Denver, CO

Colorado State House District 16 candidate Q&A

Published

1 year ago

October 11, 2024

Press Room

Colorado State House District 16 candidate Q&A

Go to: Candidate Q&A home page • Denver Post Voter Guide

Rebecca Keltie Rep

Residence: Colorado Springs
Profession: Engineer
Education: Military and civilian degrees
Experience: My experience includes 21 years in the military, working with foreign leaders, government agencies and private sector business leaders.
Campaign website

What are your top three priorities, if elected?
– Education and parental rights
– Veteran and senior issues and programs
– Protecting business rights and smart development

Recent polling has shown trust in government hovering at historically low levels and stark partisan divides in views of election integrity. What will you do to bridge those gaps?
Offering mutual respect and having effective conversations without emotions. Election integrity is of utmost importance. It should be treated with the same level of security as our military.

What specific actions would you support to improve affordability for Coloradans, whether aimed at housing costs, tax burdens or other impacts?
Lowering taxes and fees is where we need to start. Cutting unnecessary spending and plugging leaks is next. When we are in times like we are in, pulling back and tightening the purse strings isn’t just needed, it’s of utmost importance. In addition, I would like Colorado join other states in removing taxes for our seniors on Social Security.

What should the legislature do when it comes to addressing greenhouse gas emissions and regulating oil and gas development?
Having worked in atmospheric sciences for nearly two decades, I know where the issues are and are not when it comes to climate challenges.
There’s nothing better than a “monster” under the bed to motivate people to loosen their wallets to get rid of it. Most of Colorado’s current legislators are unqualified to make such decisions. This is where experts must be brought in with realistic facts and reliable data without emotions or agendas. Until that happens, nothing should be done legislatively other than picking up our trash and cleaning up our local surroundings.

Whether your party is in the majority or minority next year, where do you see actionable common ground with the opposing party?
I believe once we put emotions aside there are more things we agree on than not. Let’s start there. With the new leadership elected this term I am hoping better conversations will be had with more open minds with the voices of the people of Colorado heard and honored.

Steph Vigil (i) Dem

Residence: Colorado Springs
Profession: Independent contractor
Education: Some college
Experience: Service industry, independent contractor
Campaign website

What are your top three priorities, if elected?
Housing and transportation: Colorado needs housing for every budget and transportation for every lifestyle to ensure a good quality of life for all, a more vibrant economy, and a healthy, sustainable environment.

Worker empowerment: the way we work is changing, and we need new tools and protections to ensure that the future of work serves all Coloradans.

Civil rights: we’ve seen an increasingly hostile far right movement that’s already tried to overthrow an election and is undoing decades of progress via activist SCOTUS justices. Colorado must lead by defending our core values of self-determination, free expression, and robust civic engagement.

Recent polling has shown trust in government hovering at historically low levels and stark partisan divides in views of election integrity. What will you do to bridge those gaps?
Colorado’s election system is unparalleled, and it’s unfortunate that it’s become a partisan issue after all these years of serving us so well. I strongly encourage everyone to learn how the system works, and be skeptical of anyone who sows distrust without evidence, or insists that any election they lose couldn’t have been fair; that’s someone who just doesn’t want to earn your vote. Governments get their legitimacy from the consent of the people, and therefore every candidate for public office should want to maximize participation, support our election workers, and then get out there and earn the votes.

What specific actions would you support to improve affordability for Coloradans, whether aimed at housing costs, tax burdens or other impacts?
Over the last 20 years there has been a $50 trillion transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 1%, which has dealt a terrible blow to working families. We have simultaneously suppressed housing and transportation choices with overly restrictive land use policies, and put insufficient public investment into essentials like child care, healthcare, and higher education. If you work hard at any job, you shouldn’t be too poor to live. We must free up our housing market and promote infill development, strengthen working people’s right to collectively bargain, and hold big business accountable for their excesses.

What should the legislature do when it comes to addressing greenhouse gas emissions and regulating oil and gas development?
I’m proud that Colorado is a national leader in pursuing a just and equitable transition to all-renewable energy. The dust is still settling on the big agreement with oil and gas to pay extraction fees, but it’s promising to have dedicated funds for reducing emissions from transportation and buildings, and furthering our conservation efforts. Importantly, environmental damage does not hurt everyone equally: Black, indigenous, and other communities of color historically get hit with the worst air quality problems and other environmental hazards, and we must center those communities’ needs and voices as we move into a clean, renewable energy future.

Whether your party is in the majority or minority next year, where do you see actionable common ground with the opposing party?
I’ve observed a couple of such policy areas. One is preserving and protecting our beautiful state, and taking care of the great outdoors, even if we disagree on how exactly to go about it. Another area of common interest is having reliable and efficient public services. This is why I passed a bill to raise the bar on county coroner qualifications, for instance. There are a variety of opinions on what all should be public, but we do tend to agree that the public services we have should simply work, and deliver effective outcomes for residents whenever the need arises.

