Jason Mikesell, Republican candidate for Colorado governor
Jason Mikesell joins a crowded field of Republican candidates for governor. With Gov. Jared Polis being term-limited, Colorado will elect a new leader in 2026.
Mikesell is a veteran law enforcement leader and the elected Sheriff of Teller County, bringing over two decades of public safety experience. A third-generation Colorado native, Mikesell began his career as a peace officer in Park County and rose through the ranks in Teller County, serving on SWAT teams and leading detention and operations units before being appointed sheriff by county commissioners and subsequently elected to two terms.
Report: Colorado government has grown beyond TABOR’s limits
Marissa Ventrelli
marissa.ventrelli@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 3 hours ago
Colorado’s government has grown substantially over the past three decades beyond the limits that voters approved to restrain that expansion, according to a new report from a think tank. The analysis from the Independence Institute, which examines state spending, revenue...
The ramifications of President Trump’s pursuit of Greenland | Kelly Sloan
Kelly Sloan
kelly-sloan@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 14 hours ago
President Donald Trump has evidently stepped back from his threatened fantasy of invading Greenland — the sovereign territory of a U.S. ally — to which many a sigh of relief has been expressed, including by the markets. There was next...
Rep. Ron Weinberg won’t seek reelection
Marianne Goodland
marianne.goodland@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 1 day ago
Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg of Loveland announced on Thursday evening that he will not seek another term in the Colorado House. “Serving this community has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” the two-term state representative said on...
Colorado title board OKs ballot measures to eliminate flat income tax in favor of graduated brackets
Marianne Goodland
marianne.goodland@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 4 hours ago
Proponents hoping to change Colorado’s income tax structure from a flat rate to graduated tiers — thereby raising taxes for some brackets — walked away from a Wednesday meeting with eight ballot measures approved by the title board. The coalition...
Colorado lawmakers want officers to conduct ‘lethality assessments’ when responding to domestic violence calls
Marissa Ventrelli
marissa.ventrelli@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 13 hours ago
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is hoping to reduce to Colorado’s rising domestic violence fatalities through a bill that would require law enforcement agencies around the state to conduct “lethality assessments” on domestic violence victims. In early December of last...
Colorado Joint Budget Committee rejects DOC’s $2.4M request for more beds
Marissa Ventrelli
marissa.ventrelli@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 1 day ago
The state’s Joint Budget Committee voted on Wednesday to deny the Department of Corrections’ $2.4 million request for additional prison beds, citing the department’s lack of a plan to address its ongoing overcrowding problems. In September, the committee approved the...
Colorado attorney general invites public to report ICE ‘misconduct’
Marissa Ventrelli
marissa.ventrelli@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 6 hours ago
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has launched a new online mechanism that allows Colorado residents to report “misconduct” by federal immigration agents, his office announced on Wednesday. “Nobody is above the rule of law, including federal agents such as ICE...
Colorado Democrat John Hickenlooper raises over $1.1 million in 4th quarter for reelection bid
Ernest Luning
ernest.luning@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 1 day ago
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper’s reelection campaign raised over $1.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 and finished the year with more than $3.8 million in the bank, the Colorado Democrat’s campaign said Thursday. The fundraising haul brings Hickenlooper’s total...
Enterprise fees surge as more of Colorado’s budget escapes TABOR limits
Marissa Ventrelli
marissa.ventrelli@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 5 hours ago
More than 30 years after Colorado voters approved the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a growing share of state spending now falls outside the voter-approved limits intended to restrain government growth. A new report shows that fee-funded “enterprises” — state-owned businesses...
Let’s find out who’s up to the gubernatorial task post Polis | Paula Noonan
Paula Noonan
paula-noonan@coloradopolitics.com
Updated 2 days ago
Gov. Jared Polis is bold and his policies are bolder than bold. That’s the paraphrase of his State of the State speech to open the 2026 General Assembly and start off his last year in office. His sweeping review of...
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Rounding up a year that mostly won't be missed | BIDLACK
As I sat down to write this, my last column of 2025, I reflected back on a year that was, well, interesting from an old political science professor’s perspective, but which contained a lot of pain for a lot of people. And as is pretty much always the case, I found Colorado Politics to be […]
Federal judge rules Trump administration can share illegal immigrants’ Medicaid data with ICE
The Trump administration can continue its practice of sharing the biographical, location, and contact information of illegal immigrants between federal agencies early in the new year, a federal judge ruled on Monday. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, of the Northern District of California, issued the preliminary injunction order […]