This is such a busy time in Colorado when it comes to policymaking that our insiders this week came in really quickly.

We had our conversation and then took off back to the state Capitol, where the session ends this coming Wednesday, lawmakers are making budget cuts even as a plan for an automatic pay raise for them moves forward.

Now, one clear bright spot we have is our Colorado Avalanche, right?

Trust me, we have a strong panel ready to face off.

So let's get started with this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi, everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

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

David Kopel, research director with the Independence Institute.

Mary Goodland, chief legislative reporter for Colorado Politics and the Gazette.

And Adam Berg, senior policy advisor with Foster Graham Law Firm.

This week was supposed to showcase Denver hosting members of the Democratic National Committee and making the case to land a future presidential convention.

Instead, a blast of May snow shut down schools and kind of stole the spotlight.

Did the weather dampen Denver's pitch and more broadly, what does the city have going for it now?

And what might give decision makers some pause?

Because Patty is a different Denver than when we hosted the DNC the last time they did get to come in, and rather than fight on the Boulevard, they got to take the airline in Tuesday morning.

So that's a bonus.

At least that did not exist in 2008.

I have to say, snow in May in Denver is not going to be a big damper on the in a convention that would be here in the summer, because we know Denver's weather is going to be good in the summer, and very likely will not have a snow storm, unlike, say, Atlanta, which is the who's the city dissing the other the most?

Atlanta.

That'll be 100 degrees and 100 degrees, 100% humidity by the time this convention is held.

So for weather, Denver has it over Philadelphia and Boston and Chicago.

What we're pushing in Denver is it's the only site in the West, and Atlanta's dismissed for nostalgia.

But people remember 2008, the first convention here in 100 years, very fondly, because it was Barack Obama's acceptance speech at that had to move from Ball Arena, then Pepsi Center to the Empower Field because everyone wanted to be there.

So it was hope and change.

It was exciting.

And I think Denver really is wanting to play off that again, like we are a Democrat run state.

It's only gotten more so in the 20 years.

In fact, it changed in the 20 years after that and it's gotten more so.

So Denver might have a chance if they really want to celebrate what can be accomplished.

But if they want to get more votes, might be another state.

But they did go the avalanche game.

They went to the avalanche game.

They went insane.

Karaoke at Charlie Brown's best idea yet.

But Friday, David, what do you think?

Well, I covered the 2008 convention for the Rocky Mountain News, and from what I could see at the Pepsi Center at the time, it it seemed well run.

So there's got to be some good memories of that.

And as Patty was saying, the Obama messianic speech at Mile High Stadium, where the was was very helpful for his campaign and the believe me, the media there was just as, enthralled with him as word is any 19 year old, delegate doing going to her first convention.

The worst thing about 2008 was so many state delegations were housed in south suburban hotels, and the shuttle busses just couldn't keep up the capacity.

So had a lot of state delegations, the missed huge portions of the convention because they didn't get there in time now.

But there's a big change.

There was about 8000 hotel rooms in downtown Denver in 2008.

Now we're up to about 13,000.

So that solves the big thing.

The only downside is another thing that's up in Denver is violent crime.

It's up 43%, compared to 2008.

Okay.

Marianne, I, I also covered the DNC in 2008.

It was one of the most amazing experiences of of my life as a reporter.

And, and I had a very, very small portion of it to cover because my beat was really higher ed.

But but I had I had a great time getting to meet the protesters and the, the other folks who were outside the, outside ball arena primarily.

And that's one area that I would want to see a little bit different is a different way of handling the, handling people who disagree with what's going on.

I don't think that they did a good job in 2008.

I, and I think anybody who wanted it being caged, because that's what they did, everybody kind of got put in cages around Paul Arena, actually over on their campus.

So they weren't even on the same side of of Sphere Boulevard.

That's that's one thing that I would hope that they would reconsider is a different way of addressing that.

The other thing, and I don't think anybody's really thought about this, is drought and this state in August can turn into a very smoky mess if we have wildfire problems.

And there's not a whole lot that they can do about that.

On the other hand, if we wind up with that kind of what's that kind of summer?

You know, this this year looks bad, although not as bad as it did a couple days ago.

But if we wind up with a really bad wildfire season during 2028, that's that's not going to be a good look for Denver.