How candidate order was determined: A lot drawing was held at the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office on Aug. 7, 2024, to determine the general election ballot order for major and minor party candidates for U.S. House, State Board of Education, CU Regent, State Senate, State House, and District Attorney races. Colorado law (1-5-404, C.R.S.) requires that candidates are ordered on the ballot in three tiers: major party candidates followed by minor party candidates followed by unaffiliated candidates. Within each tier, the candidates are ordered by a lot drawing with the exception of the President and Vice President race, which is ordered by the last name of the presidential candidate. Questionnaires were not sent to write-in candidates.

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Originally Published: October 11, 2024 at 12:01 a.m.

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Denver, CO

Denver mayor agrees to restore some funding to city clerk’s office, but casts doubt on election concerns

Published

40 minutes ago

October 21, 2025

Press Room

Denver mayor agrees to restore some funding to city clerk’s office, but casts doubt on election concerns

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration agreed to restore some funding for the Office of the Clerk and Recorder, but called malarkey on Clerk Paul López’s claim that election integrity was in danger for the 2026 midterms.

After Johnston proposed cutting his budget by $210,000, López last month blasted the mayor, saying he would have to close eight ballot drop boxes and a polling center for the 2026 election as a result.

But in his letter to the City Council on Monday, Johnston wrote that “little evidence” had been presented to support the argument that the clerk’s funding request was necessary or that services would need to be “meaningfully reduced” under the proposed budget.

“Providing millions in new funding to the clerk when every other department is making cuts would result in even steeper cuts to other programs and personnel,” he wrote.

The budget proposed for the clerk in 2026 would have marked a reduction of nearly $4.5 million, or 24%, from the 2024 budget, when there was a presidential election. But the proposed amount was also 3% higher than the clerk’s budget was in 2022, the year of the last midterm election.

In his letter Monday, Johnston said he would add $800,000 to the clerk’s office budget.

López said he had provided proof of increasing costs and that the latest proposal was still $2.7 million short of what his office needs.

“Even after our own cuts, the shortage proposed by the mayor will harm Denver voters and undermine turnout in the 2026 primary and general midterm elections,” he said Monday.

López asked the City Council to amend the 2026 budget to add $2.7 million to his office’s spending plan.

The quarrel between elected officials comes as Denver is facing a bleak budget outlook for 2026. The city is expected to bring in $200 million less in revenue than originally anticipated. Already, Johnston’s office has imposed layoffs, a hiring freeze and service changes to help make up for that shortfall.

The mayor, whose office has wide latitude to write the city’s spending plan, proposed his 2026 budget — with $77 million in contract and service cuts — on Sept. 16. The City Council then voted to recommend 16 changes, amounting to $18.7 million more in spending, on Oct. 10.

Johnston ultimately addressed 11 of the council’s recommendations and added $4 million in additional spending.

Those extra dollars will come from interest earned on federal grant dollars awarded through the American Rescue Plan Act, Johnston wrote. He noted that funding is a one-time infusion that won’t be available next year.

Here are some of the other recommendations the mayor’s office accepted:

Johnston agreed to add $2.9 million to the Temporary Rental and Utility Assistance Program, bringing it to $15.1 million in spending for 2026. The council had asked him to add $7 million. The mayor’s office will also add $2 million for this year’s budget, bringing 2025 funding for the program to $16 million.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure will create a new system for residents to appeal parking citations without having to attend court. Johnston’s proposal originally abolished the city’s parking magistrates, eliminating any non-court options for residents who want to appeal their ticket. There is no new cost associated with this item.
Johnston’s team agreed to add the full $125,000 that council requested to the Denver Immigrant Legal Services Fund. That brings the budget for those services to $750,000 in 2026.
The mayor’s office will restore $120,000 to the Auditor’s Office budget. The council requested the restoration of nearly $500,000.
Mayoral appointees will be moved under the mayor’s office budget rather than being spread out among various departments. This change has no cost.

City Council president Amanda Sandoval said she received the letter and was “eager to review the details” with the rest of council.

“I’m encouraged that he agreed with some of City Council’s recommendations to the 2026 budget,” she said in a written statement. “This demonstrates the strength of our collective leadership and our shared commitment to serving Denver residents responsibly and equitably.”

Johnston said several council requests couldn’t be addressed without making further cuts elsewhere. Among those items were requests to restore $500,000 in funding for the city’s Support Team Assisted Response, or STAR program, which deploys behavioral health clinicians to people in distress. Johnston said that if the council is willing to consider a 5% budget reduction to their own budget, that savings could be used for STAR.

Here are some of the other council requests that the mayor’s team rejected:

Johnston said the city won’t spend $500,000 for the Denver Day Works program, which helps homeless people find low-to-no-barrier work experience. He said the city’s workforce development program also assists homeless people.
He also rejected a $600,000 request for the WorkReady Denver Program, which connected immigrants with jobs during the height of the migrant crisis. The mayor also pointed to the city’s workforce development program to absorb these services.
The city won’t add $1.36 million for right-of-way enforcement, Johnston wrote. He said some right-of-way enforcement positions will be filled once the hiring freeze is lifted.

The council will have a chance to propose amendments Nov. 3 and has until Nov. 10 to approve Denver’s final budget.

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