12- 31-25 Jon Caldara fills in for Michael Brown

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Portions of the following program were prerecorded.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Koway and HI Hard Radio Stations.

Speaker 3 (00:07):
Guaranteed Human After.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
I'm John Caldera. It's the last day of the year.

Speaker 4 (00:14):
It's fun listening to Jimmy talk about blues. Back in
a previous life, I actually had a job. Yeah, I
actually once worked for a living. I don't recommend it,
by the way, And I was a stage hand, among
other things. I owned a small stage lighting company. I
ended up doing lots of rock and roll shows and others.

(00:36):
And I've done lights for bb King towards the end
of end of his life. I did lights for Coco Taylor,
Jimmy's still listening, did a lot of blues shows. I'm
trying to remember. There was one guy who went by,
see if I can google this, three hundred pounds of

(01:00):
Heavenly Joy.

Speaker 5 (01:03):
Let me see.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Of Heavenly Joy, Big Twists. That was it, Big Twist.
His name was Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows. He
was a he was a great guitarist, and the day
after I did lights for him, he did a show

(01:28):
someplace else and died on stage.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
As any three hundred pound blues guy should do, Yeah,
Big Twist and the mellow fellows. Oh, my goodness, buddy, guy,
I've done lights for many times.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Oh, just some great blues. It's it's fun. It's fun
listening to Jimmy on his blues heart because how to
put it, Ah, Jimmy is so so white.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
I mean, maybe you haven't met him, maybe you just
know him by voice. Maybe you read his stuff in
the Denver Gazette, which you should do. Is probably one
of the best columnists in town. But he comes across
as this, this this nice.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Little white boy. Yeah, the kind of guy hold the
door open for you.

Speaker 4 (02:14):
Hi, hi, sir, Hi mam. You know, the boy scout.
And then he whips out of blues harp and goes
to town. There there's something there. There's definitely a crossroads story.
Jimmy sold his soul somewhere, but we'll deal with that later.
Three or three seven, one, three eight five, eight five

(02:35):
seven one three eighty five eighty five bed night Horse
Campbell passed away. For those of us who are political junkies,
he was an amazing Colorado politician. Was not a fan,
but he he was. He was a character, and he

(02:55):
liked being a character. I think he liked his image
as a Harley Riding, member of the Northern China Indian tribe.
He was in the US House of Representatives for it's

(03:16):
like ninety three and then he.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
He was in the Senate for a good long time.
He was one of the first party switchers. He he
switched from being a Democrat to a Republican, and it
caused some serious headaches in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
That's back when Colorado was a conservative Ish state. And
one of the beautiful things about Colorado, at least back then,
was that it was a split state. What I mean
by that is on statewide ballot issues, quite often Coloraddens

(04:01):
would split their ticket, vote for a Republican senator like
Hank Brown or Bill Armstrong, and still vote for a
Democratic governor like Roy Romer Deck Lamb. It happened all
the time on the same ballot, which really spoke to

(04:23):
the independent spirit of Coloraddens. But after a while, particularly
during the early George Bush years. I'm trying to remember
exactly when it happened. The Ben Nighthorse Campbell was the
first to switch parties. Just had enough of the Democratic
Party as a Democratic Party was getting more and more liberal.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
I can't imagine what he would think of it.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Now, it doesn't mean he was a conservative by any means.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
He was a liberal.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Republican, a conservative ish Democrat. And what's not I was
for him this Senate, if I recall, the Senate at
the time was a Republican dominated Senate, so he could
do some horse trading, which was, hey, if I if

(05:17):
I join your party, will you give me some choice
committee seat assignments. And of course Republicans are salivating at
that because they need extra votes and they want to
make sure that they have a larger majority, which is
crucial in politics.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Crucial. Yeah, you might not like the Republicans, you might
not like the Democrats, but the.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
Party that is in control gets to control what comes forward.
That's why having Republican or Democratic control of a House
or a Senate, whether it's state or federal, that's crucial.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
You might not like the squishy Republican.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
Who's in charge, but that means that Republican bills can
move forward and it can go the other direction. Nineteen
ninety five, Switch to nineteen ninety five, all right, and
that was I'm trying to remember. Was that I think

(06:23):
that was George?

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Was that W's time? Yeah, that was W's time anyway.
And I remember back then, at least before the free
for all in Republican politics, before you know, everybody went
this way and that way and everybody beat each other up.
Then then that was that was different. Oh my god,

(06:45):
my poor little son calls me every day. Watch this.
You got to be part of this. Hey, buddy, I
gotta I'm on the radio. I can't talk to you
right now, dude, I'm on the radio. I can't talk
to you. I love you. Goodbye. Oh yes, I'm.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
On the radio.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
I love you. Got a run by, all right. So
my son, who has Down syndrome, has a phone, and
you might ask, well, why did you just answer that call?
Because if I didn't answer that call, he'd call me
like twenty eight times, twenty eight times until I did.

(07:29):
And I love it. I just love it. I just
love it, love it, love it.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
But he always manages to call, you know, when I'm
in a meeting. It's like he has a sonar call dad,
Call dad.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Anyway, where was I my boy? So Clinton was president,
Sorry about that.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
And in Colorado at the time, the Republican Party was
much more organized, much more orderly, and there was a
system and guys like Bill Armstrong, late great Senator Bill Armstrong,
who I always considered to be the godfather of Republican politics.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Here. He had a calming effect of settling party disputes
behind closed doors. And if there were two people running
for a state Senate seat, yeah he would. He would
intervene and in the most sophisticated way say, Frank, you're

(08:29):
a great guy. I just don't think this is your year.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
And if you step aside and let let Hank over
there go, or Tim go forward and drop out of
this race, you know what next year or in two
years when you do run, I'm going to lead the
fundraising campaign to make sure you get the nomination.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
And the guy would gough, Yes, godfather, understand, godfather, and
that all that in fighting was to taken care of
behind closed doors, instead of today where we have thirty
eight people running for a governor.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
So at the time, Scott McGinnis, who was the congressman
on the Western Slope, it was his turn to run
for US Senate. It was his turn to run for
US Senate, and he was going to run against I
think he was going to run against Campbell. And then
Campbell says, I'm going to switch parties, which is a

(09:30):
great thing for everybody except Congressman Scott McGinnis, who wants
to be United States Senator. And so Scott got the
treatment from the rich guys of Scott.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
We love you.

Speaker 4 (09:49):
But having a defector come from the other side joining
our camp. Now, who's a incumbent and will certainly win
in a reelection, you need to step back. You cannot
challenge him and being a dutiful soldier, because that's what
Republicans did back in that day. Scott McGinnis, who's a

(10:11):
really fantastic guy, stepped back and said yes, Godfathers.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
And and didn't run.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
Of course, then by the time it was the Senate
seat was open again. The demographics of Colorado has changed,
the sense of Colorado has changed, and that was that.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Of course.

Speaker 4 (10:33):
Later Scott McGinnis went on to run for governor and
then get into a heated primary with Dan Mays.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
Dan Mays, I know I'm going on a tangent.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Was really the first time that the left in Colorado
were much smarter, much better organized, and have a lot
more money. It was the first time the Democrats got
in in Colorado Republican politics, and they threw about six
hundred thousand dollars into attack ads against Scott McGinnis right

(11:11):
before the primary so that Dan Mays would win the nomination.
Why because Dan Mayes was a crook and there was
no way he could win. He just spoke a good
game and sure enough, Dan Mays got ten. No, actually

(11:31):
I think he managed eleven eleven percent of the vote.
Eleven percent of the vote in the general. This is
how good the Democrats are.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Bring that to this year. Republicans love to hear people
say what they want to say and they believe them.
So with the fifty eight.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Guys running for the Republican nomination for governor, I wonder
will it be somebody who says the right stuff and
excites the base the way Dan Mays did, but turns
out to be Dan Mays.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Like you know, Keildera's first political axiom, there is nothing
that Republicans can't screw up. I use more colorful language,
but the FCC won't let me. And Republicans tend to
get really excited about people who.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
Pound their fists on the podium when they're giving a
speech and.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
Bleed out a bunch of red meat. That's great, but
it doesn't mean they're the guys who can win in
the fall. It doesn't mean that they have what it takes.
And I look at the clown car that is the Republican.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
Gubernatorial pool right now, and I go, oh my god.
I can't believe some of these characters. Furthermore, it doesn't matter.
A Republican is not going to become a governor next year.
I hate to break this to you, It's not going
to happen, all right, three all three seven one three

(13:26):
eight five eight five seven one three eighty five eighty five.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell was actually born Benny Marshall Campbell Benny Marshall,
just like Gary Hartpence changed his name to Gary Hart

(13:48):
for if it's a stage name. Ben Benny Marshall Campbell
changed his name to Ben Nighthorse Campbell leaned into being
a Native American.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
And originally mentioned was a member of the.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Democratic Party, and he switched in nineteen ninety five. MM
in two thousand and four, he didn't run for a
third term. Ken Salazar won that election, and he's got
an amazing history. Night Horse Campbell. He was on an