Okay.

All right Adam Denver's changed a lot in 20 years.

And I think the state of Colorado as a whole you could argue were were much more blue than we were 20 years ago.

When you look at the state legislative landscape, I also think it's interesting to look at the other cities.

So Boston and Philly claiming, you know, it's the bicentennial or on the heels of the Bicentennial and returning to the roots of of national politics, something I think Denver has going for it is it's not just about Denver and Colorado.

It's also about the West and the Sun Belt.

So regionally you have Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, big states in upcoming elections.

So I think coming to the West would showcase the party interest in this part of the country, more so than on the East Coast, where we've seen pretty well established roots of of the party.

Okay.

And what do I hear that they think $500 million is what Denver would get if we got this for how many days in the weeks before and, you know, and we'd only have to raise 75 million to get it.

Okay.

There's all right.

The Trump administration is suing the city of Denver over its 37 year old assault weapons ban.

And the day after following that filing that suit, the Department of Justice also sued the state of Colorado over the ban on high capacity magazines, which was passed after the Aurora theater shooting.

David, the DOJ insists both laws violate the Second Amendment.

As our constitutional attorney here, what do you think it does?

Do these laws hold up to the Second Amendment?

No, but that doesn't mean that the governments are going to lose.

The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is using a statute that was actually enacted in 1994.

As part of, a comprehensive crime bill that was passed by Democratic House, Democratic Senate and signed by President Clinton.

I'm not neutral on this thing.

In 1990, I represented the Colorado Attorney General's office, Democrat Duane Woodard, who sued against Denver's then new ban on so-called assault weapons.

And we show that it was based on lies, where the police chief had told the city council that these weapons were supposedly the weapon of choice of drug dealers and gangs, and we found they constituted well under 1% of guns seized at all in Denver.

And only one of those had ever been used in a known violent crime.

And then in 2013, I represented 51 sheriffs who joined with other plaintiffs and other lawyers who sued against the statewide magazine ban.

Ultimately, the 10th Circuit held that nobody had standing on anything, so there was no decision on the merits.

And that's one of the reasons I think the Department of Justice chose these cases because, unlike in some other circuits, there is no hostile circuit precedent on this matter, giving the ultimately a 10th Circuit the opportunity to do the right thing and follows the Supreme Court.

It's 22, 2022 precedent and Bruen under which these are both pretty easy cases.

Okay.

All right.

Mary, what do you think?

I'm fascinated by the fact that they're going after laws that have been on the books in Colorado 37 years in the case of the assault weapon and, 13 years now in the case of the, high capacity magazines, the these things have been through the courts and and to David's point, of course, there was no real clear decision on the, high capacity magazines, but I don't see the Department of Justice going after other states the way they are going after Colorado right now.

That which which I find really, really interesting.

And, and concerning for other states that may have similar laws in place.

We're not the only ones, though.

Everyone else better be watching out if if Trump doesn't like you, he's coming for you.

Well if I could just quickly they, they said Los Angeles for example on the city taking.

Well over half a year or longer issue concealed carry permit.

That's a different issue.

But that's on these like hardware bans.

They did a very good amicus brief in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals against New Jersey's ban.

But I think they're litigating here strategically, because of the favorable circuit situation.

Okay.

All right.

Adam, your thoughts?

Thank you.

I think we are going to see it trickle out and sort of federal action in other places could be DC or California or places with similar bans.

I think Marianne's point is notable, which is the Denver lobbying on the books since 1989.

It's gone through six different Court of appeals.

Throughout the process.

The the current city attorney has said it's held up, and they've kind of released an aggressive counter statement.

I think this state is going to be interesting, particularly because in the wake of the Aurora theater shooting and when they passed this initial law, there was some fallout.

We saw two recall elections.

We saw the sheriffs bring forward a challenge to prevent the law from going into effect.

I think what's interesting is we've seen numerous gun laws passed since then, even as recently as probably this session.

Yeah.

And so it's not a topic that's going to, to go away.

I think it's going be very curious if how the outcome comes of these cases.

And I and I to to Adam's point, I don't think we're done seeing the Department of Justice or the Trump administration coming after Colorado on weapons issues.

They have got a lot to choose from.

Okay.

All right.

