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My Front Row Seat to Unfolding Democracy: Witnessing the Birth of a Congressman or Two
I take this election day privilege to say thank you to two soon-to-be US congressmen from two different states: Manny Rutinel of Colorado and Sam Forstag of Montana.
Nov 03, 2026
It is still early enough on midterm Election Day, and I ought to be relaxed. Yet in this moment of community political organizing, some of us must acknowledge that we’ve lived long enough to have a front row seat to America’s still-unfolding version of the changing of the guard. The guard, you say. What? Well, it is finally time, even in these tumultuous moments, that we need to push through after winning today to get on with building a new, humane path forward with shared values and truths we still hold as universal and, certainly by now, self-evident.
As I’m one of the elders in the huge Boomer army of volunteers and community organizers working in and for hundreds of organizations and campaigns, I take this election day privilege to say thank you to two soon-to-be US congressmen from two different states by way of a true story. So, tag along here. It is all true, and writing this is my last chance to speak to these candidates and their voters before the polls close.
Today, I watched a transition in front of my eyes and in my heart. I’ve been blessed to work with Alex Lawson and the Social Security Works team since late spring to focus on two races. Just over a week ago, Jon “Bowzer” Bowman, 79, of ShaNaNa fame and now president of Social Security Works, made a stop in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District as one of many he made across the country to educate voters about the danger the Trumpublicans pose to seniors and those who depend on our Social Security benefits to survive. I wrote about it in a letter to the editor of the Greeley Tribune published last week.
Thank you, Manny, and Sam, for letting me see once again that “this is what democracy looks like.”
Colorado’s 8th Congressional District democratic candidate is Manny Rutinel. This morning, we had our final canvas launch outside his Thorton office, and we had three congressional Reps. (Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., CD7, Joe Neguse, D-Colo, CD2, Jason Crow, D-Colo, CD6); one US Senator, Michael Bennet (D-Colo.); our soon-to-be Governor-Elect Phil Weiser and his choice for Lieutenant Governor, Lesley Dahlkemper; and several family members making these final campaign stops. Having them all together was incredible.
One aside: Rep. Crow wins my vote for best election morning treats with the box of Winchell’s donuts he brought for us. I grabbed the biggest frosted chocolate old-fashioned donut I could grab. Yummy and delicious. Thank you to this decent man representing so many of us in Colorado with courage and grace and a deep sense of humanity. This man is Colorado. And donuts this good? Seriously? No one else had a chance when I saw him offering the open box.
Sam Forstag, from Montana’s 1st Congressional District, has been a breath of fresh air to support from a distance. Though I have not met him personally, people I care about and trust have—they liked him. Sam seems like a perfect fit for his state. He understands the issues facing his state and earned great endorsements from groups I like. Beyond being great on the issues, Sam’s lived experience shines through every discussion. Sam shares the values most Montana voters do. I loved seeing this young man blossom from afar. He is Montana. There is no one close on their ballots running for any other office who comes close to exuding the human decency, strength, and courage of Sam Forstag. Alan Minsky of Progressive Democrats of America was so proud to endorse Sam, and we all are. I feel it remotely, and I feel him growing into his power. Keep going, Sam, keep going.
Now, back to the transition I watched in person this morning in Colorado’s 8th. I brought with me a note for Etta, the young woman who was the organizing director for Manny’s congressional campaign. She is an angel and smart beyond measure. She worked so hard and never seemed to lose her focus. It takes a special person to balance all that she did for months. And Manny even looked different today. He is launching into the arena for us all, and now the magnitude of that task is beginning to settle on him. I could feel it. In the last moments I will know him as Manny, I handed him a note and a tiny notepad. I told him I used to watch a young Rep. Keith Ellison take a small notebook out of his jacket’s chest pocket and write down the names and concerns he heard when he spoke. I watched Manny put the note and notepad I brought him in his back pocket to read later. I felt a sigh of relief and sorrow too.
Thank you, Manny, and Sam, for letting me see once again that “this is what democracy looks like.” With tears filled with pride and anticipatory relief, thank you for paying attention to the Constitution and stepping up. Hang on to your essence. Worry more about setting up your field offices in your districts than your DC office (you are not going to get a good one anyway). We former Girl Scouts used to sing a song, “Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver, and the other gold.”
I know I have been a witness to history today. Democracy is like that.
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Your Town or City Can Be the Next to Pass a Data Center Moratorium!
Congress and the federal government have so far refused to meaningfully regulate the data centers cropping up across the country. So for now, state and local measures like the five-year moratorium passed in Lochbuie, Colorado represent the best tool to protect our communities.
Oct 25, 2026
I’m the Mayor of Lochbuie, Colorado, and my residents are worried about our water supply. So we passed a five-year moratorium on AI data centers. Your town can, too.
Like many other parts of the country, our state is facing a serious water-supply problem. Colorado’s water supply depends heavily on mountain snowpack, and our Colorado River system has been overburdened for years. This problem is exacerbated by reduced reservoir levels, population growth, and irrigation-intensive agriculture.
