PROTECTING OUR FAMILIES
Colorado is the only home I have known. I believe in a safe Colorado in which our families, children, parents, and friends are free from fear on our streets, in our schools, our places of worship, our workplaces, and in our neighborhoods. Fighting crime is no place for on-the-job learning. When it comes to matters of public safety, there is no substitute for experience.

As District Attorney for nearly one million people, more than 1 in 6 Coloradans, I have led our office’s efforts to make our community safer by:

• Creating a Human Trafficking Unit comprised of an expert senior prosecutor, a specialized victim advocate, and recruiting and hiring the best HT investigator west of the Mississippi. This unit’s efforts have resulted in numerous

• Traffickers sent to prison, including the longest human trafficking sentence in American history.

• Standing up a Domestic Violence Unit to tackle some of our most challenging and impactful violent crimes.

• Expanding our Special Victims Unit to include adult Sex Assault (rape) cases, to provide more expertise to these important and challenging felonies and hold rapists accountable for their heinous crimes.

• Creating an Elder Abuse Unit to specifically target those unscrupulous crooks and uncaring abusers who seek to exploit our most vulnerable and most trusting neighbors and loved ones.

• Leading the creation of a Cold Case Unit to ensure that justice is served upon those who commit murder. The Cold Case Unit has convicted 7 murderers who otherwise were walking free on our streets.

• Establishing a Drug/Narcotics Unit to aggressively tackle the illegal marijuana black market and growing opioid epidemic.

• Vigorously enforcing all of our laws, including pursuing the death penalty in appropriate cases, such as mass murderers.

• Personally handling the most important and challenging cases in our jurisdiction.

As Attorney General, I will continue to lead the effort to:

• Eradicate the scourge of Human Trafficking and its exploitation of Colorado’s boys and girls by aggressively targeting and prosecuting those who profit from it.

• Wipe out the illegal black-market marijuana that is growing and threatening the legal and voter approved marijuana industry in our state.

• Halt the opioid epidemic, which has captured and killed so many in our state. We cannot sue our way out of this problem. We cannot arrest our way out of this problem. The long-term solution requires leadership of a multi-faceted approach, including law enforcement, health care practitioners, and our community.

• Support all of Colorado by giving our rural communities the resources they need to pursue justice in violent crime and death penalty cases,

• Champion victims’ rights under our Constitution and defend their dignity through our demanding criminal justice system.

ECONOMIC FAIRNESS
Likewise, everyone in Colorado deserves to be protected from fraud, so one of my most important roles as Attorney General will be to act as the lawyer for all of Colorado: businesses large and small, as well as, employees and consumers must have faith that their Attorney General will be a fair and impartial arbiter on their behalf.

As Attorney General, I will fight to:

• Protect consumers and Colorado businesses from fraud and the unscrupulous conduct of those who let greed overtake doing the right thing.

• Safeguard seniors and those who are at-risk from predators who exploit and take advantage of them.

• Lead a statewide effort to pursue and hold accountable those who profit from labor trafficking.

• Foster a growing, competitive, and innovative business environment through the consistent and predictable enforcement of regulations to encourage compliance with the law, not raising revenue on the backs of small businesses.

• Catch and stop those who seek to cheat the system and deprive us of our limited taxpayer resources through Medicaid and Food Stamp fraud and those who violate our anti-trust protections.

• Our growing natural resource industry and burgeoning, legal marijuana industry need easy to understand rules and regulations about how to operate in our state, from banking to environmental regulations. Our goal should be compliance, not fees and fiscal punishment that act like additional taxes on Colorado businesses.

COLORADO FIRST
I believe that Colorado is best governed by Coloradans (us) in state and local government, not government appointees and bureaucrats 1500 miles from here, regardless of who is in the Oval Office.

As Colorado’s Attorney General, I will:

• Stand up to Federal government overreach everywhere it appears, including Colorado’s voter approved marijuana legalization.

• Resist the heavy hand of a Federal government that too often tells us how we should govern ourselves, educate our children, and protect our beautiful state.

• Refuse to follow the sea-level states like California, New York, and Massachusetts in their ongoing hyper-liberal pursuit of legislation through litigation. I will not accomplish by lawsuit that which the legislature refuses to enact.

