STATEWIDE BALLOT INITIATIVES:
PPROP HH: Not just no, but HELL NO. This initiative is a big fat lie designed to steal our TABOR refunds forever. The lying sack of you now what Governor is focusing on the first two year and IGNORING what happens to our TABOR refunds after that. And if that isn't bad enough, HH gives the greedy Legislature the ability to take our refunds forever without our permission. This is a tiny tax cut in exchange for a BIG tax increase, which is why it's on the ballot. They don't have to ask our permission to lower our taxes, so if this is a true tax cut why are we voting on it?
PROP II: This is a NO from me because cigarette taxes are sin taxes designed to get people to quit smoking by driving up the cost of smokes. This initiative wants to keep excess taxes already in place to fund preschool. which sounds lovely, but if people actually DO quit smoking (and seriously if you smoke you should quit) then this funding for preschool goes away and that spending has to be paid for somehow. Make them make preschool work with what they have.
AURORA CITY ELECTIONS:
MAYOR: Mike Coffman deserves another term. He's doing dynamic things to move Aurora into the future by tackling homelessness and making crime prevention and fighting a priority. He also loves Aurora and does a great job featuring small business as often as he can.
AURORA CITY COUNCIL:
WARD IV: Stephanie Hancock. She is currently the head of the Aurora Cultural Arts District and is focused on crime, affordability, and homelessness.
WARD V: Angela Lawson. She is a current board member who has been part of the conservative overhaul of Aurora government. Her opponent is an "economic justice advocate" so there you have it. He is a return to the past.
WARD VI: Francoise Bergen. She has been a reliable conservative voice on the Aurora City Council for eight years and needs to stay.
AT-LARGE (you get to vote for two of these): Curtis Gardner and Jono Scott Curtis has been on the council since 2019 and is a solid conservative. Jono is a conservative pastor who wants to get tough on crime and support small business in Aurora. Alison Coombs must be defeated in this election. MUST.
BALLOT INITIATIVES: These were all referred to the ballot by the City Council and I would vote yes on all of these. The first is a housekeeping measure and the others are designed to make hiring cops and firefighters easier. They include:
3A: Changing gendered language: YES
3B: Amend the charter to change probationary status under certain circumstances for fire and police: YES
3C: Changes to the policy on lateral hires for police and fire: YES
3D: This would allow for more command staff as staffing levels for fire and police rise: YES
AURORA SCHOOL BOARD This is not a great set of candidates, I'm not going to lie. You've got two seats to vote on and there is only one guy that I would want to vote for.
Max Garcia would be the only one I could vote for. The rest are backed by the teacher's union and are varying degrees of terrible, policy wise. Maybe just vote for Max and call it a day. That way you won't be responsible for whoever gets on the board to screw things up.
CHERRY CREEK SCHOOL BOARD: Cherry Creek parents, you need to wake the eff up. Your once glorious school district has done away with valedictorians so no one's feelings get hurt, they have a policy to keep gender changes from parents and they refused to open back up during Covid even when parents demanded it. Their student achievement has been slipping for some time. Here is who you need to vote in:
DISTRICT A: STEVE MCKENNA He is running against an incumbent who has supported each and every motion of the board to degrade student achievement and put sexual identity politics into the classroom while being a union shill. He also came on my show with detailed plans on how he would move the board to focus on student achievement. I liked that.
DISTRICT B: A union backed candidate will win this a she's running unopposed. But you don't have to vote for her. Leave this one blank.
DISTRICT C: SCOTT GRAVES
DENVER SCHOOL BOARD: This is another situation where there aren't perfect candidates to choose from based on ideology so if you're looking for rock ribbed conservatives to vote for you will be disappointed. That being said, some of these candidates are FAR better than the incumbents and their opponents and change has to start somewhere. I am in lock step agreement with the Mayor on these choices, as they are talking about school safety and student achievement and their opponents oppose SROs in schools. The incumbents, backed by the teacher's union, must be defeated.
DISTRICT 1: KIMBERLEE SIA
DISTRICT 5: MARLENE DELEROSA
AT-LARGE SEAT: JOHN YOUNGQUIST
DOUGLAS COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD This board has been doing a great job in calming things down after four conservative members took control in the last election cycle. It's been nice. However, the union is backing candidates because they would love to take over once again so they can attack DougCo's robust school choice program among other things. It is extremely important that conservatives get elected and we need conservatives that understand the teacher pay situation and support 5a and 5b to get them more money.
DISTRICT A: ANDY JONES He's running to replace a union backed member who supported Covid shutdowns and mask mandates against the wishes of parents. She needs to go.
DISTRICT C: JASON PAGE I realize that many of you support David DiCarlo here, and he seems like a solid candidate too. However, I've sat through the budget presentation from Superintendent Erin Kane and I've seen the numbers and know that we need to pass 5A and 5B to remain competitive and top performing and DiCarlo is a hard no on both. Jason Page is a conservative who understands the current teacher pay situation and supports them both, thus I support him.
DISTRICT F: MARIA SUMNICHT Her opponent is backed by the teachers union. Nuff said.
BALLOT ISSUES 5A AND 5B: YES!! I know no one wants to raise their taxes. As a Douglas County resident I don't want my property taxes to go up anymore either, BUT we are nearing a crisis when it comes to hiring and retaining the quality teachers that make our schools so good. I have enthusiastically voted yes on both of these measures because our teachers do more with less and that's simply not right.
JEFFERSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD This board used to be a solid conservative board until the union paid for a recall after raising hell at school board meetings and now it's a mess. The incumbents must go.
DISTRICT 2: THOMAS WICKE He was just on the show and I liked him and his ideas about student achievement and focusing on learning a LOT.
DISTRICT 4: JOEL NEWTON There is another woman running but I can't find a lot of info about her so Joel it is!
LITTLETON PUBLIC SCHOOLS We have another situation where only one of the candidates is worth your vote in my estimation even though you are supposed to vote for two. This board is AWFUL and currently controlled by the teacher's union. There are three candidates backed by the teachers union running as a "slate" where they are telling you to "Pick Two" of the three because they are largely indistinguishable from one another. If you vote for two candidates you are improving the chances the union backed candidates will take the seats, just vote for ONE and the ONE is
BRIAN MACAULEY. He's focused on student achievement, school safety and getting nonsense out of the classroom.
I KNOW THERE ARE MORE RACES FOR CITY COUNCIL AND SCHOOL BOARD, BUT I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH INFO TO WEIGH IN ON THE SMALLER DISTRICTS AND TOWNS.