High Country Politics - Elections and Government News from the American West

Arizona GOP moving variety of conspiracy-fueled voter suppression bills | Bill authorizing universal youth mental health screenings at school is moving in Colorado legislature | New Colorado GOP chair is a fringe character, prominent conservatives announce they're leaving the Party | VP Harris announces Biden Administration disbursement of $200 million in wildfire preparedness and mitigation funds | Billy Idol in Denver

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Welcome to High Country - politics in the American West. My name is Sean Diller; regular listeners might know me from Heartland Pod’s Talking Politics, every Monday.

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Alright! Let’s get into it: 

ARIZONA MIRROR:

Conspiracy theories still dominate Arizona Senate Elections Committee

BY: JOE DUHOWNIK/COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE - MARCH 21, 2023 4:18 PM

Nearly a month after Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes released documents further disproving claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, Senate Republicans continue to make the same claims in the election committee.

The most recent tantrum came during testimony regarding HB2415, which would remove people from the active early voting mailing list if they go a full year without participating in an election. Republicans said it’s a way to declutter the list.

Opponents argued that the bill would only disenfranchise voters, as many only vote in presidential elections every four years, and could be removed from the mail ballot list without knowing it.

“Conspiracy theories” also came up again later in the committee meeting, this time in regard to HB2591, which would prohibit voters from using ballot drop boxes outside the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and would require that drop boxes be inside or attached to county buildings and be under 24/7 video surveillance. 

Bill sponsor Gail Griffin, a Republican state representative from Tucson, said she’s seen video of “people with boxes coming and dumping ballots,” though she maintained that “2,000 Mules” - a propaganda film about imagined “ballot mules” stuffing ballots in the 2020 election. The fantasy about ballot mules is a cornerstone of the bigger fantasy that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election, even though he won by 3 full percentage points and 7 million votes.

Democrats said restricting the times when voters can drop off ballots will make it harder for some to cast their vote. Republicans’ only response was that those folks would need to use one of the less accessible options that remain if they want to vote. Cool. 

The Republican-dominated committee supported five more measures they say will increase election integrity. Republican state Representative Austin Smith sponsored HB2552 to preemptively prohibit ranked choice voting in Arizona. A companion bill already passed through the Senate in February.

Jodi Liggett, a lobbyist representing the Arizona League of Women Voters, said more than 60% of Arizona voters support ranked choice voting, which is used in Maine, Alaska, and multiple cities like New York and San Francisco.

“There should be no reason to preemptively silence the voice of your own constituents,” she told the committee.

The committee ended with discussion on HB2613, which would require that all vote recording tabulation machines be 100% sourced from and built in the U.S. in response to fantasies about foreign tampering of voting machines in the 2020 election - where Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden by 3 full percentage points and 7 million legally cast votes. 

Jen Marson, representing the Arizona Association of Counties, said the machines used now are already manufactured in the U.S., but some parts, like plastics and electronics, are sourced from other countries.

The bill’s GOP sponsor said he doesn’t know that U.S. companies have the capacity to completely home-grow the voting machines, but “if there is a need, I do believe that the American engineering mindset would step up.”

For my part - I’ll just say his point makes absolutely no sense.

This article was first published by Courthouse News Service and is republished under their terms of use.

UCLA HEALTH

Suicide rate highest among teens and young adults

March 15, 2022

By Sandy Cohen

Note: This article was updated Feb. 23, 2023.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people age 15 to 24 in the U.S. 

Nearly 20% of high school students report serious thoughts of suicide and 9% have made an attempt to take their lives, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Recent weeks have brought heartbreaking examples of this trend, including the March 1 death of Stanford soccer captain Katie Meyer, 22; and Ohio State football player Harry Miller’s revelations that he attempted suicide, shared his struggles with his coach and got help. Miller announced his medical retirement from football on March 10 in a Twitter post that’s been shared more than 10,000 times.

“This is not an issue reserved for the far and away,” wrote Miller. “It is in our homes. It is in our conversations. It is in the people we love.”

Carl Fleisher, MD, who specializes in adolescent and child psychiatry at Boston Child Study Center in Los Angeles said “Teenagers and young adults have had rising rates of suicide compared to 10 or 15 years ago, Young people are particularly vulnerable to suicide. The things that make them vulnerable are where they stand socially and where they stand developmentally.”