And Patty, and let's not forget, in 2013, when Matt and Paul decided they were leaving the state, they split up, between Wyoming and their headquarters in Texas.

I don't think we've we said goodbye about as enthusiastically as to Palantir when they left this year, but with their ramifications for these decisions.

But we have to remember just we were not yet as immune to tragedy in 2013, after the shootings in Aurora, which were just so horrific.

And the fact is that we could have been more draconian in our gun control at the time.

And instead, this is really the one that passed and attempts to push for assault weapon bans statewide have been turned down.

So I think we will see more things coming from justice and not just over guns.

I mean, Tina Peters, I'm sure will be.

Maybe she'll have the right to have an assault weapon in jail, but we are going to still be a target.

Okay.

The Colorado legislative session is set to end this coming Wednesday.

So these final days are pretty packed, as Marianne knows all too well.

What is it like over there right now?

Marianne in the state capitol.

And what is really the focus?

What are you looking at in this?

These days are dwindling by.

Well, we're, we're now in the final days, which means it's a fire hose.

And they've got lots and lots and lots of work to get done.

As of Monday, they still had about 235 bills that we're still waiting to get through the entire process.

A lot of them are never going to make it.

And we're watching to see what the governor's going to veto.

We know of at least two.

I know of at least three bills that he has pledged to veto.

One is the Labor Peace Act bill, that he vetoed last year.

This year's version was was more or less the same.

So, you know, this will be up to the next governor to deal with.

The second is a bill on lobbying.

And this is an interesting one.

The Democrat this is a bipartisan bill.

They want to get the governor's lobbyists to register as lobbyists and declare positions and all the things that every other lobbyist at the Capitol has to do, legislative lobbyists that work for the agencies, for the cabinet don't have to do that.

The governor has pledged to veto that one.

That one is about to head to his desk.

A third one, and I don't know if they'll ever reach his desk, but it's on allowing the department.

The Department of Revenue and the Colorado Lottery to use to allow credit cards to purchase lottery tickets.

And the legislature has been very firmly against this.

But the governor has also made it very clear he'll veto that.

We have a bill on pinnacle that, has is being introduced as this this program is being taped.

That is that could be the last big fight of this session.

Pinnacle favors a ballot measure that is, has been approved for circulation.

I don't think they're particularly crazy about this, this pinnacle bill.

Then we also have artificial intelligence.

And that bill cleared the state Senate, Thursday morning.

But without the big fights that we have had over that issue in the last couple of years, this this one was almost like a Kumbaya moment, which is actually kind of interesting.

So and then we we have transportation bills and we have a bunch of tax bills.

There's, there's there's a lot going on.

What are you watching?

The big one right now for me is the transportation bill.

So House Bill 1430, it comes in the wake of initiative 175, which is, ballot measure that's gathering signatures.

It's a constitutional change, really, earmarking transportation dollars mostly for road and bridge and safety and a couple other things.

As we know, Colorado in recent years has really shifted a lot of funds towards multimodal, and investing in those areas.

And this is coming from a group who would like to see our traditional roads be better.

What's notable here is this is the legislature attempting to essentially undercut that initiative before it goes to voters.

So if it were to pass or say both pass 1430 goes into effect and we pass initiative 175, it would essentially got much of those changes that 175 would instill around transportation funding as an attempt to protect general fund flexibility and some other funding mechanisms.

So we were talking before the show.

It's not necessarily a precedent that they're doing this.

But certainly something to watch.

Okay.

All right, Patty, the ballot in November is going to be confusing enough without all this brinkmanship, but it's going on more and more just to try to put things in place so the voters can't have their way necessarily.

In November, I'm watching on a potential veto the ride share safety.

So last year, Polis did veto that when Uber threatened to leave Colorado.

I love these corporations threatening to leave Colorado because of the ride share safety that women and really men too would be assured safety when they have rideshare.

So I think this year that's going to pass lots of heartfelt testimony in the legislature last year and again this year, it's a little improved.

It should definitely pass.

And the fact that I after all this waiting and waiting and waiting now, it's almost like an afterthought with no fights as far as we can tell, looks like it will go through smoothly and certainly Pelosi will sign that one.

Yeah.

Well the reason AI is so smooth is because there was a lawsuit against it.

