Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program has not rolled out as smoothly as intended. Nearly half the wolves introduced since 2023 are dead, and the state will not be able to introduce more as planned this year.
U.S. Sen. and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Michael Bennet said that considering the pitfalls, he’s in favor of suspending the program.
“I think it’s right to suspend it for now and to try to see whether there’s any way to get back to a place where we’re implementing the original plan with fidelity,” he said. “But if we’re not able to implement with fidelity, then we shouldn’t continue.”
Reintroduction, unfavorable among the state’s ranchers, has been a point of contention. In many ways, it epitomizes the urban-rural divide.
Bennet said he believes the original, carefully negotiated plan has not been successfully implemented and worries that has led to exacerbated mistrust rural Coloradans have in state government.
“I hoped that it would succeed, but I’m not sure under these circumstances that I’m very hopeful about it these days,” he said.
Wolves were only one of the topics Bennet discussed in a sit-down interview Friday with The Durango Herald that covered a gamut of topics, including unfunded mandates, election integrity and the well-worn question of why he wants to leave the Senate to become Colorado’s next governor.
As governor, Bennet said he would be more effective in pushing back against President Donald Trump and in improving quality of life for Colorado residents.
He’s been a hard-line critic of the Trump administration, refusing to compromise on issues he views as antithetical to the modern Democratic Party’s positions. As the Senate struggles to reach agreement on federal funding for the Department of Homeland Security, Bennet said he remains unwilling to budge.
Gov. Jared Polis has pushed back against some of the Trump administration’s demands, billing himself as a defender of state rights and a check on executive overreach.
Bennet sidestepped a question asking him to draw comparisons between Polis’ strategy and his own, but suggested there is a different, more effective way to push back against Trump – and it starts with strengthening the state internally.
“For me, driving a stake through Trumpism is not just a matter of fighting Trump or pointing out how corrupt Trump is,” he said. “It’s building an economic agenda for our future, where our children can see their success in our economy and see their success in our democracy.”
Trump’s election is a symptom of the affordability crisis, Bennet said. Fighting back against the federal administration requires not only direct opposition to executive orders and policy but direct attention to domestic challenges, like Colorado’s affordable housing crisis.
“We’re (not) going to sue our way to building better housing or better health care or better child care,” he said.
Bennet’s is running against Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who has signed onto at least 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration, for the Democratic nomination.
The Taxpayer Bill of Rights, the oft-used scapegoat when analyzing Colorado’s budget problems and affordability crisis, must be revisited, Bennet said.
“My sense is that Colorado is ready to have that debate, and Colorado is ready to have a discussion about what we do for the next 25 years versus being shackled to rules that were passed 40 years ago,” he said.
While Bennet avoided an outright call to get rid of TABOR – saying the state should never strip voters of the right to decide tax increases – he’s open to considering changes.
If elected governor, Bennet would be on the hook for following through on his policy platform while working with a constrained budget.
At times, legislators have been faulted for passing costs down to local governments. Earlier this year, La Plata County commissioners and neighboring counties sent letters to the state demanding a stop to the so-called unfunded mandates.
“I’m not going to impose unfunded mandates on people across the state of Colorado – or I’m going to try very hard not to do that,” Bennet said.
His strategy would be to harness the creativity and ingenuity of local leaders across Colorado.
“I think they have been ignored by the leadership in Denver, by the current administration there,” he said. “I don’t think that our mayors, our county commissioners, our school boards, our school superintendents, our local business owners – I don’t think they’ve been engaged in this, the discussion about the future we want to have for our state.”
Republicans and Democrats have made election integrity a key issue going into a midterm year.
Republican lawmakers in Congress are trying to pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility Act, which would require voters to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register.
“It’s really worrisome that it’s here,” Bennet said.
Supporters have promoted the bill as a way to prevent voter fraud, though research has found little evidence of widespread fraud. The SAVE Act recently passed the House but is projected to stall in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans lack the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.
He said it is possible Trump could push Republicans to scrap the Senate filibuster so they could pass the SAVE Act with a simple majority. While they have said they won’t take that step, Bennet said he doesn’t know what kind of pressure Trump might apply and hopes they won’t change the rules for that reason.
In addition to the SAVE Act, there have been calls to make mail-in ballots illegal, something that was raised Friday at a Republican candidates forum in Durango.
But Bennet said Colorado is well-insulated against any federal overreach into the state’s handling of elections.
“I don’t think there’s anybody in red, rural Colorado who would ever willingly give up our mail-in ballots here in Colorado, even if it’s Donald Trump who’s asking for them to do it,” he said. “Because of the convenience of having those ballots and because we have such incredible trust in our elections here in Colorado, the last thing we want to do is turn it over to the federal government.”
jbowman@durangoherald.com