At the same time, climate change has led to record heat and droughts.
Our small town reflects communities across the country. According to a recent Gallup poll, over 70% of Americans oppose data centers in their local areas.
A single large-scale data center, depending on location and available resources, can use as much water as our entire town uses. Meanwhile data center energy use makes climate change worse, further endangering our shared future. Data center emissions are projected to skyrocket by 2035.
Water is a finite resource and can’t always replenish fast enough to meet growing demand. We don’t want hyperscale data centers coming into our town and overburdening our already stressed water resources—and polluting our air and groundwater while they’re at it.
Big data centers claim they bring jobs to communities. A closer look shows how flimsy these claims are. In reality, data centers create very few permanent jobs. Most data center jobs are temporary construction jobs, and most of those don’t go to local community members.
“I do want to see businesses in our community that create jobs, but I don’t see how a data center does that when it takes up so much land and produces so few jobs,” Shannon Donnelly, one of my constituents, told me. “We need a clear, evidence-based understanding of the costs and benefits before we make such big decisions that impact people’s lives.”
Shannon is not alone. I heard many comments like these at our town board meetings about water use, noise, and other pollution from data centers.
So I wrote up a proposal for a moratorium on AI data centers in Lochbuie. The ensuing public meeting drew more attendees than I had ever seen. They overwhelmingly supported a moratorium, and it passed easily.
What happened next reflects another troubling reality about how data centers are encroaching on unwilling communities: Brighton, which borders Lochbuie, announced a proposal for a data center there. A town boundary would not protect our water, air, animals, or residents.
“We’ll see the lights and hear the noise,” constituent Desirae Zima told me. “We’ll have to live with the traffic, the infrastructure demands, the industrial equipment, and the potential impacts to water and electricity resources. We will be the neighbors dealing with the impacts to our quality of life.”
Fortunately, opposition from Brighton residents was strong enough that the developer withdrew its application for the proposed data center and the city council voted to advance a one-year moratorium on any such construction. It awaits final approval.
Our small town reflects communities across the country. According to a recent Gallup poll, over 70% of Americans oppose data centers in their local areas. Nearly 500 cities, towns, and counties nationwide have enacted or are considering moratoria on data centers.
Congress and the federal government have so far refused to meaningfully regulate the data centers cropping up across the country. So for now, state and local measures like these represent the best tool to protect our communities.
Artificial Intelligence has not yet surpassed good old-fashioned human common sense.
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A Constitutional Right For The Fossil Fuel Industry? Defeat Colorado's Amendment 82!
Something unprecedented is happening in Colorado: A dark money group is working to change the state Constitution to recognize a legal right to buy and sell natural gas.
Oct 15, 2026
This November, the Colorado voters will decide on a ballot initiative called Amendment 82. Despite its anodyne name, this initiative would radically change state policy for the worse. Amendment 82 would enshrine into the state Constitution the enforceable and perpetual right to buy and sell natural gas in Colorado, representing the wholesale capture of a state constitution by one industry.
The initiative is backed by Advance Colorado, a dark money group, backed by anonymous donors, that seeks to manipulate Colorado’s ballot initiatives to advance corporate and billionaire interests.
Amendment 82 is one such effort, and it’s breathtaking in its audacity. No other state carves out such special treatment for a single industry in its constitution. No other state constitution intervenes so forcefully to grant an industry the perpetual right to sell its products in order to make a profit. It would be the first time that US voters in any state enshrined such a blatant giveaway to an industry into its constitution.
If the industry succeeds with their effort in Colorado, they will not stop there—other states will clearly become targets for the next constitutional giveaway to the industry.
Amendment 82 invents a solution to a problem that simply does not exist. Buying and selling natural gas remains legal in Colorado—and is something that a majority of Coloradans do every day. Nothing on the horizon seeks to change that.
What Amendment 82 will do, however, is make sensible, reasonable, and necessary regulation protecting our air, water, and environment from the impacts of this industry nearly impossible.
Efforts to stop gas companies from fracking near homes and schools are at risk of being rolled back, because the industry will argue these rules infringe on their right to sell natural gas.
Regulations to limit the amount of toxins that the oil and gas industry can dump into a community’s air and water become impotent for fear that enforcement will infringe on the right to sell natural gas.
A town’s ordinance that regulates the use of methane camp stoves in times of high fire risk could now be overturned because it arguably infringes on the right to buy natural gas.
Amendment 82 will lock into Colorado’s constitution the ability of oil and gas industries to increase their profits at the expense of the health and safety of Colorado’s people. It gives the industry the right—affirmative and enforceable—to force communities to accept the dangers, risks, and pollution that come with oil and gas infrastructure.
Moreover, the deceptively simple language of Amendment 82 gives these special interests a powerful new tool to block common-sense environmental regulations—far beyond the scope of the oil and gas industry.
