Earlier this month, the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor participated in a televised interview moderated by well-known, left-leaning legacy media folks. Predictably, the questions asked of the GOP candidates were more aggressive, pointed, biographical and almost entirely disconnected from the issues and policies that might improve life for Coloradans. Conversely, the questions asked of the Democratic candidates — both of them being statewide elected officials with well-known track records to scrutinize — were akin to whether they prefer hugs over the arms or under arms.

With ballots dropping into mailboxes right now, here is a question for each candidate that could have been — should have been — asked:

For Phil Weiser: You have described yourself as “Colorado’s top attorney.” Since taking over that office, you were absent from legislative efforts to reduce fentanyl from a felony to a misdemeanor; you stated car thieves should be kept in jail only “after someone commits a third or fourth car theft in, say, three months” (Colorado led the nation in auto theft at the time), and you championed legislation making it legal under Colorado law for convicted drug dealers and car thieves to possess firearms.

Question: How much responsibility do you bear for Colorado skyrocketing nationally from 37th-best to second-worst crime rate in America? Do you regret any of those positions you previously held?

Michael Bennet: For the past three years, on a party-line vote, Democrats in the General Assembly have voted to allow child rapists to be sentenced to probation.

Question: Do you agree with that position, and if so, why? Would you veto legislation that made child rape a mandatory prison crime? What have you done as Colorado’s longest-serving U.S. senator to address child victimization?

Scott Bottoms: You are a legislator and a pastor. You admit you are a mandatory reporter of suspected child abuse. You have repeatedly claimed there is a pedophile ring operating within our Capitol and the governor’s office. Colorado law states any person who has “reasonable cause… to suspect that a child has been subject to abuse… shall immediately… report that fact to the local law enforcement agency…” You have admitted you did not follow the law. Such a violation is punishable by 120 days in jail. There is no exception in our law for “I don’t trust local law enforcement’ or “I told an anonymous out-of-state FBI agent.”

Question: Is it acceptable for you to intentionally violate our state laws, and what message does your conduct send to other mandatory reporters about how seriously they should take our child-protecting laws? Are there other current laws you will ignore after you pledge to uphold them during your swearing-in as governor?

Victor Marx: Your campaign website has a web page detailing the law-and-order and public-safety policies you will pursue as governor. Most of the statutes you cite would not provide to you the authority you claim. For instance, you claim a statute that describes the advisory board for the Division of Fire Prevention and Control grants you authority to coordinate fentanyl investigations across Colorado. Another statute you cite regarding fentanyl trafficking does not exist.

Question: Who is responsible for these easily confirmable errors and what should Coloradans conclude about your understanding of our laws and how our government works? Are these errors reflective of the quality of people you would bring your cabinet and political appointments?

Barb Kirkmeyer: You have admitted your vote on Colorado’s failed criminal competency law was wrong.

Question: Whose advice did you follow in making that mistake and why should Coloradans believe you will not make it again as governor?

Bonus round for Bennet and Weiser: You have each been publicly outspoken about your objection to Gov. Jared Polis’ commutation of Tina Peters’ sentence. On the same day, Law Enforcement Memorial Day, Polis commuted the sentence of Brandin Kreuzer, a would-be cop-killer who shot a law enforcement officer and shot at another one while trying to evade capture after a month-long crime spree.

Question: Do you agree with Polis’ commutation of Kreuzer’s sentence to less than one-third of what a judge gave him after he was convicted by a jury, and what message does such a commutation send to law enforcement officers in Colorado? Will you grant clemency to those who shoot law-enforcement officers?

Bonus round for all: Polis appoints the 17-member committee that nominates Colorado Supreme Court justices, and he has appointed just three Republicans. For state and county judges, Polis appointed Republicans to fill only 12% of the 161 nominating commissioners statewide, and out of 35 judicial nominating commissioners in the entire Denver metro area, only four are Republican.

Question: As governor, will you follow Polis’ efforts to marginalize Republican representation in the selection of our judges, or will you take a balanced approach, and why?

To all those voting in the primary, your vote will either help save or further doom our beloved Colorado.

George Brauchler is the 23rd Judicial District attorney and former district attorney for the 18th Judicial District. He has served as an Owens Early Criminal Justice Fellow at the Common Sense Institute. Follow him on Twitter at @GeorgeBrauchler.