And the Department of the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division intervened in the case on the side of the Constitution, the First Amendment and Attorney General Phil Wiser and Governor Polis, to their credit, recognized that the law was impossible to defend.

It was a flagrant violation of the First Amendment.

And so now they're getting the legislature to repeal and the awful, bill that Polis and signed a few years ago, for the the stuff about road funding, our constitution, state constitution adopted by the voters in the 1930s.

We added a gas tax on sale on fuel and said in the Constitution right there, all the money from the gas tax goes to roads, building and maintenance period.

Nothing else can legally be spent for.

But of course, as end points out, the legislature violates the Constitution all the time and spends the road money that should go to roads on other stuff.

But on the good side, they've passed, and it's on the governor's way to the governor's desk, a bill to allow, easier geothermal energy development so local governments could contract with geothermal providers, operate their own utility, sell geothermal energy, which is the cleanest stuff out there, at reasonable prices without having to get permission from the Public Utilities Commission, which is just a crony organization, dominant, dedicated to excels profits and other special interests.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we'll see what happens by Wednesday, the state Supreme Court's decision that narrows parts of the Voting Rights Act is adding fuel to the national conversation about redistricting here in Colorado, strong voter protection laws and an independent redistricting commission are expected to limit any immediate impact.

Now, districts here in Colorado are only redrawn once a decade following the census.

But could that change?

Adam?

That's a big question.

There's a lot to watch here.

I don't I don't love this conversation around the race to redistricting and sort of redlining different states.

I think it's probably not healthy from a national perspective.

Voters in 2018 here, through amendments, Y and Z, created independent redistricting commissions.

You do have a faction of Democrats who argue in the way those commissions protect Republican seats, which may otherwise flip blue.

But I also think you have an argument here that this seems to be a fairly widely praised, independent system of redistricting, and simply because this national context around the race for congressional seats seems to be growing.

It does make me weary that special interests are starting to come into the state and sort of pushing towards more of a Partizan district thing process.

So something to watch for sure.

I think I said it before when we first started talking about it this year, that two wrongs don't make a right just because other states are trying to redistrict doesn't mean we should get rid of what Colorado voters approved, which is a very good independent system that takes away so much of the backroom dealing and that we actually have a say in it.

It's an independent commission.

It's good.

I mean, it's like our election system.

It's like our voter, our Mail-In ballots.

We are actually having a cleaner, election cleaner redistricting than these other states.

There's no reason we should fall into what they're doing just because it might make a better Senate and House.

What do you think one of the advantages of a federal system with 50 different laboratories of democracy is that a state like Colorado can choose to act sane, even when other states are being ridiculous, you know, and, and, and whatever direction we were, for example, the first state to really realize adult use of marijuana, even though we didn't say, oh, they're doing it this way in California and Texas and Virginia, we got to copy them.

No, we said we're going to do it our own way.

And we and this goes back to the early days of statehood.

We were only the second state in the country, to give women the vote in all, in all elections.

And again, that's because we didn't say we have to copy Illinois and other states with notoriously bad government.

Hakeem Jeffries, and his so so-called hair vote thing.

It's just the opposite.

It's a flagrant lie we have about in congressional votes, a 5050 split in Colorado.

That's how the delegations split out.

And to change it to a seven to 1 or 8 zero would be depriving people of their voting rights.

Marianne.

Except that voters are going to, are likely going to be asked about this in this year's ballot, we have competing ballot measures, one that is backed by advanced Colorado.

That is a counter to a measure that is being backed by a group called Coloradans for a Level Playing field, which is being funded by the House majority PAC, which is controlled by Hakeem Jeffries.

And the the redistricting map that the, Coloradans are a level playing field and they've already issued it.

We already know what it looks like.

That's a that's a problem right off the bat, in my opinion.

But but, it it would make a, in all likelihood A71 map, but it wouldn't actually start until the 2028 election.

So any thought that it's going to have an impact on the 2026 election, this midterm that has been catching so much attention, that's not going to happen.

This if if voters approve this or, approved either one of them, it's it doesn't go into effect until 2028.

And then they would revert back in 2032 to an independent redistricting commission.

But, you know, this is not what voters voted for in 2018.

No, no.

Okay.

Now let's go around the table and talk about some of the highs and the lows that we've all witnessed this week.