(14:27):
Olympic I can't believe this. He won a gold medal
in the nineteen sixty three Pan American Games in the
United US national titles. He competed in judo in the
nineteen sixty four Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He was the
first Native American to make the judo team. As if

(14:49):
that's important.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
And then.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
Before he got into politics, he made jewelry. He hadn't
He had a booth the Indian market in Santa Fe
and he made jewelry and he kept doing that. He
kept doing that his entire life. Not incredible, It's it's

(15:13):
really kind of cool. When you go down to the
state capitol. He was elected to the legislature in nineteen
eighty two. I remember this. I remember this so vividly,
and he can go down there and you can still
see the pictures of him on the wall. Just incredible,
just incredible.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
They just worried to hear. This is Wikipedia stuff, so
take it for what it's worth.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
In the early nineteen nineties marked a turning point in
Campbell's political career. Nineteen ninety two, after Tim Worth announced
his retirement, Campbell won a three way Democratic primary against
former Governor Richard Lamb and Boulder County Commissioner Josie.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Heath during the primary came pain.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
Lamb supporters accused Heath of spoiling the election by splitting
the vote of the party's left wing, which is true.
Heath's campaign Our due was Campbell, who should not have run.
So finally a little Democratic u dysfunction. But it doesn't
matter they want anyway. Campbell won the primary, then defeated

(16:22):
Terry Considine. What a Greek guy Terry Considine is. And
it's just these I just remember these things so very vividly.
I'm sorry to see Campbell go just because he's a

(16:43):
piece of history. He's just a piece of Colorado history.
I don't think he was an ideologue the way that
I like my politicians. I think he was more of
a politician than he was an ideal lag whereas Dick Lamb.
Dick Lamb was a guy who was a deep thinker,

(17:07):
who would challenge his own assumptions, and who would tell
you honestly what he thought at the time, right up
unto his death. Just what a remarkable, remarkable guy. Ben
Ben was a politician. In fact, some conservatives disliked him

(17:29):
so much. Who was the guy I'm trying to remember?
He would run on the constitutional party, as as day horse.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
He called himself day horse to run against night horse.
All right, if you have some memories on that or
questions three oh three seven, one, three eight five eighty
five piece of Colorado history passes today or yesterday. I'm
John Calderic. Keep it right here. You're on KOA News
Talk Sports.

Speaker 4 (17:54):
This is the time where you look at all your
stocks and go, I better sell that one for a loss.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
No, I don't want to sell that one for a game.
God it just I know. We have to We have
to mark a calendar.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
It takes a year three hundred and sixty five and
roughly one quarter days to go around, to go around
the Earth, to go around the sun. And and we're
gonna have to market somewhere. We have to market somewhere.

(18:28):
How it started here, I don't know. My suspicion is
that that if we had to redo it all, that
this the winter solstice, would be the start of the year.
That that makes much more sense, doesn't it. This is
this is the solstice, the shortest day of the year.

(18:50):
Let's start it.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Here and and then we'll change the seasons based on that.
In fact, you can even see you can even see
see how Christians took over pagan holidays to try to
bring Christianity make it much more accessible. Isn't it wild

(19:14):
that Christmas and New Year's just happens to be by
the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, when
most religions would mark that as as some sort of holiday.
Isn't it amazing that that Easter is around the spring solstice? What?

(19:40):
What a surprise? What a shocker? So you got spring?
You know.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
There's an evolutionary reason for this. We still haven't quite
gotten it. Oh, just in case you miss this one.
As we go into the next year, still still seeing
this fight between Ukraine and Russia. I am no fan
of Russia. I'm very supportive of Ukraine. I think America

(20:11):
has missed an opportunity to truly make the world safer
by giving Ukraine what they needed to win. And we
missed that opportunity. We missed that opportunity. And when I
say we, I mean Biden. They needed four hundred tanks,

(20:34):
we gave them thirty tanks. They needed certain equipment, We
gave them less than that. We gave them just enough
to lose slowly. And it's kind of the American way
of doing things. We will be there for you until
it's time to be there for you, and in which
case we'll give you a lot of lip service, but

(20:55):
not all the stuff you need to win. And what
a surprise that the Monster of Moscow was not as
as big and bad as we thought. A lot of
Russia's equipment didn't work, a lot of it. The equipment
had been stripped, the soldiers didn't want to be there,

(21:18):
and we missed an opportunity. And like Americans, we don't
like drawn out battles.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
We don't like drawn out wars.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
If it's not a quick war, we don't like it,
even if it's no American blood. And this was a
wonderful opportunity for us to bring some stability to Europe, to.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Stare down a bad guy, and we missed it.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
I've been amazed by the resilience of the Ukrainian people,
and I asked some friends who are Ukrainians, and I
love them dearly, and I understand there is an odd country,
but man, have they stood up to this challenge and
occasionally been able to put a gut punch in the

(22:12):
other direction. The biggest problem was from the beginning of
this America made it very clear. We're going to give
you a limited amount of stuff to make it look
like you can protect yourself, but you can't use any
of this stuff to go over the Russian border.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
But yet Russia can go over your border. It made
no sense. The ingenuity of Ukraine has been so remarkable.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
The drone strike that they did deep inside Russia, which
destroyed many of the airplanes that Russians had. They snuck
in these drones and off they went and bombed these planes.
At the beginning of World War Two, you might remember

(23:06):
the story after Pearl Harbor was bombed. There was basically
a near suicide mission that Americans put in to bomb Tokyo.
It was a symbolic, symbolic thing, and it we took
a bunch of planes that had no chance of returning,

(23:27):
not enough fuel to return, just so we could drop
some bombs on Tokyo one in order to have a
symbolic victory at home, so that Americans knew that we
had the ability to fight back.

Speaker 1 (23:42):
But also as.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
A message to Japan, you're not invulnerable. We can strike
right in the heart of your country and bring it
home to the average Japanese family who just thought it
was a foreign war that they didn't have to worry about.
Now it can come and blow up stuff in your backyard.

(24:09):
Well this one coming out of Daily Express Freezing Moscow
plunged into darkness because Ukraine drone strikes cut power two thousands.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
I love this.

Speaker 4 (24:25):
Moscow goes into darkness with possible Ukraine drone strike cutting
power to hundreds of thousands. Roughly half a million in
Moscow reported having no power a chilling winter after Ukraine
drone strikes. The number of Russian residents affected by the
blackout is not verified yet. Because it's a communist country

(24:45):
or to tyrannical country, we can't get any real news,
but various reports claim between one hundred thousand and six
hundred thousand have been left without electricity. Social media posts
show that rows of tower blocks are left in complete darkness,

(25:09):
as sun reports street lamps were knocked out. Ukrainians took
notice of a two on social media. Vladimir Selensky's former
press secretary said, over six hundred thousand people plunged into
darkness for more than four hours, no electricity, no mobile signal,
total isolation.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
I love this for the Ukraine. I get it. Trump one,
Trump one I mean Trump v. Version one did a

(25:51):
wonderful job of not involving US in military conflicts. The
left did not give him enough credit for that. For
years we heard how awful George W. Was, how he
exported war all over the place. And then Obama really

(26:12):
didn't change tactics. He did drone strike after drone strike.
He kept our wars going, even though everyone was angry
at George W.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
For expanding military action. Under Trump's first administration, that didn't happen.
That didn't happen. We sent no one anywhere. Now in
his second administration, he still really hasn't sent anyone anywhere.

(26:46):
He hasn't put American lives in danger. He's done strategic strikes,
but very limited. And he wants to get out of Ukraine. Well,
we're not in Ukraine. This is america'sm We claim we're

(27:08):
going to be there for a country, and then we're not.
We claim we're going to be there. You can go
back to.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
The revolution in Hungary during the Cold War, Voice of
America would pump out all this great stuff to the
people of Hungary, saying we will be there with you
when you rise up, when you rise up and take
on your Soviet overlords will be there and they do
it and we're not there.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
You think about the people in the fall as Saigon,
who who were destroyed because they helped us, or in Afghanistan,
Why anyone believes that America will stand by them.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
I haven't quite figured out. Check your history all right.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
Anyway, I didn't see it in the mainstream news, but
Moscow got hit by a drone attack.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Hundreds of thousands without power. Way to go Ukraine three
or three six, let's start to get three other three
seven to one, three eight, five, eighty five. I'm John
kelderk keep it here. You're on kawait News talk sport.
Check out Independence Institute. Go to thinkfreedom dot org. Thinkfreedom
dot org. At least sign up for our newsletter and

(28:25):
email you about once a week. Bad jokes, all sorts
of typos. You'll love it. Meantime, let's grab a couple
of these phone calls. Scott, good morning and welcome.

Speaker 6 (28:35):
Hey Johnny C.

Speaker 7 (28:36):
It's got the nurse from shot the nurse, the trader,
the trader.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah, you're up in Cheyenne now right. You're a refugee something.
By the way, why did you leave? Why did you
leave Our beautiful state. I love the state.

Speaker 7 (28:56):
We lived in Denver for over thirty years and it's
just too many people. And I retired from the hospital
that doctor K and I worked at, so it was
just time to go of a smaller town and no
incompacts here, and yeah it's a little windy, but I'm
just really happy with it.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
So you don't regret the decision.

