Well, hello, everybody. Colorado Governor Jared Polis has entered his final year in office. And for one last time, he took to the podium this month to deliver his annual check-in on the state. Welcome to my final state of the state address, which I need to do a selfie for. So let's get ready. The Democratic governor flaunted his state pride with the Colorado Sea emblem on a bolo tie and his customary running shoes. Seven years ago, I stepped up to the plate as your governor. Baseball aficionado, gamer, tech geek, a head mostly full of hair at that point, ever hopeful Rockies fan, at least I was hopeful back then. At the time, I certainly couldn't have predicted all that we would face as a state, as a nation, as a world. Now, of course, there's all that we would face. He was not exaggerating. Think about the last seven years. COVID, the Marshall Fire, mass shootings at a King Soopers in Boulder, Club Q in Colorado Springs, the STEM School Highlands Ranch, and most recently, the attack on Evergreen High School. And who knows what this last year will bring, but it is getting close for his time to leave office. And Polis is tooting his own horn on some big ticket items he's accomplished. Free full-day kindergarten, universal pre-K, cutting the income tax, and wooing the Sundance Film Festival to Boulder. But his farewell address wasn't just a reflection on the past and his accomplishments. The governor made it clear his work isn't done, and he doesn't want to have a sleepy last year. There are so many ways that we can build a bright future for Colorado, and almost all of them begin with education. And this year, we want to help make sure the local governments have the resources they need to build and improve bus and train stations, and to pair these investments with housing near transit. We're charging forward on our plan to unlock clean energy, including our goals of achieving 100%. Some of the governor's policy pitches got members of his party up on their feet, clapping. Other times, they look welded to their seats in disapproval. Polis hasn't always seen eye to eye with fellow Democrats, and his very hands-on approach to policymaking has frequently frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. I've been called many things. Colorado's education governor, marijuana governor, tech bro governor, gay governor, socialist, fascist, communist, capitalist, libertarian. Whatever it is, I just keep putting in the work and let others decide the labels. Let's be real, though. There's one title Polis can't outrun. Lame duck governor. Next year, it will be someone else at that podium. Which means the next four months of this legislative session is the time for Polis to get his policy priorities over the finish line and cement his vision for what he calls the Colorado Way. In the Lord of the Rings, Sam speaks to Frodo, saying there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for. Colorado, there's so much good, and we keep fighting for more. This is Purplish from CPR News and the Colorado Capital News Alliance. A show about Colorado politics and policy. I'm Benta Birkland. Back at it with Jesse Paul with The Colorado Sun and Lucas Brady-Woods of KUNC. Hey guys. Hola, shalom, ni hao. Konnichiwa. So in our last episode, we talked about the stakes for lawmakers this session. Now we're turning our attention to the big man on the first floor and what he wants to do with his final year in office. Before we get to the policy stuff, though, I really just have to stop for a moment and note that whatever Polis gets done, he won't be doing it as his excellency anymore. Lawmakers started out this year by giving him a demotion in title. Representative Ken DeGraff, the very conservative Republican, hitched this change. And he said he always found it weird that Colorado uses the term His Excellency as an honorific for its governors. He just felt it was odd and royal and out of place. In an era marked by public demonstrations like no-king's rallies, adopting a more fitting honorific such as the honorable would better align with these principles, ensuring that the governor is positioned as a servant of the people, not positioning himself above the people, or not having the legislative body positioning himself above. This was on the first day of session. It seemed like another Kennedy-Graphism that was going nowhere, if you know you know. That was until one of the chamber's most progressive Democrats came down to the mic. I agree with this resolution. This is Representative Lorena Garcia from Adams County. And she actually said she's been wanting to do this since she first got to the statehouse. But for her, it wasn't about Trump, even though that's kind of how DeGraff phrased it. And I would urge that we all agree that we don't have kings in this state or in this country, and that we do respect the governor's position by referring to him in a respectful and a more appropriate term as honorable. Thank you. And apparently almost everyone was ready for a change because it passed 60 to 5. The His Excellency honorific is really only used for official proceedings, like the state of the state. So not earth-shattering policy here, but it was an interesting thing to happen on day one of the 2026 session. So the Honorable Governor Jared Polis has one more year to try and cement his legacy. To work with or against state lawmakers on legislation. And to navigate how to deal with a