Connect for Health Colorado this week named Kevin Patterson as interim chief executive officer of Colorado’s Health Insurance Marketplace, better known as the state exchange. Patterson is currently chief administrative officer for Gov. John Hickenlooper and has served as interim executive director for the Governor’s Office of Information Technology, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs and the Governor’s Energy Office. He starts at the new position on May 8.

Patterson takes over for Gary Drews, who has been interim CEO since August. Last week, the Connect for Health Colorado board announced that the finalist it had picked for the permanent CEO position, Robert C. Malone, withdrew himself from consideration, citing a reluctance to relocate his family to Colorado from New York.

“We know Kevin well and he knows Connect for Health Colorado well from his service on the board,” said board chair Sharon O’Hara. “Kevin brings a broad public policy background to this role and is well positioned to step in and build on the progress Gary has made while the board continues to seek a permanent CEO.”

Patterson sat on the Connect for Health board in 2013 and 2014.

In his current job working for the governor, Patterson has been a member of the State Board of Equalization, the Capitol Building Advisory Committee, the State Internet Portal Authority and supervises the 10 gubernatorial-appointed public trustees. Prior to that, he held key roles in Denver government, working in the Budget Office, the Planning Department, the Department of Human Services, the Department of General Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation. He served a term on the Denver Public Schools board from 2001-2005.

“I am excited by the opportunity to help more Coloradans get health insurance, to obtain the healthcare they need and to enjoy the financial security that comes with coverage,” Patterson said.

The Connect for Health board said in a statement that it is continuing its search for a permanent CEO in consultation with the Legislative Health Benefit Exchange Implementation Review Committee.

Halter named to run Department of Local Affairs

Gov. John Hickenlooper this week appointed retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Irv Halter as executive director of the Department of Local Affairs. Halter was the Democratic nominee in an unsuccessful bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn last fall.

“Irv Halter has a distinguished career in the public and private sector. His vast experience and passion for good government will greatly benefit the State of Colorado,” said Hickenlooper in a statement. “We are thrilled he will be leading the agency and joining our team.”

He replaces former Local Affairs executive director Reeves Brown, who stepped down in March, and Kevin Patterson, the governor’s chief administrative officer, who filled in since then. (Patterson was tapped to run Colorado’s Health Insurance Marketplace this week.)

Halter served as a fighter pilot and as vice director of operations for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during his 32-year career in the Air Force. He was vice president of Computer Sciences Corporation for Air and Space after he retired from the military.

“I am honored to join Gov. Hickenlooper’s team and look forward to working with the Department of Local Affairs professionals to strengthen and support Colorado communities,” Halter said.

Monika Todd passes

Longtime Mesa County official Monika Todd died on April 22 in Grand Junction. She was 76.

Todd was born March 27, 1939, in Nurnberg, Germany. She married George R. Todd, an American soldier, in 1961. Following a stop in Texas after the couple returned stateside, she began working for Mesa County. The Republican was elected and served three terms as county clerk and recorder and two terms as county treasurer. Todd was known for her grace, elegance and compassion, her family said.

She is survived by a sister, Veronika Frels; three daughters, Terry Cormier and Monika Tuell of Grand Junction, and Kelly Kropp of Gilbert, Ariz.; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Her husband, George, predeceased her.

A memorial service was held on Tuesday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Grand Junction. Her family is urging that donations be made in her memory to a project near and dear to Monika, the St. Joseph Catholic Church building fund, 230 N. Third St., Grand Junction 81501.

Bennett running for SD 31

Community organizer Erin Bennett announced this week that she’s seeking the Democratic nomination for the Senate District 31 seat currently held by term-limited state Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver. She’s likely to face a primary against state Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver, who filed to run for the Senate seat earlier this year.

Bennett has been the Colorado director of 9to5, an organization that advocates for women in the workplace, since 2008.