Speaker 7 (29:17):
I feel like, like you said, a bit of a trader,
bit of a.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
You are, You're a deserter. The word is deserter. You
an a wall here you go.

Speaker 6 (29:27):
Yeah, I'm ready though.

Speaker 7 (29:28):
In fact, you're talking about.

Speaker 8 (29:30):
Selling off stock losses of that.

Speaker 1 (29:33):
I think today I'm going to go out.

Speaker 7 (29:34):
And sell a bit of silver. My gosh, seventy dollars
plus an ounce.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Seventy dollars plus an ounce. It went up to seventy
eight a couple of days ago.

Speaker 7 (29:44):
It's insane, just insane.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
Well, just to give you, just to keep you a
peace of mind of you know, I got always keep
a calculator near me because I'm just a nerd.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah, there is.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
Zero seven two three ounces of silver in a dime
times seventy two dollars. There is if you have a
nineteen sixty four dime, just a dime that is still
worth ten cents. There's silver alone in that dime. That's

(30:18):
back when our money actually had value and had minerals
in commodities like silver in it. The amount of silver
in a nineteen sixty four dime is worth five dollars
and twenty cents today.

Speaker 7 (30:31):
Yeah, you mentioned that on your Saturday show a while
That amazing.

Speaker 6 (30:35):
I figure I'm not.

Speaker 7 (30:36):
Gonna buy anything else. I mean, I'm not gonna buy
any other investment things. But being in Wyoming, I think
the per capita guns owned I'm way below it.

Speaker 5 (30:46):
So I think I'll just buy another gun.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
I mean well and ship it down to me when
you get it.

Speaker 8 (30:54):
Oh god, yeah, I don't want to do that.

Speaker 7 (30:55):
I want to be breaking any Colorado laws and have
their feurer Poe is coming after me.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
You're in a safe state, or I just throw this
out there.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
If you want to make an end of year tax
deductible donation to Independence Institute, go to thinkfreedom dot org
and get it in today so you can write it
off of your taxes for this year.

Speaker 7 (31:17):
You know, I'm always a donator to I to I
love Independence Institute and always will no matter where I live.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
I appreciate that. Thank you, Thank you so much. Happy
New Year to you, Scott, that trader deserter. Come on,
you've thought about it yourself, though, haven't you? You have
thought about about leaving the state. I beg you not
to because I think we can turn it around. And
I'm not high on that either.

Speaker 4 (31:45):
Scott mentioned no taxes up at his new home in Wyoming.
Independence Institute was the reason we have a flat tax
here in Colorado. And then the Taxpayer Bill of Rights
which puts that flat tax in the constitution, where helped
Governor Owens lowered the tax from five percent to four

(32:07):
point sixty five, and then we at II lowered it
by the initiative to four point four percent.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
That's terrific.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
Now a bunch of progressives want to bring back their
progressive graduated income tax, and you might see it on
the ballot next year, which is odd because nine I
believe it's nine states this year will have a lower
income tax rate tomorrow. That in tomorrow, yes, nine states

(32:44):
are lowering their income tax. Top billing goes to Ohio,
which is moving to a two point seven five flat
income tax.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Do you hear that? Two point seventy five.

Speaker 4 (33:03):
The eight other states to hit the parade Georgia, India, Kentucky, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska,
North Carolina, Oklahoma. Nebraska is going to get the largest
cut from four and a half percent, I mean down
to four point five to five percent from five point two.

(33:25):
This is the world in which we're living, and in Colorado.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
The liberals want to go the other direction. We'll talk
about that in the next hour too. Stay tuned.

Speaker 4 (33:33):
I'm John Caldera. Keep it right here here on KOA
News Talk.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Sports, Kaowa and HI hard radio station.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Guaranteed Human.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Good morning, Welcome, It's the end of the year. As
you know now, as you know, democracy is under threat.
That is democracy is under threat. We're fighting to say
our democracy now. It's not Trump. It's actually from the
Colorado State legislature, and nearly a third of them got

(34:09):
into office without being elected.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
They're known as vacancy committees. Sherry Pipe from Complete Colorado
has been covering the legislature as a veteran reporter. If
you don't know Complete Colorado, you're missing a great news source.
Just go to Complete Colorado dot com, Complete Colorado dot
com every day.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
We aggregate stories from around the state and then join
it with unique ap style reporting from folks like Sherry
who keep an eye on the legislature. Go figure, someone
should hey, Sherry, thank you so much for joining us,
Happy New year, all the rest. When somebody in the legislature,

(34:53):
when somebody from the legislature quits, dies, gets tossed out,
runs from the law, and there's a vacancy, what is
the procedure.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
To to replace that person?

Speaker 8 (35:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (35:11):
Sure, So all Colorado House and Senate districts within their
respective counties have something called a vacancy committee. So generally
those vacancy committees are made up by party insiders. So
when you go to your caucuses and your assemblies and
all this other stuff, you are elected by your party

(35:33):
to serve on these vacancy committees.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
And so this and.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
Only for people who show up at the caucuses that
weird Tuesday once every other year kind of thing.

Speaker 9 (35:43):
Right, Yeah, the caucuses and the general assemblies and you know,
the county assemblies of state assemblies depending upon you know
what office committee you're going to set.

Speaker 8 (35:51):
On sit on.

Speaker 9 (35:53):
Yes, you have to be actively involved in your party
and show up to these caucuses and assemblies in order
to sit on these vacancy committees, and they they will.
They generally are comprised of a percentage of the voters
within that district, and we're talking a very small percentage.
So some districts may have twelve people on the vacancy committee.

(36:18):
Other districts may have forty people on the disc on
the vacancy committee. But we're talking not much more than
forty or forty five people. And those are in districts
that you know, are very large districts, so they're a
very small percentage of the number of voters. And then
they are people that are insiders within the party that
make them.

Speaker 4 (36:38):
I can repeat that back to you make sure I
got this. So before someone is elected, the parties in
each district. Let's say there's a state House district and
we have sixty.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Five of those in Colorado. So the Democrats put up
together their vacancy committee and Republicans put together their vacancy
committee for before the election happens. Is it before or after.

Speaker 5 (37:11):
Both? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Correct?

Speaker 9 (37:13):
Yes, I mean people can sit on these vacancy committees
for years because they just keep getting re elected to it.

Speaker 5 (37:17):
But yes, they put them together, and.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
Nothing happens to this vacancy committee unless a politician leaves
or dies or gets kicked out, right, correct, So yeah,
I've been elected to the vacancy committee. We've never once met.
It's an emergency committee. Basically, if something happens, we're gonna
call you.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
Here's here's the list it is.

Speaker 9 (37:40):
Yes, all right, Yes, that's exactly what it is.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
So out of the one hundred legislators in Colorado, how
many of them got into the legislature by a vacancy committee?
That is, in not being elected at first, but became
became I'm a representative or a senator just because these

(38:04):
twelve to forty people in a committee chose them.

Speaker 9 (38:08):
More than you would imagine. So last year, in twenty
twenty five, there was nearly two dozen of the one
hundred lawmakers, So you're talking nearly a quarter of the
lawmakers that were serving in those seats were appointed by
a vacancy committee. So nearly twenty five percent of the
lawmakers in Colorado were elected by a group of people

(38:30):
that are party insiders, and only a very small sliver
of the representation of that district. The year before that,
there was.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Thirty You're kidding me. So sid of the legislature started
their elected career without being elected. Correct?

Speaker 9 (38:49):
Correct?

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Does that strike you as crazy?

Speaker 9 (38:52):
Beans, It's absolutely ridiculous. I mean, we have elections for
a reason. To the elections. You know, everybody should have
an opportunity to elect who they want to represent. But
being elected by a small group of people is just preposterous.
And one really good example that I'll give you so

(39:14):
why it's so bad is Chris Hansen. So, Senator Chris
Hansen was elected to was re elected to his Senate
district in twenty twenty four, just days after he was elected.
Now keep in mind, senators in Colorado serve for four years.
Just days after he was elected, he stepped down from

(39:35):
that position to take a job with an electric cooperative,
an electric co op in southern in southwestern Colorado.

Speaker 4 (39:43):
And by the way, now he knew he was going
to take this, he knew that that job was a
potential and it's a well paid job. This is when
you say politics doesn't pay and it's all community service
and it's public service.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Bs.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
This guy cashed out any.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
Three days after being sworn in?

Speaker 5 (40:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (40:03):
Correct, I don't know if there was exactly three but
it was pretty closely. But the irony in h you know,
not only yes, he knew he was taken out job
before he got elected. But here's here's why. I mean,
any smart person can conclude why he went ahead and ran.
This was a Denver Democrat, Okay, his only opponent in
his race was a libertarian. So had he not ran,

(40:29):
it's likely that that libertarian could have won that seat
and taken a seat away from the Democrats representing Colorado
in Denver. So Chris went ahead and ran, and then
right after he won, he stepped down and a vacancy
committee got to appoint his position right after that.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
And from my look at this, it seems as though
the representatives who come back, or the people who are
appointed are i'll you just my term, out of touch
with Colorado. This is why we have so many wild
progressives and socialists.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Many of them were just appointed. They didn't win an election,
they were just appointed.

