We have said goodbye to a very big, emotional year.

And we're stepping into an even bigger one for Colorado and for our country.

As we enter 2026, we're reminded that 150 years ago, in 1876, president Grant admitted Colorado to the union as a 38 state.

Our statehood came on the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, earning us the nickname the Centennial State.

Now, before we get too far into this monumental year, our insiders want to share some final thoughts of the year we are leaving behind and what they see coming next.

So let's kick off this first Colorado inside out of 2026.

Hi everyone and happy New Year I'm Kyle Dyer.

Let me get right to introducing you to this week's insider panel.

We start with Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Eric Schneiderman, columnist for Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs and Denver Gazette's Elena Alvarez, reporter at Axios Denver.

And Christy Burton Brown, executive vice president at Advanced Colorado and former chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

So happy 2026, everyone.

Let's start, though, by looking back, 2025 was a lot.

What would you say insiders was Colorado's biggest story of 2025?

I will start with you, Patty.

It is hard to get around the effect the federal government under Donald Trump again, has had on Denver and Colorado and obviously other states, too.

They've had their funding cut off, but towards the end of December, it's certainly felt like we were under the microscope for not freeing Tina Peters, who would have thought she would have been one of the big figures coming out at 2025, the end of encore, which has been so groundbreaking, and what it's done.

And when you think about the last wins in December, how important it is that we have these federal agencies that follow weather, that follow climate, that look at hurricanes, which don't often hit Colorado, but that study has been affected.

So and then hundreds of millions of dollars that Colorado has lost because of Trump's policies.

And we don't see that ending any time soon, nor do we see Tina Peters being freed by Jared Polis.

So we're at an impasse as we head into 2026.

Okay, what say you, Eric?

Well, Patty referred to Colorado being under the microscope.

I might change that under the gun or the, that, point of some other weapon.

Since Patty went that direction, I'll go a different direction.

I think it's just the budget and the lack of growth in Colorado for so many years.

We were a rapid growth state, and we reaped the benefits of that in terms of public finance and whatever.

And those days are over, at least for a while.

At this point.

And, whether it's, budget reductions and continued budget wars at the legislature, I think that was the story of the past year.

And it's probably the story going forward.

A lot of continuation, Elena.

I think Patty nailed it.

I was absolutely going to go with that to Colorado.

Just being on the front lines of Trump's, second term agenda.

You can't really understate that.

But I'll go a different direction and sort of zoom in on Denver.

I think the amount of development, plans that have started rolling this year are kind of wild to think about their, overall impact in the future.

So, again, you know, we have the Bronco Stadium, which we talked a lot about here, at this table that is going to change the city.

It's huge to keep the Broncos in Denver.

We completed the 16th street, not called the mall anymore because that was renamed also this year, which was a big, long time coming project.

We also saw hundreds of millions of dollars, announced for investments specifically for downtown.

So we're going to see that get rolling in 2026.

Mayor Johnston's bond package, which we also have talked a ton about here, was passed completely, overwhelmingly.

And then we have a soccer stadium for, for women.

That is also, presumably going to be passed, but city council is still hitting the brakes a bit on that.

So all of these things happening at once in 2025 sets the stage for a really interesting, you know, 2026 and several years more to come and beyond.

Yes.

Christy, what would you say as the big story of 2025 for Colorado?

Sure, Kyle, it seems like everyone has the economy on their mind and it fits because I think whenever voters are polled in Colorado, they say affordability is top of mind.

So I think sort of a reoccurring story that continued throughout 2025.

And I don't think it's going to end.

And that's just the discussion surrounding Tabor, our taxpayer Bill of rights.

I think you saw so many speeches on the House and Senate floor from specifically Democrats talking about, oh, we need to dismantle Tabor.

That will fix our budget problems, which I don't think is the correct conclusion.

You even saw some people in the legislature go so far as to attempt to bring a lawsuit against Tabor challenging in courts when the courts shut that down a long time ago.

So that would be a losing effort.

But they continue to sort of recycle the idea of how do we dismantle limits on the state gathering revenue so that they can spend more.

And then, I mean, we even saw this play out in title board with the progressive income tax increase that's continuing to go before title board recently lost again that title board, because of its, too broad attempt to eat away at Tabor.

So I think the taxpayer Bill of rights big story reoccurring through 2025 and isn't going to end in 26.

No it won't.

Okay.

Rather than pick one person as its person of the year, time magazine show many individuals who the magazine refers to as the architects of I. Who would you say is the Colorado Person of the year for good for bad?