“As an organizer and nonprofit leader working with low-income women and families for many years, I have met many Coloradans who are proud of the hard work they do every day,” Bennett said in a statement on her campaign website. “Whether it was the single moms working multiple jobs so their kids have a chance to succeed, the minimum wage workers still struggling after 40 hours to put food on the table, or the neighbors supporting each other in times of need in true Colorado spirit – I have been working tirelessly with our communities to ensure equal opportunities for everyone.”

Promising to represent “a new generation of leadership,” the 2006 Colorado College graduate said she wants to make sure everyone has a voice at the Capitol, “not just the wealthy and well-connected.”

Williams announces HD 15 bid

Republican Dave Williams announced this week that he’s making another run to represent House District 15.

Williams lost a primary last year in the heavily Republican El Paso County seat to state Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt, R-Colorado Springs, who last week launched his campaign for the Senate District 12 seat held by Senate President Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, who faces term limits. Former state Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, is also running for Cadman’s seat.

In an email to supporters quoting Ronald Reagan – “Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.” – Williams accuses Democrats of having “passed some of the most egregious laws in Colorado history,” blaming the opposition for hampering the economy with higher taxes and rampant spending.

“Despite the will of the voters and a constitutional prohibition, they ushered in homosexual marriage through so-called civil unions and through repeated attempts of judicial overreach in our court system,” Williams wrote. “They’re so out-of-touch that they even refuse to give justice to mothers who have lost their unborn babies to heinous acts of murder at the hands of criminals who have no regard for life.”

Young Dems chair seeks national post

Colorado Young Democrats chair Danielle Glover is running for vice president of the Young Democrats of America, she announced this week. If she wins, Glover will be the first national Young Dems officer from Colorado since 1995.

“I am excited to build on the work that I have done here in Colorado and look forward to strengthening young Democrats organizations across the nation in preparation not only for the 2016 elections, but also to ensure the voices of our generation are heard on all issues impacting us including the student loan debt crisis, immigration, and campus sexual assaults,” Glover said in a statement.

She’s running as part of a ticket called EmpowerYD, which also includes Louis Elrod, the current vice president of the national Young Dems, and Constantina Meis, who chairs the organization’s Women’s Caucus.

“Danielle has done a fantastic job reinvigorating Young Dem chapters across the state and is a tireless advocate for issues impacting young people across the state. Considering the crucial role Colorado will play in the 2016 elections, it’s exciting to see her take her passion and dedication to the national level,” said Colorado Democratic Party chair Rick Palacio.

CU picks Domitrovic as third conservative scholar

The University of Colorado-Boulder this week announced that Brian Domitrovic, an expert in the history of supply-side economics, will be the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the 2015-16 academic year. Domitrovic chairs the Department of History at Sam Houston State University in Huntsvile, Texas, and is the third scholar to fill the position.

The program, designed to balance ideological perspective at the university, launched in 2013, and is supported by private fundraising. CU reports that more than 20 donors have chipped in $1 million to support the program.

Domitrovic has a PhD in history from Harvard University and did his undergraduate work at Columbia University.

He is scheduled to teach an advanced economics course titled “American Economic History,” and a course in “Great Books” as part of the Center for Western Civilization.

The author of Econoclasts: the Rebels Who Sparked the Supply-Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity, Domitrovic is a columnist at Forbes.com and is planning to publish a book about the prosperity spurred by tax cuts in the Kennedy and Reagan administrations, co-authored with Larry Kudlow.

The professor plans to discuss economics problems. “For example: Is the choice really such a stark one as that between individualism and big government? For years, conservatives have held that individualism is as much a phantom as the all-knowing state,” he said in a statement. “By all means, it is a top priority to coax the state back into a mode of smallness. But as that occurs, a process will develop whereby persons will grow in freedom out of the narrow individualism that in many respects is engendered by the soulless qualities of big government, which is individualism’s foil.

“I hope to encourage good discussions on the very prosperous possibilities of not the ‘third way,’ but the ‘second way,’ away from the combination of big government with I’ll-get-mine individualism.”

– Gettin’ hitched? Young’uns on the way? Tossin’ a hat in the ring? Let us know at wayposts@coloradostatesman.com