The spread of the coronavirus and the government’s response to slow transmission has disrupted nearly every facet of life in Colorado. And how we practice politics, including gathering for county assemblies or party conventions, is no exception.
Gov. Jared Polis on March 17 signed an executive order that gives Colorado counties the flexibility and authority to have virtual assemblies and conventions, conduct mail-in ballots or delay assemblies altogether as the state government works to limit in-person contact and the spread of the coronavirus.
Because of the potential health risks associated with in-person assemblies, candidates will not be able to speak face-to-face with voters about their policies and qualifications.
The Durango Herald staff spoke with U.S. Senate candidates in advance of the virtual assemblies to compile their thoughts about the issues that matter most to Southwest Coloradans, such as public lands and saving the economy from the impacts of the coronavirus.
The Republican incumbent is Sen. Cory Gardner. Democratic candidates vying to unseat him are Andrew Romanoff, John Hickenlooper and Stephanie Spaulding.
Economic impact of coronavirus
Economic impact of coronavirusAs a former member of the Colorado Legislature, Romanoff has proposed ending tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas, ensuring large corporations and wealthy Americans pay taxes, raising the minimum wage to match the cost of living and extending broadband access to rural areas of Colorado.
During this significant economic disruption of the coronavirus, Romanoff suggested a national freeze on evictions, foreclosures, utility shutoffs, farm loan payments and student loan payments. Additionally, Romanoff supported Congress in expanding unemployment insurance and paid family sick and medical leave.
“The first order of business is making sure people don’t lose their lives,” Romanoff told the Herald. But once the crisis slows, rebuilding the economy will be “much like the 1930s and the 1940s,” Romanoff said.
To put millions of people back to work in America, Romanoff said rebuilding the transportation system and energy infrastructure through plans like the Green New Deal would ensure Colorado and the United States leads the world toward a clean energy future while creating jobs. Rebuilding the economy is an “opportunity borne of a crisis and a tragedy,” Romanoff told the Herald.
“People understand in a time of crisis you need to take bold measures, there is bipartisan recognition of that,” Romanoff said. The “worst thing we can do is return to the status quo,” where a quarter of the country is uninsured or underinsured, he said.
Spaulding said the Colorado state Legislature and Polis have handled the crisis well, and that the eviction freeze should be extended to the national level.
Paid family leave should have already been the norm as well, Spaulding said. Rural residents, single women with children and people of color are unemployed and underemployed at far greater rates, according to her campaign website.
Spaulding said she will work for equal wages and oppose tax cuts for corporations, as well as raise the minimum wage to a livable wage.
While Southwest Colorado is dependent on industries like agriculture, fossil fuels and tourism, Spaulding said she will support legislation to shift workers in those industries to “sustainable alternatives such as clean energy and cyber security.”
Regarding the economic hit to the tourism industry, people won’t be traveling as far or have as much expendable income for the foreseeable future, Spaulding said. But “our resiliency is the strength of Colorado, and we have always been on the frontiers of existence, so we will survive and also thrive,” she said.
“We all know the colloquial definition of insanity, doing the same thing and expecting different results,” Spaulding said about Colorado never having had a female senator. “We are seeing the absolute need for new ideas and new perspectives,” she said.
The U.S. Senate voted to provide more than a trillion dollars in aid for those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The bill includes provisions for paid sick leave, expanded food aid and free diagnostic testing.
But as a former small-businesses owner, Hickenlooper wrote on Twitter that “we must do more.”
“If we ask small businesses to make sacrifices, the government needs to do its part to prevent layoffs. We can’t simply look out for the big guys and declare victory,” Hickenlooper wrote.
He supported measures in the CARES Act that gives small businesses loans that can be converted into grants if they don’t lay off workers.
“The quickest way to get people cash right now is through unemployment insurance,” the former governor wrote on Twitter. The $2 trillion stimulus bill gives Americans making less than $75,000 a one-time check of $1,200. But should the outbreak continue, the government should keep making payments, he said.
Hickenlooper also supported expanding paid family leave and deferring student loans for six months.
