I’ve lived in southeast Colorado Springs for more than 60 years. After serving more than 35 years as a firefighter with the CSFD, rising to the rank of Battalion Chief, I retired in 2010. I then won election in 2012 to serve in the Colorado House of Representatives, as the representative from District 17 – covering Southeast Colorado Springs. I won election again in 2016, 2018, and 2020. In 2022, I won election to serve in the Colorado State Senate, as the senator from District 11 – covering downtown, the Old North End, and Southeast Colorado Springs.
I currently sit on the Senate’s Transportation & Energy committee and serves as Chair of the Senate’s Local Government & Housing committee.
One thing I’ve learned from being an elected state legislator is that different people have different urgent needs. Some people are unemployed and need immediate assistance, which is why I’ve supported bills to expand unemployment benefits. Other people are being poisoned by toxic chemicals and need clean drinking water, which is why I’ve run bills to ban toxic PFAS firefighting foams. There isn’t just one or two pressing issues facing people in Senate District 11, there are many, and they all need immediate attention.
Which is why my top priorities as a state legislator have always been and continue to be these three things: supporting public education, protecting the environment, and helping low-income families, people of color, and the elderly live better lives.
I served for years on the House’s Education Committee because supporting public education is a high priority of mine: making sure our schools are well funded, our teachers are well-paid, our breakfast and lunch services for students are healthy, affordable, and filling, and our school buildings are well-maintained, safe and secure.
Just as importantly, I run legislation protecting Colorado’s beautiful environment from exploitation and destruction: giving local governments more power to regulate oil and gas drilling within their jurisdictions, and prohibiting the use during training of certain toxic PFAS firefighting foams.
Now I’m running for re-election the State Senate to continue representing and helping my constituents: students, low-income families, people of color, the elderly, military personnel, first responders, and everyone in Senate District 11. I listen when people tell me they want safer schools, better education, environmental protections, police accountability, and improved elder care, among other things; and I work hard to support legislation addressing those issues. I believe my legislative record proves that. I’m running again to continue doing this good work.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
While serving in the state legislature, first as Chair of the House’s Transportation & Local Government committee and now as Chair of the Senate’s Local Government & Housing committee, I’ve had a hand in crafting and supporting several major pieces of legislation to help increase the amount of affordable housing units available throughout Colorado.
Legislation such as: HB22-1051, extending the life of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit and raising the amount of money which can be claimed through the credit, so more affordable housing units can be built; HB21-1117, clarifying the ability of local governments to promote the development of new affordable housing units pursuant to their existing authority to regulate land use within their territorial boundaries; HB19-1322, transferring up to $30 million from the Unclaimed Property Trust Fund to the Housing Development Grant Fund to fund affordable housing throughout the state; and HB19-1319, identifying non-developed land owned by the state that could be developed for affordable housing purposes, and making it available for development purposes; as well as other bills investing hundreds of millions of dollars into grant programs funding affordable housing developments.
More could be done, of course, and I hope to continue doing this good work in the State Senate.
ECONOMY / EMPLOYMENT
As I have always done, I will work hard to support laws protecting consumers from fraud, price gouging, and abuse; investing into poverty reduction programs, homelessness supports, and food pantries; growing broad economic prosperity from the ground up by expanding employment support services for unemployed and underemployed workers; protecting the rights of workers to fair pay and safe workplaces; investing in small businesses, supporting their creation and growth; and investing in community development, public transportation, and public education.
I have always supported legislation which attempts to redress wage inequalities – such as the racial gap between Black and White workers, or the gender gap between men and women. I was honored to be a sponsor of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, SB19-085, which improved existing sex-based wage discrimination law and created new provisions regarding transparency in wages and promotions.
And I’ve been glad to work on and support legislation which helps unemployed people find work – including my bill HB22-1230, which expands the definition of “service provider” in the Employment Support and Job Retention Services Program, to include faith-based organizations and churches, community centers, neighborhood organizations, food banks, outreach providers, and local entities that provide employment services to community members.
