Welcome back to The Spot, where The Denver Post’s politics team captures what’s happening this week — from the Colorado legislature to Denver city hall, with a stop through the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C.
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Howdy, politics party people! And welcome back.
With a few more hours of sleep under our belts, The Denver Post’s crackerjack politics team has turned out some deep dives this week on everything from the Colorado Supreme Court to toll lanes and the people who have so much money to spare they can pour it into the state’s wild and crazy governor’s race.
Meanwhile, it seems like everyone in Colorado has a job (even though Chipotle is bailing on us) and if you smell a fire in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, we’ve got the 411 on why.
Oh, and BTW: Your dog’s pee is killing downtown trees. And Denver is pissed. (Yes, we just made that pun. Deal with it.)
Fresh news: Denver’s affordable-apartment program is finally ready to launch — smaller and later than Mayor Michael Hancock first intended.
ROLL CALL
COLORADO: THE STATEHOUSE & BEYOND
- The top 10 donors in the 2018 election favor Democrat Mike Johnston and the oil and gas industry.
- Gov. John Hickenlooper has three people to choose from for an open Colorado Supreme Court seat. We took a deep dive into their backgrounds and experience.
- Colorado’s unemployment rate is low. Like, really, really low.
- Voters could be asked in November to raise Colorado’s state sales tax by 0.62 percent to pay for infrastructure needs.
- A breakdown of who is running for Colorado treasurer in 2018.
- Stay on top of candidates in the other statewide races with our look at who is running for attorney general and who is running for governor.
- Democrat Phil Weiser is making a major television ad buy in the attorney general’s race primary.
- Colorado prisons say they could run out of room next year. Lawmakers say they’ve heard the alarm before and can’t write “blank checks”
- Aspen’s 20-cent surcharge on paper grocery bags is a fee, not a tax, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled this week.
- Colorado’s largest utility has cut carbon emissions 35 percent since 2005.
- Should Colorado allow campaigns to accept cryptocurrency donations?
- The Colorado Civil Rights Commission will keep operating into 2027, after Gov. Hickenlooper signed a bill reauthorizing the panel.
DENVER & THE SUBURBS
- The politics of toll roads are heating up big time in El Paso County, where the mostly conservative-leaning residents who live there are throwing up stiff resistance to a plan for Interstate 25 by CDOT.
- A city assistance program that helped people facing rent hikes and other housing cost crises was nearly overwhelmed by the demand. This week, Denver city leaders approved a $1 million extension.
- And there’s a new face overseeing Denver’s affordable housing policies, as Mayor Michael Hancock named his new chief housing officer.
- Chipotle is
ing out of Colorado.
We wish @ChipotleTweets all the best. We want their existing employees to know we have services that can help them find new jobs.
— John W. Hickenlooper (@GovofCO) May 23, 2018
- Remember Thornton’s plan for a 70-mile-long water pipe extending from the Poudre River to Colorado’s fifth-largest city that you read about here in The Spot last week?
- Well, Larimer County’s planning commission wasn’t happy with the city’s proposal and recommended last Wednesday that officials reject it when they look at it in July.
- Denver’s city rules call for officials to fly coach, but in certain cases Mayor Michael Hancock, his staff and the City Council flew business class on trips organized by Denver International Airport.
- Longmont approved a $3 million deal to end oil and gas surface drilling in the city.
- Denver’s urban neighborhoods now have a New York- and Chicago-style problem: As new residents pack into high-rises in the city’s urban neighborhoods, the dogs they’re bringing are killing grass and trees with pee.
- Want to buy a place in Denver’s trendy Union Station neighborhood for under $300,000? (This isn’t an Onion article.)
- Speaking of housing, homeowners in hundreds of Denver’s deed-restricted affordable homes face a tough decision. Reporter Joe Rubino breaks down why.
- Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan was remembered at an emotional memorial last weekend.
- Meanwhile, the Aurora City Council now has until June 27 to choose Hogan’s replacement.
D.C. POLITICS FROM A COLORADO PERSPECTIVE
- Colorado businesses are hurting while the feds delay issuing seasonal work visas.
- Democratic voters across the U.S. are embracing candidates with compelling life stories in the 2018 primary elections.
- How months of inaction led U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, and other Republicans to take a stand on immigration.
- For years, Democrats have been united in their (failed) efforts to dislodge Republican Mike Coffman from his Aurora-area House seat. This year is different, as two Democrats are going toe-to-toe in a drama-filled primary fight.
THE WIRE
- So what makes a neighborhood organization effective? Well, it helps to be really well organized, for one. — Denverite
- U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, “threw his hands in the air and stomped away” when asked if he wants President Donald Trump to campaign for him. — McClatchy
- Think you’re smarter than the so-called “experts” out there? Think the internet can provide answers of the same quality as the intellectual crowd, like scientists and scholars? Yeah, that’s sort of becoming a big problem. — Foreign Affairs
- Primary debates for the Colorado governor’s race are beginning. (We have a few scheduled, too. Stay tuned…) — 9News
- A poll shows incumbent U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn way ahead in the GOP primary for his congressional seat. — Magellan Strategies
- State lawmakers are facing the most challengers in decades. (Colorado Democrats have a candidate in every statehouse race.) — Governing
- There’s a major disclosure gap in the high $$$ Colorado governor’s race. — Colorado Public Radio
- Why U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy exemplifies the conflict central to the Masterpiece Cakeshop Case. — Colorado Public Radio
- Denver is hosting nearly 6,000 travel planners, travel writers and other industry leaders in a major conference this week. — 9News
- Walker Stapleton takes the hot seat on Fox News — and it doesn’t go well. — Fox News
Questions, comments, feedback about this newsletter? Cool stories? Send them our way.
And thanks for reading!
P.S. Please consider backing The Denver Post (you can subscribe here) or journalism wherever you might be. And thanks for your support, whatever it might be.
P.P.S. Here is your GIF reward for making it to the end of this newsletter.
How I've felt since the #coleg legislative session ended. pic.twitter.com/uv5zXnGhoE
— Jesse Aaron Paul (@JesseAPaul) May 23, 2018
How I've felt since realizing we have 10 million 2018 races to cover and catch up on pic.twitter.com/uTGuweFkBa
— Jesse Aaron Paul (@JesseAPaul) May 23, 2018
Staff writers John Frank, Jon Murray, Mark K. Matthews and John Aguilar contributed to this newsletter.
