FAST FACTS

• Hopfer has been a lobbyist at the state Capitol since 2003, both for government agencies and for nonprofits and corporate clients.
• Graduate of Indiana University, BA in political science; law degree from American University, Washington, D.C.
• Plays the saxophone; prior to going into the political science program, had considered a music performance major at Indiana (one of the nation’s top public music schools) and studying with jazz legend David Baker.
• Inherited his grandfather’s woodworking tools in 2002; the rest is history. Hopfer’s woodworking is legendary. Last year, he was asked to make a bench for the STEM School in Highlands Ranch in honor of student Kendrick Castillo. He’s also renowned for his pens; Adams County bought some for newly-elected officials and the sheriff.
• With wife, Kelly Clements Hopfer, parents of two teenage daughters.
• Calls himself an Air Force brat; native of Charleston, South Carolina.
• What you don’t know about him: he gives people he likes “the finger,” and his “work wives” (other lobbyists) teamed up with his wife and daughters last year and made a 12-month calendar, all with pictures of Jason “flippin’ the bird.”

Colorado Politics: How did you get where you are?

Jason Hopfer: Most people don’t plan to be a lobbyist. I certainly didn’t.

CP: What was the toughest part of dealing with the myriad of bills on healthcare in the past few years?

Hopfer: I started representing the Colorado Association of Health Plans when Gov. Jared Polis was elected. The toughest is managing expectations with your client. I try to be honest with the client on my ability to affect or stop legislation, and do my best to do what’s asked of me. Working with associations can be challenging. CAHP has its own lobbyist, which isn’t a negative but you end up with a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

CP: Where do you see healthcare legislation headed?

Hopfer:  We need to see how the standardized plan for the Colorado Option will work and what kinds of costs it will drive. My concern remains, and I’ve shared it with the administration and Commissioner of Insurance Michael Conway, that the standardized plan in other states ends up with rich benefits, with an expectation that it will cost less. How do you put in every possible doctor or hospital in a network and keep the costs low? Insurance companies go to a handful of providers and negotiate for lower costs (not to every doctor and hospital).

Every new benefit does cost more, which is information I give to policymakers and lawmakers, such as for a colorectal cancer screening bill that Polis vetoed. I try to look at not just in dollars and cents. If we can get to patients earlier you can reduce costs, we were OK with [that bill]. We’ve tried for two sessions to give legislators numbers, some want to do that but lots who aren’t interested in figuring out the numbers.

CP: How did you get your start in politics?

Hopfer: I worked in DC. in the lobby shop for US Steel and Marathon Oil. I quit to take the bar exam, and Coral Causeway (a Democrat) told me about some Republican committees looking for lawyers. I dropped my resume off at the Committee for Government Reform and Oversight (where he had connections). My first gig out of law school was on the campaign finance investigation on President Bill Clinton. Travis Berry (also a lobbyist at the state Capitol) was at the DNC and responding to the subpoenas I was sending. When the Lewinsky investigation started, I moved over to the Teamsters Union investigation with the Committee on Education and the Workforce, chaired by then-Rep. John Boehner of Ohio. My last gig in DC, I was chief counsel at a stupid young age (25) for the Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, Natural Resources and Regulatory Affairs. When the chair (Rep. David MacIntosh) went back to Indiana to run for governor, I decided to go to Colorado.

Washington was a great place to work but not a great place to live. So I came out West, didn’t know anyone. Got a job at Great West Life, doing healthcare work for their health plans on the East Coast. I lasted nine months. I volunteered on some campaigns, and one of the women I worked with at Great West was very engaged with the Arapahoe County Men’s Club. The first politician I met was Mike Coffman. He gave me some insight, and I volunteered on a campaign for Lauri Clapp’s primary (in 1998). David Balmer was the campaign manager for the primary campaign; he lived in the same apartment complex that I did. He encouraged me to go to a caucus meeting, which was at Will Armstrong’s house. It was Denny Brown, Will Armstrong and former US Attorney Dick Kaufman (brother to former lawmaker Bill Kaufman). 

At my first state assembly, I sat next to Rep. Gary McPherson of Aurora, whose wife worked for Gov. Bill Owens. I got introduced to Roy Palmer, Owens’ chief of staff, sent him an email with my resume and asked for suggestions on how to get back into politics. That led to a job in the Owens’ administration as a senior policy adviser, along with Mike Beasley, Rachel Lee and other Owens alums. I joked that I worked on “guns, drugs, porn and cars” — the departments of corrections, transportation and criminal justice. Mike was the governor’s lobbyist, he tried to get me fired a couple of times. He did not like analysts, policy people going up to the legislature. I came from Washington, I wasn’t intimidated by anyone.

I had a bunch of bills the governor talked about in the State of the State, didn’t know what was going on with them. I’d go up there and make Mike crazy. I created a “hall pass” as a joke. I once got a satellite picture of DC from space and labeled it “Mike’s view of the world.” I once had a Tonka toy bus that we labeled the “Bill Owens Express” with Beasley in the driver’s seat and the policy analyst under the bus. At the end of all that, Mike encouraged me to lobby, and when Debbie Wagner, the liaison for public safety, retired, I went there, around 2003. Went over to the Department of Regulatory Agencies after that, where I was liaison, press person, deputy director and eventually the interim executive director. When the next executive director came in, I went to the Department of Higher Education as the press person (under Rick O’Donnell).

With a year left in the Owens administration, I started doing what I do now and still have two of my first three clients: the community college system and Xcel. I try to take on issues I believe in, whether I’m supposed to or not, even things outside of the conservative box. When I first started lobbying, it was a trifecta too but all Republican. Everyone associated me with Republicans, so I worked on things I agreed with but were more a priority for the Democratic caucus. You’re not on either side, you’re on the side of your client.