I have gladly sponsored or supported multiple pieces of legislation to help small businesses grow, including: SB24-134, preventing an HOA from prohibiting the operation of a home-based business in a common interest community; SB22-006, raising the amount of sales tax revenue that a small business may retain to cover the retailer’s expense in collecting and remitting certain vendor fees and taxes; HB21-1288, creating the Colorado Startup Loan Program, to provide loans and grants to businesses seeking capital to start, restart, or restructure a business; SB21-241, creating the Small Business Accelerated Growth Program, to provide business development support to businesses with fewer than 19 employees; and HB17-1214, establishing a revolving loan fund program to assist existing small businesses with a transition to becoming employee-owned businesses.
All these things, which I have supported in the past and will continue supporting in the future, work together to help create vibrant and thriving economies.
TABOR REFORM
TABOR isn’t just one thing, it’s several separate things: (1) restricting state growth, year-over-year; (2) requiring excess collected revenues be refunded to people; and (3) requiring any tax increase must be approved by voters in a statewide election. These three things work together limit state government spending, which hurts public education, public transportation, and infrastructure projects.
I would support reforming TABOR first, before I supported repealing it. I would leave in place the part requiring voter approval for any tax raise, because I do believe we as state legislators should be able to explain and justify to voters any tax increase we need to make for the state. But I would support removing those parts of TABOR which restrict year-over-year financial growth for our state and restrict our state government’s ability to spend excess collected revenues, because doing so would help us invest in schools, roads, and jobs.
EDUCATION
Having served for years as a member of the House’s Education committee, I am very aware of the problems facing our public education system: from strained funding sources, to deteriorating buildings and vehicles, to teacher shortages, and curriculum controversies.
As we know, for decades in Colorado school districts were funded mostly by local property taxes, with some money coming from the State. But for years now, school districts have been mostly funded by the State, with some money coming from local property taxes. These funding ratios have effectively reversed themselves, and that’s been bad for public school funding. The State simply can’t afford to be the primary payer for all public education in Colorado. We need to find ways to better balance these funding dynamics – and fixing TABOR, Gallagher, and Amendment 23 are three very obvious and effective ways to begin improving the funding situation for public education.
And I have worked as a legislator to help address these problems, even running many bills myself to help solve some of them. If I am re-elected into the State Senate, as I hope I will be, I will continue working with teachers, students, parents, administrators, and elected officials to improve our whole education system, not just K-12 but also higher education too.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS / CLIMATE CHANGE
Over the last few years, we in the state legislature have passed several major pieces of legislation to help combat against both the man-made causes and the disastrous consequences of climate change.
Doing our part to prevent further climate change, we passed SB19-181, giving the state and local governments more power to regulate oil and gas drilling within their jurisdictions, and we passed HB21-1266, creating the environmental justice ombudsperson for the state and directing the Air Quality Control Commission to fine and limit greenhouse gases from certain sectors.
Climate change is affecting us now, so we’re investing more into wildfire mitigation, into water conservation, into environmental protection and preservation, and into energy efficiency with our buildings, appliances, and vehicles. We’ve passed legislation addressing all of these issues, and I’ve been glad to support that legislation because I know climate change is a real threat, happening now, and we have to work to combat it.
More than this: the burdens of pollution and climate change fall disproportionately on low income and minority communities. Southeast Colorado Springs, for example, is not only one of the poorest, most racially diverse parts of the city, but is also one of the most contaminated, with toxic PFAS firefighting foams in the water supply.
To help protect my community and constituents, in 2019 I introduced legislation to ban the use during training of those toxic PFAS firefighting foams. And since 2019, I’ve supported several other bills limiting the use other PFAS products here in Colorado.
As we strengthen Colorado’s efforts to fight climate change, we must take an equity-focused approach to how we deal with waste, pollution, and the enforcement of regulations which protect the health and safety of all Coloradans – not just the white and wealthy ones.
I will continue supporting good legislation to combat climate change, and I look forward to doing more of this good work in the State Senate.
HEALTH CARE
The top healthcare priority in Colorado should be access, which means reducing costs. Cost is the main barrier to coverage for most Coloradans. While we still need meaningful action at the federal level, I believe that we can build on the steps we have already taken in Colorado. We have already taken serious steps to address the problem of rising costs by instituting a reinsurance program and expanding the availability of medical co-ops. In the last few sessions, we’ve also passed a few good mental health bills. We need to continue that good progress.