Who was the person?

Eric I'll start with you in Colorado, who was maybe the most influential or most talked about in this past year?

Well, if time's able to do a group of people, I'm going to take the liberty of doing a group as well.

I know the temptation is to go with a Tina Peters or somebody like that.

I'm going to avoid that temptation.

I'd say it is the owners of Colorado's four major professional sports franchises.

Whether you're talking about the Krankies with the nuggets and the avalanche, both of whom are at the very top of the league, or the Walton Penner group with the Broncos, and we know where the Broncos are.

Here at at year's end, or conversely, the Monfort with the Rockies at the other end of the competitive spectrum, completely at the bottom.

I'd say it's those four individuals, families, entities that own our sports teams.

Because the sports teams are what run this city.

When you say especially now with how good our winter sports teams are doing.

Okay, Laina, what do you think?

I think whether you applauded him or protested him, I think mayor Mike Johnston dominated the conversation this year.

You know, we started the year off, with an immigration raid and and migrants top of mind.

He was, had to go testify before Congress.

So that was a really big deal.

Again, downtown development that has been a reoccurring storyline all throughout the year, and his name has been directly tied to it.

We also had a budget shortfall, a huge one that had to be addressed this year.

He was, you know, the, the figurehead for, for all of that, again, ballot initiatives.

And he had some major big wins again keeping the Broncos and Denver.

That's huge.

A new soccer stadium potentially all of this he is intertwined with.

And so I think he got a you got to give it to him okay.

All right Christy.

I pick Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekley and law enforcement in general.

I think we saw law enforcement really have to step up to the plate in so many ways this year in Colorado and also be under attack in a number of ways.

In the legislative session, a bill was passed and signed by the governor that said, if any member of law enforcement cooperated with the Department of Homeland Security or Ice, they could be fined $50,000 apiece.

We saw Cesar attempt to do this against a mesa County deputy, and then he pulled it back, realized there's actually kind of a lot of public backlash about fining law enforcement officers for attempting to keep people safe, particularly since there's no exceptions for violent or repeat offenders.

And so I think I mentioned Douglas County Sheriff Weekly specifically because it was Colorado's largest fentanyl bust ever and the sixth largest in the nation's history that we saw towards the end of 2025.

And so law enforcement has so much pressure on them to deal with the drugs flooding into our state to deal with Colorado's, you know, second most dangerous state in the nation.

Rating from U.S.

News and World Report.

We'll see if we can fix that in 2026.

Okay.

And, Patrick.

The changes in Denver are huge and what Mayor Johnston got through.

But let's move back to Aurora last year, Danielle Durrance was our person to watch.

We put her on the cover because everything that had gone on in Aurora Trump coming up, Danielle was like the Tina Peters of last year.

And now all of a sudden look at what's happened to Aurora.

It has gone progressive.

The majority on that city council.

It was progressive.

So that is an incredible change for where Aurora had been.

What is Aurora going to do on police when you talk about that huge issue, they're still calling for the police chief to be to resign.

They're back to open meetings.

It's going to be the most fun town to watch in the new year.

But the change over the last year has been incredible.

Yeah okay.

As always to close out the year dictionaries you know pick words that capture the essence, the mood, the focus of society.

And for 2025 Oxford Dictionary chose rage bait which refers to online content deliberately designed to provoke anger or outrage.

And then Dictionary.com picked six seven, which maybe Christie knows what that's about.

And if you have kids about that age, that's the meaning is about a slang expression that's kind of like so.

So I don't know, I'm too old for that.

Anyhow.

What do you think would be a Colorado word of 2025?

I'm really eager to hear what everyone says.

Might is not that fun.

I think squeezed is an accurate way to describe the state of Colorado this year.

Colorado governments from the statehouse to Denver to places like Boulder and Colorado Springs, had to consolidate, delay, cut their budget.

So budgeting in 2025 was 100% squeezed.

Colorado also felt squeezed politically, hugely by the white House, from federal reversals, legal fights, policy threats, the list goes on and on.

So, the real tug of war, dynamic that we saw definitely squeezed Colorado in that way too.

Not to mention, lastly, Coloradans wallets were also squeezed.

I think a lot of people felt pressure, because of inflation and just the realities of grocery shopping.

So going with squeezed, that was.

A good one.

You put a lot of fun that nobody's seen Christy, though.

That is a great one.

Well, you think my 12 year old son would pick 6 or 7, and I did ask his opinion.

But he actually picked change.

