04-17-25 FULL SHOW - What Should the Colorado GOP Focus On?

entire situation. And I know that seems weird to go from laughing just a moment ago, but you know when you start to get punchy and you start to feel like a little bit emotionally raw, and then you start nothing starts making sense. Okay, So last night go back in time. Last night, we've filmed another episode of My Side Hustle, and in that episode, I talked about a

piece of artwork. We're decorating our set. So I brought this piece of artwork in and I talked about the artists that did it, in this experience that I had, and just how much I love this woman, and it was just such a great thing. I get home, I get a text message she has died, the artist that I haven't talked to in probably a year and a half or two years. But it was weird that that all happen on the same day, and it was just very cataclysmic. And I actually wrote about her on the

blog today because this was one of those people. And I hope that everybody in our listening audience has some of these people in their lives, okay, because I think that there are people that walk this earth that sort of exude and inhabit a brightness, a lightness, and they are people that bring joy and light to other people, right. I mean, it's a very special personality type to be able to be that. I certainly am not that person.

I mean, I have no illusions about that. But I've been lucky enough to have multiples of those people in my life. And she was one of them. And she was an artist, and she loved her husband, and she loved God, and she loved the United States of America. And so it was definitely a gut punch last night

to find out she had passed away. And I thought it was really interesting because I called her in twenty eighteen to chat about something I don't even remember what at this point, and she said, I can't believe you called me today. And I said, oh, I'm sorry, I haven't called in so long. You know one of those, And she said, no, I'm leaving the doctor's office. I

was just diagnosed with breast cancer. And I don't think I'm ready to tell anyone here, meaning Southwest Florida, but I kind of need to vent a little bit to someone, So thank you for being that person. And she did she vented and shared her concerns and we talked about that, and she battled cancer for all of those years. But yesterday I haven't talked about her in months, maybe you know, maybe a year, and I chose yesterday to talk about her, and then I find out she's passed away. So that

is just kind of gotten everything all all whacked. And then what's happening at Florida State is devastating. It's absolutely devastating, as it is every single time this occurs, and I'm devastated for the victims, and I'm devastated for the perpetrators because I mean, I'm going to make an assumption if it's a student, this is a young person who made a choice to throw his or her life away in some dramatic act of insanity. And now people's lives are

forever altered. Kids went to college and they're not going to come home. And how do we get to these people before they become this way? You know, Chuck and I were talking on the way to work today, and you know, there's such a problem with mental illness in this country, but there is sort of this and I've talked about it so many times. We have a spiritual rot in this country right now. The good news is

there are pockets of light. There are pockets of lights on university campuses like Ohio State, which I am not an Ohio State Bunckeye fan, and this pains me to admit it, but they've had something of a spiritual revival going on at Ohio State. We had a story I think I put it on yesterday's blog. I meant to if I didn't, that Ohio State's new championship rings when they have the you know, the big gaudy top part that all championship rings have now with all the diamonds

and everything. When you flip that over and look underneath that in the ring, there is a cross underneath in the bottom of the ring. Because their football team is leading a spiritual revival at Ohio State. They just had a huge prayer meeting where thousands of kids showed up to talk about Jesus. Some of them got baptized. They were singing, they were rejoicing, they were being together. And I'm not saying that is going to solve all the ills.

That's not going to solve the problem. It's not going to prevent what's happening at Florida State, because unfortunately, we live in a world where evil exists. And I think evil exists just because we have free will that must be tested. I that's the only way to explain it. And I'm not making excuses or poop pooing it or downplaying it. I'm just saying I think there's evil in this world, and when things like this happen, this is an evil thing. So it's devastating. We have at least

six injured. They have caught the shooter. He's still alive, I guess. So we're gonna find out, you know, maybe someday what exactly was going on here. But I appreciate all of you have reached out today. It's just been a crazy last eighteen hours, just a really crazy day. So let's just into the blog. Shall we find it at mandy'sblog dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com. Look for the headline that says, four seventeen twenty four blog what

should the Colorado GOP focus on? Click on that, and here are the headlines you will find within tic Tech toe A winner.

super solid. Scrolling Puerto Rico is a beautiful hot mess who is ready for farmers' markets. A moss is broke laser guided robot. Farmers are coming. Jack Black ranks his own movies nice alternatives to telling someone off another weird Oreo flavor has sort of arrived. Border patrol morale has skyrocketed. Zuck bought Insta because of camera envy. Shockingly, Fire Festival two has been postponed. How it appeals to keynotes properly? Top ten Dogs of the week. Those are the headlines

on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com. And after everything We've gone through this week, I'm super excited about tomorrow. I mentioned as we took Well, maybe I didn't mention it yet. I'm also we're broadcasting from Hell today, Anthony and I are because the air conditioner is not working in this still airs, just killing us. But I because I'm driving up to Winter Park with Ross after the show. I'm wearing a sweater because it's gonna be cold in

winter Park later tonight. Right, it's gonna be cold. So here we are broadcasting from hell. But why are Ross and I going to Winter Park? We're not running away together.

We're going up tomorrow to broadcast from the mighty millions Raffle House, and so we're going to be broadcasting for Winter Park tomorrow, and I'm very much looking forward to that because I'm very much looking forward to sharing good news about good things that are happening elsewhere, because I just feel like everything has been very very heavy lately, very very heavy lately, which is why the final video on the blog is top ten Dogs of the Week. There you go, ay, Rod, TikTok's getting sneaky.

left leaners or wildly left. But not Leoma. She she was something man and somebody did a wonderful documentary on her that is not very long, and it's just really really the world has lost a very special light. Even if you didn't know her, you would have loved her.

that you in this audience would accomplish. Two things. Number one, be good for the state of Colorado. Like that's number one. Is this good for the people of the state of Colorado. And number two, does it reach a wider audience than merely the Republican Party Because the Republican Party has a significant brand issue in Colorado. I mean it's.

makes good sense to solve the problems of Colorado. And then every Republican needs to be on message. They need to be on message. They need to stay on message. They need to understand every aspect of the message, because if we don't pull back the Colorado legislature and I'm not even talking about Republican majorities, please don't even think