Trump administration that seems bent on punishing Colorado. What does all that mean for the next four months under the Gold Dome? And what can Coloradans expect? Let's get to it. I want to start out with the Polis' priority, his efforts to change housing development in the state. A lot of his policies on affordability and density will take years to really bear fruit, and some are already facing legal challenges. For the past few years, he's been trying to force communities to get more dense and welcome more transit, which in Polis' view could make Colorado a more affordable place to live. Here he is in the State of the State address again For too long we run up against roadblocks from outdated laws to piles of paperwork to costly delays that slow or stop new housing new transit new clean energy from even being built It reminds me of the words of Taylor Swift and maybe Kevin Bomber too, I'll sue you if you step on my lawn. And there it is, the awkward Kevin Bomber joke. Kevin Bomber, head of the Colorado Municipal League, a group that includes cities from across Colorado. Bomber and Polis sometimes seem like rock'em sock'em puppets lately. Six front rage communities are suing Polis right now, claiming the housing laws he's championed are a state overreach and unconstitutional. Not sure how funny Kevin Bomber thought that joke was. People kind of groaned in the chamber. It was one of those slightly awkward moments. The Colorado Municipal League is a powerful force at the Capitol. I mean, we're talking all the cities in the state. And these are where lawmakers live and represent communities they know well and that members have close relationships with local leaders. So it does make pushback on any housing policies especially tough. Just a note, though, some big and small communities do back what Polis is doing on housing, you know, on density and are already actually implementing some of the state laws. I do think we'll see lawmakers take another crack at some of his ideas this year with some tweaky tweaks. Tweaky tweaks. Yeah, that's right, I guess. So, for instance, a bill to do something like that came up last year and it failed. But it's back this session on a narrower scope. And we talked about this in our last episode. So this is a bill that would allow schools and universities and some other entities to use land they own to build housing, whether or not it's zoned residential. And the issue for some cities is they want to be able to decide whether housing on old school property is a good idea or not. And they feel like the state needs to work with local communities more than just dictating. Another housing bill coming this year aims to make it easier for homeowners and population centers, think like Denver or Grand Junction, to subdivide and sell off a portion of their property. Polis also wants lawmakers to expand on past efforts to increase housing density near public transportation. So the idea here is to make sure local governments have enough resources to improve bus and train stations to build housing around them. And with housing and public transportation being such a big priority for Polis, do you two think that he'll be able to succeed in passing things that failed before? Or could that lawsuit from cities make lawmakers even more weary about these ideas? Well, first off, the governor's stance toward the lawsuit and basically all lawsuits has been, come at me, bro. So I don't think it's going to change his stance or the way that he operates in the legislature. But you're right in that it poses a challenge for the governor in trying to rally support among lawmakers to support these things, since cities are so against them and they are a powerful force to the Capitol. Yeah, that's right. And these lawsuits won't be decided in the next four months, likely. So things are a little bit in limbo. But I think a lot of people agree with the overall goals of what Polis is trying to accomplish, different ways of getting there and how you get there. So there's room for common ground. Okay, so moving on from affordability and housing, I want to talk a little bit about Polis' track record on environmental issues and what that can mean for this session, because he clearly wants emissions reductions to be part of his legacy. By 2030, I'm proud to say that more than 70% of Colorado's electricity will come from low-cost wind and solar. But we need emerging technologies like geothermal and carbon capture to get us to 100%. It is worth noting that Polis and state legislative leaders did have plans to speed this up last year. That got delayed. A bill wasn't introduced. But we should expect them to finally bring that forward this session. Yeah, in his State of the State, Polis said that, yes, 100% clean energy is the goal. But he also mentioned building into legislation the, quote, flexibility we need to adapt to realities of federal headwinds and protect consumers. What do we expect that nimbleness to look like? I think it's telling that he didn't explain what that nimbleness is. Utilities have cautioned that speeding up 100% renewable is going to be tough and pretty expensive. Things are a lot easier said than done when it comes to this kind of detail. The devil's in the details, and calling them details actually feels a little unfair because these are more like major tales. I mean, one thing you point out, Jesse, the Trump administration and what a hurdle that could