carry it on before you begin to suffer too?

So and those poor food banks, which were already having tough times during Covid, are really beleaguered.

Now the shutdown has to stop.

And I hate to say this, but it's Democrats fault in the same way that it was Republicans fault under Obama for not voting to keep the government going.

I get it.

In both cases, I was sympathetic to the underlying issue that the Ted Cruz Republican, shutdown under Obama.

The fact is, is that Obamacare has raised the price of insurance by almost double.

And I lost my health care insurance plan.

So I was sympathetic to that underlying issue.

But that was not the place to argue about it.

That's a policy issue.

It needs to be handled.

It should not have been handled in the context of government funding.

In the same way, I'm very sympathetic to what Democrats want to do.

I want those subsidies back for people who are on Obamacare plans.

All these plans are going to go up.

A lot of us are going to lose our insurance when it's done.

This way you end up with shutdowns and Republicans cannot capitulate.

Otherwise, they allow this to happen again next year.

It becomes a policy or a political weapon once you give in.

So it really is incumbent upon all of our Democrats and to just say, hey, I get the fight, I get what you're doing, you're using the power of the minority to try to push an issue that's important, but this is not the place to do it.

And right now it's causing problems.

Democrats have got to vote to put the government back on track.

Okay.

In an unprecedented move, the FAA ordered a 10% cut in flights at 40 airports, including Dia, to lessen the stress on air traffic controllers who, like other federal workers at airports, are working without any paychecks coming in.

Dia has offered to use revenue to fund wage support for the air traffic controllers so that disruptions to flights can be minimal.

Luigi, this is a mess as well.

Earlier this week, we saw that some flights were canceled and a lot more were delayed because of, shortage of air traffic controllers.

Yeah.

What do you do when you are under an emergency situation?

You have to work six days a week.

It leaves you no time for a side gig, right?

Six days a week.

You got infant or young children in your household.

What do you do?

That's what the situation is for many of our federal workers who are toiling at Dia, we have about 1800 of them, 1800 federal workers a day.

They're toiling over there.

They're not getting paid.

They're forced to work.

What do you do?

Well, if you got a family, you got to do what you got to do.

And that likely means not showing up for work, quitting your job and doing something else.

And brings us to the problem that we're facing right now.

The FAA really has no choice if they keep just the status quo, it's going to be a problem like the one that we saw a couple of days ago.

And the airlines actually agree with the move by the FAA to reduce traffic, air traffic, because that's what we can safely do.

And, you know, the CEO of United said in a statement yesterday, we share the FAA's goal of making sure that our flights are safe.

We cannot compromise safety.

The problem is the shutdown that needs to end.

And and they kind of hinted that this might happen.

But wasn't it true that the airlines just found out in the airports around the same time?

The announcement was made on Wednesday?

And you think what it would take to suddenly decide you're going to lose 10% of your flights?

How do you do it?

I can say that yesterday my sister, who was flying on United, got texted by United that said, we're not canceling flights, you can change your flights, but we're not going to.

So that's a little different than the announcement that was made.

I would guess by the time they figure out how Colorado or Denver International Airport, which is a separate agency, could actually pay for those salaries, we'll see that something will have been settled, because this is one of the ones that will get people clamoring as we head into Thanksgiving and get people clamoring this weekend, if truly that many flights are canceled.

And that's what ended the last shutdown, right, was where the air traffic really got messed up.

Krista.

Well, you know, shame on, shame on Congress because this is just one other example of, federal workers taking the hit for Congress, not doing its job.

And I know I call that Democrats, but, you know, they don't think they're all part of the problem to a degree.

But I, when it comes to these federal workers, you know, a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck.

And so, yeah, you might be able to tighten your belt for a while, but you can't just call up the bank and be like, I can't pay my mortgage.

This this month, so I'm going to get money eventually.

You don't pay your health care.

It, you plant, your plan gets canceled, you don't pay your credit card.

Next time around, you've got fees and interest charges.

What what Congress has done to these federal workers is unconscionable.

And now that is going to affect air passengers.

Not everyone is just off to a for a beach weekend.

A lot of folks are traveling for business.

They're traveling for family, weddings, funerals, things they can't miss.

And so hopefully this will put pressure on Democrats and others to to actually move forward with a solution and get this pay rolling.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how Dia handles this too, because it's such a busy airport.

It is.

And I think the second full pay check for these, controllers, it will be, November 11th.

So we talk about people, you know, living paycheck to paycheck.

There's already been one.

But like, to Chris's point, you know, the monthly obligations, like mortgages, like health insurance, things like that.

Once you miss your second paycheck, you know, that's a full month of of compensation.