Developmentally, their judgment and decision-making abilities are still coming online. The prefrontal cortex — the brain’s executive control center — doesn’t fully develop until one’s mid-20s.

That makes young people more impulsive "They're not going to weigh risks and consequences in quite the same way older folks will.”

Socially, teens and young adults don’t have the same connections older adults do. Someone who is married, has a long-term partner or has children or grandchildren is in a different place socially than someone who is just coming into their own, living with roommates or alone.

The isolation of the pandemic exacerbated social disconnection even more.

So it’s good to hear that a bill that would make it easier… Colorado Newsline article follows

COLORADO NEWSLINE:

BY: SARA WILSON - MARCH 20, 2023 2:54 PM

…  for schools to provide mental health assessments, and connect students to therapy, passed the Colorado House of Representatives on Monday.

House Bill 23-1003 would allow public schools to participate in a voluntary mental health screening program for sixth through twelfth graders and refer them to treatment if needed, primarily through the state’s existing free youth therapy program, called I Matter.

Bill sponsor Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Commerce City Democrat, said she was motivated to run the legislation after alarming statistics from the Colorado Healthy Kids Survey that showed nearly 40% of Colorado youth reported feeling depressed for at least two straight weeks.

“That’s a pretty significant indicator for severe depression,” she said. “I wanted to come up with a way for kids to learn about therapy and access to therapy through screenings in school. We have the I Matter program, so we have somewhere kids can go for help.”

In a post-pandemic environment in which Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a state of emergency for youth mental health, Michaelson Jenet said screening can be a powerful preventative tool for students under profound pressures.

Parents could opt their child out of the assessment, but students 12 years and older would be able to participate even if their parents don’t want them to.

Under the program, if the provider finds that a student could benefit from treatment, their parents will be notified and given information about the I Matter program, which has provided free therapy services to over 5,500 Colorado youth since it launched in October 2021.

If the assessment provider finds that a student is in crisis — at-risk for attempting suicide, physical self-harm or harming others, for example — the school would follow its crisis response protocol.

The Colorado Health Institute endorsed the concept of universal mental health screenings in schools in a report published earlier this month.

The report authors wrote “Schools are uniquely positioned to help address this (mental health) crisis by meeting youth where they already spend most of their day. Screening all students for social and emotional needs strengthens prevention, detection, and early intervention.”

Organizations including the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Research Council, the Institute of Medicine, the Healthy Schools Campaign, Mental Health America also recommend screening all students.

Republicans in the House opposed the bill on the grounds that a program where students could participate even if parents opt out violates parental rights. Most of the floor debate centered on whether 12 years old is too young for students to decide whether to undergo a mental health assessment. Existing Colorado law allows minors 12 years and older to seek therapy without their parent or guardian’s consent.

Democrats hold healthy majorities in both the House and Senate this session.

The legislation now heads to the Senate, where it is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Lisa Cutter of Littleton.

COLORADO SUN: and on the other side of the aisle: 

The new chair of Colorado’s GOP says people concerned he will end all hope of Republicans winning here, should “relax”.

Jesse Paul and Sandra Fish

3:20 AM MDT on Mar 16, 2023

Dave Williams’ election as Colorado GOP chair has prompted prominent Republicans to announce they are leaving the party and heightened the possibility that unaffiliated Coloradans, who make up nearly half of the state’s electorate, could be shut out of the GOP’s future primaries.

Mandy Connell, a conservative talk radio host, tweeted her exit from the GOP on Saturday just after the election denier and former state representative was chosen to lead Republicans for the next two years.

Connell told The Colorado Sun, “I hoped the Republican Party could move beyond Donald Trump and looking backwards at the 2020 election. With the election of Dave Williams for the Colorado chairmanship, it is apparent that they are not ready to do that. And I am.”

The GOP has steadily lost registered voters in Colorado over the past two decades, a slide that accelerated after Trump took office. The share of registered Republicans declined to 24.2% in January from 31.1% in January 2016. There are no statewide elected Republicans, and the party is in a big minority in the legislature and in the congressional delegation following a disappointing 2022 election cycle that only saw the GOP lose more political power.