Speaker 9 (41:13):
Well that's very accurate, because all one has to do
is look to the last primary election, especially among the
Democrat party. Because let me say, last in twenty twenty four,
when there were thirty appointed lawmakers in Colorado, all but
three of those appointed lawmakers were Democrats. So twenty seven
of the thirty that were appointed in twenty twenty four

(41:35):
were Democrats. All anybody has to look at in the
twenty twenty four primary or twenty two, maybe it was
a twenty twenty, No, it would have been the twenty
twenty four primary. In the twenty twenty four Democrat primaries
in Colorado, all of the ridiculously far left crazies super

(41:56):
progressives lost their primaries to more moderate Democrats. So the
people are not wanting and most of those had been appointed.
Most of those that lost their primaries to more moderate
Democrats had been previously appointed to those seats.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
I'm thinking about it. Is it representative EPs being one
of those?

Speaker 4 (42:17):
And she was one of those that was the crazy
lady who was screaming Palestinian.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
Uh, yelling Palestinian stuff from the gallery when a Jewish
legislator was speaking. And who is the other guy who
was the communist.

Speaker 8 (42:34):
Oh god, I can't remember his.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
Name, Hernandez, I can't who took out the American flag
off of his desk and put in the Palestinian flag.
These these guys were appointed and then when it came
to their own primaries, they lost their primaries the next
time out.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
They were out of touch even for Democrats.

Speaker 9 (42:59):
Yes, and they were out of touch for Democrats in
very highly progressive cities.

Speaker 5 (43:03):
Like Denver and Boulder, So you know, it's.

Speaker 9 (43:06):
Not even democrat city, you know, like Fort Collins, which
is definitely blue. However, it's not quite.

Speaker 8 (43:13):
As far to the left as Boulder.

Speaker 9 (43:15):
In Denver yet. But yeah, these were Democrats who lost
in very progressive cities to more moderate Democrats.

Speaker 4 (43:23):
All right, All of which to bring us up to
your most recent story at Complete Colorado dot com.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
That's Complete Colorado dot Com about Representative Shannon Bird and
represented Bird resigned, right, she did?

Speaker 5 (43:39):
She did?

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Why did she resign?

Speaker 9 (43:42):
Because she's running as one of the gazillion different Democrats
that are running in Congressional District eight, which is Adams
and Wells County parts of Adams and Welch take outs.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
So she's going after.

Speaker 4 (44:00):
All right, So she needs to be she needs to be.
That vacancy needs to be filled. Tell me the story, correct.

Speaker 9 (44:08):
So when Birds stepped down, keeping in mind that she
announced her candidacy for Congressional district eight months ago, right,
and I think we were even maybe still in the
legislative session last year when she announced she was going.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
To run for the full thork so I think so.

Speaker 9 (44:25):
So yeah, it was late May, early June when she
started making those announcements that she was going to run
for that seat. Don't quote me, but I'm almost confident.
So she announced that she was going to run for
this seat, and she spent all of the summer and
most of the fall just running for the seat. Assuming
she was coming back to fill her legislative seat in

(44:48):
twenty twenty five. Well, no, that didn't happen. She eventually announced,
I don't know, maybe about three four weeks ago, that
she was going to go ahead and step down and
not fill her the last year of her house seat
in Colorado because she needed to focus on her candidacy

(45:09):
for District eight, because the people of Senator or of
CD eight needed to have somebody who was focused on them.
That being said, instead of just resigning, she put a
date on her resignation and of January fifth, I will
be stepping down so that I can focus on my

(45:29):
CD eight race.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
January fifth.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
That's January fifth, that's in a few days from now.

Speaker 9 (45:38):
Yep, five days from now.

Speaker 4 (45:39):
All right, So she's still a state representative, but on
January fifth.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
She won't be correct. Okay, correct, I'm with you. Keep going.

Speaker 9 (45:50):
So interestingly enough, we sat back complete Colorado and we
were like, there has to be a reason why she
put a specific on it, Like why would you put
a specific date on it? So I started calling around
and asking people that I felt would be in the know,
and eventually I found one person who I won't name who.

Speaker 8 (46:12):
That person was, but they came back and they said.

Speaker 9 (46:14):
Well, yeah, not going there. They came back and they said, well, yeah,
because of state law, if her tenate, if her successor
does not serve more than a half of the term,
that term that they do serve doesn't count towards state
statute laws that says a representative can only serve four

(46:37):
two year terms in the state House, so a total
of eight sessions correct.

Speaker 8 (46:43):
And I'm like, what do you mean more than half?

Speaker 9 (46:45):
I went in and I looked at state statute and
sure enough, Colorado has a law that says if you
are appointed to serve as a representative or a senator
and you serve less than has the term, it doesn't count. Well,
pretend like you were never there.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
It doesn't count. Towards term limits.

Speaker 4 (47:08):
So basically somebody can spend instead of just eight years
as a legislator or as a House member, they could
actually spend nine years if it's just a little less
than halfway through that term that they're appointed to correct.

Speaker 9 (47:25):
And this is something that has been litigated already in
state courts, and so everybody knows that if it goes
to court, there's already precedent for it. So we're just
going to do it because we're not going to get
sued because there's already president in the Colorado Supreme Court
or Colorado just a court for how how this will
play out, and they won, and so we're just going

(47:47):
to go ahead and do this. Back in two thousand
and six, Senator Joan Fitzgerald resigned her offer, announced her
intention not to run for reelection, and somebody was appointed.
Republicans sued in Denver District Court, saying that she had
originally excuse me she announced her intention to run for reelection.

(48:08):
Fitzgerald had been appointed to her original seat in two
thousand when Senator Grandpis died a few minutes after he
was elected, and Republicans argued in court that she had
served more than half the term, and therefore she was
not eligible to run a two thousand and six because
that first term counted. And a district court judge in Denver,

(48:31):
Catherine Lemon, said, no, you're wrong because of the way
they defined half of a term. And instead of counting
half of the term in the case of a House seat,
which would be let's say half of the term of
a House seat was one full legislative session. There's two
sessions in a House seat, so if you serve one

(48:54):
full legislative session, that's half of a term that will
count towards your total term limits. Nope, that's not what
they did. Instead, they said that a term they defined
the term of office as being the number of days
between the start of one legislative session to the start

(49:15):
date of the next legislator or one legislative term to
the start of the next legislative term. So in the
case of Shannon Bird, her term that she's currently in
would have started on January eighth, twenty twenty five and
run through January thirteenth of twenty twenty seven, which is
seven hundred and thirty five days. So therefore, anybody who

(49:41):
served more than half of seven hundred and thirty five days.
No law, or anybody who serves less than half of
seven hundred and thirty five days is not considered to
have fulfilled the term of office.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
So that's why she chose that date. So she's still
a representative. And then on the someone will fill that position,
and that someone will be set up to run for
four more terms after that. Correct, nice work if you
can get it.

Speaker 9 (50:15):
Exactly. Because by the number of dates, and because a
replacement is not considered to be a replacement until they're
sworn in on the first day of the legislative session,
whomever is appointed to serve, no matter when they're appointed
prior to the start of this session, which is January fourteenth,

(50:37):
will fall at least four days short of the state's
definition of a term of office.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
That is delicious, just delicious, all right, And so it denies,
it denies us the ability to to get new blood
in there. And is there any reform to this?

Speaker 4 (51:00):
I know people are looking at different ways because when
when nearly thirty percent of your elected officials weren't elected,
something's wrong.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Can't we just have a special election or something?

Speaker 5 (51:15):
Well?

Speaker 9 (51:15):
And that's you know, so last year when Democrats were
catching all kinds of flack finally, for the fact that
they continue to step down in point and step down
in a point. The state legislature, supposedly in a bipartisan effort,
agreed that the way that state legislators and county commissioners
were appointed was wrong. So they passed new legislation saying,

(51:40):
here's what we're going to do to reform this vacancy thing.
But they didn't address this part, and they really didn't
address any real reform. All they basically said is we're
going to make we're going to make the process more transparent.
So now you twelve people can gather in this building
and a point. Whoever on a point, you just have

(52:01):
to live stream it so the other twenty eight thousand
people in your district can watch you appoint them. I mean,
the laws that they passed didn't really change the laws
that were in place. It just made it more of
a laughable transparent type of process. But yes, definitely, reform

(52:23):
needs to take place somehow, some way that says you
can't do this. But until Colorado isn't a one party rule,
that's not going to happen. I mean, as long as
Democrats can continue to get away with it.

Speaker 5 (52:39):
That's not going to happen.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Point well taken, pay and ahead.

Speaker 8 (52:44):
The other side of that, the other side of that is,
in addition.

Speaker 9 (52:49):
To this constant ongoing appointment by small committees is the
musical chairs that they play. So when a House member
resigns for any reason, excuse me, when a Senate member
resigns for any reason, generally they will pull up one

(53:10):
of their own in the House. That then leaves the
House seat open for an appointment. And that's how a
lot of these are taking place. And unfortunately, with the
death of Senator Winter that just recently happened that you know,
obviously that's beyond Senator Winter's control. However, they appointed somebody
to replace Senator faith Winter in the Senate discession that

(53:33):
they appointed him with representatively set who now his seat
is open, so now his seat will get an appointment.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
And the dominoes go, hey, thank you so much. I
appreciate that.