I am not in fantasy land over here. But if we don't get it back to some semblance of balance where the Republican Party has a fighting chance to pull back on some of this insane stuff that is coming out of the Gold Dome, man when we're in big trouble. So we'll do that at one o'clock. Is on at two thirty and oh no, Greg Lopez coming on it one. Okay, you know what we're gonna do. We're gonna do it at twelve thirty. We're gonna do it at the twelve thirty hour. Greg Lopez coming up at one o'clock. I

like Greg, former mayor of Parker. I think he's a very affable fellow. But Greg has lost every election that he has run in except a special election that got him into Congress for a hot minute because he ran as a placeholder. So Greg has never won an election except the mayor of Parker. Oh so there's two exceptions that the general public voted on. But he keeps running. And I don't mind someone continuing to run for office, because not everybody wins on the first try, and people

come back and take another bite at the apple. But if you don't have any indication that you're going to perform better this time than last time, what are you even doing? And that's what I'm going to ask him. What indication does he have that his brand of conservatism that includes a total ban on abortion, or at least it did you know a short time ago? How is that going to sell in the state of Colorado. So we're going to talk to him at one o'clock. It's

going to be a humdinger of a show, Mandy. Republicans and conservatives have never been able to have a productive conversation about race. That's a major problem. It can be done. If it's ignored, the Dems will always be able to brainwash us. You guys, I just don't know. I just don't know if that argument plays anywhere. It might play in Colorado because we are so far to the left

of the rest of America. It's not even funny. But you see how many black and Hispanic men voted for Trump, so it's kind of hard to say, yeah, that guy's a racist, but all of these you know, African American and Hispanic men voted for him. I mean, that's a very condescending position, and I don't know maybe in Colorado

that would work. I do think that the Republican Party should not shy away from pointing out over and over and over again the progress that has been made about race in the United States of America, much of it under Republican leadership.

the Damas have gone too far. See I think you can make the second argument while staying away from the first. You don't need to play better at identity politics. You really don't, but you can make the case that the Democratic Party has gone too far, and because they have over and over and over again. And that's the kind of messaging I'm talking about. That is exactly the messaging that every Republican should be adopting right now. I would if I were running for office, this is how I

would do it. I would just start my comments, my speaking engagements by saying the age old question is are you better off now than you were in twenty nineteen? Are you better off? Is Colorado better off now than twenty nineteen, Because in twenty nineteen the Democrats took full control of everything and they've been running the state since. So if you're not better off, let me tell you

why you don't feel better off. And then you start talking about the fact that crime is out of control, the fact that car owner's insurance has gone up dramatically because of all the car thefts, the fact that, on a regular basis, we have police departments that are understaffed. They're wildly understaffed, and no one seems to be talking about that. We have educational systems where half of the children in Denver public schools can't even read on grade level.

All under democratic control and just let people draw the line. But I have that data. I would have every area that Colorado has fallen, and I would know exactly the percentage from twenty nineteen to now, and I would use it after you make that emotional pitches. Is your life better now? Do you feel like Colorado is better now

than it was in twenty nineteen? That should be the selling point, because the answer across the board is generally when it comes to those statistics that really matter, what has gotten better since twenty nineteen? I mean, maybe we should look so we can mitigate those issues. Anyway, We're going to take a very quick time out. I'd love for you to text your thoughts. We're going to I've got my paper right here, that's my pad of paper,

and uh, we're going to make a list. What should the Republican Party focus on in the next election cycle? Maybe not your pet project, but something that will a be good for Coloraden's and b be something that would be appealing to more than the Republican Party. So there you go. I'm excited. We already have a bunch of people doing this. Mandy. I think crime and property taxes for Republicans need to be the focus. The problem there is that the property taxes horse is already out of

the barn. There's no way we're going to roll back property taxes to where they were before. It is simply not going to happen. So I would say your better bet would be go after income taxes. But I'm writing that down on list. All right, thank you, Texter. We'll be right back with more of those. I'm asking you, guys, and I don't care if you're not a Republican. As a matter of fact, I'd really like to hear your opinion. What does the Republican Party need to focus on in

the elects election cycle? What do you think are the most important issues that not only are A there's two requirements for this, A good for the people of Colorado, and B something that will appeal to people outside of the Republican Party right because there's not nearly enough elect or registered Republicans to get someone over the finish line here. You have to be able to go to a general election and be able to win independence. So that is

something we can. Let me just say this. I think that there are people and they are incredibly highly principled people, and more power to you. There are certain things that I'm pretty unyielding on myself. So I understand it, but I hate to say it, but there's no way to say it that isn't ugly, and it's about to be ugly. Politics usually isn't doesn't go hand in hand with principles. So you have to be realistic about getting elected, because if you can't get elected, then you end up happening.

What's happening right now in Colorado is what happens right If you can't get elected, then there's no point in having those principles because you're completely ineffective. You may be principled, and I do think that there are people in the Republican Party that would rather be principled and lose than recognize that perhaps whatever it is that their main priority is is not what the Republican Party should focus on

going forward. Okay, here we go. Here's some interesting points Republicans need to bring not bring up abortion or religion in a my way or the highway fashion, be vague about it until elected. Now, Dan, that is a great idea, except they will be asked about it, and they'll be asked about it over and over and over and over again. Because that's what the media wants to talk about, because it's not good for Republicans. So you can try and hedge on the question. You can do all that stuff.

I actually think Hidigan all if she had done this forcefully from the very beginning, it would have been a little more helpful. It was just a little confusion before the messaging got sorted that the messaging for me should be for pro life, Republicans should be. I am pro life. However, I recognize that the people of Colorado have decided differently, and until we put it to a vote of the people, we will let the people decide. Period. We'll let the

people decide. Now that's going to be very unpopular with the staunchly pro life crowd, but again, you have zero chance of ever putting any kind of restrictions or getting any kind of restrictions on abortion in Colorado with the curate democratic leadership. So it's time to split the baby people. I know that's a bad analogy in this case. Oh wow, that's terrible and oh sorry, oh wow, that was awful. My apologies. Shouldn't use that when I'm talking about Borzia.

