Kentucky moved to rein in executive power: Should Colorado do the same?

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

An intriguing idea out of Kentucky…

I usually stick to Colorado issues, but this idea out of the recent Kentucky legislative session struck me as worth sharing.

Since I live in Blue Colorado, the idea of Republicans having a supermajority (and will enough) to push their legislative priorities through, including “tearing through” a series of vetoes by the governor caught my eye.

Per the article linked first below, this is the case in Kentucky. The Republican-supermajority legislature there recently overrode a whole lot of Governor Beshear’s vetoes. If you’re interested in Kentucky politics, you can read up on the list, but the one that I want to focus on is shown in screenshot 1 from that article.

If you want to read the bill itself, you will find it linked second below and a screenshot of the summary attached as screenshot 2.

Colorado has had its share of veto override threats, though ours go the other way. There are a whole lot of Democrats and progressives who really don’t like it when Polis pumps the brakes.

But step outside of politics for a minute and assess Kentucky’s policy in broad strokes.

At both the federal and state level (here and likely Kentucky too) there has been a slow abdication of legislative authority; legislatures have increasingly ceded their authority to bureaucrats in the executive branch.

What caught my eye about this bill was that it is a change in direction, albeit a minor one. In particular, it’s limiting the power of the governor to make last-minute changes prior to stepping out the door at the end of his or her term.

When I read about this law, it put me in mind of what happened during COVID. Legislators, long before the Democrat takeover of all the levers of power in Colorado, saw fit to give the executive branch nearly unchecked power in an emergency. A power he or she could renew simply by saying the emergency was ongoing.

One of the things that started me doing the Colorado Accountability Project was frustration at the law, and frustration at the Democrats in the legislature who flat refused to get involved and cut Polis’ emergency powers.

I remember one prominent politician (Alec Garnett who, after leaving the legislature went to work in the Polis administration) saying that the idea of unchecked executive power needed to be examined, but “now was not the time.”

Turned out, because I asked, apparently a year later wasn’t the time.

Nor was a year after that.

The legislature leaving decisions to rulemaking bodies and the executive power to them gets to fundamental issues of how our government should run, how much control we the people have, and our liberty.

Kentucky’s move is tiny. It’s not entirely about fixing the problem I mention above.

It is, however, a step in the right direction. Things are out of balance and our legislature needs to claw back its rightful authority.

Whether you like any current administration or party, you should be aware that no situation is ever permanent. You should be fighting for fairness in case things were to change in the future.

https://www.lpm.org/news/2026-04-14/republicans-tore-through-beshears-vetoes-tuesday-overriding-nearly-all-of-them
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/HB10.html

Phil Weiser’s finite world–the AG’s criminal appeals backlog

Per the RM Voice article linked at bottom,** felony criminal appeals in Colorado are required to have a response from the Colorado Attorney General. Quoting with link intact:

“Every time a convicted felon in Colorado decides to fight their case on appeal, the state has to answer. Homicide. Sexual assault. White collar crime. Death row. It doesn’t matter — the Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Section picks up every one. Thirty-four attorneys. Every felony appeal in the state.”

Thing is, again per the article, the AG’s office isn’t keeping up.

There are a lot of data points and context in the article which I highly recommend that you read. One data point, from the AG’s SMART Act performance filings (linked in the article but excerpted second below for convenience) really stood out to me, however. Stood out enough that I wanted to show you.

Screenshot 1 attached comes from p 3 of that link and I highlighted the rows about criminal appeals.

I want you to note how, between Fiscal Year 23 and 24, the backlog grew by a startling amount (it also grew FY 24 to 25, but not by as much–the AG’s office was chipping away at the backlog in FY 23, but then headed the wrong direction starting in FY 24.

It would be wrong to tie this to Weiser’s lawsuit binge of late. That didn’t begin until January of 2025, putting it squarely in FY 25-26. These problems clearly predate the lawsuit spree.

It does, however, speak to two things. One, how well is our state legislature working with the AG’s office to allocate resources to important things? And, two, how well does AG Weiser work in a world of finite resources?

I don’t think either group comes out well here. Another quote from the piece fleshes this out somewhat (copied here with links intact):

“At the January 8, 2025 oversight hearing, with the section’s worst output year in the available data on the table, Weiser told the legislature the Criminal Appeals Section was ‘already very stretched’ and facing ‘a lot more work coming our way.’ No backlog figures were presented. No legislator asked. A year later — January 20, 2026 — with the backlog at 468 and climbing, Weiser mentioned the section once: ‘Our criminal appeals section represents felony prosecutions as they go on appeal.’”

No legislator asked. The appeals section was mentioned, but really only in the sense of defining it.

Ms. Cole, the author of the piece, sums it up better than I can here. I will paraphrase her penultimate paragraph.

People are waiting on answers for their appeals, both defendants and victims. At least from the latest mention of the appellate division of the AG’s office in Weiser’s SMART hearing this year, Phil Weiser doesn’t seem any too worried.

We live in a finite world where needs and desires almost always outpace resources. It’s not fair to hold someone responsible for this dichotomy; this is the way the world is.

It is, however, both reasonable and fair, to hold the head of a division responsible for how they advocate for their employees, the culture they create, and how they steward/allocate what resources they do have.

Poor management is at play for AG Weiser.

**RM Voice reporter Shaina Cole has done yeoman’s work lately for that outlet on both the AG’s office and Front Range Passenger Rail.

https://rockymountainvoice.com/2026/05/01/weisers-record-a-system-falling-behind/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRlfTtleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFkTXlyZ0NLcTlHbkJwcDZsc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHgSHskHw5OIunyqQI9IRDWl1s–D8AdrSunM5SdQsz8uj3wUYDuPuj0EZ1I8_aem_YvfKMzGOHzXCyv822V8vjw

https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/DOL-2025-26-Strategic-Plan-Performance-Report-4-pages.pdf

Related:

Some counterpoint to the idea that Weiser’s lawsuit campaign is helping Colorado, and how much.

See the link below which has the op ed in it.

https://coloradoaccountabilityproject.substack.com/p/is-ag-weisers-taxpayer-funded-trump?utm_source=publication-search

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.