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Colorado Lawmakers Brace for Wave of Primary Challenges Ahead of 2026 Elections
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Lawmakers Brace for Wave of Primary Challenges Ahead of 2026 Elections

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics As the 2026 election cycle begins, an unusually large number of Colorado lawmakers — many appointed through the vacancy process — are facing primary challenges that reflect deepening divisions within both major parties. But it isn’t only open seats that candidates are looking at: at least 14 current lawmakers, almost all in the House, are facing primary challenges from within their own parties. Six are lawmakers who began their legislative service through the vacancy process, including four who gained their seats in the past year.  On Monday, former Rep. Amy Parks, R-Loveland, announced she would challenge Rep. Ron Weinberg in House District 51. Parks was the partner of the late House Minority Leader Hugh McKean.&nb...
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New Colorado Law Limits Childcare Waitlist Fees and Requires Refunds
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

New Colorado Law Limits Childcare Waitlist Fees and Requires Refunds

By Gabriela Vidal | CBS Colorado For new parents in the Denver metro area, finding the right child care facility can be challenging and expensive. However, a new state law beginning this year can help ease some of the financial strain. "I became pregnant in November 2023, and I started calling around in January 2024," said Emily Rinkel. "The last thing that I should have to worry about is where I'm going to get my childcare from." Yet that is exactly the struggle Rinkel faced when she began searching for childcare facilities for her newborn. "I put my name on the waitlist on one of the corporate facilities," she said. "It was $150, and non-refundable, and I had to pay it whether my child got into the center or didn't get into the center."By Gabriela Vidal | CBS ...
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Who funds Colorado’s legislative fellows and how much influence do they have?
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, State

Who funds Colorado’s legislative fellows and how much influence do they have?

By Cory Gaines | Colorado Accountability Project Meet the Fellows SB25-309, linked first below, has lofty and not-unreasonable goals. Quoting the bill’s fiscal note:“The bill authorizes the Legislative Council Committee to approve agreements between the Legislative Council Staff (LCS) director and nonpartisan organizations to place nonpartisan legislative policy fellows in LCS. Any agreement approved by the committee must ensure that the director retains supervisory authority over fellows, and also specify that any work created during the fellowship remains the property of the General Assembly.”The concept is simple. We all have our areas of expertise and education, and we are all ignorant outside of those areas. Our legislators are no exception; they’re not super men...
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When policy hits home: The people paying the price for Colorado planning
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

When policy hits home: The people paying the price for Colorado planning

By Scott K. James | Commentary, ScottKJames.com What all these laws, rules, “roadmaps,” and captured processes are doing to the people who actually live here. We’ve spent four chapters documenting the system: Part 1: How Colorado got quietly rewired. Part 2: The rule that choked our roads. Part 3: The advocacy-industrial complex behind it. Part 4: How “public comment” became a choreographed performance. Today, we end where this story always should have begun. Not in the Capitol.Not in a CDOT Zoom room.Not in Boulder conference halls.Not in 200-page policy PDFs. But in the real lives of the people who live with the consequences. Because none of this – none of it – is theoretical. These aren’t abstract “policy disagreements.”These are i...
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Colorado Congressman Accuses Polis Administration Of Mismanaging Road Funds
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kdvr.com, Approved, State

Colorado Congressman Accuses Polis Administration Of Mismanaging Road Funds

By: Hanna Powers | KDVR FOX31 DENVER (KDVR) — A Colorado congressman is accusing the state of mismanaging transportation dollars, arguing that despite record funding, roads across Colorado are in worse shape than ever. Rep. Gabe Evans, who represents Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, shared an exclusive letter with FOX31 that he is sending directly to Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Department of Transportation Executive Director Shoshana Lew. In the letter, Evans raises concerns about roadway safety, crumbling infrastructure, and what he describes as a failure to prioritize basic road maintenance over mass transit and climate-focused projects. “This stretch of I-25 is one of the busiest highways in the state,” Evans told FOX31, pointing to the corridor that ...
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Inside the structure of Colorado’s Democrat-advocacy complex
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Inside the structure of Colorado’s Democrat-advocacy complex

By Scott K. James | Commentary, Scott’s Sheet How a Small Circle of Nonprofits, Appointees & Climate Advocates Took the Reins Friday, we broke down the rule that choked our highways. Today, we lift the curtain on the people and organizations pulling the levers. This isn’t conspiracy theory. It’s process. It’s not “secret cabal.” It’s perfectly public what they do — just rarely examined. 1. Meet the Architects Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) – Executive Director Elise S. Jones. Based in Boulder. Works in six-state region promoting decarbonization, clean transportation, smart land use. (SWEEP) Colorado Energy Office (CEO) – Executive Director Will Toor. Oversees state’s energy & transportation-electrification ag...
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Colorado’s Budget Is Bigger Than Ever. Health Care Is Why.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s Budget Is Bigger Than Ever. Health Care Is Why.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s state budget is larger than it used to be. That much isn’t disputed. What has changed over the last twenty years is where that growth landed. The Common Sense Institute’s “Colorado Budget: Then and Now” (December 2025) Colorado’s state budget has grown faster than population and inflation since the mid-2000s. The shift wasn’t sudden. It accumulated, year by year, across multiple budgets and multiple administrations. The increase shows up clearly in the numbers. In the mid-2000s, state spending worked out to a little under $5,600 per person once population and inflation were accounted for. It didn’t stay there. Year by year, the number crept higher. It now sits above $7,300. The increase...
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How climate policy became the steering wheel of Colorado government
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ScottKJames.com, Approved, Commentary, State

How climate policy became the steering wheel of Colorado government

By Scott James | Commentary, Scott K. James In part 1 of my five-part series, I reveal how climate mandates quietly reshaped Colorado’s laws, roads, and local control – without a vote from the people. Yesterday, I told you the truth about where I am – not as an elected official, not as a partisan, not as a policy wonk, but as a human being who loves this state enough to lose sleep over it. If you missed it, you can read that emotional prologue here. That was the heart.Today begins the head. Today marks the first installment of the five-part series I promised – not ranting, not rumor, not political theater, but the receipts. The real sequence of events, the policies, the bills, the rules, the decisions, and the machinery that fundamentally reshap...
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Trump Blasts Polis as Weak and Pathetic Over Continued Imprisonment of Tina Peters
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Trump Blasts Polis as Weak and Pathetic Over Continued Imprisonment of Tina Peters

By Jesse Sarles | CBS Colorado President Trump continued to use strong words to describe Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Monday. He's upset about the fact that Tina Peters, the former county clerk and top election official in Mesa County, is still behind bars. Last week, Trump posted to Truth Social that he was pardoning Peters, saying, "Tina is sitting in a Colorado prison for the 'crime' of demanding Honest Elections." READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CBS COLORADO
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