Colorado’s self-defeating GOP strikes again | Jimmy Sengenberger
When Colorado voters emphatically rejected Proposition HH by 20 percentage points, they sent an unequivocal message to Gov. Jared Polis and the Democrat-controlled Legislature: Keep your hands off our TABOR refunds.
The subsequent special session called by Jared Polis veered off-course — approving bills that brought little property tax relief while utterly disregarding voters’ wishes on Prop HH. Moreover, as I explored Friday, the State House became a home for unabashed bigotry when Rep. Elisabeth Epps went on an unhinged, antisemitic tirade that sparked widespread, bipartisan condemnation.
These events handed the Colorado Republican Party a golden political opportunity on a silver platter: to seize the narrative and cast Democrats as the tone-deaf architects of discord.
Not to be outdone by “those crazy Democrats,” however, the state GOP astonishingly urged county Republican parties not to accept and certify the election results.
It was a stunning turnabout for a party whose leadership publicly praised “a vigilant electorate” for “rightfully rebuffing” Prop HH. In a public email, Chairman Dave Williams properly pronounced its defeat as “a resounding triumph for the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and fiscal responsibility.”
“(C)redit for this victory against Prop HH ultimately belongs to the voters who refused to let extreme Democrats pull the wool over their eyes and the countless citizens who worked tirelessly to educate their neighbors,” he wrote in a refreshing email — praising the anti-Prop HH coalition for “empower(ing) Coloradans to make an informed choice that reflects their values.”