Paula Noonan

The General Assembly finished its work with a flurry, not a whimper. The Joint Budget Committee (JBC) managed to outplay Gov. Jared Polis with its final amendments to the School Finance Act. Polis is all in on “innovation” with public school money, even if innovation includes jiu-jitsu lessons for private school students. He didn’t want […]

The knock on the word “assume” is it can make an “a**” out of “(yo)u” and “me.” Let’s nevertheless assume the 2026 General Assembly addressed big problems facing the state. Let’s further assume the current governor can move on these problems by signing bills into law. Let’s additionally assume candidates running for governor should directly […]

As they say on Colorado Public Radio’s Marketplace, let’s do the numbers. April 2026 voter registrations continued a long-term Colorado trend with a large majority of new or changed voter registrations joining the unaffiliated cohort. Total registrations of Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated active voters increased from April 2025 to April 2026 by 566,731. Unaffiliated voter […]

Eight years have passed since Colorado has faced such a significant election season. Our choices now will set another eight years of our collective future. It’s temperature-taking time. The Women’s Foundation of Colorado recently completed a poll of 725 women voters on the state of their lives in our state. CapitolCommons.ai has presented a survey […]

It’s decision time in Colorado as primary election ballots hit mailboxes this week. Democrats will pick their candidates in every statewide race, and Republicans select candidates for governor and Attorney General. GOP operatives wanted to exclude unaffiliated voters from their selection, but U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer knocked down that wish. The election ends June […]

Chaos Monkey, Inc., gave a trifle $20,000 donation to Rocky Mountain Way (RMW), the independent expenditure committee (IEC) supporting U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet for Colorado governor. But why, Coloradans should ask, would a guy who has assigned his contributor name in Colorado Secretary of State (SOS) records as Chaos Monkey, Inc., who has a beach-front […]

This primary election is poorly attended. Evidence is in the numbers. About 10% of active registered voters are deciding this year’s primaries with seven days to go. If that number triples by June 30, only 30% of voters will decide who will win in November. As of June 23, 440,000 voters have delivered their ballots […]

Let’s be clear about how Colorado’s primaries arrived at these unexpected results. The most significant voting cohorts on both the Democratic and Republican sides were women from 65 to 75-plus. These senior women voters selected Phil Weiser and have given Barb Kirkmeyer a chance. They may be on the farther side of their lives, but […]

Dick Wadhams, well known GOP strategist who put Bill Owens in the governor’s mansion, will turn over in his political grave if Victor Marx wins the Republican nomination for governor. The GOP will bury its conservative principles for good if Republican voters elect Marx over state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer. A Marx win will finish any […]

To catch you up, campaign committees from this 2026 election cycle already collected and shoveled out a lot of cash: $102.64 million. That’s contributions in all forms — dollars, in kind, loans, etc. — from December 2024 to now. Total expenditures just for advertising amount to $32.94 million. More to come for the general election. […]