Even if you don’t live within Denver city limits, the policies of the next mayor will most likely affect you. Is there a liberty-friendly candidate on the ballot? Join us Monday, 3/25 6:30pm at South High School to find out. Send your liberty questions to suemoore303@gmail.com for consideration.
For the official call, as well as Bonus Member allocations, click HERE. The State Org meeting is March 30th. To run for Bonus Member, you need to attend your County Org meeting. Most of those will be held in February.
In case you missed it, HERE is the video from our first online charter meeting. Tune in for announcements of future meetings.
Colorado Charter Meeting, Tuesday, January 29th, 7:00pm
A Colorado baker is being sued by the State again in what painfully looks like Double Jeopardy. It’s no longer okay to tolerate transgenders. You must be willing to celebrate them or find the boot of the State on your neck, litigating you into bankruptcy. Where’s the tolerance there?
Boulder declared an “assault weapons ban” which makes criminals out of citizens who fail to have their weapons “certified” by the city. In other words, you can be arrested for doing absolutely nothing. In what alternate universe does this make sense?
Colorado’s Leftists are out of control and Republicans appear impotent when it comes to reigning in Big Government. What can we do?
This meeting will take place over the phone and online.
This meeting will go over information on the Republican Liberty Caucus, why it exists and best practices on how to organize in Colorado. We will discuss how to make an impact on a local level and how to advance liberty.
If you would like to get involved in the Republican Liberty Caucus of Colorado this is the meeting for you.
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1998307143802443/
Join the Online Meeting: https://join.freeconferencecall.com/republicanlibertycaucus
Dial-in number: (712) 775-7270
Access code: 784496#
2018 Voter’s Guide to Ballot Issues
The official text for all these initiatives can be found on the Secretary of State’s website HERE.
Amendment V: Lower Age Requirement for Members of the State Legislature – NO RECOMMENDATION
Amendment W: Election Ballot Format for Judicial Retention Elections – NO
Principles: N/A
This is a solution in search of a problem. Might decrease printing costs slightly, but the change might also confuse voters who think they are voting for all judges collectively instead of each judge individually.
Amendment X: Industrial Hemp Definition – YES
Principles: Limited government, Free markets, Property rights
By aligning our definition of “industrial hemp” with that of federal law, Colorado hemp farmers will not be disadvantaged in selling their products across state lines.
Amendments Y & Z: Congressional and Legislative Redistricting – NO
Principles: Limited government, Equal protection/Rule of law
These two are tricky. Y refers to congressional redistricting and Z refers to legislative redistricting. They should be considered together and voted similarly in order to remain consistent in principle.
While this amendment proposes to prevent gerrymandering by the party in power every census year, it also excludes minor parties from participating in the process. Furthermore, it places the power of redistricting into the hands of 12 people appointed by the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court and 3 former justices to create an “independent and politically balanced” board that will determine district lines. Understand that we would be concentrating power in the hands of a few unelected, unaccountable appointees. Recognize too, that this amendment will increase the length of the Colorado Constitution by over 12,000 words or 16% and would be extremely difficult to overturn if it doesn’t work or has unintended consequences.
Amendment A: Prohibit Slavery and Involuntary Servitude in All Circumstances – YES
Principles: Limited Government
It’s time to bury this issue.
Amendment 73: Funding for Public Schools – NO
Principles: Limited government, Equal protection/Rule of law
The reasons to oppose this are many. It does away with Colorado’s flat tax, pours more money into public schools with no accountability or guarantee of improved performance, and will tax corporations and small businesses yet again, driving them to set up shop in lower-tax states.
Amendment 74: Just Compensation for Reduction in Fair Market Value by Government Law or Regulation – NO RECOMMENDATION
Amendment 75: Constitutional Campaign Contributions – NO RECOMMENDATION
Prop 109: Statutory Authorization of Bonds for Transportation Projects (Fix Our Damn Roads)- YES
Principles: Limited Government, Free Markets
While not perfect, this is a huge improvement over Prop 110. No new taxes are involved, but it does increase state debt by $3.5 billion. This initiative serves as a defensive and strategic move on the part of Independence Institute and aligned liberty groups to cut the legs out from under Prop 110, which would increase the state sales tax by a whopping 21% with very little detail about how the funds would be distributed among transportation projects.
Prop 110: Statutory Transportation Funding – NO
Principles: Limited Government, Free Markets
See Prop 109 above.
Prop 111: Statutory Payday Loans – NO
Principles: Free markets, Limited government, Individual liberty/Individual responsibility
Where there’s a willing buyer and a willing seller, there’s a free market. Government should not be allowed to dictate the terms of payday loans.
Prop 112: Statutory Setback Requirement for Oil & Gas Development – NO
Principles: Limited government, Property rights
This is a thinly-veiled attempt to ban fracking in Colorado. While some make the case that local governments should decide whether or not fracking should be allowed within their boundaries, this would violate the property rights of those who would like to sell mineral rights to oil & gas interests. These setbacks would take those rights away from property owners in about 85% of cases.
Ballot Issue 7G: Denver Urban Drainage and Flood Control District Tax – NO
Principles: Limited government, Equal protection/Rule of law
This special taxing district is run by unelected bureaucrats who want to increase the mill levy in some counties by as much as 100%. The district is also asking to be removed from TABOR protections under Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution, allowing them to increase the tax up to $24 million without a vote of the people. This is clearly “taxation without representation”.
Official text for 7G can be found HERE.
We also encourage you to vote for all Republicans on your ballot, especially our endorsees: Tim Neville in Senate District 16, Christine Jensen in Senate District 20 and Tony Sanchez in Senate District 22.
Clear the Bench Colorado evaluates performance of judges
Matt Arnold, RLCCO member and author of Clear the Bench Colorado has done the legwork on judicial performance. For his analysis go to Clear the Bench Colorado