So I think we're really going to start to see, you know, that that hit take place then and again.

Yes, safety is going to be paramount.

I know that Dia has said, oh no, we're not going to be canceling flights in.

But I think we all know, you know, as especially as these cuts hit, it's going to sort of snowball.

And, you know, we even saw this sort of happening during the pandemic with, you know, flights getting canceled.

But we had an open and functioning government during that time.

We're now doing this during the government shutdown.

And it's not just, you know, people traveling for tourism, though, that's going to affect Colorado.

You know, we're going into Thanksgiving.

We're going into all of the winter holidays.

And it's all really going to snowball.

But just people getting around to, you know, I'm supposed to be in federal court in new Jersey next week, and I don't know what's going to happen with that flight.

And if I don't appear there, that's going to affect the docket.

And then the dockets and the courts and everything gets backed up.

There's plenty of courts, cuts in the judiciary.

So this thing is just really starting to snowball.

And I think, you know, at the end of the day, it doesn't have to be your fault or the next person's fault for you to take responsibility.

Right.

And I think what the people want to see happen is our lawmakers, regardless of who they think is causing the problem, to take responsibility to get this government back open and get things back on track.

Okay, let's go down the line, talk about some of the highs and the lows of the week.

We'll start on a low notes weekend on a good note Patty you start.

One of my frequent lows has been the behavior of the Denver Public Schools Board.

Oh, over the years.

And I wanted to talk about it last week with the horribly run investigation of John Young Quest, who is a school board member who had been a principal at East High.

He clearly cares about the kids, and it is time for us to remember that this school board should care about the kids and their performance.

More than anything else.

I think we saw that there was definitely a referendum on that school board in the last election, and maybe now it's in a position to really put the emphasis where it should be.

Okay.

All right.

Christa, my name of the week goes to Attorney General Phil Wiser.

It's happened a couple weeks ago, but it's the subject of my Denver Post column this Sunday.

And that is calling upon Colorado to get rid of its bipartisan, independent, redistricting commission that prevents this state from gerrymandering seats.

Gerrymandering is the rule throughout the country.

There's only about six states that don't do it.

We're one of them that actually does a fair process that's fair to all voters.

So shame on him for wanting to get rid of what works.

Okay.

And her own Coloradans are starting to get notice of what their premiums are going to look like.

If this are ACA credit, sunsets.

And it's not looking good.

I mean, even in the, districts where they would say they are not at fault for or they want to actually see these potentially sunset we're looking at like in the third, an 82%, the fifth judicial, the fifth district, 159, the 80, 176%.

And so, these notices are, I think, starting to go out.

They started to go out as of November 1st, for what's going to happen in 2026.

And it's just not looking good.

Amen, Woody.

Yeah.

Sometimes we forget how our lives are tied to these seasons and the winter is coming.

For me, that means likely the end of fly fishing with my boy over the next couple months or so.

And to Chris, this point, the end of fishing probably means I'm going to start a campaign for governor.

Well done.

All right, let's talk about something good.

Patty, when you talk about investing in the community Lakewood's action, the center shenanigans, I mean, they had so much trouble.

But the minute a court judge finally said, you can do this deal, which is a very complicated deal, but puts the action center, which does so much good in that community, into a new facility past Monday, and they're ready to go.

Krista, I'm giving it to Congressman Jeff Hurd of our mountain district.

He actually has a plan to restart the government and also to address the health care subsidy issue.

I wish him all the luck in the world.

Okay.

All right.

Hey, Ron.

To our veterans Tuesday is veterans Day.

As an Army brat whose father was in the army and who got sort of sorted all around of the country in the world, and also, grandfather, who was in the Navy, you know, shout out and happy Veteran's Day to all our veterans out there.

Okay.

Thank you.

Several ski resorts are opening this weekend.

Go out, have fun.

You know, buy stuff, buy stuff.

It's good for capitalism.

It's good for a country when people are buying things.

Okay.

All right.

And my high is that Denver Arts Week is here.

During this campaign season, we kept hearing all about what Denver needs.

But from tonight through next weekend, why not go out and see all that Denver already has?

And there are over 160 free events.

And actually, I should mention a lot of museums are open until 10:00 this Saturday night.

And admission is free.

But there are concerts, there are comedy shows, theatrical performances, art exhibits, art walks, you name it.

And the weather is going to be so mild.

So definitely get out and, take in Denver and taken some culture and appreciate all that is around us right now.

All the good.

There's lots of good.

Everybody, thank you to the panelists, the insiders, for joining us this week after Election Day.

Thank you for watching and being engaged or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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