Seven Less Risky Legislative Celebrations for 2018

Today is the last day of the state legislative session. Normally, that would mean that it’s time to party — not for the legions of Colorado legislative fans (if those exist, please let us know), but for the legislators themselves, along with the lobbyists and the interns and the staff and the hangers-on.

“Every Bathroom In Our Community Will Continue to Be an Injection Site”

Although Lisa Raville has worked hard to build the Harm Reduction Action Center into the Colorado’s largest syringe exchange, she feels strongly that even more good could be done if the state had supervised use facilities, where individuals could inject drugs in an environment that put safety first, as opposed to the Denver Central Library branch, where six people overdosed during the first three months of 2017.

AG Candidate Loses District Court Fight to Get on Primary Ballot, Appeals Decision

The state says Brad Levin is 1,521 signatures short on his ballot petition to be a Democratic primary candidate for attorney general. Levin mounted every argument he had in court to get his name on the June primary ballot, but he was shot down. Now he’s asking the state’s highest court to intervene before Colorado starts mailing out ballots this month and he’s completely knocked out of the race.

House Democrats Force Senate to Negotiate Civil Rights Division Reauthorization

The Colorado Civil Rights Division is at stake this legislative session. The House passed a bill to reauthorize the agency. The Senate amended it, but representatives in the lower chamber were not keen on those changes. House Democrats have said the proposed changes to the civil rights agency would overly politicize and radicalize it. Now, the two have to negotiate their differences before the end of session. But the House Democrats seem to have all the leverage.

Lamborn May Not Be Out of the Woods With His Fight for the Primary Ballot

Doug Lamborn has been battered by lawsuits this election cycle over his petition to get on the June Republican primary ballot. He finally caught a break this week when a court ordered the state to reinstate his name on the Republican primary ballot for the Fifth Congressional District of Colorado. But it’s unclear how long this reprieve will last.

ACLU Neutral on Proposed Red-Flag Gun Bill but Raises Privacy and Penalty Concerns

Everyone is buzzing about Colorado’s proposed red-flag law, which might have the strongest due process provisions of any state in the country that currently has red-flag legislation. In other instances, the American Civil Liberties has been an outspoken opponent of red-flag laws, which would allow law enforcement to seize an individual’s firearms with a court order. So what does the ACLU think about Colorado’s proposal?

Lamborn Clings to Hope That He’ll Wind Up Back on Primary Ballot

U.S. Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs is suing to get his named placed back onto the primary ballot after the Colorado Supreme Court ruled last week that his campaign illegally gathered signatures by using two out-of-state petition circulators. After the ruling, Lamborn was 58 signatures short of the 1,000 he needs to be eligible for the primaries, so he sued twice. But if the courts don’t make a decision before Wednesday, he could still be left in the dust.

Colorado Follows National #RedforEd Trend With Protests. Now What?

Thousands of Colorado educators followed the lead of states like West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona in demanding that state legislatures stop carving up public education and start putting money back into its public schools. Colorado legislators have cut $6.67 billion out of the state education budget since the Great Recession. And although the economy has bounced back, the practice of cutting education dollars continues. So what can protesters actually do to keep the #RedforEd momentum going?

Judge Orders State to Delay Primary Ballot Certification Over Levin’s Signature Debacle

Brad Levin thought he had the ballot petition in the bag. He collected 16,000 signatures, far more than the 10,500 signature requirement to get on the statewide ballot. He was wrong. The state threw out 7,000 of his signatures. Some were thrown out over technicalities. Others were thrown out because the signatures were of unaffiliated voters, who are not legally locked out of the candidate petition process. Now, the Democratic candidate for attorney general is suing to get his signatures back.