And I think that really does describe something that people have been through, in Colorado this last year.

Like Elena explained, people, you know, having to change their family budgets.

I think that's been a really real thing.

I also think, as Patty and Eric have mentioned earlier, just the changes from the federal government coming down to Colorado, like how does the state fund some programs on our own if we believe they're important, if the federal government disagrees?

I think we saw it on the state Board of Education that I serve on.

We recently had an 8 to 1 vote in favor of a charter school.

That's almost unheard of when you have A54 split or Democrat or Republican board.

Just a change, I think, in favor of solid good school choice options.

And then, of course, with Charlie Kirk being shot and all the political violence that was experienced over the year, I think a lot of people had to question if that meant they should change anything about their own discourse.

Or for some people, it was changing and going back to church and reading their Bible.

Just, just I think it's made people really look whether or not their own personal or public lives need change.

well done.

All right.

Patty and someone else picked the word slop, which is kind of good for Colorado, but I'm going with besieged.

We are facing challenges both inside and outside.

We've talked about the challenges coming from the feds.

I mean, we're besieged in the sense that we are not getting the money we need.

We are getting threats under ice.

I mean, are we going to have federal troops come rescue to Peters?

We're also besieged internally, and that's partly by the lack of funds we have suddenly are dealing with the fact that we're not growing, which means our budget isn't growing, income isn't growing.

We're not going to have international tourism.

We are dealing with a whole bunch of challenges.

It makes me think of Red Dawn, the Wolverines, you know, who go to the mountains when the when the Cubans invade the US.

And Colorado is like the last bastion of fighters.

And it kind of feels like that right now.

We are fighting for our independence and our ability to charge our own destiny.

Okay.

Besieged.

All right.

Lastly.

I think all three of these have been great.

I will go with isolated and no, that's not a reference to my role on this panel.

What's more tokenized as the male but more to, Colorado and relates to what Patty just outlined, isolated as a very blue state in a nation that is largely red and has been, over the course of 2025.

And whether that leads to the squeeze or relates to the change that, Christie said, or to the what was your word, Patty?

Siege besieged.

I think they all come together.

And in a way, we're all saying the same thing.

Yeah.

Kind of.

All right.

Now, looking forward, what are the stories?

Who are the people?

What are the issues that you all project?

We're going to be talking about a lot in 2026?

Of course, we've got the midterm elections that will be big in November and the primaries first in June.

But what else are you expecting?

Chris?

I'll start with you.

Well, I actually pick something that fits along those lines because it is an election year.

And I just think the eight CD race with Gabe Evans, obviously as the Republican incumbent, we're going to hear so much about that race.

Millions of dollars pumped into Colorado on both sides.

But I think in addition to it just being one of the tightest congressional races in the nation, it's going to highlight some of the division in the Democrat Party in Colorado between, I think I think the two frontrunners on their side are going to be Shannon Byrd and Manning right now, and they highlight just completely different aspects of the party in charge in Colorado, which often happens when you nearly have a supermajority, you get battles inside your own party.

And I think they really do have to figure out their vision going forward.

Are they going to side with someone like Manny now, who is a member of the Democrat Socialist Party?

Like very, very, very left wing, kind of like Zoran Mamdani from New York City.

There's a lot of a lot of similarities there, or someone like Shannon Byrd.

You're more typical moderate economically kind of conservative Democrat.

I think it's going to be a big story on what the Democrats pick.

And then, of course, who wins that seat?

I think Gabe Evans hangs on to it.

But we'll see and discuss it all year.

So if we did a word for 2026, I would say primary because the primaries will be deciding so much.

And so often people don't vote in the primaries.

But you need to in June, we will remind you.

Okay, what do you think?

Patty, what is the big story or what are the multiple stories that we have for the year ahead?

Well, playing off a few things that have been brought up here.

Obviously, the projects in Denver watching how they're going, where's the money going?

Who's getting the money is going to be an incredible story to follow the primaries.

And then the election in November is going to be amazing.

But I'll go a little more big picture, which is it's the 150th anniversary of Colorado this year.

Also, the 250th anniversary of the country.

And we have a lot of things to deal with there.

But Colorado has really strategized how to celebrate this and what to do across the state, kind of to celebrate the state itself, set it apart from what's going on federally.

And that's going to be a fascinating thing, especially because as you go into the elections, Polis this term limited.

It's his last year.

So how is a person in The Washington Post recently called the weirdest Democrat in America?

How is he going to leave a legacy in Colorado his last year?

