Colorado's primary ballots are pretty much set

Good morning Colorado. You are listening to the Daily Sun Up. It's a conversation with

the Colorado Sun. I'm Team Editor David Krause. Before we jump into today's conversation,

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new at kp.org slash CO. Now back to the show. Ballots for Colorado's June 30th primary are just

amounts set. Colorado Sun political reporter Jesse Paul joined Benton Berkland and Caitlin

came of CPR news on the latest edition of the purplish podcast to break down who's on it.

I'm Benton Berkland and we have CPR's Washington DC correspondent Caitlin Kim on the line with me.

She's back on the East Coast but was just here in Colorado to attend the assemblies in Pueblo.

Hey Caitlin, thanks for joining us. Hi, what can I say? Any excuse to have some sloppers?

I had my first slopper in Pueblo and it was delicious. I know I was there.

And we have Jesse Paul with the Colorado Sun joining us. He also covered the assemblies.

Apparently I get invited to purplish but not the slopper party.

Next time.

So a quick civics lesson. Colorado has a few ways of getting on the primary ballot.

A candidate can collect voter signatures or they can rally support through the caucus and assembly

process. I want to note that the assemblies bring together the most progressive Democrats on the

one hand and the most conservative Republicans on the other. I like to describe it as who would be left

if you boiled the major parties down for 24 hours. So it's really the most committed and often

most partisan members of the parties that are at these assemblies. Yes, party members go to

local caucuses and volunteer to be a delegate to the state assembly and it definitely takes a lot

of time out of someone's daily life. So these voters are really active in the party and invested in

candidates. To win support candidates have to show that they embody what the party wants right now

and that they're the right choice to sell that vision to a wide range of voters and it can be a

hard tightrope to walk. One of the big functions of this process is to winnow down the field.

It's pretty simple to file paperwork to run for office in Colorado but to get on the ballot

through the caucus and assembly route you need at least 30% of delegates to support you.

So when you do the math that's three candidates max per race getting on the ballot this way.

So civics lesson over let's get to it.

The Democrats held their assembly first. This was at the end of March and when we were there talking

to delegates we heard a lot of concerns that were pretty national in scope. I think the American

people have been really clear that they do not want us to engage in foreign warms. They want us to

be focused on issues here at home. I'm focused on democracy and preservation of democracy. I am

for affordability. That's like the main issue right now and a lot of delegates also talked about

the Warren Gaza political pack money and taking a stronger stand against Trump than against ICE.

Because many of these delegates tend to come from the far ends of the political spectrum

assemblies compose a risk for candidates to use politics 10 more towards the center especially in

this cycle when people aren't happy with the status quo. Yeah the assemblies can just be a real

crap shoot. Failed to win 30% of the people in this one auditorium and this one place at this one

time and it's the end of the line for your campaign. Like what happens if some of your supporters

eat bad shellfish the night before or what if they just had something better to do on a Saturday?

It's also though a time saver to gather signatures and if you're a member of congress running

for reelection those incumbents are in DC during a week. That's why a lot of them tend to go the

petition route to get on the ballot. It is very pricey though so for candidates who don't have

that much money the caucus and assembly process is the way to do it. Yeah what's interesting

this year is there's a bit of a trend in some of the democratic races where you see one candidate

going the signature route and then kind of leaving the assembly wide open for their opponent. So

that was the case for the governor's race Senator Michael Bennett got signatures and then

Attorney General Phil Wiser swept the assembly. Yeah and it was also the case for the US Senate.

John Hakenloper went with petitions while state senator Julie Gonzalez won over the delegates

at the assembly and and cd8 the same thing you know former state lawmaker Shannon Bird and veteran

Evan Munsing went the petition route. State representative Manny Rootnell the assembly route.

But we did see in some key races that the main candidates did go through assembly. So the race

for Secretary of State to candidates Jesse Danielston the state senator and Amanda Gonzalez

a county clerk they both made the ballot and the Attorney General's race three candidates who

went through the assembly process David Seligman Jenna Griswald and Michael Doherty and a fourth

candidate is expected to make it on via petitions Heddle Doshi. Given the recent voting trends in the state

it's very likely that whoever wins the democratic primary will have a smooth glide path to the state

office. Democrats definitely have the most at stake in this year's primaries. A lot of ambitious

stems hope to climb the political ladder this year. So it's not surprising that all of these races

have primaries. Maybe it's even a little surprising that the fields aren't larger.

Gosh yeah that would be that would be a lot. I mean the benefit to winning an assembly is that

you do get your name first on the ballot. So during the primary it's listed top billing.