be. The administration is actively trying to make this goal of 100% renewable pretty impossible by requiring Colorado's coal plants to stay open. Right. Keeping coal power plants open, removing EV incentives, selling off public lands for drilling. All of that is going to make it a lot harder to reduce emissions in Colorado. So the governor has also patted himself on the back quite a bit for his achievements in terms of K-12 education. What is he pushing for to maintain that moniker we heard at the top, the education governor? I think one of the biggest challenges here will be continuing to make sure Colorado can fully fund K-12 schools. One thing that stood out to me in his State of the State address, Polis touted a lot of his accomplishments. He didn't list specific education policy priorities for the next session. That said, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say they don't want to cut K-12 funding to help fill the budget gap. Yes, so much of this rides on the budget, which is one area where lawmakers and Polis are definitely split. They have very, very different ideas on how to make this all balanced. Speaking of splits between Polis and lawmakers, even those in his own party, let's visit that universe next. This is Purplish from CPR News and the Colorado Capital News Alliance. You love podcasts to keep up with the news. Now there's an easy way to find out what's happening in Colorado every day. The Colorado Today podcast is new from the same trusted source that brings you Purplish. You'll get the top stories, on-the-ground reporting, and moments of curiosity. Follow Colorado Today for the statewide news you need each weekday on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Purplish from CPR News and the Colorado Capital News Alliance. We've talked a bit about what Polis wants to get done, but let's dial in on the people he has to work with to make it happen There are a hundred of them Yeah that right And Polis has been pretty adept at persuading lawmakers to pass the bills he wants and to not pass the bills he dislikes He has a hands approach to legislation That's a much different approach from the previous governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper. So I think that it was an adjustment for lawmakers when Polis took office and a frustrating adjustment for some of them. It was like the kids suddenly got a curfew. I wasn't around to cover Hickenlooper, but was his approach actually better for lawmakers in practice? I think it's one of those, be careful what you wish for. Under Hickenlooper, there were times lawmakers were frustrated he didn't weigh in earlier or help them with policy. And then other times they're glad he wasn't involved because we saw that with Polis, that lawmakers were pretty shocked at the level of engagement and sometimes the pressure they would feel from the Polis administration on given policies. I think one big difference between their governing styles that we can't separate from all this is that unlike Hickenlooper, Polis has never worked with a divided legislature. Democrats have been completely in power since Polis has been in office. I think that's a good point, Benta, right? Like, John Hickenlooper had some influence over Democrats, but when Republicans controlled the state Senate, he was kind of just another guy in the room. And whenever he offered something, Republicans in the state Senate pretty much always just went the opposite way. Much different landscape under Polis. Doesn't mean that Polis has always seen eye to eye with his colleagues within his party, though. Yeah, that's for sure, especially for more progressive lawmakers who haven't been able to get all their bills past Polis. I think one thing that stands out, and it's not progressive members, it's just the Democratic Party in general, he really diverges from the main part of the party when it comes to workers' rights. You've seen it before, and you're going to see that again this year with the Labor Peace Act. Polis vetoed an effort to remake it last year to change up the law to make it easier for unions to require that all workers at a company pay representation fees, whether they are in the union or not. It's very complicated. You can listen back to our episode on it. But lawmakers in the labor movement are basically just saying Leroy Jenkins and trying it again in 2026. This law does not protect freedom. It protects corporate power. Repealing the second vote doesn't force anyone to join our union. It simply puts workers on equal footing. We're not asking for special treatment. We are asking for fairness. If we believe in democracy, it has to apply at work. That was a Starbucks worker named Kylie Anderson speaking at the Capitol recently during a news conference. And what's Polis saying about this second attempt? I'll admit after the veto last year, I didn't necessarily expect Democrats would bring back the bill again. Well, I think you can just look to how things turned out for Leroy Jenkins. Not good, y'all. There's nothing different, So I'm not quite sure why they're doing it again. I think we'd have an opportunity to accomplish some great things for labor if we work together and that invitation remains open. Certainly by introducing it again, the issue is going to be front and center. Right. I think part of what's going on here is that old Wayne Gretzky thing. You miss 100 percent of the bills you don't draft or