2 days Ago
Criminal justice was on the ballot Tuesday. Coloradans showed strong support for public safety-related matters and rejected our Legislature’s decade-long move to prioritize criminals over public safety and law enforcement. The 2024 legislative session has again proven there is a disconnect between the values of the Democrat-dominated General Assembly and the Colorado public it is supposed to represent.
Expect (and embrace) more measures like this. Amendment I amends our state constitution to fix a shortcoming knowingly created by Gov. Jared Polis and the “life for murderers” Dems who repealed Colorado’s death penalty under the cover of COVID in March 2020.
In doing so — they were warned of this — they created a right to bail for cold-blooded murderers. Amendment I reinstated the ability of courts to deny bail. Fully 55% of voters was needed to pass, but Colorado overachieved with 70% approving the measure.
No county was more overwhelmingly supportive of the move than Boulder (the city rocked by the bail-eligible King Soopers mass murderer), with 76% “yes” votes. Proposition 128 was an indictment of our ACLU-influenced Legislature’s “violent felons need hugs too” approach to sentencing and the Department of Corrections’ (DOC) broken parole system. Violent felons — think of weapons and serious injuries — serve less than 50% of their sentences.
Prop. 128 sought to restore a measure of “Truth in Sentencing” by mandating that such criminals serve at least 85% of their sentences before DOC puts them back in our neighborhoods. Nearly two-thirds of Colorado voters approved the rebuke.
Proposition 130 — a measure to “Back the Blue” after the post-George Floyd vilification and demoralization of our law enforcement community by our General Assembly—passed with 53% of the vote. The measure did not raise taxes, but instead dictated to the offender-friendly Legislature to expend $350 million of existing revenue to recruit, train and retain the law enforcement officers we count on to stand between us and evil. It also provides a $1 million death benefit for officers killed in the line of duty.
Predictably, the two counties’ voters most opposed to this pro-law enforcement effort were Denver (56% opposed) and Boulder (60% opposed). Less than 24 hours after polls closed and the rest of Colorado’s voters passed Prop 128, an on-duty Golden police officer was run over by a suspected drunken driver. Colorado’s elected ministers of justice — a Supreme Court-given title for prosecutors — were also on the ballot in each of Colorado’s judicial districts, including the first new one in 60 years (comprising Douglas, Elbert, and Lincoln counties.
) Only six of those positions were contested statewide, and only two within the Denver area. The results of those elections were — respectfully — blowouts. In the new 18th Judicial District (JD), which has been reduced to Arapahoe County alone, Democrat and former attorney general candidate in 2018 Amy Padden handily defeated Republican Carol Chambers.
Padden narrowly lost the 2020 election to DA John Keller, who did not seek reelection. Padden has been a hybrid-remote prosecutor from Aurora working in the 5th and 11th Judicial Districts over the past few years. Chambers, a career prosecutor, had been the elected DA in the old 18th JD from 2005-2013.
In the history of the currently comprised 18th Judicial District — dating back to the time of President Kennedy — no Democrat was elected to serve as DA. In the 4th JD, El Paso and Teller counties, incumbent Republican DA and career prosecutor Michael Allen easily defeated Jeremy Dowell, whose criminal justice experience was an abbreviated internship many years ago. In the 1st JD (Jefferson and Gilpin), incumbent Alexis King ran unopposed, as did the 17th JD’s (Adams and Broomfield) incumbent, Brian Mason and first-time DA John Walsh in the 2nd JD (Denver).
All three prosecutors are Democrats. Meanwhile, in Mason’s 17th JD, an effort to extend the term limits for their DA from two to three terms was defeated by nearly 60% of voters. In the new 23rd JD, voters chose the Republican two-time prior DA from the 18th JD to lead the new office.
The Democrat nominee’s criminal justice experience was an internship in a public defender’s office decades ago. Reflecting voters’ focus on public safety, the newly elected DA was the top vote getter for any contested race in Douglas and Elbert counties at the time of this column. Despite the ongoing Blue-ing of Colorado, it is clear that in matters of criminal justice and public safety, Colorado voters do not agree with the Denver-Boulder leadership of government, including Gov.
Polis, Attorney General Weiser, and the ultraprogressive Legislature. Until public-safety minded candidates start winning more state and legislative races, our best path to bend government to our will and wishes is through the ballot initiative process. If the political elite continue to fail us, we will continue to take policymaking into our hands.
George Brauchler is the former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District and is a candidate for district attorney in the newly created 23rd Judicial District. He has served as an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. Follow him on Twitter(X): @GeorgeBrauchler.