If passed, Amendment 82 will lock in fossil fuel extraction as official state policy, and quickly overwhelm pro-environment laws, regulations, policies, programs, innovation, and decision-making in Colorado. It will pose a credible—and likely successful—challenge to any government action that seeks to regulate or limit natural gas extraction, transportation, or pollution outputs, and to any government efforts that seek to reduce the state’s dependence on fossil fuels by advancing clean energy policies and projects.
Amendment 82 is a crisis moment for Colorado’s communities, environment, and the future generations who will be burdened by its impact. But it should also be a wake-up call for the rest of us. If the industry succeeds with their effort in Colorado, they will not stop there—other states will clearly become targets for the next constitutional giveaway to the industry.
Constitutions in the US belong to We the People, not corporations. We give these constitutions—both state and federal—power because they are the means by which we protect ourselves and our inalienable rights from powerful special interests that seek to infringe upon them.
Efforts like Amendment 82 seek to misappropriate that power and give industry titans new ways to infringe on the basic and essential rights of everyday people in the name of profit and exploitation. It cannot be allowed to succeed.
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Isn’t a Fascist Scarier Than a Vegan?
Local Colorado media should focus on how congressional candidates will improve people's lives now, not what they believed in college or their preferred diets.
Sep 16, 2026
We all had a lot to remember last week. The 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks seemed even more desperate and frightening in retrospect than perhaps they were on that day. We watched in horror all over again. Then sprinkled in between the remembrances of that terrible day were political commercials. And we voters in races across the country are being pushed to forget what our congressional representatives have done or not done for us in the last two or even four years. Then there was the promise from the current occupant of the White House that if we just retained Trumpublican control of Congress by voting as if President Donald Trump himself were on the ballot, then each of us would get a cool $5,000 in cash. How is that for a gotcha week?
In Colorado’s 8th Congressional District (CD8), we have a particularly perplexing race going on in which Trump groupie Rep. Gabe Evans is running against young Democratic state legislator Manny Rutinel. Both men appear in their commercials to be trying to appeal to a younger voter demographic. Perhaps on some of the deeper social media sites that we older voters don't visit as often both candidates may offer policy solutions that actually address the problems in a district that includes urban and rural areas.
Part of Colorado’s CD8 once even tried to organize to secede from the state because some voters felt as if their areas weren't quite Trumpy enough. Fortunately, for both candidates and for the residents of CD8, that secession effort failed. Yet, this district that was envisioned and created at least in part to help assure there would be better Latino representation from Colorado to the US House of Representatives has had some of the closest races since its creation, and this midterm election promises that same level of competition. The urban voters will more likely vote for Rutinel while the rural voters will likely cast their vote for Evans. Whoever wins this race will be the candidate who peels off the most significant number of votes from his opponent’s stronghold areas. So, Manny needs some of those rural voters to lean his way; Gabe needs more urban votes.
I just want to know what they're going to do to help, what they're going to do to stop the mess, and what they're going to do to help all constituents.
It distresses me as a voter that both candidates declined to meet in televised debates on a popular local news outlet, and yet the former journalist in me understands why the candidates would decline that debate moderated by perhaps our most watched local political newscaster. I'd challenge anyone in the state to know quite as much about us as Kyle Clark from 9News, our NBC affiliate. So here I am telling you I understand why Manny would not want to stand in front of Clark yet again. Manny was flat-footed when I watched him debate during the primary, and Kyle asked about his positions when he was in college on healthcare, on the environment, and even on his chosen dietary path. Manny's positions at that time are a little more (or a lot more in some cases) progressive than he wants himself to be viewed as in this race. Clark might even have him leaning towards the word socialist that 9News loves to put front and center (as does The Denver Post). I point this out because the national media is leaning into this as well—this drilling down to socialist or democratic socialist before saying the name of the candidate tells me that the corporate owners and advertisers are still at work too. Even this journalist I so respect wants to make sure everybody understands that socialism is on the rise and that progressivism is essentially another word for that scary stuff called socialism. All of that is a bunch of hooey.
What we see happening in CD1 in Colorado—where Melot Kiros defeated long-time incumbent Democrat Diana DeGette in the democratic primary in June—and in districts all over the country is a surge by voters in changing the generational layers in our government, and with younger leaders comes a changing of viewpoints about what it means to live in a society with one another. Young people in Colorado and throughout the nation supported and voted in huge numbers for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his 2016 Democratic presidential primary bid and again in 2020. So did an awful lot of Boomers. Those young people carried with them much of the passion of that process and charge to get involved at every level—and so they are. Some are loyal Bernie-crats, and some are not.
I am concerned about the televised town hall (same affiliate) that's coming up in Greeley, in CD8, that will be moderated by Kyle Clark (and I would bet by his colleague Marshall Zelinger). I worry about the impartiality issues already breached between Clark and Rutinel. I say that with a deep respect for all journalists who work on election coverage—and in Denver, I am beyond grateful for the incredible work that Kyle, Marshall, and the whole 9News team has done to bring us information about our elections. Bravo.