Some in the party fear Williams, who beat six other chair candidates, may lead to further decline. Dick Wadhams, who was Colorado GOP chair from 2007 to 2011 and now works as a Republican political consultant, worries the “party will have no credibility” if Williams pursues the agenda he campaigned for chair on.

Williams says his detractors should “relax.”

“I can understand why some people are concerned, especially because of the fearmongering of Dick Wadhams,” Williams said. “But the truth is I’m only here to go attack Democrats, and if they can’t get behind that then I’m not sure what else is going to unite us.”

Williams, who vowed to be a “wartime” leader of the Colorado GOP, was a divisive figure during his time in the state legislature - and last year he lost a primary challenge to Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn by just shy of 20 points.

Williams was elected chair by the Colorado GOP’s state central committee, which is made up of about 400 people. During the event Saturday in Loveland, Williams focused his message on defending Donald Trump and preventing unaffiliated voters from participating in GOP primary elections, something Colorado voters approved in 2016. 

Ari Armstrong, a columnist for Complete Colorado, tweeted that he is leaving the party. “Colorado GOP leaders have made abundantly clear that theirs is the party of conspiracy mongering and petty bigotry,” he said. “The state party is not serious about winning elections or helping to guide policy. Enough.”

Denver Post columnist Krista Kafer also hinted on Twitter at a switch: “I think I’ll be doing the same (as) Mandy Connell. When I rejoined the party I had hoped it was changing. It is in other states but not here. The lunatic fringe is ascendant.” and speaking of the lunatic fringe

COLORADO NEWSLINE:

Feds to send nearly $200 million to help communities prepare for wildfires

BY: JACOB FISCHLER - MARCH 21, 2023 4:30 AM

Vice President Kamala Harris and other administration officials said Monday that the Biden administration will send $197 million from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law to help communities prepare for wildfires this summer.

The funding represents the first round of a new $1 billion Community Wildfire Defense Grant program authorized under the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that President Joe Biden signed in 2021. 

Grants in the first year of the program would be available for more than 100 projects in 22 states, according to a White House fact sheet.

The funding is meant to help communities prepare for wildfires, which Harris said was preferable to responding to fires already wreaking havoc.

“The best time to fight a fire is before it starts,” she said on a Monday call with reporters.

The funding announced Monday can be used to write or update wildfire preparedness plans or on other mitigation efforts, such as clearing highly flammable brush.

Among the largest grants was a $9.9 million disbursement to the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District in eastern Oregon to clear hazardous fuels from evacuation routes on county roads.

The New Mexico nonprofit Cimarron Watershed Alliance also received $8 million to create defensible space around homes and fuel breaks designed to stop a fire’s spread.

Archuleta County, Colorado, will receive $1.1 million to remove hazardous fuels over 600 wooded acres.

Gila County AZ will receive $341,000 for evacuation planning and clearing flammable brush around buildings 

Communities in Alaska, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota, Wiscons, North Carolina and Georgia will also receive grants.

A full list of grants announced Monday is available here.

The Vice President said the remaining roughly $800 million will be released over the next four years.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said “This is an initial round of funding - a critical down payment.”

The Forest Service, which is part of the Agriculture Department, judged grant applications on three criteria: communities that have experienced a severe disaster, are at high risk of a wildfire and are low income. 

All grants announced Monday met at least two of the three criteria and most met all three, he said.

Wildfires have become more destructive in recent decades for a variety of reasons, including hotter and drier weather because of climate change, as well as increased development in areas at high risk of fire.

CONCERT PICK OF THE WEEK: You might know him from the movie “Big” - it’s Billy Idol! Mission Ballroom in Denver on Tuesday April 4th at 8pm - that’s election night and that’s also a kickass venue to see rock and roll giant like Billy. Information at billyidol.net - and don’t use .com because there is no redirect.

Welp, that’s it for me! From Denver I’m Sean Diller. Original reporting for the stories in today’s show comes from the Arizona Mirror, Colorado Newsline, Courthouse News Service, UCLA Health, Colorado Sun, and Denver’s Westword.

Thank you for listening! See you next time.

Host: Adam Sommer 

Find Adam on tik-tok and bluesky as "midmapdadenergy" - follow The Process on instagram. 

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Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium 

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