something like that. The other part is to keep the pressure on Polis and build support for the Labor Peace Act for the next governor and among the public. As you mentioned, Benta, they want to keep this issue front and center. I think this is a tactic we'll see a lot of this session, putting big policies in the spotlight, in part to gauge, figure out what the next leader of the state would do and keep it in front of the public as a priority and keep us and the media covering it. But specifically with the Labor Peace Act repeal, it's really not clear how this is going to move forward. And interestingly, the two leading Dems running for governor are kind of on the same page as Polis on this issue. They both support making it easier for workers to unionize, but they don't want to go as far as this bill. Good point, Lucas. Thank you, Jesse. And the Labor Peace Act is not the only thing Polis vetoed last year. There was also a social media bill. and this aimed to make it easier for companies to work with law enforcement and try to curtail some of the illegal activity that's on social media. That had broad bipartisan support. In fact, lawmakers almost overrode Polis' veto. And this idea of trying to make social media safer for users, for youth, it's emotional for a lot of lawmakers, and it certainly impacts a lot of Coloradans, and people do have strong opinions on it. I will say a narrower version of that bill is coming back this session. Polis comes from big tech and has been fairly supportive of big tech as governor, much to many Democratic lawmakers' dismay. He also vetoed a bill last year that would have put new regulations on rideshare companies. You see that heavy tech hand in the AI issue, too. Some Democrats want to put more guardrails on the technology, but the governor has made it clear that he's really focused on maintaining business competitiveness. Today, we're called upon to ensure Colorado remains a leading state for artificial intelligence, for consumers, for businesses of all sizes. And now is the time to get together in a way that drives innovation and, of course, protects our fellow Coloradans. I think AI is going to be one of the really big things to watch at the Capitol this year in terms of testing the relationship between the governor and Democrats in the Capitol. It is just one of those things that is really tough to figure out. And there are very divergent ideas on how to tackle this. And Colorado already passed its anti-discrimination AI systems law. That's slated to go in effect in June. So lawmakers are going to have to tackle this, whether it's make tweaks to that, push back the law's implementation date. So it's going to be pretty front and center at some point this session. Democrats in the legislature, the governor on different pages. big AI regulation fight? Grab your popcorn, folks. It's going to be a good one. But the big question is how lawmakers handle Polis' last year. Maybe you cross him because he's leaving office and you don't care what it means for your future relationship with him. Maybe you don't because you know the next governor might sign your bill. A lot of political things to think about, too. Another big factor that'll really affect the governor's final session is far, far outside of our state capitol. It is the Trump administration. There are policy changes state lawmakers are going to have to contend with at the federal level. Immigration, federal funding cuts. Over the past 12 months, it seems like Washington has often been in it to break it down, to make life harder and less affordable, to make Americans feel more fearful, more belligerent, and more vulnerable. It's starting to get a little personal for Colorado and for the governor. President Trump has denied disaster relief requests from the state. He vetoed a bill to help southeastern Colorado pay for clean drinking water. He's dismantling the Climate Center in Boulder and moving Space Command out of Colorado Springs. Democrats have been saying for a while that Trump is punishing Colorado And when you see all these actions it definitely doesn seem like a coincidence And the administration has been explicit about that in certain cases Some of it for our state policies like mail-in voting and for other reasons. Trump's veto on the drinking water in southeast Colorado. Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert speculated that the reason for that veto could have been her support for the release of the Epstein file. So a lot of potential reasons. Don't forget the big TP. That's Tina Peters. I'm not sure if I had this on my bingo card this year, but it looks like Trump is on a very public pressure campaign to get the governor to offer clemency to the former Mesa County clerk, Tina Peters. We will talk about this a lot more in a future episode, I'm told. But for now, how is this going to affect the session? Well, first, a reminder, Peters was convicted of state crimes and sentenced to nine years in state prison for orchestrating a security breach of her county's election system in order to push Trump's false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. I'll say in interviews recently, Polis does seem to be softening his free Tina stance, but saying that her nine-year sentence might be too harsh. Yeah, I've been saying about Polis's switch on this that he is releasing Tina Peters curious. He did talk about that specifically with Colorado Matters