And yet, Clark can be like a dog on a bone on an issue that to many of us seems irrelevant at this moment in history—and so he has been with Manny Rutinel, in my opinion. In some level of fairness, I have not seen Clark interview Gabe Evans very much. Commercials are not telling us much either. Do I really want to know how many people in Washington comment on Gabe’s boots? Gabe’s post Labor Day commercial just makes me want to gag. And I really loved the one (not) when a police officer told us to worry that Manny was a vegan. That one made me laugh because since when do we in Colorado vilify anyone who chooses to eat a vegan lifestyle? But Manny really goofed up his response on that one, I thought.
I'm going to take myself back to when I was the age that Kyle zeroes in on as he interrogates Manny’s background and beliefs, and I take myself back and think about what I thought was going to happen in 1972 or 73 when I was watching the Nixon garbage unfold with babes in my arms. I was raised in a Republican household, and I was a young person finally seeing someone held accountable for what they did. Nixon, my goodness, his crimes look like a spit in the ocean, as the saying goes, compared with what we've seen Trump and the Trumpublicans do together. That's what I want Kyle Clark to drill down on. That is what I want. To find out about policy—that is what I want to hear from my representatives. How will you as my representative stop the broken promises? And how will you recognize what happens when people don't have enough to eat or they don't have enough money for the rent? How about when they don't have enough money to send their kids to the best schools or when their skin isn't the right color? That's what I want my journalists to drill down on. How are you going to stop the cruelty unfolding around us all?
Just the other night, Kyle expressed his need to be straightforward in the face of a growing move toward fascism. It is time for a different kind of discussion among us. And I agree with Kyle, so why the heck do we care about prolonged discussions of college-level sorting through directions and beliefs? I do not think most voters care unless you rile them up to care about that. Could Manny say that he believes people have a right to healthcare? Of course he could. And there is no healthcare provider in CD8 in Colorado who wouldn't agree with that—imagine the health business activity. Instead of closing hospitals, we would be filling them with the people who need the care they have been delaying or not getting for years.
We are darned close to a constitutional crisis, if we are not in one already, and I quite honestly do not care about whatever was back in anybody’s youth unless crimes were committed. I do care that Gabe Evans has voted for the Trump agenda almost entirely and has never given a thought to protecting his constituents. He called those who lost Medicaid coverage “cost savings” after he voted enthusiastically for the Big, Beautiful Bill, HR1.
Local journalists, especially Kyle Clark and team, I love that you're speaking out and saying we have a problem moving toward fascism. I agree. Now please, please, if you believe that talk about the detention centers and the deplorable, unhealthy conditions inside them, talk about the things that are happening around us now. Talk about our food supplies not being inspected adequately and bacteria spreading in ways it never has before. Talk about the fact that people have lost their Medicaid benefits and can't get care for their disabled loved ones or their elderly loved ones. Talk about the cost of groceries, the cost of gasoline, and the damage to your lives during a time when Trump is playing the oil markets like a fiddle. Talk about the grift and ask them how we deal with it and then how do we make things better for all of us together. I don't want anybody to suffer for healthcare either, that's not what this is all about. I just want to know what they're going to do to help, what they're going to do to stop the mess, and what they're going to do to help all constituents.
Let's find out where the meat is on this bone or if there tofu in the bowl. CNN just reported that Latino voters are losing faith in Trump in CD8, and that’s telling. Now, will our local journalists continue to look backwards, or will they help us have what we need to know about what the heck is going on in CD8 in Colorado? Voting will start soon, and information is vital. Let’s get going on saving this democracy before it’s too late, and that requires a free press that does its job even more intently.
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Is Leading With Respect and Decency Outdated? Colorado’s Manny Rutinel Says, 'No!'
Manny Rutinel, a young man who lives his values and upbringing, is set to help restore programs and benefits he knows his often-unseen constituents have lost under Trumpublican Rep. Gabe Evans’ tenure in Congress.
Aug 05, 2026
It was really hot in Colorado this weekend. Doing political work outdoors seemed nearly impossible, yet we gathered in Brighton, deep into Colorado’s 8th Congressional District to canvas for Manny Rutinel.
Manny won the Democratic primary and is set to unseat Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) in November. After spending just a little time more directly with Manny, his staff, and volunteers, I recognized something in him that could be called an intangible—respect for every person he spoke to, yet most especially for we elders gathered in the heat.
Respect for others cannot be faked nor can disdain. Many politicians and candidates are pushing away from people at gatherings to find more “important” faces in the crowd or bigger donors to court. Manny did not do that to me or any of the other people around him—he made direct eye contact and leaned in to hear me as I offered my ever-ready counsel on healthcare policy and messaging. That alone was remarkable in this vibrant, intensely caring, courageous young candidate—yet I was mystified in thinking about Manny Rutinel, a young man who lives his values and upbringing, helping restore programs and benefits he knows his often-unseen constituents have lost under Trumpublican Rep. Gabe Evans’ tenure in Congress.