Oh wow. Anyway, Mandy, the Colorado Republican Party could possibly draw me from the independent side of things if they would be a lot less trumpy. I'm not on board with that kind of extremism both ways. A simple deciding factor for me is when I ask Republicans do you believe the twenty twenty election was stolen? And when they say yes, I'm done. I go back to the middle

and sometimes even left. Unfortunately, there are people in the Republican Party who don't understand how how toxic that issue is. And the good news is is that, you know, the former leadership of the Republican Party stood firmly looking backwards at that issue and they were just voted out and

their shows and successors were voted out. So at least to the Central Committee, more people said, you know what, we want to move away from that, and I think there's a way to do it without, you know, turning your back on the president. But let's face it, Donald Trump is extremely unpopular in Colorado. Extremely He gained in the last election cycle compared to the one before that. He is excuse me, he lost in the last election cycle compared to the one before that. He's just wildly unpopular.

So for Republicans trying to get elected outside of a conservative district. There's no benefit to having Donald Trump in your camp. There really isn't. I would say it was a detriment if I was running in any kind of difficult district then Donald Trump offered to endorse me, I don't. I would ask him not to privately. So, no, you're not helping me, you know, you're really not. He's that unpopular here, Mandy. Uh, you defend that bloated pos no

matter what he does. That's not actually accurate, as has been evidenced by my conversations earlier about due process and people being deported. That was wildly unpopular with my listeners, wildly, and yet I said it anyway, anyway here what people said that we need to talk about or focus on, Mandy, I think re establishing the importance of the democratic system.

I feel like Trump's presidency will be great, but it will kind of be a set reset for the way things are supposed to be, so we might not see any true benefits until the next election cycle. And I think you mean like voter ID, which I think I'd like to see the polling data on voter ID in Colorado. But I think voter idea is actually a winning issue for Republicans as long as any voter ID proposal has the ability for someone who cannot afford to pay for

an ID has the ability to get one. That has to be in there, because then you can't make the argument, well, they can't get an ID. That's ridiculous, completely ridiculous, Mandy, a Republican candidate in Colorado needs to keep run on, keeping taper going. The constant attempts at dismantling it by the Democratic Party, while many moderates in the state appreciated

is a perfect argument to make an election. I do think that that is a big part of the conversation about the way that Democrats have been running roughshod over the voters as part of their ongoing legislative assault on Colorado since twenty nineteen. It's all part of the narrative, and I hope and this is one of the things I'm going to tell Brandant, like, the Republican Party needs to send the narrative out with details, with facts to back it up, and then Republican candidates need to know it.

They all need to know it. Mandy. Crime something is it has to be something that everyone can get behind and support. The Republican Party has a tendency to focus on too many issues. Trump won because he was very specific about issues and what he would do to fix it. That is an excellent point. Now here's some things that I wrote down on the break, but they've now scrolled down so I can't see the actual text. Messages. Crime

has come up multiple times. Somebody said property taxes, and I don't know if property taxes is a winning issue because we're never going to get them back down. And if you try to say we're going to get property tax relief only to find out it's not feasible because all of that money has been spent now by all of the local governments and school districts, you're setting yourself up for failure. I think a better chance would be

to go after the income tax. Fees are taxes. Fees are taxes, and taxes are covered under TABOR, and I would make a big show of pointing out how much in fees the Colorado Democrats have levied on the citizens of Colorado since twenty nineteen. It's in the billions of dollars billions. With a B Vacancy committees man the Vacancy Committee things sucks. I don't know if the party will want to tackle that, because ultimately it benefits them because

they have more control over who's in the legislature. I don't know. We'll have to ask a balanced budget. I would love to see a balanced budget. But here's the thing. We haven't needed a balance budget amendment because we had TABOR, right, we had we had a mechanism to control spending. But if they're going to keep shipping away at TABOR, then I think we make a balance budget amendment that includes debt.

That's the kicker. One guy's ested posting of legislation for seven days before it becomes law where a final vote is taken. That would be that would be something of a track meet the last week of the legislative session. Voter I d We'll have to check into that. Roads and bridges, this is a good one, and we get back. I'm going to talk about how much I love transportation

as an issue. Well, let me tell you. In latest polling data in Colorado, voters hold a an unfavorable position of Donald Trump to the tune of fifty eight percent, and of those who hold an unfavorable opinion, fifty five percent of them have a strongly unfavorable opinion. So to the Texter's point about you know, do not embrace Donald Trump, especially if you're in a state wide race lowering homeowner and auto insurance rates. That's a good one, but that's

super specific. Here's how you lower homeowner insurance rates. You either create a reinsurance fund that specifically allows lodgerns to tap into if there's cataclysmic costs, but then the taxpayers are on the hook. Or you incentivize people using haal resistant materials on their home because hail is what drives homeowners insurance costs and now wildfires. So incentivize fire mitigation and fire hardening your home. Give me tax breaks, and I'm far more likely to cover up my seater sighting

with you know, fiber cement siding. Give me something so and you put on the right kind of roof, a cement, a tile roof, or a hail resistant roof. They have those now, they actually have. I think they're kind of a rubber composite thing and the hail is supposed to bounce off and it doesn't hurt the substrate. Incentivize these things. Give homeowners an opportunity to do the things that are going to make their homes more secure, but let them get a tax break while they're doing it. Things like

that auto insurance. One of the reasons auto insurance is so high is because carthefs are still way too high in Colorado, much much lower than they wear a couple of you years ago, but still way too high in Colorado. So that's going to be a part of a bigger conversation about law enforcement, Mandy, not just roads and bridges. How about Colorado pick up all the junk along the sides of the roads in the state. I can't believe how bad it continues to get. That takes me back

to the transportation conversation. I think that there is a real opportunity for Republicans when it comes to transportation, because you currently have a governor and a director executive director of the Department of Transportation who are fully and solely invested in forcing everyone out of their cars and onto some sort of mass transit. Everything they do is geared

towards mass transit. They take money that should be spent on roads and they spend it on mass transit crap that nobody's going to ride.