And I think he's got an opportunity to really push some things, see what he can do to bring people together and make Colorado, even if it's isolated, be a place to celebrate.

I'm curious, since you're tapped into that, like we've heard a lot about what's going to be happening on the National Mall, but is there going to be a big party here in Denver?

Is going to be spread across the state, or the mix of both?

There's a mix.

So there's a website right now where you can go in.

Every community is encouraged to put their put their celebrations up.

So there's going to be a lot through the rest of the year.

They're doing a I, I think they're doing 150 oral histories of people in Colorado that you'll be able to access.

So it is really a state wide celebration that is not supposed to be focused just on Denver.

And there won't be a bridge.

To there will be no bridge.

Well, that we know of.

That you.

Never know.

Maybe maybe we're going to have a bridge to DC and Trump will just slide right in.

Okay, go.

What's the big story in 2026 that you believe?

Well, Patty referenced, Governor Polis has opportunity in his final year to bring people together.

I'd say he did that over the last year with reference to the bridge.

He brought everyone together.

Say, this is a particularly lousy idea.

You nailed it.

Kyle, with your use of the word primary, I think the story of this election is not going to be next November.

The story of 2026 is going to be in June, frankly, in both parties.

The party that matters around here is the Democratic Party.

I think it is a very tough time to be branded or perceived as a status quo Democrat.

I think Michael Bennet is in for the toughest race of his life, and he may be on the short end of that stick.

I'm not yet ready to predict a July Gonzalez victory, but I do think she will make John Hickenlooper's life very difficult and frankly, quite miserable.

I think it is a tough time to to sort of be, a card carrying all time, all lined Democrat around here and quickly on the Republican side, while we're not going to have a Republican governor in this state, I think it's going to be a fascinating primary, particularly to watch Barb Kirk Meyer, who I think is acknowledged as probably the most qualified candidate and also the most reasonable and moderate candidate, and whether that party can come back to its senses and whether she can walk the gantlet that is, that nominating process.

And, Elaina.

I echo what everyone has said.

I think Christie nailed it with CD8.

That's going to be one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting, because it's so competitive.

The governor's race is going to be huge.

Senator Gonzalez taking on Hickenlooper is going to be fascinating to watch again, because of that progressive, sort of upwelling that we're seeing, because people seem to be very tired with establishment Democrats.

But something I'm interested in is how I is going to impact business, governance.

We've already seen Denver, you know, really touting their use of AI, and even politics, how it might, shape some of the campaigning we see, in the run up to the primaries.

So that's a conversation that I think we'll, we'll continue to hear a lot about in 2026.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Let's talk about some of the highs and lows from the past year that you witnessed.

We'll start on the low note.

And with Patty.

Well I'm returning to the bridge, which was truly one of the craziest ideas we've ever seen come out in Colorado.

That Polis was pushing up until the end, until he basically declared victory because everyone in the state hated the idea and so he was going to stop it.

But let's also talk about what's at the bottom of where that bridge was supposed to land, which is Civic Center.

And as we ended the year, we had people who went to see the lights, but they couldn't really see the lights because it was there were construction barriers where people over where the holiday events went moved the Mile High Tree and Chris Kringle market, and they were complaining about parking and not being able to get there.

So we kind of ended on a low point, even as we tried to grow the city and do these projects.

What are we really creating besides a major traffic jam?

All right.

Your low point for 2025.

In the next week, we're going to keynote the fifth anniversary of January 6th.

And I think my low point is the extent to which this hasn't become a singular event, as horrific as it was.

And I mentioned this on the show a few weeks back.

But the extent this notion of a stolen election, a rigged election has just become so dominant among a significant part of the country, continually fed by the president out of the white House, and it is holding back civil discourse in this country in so many ways.

And it is holding back in Colorado in particular, Republicans, from being taken seriously and being a competitive, viable opposition party.

This notion of a stolen election is a lie, but it is a lie that a whole segment of our country has bought into a whole segment of our state as well.

It is poison and it is impacting us in a negative way.

Okay, we know your low.

For the last year.

We saw a number of high profile violent attacks in Colorado and connected to Colorado.

So this feels like a century ago.

But on January 1st, 2025, there was a fatal Tesla cyber truck, explosion in Las Vegas.

And we learned that the man behind that was from Colorado Springs.

About halfway through the year, there was the, Molotov attack in the heart of downtown Boulder.

And then a couple of months later, we had the high school shooting in evergreen.

All three of those made national news, and it was just a really grim trend that we saw play out here in 2025 to us.

