We're getting closer to the day.

Colorado became the 38th state back in 1876.

You knew that, right?

A recent poll found that many Coloradans aren't all that tuned into our state's 150th birthday.

And let's be honest, none of us like it when our birthdays are forgotten.

So ahead of the big day, we're talking about the Centennial State.

Not just where we have been, but where we are headed from.

The priorities Coloradans say matter most to the decisions our leaders are making.

So let's get started with this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer.

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

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

Eric Saunderson, columnist with Colorado Politics and the Denver and Colorado Springs Gazette's.

Elena Alvarez, reporter with Axios Denver.

And Chris Wark, consultant with work Media and contributor at iHeart Denver.

As Colorado prepares to celebrate 150 years of statehood, a new statewide poll offers an interesting snapshot of who we are today.

And the poll asked Coloradans, what makes you proud?

What worries you?

Who do you trust?

And what they hope for the future?

I'd like each of you to share your thoughts about the responses and the attitudes gathered in this project.

As we approach the big day, August 1st, next Saturday.

Patty.

This, which found that 7 in 10 Coloradans haven't heard much about Colorado.

150 that has to shock you because you are so Miss Colorado.

Well, it's shocking to me.

And of course, the people who've been pushing all the activities.

We have to remember that this poll was actually conducted in the spring, and it's possible that people weren't paying as much attention now.

It's pretty hard.

If you pick up a newspaper, turn on television, listen to the radio, or actually go on social media.

Pretty hard to miss.

There are a lot of big events coming up on Saturday, August 1st, big party in the Golden Triangle at Union Station and party at Big Feet at the National, Western and all over Colorado.

They're going to be events commemorating the 150th.

Not surprisingly, Coloradans feel much better about the 150th when you hear about it than they did about the 250th.

Because if ever a celebration has fallen flat, or worse, I would say it was just the 250th celebration of this country.

Despite Chris's excellent speech a couple of weeks ago.

People are very confused about how they feel about the current state of the country.

But I think in Colorado, people are still optimistic that we can pull together and do better.

Eric.

I thought there was some neat stuff in the poll and hats off to Laurie Weigel, a friend of mine, as well as her counterpart Kevin Ingham, who are the pollsters for the Colorado Polling Institute.

And they did the work I love, like when people ask what foods you associate with Colorado in the winters or foods and beverages, and it was green chili and craft beer were the big winners, and then followed by Rocky Mountain Oysters and, the produce Colorado is famous for melons and peaches and what have you.

So I think there was good stuff in the poll.

Fun stuff.

Not as heavy as the usual topics that we poll on.

And, I was glad to see the results.

That's why I wanted to talk about it.

Not so heavy, but your paper too, actually covered it line by line as well.

In terms of where people think we're headed, what they care about the most.

Yeah.

Sharing some good news is always, you know, it's much needed in these times.

And something that we highlighted at the very top is that one of the, the, the top things that people feel proud about living in Colorado, it's not an industry.

It's not a sports team.

It's the landscape.

Not necessarily a shocker, but, you know, that's something that definitely unites all of us.

And it raises the question, you know, in the next 150 years, can we keep our landscape looking the same within days of this poll?

We saw a study from the Colorado School of Mines that found, you know, our historic winter drought.

This past winter was made for 14 times more likely because of climate change.

So, you know, no matter where you stand on climate policy, I think this poll sort of illustrated we can all kind of rally around what there is, what matters to us to preserve.

And Chris.

One thing I found really curious was what Coloradans found was important to Colorado's way of life.

Important or very important.

And of course, we've heard lands, water, landscape.

98% of those polled said that was the number one choice.

That was very important.

Second, what to that was ensuring freedom and personal choice.

Freedom and personal choice includes less government intervention, personal responsibility, all those things that I started wondering if Colorado's having some cognitive dissonance, you know, holding two contrary thoughts together at once, because the poll also cited that people embrace.

At least 13% of those polled embraced Colorado's progressive policy measures.

You know, as I was thinking about it, we've had we've seen where candidates, particularly socialist candidates, are coming forward.

That's not exactly what I consider freedom, those who embrace freedom.

But when it comes to ballot initiatives, maybe that's where we see it.

We've seen, voters stand up against the the attempts to take away Tabor other issues that way.

And this November, we're going to see a lot of ballot initiatives come forward.

So we'll see if Coloradans really stick to that embracing of freedom.

You know, I have to argue because when you have freedom and independence, you look at the Western and we'll talk about what Michael Johnson used with the frontier references.

