When Colorado’s Democratic primary for governor took shape last year, party luminaries often praised the qualities of both U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser.
But as the two-man race has progressed, the praise has masked bubbling criticism about how little daylight truly exists between their respective platforms as they vie for the party’s nomination for the November election to succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. The Republican nominee will also be decided in Tuesday’s primaries.
In separate interviews, the Democrats have sought to highlight their differences — while emphasizing their approaches and experience as difference makers.
Bennet, who has served 17 years in Washington, D.C., has underscored how his experience in the public and private sectors — including as superintendent of Denver Public Schools and working on corporate mergers for billionaire Phil Anschutz — has revolved around leading change.
Weiser, who first won office as part of the 2018 blue wave election, has countered that his experience administering his office, launching programs, and designing and enforcing regulations means he’s ready-made to lead the state.
Or, as they characterized their differences:
“In general, I’d say my approach is more ambitious than his,” Bennet said.
“I’ve got broader experience and broader plans,” Weiser said.
Each candidate has also attacked the other for what he describes as vagaries in the other’s plans.
For Democratic primary voters still trying to decide which direction to go ahead of the primary, here’s how each man describes how he’d handle some of the bigger issues facing the state. Their campaign websites — philforcolorado.com and michaelbennet.com — feature reams more information on their visions for the state and how they plan to enact those visions.
Housing and affordability
Each candidate describes housing affordability as a key hurdle for the next governor — and touts his proposal as a marquee policy for his governorship.
Weiser has set a goal of 40,000 new “attainable” homes throughout the state to ease the housing crunch. He’s promised to create a chief housing officer position and institute other changes to cut red tape and speed up the development of starter homes.
He wants to lower the cost of permitting fees for starter homes compared to those for “mega mansions,” and to work with local governments to incentivize them to encourage more starter home development. Many of those fees are set at the local level, where building permits are handled.
Renter protections also win a shout-out in Weiser’s plan, through crackdowns on so-called junk fees, accountability for out-of-state investor landlords and a ban on algorithmic rent setting.
Bennet, likewise, sets a hard goal in his housing plans: that housing shouldn’t cost more than 30% of a Coloradan’s income.
“Nobody can live a middle-class life, or save, if they’re spending 40% or 50% of their income on housing,” Bennet said.
To reach that goal, Bennet has proposed streamlining the application process for state-assisted housing projects and providing state-backed financing for private housing projects. That would be done using tools like guaranteed loans and a revolving construction loan fund.
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He has also pitched working with state and local agencies to find land that can be sold below market rates to build affordable and workforce housing.
In a debate co-hosted by The Denver Post in May, both candidates said they did not support the “current path” pursued by Polis and state legislators, in which the state has overruled local governments or otherwise side-stepped local control on land use.
TABOR and state spending
Both Bennet and Weiser support reforms to the spending cap set by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which significantly affects state budgeting each year. But neither wants to touch the constitutional amendment’s requirement that voters decide on tax increases.
The 1992 change to the state constitution, among other things, limits growth in government spending to a formula based on population growth and inflation. A bipartisan coalition led a campaign to reset the cap in 2005, but it otherwise hasn’t been touched — despite multiple failed attempts led by Democrats over the last several years.
Democrats frequently blame the cap on the state’s fiscal woes, while Republicans often contend that any change to the cap would be a de facto tax increase.
Weiser goes a step further than Bennet in supporting reform and has pledged to lead the charge on reforming the spending cap.
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Weiser doesn’t have a specific goal of eliminating the cap, raising the cap or doing something else. But he’s said he’d hold a series of town hall events across the state to hear from Coloradans about what to do.
He’d then bring that proposal to the ballot box, likely in 2028.
“I’m open to all those ideas, and there’s a lot of details. And I want the public to feel a sense of buy-in, a sense of understanding — and that we can work through what’s the best proposals we can come up with together,” Weiser said.
His plans would also depend on what voters do this November. The general election ballot is set to include at least one proposal — put forward by the legislature — that would exempt education spending from the spending cap. Backers of a second proposal, which would shift to a graduated income tax, are gathering signatures now to place it on the ballot.
Both Bennet and Weiser support the education spending proposal.
Bennet did tie the state’s year-in, year-out fiscal crunch of recent years to broader problems.
“Colorado is in desperate need of a 10-year agenda,” Bennet said. “We need a strategic vision for how we’re going to address the fiscal crisis our state is facing, how we’re going to invest in the long term in our education system, how we’re going to wrestle with the projected healthcare costs that threaten to bankrupt our government.”
Education and (a green) economy
As with his housing goal, Bennet has set a clear parameter for measuring success when it comes to education and workforce development. In this case: wage growth.
He has proposed providing access to return-on-investment data for early childhood and K-12 education as well as higher education and training programs. He also wants to raise teacher pay and make it easier to become licensed. For students, Bennet envisions making sure every high school graduate is ready for post-K-12 life through improved access to college classes, a year of career preparation and summer apprenticeships.
Bennet has proposed a cap-and-invest program that would steer the state economy toward a greener future. He would enlist Colorado leaders to design and implement the program, in hopes of giving businesses “a predictable and reliable, market-based path to comply with emissions reduction requirements in an economically efficient manner.”
Money raised from the program would go to pollution reduction and clean energy technologies to help the state hit its 2050 goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Weiser wants to create a “cradle-to-career” pipeline that spans from early childhood education to job training. The education side includes promises to raise teachers’ wages and provide down payment support; to expand universal preschool and boost youth mental health services; and to create a ColoradoCorps that would help young adults enter the fields of teaching, law enforcement, nursing, counseling and firefighting.
“What I want to do is make sure we’ve got the wind at the back of everyone who is building a business, and that our state is working to make it easier for those businesses to get built … and this is a place where people want to build a future,” Weiser said.
Weiser also wants to continue Polis’ push for geothermal energy, while investing in battery storage to take advantage of solar and wind energy.
Healthcare and drugs
When it comes to improving people’s health, Weiser has laid out a goal of establishing universal access to primary care. To accomplish that, he wants to expand the state employee health plan to include teachers and school districts and, possibly, small businesses.
He would also invest in the state’s existing Colorado Option on the health insurance marketplace. For prescription drugs, Weiser said he would crack down on hidden fees charged by pharmacy benefit managers and join multistate purchasing pools to buy pharmaceuticals.
Weiser has promised to fight surprise billing, price collusion by drug companies, and corporate ownership and consolidation of medical practices.
Bennet describes his healthcare aim as creating a “Colorado Public Option,” a common shorthand for allowing people of all stripes to buy into public health insurance. On his campaign website, he describes his program as a bridge for Coloradans who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford coverage on the individual insurance marketplace.
In an interview when he unveiled the plan, Bennet set the household income limit at 200% of the federal poverty level, or $66,000 for a family of four. Medicaid now covers families making up to 138% of the federal poverty level.
Like Weiser, Bennet wants to allow other entities, including county governments and people between the ages of 25 and 35, to be able to buy into the state employee health plan. He also wants to remake Medicaid to pay providers based on the quality of care rather than the number of procedures they perform.
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