People struggle also with mental health and substance abuse issues everywhere in Colorado, including in southeast Colorado Springs. Which is why I’ve been glad to sponsor and support dozens of pieces legislation supporting mental health services, including: continuing the regulation of mental health professionals; requiring the Department of Early Childhood to contract with a non-profit to provide mental health services for children; improving the safe2tell program; creating and continuing the mental health criminal justice diversion program; requiring coverage of behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorder services in parity with physical health services provided through private health insurance and Medicaid; and many others.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Protecting the reproductive rights of pregnant people is important to me. This is why I’ve supported and voted for legislation protecting a woman’s right to choose her own healthcare services.
In 2017, I voted for HR17-1005, a resolution about ensuring access to reproductive health care, and which declares “State, county, and city health departments shall promote policies to ensure access to a full range of reproductive health care, including abortion, and eliminate disparities that prevent low-income women and women of color from seeking safe, high quality care,” and “Both public and private health insurance should cover the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion.”
In 2021, I voted for SB21-142, a bill removing certain restrictions related to abortion services: removing the requirement that the services be performed at only certain health care facilities and removing the requirement that only a physician perform the service.
And in 2022, I not only voted for but I also co-sponsored HB22-1279, the Reproductive Health Equity Act: the bill codifying into state law that every individual has a fundamental right to use or refuse contraception; every pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion; and a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of the state.
Further legislative action could be taken to regulate the deceptive practices of certain pregnancy crisis centers, which often present themselves as being neutral clinics merely counseling women about all the options available to them in their pregnancy, but which really push women away from abortions and manipulate women into keeping unwanted pregnancies.
LGBT+
As a man of faith, my religion is important to me and a prominent aspect of my life. In fact, it is because I am religious, and because I have faced discrimination due to the color of my skin, that I am against the idea of people using their religion as an excuse to be bigoted, disguising intolerance as religious freedom. I believe it is critical that we continue to fight to protect our first amendment rights, and I believe our community should be a safe, inclusive place for everyone.
In 2019, I voted in favor of HB19-1039, a bill to help make it much easier for transgender individuals get new birth certificates and other state documents which correctly reflect the person’s gender identity.
Also in 2019, I voted in favor of HB19-1192, a bill adding matters relating to American minorities in the teaching of social contributions in civil government in public schools, including the history, culture, and social contributions of American Indians, Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Americans, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, the contributions and persecution of religious minorities, and the intersectionality of significant social and cultural features within these communities.
In 2020, I voted in favor of SB20-221, a bill banning the use of “gay panic” or “transgender panic” defenses in criminal cases. And in 2021, I voted in favor of HB21-1108, a bill updating the protections against gender-based discrimination to clarify the individuals who are included in a protected class, adds the terms “gender expression” and “gender identity” to statutes prohibiting discrimination against members of a protected class.
FIREARM SAFETY
Some guns have a place in American life, for hunting, sport, and home defense. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. When rights are abused, though, that’s a problem. I believe military-style weapons have no place in civilian hands or in our communities, and keeping deadly weapons out of the hands of dangerous people should always be a high priority. This is why I’ve supported bills to close background check loopholes and expand background check requirements, and why I’ve also supported bills requiring waiting periods, because “in the heat of the moment” is not when anyone should be given a gun.
No single law or program will ever eliminate all dangers or threats of violence. We know this. We cannot legislate away evil. But since I started serving in the state legislature in 2013, we’ve passed laws banning the sale and use of high-capacity magazines, giving local governments the power to ban assault rifles and other deadly weapons, enacting a red flag warning law, requiring lost or stolen guns must be reported to law enforcement in a timely manner, and requiring the safe storage of guns in houses where children are present.
We can always do more, of course, such as banning assault weapons statewide, and raising the age requirement for buying guns and ammunition.
ELECTION SECURITY
Colorado has one of the best election systems in the country. People must have a valid ID to register to vote, and you can register to vote online and even on election day itself. When you’re registered, your ballot is mailed to you weeks before election day, so you have time to research the candidates and issues. You can return your ballot by mail, or by ballot drop boxes, or by going to the county clerk’s office. Or, if you don’t want to vote by mail, you can vote in person, weeks before the election or on election day itself. Our system is good, secure, and accurate.
Still, there are ways we can improve. We can increase the number of polling locations and drop boxes. And we can print ballots in other languages, such as Spanish.