• Defend our water from the perpetually and increasingly thirsty downhill states who want to renegotiate our water compact law to Colorado’s detriment. Not on my watch.

• Encourage the Federal government to return more autonomy and authority to allow us to govern ourselves in Colorado.

RULE OF LAW
I believe there are three things we can do with our laws. We can:

• follow and enforce them,

• amend them to something we like better, or

• repeal them

We cannot ignore them or pretend they do not exist. As Attorney General, I will refuse to legislate through litigation and resist turning to the courts to judicially mandate an outcome that fails to achieve approval through our state legislature or Congress.^[21]

Consumer Protection
Consumers and good businesses thrive where there’s fair play. We must be prepared to protect our consumers when the federal government is turning its back on consumer protection, privacy, and antitrust enforcement. We need a state Attorney General who can fight for us and act as a national leader on these issues.

We can’t rely on the federal government to do this important work for us. Today, debt, predatory scams, and a lack of opportunity have undermined many people’s faith that a better future lies ahead. With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau eviscerated by President Trump, we must act together with other states to protect Coloradans from the forces that exploit the vulnerable every day.

The American Dream is personal to me—both my parents were the first in their families to go to college and were able to graduate without debt, thanks to scholarships, hard work, and public support for higher education. Those same support mechanisms should be available for everyone. That’s the American Dream and the Colorado promise.

And it’s something I’ll fight for as your Attorney General. I will:

• Protect Colorado’s consumers, especially students, who face overwhelming debt as a result of simply receiving college education. When I was dean of the University of Colorado Law School, I decreased average indebtedness of law school graduates by $16,000. I will use similar strategies — and a similar commitment to ensuring economic fairness — to decrease student indebtedness across the board. Read more about my stance on consumer protection here.

• Stand up for Coloradans harmed by the burdens of student loan debt. Under the Trump Administration, we are headed toward a resurgence of shady for-profit schools that have taken advantage of Coloradans (including veterans back from military service). This is unacceptable, and I will defend against it.

• Challenge mergers that reduce competition and harm consumers. For example, when airlines enjoyed lower fuel prices, they didn’t pass the savings on to customers. Instead, they took in record profits and handed out large executive bonuses all while charging passengers new fees.

• Work with private sector and non-profit groups to provide consumers with guidance on what products and services they can trust. This is one critical role government can play to ensure that claims made by companies can be certified. I will ensure that certification programs work effectively, making certain that consumers get what they pay for and enabling such innovative public-private partnerships.

Criminal Justice
The issue of criminal justice impacts the life of every Coloradan. It is essential for the Colorado Attorney General to prioritize the humane and just treatment of all citizens. We need a smarter and more effective criminal justice policy that keeps us safe, responds effectively to violent crimes, and serves every citizen.

We in Colorado are innovative and pride ourselves on fairness. In criminal justice policy, we have considerable room for more innovation and a system that is both tough on crime when appropriate and smart about how best to keep our communities safe. When we allow our criminal justice system to be stripped of empathy—and become divorced from humane solutions—we are not doing justice to the affected individuals or for our society. Colorado can lead the nation in reforming our criminal justice system so that it serves its intended purpose—keeping people safe—without needlessly destroying lives. Together, we can work together to make Colorado a model for our nation in criminal justice improvement.

My priorities include:

• Ensuring our first responders have access to 21st century technologies, giving them the best chance at identifying and finding criminals efficiently;

• Supporting rural law enforcement and prosecutors by directing the Attorney General’s office Major Crimes Unit to these areas;

• De-escalating crisis situations by directing our statewide law enforcement training program, the Peace Officer

• Standards and Training program (or POST), which is housed in the Attorney General’s office. This program works with officers on skills for handling difficult situations, such as those that involve people affected by mental health issues;

• Ensuring that individuals entering the criminal justice system are treated fairly and that their futures are not compromised through imprisonment, unless necessary to protect public safety;

• Supporting efforts that focus on reentry into society for those already in the criminal justice system, using the AG’s office to provide statewide leadership on re-entry coordination, as Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has done;