It’s like a huge political wind is blowing here in Colorado, and that wind is clearing away the wreckage of inaction, Trumpublican loyalty, and stagnation that has allowed the House of Representatives to fail in its constitutional role. Manny Rutinel rides on the winds of change with intention. Rutinel’s intention seems clear enough—Manny will represent the people of his district. He isn’t torn by corporate loyalties or hidden agendas.
This weekend, I watched Manny show deference to elders, willingness to make space for other candidates to shine, and a sense of humor that will help us all connect as we struggle to protect this grand experiment of democracy.
One of the people I look to for close knowledge of candidates mentioned early on that he thought Manny rested too much of his success in his looks—and yes, Manny is a nice looking young man. Yet, I have not seen one example in which he expected his looks to carry the day. Women have lived with that sort of judgement for a long time—our stereotypical view is you must be good looking, but if you are, you must not be intelligent. Well, Manny even laughed when I shared that observation with him. He is Yale educated, and I think that takes some real dedication and smarts, and the ability to stand up to wealthy and intellectual snobs in ways we cannot imagine. Yet that isn’t what I felt or even the words I’ll remember from when we spoke. For me to come away with the feeling that I was in the presence of unfolding political greatness was something I hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Manny Rutinel, on a hot Saturday morning in August 2026, stands ready to not only lead, but to do so with respect, decency, and courage.
I can hear it now. How could you know anything of the kind about a candidate from a few brief hellos and one longer conversation? It’s not without comparisons to people I have been lucky enough to know along the way—those who truly helped and those who took their elected offices seriously. In Manny Rutinel, I see the same kinds of qualities I have seen as other candidates advanced in political work. Tom Daschle, Tim Wirth, Elizabeth Warren, and many others (yes, because I knew them when they were younger and less well known) became leaders and never stopped being decent, kind, courageous, and respectful—even to little-known me. Each of those people lifted me and so many others as they moved through and sometimes out of our political system that is at times more like a circus. Watching how a young candidate for office moves through a crowd or interacts with volunteers is instructive, but how that person moves to better the lives of those they represent must flow from a deeper drive, a deeper trust that we all deserve to be heard and we all deserve intelligent, courageous representation. Manny Rutinel will provide that and more. It is as plain as day when he mingles that he understands the task at hand—win the seat back from Trumpublican Gabe Evans and truly represent the people in CD8—all of them.
Policies? Is Manny ready to support all the “stuff” I support? Nope. Manny isn’t nearly as progressive as the young Dem primary winner, Melot Kiros, from Colorado's 1st Congressional District. She defeated long-time incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) with a breathtaking ground game. Manny Rutinel will need that and more to win. But he’ll have it from what I have seen so far, and he will have that campaign strength because he leads with respect, kindness, and an unwavering love for the people of Colorado's 8th District. Imagine, political power growing from that source.
This weekend, I watched Manny show deference to elders, willingness to make space for other candidates to shine, and a sense of humor that will help us all connect as we struggle to protect this grand experiment of democracy. It’s those intangible qualities in his character that will surely make him a fine congressman. We ought all look forward to our Congress, especially the (People’s) House of Representatives, better reflecting our values instead of greed and ultra loyalty to Trumpublican shenanigans.
Of the people, by the people, for the people, let’s “Give Gabe the Boot!”
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How Gabe Evans Helped GOP Slash Into Working Class Lives With Cruel Medicaid Cuts
"Let's Give Gabe the Boot!"
Jul 18, 2026
On behalf of those Colorado Congressional District 8 constituents who rely on Medicaid benefits to access healthcare, your neighbors who are part of the Mountain West team for Social Security Works want to help you give Trumpublican (trum-pub-li-kin) Rep. Gabe Evans the boot. Gabe voted for your benefits to be slashed because of his deep devotion to his own well-being, not yours. Gabe thinks cutting your access to healthcare is “cost cutting,” or so he claims as his reasoning behind voting for what his boss, Donald Trump, required his Trumpublican minions to do. Gabe chose your suffering to appease people in DC, and he did not give a second (or even first) thought to what might happen if he cut healthcare access for as much as 28% of his constituents (and up to 43% of the children in CD8) who depend on Medicaid. We must give Gabe Evans the boot this fall.
Gabe is not a true representative who ought to find his glory in the US House of Representatives (aka the People’s House). “We could write shame on you, Gabe,” but we don’t think a person who sees his constituents lose healthcare access and calls it cost cutting can be easily shamed. Do you? While the people in CD8 in Colorado barely elected Gabe in 2024, now they have a much more accurate sense of his loyalties.
Let’s look at what Gabe says about himself on his campaign webpage: “Congressman Gabe Evans is a conservative leader who has spent his entire life running toward challenge. He represents Colorado's 8th Congressional District, where he is fighting to secure the border, strengthen public safety, and make life more affordable for hardworking Coloradans.”
