Colorado is a de facto one-party state where Democrats, such as the arrogant, elitist Gov. Jared Polis and the discredited, incompetent Secretary of State Jena Griswold, consider themselves beyond scrutiny and criticism.

As the old saying goes, absolute power does corrupt absolutely and these two lame duck statewide elected officials are leaving office in 2027 thumbing their entitled noses — if not their middle fingers — at constituents and local elected officials who disagree with them.

Polis recently appeared before the annual conference of Colorado Counties, Inc. (CCI) which is comprised of county commissioners from 63 of 64 the state’s counties. Although large counties along the Front Range belong to CCI, there is no doubt the organization is dominated by more than 50 counties considered rural.

These counties legitimately feel they are under assault by the extreme environmental, anti-energy and anti-agricultural agendas of those liberal interest groups and Democratic socialists that dominate the Democratic agenda in Denver.

It is a long tradition for the governor, whoever it is, to address CCI and answer questions from these elected commissioners from across the state.

But woe to anyone who dares question the governor of Denver-Boulder on his failed wolf “reintroduction” program that is adversely affecting ranchers and rural communities across northwestern Colorado.

Grand County Commissioner Merrit Linke had the temerity to publicly ask the governor why the wolf program could not be delayed in order to study how it could be more cost effectively implemented in the face of state budget challenges not to mention the damages inflicted on ranchers and their rural communities.

According to news reports, Polis reacted angrily to such an inappropriate question and blamed the ranchers themselves for the failure of the wolf “reintroduction” program before storming away from the podium and out the door.

The governor’s less-than-gubernatorial behavior was condemned by rural and Republican state legislators but not a peep came from of the self-declared rural champion who serves as the speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Julie McCluskie of Garfield County.

Polis will soon be able to walk away from this mess imposed on rural Colorado by the ballot box biology of the Denver-Boulder political axis and aggravated by his failed implementation. But what a great environmental credential he will soon wave in front of 2028 Democratic presidential primary voters in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

Meanwhile, the eight-year era of incompetence and blind partisan ambition of Secretary of State Jena Griswold cannot end soon enough.

Griswold is the epitome of what happens when voters register their intense discontent with a political party’s national leadership and sweep an unqualified, incompetent individual into statewide office.

President Donald Trump was deeply unpopular with Colorado’s formidable unaffiliated voters during the 2018 mid-term election when Democrats swept every statewide office. Griswold unseated one of the most respected secretaries of state in the nation, Wayne Williams, despite her only credential being she was the Democratic nominee.

Defying decades of non-partisan, professional management of the office of secretary of state by her Republican and Democratic predecessors, Griswold has used the office as a partisan Democratic springboard for her gubernatorial aspirations.

Her own incompetence was aggravated by a revolving door of professional staff who briefly worked in her office before scrambling out. Fortunately, there have been enough professionals who have been able to withstand her shoddy tenure and keep the office functioning while she regularly appears on MSNBC as a partisan Democratic hack.

When it was discovered voting system passwords were exposed to public access for months by an underling in her office, she predictably hunkered down and hid the breach as the election approached.

Colorado’s 64 county clerks, who fortunately are the respected public officials largely responsible for the execution of elections, were kept in the dark until some Republican stolen election conspiracists, including the discredited state GOP chairman of all people, publicly revealed Griswold’s obfuscation.

Republican state legislators such as state Rep. Lisa Frizell and state Sen. Rod Pelton called on the Legislative Audit Committee to conduct a full audit of Griswold’s voting systems password breach. But Democratic legislators protected their fellow Democrat and obstructed such an audit.

Meanwhile, Griswold embarked on her own official cover-up of the breach by hiring an outside law firm to conduct an investigation into the password breach. Predictably, while criticizing many of Griswold’s internal policies, Griswold’s self-selected law firm decided the breach was unintentional.

How can an investigation be “outside” when the law firm was personally selected, hired and paid for by Griswold herself?

Just like the arrogance and elitism of Jared Polis, Jena Griswold’s incompetence and blind partisan ambition is the inevitable result of Colorado being a de facto one-party state.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who managed campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens. He was campaign manager for U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune when Thune unseated Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota in 2004.