but none of them use it. And if you ran on a platform of look, we appreciate where mass transit is today, but it's time to reinvest in our roadways and it's time to reinvest in the taxpayers who have to drive on them. So we are going to do what we need to do with our transportation dollars to shore up the roadways, including in the rural areas. You guys are first, and we are going to fix our bridges and our infrastructure. We're going to make traffic work

as well as humanly possible. That is our goal. You start telling people that, I mean, that is an area of such frustration for so many people. And do you notice now, like nobody at the Capitol or in the govern's mansion is even talking about this as an issue. They really don't think it's a big deal. They think everything's fine. So safety, roads and jobs, says this Texter, stay away from social issues, express that in Colorado everyone

is welcome and we want them to be safe. I would take it one step further text I like that though we want them to be safe and prosperous, we want an economy that benefits everyone. We want to be able to go downtown in our major urban centers and feel safe and comfortable. We want a vibrant place to live with fewer regulations so it's easier to build homes. I mean, there's so many ways to pitch this that

are so good. So we will talk to Brita at two thirty and see which of these the Republican Party decides to focus on. By the way, this is way too many the texter earlier he said the Republican Party tends to focus on too many things. Is absolutely right, but all of these should be part of sort of an informational list of talking points for candidates on all of these issues, of Republican solutions to all of these problems,

and if we don't have those. We probably should get cracking because one of my frustrations in the past was even when Republicans are swept into office in big numbers, they're generally not ready to be there, and if they do get elected, they're probably only going to get one election cycle to prove that they can do what they said they were going to do, or at least make a really good show of it when we get back. Speaking of running for office as a Republican, Greg Lopez

joins us. He announced earlier this week that he is running for governor. I believe actually last week now that I said that, and he's on and I'm gonna ask him Flatbret, why is this going to be different than the last time? We'll talk to him next.

campaign he has launched to be governor of Colorado. Former Mayor of Parker, Greg Lopez, and I should say former Congressman Greg Lopez. Welcome back to the show. Greg.

You know, what's happening with our ranchers. You know, all those things. Those are the things that I'm going to focus in on because it's important that we start looking at what was the special thing about Colorado and we've lost it. So I want to make sure that we talk about what makes Colorado special. Let's take the burden off of people, and let's make sure that we improve the quality of life.

You know how the media in this state works. So when I make an issue of that, it's not because I believe that should be top of mind. But the reality is, in this state, I'm not sure that you won't be bludgeoned to death with that alone, that opinion that abortion should be illegal. It will be the first thing every single news organization here leads with. It will be the thing that defines you, even if you don't

want it to. And this is why I guess I'm asking you, know, how does that jibe with an electorate that keeps overwhelmingly saying we want to write to abortion. That's I think there's got to be a better answer. Well, well, there's got to be a better answer for it Greg. Then you know, there's no more discussion about this because that's not how people feel about it, because now it is a safe issue, now on the go ahead.

saw the commercials. You know that's exactly what they do. You have to ask yourself why is that, you know what, when we're talking about the daily lives of people, you know, people aren't interested necessarily about you know, what is going to happen in the future. Colorado already voted on that, right. Look, I don't support at all killing babies. I just don't what. But it's been parted on. It's not a part of the constitution. I'm focusing on what's going to make live.

It is better for parents and families and children, small business owners, the economy here in Colorado. I know a lot of people are going to say, well, I want to know about this. Well, I'm going to tell you, and then I'm going to focus on what's important, because really what's important is the quality of life that we're all struggling with. Look, nobody will argue that for the last eight years under a one party government, things have dramatically changed from what it was eight years ago. No

one will argue that point. So we need to focus on what kind of Colorado do we want. Do we want more of the same, or do we want to have hope that we can bring a balanced government back onto the governor's office. Someone that actually will listen, someone that actually go out there because he understands and he understands the challenges. Look, I come from humble beginneas. I don't come from money. I don't come from an Ivy League school. You know, I've been here in Colorado thirty

seven years. I've seen it change. But I'm not going away. You know, I think a lot of people, Man, you're like, you know what, Like you were you and I were talking earlier. It's like this guy doesn't go away. You know, every four years. He's coming back, and I'm coming back because it's not changing, it's getting worse. We're now worse in California. Think about that for a minute. We're worse in California.

fire somewhere else. That's my new attitude, because I'm tired of seeing good people stumble over these sort of questions that to your point, and I think you're absolutely right, it doesn't matter as much to Colorado's it's in the constitution, it's done. Move on, we're doing that. Now, Let's talk

about some issues that do matter. Because one of the things that we were talking about in the last last hour was what specific things should should the party should should the party messaging be so every Republican in the state has access to the same data to back up these solutions. What are those issues that you think are the issues that are going to make independent voters say, you know what, that's kind of a good idea. Perhaps I'm going to look at the Republicans this time.

going on inside the school buildings these days. You know it, I know it. All I want is our children to be a good educated, be able to read. And I'm going to ask people is like, do you know that in Colorado a teacher cannot withhold a student if they're not ready to move on to the fourth grade. They still have to pass them on to the fourth grade. Even they know that they're going to struggle. They know they're going to struggle in that. We got to reevaluate

what are we doing here. You know, let's talk about transportation. How long it's taking people to get home to their families, you know, or to get to a meeting. One of the things that I'd like to do is, you know, I would it's time that we buy E four seventy. The state should buy E four seventy and take the tolls off. Let's get all that condition off of downtown. Let's get all those semis to go around. This is the stuff that impacts people every day. Every day when

they go to work. They hate getting on I twenty five because they know that if somebody does something, you know, whether it's a misstep, they try to cut somebody off, if someone clipped somebody, it's gonna be an hour to an hour and a half just to open that highway. Once again, these are the things that I believe we need to focus in on now. When it comes to the cost of living. Look, everybody complains about the cost of eggs. You know what, Oh my god, you know,

you go to I'm not even buying eggs anymore. I don't know about you, but you know when you buy eight dollars for a carton of eggs, you know, a lot of people forget that. The reason that's happened is because our governor destroyed the supply chain. One point five million chickens got killed here in Colorado, you know, and that was the supply chain for the eggs. And so when people say, well, why is egg so expensive? We

got to look at all that stuff. These are some of the things that I think common people want to know what happened, what are we going to do different? And why? How? What is the future going to look like for me and my family?