Okay.

I think the way that our state has been dealing with mental incompetency among, accused criminals, I think the legislature passed a law in 2024 that basically required the dismissal of charges.

If you're declared mentally incompetent, with no ability to be restored and there's no civil commitment process, I think that's the big problem that Colorado is facing.

It's like if these people if you have to dismiss charges, they're back out on the streets.

And so Solomon Galligan, Ephraim, we saw multiple stories of people who committed really violent crimes and continue to do them over and over, but the law requires them to be released out onto the streets.

So I think that was a really low point in 25.

We saw many, many occasions of this happening.

I think the legislature may fix it in 26 and they absolutely need to.

It's a requirement.

Okay.

All right.

And something positive that happened that stands out to you from last year.

Patty.

Well, we just did our people to watch issue.

And what is positive is the number of people who've gone out and done really interesting things and will continue in the new year.

The restaurateurs, the artists, the musicians who, despite the fact that funding has been cut so drastically, are able to say, I want to contribute, I'm going to add great things in Colorado.

And so if you go out, there are still wonderful things going on in the state that will continue into the new year.

And we just wrapped a bunch up.

Okay.

All right, Eric.

I'll.

Play off of Patty.

Just all of these people out there and many of them are our hopefully viewers of this program who are doing good deeds.

And they don't in some cases, they're big time good deeds that make the front page in the newspaper or that we discuss around this table.

And often they are just good deeds that you're doing for your neighbor, for a family member, in a small way, trying to get us through troubled times and make our communities better.

Small ways matter just as much as the big headline ways.

Amen to that.

All right, Elena.

We've had a historically awesome year when it comes to sports.

Between the nuggets, the Avs, the Broncos, we won't talk about the Rockies.

There's have been historic in another way, a bad way.

But it's exciting.

And right now, you know, it looks like there could be the odds look pretty good for at least one of those teams to secure a championship in 2026.

So here's hoping.

Yeah.

I have no place for the rally.

Yeah.

Civic center sports.

No, you're right Jackson.

Now you totally did.

All right.

What's your high of last year?

So I'll actually take a ballot measure that got certified at the very end of 2025.

It is being run by the organization.

I work for, Advanced Colorado, but it's an anti fentanyl measure.

And I think this is going to answer what so many people have been looking for ways to crack down on some of the drug cartels that have been coming came into our state with lax border policies that Biden had, and the drug cartels that, you know, the fly, the fentanyl bust in Douglas County happened.

And so many people, as we were collecting signatures, would tell us their personal story of someone they knew dying from fentanyl or being addicted to fentanyl.

And this measure cracks down on drug dealers and provides court mandated treatment for users.

So has that compassionate approach that I think it's going to resonate.

It's going to be a first ballot measure on everyone's ballot this year.

Okay.

All right.

Before we end to end, I just want to go down the line really quickly and a brief hope for the new year then not to be a long what comes to mind, what you hope for the new year?

Certainly more civil conversation.

I don't know the complaints the station gets, but I don't know.

There's complaints I get at my office and people just need to ramp it down and try to understand each other a little better before they start throwing profanity.

Okay, go in the exact same place.

Patty used the word civility.

All I did that grace.

Good faith, goodwill.

And on top of that, to my two friends on the ends of this table, I mean, each of them have a very healthy baby.

Come February.

I know you girls are do the same week, aren't you?

Yeah.

So what's your hope for the new year?

I like that nothing's.

Going on for you.

Yeah.

I'm expecting my first child on February 10th of Baby Boy.

I'm super excited.

I hope he's healthy.

He's happy.

I hope I can keep him alive because they know what I'm doing.

And I hope his debut makes this wild world a little bit of a nicer place to live in it.

Well, it will.

And Christine line won't be a shock either, I hope.

Might, I might, as Baby Girl do on February 12th.

And so my, my third child.

So I'm hoping it'll just be a really bright spot for our whole family this year.

We're already so excited about it.

And I hope all babies, just like Elena's and mine, get a chance to be born in this new year.

And we have new, wonderful children joining us.

All right.

Paul named Kyle.

And they.

All right, well, thanks to each of you insiders for all the work that you provided over the last year in this great conversation.

And thanks in advance for all.

Well, you guys might take some time off, but all that you provide in the New year.

And thanks for all of you who are watching as well.

We so appreciate it and being involved and engaged with our program.

I'm Kyle Dyer, I will see you here next week here on PBS 12.

Again, happy New Year.

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