We'll start on a low point.

And with Patty, we'll return to the city of Denver where back in August, when there were city layoffs, they got rid of the court magistrates.

Where you could fight a parking ticket.

Now, if you got to put you can't do it online.

Now, if you got a parking ticket that you think is unfair, you've 20 days to go apply to have a hearing in front of a judge.

Good use of judges times, but it takes at least three months to get that hearing.

You've got 20 days to get it, but it's going to take at least three months.

It is an unintended consequences of a really bad move.

Okay.

The, Russia's, big military parade to celebrate its victory over Nazi Germany, world War two, is quite a downer this year for tyrant, Vladimir Putin.

His invasion of the Ukraine has now gone on longer than it took.

The mighty Soviet Union to defeat Nazi Germany, which was a much bigger military power, than Ukraine.

So Putin has done he's bringing Russia down from great power status, to internationally recognized loser.

And in 2024, the General Assembly approved a bill that set up an independent commission to figure out how much they ought to be paid.

And, their very first report said that lawmakers were this came out last December, said lawmakers were underpaid by about 6%.

So at a time when Medicaid services are being cut and services for families with intellectual and developmental disabilities, family members and Medicaid providers are getting their their provider rates cut, lawmakers are going to get a 6.4% increase in their salary, and they didn't even have to vote on it.

Okay.

Of but Mary Ann said, but health care related.

So there was a panel conversation at Denver Health this week talking about Medicaid cuts, both statewide and nationally, and we've seen it become the largest factor in the budget.

They're trying to wrangle that as best they can.

I do worry, you know, there's a point at which we are attempting to maintain a safety net versus losing the safety net, and there is some fear, with the rising cost of health care, that people will lose access to care, their insurance will grow, their prescription drug costs will grow.

So, just too concerning from a human point of view.

Okay.

All right, let's get to something good.

Patty.

All the mothers out there, including Mother Nature, this gave us all a good laugh.

Especially after the DPS declared snow day for wet roads.

But especially my mother.

Yeah, absolutely.

Historic Denver has proposed naming the longtime home of, Wellington and Wilma Webb as a historic home, which it certainly is.

They have been.

Well, Wellington was mayor of Denver.

Both were in the state legislature.

She also served in the, U.S.

Department of Labor, regionally, one of Denver's most influential, power couples.

Okay.

All right.

Oh.

Hello there.

Hi, there.

Thank you to the Colorado State Senate this morning, which did a wonderful salute to our former colleague Fred Brown, who passed away on April 1st.

When Fred retired in 2002, he was given the extraordinary honor of speaking to the Senate from the well of the Senate.

That doesn't happen.

That's a that's a privilege reserved for current and former lawmakers.

But Fred addressed the Senate, on the occasion of his retirement.

And on that day, everybody got a Fred Brown mask and they all wore them.

So, when the idea was proposed and this was actually came from the Senate Republicans to do a tribute to Fred, they said, where is that mask?

And we we found it.

And they did.

They recreated that moment this morning, Thursday morning in the state Senate.

He was such a good guy.

That's a great person.

Oh, it's nice to have him here at the table.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

Item, May is mental health awareness month.

So just a reminder for people to check in on people you love.

You know, the more we talk about anxiety or depression or other mental health issues, the more we reduce the stigma.

All right.

Okay.

My high this week is a both due nCCU Women's Lacrosse teams are heading into the opening round of the national tournament after winning their conference championships.

Do you secured its sixth straight Big East title?

Well, see, you earned its first big 12 title and with it being Mother's Day weekend, as Patty mentioned, a special shout out to all the moms behind these athletes because we know how much you do.

And I must highlight one mom in particular, my longtime friend Kelly Kennedy, whose daughter Rachel plays for the buffs.

Kelly didn't just support her daughter over the years.

She taught Rachel the game from the time that she could hold a stick.

And after a tough injury that sidelined Rachel all last season, this year has been awesome, with Kelly constantly jumping up and down as her daughter has scored 27 goals, contributing to the buffs strong run.

So congratulations of course, to the Kennedy family.

To all the student athletes from both.

See you and to you, and to all the moms who are part of every step of the journey.

Thanks to insiders for joining us this week.

Thanks you for watching at home or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

And again, Happy Mother's Day.

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