Speaker 4 (53:43):
If people want to read this article, go to Complete
Colorado dot Com, Complete Colorado dot Com. Sherry Pipe, thank
you so much, Thank you, Happy New Year.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
Happy New Year. Back after this. I'm John Caldera. You're
on KOWA News Talk Sport John Caldera give me a call.
Three h three seven eight five eighty five heard from
Sherry Pife, who runs uh who's a reporter at Complete
Colorado dot Com.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
I work at Independence Institute. I'm not saying it's a
real job. I'm saying I get a paycheck, which is ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
But I go there and there are people who actually
work there, And one is Kathleen Chandler, who is.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
The one of these women who just doesn't stop. If
you take a photograph of her, she's a blur. You
know these people, They're just constantly emotional. And one of
her passions is to get people involved in the process
of government. And I'm not talking about local or federal government.
I'm talking about local government. Kathleen, Thanks just spending a little.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
Time with me. I appreciate what you do. Why why
do you have such a passion? Wow?

Speaker 4 (54:53):
Well hello, why do you have such a passion about
local government compared to all the things that are happening
in Washington.

Speaker 10 (55:02):
Well, local government is something that will actually touch your
life today. You know what happens at the federal government.
Sure that's important, and it will eventually trickle down and
probably affect you in a variety of ways. But tomorrow
they could pass an ordinance that could change where you're
going to put your fence on your private property, or

(55:24):
if you have a business, all of a sudden you
have to get an extra license, or like tomorrow the
minimum wage is going to go up. Your local government,
your state government, can produce a law that will affect
your life and a myriad of ways, very quickly and
very specifically to you. And of course all of the

(55:44):
other laws that are get passed at the federal level
are very important, But there's nothing more important than what's
going to happen in your local government.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
And there's this other thing that I think the enemies
of freedom understand, which is local government.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
What happens in your city, what happens in your school district.
A handful of people, I mean, just a couple of
people can make a huge difference versus to get something
done in Washington. I mean, in order to get something
done in Washington, you've got to change Congress, you've got

(56:23):
to change the presidency. One person really can't do much.
One person keeping an eye on your city or a
department of your city.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Can change the course of it. It's just I'm always
amazed how one person can make a difference.

Speaker 10 (56:42):
Well, I'm going to tell a quick story. My husband, Roger,
and I are live in a little area where literally
there was one gas station.

Speaker 9 (56:49):
This is years ago.

Speaker 10 (56:50):
Was it a five mile radius of our house when
we first moved here. Well, we all of a sudden
look across the street and there's a sign that says
coming soon, Maverick gas station come to the public hering.
So Roger and I are like, sure, we're activists. We
go and literally we are the only people there. It's
the the owner of the property and all of the

(57:12):
planning and zoning and Roger and me and a bunch
of lawyers of course, and they started this entire presentation,
and the poor gentleman from the Maverick d gas station
gets done with his entire presentation, and the planning and
zoning person who is the chairman, says, well, you know,
I am going to vote no on this gas station
because well, I don't like the size of the caliper

(57:34):
of trees that you're putting in the property. What I mean,
it was like the mostiously stupid thing. So the guy said,
are you telling me that I'm going to have to
start all over, and the guy's like, yeah, you'll have
to come back to us if we vote, you know,
and against your design. Well, all of a sudden, they said,
is there public comment? Well, I'm there, So I waived

(57:55):
my hand and I've run up to the podium and
I said, excuse me, mister planning and zoning people, are
you all going to deny a needed gas station in
my community because you don't like the size of the caliber.

Speaker 9 (58:08):
Of trees like they're going to grow?

Speaker 10 (58:11):
I mean, this is insanity.

Speaker 9 (58:12):
And I sit down. Roger.

Speaker 10 (58:14):
They asked for public comment. He does the exact same thing. Well,
after some deliberation, they voted to put in the gas station.
And there is a Maverick gas station on the corner
of my subdivision to this day. And all I could
think of was this poor man is going to have
to spend potentially thousands of dollars go back to the
you know, the planning commission startle because why, this guy

(58:37):
had some kind of power trip. If we hadn't been there,
I don't know if they would have passed or not.
But that's the power that one person has.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
It's a little story. That little story is so beautiful.
One it first that describes what a little busybody you
are that you'd actually go to this meeting. And no,
we don't do that.

Speaker 9 (59:00):
Aunt p was a busybody.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
He was a busy body and everybody loved aunt Pee.
But the point being that the power of this appointed board,
the zoning board, to mess with a guy's livelihood. All
he wants to do is risk his own wealth, his

(59:22):
own capital, his own time, his own energy by putting
up a gas station, which, by the way, you guys
need because you need another place to buy gas that's
closer than five miles away. Yeah, like you know, And
who's going to stop him from doing this. Somebody who
has no rooster in the fight, some guy who goes,
I don't like that, t me. Now, you can't do it.

(59:45):
And it's just ridiculous, the power of these local positions.
All right.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
So you've been on a tear for the last few
years trying to convince people who like freedom to get
on these boards and commissions, which, by the way, I
think leftists love being on these boards and commissions. They
love this stuff because they get to say, I don't
like the sighs of that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
I mean, can you get something that's a bit more
I know now bluish and because they love to control
other people's lives. And you know this mission, which I
think is just an incredible mission to get people saying,
people on boards and commissions, how goes it?

Speaker 10 (01:00:26):
Well, exactly what you're describing. If somebody that had been
liberty loving had been on that board about planning and zoning,
perhaps this wouldn't have happened to that poor gentleman. So
my goal is to get liberty loving people on boards
like that, all planning and zoning commissions, water commissions, fire districts,
library districts, park and wreck citizen budget advisory commissions, even

(01:00:51):
your local county fair board. Everybody loves a good old
county fair, right, but these are usually housed or people
that like to control your life are usually the ones
that want to be on these commissions. Well why Well
because they know they can control you and not least
have their name in the paper all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
Right.

Speaker 10 (01:01:13):
So my goal is to start changing the makeup of
these boards and commissions and getting more liberty love, more
community minded, more people that are saying, hey, look it's
your private property, Hey it's your business, Hey it's your community,
and stop pulling back and let the overreach of government
stop today so that we can start taking back our communities.

Speaker 8 (01:01:36):
And so I'm going around teaching classes on.

Speaker 10 (01:01:39):
How to do this. It's actually it's more complicated than
one would would imagine, because government likes to make things complicated.
It's also more hidden because again and things in the
shadows is something that government can control, and so it
is actually a little more daunting. But I'm here to
help you, right. The goal is to get you and

(01:02:02):
on this board and then to make you successful so
that your.

Speaker 9 (01:02:05):
Community can be changed.

Speaker 10 (01:02:07):
This is actually more of a cultural change than it
is even a political change, the idea.

Speaker 9 (01:02:13):
That you are the solution to the overreach of company.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
Listen, lady, that's all well and good, but I got
a life, I got kids to take care of. I
on this, I don't want to spend my time on
some planning board someplace. I'll, you know, i'll go fight
for Trump, But I don't want to give, you know,
one night a month to a planning commission. That just

(01:02:38):
doesn't sound fun to me.

Speaker 10 (01:02:40):
You're well, it isn't exactly unfun. It is kind of fun.
You get to meet new people, you get to do
things you've never done before, And as you said, it
usually is about ten hours a month, maybe fifteen depending
on the commission and how much reading you have to do.
But if you really bring it down to your local level,

(01:03:01):
is your community, is your family? Is your area worth
that investment of time? Absolutely it is. If you don't
get involved, then who will you know? It will be
the busy body and the next thing you know, you're
going to wake up and you're not going to be
able to do the things that you thought you could
do with your own private property because somebody else has
gotten on that board. Hoas are the classic example of this.

(01:03:27):
All HOA boards are elected, but there are so few people,
but they're basically a volunteer position, you know, even though
you're elected, obviously there's no campaigning or anything.

Speaker 9 (01:03:38):
But they're the most unsung people.

Speaker 10 (01:03:39):
When I was on my HOA, of course I was
on my ay. I was able to get chickens put
back into my community because I wanted chickens, and I'm thinking, well,
why should anybody tell me about not having chickens?

Speaker 6 (01:03:53):
So I was.

Speaker 10 (01:03:54):
I got on for a very selfish reason. But then
I've opened it up and now we have people all
over community that have chickens. So what you can do
for your community not only benefits you, but it is
a cultural change. And then when I got my chickens,
I waited another year or so and then I handed
it off to the next set of board members. That's

(01:04:15):
what I call civic engagement.

Speaker 4 (01:04:17):
In civic involvement, also it leads some people to other positions.
You now sit on the RTD Board of Directors because
you got turned on by this and you ran for
office and you won't, which is incredible other people.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
I'm not saying everybody has to, you know, become an.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Elected official, but you learn so much getting involved in
local government. You really get to see the machinery of
what happens, and you become wise to the ways of
the bureaucracy, how they cozy up to business, how people
manipulate other people's lives in a million different ways.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
And it's all on the local side, and you can
stop it. And I got to tell you it's very,
very empowering.

