The dog days of August are over, and now the political doghouse is howling in Colorado. These week we saw our governor on the national stage, his lieutenant governor step into the spotlight on the state’s biggest stage and President Trump asserting himself in a Colorado case involving gay rights.

So many stories this week didn’t make the cut into the top five, but here are the ones worth revisiting, because of their wide impact on Colorado politics and Coloradans lives. Here are the stories our staff thought ranked as the best in the first week of September.

5. Voters might weigh in on how districts get drawn

A bipartisan group is trying again to take some of the political gamesmanship out of how legislative and congressional districts are drawn in Colorado. The way it works now is that legislators draw them, which gives outsized advantage to the political party that has the majorities in the state House and Senate after the U.S. Census. As a result parties control the outcomes (and candidates) in most districts based on which voters are put in which districts. Opponents, however, see a scheme to take away political power from minorities and other “communities of interest.”

Read the full story here.

4. Trump adds ingredient to gay cake court case

The Trump administration is siding with a Lakewood baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in 2012 by filing a brief in an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case. LGBTQ activists say it’s the clearest sign yet that President Trump harbors animosity toward their cause, regardless of what he said on the campaign trail.

Read the full story here.

3. Tap the brakes on no new taxes for roads

In the last legislative session, raising sales taxes for transportation was a no-go for Republicans who opposed asking Coloradans to pay more. The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, however, aren’t yet through with the idea of gathering petition signatures to get on the ballot in 2018.

Read the full story here.

2. Hick on the Hill: Colorado’s king takes healthcare national

A U.S. Senate committee and organizations on both sides of the political fence on healthcare got to hear from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper this week. Hick and Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich drafted the proposal as Congress continues its efforts to repeal, replace or fix the Affordable Care Act.

Read the full story here.

1. Lynne is in the governor’s race

Things just got more interesting in the 2018 governor’s race, as Gov. John Hickenlooper’s second-in-command, Donna Lynne, joined the Democratic primary field that already includes such well-known candidates as Jared Polis, Cary Kennedy, Michael Johnston and Noel Ginsburg. Can she carve out a niche as the moderate pro-business choice with Hick’s team behind her? We’ll see.

Read the full story here.