But the freedom also means you can be helpful to other people, and you can want to help your neighbor.

You can raise a barn together.

I kind of had that feeling.

It was the Western theory of neighborliness, but not necessarily kowtowing to government.

Yeah, but therein you have to have a choice, right?

The freedom.

Of choice.

It was just a short poll.

Thank you, Miss Colorado.

Okay.

All right.

The cost of living in Colorado was brought up in that poll.

And Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has some ideas on how to improve things.

Saying that he wants Denver to be the best city in America to raise a family.

The mayor outlined some of his priorities in the state of the city address.

Like more affordable housing and universal child care.

Eric, what is your big takeaway from the mayor's speech?

I found, you know, typical Mike Johnston, which is both his gift and his shortcomings.

The speech was very, very long on aspiration and somewhat short on specifics.

One of his big, bold pieces was the childcare piece where basically universal childcare.

Now, that's not going to happen today.

It's not going to happen tomorrow is not going to happen next year.

He promised it by the end of his second term, presuming there is a second term.

And five years out.

Appropriately, he gave paid tribute to Joe Haines and Nancy Geary, named the task force that's going to put these details together after them.

But the devil is always in the details, and the devil's also in the funding.

There was nothing in Mayor Johnston's remarks about where the funding stream is.

For this project.

And the last question I'm left with after the speech is, you know, the mayoral election is not that far away.

It's April next year.

What's that?

Less than nine months away.

you know, I think that's going to start taking shape sooner rather than later.

Atlanta.

Yeah.

To piggyback off of what Eric just said, I think this was 100% a soft launch of Johnston's reelection campaign.

I mean he's talking about his second term already.

In the speech, the through line, as you mentioned, Kyle was affordability.

That is, unsurprisingly, very strategic.

Affordability has become the dominant political issue, and in Denver, but also nationally.

And Democrats are increasingly seeing that message as the one that's going to resonate most with voters over any kind of ideology.

The universal child care, those details.

That's one that's where my ears immediately perked up.

I talked to Mayor Johnston before, the speech asking him how this is really going to work out.

He's talking about launching a pilot program, by next fall to sort of test out the waters, do this on a really small scale, but it is important to distinguish, you know, between a vision and a program.

And what he has promised is a plan, some might argue, concepts of a plan and by the end of his second term.

So that's not a fully funded program.

That's not a partially funded program.

That's a plan for a program.

So important to sort of emphasize there.

Just to echo Eric, again, the obvious questions, voters are going to be asking, how much is this going to cost?

Where is the money going to come from?

And what does universal really mean?

Okay, yeah, I concur on the funding.

Where are we going to get the money to pay for all this, especially when so much has gone towards Mike Johnston's homelessness initiatives?

In fact, a 2023 report by Common Sense Institute indicated that we have spent per year twice as much as the fire department and police department combined.

How do you have a great city if people don't feel safe, safe if there's a fire safe when there's crime?

We've seen this uptick with, youth violence and and young people dying in the city of Denver.

You cannot have a great city unless people feel safe.

I was interested in the mile high line that came up, which was kind of a manufactured.

Besides the fact that we already have a high line but manufactured, putting together a project like the Park Hill Golf Course, that park fabulous.

But it's not like we're building affordable housing there.

National Western, where the speech was given, has been successful beyond, I think, what most people thought it would be, although you're still in the heart of Globeville, where they're worrying about database centers and other issues.

And then as you go down really along the Platte, not the Highline, you're going along the Platte, you've got big, big projects coming up between replacing Mile High Stadium, between Burnham Yard, between the stadium down south, between what's going to go on at ball Arena.

There are a lot of projects to work on, but they can't all be one thing you're working on as a project because something will go awry.

You have to be so careful with each one because the economics are all different.

But National Western Park Park Golf Course being thrown in there just seemed like those are kind of the gimmes, because they're the wins already.

Okay, All right.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Wiser has introduced Jefferson County Commissioner Leslie Dahlkemper as his running mate.

Some political observers, including some at this table, expected Weiser to look beyond the Front Range for a geographical balance.

Instead, he chose someone he says can be a bridge between Colorado's urban and rural communities.

Elena, what does this pick tell you about, Weiser's campaign strategy?

I mean, the general consensus is he has this race in the bag.

So no matter who he picked, you know, it's not going to make or break his odds.

Leslie does seem like a safe choice.

She brings over a decade of local government experience.

Personally, I appreciate her journalism background.

She majored in journalism.

She was a reporter at CPR.