have to do is come and ask us. All they have to do is convince us that this is what the right way to spend our tax dollar money. One of the things that really people need to understand is that that Tabor refund belongs to you, to you, and this is how we reward people. They're here in Colorado because if the economy is doing very well, if it's robust, and there's extra funds, why wouldn't we want to give

more money in the pockets of every Colorado. Let them go out there and enjoy a movie, Let them go out there and go to dinner, take their kids to the zoo.

that they're one point two billion dollars over budget? Well, we need to focus it.

he's a nominee. How do you how do you win?

don't remember. I used to be the president of the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I have friends in the Vitios that are RASA. I have friends in Ludlak, the League of the United Latin American Citizens, the NAACP. I have been in those communities. I'm here to tell you. While the press thinks everybody likes Senator Bennett, the voters do not. The voters truly understand his record is not

helping Colorado. He's never helped Colorado. And then when he has the audacity to say, hey, look, I'm gonna run for governor, but I'm not gonna resign. I'm gonna keep my office so then I can appoint my replacement. The deals are being struck right now as we speak. Do you know that, Mandy. I know that, and the people inside the Urban Corridor they understand it, and they're not liking the deals that are being cut.

so we're gonna have everybody on. I think this is going to be the year that I am going to try and put something together here at KOA where we can do a candidate forum, kind of a debate on the air, that kind of thing. So I hope that you would make time for us when we get a little closer and we can put that together.

do this, I don't like it. I don't even like it when an elected member of Congress takes on the leadership role at the RNC or something like that, like you have a job working within that job to be a majority whip or something like that, some sort of subset of that. I have no problem with but don't take your eye off the ball and running for office successfully requires a lot of time and energy, and I just am not happy that he has decided not to

step down. But wouldn't it be interesting if he appointed Phil Wiser to his seat if Phil drops out, wouldn't that be something? I mean, I'm wildly speculating. I have absolutely no factual information to back up any of this, but wouldn't that be interesting? By the way, Michael Bennett was on Colorado Morning News this morning. Aaron him on the show. I actually enjoyed my conversation with him. I thought he was very nice. I thought he was very open to answering questions.

I could actually have a conversation with. Then I could ask tough questions like I just doo with Greg off the ear, I said, Gregg, it's time to answer some hard questions about whether or not you're electable, right, And Greg was like, Okay, I think if I said to Michael Bennett, look, I'd love to have you on the show on a regular basis, but we have to have an open conversation. You know, I have to push back on the things I think you're wrong on. But I

do that because I have confidence in these people. Remember how Michael Hancock's people would try to protect him, and then he was awesome on any topic. I could ask him about anything and he was prepared and he he would be able to have a conversation about it. But these people were always trying to protect him. I'm like, I have more faith in him than you do.

a legislator's responsiveness is their office. And I have I have actually worked with Democratic lawmakers whose office was so incredibly responsive and great that everybody had a certain you know, silo that they were in and they did a great job taking care of that little silo, but it really is hard. Sometimes it's to find the right person in the right office. And that's not a knock on. I

mean Republican offices that are the same way. It's not exclusive to one party, So I know how frustrating that can be, very, very frustrating. There's nothing worse than a non responsive, you know, so called representative. So I want to talk for a moment when we get back. A couple things. One, I got a big shout out to the Douglas County Sheriff's office. They send out a tweet this morning that made me laugh out loud, and it just shows sometimes the police can have a sense of humor.

We'll talk about that. And we haven't really spent any time on this Elizabeth's school lawsuit because there's just been so much other stuff to talk about. But I want to talk about it when we get back because it's another area where I think most people who are you know, common sense types recognize how ridiculous the assertion that children should have access to pornography in a school library actually is. We'll do that when we get back.

we have not talked a lot about this story. It's been working its way through and now it's going to be a court case, so it's going to more is going to happen. But the Elizabeth School District had some

complaints about some books in the library. So instead of just creating some kind of knee jerk reaction, the Elizabus School District came up with a district policy kind of thing that brought re rental and community input into the conversation, and then they reviewed the books together and the whole thing was transparent, and they resulted in eighteen titles being removed from the Elizabeth School District libraries collection. Eighteen books.

Why were they removed? In the words of a district legal filing, they contained graphic violence, graphic sexual content, extreme drug and alcohol use, and suicidal ideation. Now, to be clear, just to clarify one aspect of this, the Elizabeth School District did not pass ruling that every copy of these books in the world must be destroyed. They did not do that. They're not having book burning parties in Elizabeth where they're getting brown shirted children to throw more books

on the pile. That's not what's happening. They merely removed these books from the Elizabeth School District's libraries. Now, why does that matter? The notion that librarians are not constantly monitoring content when they buy books for a library is just absurd. It's ridiculous. The problem is is that the Library Association is now fully run by a Marxist, a lesbian Marxist woman, who has pledged to bring that ideology

to schools. Why does that matter if that's a national organization. Well, there are book awards that are given out, and a lot of libraries shop based on book awards. So if they keep giving book awards to books that are probably inappropriate for young people in a school library, they're probably going to keep getting purchased. And I am one hundred percent on the side of free speech. I am one hundred percent on the side of public libraries having content

that would be objectionable or upsetting on their shelves. But we're not talking about a public library. We're talking about a school district's library, and not everything is appropriate for a school district. You know, I've heard, and I've never verified this, that those old Playboy magazines apparently they had some incredible articles in them, incredible, But we don't see Playboy Magazine on the shelves and school libraries because it's

not appropriate content. There are lots of things that should not be on a school library shelf, and librarians make those decisions all day, every day. Mandy, it's nineteen books, not eighteen, says this texter. I am just reading from a column in the Denver Gazette. So I will send Sean Duffy a stern email. Now, Elizabeth is not urging that these books be destroyed. They're not urging that no

one ever read these books. They're just saying, look, we've decided that these are not the right kind of content for the kids in our district. So of course they're being sued. Of course they are the problem with this, And Sean Duffy makes this point really well in a column today about this in the Denver Gazette. I'll jump into the middle here, he says. But let the courts continue in this no limits line of legal reasoning and

invalidate content filters. The ensuing public comment periods in Colorado school board meetings in liberal and conservative communities alike, will resemble a chorus of scalded cats. Now there he is talking about content filters on the Internet in public libraries.

