High Country Politics - Government and Elections News from the American West - April 12, 2023

Kyrsten Sinema gets first GOP challenger in AZ Senate race | Poll shows Lauren Boebert is in trouble | Denver students demand action on gun violence | Sen Michael Bennet and Rep Joe Neguse speak out against Utah rail project that would send daily oil trains through Colorado communities | Gipsy Kings announce Renaissance tour kickoff 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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ARIZONA MIRROR:

AZ Sen Kyrsten Sinema gets her first Republican challenger

BY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY - APRIL 11, 2023 1:25 PM

Republican Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is the first Republican to enter the 2024 contest, but is unlikely to be the last. Sinema, who won in 2018 as a Democrat but last year left the party to become an independent, has already drawn a challenge from Democratic Congressman U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego of Phoenix.

Mark Lamb was first elected sheriff of Pinal County in 2016, and since then has regularly appeared on far-right fringe media outlets.

Lamb has partnered with groups like True the Vote that have pursued far-flung conspiracy theories of election fraud and lied to law enforcement. 

Lamb has also railed against vaccines, and is part of a right-wing group that call themselves the “constitutional sheriffs.�  

Led by former Graham County Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, the Constitutional Sheriffs are a sovereign-citizen group that believes a “New World Order� is aiming to take away guns — and that sheriffs are on the frontlines of stopping “election fraud.� 

The group takes a favorable view of armed citizen militias, including militias that are active along Arizona’s border with Mexico, and some whose leaders were at the Jan. 6 riot. 

Lamb is also a favorite of QAnon conspiracy theorists, signing a copy of a book for a QAnon influencer with the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA.�

Lamb has appeared on a number of QAnon-related shows, as well, including one with a history of antisemitic comments. TruNews has published antisemitic rhetoric on its site, including a piece in which founder Rick Wiles spent an hour and a half saying that “seditious Jews� were “orchestrating� to impeach Trump, and calling Jewish people “tyrants.� 

Wiles has also claimed that the anti-Christ will be a “homosexual Jew.� He was interviewed by Lauren Witzke and, during an episode in which Sheriff Lamb also appeared, Wiles said that Jews “squash� and “crush� people. Witzke is a conspiracy theorist and has echoed white nationalist beliefs herself. During an appearance on the white nationalist podcast No White Guilt, Witzke echoed the racist “great replacement� theory. 

Lamb supported Lauren Witzke when she ran for U.S. Senate in Delaware, and has also echoed the “great replacement� theory on another QAnon talk show.

Lamb is likely to be joined by other GOP contenders in the Senate race, with Kari Lake and Blake Masters two of the most-watched. 

COLORADO NEWSLINE: Poll shows Lauren Boebert is in trouble

BY: SARA WILSON - APRIL 11, 2023 1:19 PM

If the 2024 election were held today, 45% of voters would choose Democrat Adam Frisch, and 45% would choose Boebert, according to findings from a poll released Tuesday.

Among voters who knew of both Adam Frisch and Lauren Boebert, Frisch led by 19 percentage points.

The poll, conducted by progressive organizations ProgressNow Colorado and Global Strategy Group, surveyed 600 likely voters in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District and has a 4.4% margin of error.

Among Republicans who described themselves as not very conservative, 60% back Boebert, 24% back Frisch and 16% are undecided. Pollsters said this shows an opportunity for Frisch to gain ground with moderate voters who may be disillusioned with Boebert’s extreme politics and headline-grabbing antics.

Boebert’s unfavorable rating has grown in the past two years. In March 2021, 39% of respondents had an unfavorable view of her. Now, 50% of them do.

The race was unexpectedly close in the 2022 midterms. with Boebert, the highly controversial conservative lawmaker, beating former Aspen City Councilman Adam Frisch by just 546 votes in the right-leaning district. 

The district encompasses the Western Slope and the southwest corner of the state, sweeping east to include Pueblo, Otero and Las Animas counties. After the most recent redistricting in 2022, the district favors Republicans by 9 percentage points.

Frisch has already started his campaign for the seat in 2024 and raised $1.7 million in a strong start.

That sets the stage for the race to receive national attention — and dollars — as Democrats view Boebert as vulnerable in a presidential election year with higher expected turnout.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has announced that it will target Boebert in 2024.

COLORADO NEWSLINE: Denver Students Demand Action on gun violence

BY: LINDSEY TOOMER - APRIL 6, 2023 4:00 AM

     

Student leaders across the Denver metro area want their voices to be heard, as they balance being high school students with pushing state lawmakers to take action on gun reform. 

Students Demand Action groups have formed at multiple high schools across the city amid increasing gun violence, particularly at Denver East High School. Hundreds of Denver-area students have marched to the Colorado Capitol to testify in favor of gun reform and press legislators on how they plan to keep students safe.

This school year alone, East High has seen multiple gun-related incidents involving its students: A freshman at East was shot outside the neighboring Carla Madison Recreation Center. Student Luis Garcia died after he was shot in his car in the East parking lot. Student Austin Lyle shot two faculty members while he was being patted down for weapons, then fled and was later found dead, with a ghost gun next to his body. 