So maybe that will add, you know, an extra layer of transparency to this administration.

Should they be elected?

As you mentioned, that the line of criticism is that they're from they're both from the Front Range.

They've sort of dismissed that.

But, you know, whether voters on the Western Slope for example, feel, represented, you know, not isolated.

We'll see.

But now we're all looking at Victor Marks.

This is the big question, right?

Who he's going to choose as his running mate.

He is largely avoiding the media.

So to trying to try to figure out where his head is at has been difficult.

You know, he needs to win Barbara Kirk Meyer votes.

That's that's a fact.

And you would think that strategically, it would make sense to find someone as a running mate whose values align with hers.

But he just put out a new, general election TV ad, and he's attacking Kirk Meyer.

So, we're not quite sure what that means.

About his strategy.

So we're staying tuned, and he's, not telling us much.

And there's a deadline.

He has to decide by the end of next week.

I believe it is.

He has to announce.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

The party is deeply divided over the marks.

Kirk Meyer and now this Greg Lopez piece coming in as an unaffiliated candidate, a former Republican.

So we'll see what happens there.

I did speak to somebody who's close to the campaign.

And their recommendation was that he picked the biggest name anyone can imagine.

Because really the lieutenant governor, governor is is really kind of a ribbon cutting position.

We always like to say they're going to have a piece of the policy, but in fact, they don't really, so why not pick a big sports figure or somebody like that to make a big splash?

Not sure if that will resonate with him, but that is something that I did pick up on.

As far as Weezer's choice, yes, I've heard that she is a safe choice.

I don't know about bridging the gap between, you know, the urban and rural, people in this state because rural people value Tabor.

And she has been very much an opponent of Tabor.

She was instrumental in Jefferson County, citizens losing their Tabor refunds, and she was part of the Board of county commissioners that paid $300,000 to a consultant to come up with anti Tabor messaging.

So taxpayer money going towards taking away People's Taxpayer refunds.

So we'll see what happens with Marx.

And again to Elena's point, it's it's really kind of a toss up with him being the frontrunner.

It's sort of ceremonial almost.

Yeah.

All right.

Petty.

It's not as though Phil Wiser is pro tabor.

So I don't think it's a danger to take a county commissioner when so many different municipalities have pushed through anti tabor or deep bruising, legislation.

I too I'm glad we've got a reporter on the case.

Maybe she'll cut the cost of getting open records from the AG, because that is currently a controversy.

Now she's very responsive.

She's a smart woman.

I think she will be much more active than a lot of other lieutenant governors have been.

I think it's a good choice, maybe a different choice than if Barb, Barb, Kirk Meyer had been the nominee, they might have had to go more rural.

But I think this obviously will work.

And I'm sticking with Tina Peters for Victor Marks.

You know, if Mary Magdalene isn't available, it's going to be Tina Peters.

I'll join the consensus here.

I think Leslie Dahlkemper is a very solid choice.

She clicks, checks a lot of the boxes.

But more importantly to me, I think this is an indication that Phil Wiser really had the luxury here of not just picking somebody who checks some different boxes of where they live, or the racial and ethnic boxes or any other boxes.

He could pick a governing partner.

He's somebody.

He wants to be at the table with them, a key part of his cabinet and whatever.

And and that pick led him to Leslie Dahlkemper.

It's a luxury has that a lot of other gubernatorial candidates in other situations haven't had.

The other piece about Leslie is that she was a reporter.

She got her career start.

I mean, I can remember I'm dating myself, but when she would come, you know, interview me, or I'd go there to the and to correct Elaina slightly.

It was even before it was identified or branded as Colorado Public Radio.

I think it was just kcfr.

What's the call letters?

What's an old studio on South Josephine Street, right by Denver University and going down there.

And I was probably in my 30s, and Leslie was in her 20s and, and, and we would chat, solid pick, as far as I'm concerned, Leslie and her husband and Phil Wiser and his wife can depart next week on a three month cruise.

Just get out of town, avoid the controversy.

There's this thing is is over, is over.

Can be.

To Chris's point, other Republican candidate Tina Peters is a good idea.

But if you really want a celebrity, dog, the Bounty Hunter.

Oh, I thought about that.

He dated him.

Yeah, kind of dated him.

No, but I have had lunch with them.

Okay.

All right, we'll move on.

Earlier in the show, we talked about the Colorado 150, Paul, where protecting our lands and our water and wildlife ranked among, one of Colorado's highest priorities.

It's one thing to agree on what matters.

It's another decide how to get there.

Right.