They have those. Schools have those on kids' computers. My daughter's school computer, for the entire time she had a school computer, was so locked down that there were times that she was trying to access a website that wasn't in no way sexual in any way, shape or form, but some kind of keyword got caught up in our school computer would not open it. So should we give kids unfettered access to the Internet on their school computers? I just want to ask that question. You know what's

on the Internet should we give? If you believe that children must have access to pornographic content in school libraries, then you must also believe that taking any kind of Internet filters on that computer they need to go because kids need unfettered access to pornography on the internet. How are those two things different. Nobody's gonna argue that point, by the way, because it's so stupid. I mean, maybe pedophiles.

Children do not need access to pornography. Children don't need access to books that graphically and in great detail, both visually and verbally explain how certain very grown up sex positions that I didn't even learn about until I was twenty five are done. They can talk to their parents about that. So this text or is there any room on the Japan trip? I know it's late. It is too late. Texture. That's why we sell them a year in advance, because there is a window that does close.

Mandy's start reading Gender Queer in public at a school board meeting and make sure you push it on your own kids library, and it will be completely disbanded. Go absurd. In the opposite direction, that has been the most effective strategy in these school board meetings is for teachers or parents to stand at the podium and basically read from some of these books. They have been shut down every single time as they say that content is not appropriate

for a school board meeting. And yet they want to put it on school library shelves. Here's the thing. I'm all in favor of kids reading difficult content with context, with guidance, with a conversation perhaps with their own parents, but just putting it in school libraries and giving kids access to it. I mean, back in my day they had.

This just occurred to me, okay, in our school library in my elementary school, all of the magazines, because we had magazines back then, all of the magazines were on one shelf except the National geographic magazines were at the very front, right and front where the library and checked

us out. It just occurred to me. Now it's because the boys always looked at the National Geographic magazines looking for pictures of topless women from a because there were a lot of them in the day, and they probably put it there to dissuade that sneaky, very very sneaky. Our work computers have content creation or I'm a guessing content restriction. I'm guessing is what you meant there, Mandy and junior high, I read mind comps like by yourself. You just read it as a junior high kid, you

were advanced. But if you read it as part of your learning experience, and there was a bigger conversation about the damage that that book has created. Well, then I'm here for it. That would be perfectly fun. I think kids need to know how seductive and absolutely wrong communism is on every measure. And I just stumbled upon a blog post that is really really scary about shipbuilding in the United States. But first I promised the story a

little bit earlier. You know, I love when police departments or law enforcement agencies sort of poke fun at themselves and have fun at their own expense on social media. And the Douglas County Sheriff does a great job with us on occasion, including this story. Let me set the scene for you on this post on x dot com. There are trays in these photographs of what used to be donuts who are all over the floor, like somebody just came into a donut shop and just just made

a huge mess, donuts all over the floor. And Douglas County Sheriff's Office sends out this donut disturbance ends interest. As you can imagine, this was a tough scene for the deputies, having to witness such tragic treatment of donuts. And then they go on to talk about a disturbance call. It was a former employee and he came in and wrecked a donut shop and they arrested him in charge him.

But listen to this one statistic. This just blew my mind. Blew it. One shipyard in China made more commercial ships in twenty twenty four then the total number the US has produced since World War Two. Guys, this is untenable. This cannot this cannot be allowed to stand. We have to be able to make our own stuff for our

own defense. I actually think that's a huge part of these tariffs and the decoupling with China is that we are too dependent on our geopolitical foe for too much of the stuff that we need to be able to fight our geopolitical foe in a hot war. We'll be like, yes, we need to make more ambutition, China, could you send us the ingredients please? That would be great. And China's like, no, thank you, because you're gonna be shooting them at us. We got to fix that. That just blew my mind.

Let me repeat that for you one more time. One shipyard in China has made more commercial ships in twenty twenty four than the total number the US has produced since World War Two. That's absolutely insane. I'm sending this to myself right now via email so it will be on tomorrow's blog because it's kind of long, and don't want a chance to read it all the way before I share the rest of you. But that should freak you out, You know, that should freak you out. All right,

We're going to take a quick time out. When we get back, I want to talk about some polling data that is very, very concerning, But I want to talk about it because the notion that somehow the left has the moral high ground on any sort of on any level when it comes to January sixth is really being blown out of the water by continued and ongoing violence by people on the left, and more and more people on the left say it's fine with them.

So we're gonna be up there tomorrow. Super excited about that. In the second half of the hour, the the hours, those of us who use old school clocks call it, We're gonna hear from Britta Horne. She's a new chair of the Colorado GOP. If you were with me earlier, I have a big list put together by smart listeners of things that we think that the Republican Party should

focus on in these upcoming election cycles. We'll talk to Britta about that, but first I want to talk about some a survey that came out fairly recently and it was not good news at all. City Journal wrote about it in a recent article, and this part caught my eye. They found that nearly one third of American surveyed and around half of those identifying as left of center, believe that the murder of certain public figures is at least

somewhat justified. The figures are startling. Thirty eight percent of respondents and fifty five percent of those left of center said assassinating President Trump would be at least so and what justified. Thirty one percent of respondents and forty eight percent of those left of center said the same thing about Musk. Forty percent of respondents and fifty eight percent of those left of center deem it at least somewhat acceptable to destroy a Tesla dealership. Where is this headed exactly?

