Why Democrat lawmakers who run Colorado are fleeing what they’ve created

A newly published commentary notes that Colorado Democrats in the state legislature, who with other Democrats control virtually every aspect of Colorado’s government, are fleeing – en masse.

At least 20% of the lawmakers who sit in Denver making rules and regulations for their taxpayers have not been elected; they were appointed by party elites, much like Kamala Harris was appointed to be the party’s 2024 presidential candidate.

Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute, wrote, “Democratic Rep. Said Sharbini left, citing ‘the polarized and contentious climate in the state House.’ Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis said the job was emotionally and physically tough when she recently split. But these spoiled kids can have anything they want. They’re not squabbling with Republicans. Republicans aren’t even in the equation. Republicans are hiding in the janitor’s closet hoping not to be found and slapped around. These Democrats are backbiting fellow Democrats. The ‘sensationalistic and vitriolic’ unhealthy environment is amongst themselves. The polarization and emotional toll isn’t coming from the feckless Republicans. Team Left is beginning to eat their own. More than 20% of our legislators were never voted into office in the first place. They were appointed to fill vacancies of those who wanted to get out.”

Absolute Democrat control in the state that used to swing back and forth regularly between Democrat and Republican majorities developed two decades ago. That was when, according to a report from American Majority, that the “Gang of Four” billionaires and lowly multi-millionaires essentially bought the state government.

Rutt Bridges, now-Gov. Jared Polis, Tim Gill and Pat Stryker, all pushing the extremes of the leftist agenda, conspired to use their wealth to organize a new Democrat party, “from policy generation to leadership recruiting, coalition building to grassroots activation.”

Stryker is a billionaire heiress to a medical tech fortune, and she donated $1.5 million in support of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 campaign; Gill started Quark, Bridges once said he had “more money than I could spend,” and Polis took advantage of early dot-com miscalculations, selling online rights to his parents Blue Mountain Arts greeting card slogans to another company for hundreds of millions of dollars, which then collapsed, and he bought them back at a fraction of the original price.

He spent $1 million to his political start, a seat on the Colorado Board of Education which is an unpaid, part-time time. His GOP opponent raised $10,000, and, reports said, had offered to drop out if Polis has split the difference and given him $500,000.

The report noted what the “Gang” did was flood races with money that no local Republican candidate could hope to compete with, using “dozens” of 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4) and 527 organizations that they personally funded.

The result? “The Democrat Party didn’t win Colorado: the progressive left did. They simply used the Democrat Party as a vehicle by which to achieve their political ends.”

Since then, there’s been a long list of Democrat governors. The state House and Senate have near veto-proof Democrat majorities. The state’s top officials are all Democrats.

The agenda has been made clear by their goals and actions.

An all-Democrat state Supreme Court tried to remove President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, only to be reprimanded by the U.S. Supreme Court. The state repeatedly has launched attacks on Christianity, demanding its own messaging and disregarding constitutional rights. In one case it got scolded by the Supreme Court for its hostility to Christianity, but it immediately launched the same allegations against another defendant, to be struck down again.

It tried this year to force a Christian children’s camp to allow boys in the girls cabins, and showers.

It right now is arguing before the Supreme Court that it has the right to control the speech of Christian counselors who want to help patients to come to them with unwanted same-sex feelings.

The state essentially says, in that case, that counselors are allowed to promote the LGBT ideology, but are not allowed even to mention anything negative about the lifestyle.

Polis, of course, the openly homosexual governor who pundits already have mentioned as a possible future Democrat nominee for president, has been part and parcel of the agenda, apparently from its beginning.

It is, in fact, the leftist CPR which has confirmed, “There will be at least 21 members of the Colorado General Assembly this year who at some point were appointed to the House or Senate by or through a vacancy committee made up of a small number of party insiders, according to a Colorado Sun analysis. That includes 12 state representatives and nine senators. All but three are Democrats:”

It continued, “The number — which represents about a fifth of the 100-member General Assembly — is down from last year, when 29 legislators had at some point landed a job in the General Assembly thanks to a vacancy committee.”

Caldara explained, Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen “in any other state” would be “looking to run for governor.” Instead, he’s fleeing.

“So that Paul doesn’t feel alone in his escape from the asylum — I’m sorry, the ‘unsupervised mental health facility’ — the equally sane House Minority Whip Ryan Armagost is bolting out of the state for an undisclosed ‘fantastic professional opportunity’ in Arizona,” Caldara wrote.

But the majority fleeing are Democrats.

“Recall, Democrats have near veto-proof majorities in both houses, all statewide offices, including governor and attorney general, and judges almost completely appointed by progressive Democrat governors. Like your sibling whom your parents love more than you, Democrats get whatever they want. Your wallet is their oyster,” Caldara wrote.

In fact, lawmakers, faced with a constitutional requirement for voter approval for tax increases beyond the rate of inflation and increased population, have resorted to imposing new taxes and then calling them “fees.”

For example, vehicle owners are required to pay a “fee” for roads and a “fee” for bridges. Likely they sometimes use them. But out-of-state travelers use those same public facilities, with no fee.

Caldara noted that first, there needs to be reform of how vacancies are filled.

“The bigger question is, what are the Democrats doing to make the place so unlivable?”