Whoever Colorado's next governor will be, one of the issues that they will inherit is the state's controversial gray wolf reintroduction program this week, where it came out that there is a new wolf pack in Eagle County, including perhaps even as a reintroduction program has been halted.

Pause for a bit.

Chris, this is your beat.

You have been following this story since the get go.

What is your reaction and what are you hearing?

Well, my first reaction is this really takes the argument away from, animal activists that say we need to keep bringing wolves to Colorado because we need a genetic diversity or they won't breed.

Clearly, they're still breeding.

We have about, a little over 30 wolves on the ground here in Colorado.

I think the program calls for 30 to 50 initially to get started.

Let's leave it alone.

But there is uncertainty surrounding the program.

Many feel that it has failed.

Ranchers certainly aren't happy, especially in Eagle County.

They kind of feel like this was this information was withheld from them.

And it goes back to allowing scientists to manage wildlife.

Another thing that happened last week was the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to cap, the harvest of fur bears, fur bearing animals, coyotes, foxes, beavers to two a day.

This has been an unlimited harvest, and CPW adamantly said we don't need to cap harvest to keep healthy populations.

There was a Brand-New commissioner in her first meeting that ran this through.

I'll talk a little bit about it in my Lo of the week, but, it's clear that this commission has an agenda these last several months of, governor policies reign.

Okay.

All right.

Patty.

It just shows that even though Coloradans are agreed that they love the land, that they love the state we live in because of its natural beauty, no one agrees on how you can.

You should keep it and what you should keep it for.

We're going to see ballot measures coming up this fall about hunting of the right to hunt.

We are going to see more endangered species issues coming from the feds.

We're going to see more, public lands issues coming from the feds.

So what I think Colorado needs to do is really have open discussion.

And let's hope wiser and his running mate can do that with with not just the urban people, but the rural residents to talk about what do we need to do?

Where do we want to go?

Do we want to open these lands to camping?

Do we want to open them to hunting?

Do we want to open them to four wheel drives?

I mean, we have to decide where we want Colorado to be in the next five years, not just 150.

Eric, this new park has been named the Piney River pack.

Okay.

There's a wonderful resort, place outside of Dale called Piney River ranch.

Excuse me, Pine Creek Ranch.

I'm sure they don't appreciate the branding.

It's not going to help them raise their, room rates any time soon.

Wolf.

Tourism.

Oh, tourism.

We'll see where Governor Weiser wants to go on this.

Hopefully he will have some departure from from his predecessor here.

Maybe the fact that, Phil Weiser's wife is, MD, doctor specializing in geriatric medicine might show that he has a little more emphasis on on people as opposed to, the zealotry of animal rights.

When Chris and I tend to be on this panel, this inevitably arises as an issue.

I tend to agree with her approach here.

I think, what we've seen over the last four years has been a triumph of zealotry over responsible wildlife management.

But it was something Coloradans voted for.

Narrowly and not Coloradans in the affected areas.

Right.

Which is the is the rub.

All right, Elena.

So this new pack brings Colorado's total packs to five.

And Parks and Wildlife officials confirmed that four out of these five packs this year have breed it.

They've bred they have, new pups.

Each litter averages 4 to 6 wolves.

So that could be, you know, anywhere 16 to 20 for you wolves.

If you know, you're you're it's a rough estimate.

But, so it's interesting to sort of think of the numbers like that.

We know right now that there are 31 collared wolves.

There were 32 earlier this spring, but one died.

So you add, you know, potentially 24 more to the you can sort of get a picture of how quickly these wolves are, growing in number.

And I was talking to a couple of ranchers earlier this week about, about this announcement.

And they say, you know, a lone wolf is not a problem.

They don't attack the livestock.

It's when you have a pack, when they need to feed their pups and train them how to kill.

That's when you your livestock starts getting massively affected.

So they have told me, keep an eye out, these pups are starting to roam and you're going to start seeing a lot of depredation reports coming in, which is going to cost the state a lot of money.

Something that I'm watching really closely.

I talked to officials this week about whether we'll see more wolves introduced this winter that, reintroduction effort last winter was halted because the federal government sort of, you know, stepped in.

But, they told me, you know, options are on the table.

They're exploring all of their options right now.

So it could happen as soon as, you know, December.

And then we'll also be looking for a new report they put out next spring, sort of updating the number of collared wolves in the state.

So a lot to, to keep tabs on.

Okay.

Ranchers are definitely worried.

Okay.

All right.