Because from where I'm sitting, you have bought a bunch of angry lunatics on the left who are now being accepted as mainstream by many, a majority on the left, at least in the survey. And yet from where I sit, most of the people who own guns are on the right. So are we supposed to let the people on the left just have an ongoing conniption fit where they burn things down, do forty billion dollars worth of damage. In the so called Summer of Love, over two hundred people died,

by the way, in that quote, mostly peaceful protest. We were told by the last Attorney General that the real threat in this country came from super Catholics and school board moms.

into chains. Everybody that wasn't a white male was going back in chains. So they've been ginning up this sort of idiotic response for so long. Now, so so long. So what do you expect? I mean, this is where we are. But here's the thing that I'm really irritated by when I see this. Where are the people in the news media that talk to Democrats on a regular basis pressing them on whether or not they feel responsible for the rise in the acceptance of violence by those

on the left. Do you feel any responsibility for Let's just make sure I have this right, fifty five percent of left of center people saying assassinating President Trump would be somewhat justified. Do you take responsibility for that? I mean, it's not like somebody took a shot. Oh wait, they did. They did try to kill the president. But now something is happening on the left that I'm sure they weren't expecting.

We just had a guy who was to the left of Democrat Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, who tried to firebomb the governor's house because of his stance on the Palestinian situation. Something I might add, the state of Pennsylvania has absolutely nothing to do with. So the violence is now coming home to those on the left as well. From their left, Will this be the inflection point that makes them go, you know what, maybe we should ratchet

it back now. Of course, there are loudmouthed idiots on the right who say idiotic and violent things, and every chance I get, I tell them to shut up. Every chance I get, I write, I say, I speak. There is no place for political violence in this country. We don't need it. We just need to believe in the systems that we have had in place for oh so very long that have protected us from so many, many, many many things. Now I've got a story from nine

News that goes along with this. A man has been arrested for sending letters to news media outlets emails rather to local news outlets and insurance companies that detailed his declaration of what was he declaring war against the forty seventh presidential Cabinet of the United States. He went on to describe how Tesla owners would be murdered on April seventeenth, twenty twenty five, and thereafter until the death of Elon Musk.

The message listed various reasons for the declaration, including claims that Trump violated his presidential oath, the termination of federal employees, and that the president activated and empowered racism, bigotry, and hatred, and for that the punishment is death, according to this man. He also sent letters to insurance companies telling them that the enclosed information is for immediate release and will help

validate evidence shown in the coming social media campaign. We recommend you cancel all comprehensive vehicle coverage of Tesla vehicle's effective sixteen April twenty twenty five. And then he wraps it up by saying, we are Luigi, We are one. This is the same Luigi Mangioni who has had thousands and thousands of women writing him letters in jail while

they're also donating money for his defense fund. When it is clear that dude murdered an insurance executive in cold blood who wasn't even a executive from his own insurance company. Now we have this other kid who stabbed another guy, but the other guy was white and this kid's black. So now hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated to the shooter because he's black and the other guy was white. This is what passes for logic and rationale

on the left. They need to put down the crime podcasts and start really paying attention to who they're supporting. Because when something horrible happens, and I do believe it will be something horrible at some point, and it will happen because of someone on the left, I don't think they're going to take ris ponsibility for it. So perhaps we should demand that now before something really really bad happens. Anyone can email me there, Mandy Connell at iHeartMedia dot com.

We've got a couple things on the blog. I'm gonna get you because at two thirty we've got Britta Horn coming on the new chair of the Colorado GOP. Very interesting story in that Gavin Newsome, who we all know is running for president he's really trying to get out ahead of Jared Polis right now. So now California has

sued to stop Donald Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs. Now, one of the questions I have is a question that I always have about cases like this, and usually the courts decide and I never quite understand how one gains standing. Have you ever heard, Well, the case never really got adjudicated because the plaintiff didn't have standing. According to the court, that means that the plaintiff didn't necessarily have the right

to engage in suing over whatever they're suing over. And the first thing I thought of was, I mean, does California even have standing to sue over tariffs? Because this is a constitutional issue, a function of the federal government as outlined in the Constitution, and I don't know if the justices are going to say that California has the right to do this. Now, there is some legislation being put forth in the House. I don't think it passes.

If it does, Trump's gonna veto it. That would pull back the constitutional authority for tariffs back to Congress, which is where the Constitution initially put them. But as I've said before, Congress loves to punt difficult decisions to someone else so they don't get held responsible for it. So that is very interesting. We're going to be watching that because I think it's actually really kind of important to see if that check from the Constitution is going to

be reinstated. One of the things I've been talking about since I got my first show in two thousand and five is that Congress has abdicated, to my of it's constitutionally assigned jobs to the executive branch for all the reasons that I just said. They don't want to be on record is saying yes, I'm voting for tariff's and then, you know, terifs made everything more expensive. They'd much rather be able to point at a president and say, oh, no, he or she did that, not us. So that's going

to be really interesting to watch. We also have a couple stories on the blog today. One of them is from Puerto Rico, and you guys know, I just went to Puerto Rico recently with just on American Financing's Dime, and I was really impressed with San Juan. But they have some significant issues they have to overcome. They just had another island wide blackout. Why because it wasn't working. In my mind, the mark of a developed nation is

its ability to keep the power on. That's like thing number one, because even if you don't have great roads, I mean Costa Rica is a good example of this. Their roads are scary as hell in a lot of places in Costa Rica, Like you've got to have some serious kajones to want to drive in Costa Rica. But the power is always on. And for me, that says, okay, you're a little bit beyond developing nation when you can keep the lights on. And Puerto Rico can't even do that.

And it's a shame. There is so much opportunity in Puerto Rico right now, and I honestly believe that if the President of the United States showed any attention to Puerto Rico, just like, hey, what can we do to get you moving in the right direction. Because the new governor of Puerto Rico has come out and said, I'm firing the company that provides power. But of course this isn't like you can't just fire them and hire somebody else.

This is a really big undertaking. But if President Trump stepped in and said, okay, Puerto Rico, what do we need to do here, what do we need to do to get this power on and keep it on with some reliability, he would have the Puerto Rican vote till the end of time. Republicans may have the we can vote till the end of time. And I'm not talking about in Puerto Rico. I'm talking about in Florida and in New York, where the Puerto Rican population is huge.