Speaker 8 (01:05:05):
It's just what it really is.

Speaker 4 (01:05:07):
If people want to learn more about this and follow
your lead, where do they go, Well.

Speaker 10 (01:05:13):
They can go to the website at the Independence Institute,
which is Thinkfreedom dot org and on our website there's
a little tab that says get involved, and under there
is the Civic Citizens Involvement Project. And if you want
me to come to your group, whatever that is. Maybe
it's a church group, maybe it's a civic involvement group,

(01:05:34):
or maybe it's just a bunch of ladies together for bunco.
I don't care, and I'll come and teach a class
on how to do this. And it really actually is empowering.
Not only do you think you can get on a
border commission, but it could lead to other things. But
the best thing that it's going to lead to is
just civic engagement in general. Our civic knowledge about how

(01:05:56):
government works, about how things are is so oh low
right now. I mean, you know, people don't even know
the branches of government. They don't know who does what.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
Well, if they do, they certainly know the federal side.

Speaker 4 (01:06:07):
But on the local side, Colorado has five thousand local
governments and special districts.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
That's where the machinery of oppression is. That's where the
machinery of special interests rise free. And to be involved
in that in finding out is the education people need.
And it's I.

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
Think it's just empowering. All right, so one more time,
go thinkfreedom dot org.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Under the get involved tab you'll see the Citizens Involvement Project.
Look for Kathleen Chandler at Independence Institute. Kathleen, you've always
been an inspiration. I don't know how you do it,
so just you have to.

Speaker 10 (01:06:49):
Give a big shout out. Today is my husband's birthday,
and so Roger is out there listening, And thanks John
for letting us work on Eyear's Eve and for being
the slave driver that you are a Hackey office, so
you're hardly ever there.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
So what do I say? It sound like I work? Hey,
thank you so much, Kathleen, appreciate it. I'm back after
this three or three seven, one, three, eight, five eight
five seven one three eighty five eighty five. Keep it here.
You're on KOA News Talk Sports. It's the end of
the year. I'll tell you what.

Speaker 4 (01:07:22):
When we get back, why don't we spend a little
time chatting about some things that will be different next year,
including some of the laws that are coming into place.
But also I want some predictions what's going to happen
next year.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
And I'm thinking politically because that's my world.

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
I'll put out one right now, I think I think
Phil Wiser, our ag is going to be our next governor.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
I think that's going to happen. I'm not saying that's
what I want to happen. Let me be you that
real clear, and I'll explain why. I think it's going
to be a shame. I think it's gonna be terrible
for the state. But that's just a prediction. I could
be wrong. Tell me three or three seven, one, three

(01:08:11):
eighty five, eighty five back after the news. Keep it
right here. You're on KOA News Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Talk KOA and I heard radio station.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
Guaranteed Human you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
You've noticed this too. The older you get, the faster
it goes. Had a friend once say, it's the uh,
it's the toilet paper theory of life. Now, the less
you have, the faster it goes, the more it spins. Yeah,
that's that's about right. Used to feel like years when
you were a kid. That makes sense. When you're a kid,

(01:08:48):
you're five years old, the year is twenty percent of
your life. You just lived a year that's twenty percent
of your life.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
And now it's you know, one sixtieth of your life.
So of course it's going to seem faster. And then
there's this other thing, which is been there done that.
The been there done that issue is pretty straightforward. There

(01:09:20):
are very few really new experiences as you get older.
Oh yeah, you go to different places. That's different, but
you know what it's like to travel. You've been on airplanes.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
You might pick up a new sport, you pick up pickleball,
but you know you've done tennis and you've done racketball,
so you kind of you know there's a thing there.
And so as you get older, it's really important, I think,
to do new things, which to say, I'm I'm changing
my gender now.

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
I what it's better time now than ever. I'm not
having any luck with women. I'm thinking about going gay.
I don't know if you have to like take a
class or something to become gay. I don't know exactly
how that works. But you know, it's not like my
love life could be any worse. Just something to think about,

(01:10:15):
all right. Three h three seven one three eighty five
eighty five. The next the next year is going to
be a fascinating year. It's gonna be a fascinating political year.
Let's work from the top down. We're gonna have our.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
Midterm elections, and it's likely the Republicans will lose control
of the House. I would be surprised if they keep
control of the House. It is such a slim slim
slim majority right now. And whatever party is in control,

(01:10:55):
whatever party has the White House in midterm elections, they
usually lose. It's it's not a guarantee, but it's pretty
close to a guarantee, which means, as usual Republicans are
going to miss an opportunity between now and the midterm election.

(01:11:17):
All these great things that Trump is doing by executive
order are temporary, absolutely temporary, unless they're codified. So he
can he can open up drilling in different places. He
can he can give permission for pipelines to.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
Go in, oh, whatever it is.

Speaker 4 (01:11:40):
But when AOC becomes president in three years, she's just
going to change it back and go back the other direction.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
Because it's not permanent. You have to make these changes permanent.

Speaker 4 (01:11:59):
So all these great things he's doing saying no, we're
not going to give any money to schools that allow
boys to play in girls' sports. Great, and that's going
to get changed unless we pass a law that the
next president has to abide by.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Here in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
That fight is going to be the eighth congressional Gabe
Evans seat.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
He won.

Speaker 4 (01:12:29):
In a pretty tight race, in a very tight race.
That's impressive. Can he keep it? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
Keep in mind that Trump is hated in this state.
He does not do well in this state.

Speaker 4 (01:12:48):
No, you might love him, you might think he's the
best president ever, but most Coloraden's tend to disagree with you.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
So will Gabe Evans keep keep that seat? I honestly
don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
I've I've heard of polling that shows he's doing okay.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
I've I don't trust polling. I don't trust polling. I
don't know if you know of these futures sites. They
say it's it's not good to gamble on elections, but
there's there's some sites. I'm blanking out on the names.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
It used to be in trade and I'll remember the
other sites where you can bet on the outcome of
different things. Yeah, you can bet on who's going to
win the super Bowl, But you can also bet on
will the Federal Reserve lower interest rate interest rates at
their next meeting, who's going to be the next congressman here,

(01:13:49):
who's going to be the next president?

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
And amazingly those sites are ridiculously accurate compared to poles,
I mean wildly accurate. Why because when a guy calls
you from a polling firm, you might not tell them

(01:14:12):
the truth.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
You might put in what you want to happen, but
not what you think actually will happen.

Speaker 1 (01:14:25):
That's why. That's why sites like Kalshi, which is k
A L s I s h I excuuse me or
predict it or polymarket they're basically sports betting apps that
include political stuff too. So instead of just betting, you know,

(01:14:46):
on fan duel about the Broncos, you can bet who's
going to who's going to win the next races. And
since people are putting their money on it, they're more.

Speaker 4 (01:14:59):
Disconnected from their own personal feelings of who they like
and who they don't like, and they start gathering information
just like sports betters do. Oh, what's the position of
the team, what are the injuries? You know, what are
the opponents doing? You know, they look at all this stuff,
what's a home field advantage?

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
What's this who?

Speaker 4 (01:15:18):
And they they they analyze it. So this is not
gonna surprise you. But Calshi, those gamblers give ninety five
percent odds that a Democrat will be Colorado's next governor. Yeah,
that sounds that sounds about right. Ninety five percent odds.

(01:15:43):
Right now, the Democrat's gonna win.

Speaker 1 (01:15:45):
So Republicans can say, oh no, if only we have
a more trumpet. There's more trumply that all right, you
can think that, But.

Speaker 4 (01:15:55):
The odds makers, the people who are putting the money
on the line, don't agree with you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
Colorado's next attorney general an eighty six percent chance it
will be a Democrat, and our next United States Senator
is going to be I don't wait for it, by
ninety seven percent, it's going to be a Democrat. So

(01:16:25):
this is kind of interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:16:28):
Even though it says the next senator is going to
be a Democrat.

Speaker 1 (01:16:32):
This is Hickenlooper's reelection.

Speaker 4 (01:16:36):
When you take a look at who will win the primary,
it gives Hickenlooper only an eighty percent chance of winning
his own primary. A different site called polymarket has him
at get this, only sixty six percent.

Speaker 1 (01:16:56):
That's fascinating.

Speaker 4 (01:17:00):
Doesn't mean that people are betting that that hicken Looper
is no longer exciting, no longer.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
Attractive.

Speaker 4 (01:17:09):
Maybe he's a little long in the tooth for Colorado
voters that could be right now. I couldn't find I
couldn't find something on the actual who's going to be
the next governor.

Speaker 1 (01:17:24):
Other than it's going to be it's going to be
a Democrat, And so I'm gonna put out this prediction.
I think it's going to be Phil Wiser.

Speaker 4 (01:17:34):
I think the idea of Bennett being a shoe in
is a mistake.

Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
Let's take a quick break and then I'll explain my
reasoning on that.