In March, Gardner introduced a bill to support a network of manufacturing centers, at a time in which manufacturers of medical supplies and pharmaceutical products face fluctuating demand and insufficient supply chains.
The senator also asked the Department of Agriculture to waive the remainder of Forest Service fee payments in 2020 for ski areas that lease public lands, to assist in the lost revenues that the closed resorts are facing.
“This economic loss is unprecedented for the industry, and any relief would be welcomed news as they take all measures to comply with the health and safety guidelines related to this deadly pathogen,” Gardner said in a news release.
He voted in support of the $2 trillion CARES Act last month.
“Congress must move heaven and earth to protect American workers by providing them with immediate financial assistance and make sure workers and businesses can get through this crisis,” Gardner said.
Public lands
Public landsRomanoff said public land is one of the reasons he is running for the U.S. Senate. Renewable energy, public lands and water security feature prominently in his plans for a senate position.
“Most people I’ve met love this place because of its beauty and don’t want to see public lands open to drilling,” Romanoff said.
He criticized both Gardner and Hickenlooper for allowing as much oil drilling and mining as they have on public lands and for opposing the Green New Deal.
Public lands are a source of revenue for the tourism industry when they are open for hunting, hiking and camping.
“It should not take an election year epiphany for a senator like Gardner to see the light,” Romanoff said of Gardner touting permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
As people are told to socially distance themselves, families can visit many public lands in Colorado and “see the richness and beauty” of the state, Spaulding said.
“Now is the time Colorado can shine,” she said. The environment will help people emotionally and physically during this difficult time, Spaulding said.
But people won’t have as much expendable income to spend on activities like skiing on the Western Slope, so Congress needs to invest in its federal lands and expand them, she said.
Simultaneously, Spaulding said Coloradans need to “make sure we cohabitate with wildlife” and “not impact it negatively” while we escape to public lands to “maintain our sanity” during this time of social distancing.
Spaulding has said she supports the goals of the Green New Deal in placing a ban on fracking on public lands and has promised to fight against “opening our precious Rocky Mountain parks, wild lands and open spaces to drilling or other resource extraction,” according to her campaign website.
Hickenlooper’s campaign website says he is committed to protecting the state’s public lands while also combating climate change. He has vowed to expand wilderness areas in the state while curbing new oil and gas leases on federal land, which he first proposed in his Democratic presidential nomination campaign.
His “great outdoors” platform includes proposals to establish a national recreation office that extends into the Department of the Interior, Commerce and Agriculture. He also plans to dedicate funding to secure access to public lands.
Hickenlooper supports the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, which would designate about 73,000 acres as new wilderness in Colorado and add another 80,000 acres of new recreation and conservation management areas.
But other candidates like Romanoff have accused Hickenlooper of allowing fracking and being subsidized by the fossil fuel industry. Last year, Hickenlooper compared the Green New Deal to the work of Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin.
The Trump administration’s proposed budget for 2021 originally slashed spending for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but after a meeting with Gardner and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., the president urged Congress to pass a law that permanently funds the fund.
“We fought for this, we went to the mat,” Gardner said of Trump’s support for the LWCF permanent funding bill. The senator said he showed Trump a photo on his phone of canyons in Colorado to help secure the funding.
Suzanne O’Neill with the Colorado Wildlife Federation said it is a “very much needed piece of legislation” that “Gardner has worked on for quite a long time.”
In March, Gardner introduced a bill adding 40,038 acres of wilderness to the Rio Grande National Forest. It was Gardner’s first-ever wilderness bill for Colorado, and it would add more than 40,000 acres of wilderness in the San Luis Valley.
But Democratic challengers have criticized Gardner for taking these actions during his election year while consistently voting with Trump to expand oil and gas drilling across the West.
Gardner has argued that the revenue from oil and gas helps support programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but it also damage the environment the lands are meant to protect.
Emily Hayes is a graduate student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.
How to participate
For information about how to participate virtually and support a candidate by county during the Democratic assembly, visit
https://www.coloradodems.org/2020-county-assembly-and-convention-locations/
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