Is he writing about the Utah border or maybe that scary Four Corners part of Colorado where folks from all sorts of other states might creep in, or is he referring to The Southern Border way south of Colorado (between Texas and Mexico) that his boss, Trump, wants him to highlight as very, very dangerous to the people of his own district? So, this, then, was one of the things that was his reasoning for cutting Medicaid benefits? To have enough funds to protect CD8 from the scary border and the scary people who might come to CD8 from the scary border, Gabe cut healthcare access.
Gabe needs to get the boot. Those of us fighting to protect the social safety net not only for future generations but for our own neighbors, friends, and families right now are a much larger group than those who would harm us. The Mountain West Team of Social Security Works invites you to learn more about CD8 in Colorado.
So, who can we vote for as a smart alternative to the cruelty and misguided loyalty Gabe offers CD8? Manny Rutinel is the Democratic candidate for the CD8 seat. Manny could use strategists who know and share the outrage of his future constituents about the healthcare mess this nation is in, and it’s way past time for him to advance a sane and clear healthcare message. During a recent primary election debate televised throughout the Front Range of Colorado, Manny stumbled a bit on his healthcare policy ideals, like many politicians do when they fear attacks from the powerful health industry. Yet even in that debate, Manny did not say cutting healthcare access would be his plan.
Manny Rutinel is a young Colorado state legislator raised by a single-immigrant mom who has all the appropriate tools for success in politics. Yet he responded inelegantly to a debate question about his previous position during his college years in support of single-payer, Medicare for All financing for healthcare. Most of us can point to our college-aged opinions and ideas as subject to modification as we aged and as we gather more information upon which to base those positions. It’s not selling out; it’s maturing. Manny believes in access to healthcare—period.
Offending or alarming any healthcare industry interests in his district could spell disaster for him, and Manny knew that. I waited for him to formulate an answer like President Barack Obama once said about single-payer. Obama said that if we were starting from scratch, there is no question that single-payer (not government control of healthcare – just one public pool for insuring everyone) would be the best system to design.
But we are well beyond that, Manny might have said. He needed to clarify and broaden his position – but instead he panicked and denied any lingering support for single-payer, and that will haunt him until he clarifies his intentions to truly represent his district. We know he will represent people in CD8, and he is not a Trumpublican. Manny intends to fight not only to restore lost Medicaid funding but also look to a better, more equitable and less volatile healthcare system going forward, and he looks forward to a rich conversation with the healthcare industry leaders, doctors, nurses, caregivers, and patients in CD8.
Might a CD8 community of healthcare interests support a form of single-payer like Medicaid or Medicare or the VA with modifications and improvements? Sure, and might it be something we haven’t even mapped out yet? Of course it could. Even in nations around the world with universal health programs for their residents, healthcare programs vary greatly—but Manny supports making sure everyone can access healthcare when they are in need, and he should say that every chance he gets. There is still time, and Manny will win on this issue by a margin at least equal to the number of people Gabe decided could be sacrificed to the Trumpublican alter—and that will be a marvelous win.
So, in this piece, I want my Common Dreams readers to meet Manny and offer him support, courage and stamina to follow a courageous path upon which so many lives depend. In this political moment, we all understand the enemy. Now we need to surround one another with grace and courage as we lift imperfect Americans, imperfect politicians, and imperfect humans with our effort. Lives depend on it. Our democracy does too. So, let’s “Give Gabe the Boot.”
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Employee at ICE Detention Center Run by Private Prison Company Shot Protester
GEO Group employee Brandon Booth faces attempted murder and assault charges for shooting a woman who sustained non-life-threatening injuries in Colorado.
Jul 17, 2026
Police in Aurora, Colorado on Friday announced that they had arrested an employee of a local US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center after he allegedly shot a woman protesting at the facility.
The Aurora Police Department said in a social media post that its officers on Thursday night responded to a report of a shooting and subsequently found two women on the scene, one of whom had been shot in her lower body.
Officers would soon after detain 42-year-old Brandon Booth, an employee of private prison firm The GEO Group, after pulling over his vehicle near the site of the shooting and finding a firearm in his possession.
The police found that, before the shooting, the two women were taking part in a protest at the Aurora ICE Processing Center where Booth works.
After the two women "initiated a verbal confrontation and took pictures of the employees’ vehicles before walking away," police said, "Booth retrieved his personally owned pistol and fired a single shot in their direction, striking one of the women on her lower body" before getting into his vehicle and fleeing the scene.
After Booth was taken into custody, he was charged attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, attempted first-degree assault, felony menacing, and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon.
Booth's alleged victim was transported to a hospital where she was treated for her wounds, which police said "are believed to be non-life-threatening."
The GEO Group told local news station Fox 31 that Booth "has been placed on unpaid administrative leave," while vowing to "fully cooperate with law enforcement."
Booth's former sister-in-law, a woman named Destiny Winter, told The Denver Post on Friday that the alleged shooter "was not a good person at all," and described an incident where he gave her a concussion by slamming her into a wall more than a decade ago.
"This is not a person who does the right thing or respects boundaries, especially of women and kids," Winter explained. "This is not a person who is willing to hold himself accountable for mistakes."