I bet you there are more Puerto Ricans in Florida and New York than there are in Puerto Rico by a long shot. It needs to be fixed because Puerto Rico could be a beautiful asset, right, a beautiful place where Americans could go without a passport, have a great vacation, but they just can't get out of their own way and it's just kind of sad. Okay, guys, we're gonna

take a time out. When we get back. New Colorado chair Woman Britta Horn will be joining us, and I have a whole list of things that we came up with in the first hour that the Republican Party needs to focus on in these upcoming elections. We'll do that next. On the other end of the phone is New Colorado chair Woman Britta Horn. Hello, Britta, I know.

to twenty three days. And it's been a while. A lot of we have transitions going on, right now, we're trying to find things where things are where, you know, I think everybody knows that we're moving the office. I'm going to more regional offices. And we've been looking at places already and where we can move the furniture and start hitting the ground running with field directors. So it's all the above, and it's been NonStop.

that money perhaps begin to shake loose. Are you seeing donors that we're not happy with the prior leadership beginning to say, okay, maybe we're onto something here.

from people saying they're bringing money over. They're going to be new fundraising people's new donors that we haven't had before. And I'm looking forward not only to the traditional ones that around the state that you and I talked about before. You know, they closed their checkbooks. They were not send money to Colorado and it went out of state. It went to Florida that you were talking about earlier. It's like, no, mosse need to be to redirected back into Colorado and let's get to work.

What if any progress or what if any actions have you taken as the chair to begin to mend those fences.

that we're bringing in, we're going to be exposing. We just still have to show, like I said, what happened in the past, We're going to have to expose that, and we're gonna have to say because we want everybody, you know, integrity back, we need to get our integrity back. We have to be honest, we have to be transparent, and that should come across as more wins. How we're going to do better, how we're not going to do the way it was in the past, and that should bring some people over.

also have to run against a lot of our media. Right, so you lose the ability to control the narrative because the media is only going to ask you about things that you feel they feel are a disadvantage. I've now watched it happen over and over and over again.

message to them separately and differently. But you're right, very focused and very very point on, and all say the same thing for those two hundred and fifty thousand people, and it's going to be different than the independent three hundred thousand independents at our right leaning and have a message for them. It's going to be we're gonna find the pieces that we all get along with. And you know, maybe it's not gonna be eighty twenty with with Ronald

Wigan as they all talk about. Maybe it's gonna be more sixty forty or seventy thirty. We have to find the piece is that we can talk about so we can stay glued together on those pieces and get people to vote. We need more voters. We're only twenty of the state. Yeah, well voters, go ahead, I'm says that.

should drop their blinders. But the reality is, to your point, we are so outnumbered in this state in terms of voter registration, that is, it is a losing proposition to only focus on the Republican voter, Like, we have to craft a message that is going to reach those independent voters who maybe have not had the best time since

twenty nineteen. I appreciate what you're saying about the Republican Party being the machinery, but I do think there's value in helping Republican candidates understand every issue in terms of how to articulate that and how to articulate that. A conservative you know, answer or solution would be the way to go. Because I I am not gonna lie. I've had candidates on this show for office that when I got done, I just died inside a little bit because it was so obvious that they didn't have a handle

on certain issues. They weren't able to articulately, sort of articulate the Republican position, and it's painful. And so do you think there would be any value in sort of giving those those white paper sort of backstroke, you know, back information pieces of information to candidates. And if so, how do we do that?

fixed that for us, or the government did. I'll go fix So let's find those pieces that still resonate with all of us at every day living in Colorado. What is it? And it's going to be obviously right now, parenting issues, it's going to be school issues. I mean, that's the topic it's going to be two ways. It's going to be, you know, set a bill three. We have to be talking about two A and everybody's and

you're right. I'm going to tell you. You know, Mandy is inside Inso I get a lot of the text and a lot of people saying you need to have a statement about this, and you need to have a statement about that. I already agree about two A. I already agree about a first amendment, right, I already agree with all these parents and these m trans things that are going on and being working on those issues at the schools. You don't need to hear from me. You

need to hear from the candidates officials. I just need to and the party needs to bolster them for it. But you're right, you still have to be just thank you. We have to just be laser focused that we're talking all the same things absolutely exactly.

every issue. Because I know for a fact that the Democratic Party does this and they coach their candidates and they work on the message with them so they can clearly articulate their positions, and it shows sometimes and I realize that I view it anyway as Republicans being more independent minded. Right our candidates tend to think they have good answers, but then they fall flat in being able to explain why they're good answers.

then let's do that. But the infighting on social media accomplishes nothing. It makes Republicans look really really bad and really small and petty. And I'm not saying this just because I feel that way, and I do. You should see the emails I get from people about this. They don't realize that other people are paying attention, so we can find but we got to take it off social media.

because I'm like, really, they don't. They just want to fight to fight, and that's what they've been doing the last two years. And how's that work for them?

insurance rates, on affordable housing. We need to have every statistic that shows that Democrats have raised the cost of living, made us less safe, possibly led to more overdoses with their lacks policies. We need to have that data in front of us. So when we ask voters is your life better since twenty nineteen than it is now? You know, it's a big, powerful question, and very few people would say, yeah, my life is better, all those things are better. I'd love to see that happen right away.

talk about this instead, because it's pretty significant. Britta, I don't I don't envy you, but I'm excited. I've talked to so many Republicans who are excited about about They feel hopeful for the first time in a long time, and they're looking forward to what's going to come out.

What should people do if they are either a lapsed Republican like me, or maybe they're an independent who is looking at the landscape and saying, maybe I want to throw my in, how do they get involved at the local level?

involved there. At least get the newsletters. Start getting involved there and start you know, communicating with us there and see if we can turn around and find the people you need to have and so you can start getting involved. Because again you and I both know this, all politics is local. We don't take care of our school boards and our waterboards and our electric boards and our commissions and all the things that go on and planning commissions.

We're not going to get that next level. We have got to take care of it on the local level. It's time to take it back.

talking and told you how to do your job. But I have so much confidence in you that I just want to give you ideas because I think you'll actually go yeah, I'll listen to the good ideas and implement them, which would would be a nice change.