I just want to before you to the highs and lows to an extra speed round, I'd like each of you to answer one of the questions that was in that Colorado 150 poll.

And that question is, what would you say is the best thing about Colorado today?

One word Patty.

Creativity.

Okay.

I'm prejudiced.

Cabernet.

You say wildlife and wolves are no wolves.

Okay.

And crazy mountains.

Mountains.

All right.

Now let's talk about some of the highs and the lows.

What we've witnessed this week.

We've started on a low point and we'll start Patty.

Safety wasn't a big issue in the mayor's speech.

But to bring up what Chris had mentioned earlier, the increased number of killings and not downtown, the people who worry about downtown but all over town, the shooting, the fatal shooting at the ultra nightclub down in southeast Denver, the horrible carjacking by two young teenagers on the north side.

I mean, there are just these very random acts and complete disregard for life all over the town, not downtown.

Yeah, okay.

I'll second Patty, but then, go a different direction.

The complete and total folly of this war in Iran.

It was misguided to begin with.

It was non-strategic.

It wasn't properly planned.

It wasn't properly communicated to the country.

It wasn't properly authorized by the powers that be in Congress.

And there is no viable exit strategy.

We keep getting dragged back in and dragged back in.

There is no viable exit strategy here.

We're keeping score a different way than Iran keeps score.

And by the way, they're keeping score.

They are winning this war and and much more willing to let it drag on.

L.A.

now.

It's a really bad time to be a driver.

Gas prices, average gas prices are above $4, in large part because of the escalation of the war in Iran.

And then there are there's new national data that came out this week that shows Colorado ranked fifth in the nation for fatal crashes because of, you know, unsafe driving from speeding to abrupt lane changes.

So not a good time for the road.

No.

So Commissioner Rebecca Nemec is brand new appointed by Polis.

She has not been confirmed.

She released her own study the night before the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting last week.

And it was basically a survey that was not peer reviewed, not verified.

And she dismissed Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff research and data and recommendations.

She ran through this, two bag limit on fur bears.

And the reason she gave for it was because it was social acceptance that to have social acceptance of hunting, trapping and fishing, we had to have a two bag limit.

There's also some questions about her conflicts of interest, interests, especially as a state employee.

There are specific rules regarding, engaging with political groups and giving advice, especially using taxpayer funded research to advise groups on campaigning and wildlife issues.

Okay.

All right.

Let's talk about something good.

And Patty.

I mentioned creativity.

But also one thing that Mayor Johnson referred to is how our problems are solvable.

We can so mix the two.

And what happened today in southwest Denver at the old Loretto Heights campus, where they've dedicated this new performing arts center that is going to be for the neighbors that figured out how to run it and fund it.

It's a great addition to Denver.

Okay, not open yet, but it's coming.

Yeah, yeah.

Two notable journalists, John Friar, long time government reporter for the Boulder Daily Camera, Longmont Times call passed away within the last week.

Good human being, excellent journalist.

And, a good friend of mine and somebody who really got me into the column writing world.

Vince Pesek, the the editor in chief of Colorado Politics and the Gazette papers, announced his retirement coming up still a number of months away at the end of the year.

Vince is a pro's pro and a wonderful human being.

And, somebody I've gotten close to and really value.

Right.

Congratulations to you.

I'm going to go back to the poll that we started the show on.

I it was just really refreshing to be reminded of all the ways in which our values actually align, when so many polls are trying to illustrate our divides.

So it's nice to report on good.

That's why I wanted to start the show with that.

Right.

It's different.

Well, where I live in the Denver metro, we got rain last night and it was sorely needed, and my wheelbarrow had about 2 or 3in of rain collected in it.

So, it was a substantial rain.

It's been so dry, so very dry and so very hot.

So it was nice.

Really?

Yes.

My high this week is seeing clearance to start talking about and celebrating the 150th birthday.

As Patty said.

Now we're in mode to celebrate.

When we started the show we talked about that poll.

Not many people have heard about the events going on, but the conversation is now growing across the state.

Communities and organizations are finding different ways to mark the milestone from watching Colorado's history come alive.

A lot of exhibits at History Colorado to explore in the state in miniature at the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys, the Colorado 150 Film Festival, Bronc Day in Green Mountain Falls, and rodeos are happening in communities across the state this week and next week and throughout the rest of the summer.

So I just think it's really exciting to see people coming together to celebrate what makes Colorado, Colorado.

So we're gonna have a good couple of weeks here.

Thank you, insider, for joining us this week.

Thank you for engaging with us, watching right here or listening to our podcast.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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