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Colorado Needs to Give Gabe Evans the Boot
An inspiring 4th of July parade in Colorado's 8th Congressional District proves that its people deserve better than Evans, who supports the Trump agenda and voted to gut the social safety net.
Jul 07, 2026
The Greeley Stampede 4th of July Parade is the largest Independence Day Parade in Colorado, and it is held deep in the soon-to-be-blue-again Congressional District 8. That is why I registered our walking unit in that parade. We wanted to make sure all the tens of thousands of people who turned out were reminded of the human and economic good our social safety net does in Colorado. It was an incredible experience fueled by love for one another and not love of Trump’s America. The 2026 Greeley Stampede Parade was the most uplifting and hopeful thing I have experienced in a long, long time. It proved to me that Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, of Colorado's 8th District, needs to get the boot in November’s general election.
Gabe Evans is currently barely representing his constituents in his diverse, incredibly beautiful district. And mostly, Evans seems to represent himself first and supports the Trump agenda. Immigrant rights? Are you kidding me? Stopping wars and the bombing President Donald Trump uses to distract everyone from those Epstein files? No, Gabe goes right along with the Trump agenda, the whole Project 2025 agenda, and mostly the me-first agenda. Greed and neglect are about to turn CD8 beautiful blue again, deep and lasting blue. And marching in this parade reaffirmed all those feelings of community and connection I know people hunger for in a post-pandemic world.
The crowd at the parade was so gorgeous. As we all saw in the stores for months, all that red, white, and blue was going to turn up somewhere. At the Greeley parade on the 4th of July, there were little tykes in adorable outfits, their older siblings in stars and stripes along with their parents and beyond. Many families had tents up for shade, and one creative group was misting their folks to stay cool. This was the sort of old-fashioned, community supported parade that once was so common in America. I saw US Navy sailors marching, local businesses, car clubs, cowboys and cowgirls, bands, floats, and people balancing on floats to see and absorb the whole moment. Life affirming community was on parade.
As we continued along the parade route, I kept thinking about how many of those beautiful people, how many at this celebration—how many of the children and how many of our disabled—will lose access to their healthcare because their Barely-Representative Gabe Evans thought voting for the Big, Beautiful Bill was cost cutting via the devastating cuts to Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and more, and has never told the truth about his lack of character and failure to represent his district. Evans knew he was hurting people with his vote, and his reality is that he did not care.
Barely-cares Evans cannot hide from his votes, and he cannot hide from his constituents.
People in his district see through his deep and abiding devotion to the cruel and community-killing, family-splitting and painful cuts to Medicaid coverage. After being a part of this parade, I know without a doubt that the people of Colorado’s CD8 are hardworking, decent, and kind people—and they will not stand for anyone destroying any part of what they are.
Evans needs to get the boot from these dear people before he does more damage by supporting huge, unnecessary cuts to Social Security when the change that needs making is to make sure billionaires pay their fair share in taxes—oh, and the almost-trillionaire too. It is ridiculous to have a representative like Barely-there Evans is this district since neighbors and friends rely on and deeply support Social Security—even the 9news announcer cheered when our unit passed by (maybe he is grateful his parents receive their earned benefits, I thought, since he was lots younger than me).
Barely-cares Evans cannot hide from his votes, and he cannot hide from his constituents. The patients, the nurses, the doctors, the healthcare techs, the housekeeping staff, the dietary crew, and all the lives impacted and damaged by his selfishness stand in stark contrast to what is alive and well in his own backyard—hardworking Colorado CD8 families and all the other residents who receive their earned benefits through Social Security and all who are lifted from despair and suffering through Medicare and Medicaid. We all showed up to celebrate 250 years as a nation. The ideal is still in sight in places like Colorado’s Congressional District 8, but only if we confirm that solidarity and give Evans the boot.
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Colorado Governor Fires Officials Who Criticized Democrat's Release of Election-Denying Clerk
"Firing people who oppose you is also a page out of Trump's playbook," said US Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Jul 02, 2026
US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal on Thursday accused Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis of conduct commonly seen from President Donald Trump's after Polis fired two members of the state clemency board, citing their decision to speak out publicly against his release of former county Clerk Tina Peters.
In 2024, Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison for tampering with voting equipment in an effort to prove the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump. The president, who faced his own legal challenges for spreading the falsehood and trying to overturn the election, issued a symbolic pardon for Peters and pressured Polis to commute her sentence, which Polis did in May, angering members of his own party and democracy advocates.
Two members of the state clemency board, Hannah Seigel Proff and Azra Taslimi, were among those who opposed Polis' decision, and they went against the board's usual custom of maintaining secrecy about its proceedings to reveal that the entire board had twice voted unanimously to reject Peters' bid for a shorter sentence, only to be overruled by the governor.
On Wednesday, Proff and Taslimi told The New York Times that they'd received dismissal letters from Polis, who told them they had "breached the required duty of confidentiality by publicly divulging board members’ votes."
Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Polis' commutation of Peters's sentence was akin to acting like the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by election-denying Trump supporters "didn't happen."
"Firing people who oppose you is also a page out of Trump's playbook," said the congresswomen.
The board members also revealed that Polis had passed over other deserving applications for parole before he allowed Peters to walk free on June 1.
"We have reviewed hundreds of applications that moved us to tears," they wrote in an op-ed at The Denver Post. "People who spent decades atoning for a single terrible decision, who attended college or seminary behind bars, completed countless programs, developed curricula for other incarcerated people, mentored young offenders, and raised thousands of dollars for victims’ rights organizations."
"Along with nine other members of the board, we have read applications supported by prosecutors who tried the case, by prison wardens who watched the transformation happen, and even by victims themselves," they continued. "And we have seen the governor fail to act or delay many of these applications."
A spokesperson for Polis told the Times that their decision to divulge the two unanimous votes against Peters' release threatened the "credibility of the board." Taslimi told 9NEWS Denver that Polis' real message in deciding to fire the two board members "is that the public doesn't have the right to know that his own advisory board told him no, twice, unanimously."
"That's not protecting the process, that's protecting himself from scrutiny," said Taslimi.
Gov. Jared Polis passed over other deserving inmates to give clemency to Tina Peters, according to two members of his clemency board who revealed Polis overruled the unanimous recommendation of his experts. Polis has now fired both of them. pic.twitter.com/N2bc8uxSc7
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) July 2, 2026
The two dismissed board members noted in their op-ed that Peters, unlike many of the people who have submitted clemency applications that have been rejected by Polis, has "expressed no contrition" for the crime she was convicted of.
"Within hours of her release, Peters appeared on a podcast and immediately resumed her attacks on the integrity of US elections," they wrote. "She repeated the debunked conspiracy theory that voting machines cheated Donald Trump out of reelection in 2020 and portrayed herself as a martyr to the effort to expose it. She called her release a miracle."
"The governor said he was moved by her admission that she made a mistake," they added. "She walked out of prison and told the world she made no mistake at all."
Proff told 9NEWS that she might regret her decision to speak out if her fellow board members were "disappointed" in her public revelations about the panel's operations.
"But I really have a feeling that the person who's upset," said Proff, "is the one that was using our board as backing for a politically unpopular and unjust decision."
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Another Blow to Democratic Establishment as Melat Kiros Unseats 30-Year Incumbent
“We won tonight, but this is also something so much bigger than this moment," said Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist.
Jul 01, 2026
Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist and first-time candidate, defeated 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette on Tuesday in Colorado's 1st Congressional District primary, the latest signal that progressive momentum and backlash against the Democratic establishment are spreading nationwide.
"We won tonight, but this is also something so much bigger than this moment," Kiros, who was fired from the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023 for speaking out in support of Palestinian rights demonstrators, told backers late Tuesday after The Associated Press called the race in her favor. "We believe that fundamental change can, and will, happen if we fight for it—if we organize, if we show no fear in standing up for what’s right. That is the message that Denver has sent to both parties, to Donald Trump, and to the entire country."
Kiros' upset win came a week after a series of progressive victories in New York congressional primaries, which sparked backlash from the party's corporate wing. Days after the New York contests, more than a dozen centrist Democrats signed an open letter declaring that "we are capitalist, not socialist," a clear rebuke of insurgent progressives.
Justice Democrats, a national progressive group that backed Kiros, said it is having its "most successful cycle to date, winning six Democratic primaries and proceeding to the top two in two California primaries." The organization recruited Darializa Avila Chevalier, who upset five-term incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in New York's 13th Congressional District last week.
"Melat and our candidates continue winning this cycle because Democratic voters are finally getting leaders acting on their demands to bring the fight to the corporations raising our prices, the war lobbies profiting off endless war and genocide, and the immigration gestapo terrorizing our communities," Alexandra Rojas, Justice Democrats' executive director, said in a statement Tuesday.
Kiros—whose platform includes Medicare for All, universal childcare, and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement—prevailed despite a last-minute torrent of super PAC spending in support of DeGette. Drop Site reported that "super PACs funded by AIPAC and major big tech donors have poured roughly $2 million behind Rep. Diana DeGette on the eve of her contentious primary."
"Across the country, voters are rejecting corporate politics and electing candidates willing to take on billionaire influence, confront the climate crisis, fight for working people, and speak with moral clarity on the defining issues of the moment," said the youth-led Sunrise Movement following Kiros' win.
Kiros will be the heavy favorite to win the general election in November, when she will face Republican Christy Peterson.
Progressives also celebrated Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser's Democratic gubernatorial primary win over US Sen. Michael Bennet, whose campaign received nearly $3 million in support from billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“This movement is what democracy looks like,” Weiser told supporters late Tuesday. “You all sent a very clear message: The future of Colorado will not be decided by out-of-state billionaires, by corporations or special interests. Colorado’s future belongs to all of us."
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