Speaker 4 (01:17:43):
Tell me if you think I'm right, and if you've
got a prediction for this you cooming year, let me
know what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
Three h three seven to one, three eight five eight
five the seven one three eight five eight five. I'm
John Calderrek. Keep it here, Colorado's greatest station for news,
sports and talk. Cal Dara, it's the last day of
the year. Spends a little time with me. Give me
a call, three or three, seven to one to three,
eight five eighty five. My prediction for next year local politics.

Speaker 4 (01:18:10):
I think Democrats continue to have a massive choke hold
on the House the Senate here in Colorado, and I
think Wiser beats Michael Bennett in a huge upset for
the primary here in Colorado for a governor. What do
you say, Let's go to the lines to talk to David.

(01:18:31):
Three h three seven to one, three eighty five eighty five. Hey, David,
glad to have you.

Speaker 6 (01:18:39):
Good to hear you on the blowtorchs.

Speaker 1 (01:18:41):
It's good to be here.

Speaker 5 (01:18:42):
I just wanted to well, yeah, I just wanted.

Speaker 6 (01:18:45):
To echo what you were talking about last hour about
getting involved. I'm on a town council, just got elected
for another four years. And you know, I for twenty
plus years in the town that I mean, I bet
on the sidelines and through rocks and you know, talked
about how well they're in bed with the developers and

(01:19:08):
you know how they do all that stuff at the town.
You know, once you get involved and you really understand
how the sausage is made, you get a better understanding
and you really feel like all it takes is an education.
And I think the left is very active when there's
open seats on school boards and town councils. The conservatives

(01:19:36):
go to sleep and next thing you know, it's leaning
the wrong way.

Speaker 5 (01:19:39):
So it is.

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
It's addictive. It's addictive in a way. Once you get
involved in local politics. It's addictive because you you end
up understanding what's what's going on at a deeper level,
and you look at people who just kind of bitch
about things, and you go, you don't quite get any

(01:20:02):
here's what's really at play.

Speaker 4 (01:20:04):
Here are the people who are really making money off
of what's going on. Here are the special interests that
that or even though there's just a couple of these guys,
they control everything, right.

Speaker 6 (01:20:21):
So it's I think, you know, we're lucky in our
small town. I'm up in Severance. We don't have a
lot of that going on as much as a big
metro area does. It's easy to spot from the outside
looking into those metro areas, but it all starts locally,
I think. And the more the more momentum you can gain,

(01:20:44):
the more educated you can come about how the process works.

Speaker 9 (01:20:49):
Something as simple.

Speaker 6 (01:20:50):
As land usee codes. People don't understand why why councils
approve new developments when they don't people don't want growth,
Well they met the land ue code if right? Well no,
they see us. It's people really at the beginning, they're
like up and arms. Next thing you know, you explain
it to them and they go, oh, I get it,

(01:21:10):
no problem, thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:21:12):
Yeah, I get it now? Yeah, I get that part,
you know?

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
And you For four years I was sentenced to the
Regional Transportation boarder directors and I was a chairman as well.
In those four years, I learn more about politics. I
learn more about what really happens in the Denver metro
area where the power sources are, how people are ripped off,

(01:21:39):
how bond dealers and unions run the joint in nitty
gritty detail, and how progressives who love to control other
people's lives control the mechanisms of government to manipulate how
you live, how.

Speaker 1 (01:21:56):
You commute, where you live, in your entire life. And
I wouldn't have understood it, and do I'm not. I
wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today if I didn't
do that so many years ago. Great stuff, Hey David,
thank you so much. Three or three seven one three
eight five eighty five.

Speaker 4 (01:22:14):
What is your political prediction for Colorado coming up in
twenty twenty six?

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
I'm John Caldera. You you're on KOA News Talk Sports.
I don't care if you don't care, I care. Three
or three seven only three eighty five eighty five.

Speaker 4 (01:22:31):
Let's get to the phones. I'm John Caldera. Glenn, glad
to have you. You're on KOAP.

Speaker 5 (01:22:37):
Well, thank you, John. I've been listening to your show,
and while I wholeheartedly agree with your guests that you
should get involved, I just want to, I don't know,
tell you a little story about I live in Lakewood
in one of the areas where they closed the school,

(01:23:00):
and the school put up notices that they were going
to sell the property and put up houses, and they
weren't houses that were going to fit into the neighborhood.
So I would guess over a hundred of us got together,

(01:23:20):
went to the meetings and voiced our opinion, and believe
it or not, it had no difference on the outcome.
They had already decided they were going to sell the
property to an investor that was going to do this
to the neighborhood, no matter how many people.

Speaker 4 (01:23:43):
One of the reasons stuff like that happens, and it
happens so often, is that the interested parties, the concentrated interests,
are involved from the get go that by the time
the time that normal people you know what's going to happen,

(01:24:04):
it's already cooked. And those people in the know realize, well,
there's nothing they can do about it. We've got the
signed contracts, we've got the votes signed up. There's nothing
that can happen. I look at on Colfax Avenue, the
RTD is going to put in this ridiculous bus rapid
transit system, which is not going to help traffic. It's

(01:24:26):
going to make traffic much worse. And it's going to
make sure that nobody else can compete for that busway
other than RTD.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
So it's a nice way to take away.

Speaker 4 (01:24:36):
Lanes of general traffic and replace it with something that
only RTD can do.

Speaker 1 (01:24:42):
It's like, this is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea on
so many ways. Maybe if they had a bus lane
that other carpoolers could use, or you could buy your
way into or something, it might make some more sense.
But no, that's not what they do. And by the
time you realize what they're doing, it's done because well

(01:25:04):
you weren't there at the beginning. The idea of getting
people involved on boards and commissions or on school boards
early on is that you could stop that stuff before
it happens.

Speaker 5 (01:25:19):
If we do have to know about it the whole
That was the whole idea we were fighting the school board.
Jefferson County school who has you know, you know they
have closed seventeen properties. We were fighting them, and we were
also fighting the council people who for some reason thought

(01:25:39):
this was a good idea to close the school that
has been here.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
Well, you don't need to make the argument to me
of why you're right and they're wrong. I mean, I
get that. My point being, let me get the thought out.
Let me get the thought out. If let's say you
were on the school board. Do you think this would
have happened if you were on the school board three

(01:26:05):
before it happened. Pardon me.

Speaker 5 (01:26:07):
I would only have one vote, but you would.

Speaker 1 (01:26:10):
Have had so much more.

Speaker 4 (01:26:12):
You would be the guy who could then tell other
people what is really happening. You're the guy who could
started up and get things going early on my point being.
One of the reasons government advances so much is that
those of us who believe in freedom, those of us
who are liberty junkies, we get involved in fights after

(01:26:37):
the fight is over, thinking we still have some sway
in it. What we need to do is get more
people involved in the inner workings of government earlier on
to protect our freedoms. And that's a tough thing. To
do because it's against our nature to get involved in government.
Where do they tell people what to do? And so

(01:27:01):
have you ever volunteered to be on the governmental board
or commission?

Speaker 1 (01:27:06):
Well?

Speaker 5 (01:27:06):
No, I mean I actually volunteered when we were because
they went through the ropes. I mean they did everything
properly hang and.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
They Have you ever volunteered to be on a board
or commission that is a governmental board or a governmental commission?

Speaker 5 (01:27:23):
I volunteered this time to be on the commission, on
the board that would decide which what to do with
this property? And I was, you know, overlooked on that.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
Yeah, did you have any friends on the school.

Speaker 5 (01:27:39):
For Your answer is yes, and my answer is yes.

Speaker 1 (01:27:42):
But that's.

Speaker 5 (01:27:45):
I guess what I'm saying is we don't always even
though we get involved, we don't always get the results
we want.

Speaker 1 (01:27:54):
Man had to stand up in their.

Speaker 5 (01:27:56):
Meeting and reminded all the people in the school and
all the people on the council members that they are
elected and we can that's the only way we can retaliate.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
It's it's a shame that by the time, by the
time it gets to the committee room, I think about
about the attack on gun rights, in Colorado, by the
time the committee hears it in the state legislature, and
you might get five hundred gunnies there screaming about it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:30):
It doesn't matter.

Speaker 4 (01:28:31):
They've sewn up the votes, and so they'll look at
you and be polite while you while you say the
things you want to say.

Speaker 1 (01:28:40):
And then they'll they'll vote the way that they planned
on voting.

Speaker 4 (01:28:44):
That's why good lobbyists and good citizen activists are involved early.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
And it's one of the problems of numbers.

Speaker 4 (01:28:52):
Let me let me give you an example in Greeley,
in the heart of oil and gas country. This is
years back, the Greely Energy Advisory Board for the city
brought forward a proposal to immediately end all fracking. Now,
this is in the heart of oil and gas country.

(01:29:17):
But the left is so well organized and they take
over these energy committees that the city council was forced
to vote on a fracking ban that would have destroyed
their city. Now, fortunately they voted it down, but the
fact that these activists were appointed and they were happy
to bring forward this proposal shows you the power that

(01:29:38):
the left has to get involved in entergynook and cranny
of government and our team team freedom.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
Well, we got lives. We've got families and jobs and
things to take care of. And it's too bad we've
lost that sense of we've got to get involved and
and do something in our community. Because if we did it,
if we match them person for person easily, we'd win easily.