recently. When you look at people who have been convicted for nonviolent first-time offenses, absolutely, her sentence stands out. I think there's no question about that. And we have hundreds of applications for clemency and for pardons, and I thoughtfully review each and every one of them. And in my final year as governor, I do want to lean into the value of mercy and do what we can to give people a second chance. Let's just be really clear. Democrats at the Capitol and across the state, even some Republicans too, do not want him to do this. But how could the decision on this actually set the tone for the legislative session? Like, could it be really explosive if he reduces her sentence? If Polis cuts her sentence short, this is going to overshadow everything else he tries to do in his final year in office. It could overshadow his entire two terms as governor, actually. It's also likely to destroy his future political ambitions. And I think it's just hard to overstate how earth shattering this would be. I think that's right. It's tapping into a much larger thing of how Democrats are responding to this Trump era. And for a lot of Democrats, it would appear to be caving to President Trump, no matter what justification Governor Polis would have about the length of her sentence. And remember, Tina Peters is someone who's not shown any remorse. She does feel that she was right. She does feel that it was within her authority to be part of this security breach. And so for some lawmakers that I talk to, Democrats, it would make a difference to them if she apologized. We're not going to see an apology. Very unlikely. And then there's the question of would pardoning Tina Peters even appease Trump enough for him to turn his focus elsewhere? And again, we're talking about a lot of Trump administration actions that the legislature is going to have to take on this year. Democrats are going to want to look at things like immigration. They're going to want to look at things like tax credits. Like I said, it's going to overshadow everything if he cuts Tina Peters' sentence short. Rightly so, we've been focused on Polis' final year as governor. But there's always been speculation about what's in store for him after his term ends. His future political aspirations. Basically, where do we stand today on the odds of Polis for Prez in 2028? Well, assuming he doesn't let Tina Peters out of prison, I think it's possible he tries to keep his foot in the political arena. I've asked Polis a bunch of times in recent years if he plans to run for president. Most recently at a Colorado Sun event earlier this month, he sounded pretty certain that he's not eyeing the White House. And he really mentioned the political climate as being part of his calculation here. But he hopes, quote, good people are thinking about it. The truth is, politics is different and in many ways worse than when I first entered. I think there's a real danger there. There's a real vitriol there. You know, I have two young kids and I want to be there for them, especially, you know, while they're at home. and be able to coach my daughter's little league and focus on the things that matter for the next few years. So I've not really considered in any way, you know, running for that. But Jesse, I feel like I've heard people in positions of power talk about wanting to spend more time with their families, which makes sense. But then they still end up going to run for higher office and having this demanding work schedule. Right. Definitely true. And that's an excuse politicians use often. but I think the governor was being pretty sincere. I do not want to run for president. Okay, so I watched that talk, and while he did seem to say nah to the presidency, I felt like he didn't necessarily discount the idea of going for Michael Bennett's U.S. Senate seat. Of course, that is if Bennett becomes Colorado's next governor. That's right. I think this was kind of an interesting moment. He kind of sidestepped that question or refocused it, I guess. I don't know. I think you could argue, though, that he maybe sounded curious about the idea. I've really focused on an entire year we have here to be governor. And obviously it's something that may or may not even be around, but it's not something I've thought about. I served my time in Washington. I served 10 years there. I was honored to do that. I don't have any particular plan to go back. But as I said, I look forward to continuing to make Colorado and our country a better place however I can. I think that the governor should buy the Rockies. That would truly make Colorado a better place. Sure, then he can just add the baseball governor to his honorifics. That's it for this episode. Purplish is a production of member-supported Colorado Public Radio and the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. The CCNA is a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and the Colorado Sun with support from news outlets throughout the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I'm Lucas Brady-Woods. I'm Jesse Paul. And I'm Benta Birkland. Our producer is Stephanie Wolfe, and our editor is Megan Verlie. Sound design and engineering by Shane Rumsey. Our theme music is by Brad Turner. Purplish will be back in your feeds in two weeks. Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode. This is Purplish from CPR News and the Colorado Capital News Alliance. Leroy Jenkins.