But winning assembly and getting top line on the primary ballot doesn't mean you're actually

going to win the primary. Sometimes when you're first year last as the great Ricky Bobby said

the only reason I'm here today is that I was promised that I would get to rant about all of this

later and we are very much looking forward to that. Before we get to Jesse's much anticipated rant

I want to talk about maybe the biggest surprise in the democratic field Diana DeGate. She's the

dean of Colorado's delegation and she came close to not making the ballot. She was significantly

outperformed by Mala Kuros. A first-time candidate, a self-described democratic socialist.

I wasn't surprised to get got through in the end. Yes it was close. You know to get got around

33% of the vote at the CD-1 assembly and a few points lower and she would have been out of luck.

I mean Jesse how big of a deal is it that Kuros did so well on this congressional district assembly?

As tempted as I am to start my rant now the bottom line is that you can't draw any conclusions from it.

Kuros is a political newcomer. Could she really upend this race? You know it's not out of the realm

of possibility but look it's going to be tough for her. Denver is a deep blue district and whoever wins

the primary will be on a glide path to the house but it's important to remember primary voters

are not as progressive as the people who go to assembly and there are more unaffiliated voters in

the district who you know will get a say in the primary race. Okay you guys are just like

tempting me to start my rant now. I'm gonna close my mouth. I do want to mention that this could end

up being a three-way race for CD-1. We're waiting to see if another DeGette Challenger

CEO Regent Wanda James has enough signatures to qualify. But what does it say about the

Democratic electorate after these three decades that DeGette is facing some pretty significant

challenges. This is not the first time that DeGette has faced a primary challenge and she's

fended off a lot of challenges before but polling does show that Democrats are unhappy with their

party and its leaders so this primary could be telling on that front. Yeah you know it goes towards

this larger theme of people being sick of the status quo and wanting change. Well that's kind of

the mood among Democrats but next up we're going to talk about Republicans who are just hoping to

get a seat at the table. This is Purplish from CPR News and the Colorado Capital News Alliance.

Colorado Republicans have been pretty rudderless for the last few years.

Deep deep divisions about the direction the party should take. Policy divides arguments about

who is a true Republican, calling people rhinos, support for President Trump or not.

And there were a lot of questions about Republicans even being able to pull off the successful

state assembly. Yeah and whether it was a success or a suffer fest probably depends on whether you

were there for the 12 plus hour event. Success in the sense that yes they chose some candidates,

not so much of a success in the bureaucratic or efficiency sense. The backdrop here,

party chair Britohorn got hit with a no confidence vote earlier in the year and promised a step

down right after the assembly. A lot of distrust going into the assembly, people weren't sure

delegates would even believe the outcome of the vote with horn and her supporters in charge.

And as you both know Republicans have been calling for hand counts and paper ballots in elections.

So some delegates were upset that the party wasn't counting everything by hand.

You know as someone who was there though given how long everything took I think in the end

everybody was happy that they weren't waiting hours for a hand count that said and I hate to say

this because I know the people working there were really trying but the GOP assembly was a mess

and definitely bore out some of the concerns people had. You know it started hours and hours late

and was plagued by disagreements throughout. And then once the votes were in and counted,

organizers found out they had more votes than credential delegates.

Ooh. That's right the party of election integrity had about 80 more votes than credential

delegates and everyone was so tired of being there that at the end of the day they just said

the heck with it and accepted the clearly flawed results.

Yeah that's not something I would have predicted ahead of the assembly.

When we talk to democratic delegates, a lot of folks concerned about affordability.

That was top of mind for Republicans too as well as social issues like transgender rights,

parental rights and trying to unify as Republicans. I work hard for my money and yet I feel like

it's not actually being put to use how it should be. I can't afford to live on my own,

I have to live with roommates and then after a while I have to move back home with my parents.

The education and the parental rights that are being taken away from our kids in school.

Are we going to come together and be on the divided party and like people said,

don't bring snacks, we eat our own. That's the joke.

Let's look at who made it onto the Republican primary ballot starting with the governor's race.

Yeah this is where you really see the power of the assembly to bring some order out of chaos,

especially a huge field of candidates. There were 18 gubernatorial candidates that wet the assembly

route. So many speeches. My favorite was from Kelvin Kayman Wimberley, never heard of him before,

who spent his entire speech trying to persuade a delegate just to nominate him.

And he was successful, he got a nomination. Thankfully not all of these 18 showed or even spoke,

but of those 18 only two came away with their names on the ballot.

That's pastor and marine veteran Victor Marx, who got just under 40% of the vote and state

representative Scott bottoms of fellow pastor who got 45% of the vote. Sadly though Kayman came

up well short, but just a handful of support covering the legislature. Scott bottoms is a pretty

familiar figure. He's definitely one of the most conservative lawmakers at the state capital,

especially a cultural conservative. But outside of political circles around Denver,

Victor Marx is probably less familiar. Jesse, what should people know about Marx?