Gracie and Clara Taub, both sophomores at East High School, started a chapter of Students Demand Action last year and have watched it grow immensely, with about 90 people in the club now. Clara said that while the reason behind the club’s growth is sad, it’s powerful to bring together and amplify the student voice. 

Students Demand Action is a national initiative for high school and college students to advocate for gun violence prevention, with more than 600 groups formed since the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The twin sisters have been advocating gun reform since the Parkland shooting, when they were in fifth grade and Gracie organized a walkout at their school. Now that they’ve seen gun violence harm their own community, they’ve led multiple student marches to the Capitol to talk to legislators and testify at bill hearings as co-presidents of Students Demand Action.

Gracie said of her sister, “I’m really grateful to have someone by my side who’s as passionate as me. We’ve been working together on everything our whole lives, so it was sort of natural that we did this together.�

And it’s not just students at East who are getting involved. Gracie said this year they’ve had students from five or six different schools joining them, along with teachers. The student leaders hope to have a Denver district-wide Students Demand Action meeting soon.

Agnes Holena, a sophomore at Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village, found out about Students Demand Action through her role in her school’s student Senate and started a chapter with two of her peers in November. She said the organization isn’t about politics - it’s about safety. 

“Since I’ve started going to such a big high school, shootings have been a genuine worry of mine,� Holena said. “When I leave my classroom to go get water during class, I always think about ‘Where will I go if somebody were to walk in,’ and I just feel like that’s not the way I should feel or any other students should feel and that this is something that needs to be talked about.�

“When there’s more people involved, people pay attention, and when there’s more students, legislators see that these are kids,� Holena said. “It’s different when there’s a lot of adults coming together, but when it’s the kids who are saying they’re scared going to school, I think that really calls for attention.�

For Agnes, engaging with the Legislature has been intimidating, but she’s found herself prioritizing it because of the chance she might change just one lawmaker’s mind. 

While some legislators have supported and encouraged Students Demand Action leaders to push their limits in their advocacy until change is made, Gracie thinks others too often make excuses for why they can’t support certain gun-related bills or why a state bill to ban assault weapons isn’t being prioritized. The Colorado Legislature has a strong Democratic majority, and four bills intended to curb gun violence have already passed both chambers this session. But to Clara, these bills are still “pretty basic gun sense.� She wants to see a state bill regulating ghost guns introduced this session. 

Clara said her generation is learning the flaws of the legislative process, and is taking notes on how they will change it when it’s their turn to lead. 

COLORADO NEWSLINE: No train for oil!

BY: CHASE WOODRUFF - APRIL 8, 2023 4:30 AM

Some of Colorado’s top Democratic elected officials issued their most united and forceful call yet to halt a planned Utah railway expansion, that would send up to five two-mile-long oil trains per day through sensitive mountain ecosystems. 

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse joined state and local leaders on the banks of the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon, just yards away from the tracks of the Union Pacific railroad that snakes through the canyon, alongside the river and Interstate 70. 

Not far away were areas burned by the 2020 Grizzly Creek Fire, and sections of the highway that were shut down for weeks by mudslides a year later.

Glenwood Springs Mayor Jonathan Godes said “To say that this canyon is anything but an incredibly fragile place, to say that this river is anything but in crisis in the American West, is to ignore reality.� 

Colorado officials say they’re alarmed by the risks to Glenwood Canyon and other vulnerable areas by the Uinta Basin Railway Project, an 88-mile railroad extension that would allow oil produced in Eastern Utah to be shipped to Gulf Coast refineries through Colorado’s central mountain communities and the densely populated Front Range.

Several key permits for the new railway have already been approved by President Joe Biden’s administration, but Sen Bennet and Rep Neguse have called on at least four different federal agencies to conduct additional reviews before the project’s financing is finalized and construction begins.

Mountain communities worry about the threat of the Uinta Basin trains potentially derailing and spilling oil into sensitive watersheds, or sparking dangerous wildfires in Colorado forests that are increasingly at risk from climate change. Officials in Denver estimate that the Uinta Basin project could quadruple the number of rail cars with hazardous material traveling through the city every day.

Colorado State House Speaker Julie McCluskie, state Sen. Dylan Roberts and state Rep. Elizabeth Velasquez, all Democrats who represent mountain communities along the rail route, also spoke in opposition to the project.

Five environmental groups and the government of Eagle County Colorado are suing to block the project.

As officials wrapped up their press conference beside a popular Colorado River boat ramp, Senator Bennet waved through three anglers who launched their boat and pushed off downriver. Sen. Bennet said that given the importance of the river to the Western Slope’s economy and the risks posed by climate change, there aren’t any safeguards that would make the risks of the Uinta Basin project acceptable.

“This train has no business bringing this oil through Colorado, period.� Sen Bennet said. “Anybody who has spent serious time in this canyon understands what the risks really are — what these mudslides really look like, what these wildfires really look like here.�

CONCERT PICK OF THE WEEK: The Gipsy Kings! This legendary group is kicking off a spring tour with the first show in Denver, at the Paramount Theatre on Friday April 14. With more than 20 million albums sold and a career spanning 30 years, the legendary Gipsy Kings are hitting the road in support of their new album, Renaissance. 

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, Colorado Sun, and Denver’s Westword.

Thank you for listening! See you next time.

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