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One Board, One Council, One Legislator at a Time
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

One Board, One Council, One Legislator at a Time

By Michael J Badagliacco, “MJB” | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice While attending the Colorado Republican Assembly in April 2026, I reflected on how Colorado fell to the radical far left. A conversation with a friend came to mind. It described the precise mechanism the left uses to convert our Constitutional Republic into a social democracy, contrary to the vision of the founders. The U.S. was founded as a Constitutional Republic with power rooted in local government, built from the bottom up rather than imposed from the top down. Although we look to the president for national leadership, the true foundation lies in town councils, school boards, and state legislatures.  Article IV, Section 4 of the United States Constitution guarantees to every state in the Union a...
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Insurance relief or government growth: Colorado bills reveal two competing paths
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Insurance relief or government growth: Colorado bills reveal two competing paths

Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The two bills linked at bottom (SB26-049 and SB26-155 respectively) present an interesting contrast in policy intended to lower homeowners insurance premiums. I thought a comparison of the two might be illuminating. It’s not going to be entirely black and white, these aren’t polar opposites, but in looking at the bills together I think you can get a sense of the “legislative style” of those involved. The fiscal notes of both provide a pretty apt summary, so let’s start there. Screenshots 1a and 1b show the summary for SB26-049. Screenshots 2a and 2b show the summary for SB26-155. In the former you increase the people who qualify for grants from an existing enterpr...
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Colorado Senate Advances Bill to Ease Landfill Regulation Burden
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Senate Advances Bill to Ease Landfill Regulation Burden

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER – A bipartisan bill to backfill county governments for an unfunded methane emissions mandate is counting on money from existing state grant programs, which, according to Sen. Byron Pelton, is necessary to ensure Colorado counties don’t go bankrupt from the environmental rules put in place by unelected boards appointed by Gov. Jared Polis. Senate Bill 26-101, Local Government Landfill Methane Emission Reduction Regulations, will allow counties to use money from the community impact cash fund, air quality enterprise cash fund, and local government mineral impact fund “for the purpose of complying with landfill methane emission reduction requirements adopted by the air quality control commission, a division of the department of public h...
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Cleaning the rolls, cutting the cost: How Las Animas County found a better way
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Cleaning the rolls, cutting the cost: How Las Animas County found a better way

By Bob Cooper, COIFFE Director | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The Clerk and Election team in Las Animas County also adopted a “best practice” to improve Colorado Elections while reducing costs. We now have our largest Colorado county (El Paso County) and a medium-sized county (Las Animas) using a commercial credit agency to flag registered voters who no longer reside at the address in SCORE. SCORE is the Statewide Colorado Voter Registration and Elections system.        These two counties demonstrate leadership by pursuing real “Gold Standard” election operations.  Every Colorado voter should demand other counties implement this best practice because it significantly reduces costs associated with undeliverable ballots while at the same time reduces the opportuni...
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Weiser’s Record: The Lawsuit Machine and the Scorecard
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Weiser’s Record: The Lawsuit Machine and the Scorecard

By Shaina Cole | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Marya Washburn is a federal Forest Service firefighter. She was fired by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last year, right before fire season. At a January forum in Denver, Attorney General Phil Weiser singled her out by name as evidence of what his office has accomplished. "My office got involved in one of the 50 lawsuits we brought against this administration," Weiser told the Colorado Young Democrats forum. "We got our job back." It is also incomplete in ways voters should understand. The lawsuit Weiser was describing is captioned State of Maryland v. USDA. Maryland filed it. Maryland's attorneys drafted the complaint and argued the case. Colorado was one of several states that added its name to the filing. Weiser's o...
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Critics say Denver Post coverage skews ICE arrest data
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Critics say Denver Post coverage skews ICE arrest data

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project There’s one group the lefty press hardly checks: nonprofits Local media spirit animal Kyle Clark recently said: "Journalists just repeating what the powerful say isn’t news."Agreed. The media shouldn't be, but all to often are, merely scribes.Thing is, Clark and others have a spotty record at checking the powerful. In particular, they do a terrible job of checking the powerful nonprofits that have so much influence here in Blue Colorado.More on that topic in my recent op ed below.https://completecolorado.com/2026/03/23/colorado-press-selectively-holds-power-to-account/ The Denver Post’s Klamann and fun with statistics In the previous post today, I shared a recent op ed about how the lef...
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Report Finds Millions In Improper Payments At Unregulated Colorado Autism Centers
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Report Finds Millions In Improper Payments At Unregulated Colorado Autism Centers

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado A new report by the Colorado Department of Human Services says a lack of oversight at facilities that provide therapy for kids with autism has resulted in dozens of complaints of child abuse. It comes after a federal audit found the state Medicaid program made at least $78 million in improper payments to the facilities, some of which are owned by private equity firms that the state agency overseeing Medicaid says have exploited the lack of regulations to maximize revenue. Pam Bisceglia has dedicated her life to improving the lives of people with disabilities as Executive Director of Advocacy Denver and parent of a daughter with autism. She says the facilities sprang up across Colorado when the state and federal government began requi...
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After Supreme Court ruling Colorado advances controversial counseling and parental rights bills
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Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

After Supreme Court ruling Colorado advances controversial counseling and parental rights bills

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado Colorado may go down in history as the most ideologically extreme state in the nation. Between throwing President Trump off the ballot in 2024, persecuting Christian bakers and graphic designers, and banning free speech in religious counseling for minors dealing with sexual identity issues, Colorado is consistently striking out. The decisions made by our legal institutions are continually being overturned by the United States Supreme Court on basic constitutional arguments. Let’s take the state’s radical positions on gender theory. Just two weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to reverse the Tenth Circuit decision on Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy for minors. The Court held that the Colorado...
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Congress Challenges Colorado Court Rule Limiting Immigration Enforcement Access
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Congress Challenges Colorado Court Rule Limiting Immigration Enforcement Access

By Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is seeking information from Colorado’s court administrator regarding a new requirement that attorneys certify they will not use court data for immigration enforcement, arguing it unlawfully obstructs federal law and compels political speech tied to the state’s “sanctuary” policies. Colorado, a blue state that has passed “sanctuary” laws, has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, which has cracked down on illegal immigration. Colorado officials, meanwhile, have adopted a confrontational stance against both the administration and Trump’s policies, routinely criticizing the president and suing over an array of issues. Broadly speaking, “sanctuary” policies restrict or prohibit coop...
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Polis Joins Business Leaders Warning State Policies Driving Companies Out Of Colorado
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Polis Joins Business Leaders Warning State Policies Driving Companies Out Of Colorado

By Mark Samuelson | The Denver Gazette Is Colorado scaring away corporate expansions and entrepreneurs that had once made the state a magnet for high-tech business growth? That’s the assertion of a letter signed by more than 200 business and technology leaders, addressed to Gov. Jared Polis, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, Democratic senatorial candidates and other political leaders. Notably, one of the signers is Polis himself. Boulder entrepreneur Dan Caruso told The Denver Gazette that after he drove an effort to draft the missive, warning that political messaging is damaging the state’s business competitiveness, Polis had reached out. The governor offered to join in signing the letter and presenting it. “It wasn’t hard to get huge support,” Caruso ...
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