Victor Marx is definitely someone I hadn't heard of when this whole process started. He is running

his first race for elected office. Marx said he started putting down roots in Colorado about 15

years ago. He's got a massive social media following a lot of it from his national profile. He says

he spent his career trying to rescue women and children from exploitation. We know that Marx has a

focus on the family connection. That's the big evangelical church down in Colorado Springs.

This is his first campaign for office, as I mentioned, but he's got a who's who of backers,

including Lauren Bobert. Yep, and Bobert was there in the back sort of waving a sign for him.

I will say Marx promised it's elected that he would release former Mesa County clerk Tina

Peters on quote day one. That's not if current governor Jared Polis beats him to it.

Bottoms and Marx won't likely be the only two Republicans in this primary race though.

State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer from Well County. She's run for Congress before. She submitted

signatures to petition on. Yeah, she's still very conservative, but she's not cut from the same

cloth as these Republican assembly delegates. So it's not really a surprise that she sat out the

assembly. Let's talk about some of the other statewide races. What stood out there?

Well, one theme is that Republicans won't have a ton of choices for statewide office on their

primary ballots. They'll see one candidate for US Senate, that state Senator Mark Basley,

one candidate for Secretary of State, one candidate for Treasurer, and two for Attorney General.

Jesse, people may be surprised that even if there's only one candidate for Republicans,

let's say US Senate, it's still listed on the primary ballot. That's right. You got to fill out

that bubble and get Carpool Tunnel Syndrome, even if there's only one candidate. Technically,

the reason why is that if a candidate drops out once their name is already on the primary ballot,

there have to be some votes for that person so that a vacancy committee can be formed to fill

that person's spot. We know how much you love covering vacancy commitments. Yeah, thank you for

that tidbit. Moving down the Republican ballot, one thing that makes the assembly process pretty

interesting is that it does allow a candidate to pop up at the 11th hour and make a splash because

you can get nominated from the floor, and that's what happened for Congressional District 3.

This is the seat that covers Western and Southern Colorado. That's right, and to be clear,

this happened during the Republican Assembly, incumbent representative Jeff Heard. He had already

offended off a primary challenger, Hope Shepelman, with the help of President Trump, no less.

But he gained another at the District Assembly, former state representative Ron Hanks.

It essentially means a rematch of the 2024 GOP primary, where Heard beat out Hanks and others.

You know, Hanks pulled off this floor nomination, following the speech,

criticizing some of Heard's votes, like overturning Trump's tariff, some Canada,

and his collaboration on a public landfill with Colorado's two Democratic U.S. Senators.

If I had an audience with the president, I would go and say, Mr. President, what more can I do

to floor the America first? Now, Heard secured a spot on the ballot via the petition process,

so unlike to get, he wasn't ever at risk of getting knocked out at the Assembly.

But he did show up to talk to delegates, a legislative update, and reminded them that

this district is not solidly red, which means electability matters.

This is not about personnel, it's not about noise, it's about results, it's about effectiveness,

it's about keeping Colorado's third district in Republican hands proud of the work that we've

done, but we're not finished. Remember, this is the seat that Congresswoman Lauren Bobert

almost lost, then she moved across the state to run in the Redis Congressional District.

That's right, and this time, Bobert, as well as incumbent representative Jeff Crank and Gabe Evans,

will also not have to face any primary challengers. But you'll still have to fill out those little bubbles.

We talked a bit earlier about why a candidate might choose to go the assembly route versus

collecting petitions, but it's also interesting to ask what succeeding at the assembly process

means for candidates' chances in the primary. Jesse, you've been putting in some time trying to

answer that question. Yes, this is my moment. Let's do this. Leroy Jenkins. Oh my god.

Okay, the reality is that while party activists put a lot of weight on the caucus and assembly

process and the candidates who win it, there is often a reverse correlation between who wins at

the assembly and who wins in the primaries. So I'm pat that a little bit more. Lots of candidates who

win their parties' assemblies in Colorado have gone on to lose in the primaries. In 2018, for

instance, former state treasurer Carrie Kennedy won nearly 62% of the delegate vote at assembly,

easily beating then US representative Jared Polis. But if you haven't figured it out by now,

Kennedy went on to lose the primary to Polis and buy a very wide margin.

Yeah, and we've seen this in both parties. Former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez won the biggest

share of the delegate vote for governor at the 2022 Republican state assembly. But he went on

to lose the primary to Heidi Ginal, who ultimately lost to Polis in the general election.

There are examples of this up and down the ballot and with both parties. Of course,

there are people who win at the assembly and in the primary, but the point I'm trying to make

here is that the popularity at assembly does not automatically mean voters will like you when

the primary ballots arrive. It often, in fact, means the opposite. Yeah, and I think people need to

keep in mind that the state assemblies are attended by about, you know, 1500 to 2000 delegates.

That is a small, small fraction of the roughly four million registered voters in Colorado.

