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Tag: 2026 Colorado election

A three-vote district, a 30-year teacher, and the case Jill Haffley is making to HD16
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

A three-vote district, a 30-year teacher, and the case Jill Haffley is making to HD16

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Jill Haffley knocks on thousands of doors, and she has noticed that almost nobody wants to argue about politics on their own porch. "Most people aren't interested in having a partisan argument on their front porch," she said. "They want to know whether they can afford groceries, utilities, insurance, and housing. They want safe neighborhoods and good schools. They want government to make sense with minimal interference in their daily lives." That is the pitch Haffley, a Republican and a retired 30-year classroom teacher, is carrying into one of the most closely divided legislative districts in Colorado. House District 16, which includes part of Colorado Springs, was decided by three votes in 2024, when Republican Rebec...
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From no-fault divorce to VAWA, the case that fatherlessness was by design
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

From no-fault divorce to VAWA, the case that fatherlessness was by design

By Carl Roberts | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice My guess is that most people, most parents, rarely think about parental rights. Why? Most likely because their parental rights have never been threatened. Their role in their child's life never questioned or judged. They haven't been through the drill of a custody battle or had CPS show up at their door. Nor have they had someone at their child's school secretly try to transition their son into a girl or daughter into a boy. Most parents are simply unaware that this is happening all around them, every day, until it hits them square between the eyes. Another layer to it is, not only do they not have the lived experience, but they can't imagine how the systems that were built to protect children often cause far more harm than...
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Weiser’s Blueprint: The costs the plan leaves out
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Weiser’s Blueprint: The costs the plan leaves out

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Phil Weiser's Colorado Blueprint is full of numbers.  It reports the almost $900 million his office recovered in opioid settlements. It counts the more than $184 million in AmeriCorps funding he sued to recover, and the nearly $32 million his office won from the e-cigarette maker JUUL.  It measures the problems he wants to solve down to the dollar, from the $11.4 billion it says Coloradans lose each year to congested highways and deteriorating roads to the $36.5 billion it credits to outdoor recreation and the adjacent hospitality and travel industries. What the 109-page plan almost never does is say what Weiser's own proposals would cost. The Democrat attorney general, running for governor, proposes a ...
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Weiser’s Blueprint: More offices, in the name of streamlining
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Weiser’s Blueprint: More offices, in the name of streamlining

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Phil Weiser's plan for Colorado runs 109 pages. It promises, throughout the document, to make state government simpler, faster, and less tangled in its own rules. It also proposes a new set of offices, officers, and coordinating teams to carry it out. The Colorado Blueprint, the platform Weiser is running on for governor, tells voters he will cut red tape and streamline how the state operates.  Alongside those promises, he would appoint a Chief Innovation Officer, a Chief Housing Officer, a Chief Resilience Officer, a Director of Rural Affairs and Collaboration, and a new Office for Safe Communities to coordinate the agencies that already handle public safety.  Reading the document, the same theme shows up...
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Southwest Colorado’s voice has gone unheard in Denver. Naomi Riess is running to change it.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Southwest Colorado’s voice has gone unheard in Denver. Naomi Riess is running to change it.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice The men's room door was locked. The man inside wasn't responding. Naomi Riess's daughter-in-law — who works for the sheriff at the jail — had already recognized him when he walked in. She'd been watching. She called 911 and tried to find the key. Nobody knew where it was. When police arrived, they broke the door down and found him ODing on the floor inside a fentanyl cloud. The first two officers through both had to be Narcanned — one passed out immediately. Her daughter-in-law was third in line. She didn't need Narcan but went to the hospital for a full body detox of her clothing and her body. She had no voice for four days. The man was taken to the hospital and released. It was the weekend and police couldn't reach a...
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