(01:30:10):
We just don't show up to play any other comments.
What would do just out of curiosity, knowing what you
know now and what happened on the issue that was
important to you, if you had to do this differently,
go back several years, what would you do differently to

(01:30:30):
get the outo political outcome you wanted.

Speaker 5 (01:30:34):
The only thing that I could have done differently is
try to run for school board. Yeah, because I mean
I understood why they closed the school. They weren't getting
the amount of people they needed to keep it open, right,
But they flawed everything involved in it because they didn't

(01:30:58):
tell anybody they were closing the school until basically it
was too late, and then they flawed it. By the
whole history of this school was we just finished paying
I mean true taxpayers' money, of course, but they just
did a renovation of this school.

Speaker 1 (01:31:19):
They always have a bond dealing. It doesn't matter what happens.
Bond dealers always win. I haven't figured it out, but
they always win. In school unions always win. Clinton, Thanks
for the call, I appreciate it. Three h three seven
one three eighty five eighty five seven one three eight
five eighty five. Do you have some predictions for what's

(01:31:42):
going to happen next year? Going forward?

Speaker 4 (01:31:46):
The reason I think Wiser wins the primary is several points.

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
One. I think Kyl Ruddens are looking for fresh, younger
faces and politics, and everyone says, well, Bennett's got all
the name recognition, to which I say, does he? Does he? Really?

Speaker 4 (01:32:11):
There are two positions in Colorado that guarantee you news
coverage almost daily. One is being the governor of Colorado,
and the second is being the mayor of Denver, who
gets the least amount of coverage in Colorado. To be honest,
it's our federal delegation. Nobody hears from them, and now

(01:32:36):
that our newspapers are no longer newspapers and there are
no longer Washington bureaus.

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
From the Denver Post or the Rocky Mountain News.

Speaker 4 (01:32:45):
Or whomever, we really don't hear a lot from our senators.
So yeah, they might have been a big deal way
back when. But I just don't think, given how many
people have come into Colorado since that they're common names.
And let me go a little further, Bennett is not

(01:33:08):
what you call an engaging character. He's not an exciting character.
Oh yeah, every now and then he has his temper
tantrum on the Senate floor and he yells and it's
very cute. But he's not a guy who I think
connects well with people.

Speaker 1 (01:33:29):
I also think he doesn't really know what goes.

Speaker 4 (01:33:31):
On in Colorado, which is somewhat important for a governor.
Whereas Wiser uses his office as a constant, absolute, constant
push to get pr there's.

Speaker 1 (01:33:47):
No one he wants to.

Speaker 4 (01:33:48):
He assued the Trump administration now forty six times. It
all seems pretty ridiculous to me.

Speaker 1 (01:33:59):
But it's forty six different press releases, forty six different
press conferences, forty six different articles in the newspaper showing
how he's fighting the scourge of Trump for Coloraden's.

Speaker 4 (01:34:15):
Bennett says he needs to become governor in order to
protect us from from Trump. It's like, what has what
position has more power to protect us from Trump? Is
it the governor here or is it the Senate out there.

(01:34:35):
It's definitely the Senate. If you want to be a
check in balance to Trump, you stay in the Senate.
So I think a lot of primary primary voters are
going to look at this and go, let me see
if I got this right.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
I like Bennett, and I like him as a congressman,
But if I vote for him here, he stops being
a congressman, and I don't know who replaces him. If
I vote for Wiser, I know who's going to be
by senator. Bennett continues to be senator, and I get
this guy's governor. That's a huge advantage for Wiser. But

(01:35:18):
here's the real reason I don't think Bennett wins is
that he's playing cage on who replaces him. He has
made it very clear that he.

Speaker 4 (01:35:30):
Will not resign his position as United States Senator until
he is sworn in as governor. And then who gets
to decide who fills the vacancy in a US Senate
seat here in Colorado?

Speaker 1 (01:35:49):
Get ready for this. It's the governor. Bennett will be
naming his own replacement, but he won't tell us who
who he's replacing himself with.

Speaker 4 (01:36:08):
Who are you replacing yourself with? I'll tell you when
I win.

Speaker 1 (01:36:12):
So we're not voting for one position with Bennett, We're
voting for two. If you vote for Bennett in the primary,
if you vote for Bennett in the general, you're voting
for Bennett for governor and a mystery candidate to be
named later by Bennett to replace him as a senator.

(01:36:34):
People aren't not going to like that. Even Democrats who
like Bennett support Bennett and go, who are you going
to replace yourself with? Well, I'll decide that later. No,
tell me now, because I'm voting for two people. If
I vote for you, I vote for two people, and
I should know who that other person is. I should

(01:36:55):
know who your replacement is going to be? Is it
going to be Jared? Pull us?

Speaker 4 (01:37:01):
Fine, I'd I'd be happy if Jared was our senator?
Why because when he represented us in in Congress, he
wasn't that bad, particularly for the liberal district of Boulder
that he represented.

Speaker 1 (01:37:17):
And now that all of Colorado's like Boulder, Eh, we
could do much worse. So tell us, tell us that's
why I believe Bennett loses.

Speaker 4 (01:37:33):
We will find out. Does Gabe Evans win reelection? I
don't know. I think he does. I think he can.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
I think there's gonna be such disruption in the Democratic
circles to go after him, that that they're gonna beat
each other up. Of course, Keildera's first political axiom that

(01:38:04):
Republicans can't you know, there's nothing that they can't up.

Speaker 4 (01:38:10):
Who knows, Maybe Gabe Evans will get beat up at
a primary and that will hurt him. Maybe a Libertarian
will run and take away votes.

Speaker 1 (01:38:21):
How neither of those really happens. I'm also amazed that
we have five.

Speaker 4 (01:38:30):
Hundred people running on the Republican side for governor next year.

Speaker 1 (01:38:35):
I can't even name them all.

Speaker 4 (01:38:38):
Of course, you have Barbara Kirkmeyer and Victor Marx and Greg.

Speaker 1 (01:38:44):
Oh, come on, John, Greg Lopez, You've got Baisley. You've
got all these people running.

Speaker 4 (01:38:54):
But when it comes to running for United States Senator
against Hickenlooper, they're there's only one Republican that I'm aware of.

Speaker 1 (01:39:01):
If there's another one, let me know, a guy named Janek.
Good guy.

Speaker 4 (01:39:09):
He's going to get killed, but a good guy. Why
don't the Republicans go after that hick seat.

Speaker 1 (01:39:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:39:19):
Is it not sexy enough? Everyone wants to be governor.
I'd like to be governor eral three seven one three
eight five eight five seven one three eighty five eighty five.
What is your prediction for Colorado politics. I'll tell you this.
There is a movement to get some ballot initiatives on.

Speaker 1 (01:39:41):
Some are already on. One that'll be interesting is one.

Speaker 4 (01:39:45):
That would require Colorado law enforcement to work with ICE.

Speaker 1 (01:39:54):
When it comes to immigration, so that that they have
over guys to ICE to be exported, exported, deported. I
don't know if that passes. I hope it passes. I'm
not certain.

Speaker 4 (01:40:12):
There's could be a ballid initiative that keeps boys out
of girls' sports. Should that get on, it passes in
a heartbeat. There could be an initiative that would ban
surgical procedures for people under eighteen for gender reassignment. That'll

(01:40:38):
be tougher to pass. It passes, though, there's no question
in my mind it passes.

Speaker 1 (01:40:44):
Why because.

Speaker 4 (01:40:48):
Even progressives go, yeah, twelve year olds shouldn't be able
to decide to get tattoos, but they should be able
to decide to have their breast removed or they have
their genitals cut off. That's okay, that doesn't work when
you're eighteen, go for it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:09):
If these things get on the ball and they've got
a long waist to go to do it, I think
they pass. Could be a fascinating, fascinating year.

Speaker 4 (01:41:21):
On the federal side, I don't see how Trump holds
onto the House. I just don't see it. I think
Republicans hold onto the Senate, but I don't think they
hold onto the House. And there we miss the opportunity
at which point the next two years after that become

(01:41:44):
not really a lame duck presidency.

Speaker 1 (01:41:45):
But there's not a lot he can do except scare people.

Speaker 4 (01:41:51):
And there's already talk of who's going to run for
president right now it seems that that jd vance the
odds on favorite to run from the Republicans or the
Republican side. I predict a battle between AOC and Gavin

(01:42:11):
Newsom on the left, and God help us, we need
someone saying and neither one of them are all right.
Three oh three seven one three eighty five eighty five.
Thanks for letting me spend some time with you. Check
out Independence Institute. That's Independence Institute. Go to thinkfreedom dot

(01:42:32):
org please, and by the way, if you want to
get in a end of year tax deductible contribution now's
the time.

Speaker 1 (01:42:39):
Go to thinkfreedom dot org. You can. You can help
liberate Colorado and enjoy a tax deduction if you do
it today. Hurry, hurry, hurry.

Speaker 4 (01:42:49):
Check out Complete Colorado dot com for all newsanviews, and
wherever you go.

Speaker 1 (01:42:54):
Whatever you do, Think Freedom. I'm John Calderic. Keep it
right here. You're on KOWA News Talk and is Sports