Colorado Politics reports The Denver Gazette and the Centennial Institute are cosponsoring a Republican gubernatorial debate Tuesday at Colorado Christian University, featuring Scott Bottoms, a Colorado Springs pastor, and Barb Kirkmeyer, a longtime GOP insider.
Good. Now treat it like Colorado is actually on fire, not like a church-basement candidate mixer with better lighting and a donor table in the back.
The candidates are supposed to field questions on the economy, crime and public safety, the state budget and TABOR, energy, infrastructure, and affordability. In other words: the active crime scene Democrats have spent years calling “progress” while regular Coloradans wonder why everything costs more, feels less safe, runs worse, and comes with a new fee wearing a fake mustache.
Bottoms and Kirkmeyer are two very different Republican offerings. One is the pastor-outsider from Colorado Springs. The other is the longtime GOP insider who knows the machinery, the players, the acronyms, and probably which committee room has the least depressing coffee.
That contrast is useful. Not because voters need another personality contest, but because they need to know who can actually prosecute the case against Colorado’s ruling Democratic machine — and who is just applying to be the more polite manager of the wreckage.
Because let’s not pretend the bar is high here. Democrats have handed Republicans a political layup the size of DIA. Affordability is a disaster. Public safety is a mess. Energy policy has been turned into a climate-theater obstacle course where working families get the bill and activists get the applause. TABOR is treated like a home invasion suspect instead of the one damn thing standing between taxpayers and the Capitol’s fee-addicted raccoons.
And yet Colorado Republicans have spent years proving they can lose arguments they should win with both hands, a tailwind, and a notarized confession from the other side.
So Tuesday night matters. Not because debates are magic. Most political debates are résumé pageants where candidates say “bold leadership,” “kitchen-table issues,” and “I’ve been listening” until everyone in the room needs medical attention.
This one needs to be different. Coloradans do not need bumper stickers wearing sport coats. They do not need consultant-approved beige mush served lukewarm with a side of “common sense solutions.” They need actual answers.
On crime: are you going to say clearly that public safety matters, or are you going to mumble around it like you’re afraid of offending a nonprofit panelist with a grant application?
On affordability: are you going to name the taxes, fees, regulations, energy mandates, and housing stupidity crushing people, or just promise to “bring people together” while families keep getting financially waterboarded?
On energy: are you going to defend reliable, affordable power, or audition for the role of Republican Who Apologizes to Boulder Before Speaking?
On TABOR and the budget: are you going to defend taxpayers, or help the mugger write a nicer note?
That is the Colorado reality check. People are not sitting in traffic, staring at grocery receipts, dodging potholes, paying higher utility bills, and wondering what happened to their neighborhoods because they crave another “vision conversation.” They want to know if anyone running for governor understands the size of the disaster — and has the spine to say who built it.
Democrats own the current Colorado shitshow. But Republicans still have to prove they can do more than stand next to it looking disappointed.
Tuesday night is the test: fight the machine, or admit you’re just auditioning to manage the decline with better manners.
Source: Colorado Politics
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