Most of whom are unaffiliated and not even partisans. Take that first congressional district

democratic assembly that we talked about at the top or to get almost didn't make the ballot.

It's not to say that Milacuros or Wanda James won't be dying to get in the primary. That could

definitely happen. It's that you can't make that conclusion because of what happened at the assembly.

The point is just that these assemblies are not representative of the electorate. It's like a poll.

The results are only as good as the data and that data needs to be randomized and representative

to be worth anything. Okay, rant over. Preach, Jesse, preach. You know, you could be on the

Republican ballot for governor at this rate or Democratic ballot. Well, it's too bad. I'm

unaffiliated like the majority of the electorate and can't participate in any of this assembly stuff.

What are the implications when candidates who succeed at assembly often struggle with a larger

electorate when you have Republicans potentially on the verge of dropping their primary all together?

So that means Republicans would only use the assembly process to pick candidates for the general

election. Yeah, this is a good moment to talk about that. There's a faction of Republicans who

have long sought to stop their party from participating in Colorado's primaries, mainly because they

don't like that unaffiliated voters are allowed to cast ballots in them. And they received a major

boost late last month when a federal judge concluded that rules in the state about how a party can

opt out of Colorado's open primary system are unconstitutionally high. Now, as a reminder,

Colorado voters overwhelmingly supported letting unaffiliated voters participate in partisan primaries

when they voted on it about a decade ago. They could choose either their Republican ballot or the

Democratic ballot. But the law allows the parties to opt out of the primary if 75% of their

Central Committee votes to do so. Democrats to be clear have not tried to opt out, but a faction

of Republicans has tried every election cycle and recent memory. However, they've been unable to

reach that 75% threshold. They've gotten a majority, but not that magic three quarters number.

That's right. And in 2023, the Republican party sued in federal court and they claimed that

this 75% threshold was too high. And now Republicans have partially won their case.

This is a big development. The judge agreed that the threshold is too high. He didn't set a

new threshold. But if it's lower, there is a very good chance that the Central Committee will

reach it. Would this affect this year's Republican primary election? It's a bit of a tough question,

but the answer is probably not. It's kind of too late for that. But there is a very strong

likelihood, as I mentioned, that Republicans will vote to opt out of the primaries in 2028 and

possibly beyond. And that would mean not only that unaffiliated voters would be blocked from

helping pick the Republican general election candidates, but also that only party insiders would

get to weigh in. And I will say that is a rant from me for another day. Breach girl.

There are Republicans, and as we've mentioned Democrats as well, who really do think it's

important for unaffiliated voters to participate in the primary. And that makes sense.

Unaffiliated voters make up more than half of the state's electorate. But remember unaffiliated

voters, you can only vote on one party's primary ballot, not both. Don't fill out those extra

bubbles, people. Since taping this episode, we have confirmation on some more names you can expect

to see on those bubbles. In the Democratic race for Attorney General,

Heddle Doshi and Michael Dorety both successfully petitioned on, a quick aside,

Dorety qualified for the ballot through the assembly and by gathering signatures.

State Senator Berber Kirkmeyer has officially qualified for the Republican

gubernatorial ballot. And in the congressional races, for CD3, Republican Congressman Jeff

Hurd's petitions were accepted. And in CD1, CEO Regent Wanda James will join Congresswoman

Diana DeGette and Meila Kiros on the Democratic ballot.

That was Colorado's son, political reporter, Jesse Paul, joining Benta Berkland and

Caitlin Kim of CPR News on the latest edition of the Part Polish podcast.

Purple Hays is a production of CPR News and the Colorado Capitol News Alliance.

The son is a member of the Alliance.

Thanks for listening. And finally, here are a few stories that you should know about today.

A Republican candidate for State Senate is facing felony child neglect charges in Florida.

Police say his four-year-old daughter nearly drowned in a pool when he left her unattended

while ordering an alcoholic drink. Frederick Alford Jr. of Commerce City is running to

represent District 21, north of Denver. Northern water is beginning the process of moving

western slope water into its new chimney hollow reservoir near Loveland.

The utility moved the first 1,500 acre feet into the reservoir on Tuesday.

Northern water is still testing uranium levels at the dam site and has no date yet for when

members could start using the supply. A Denver judge is again barring Governor Jared Polis

from ordering state employees to comply with a subpoena from federal immigration officials

demanding Coloradans personal information. The ruling Tuesday marks the latest loss for the

governor and the lawsuit brought against him to stop the sharing of information with US

immigration and customs enforcement.

To read these stories and much more, visit our website, ColoradoSon.com.

As an award-winning non-profit news outlet, we take our mission of credible independent

journalism seriously and you can check out our trust indicators at ColoradoSon.com-ethics.

Our music is by the Denver-based Matt Skellinger Group. A link to their music is in our show notes

and a special thanks to Swallow Hill music. I'm David Krause, see you next time.