• Resisting the criminalization of marijuana. Read more here;

• Addressing sexual assault by creating a special Sexual Assault Assistance Unit of specialized prosecutors and investigators in the Attorney General’s office to offer their experience and expertise to district attorneys across the state on sexual assault cases;

• Combating human trafficking by creating a new, statewide team that can address these multi-jurisdictional and complex cases that target extremely vulnerable populations;

• Seeking alternatives to incarceration for those suffering from substance abuse or mental illness. This is the essence of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program that I am committed to supporting and that is being implemented in Pueblo and Alamosa, among other counties; and

• Establishing a new Elder Abuse unit in the Attorney General’s office to combat the criminal targeting of Colorado’s elder population for financial and physical exploitation.

Defending Our Democracy
Benjamin Franklin said “You have a republic, as long as you can keep it.” Today, we face an extraordinary fight to keep our republic alive. Our democracy is under attack from numerous sources, the most sinister of which is dark money. A democracy only works when citizens are educated, and elections are decided by voters who use their voices to elect representatives and make decisions — not when undisclosed special interests groups can influence elections for their own economic gain.

This election serves as a microcosm of what’s happening with dark money nationally. The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) has already invested $500,000 against me in this election, and has threatened to spend up to five million dollars total in order to secure a Republican victory. RAGA’s money comes from generally undisclosed special interest groups and large corporations— including the NRA, pharmaceutical companies, those who deny climate change, and Koch Industries. These groups do not represent the voices or interests of Colorado, and we should not allow them to influence our elections. Our government must be “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” not “of the dark money, by the dark money, and for the dark money.”

Voter suppression and unconstitutional gerrymanders also pose a significant threat to democracy. Manipulating our elections and preventing voters–often younger voters or people of color–from accessing the ballot box is unacceptable.

As Attorney General, I will:

• Fight for a law similar to Montana’s Disclose Act, which requires that political donors disclose who they are and how much they have contributed. Once Montana passed this law, dark money left the state. I am committed to working with the legislature to do the same in Colorado;

• Enforce Colorado’s current campaign finance laws. Because it is up to private citizens to bankroll investigations and file civil complaints, it’s rare for cases of dubious campaign finance law — like the 2017 Bob Beauprez case— to be held accountable. We need to do better;

• Work with other state Attorneys General and the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Citizens United ruling, which struck a heavy blow to the democratic process.

• Challenge unconstitutional gerrymanders, and work to pass and enforce a new law that would make it more difficult for lawmakers to redistrict in ways that further disenfranchise vulnerable, voiceless populations; and

• Work to enact automatic voter registration here in Colorado and oppose measures that would undermine our access to the ballot.

Economic Fairness
We need to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. A strong, 21st century economy is essential to Colorado’s future successes. When powered by competition, the US economy is at its best, providing innovative products at low prices for consumers, good-paying jobs for workers, and opportunities for entrepreneurs to create new and exciting businesses.

It’s essential that we stand up against the troubling wave of mergers and industry consolidation that have led to higher prices and lower quality offerings in many sectors. Consumers are facing price-fixing at the hands of companies who do not participate in a competitive market. Attorneys General play an important role in standing up to such deception. Entrepreneurs and consumers alike thrive when startups are supported, but increasing mergers have made it more difficult for small businesses and entrepreneurs to get off the ground.

The Internet has the potential to open up new opportunities for consumers and businesses alike. But fair competition requires the protection of net neutrality, an issue I have long championed. As Colorado’s Attorney General, I will fight for net neutrality. I will also stand up to irresponsible companies to fight for consumers and ensure that trustworthy business owners are not at an unfair disadvantage.

I have spent much of my legal career over the past twenty years fighting for competition, consumers, and entrepreneurs. As your next Attorney General, I will continue that fight by:

• Working to bring reliable broadband to all parts of the state, especially rural areas, to ensure that economic viability is location-independent. In order to have a 21st century economy, businesses everywhere need access to a fast network;

• Protecting consumers— especially young people — from the challenges of student debt, shady servicing, and collection malpractice. Read more about my commitment to consumer protection here;

• Defending Colorado’s workers. According to recent estimates,6 “wage theft” costs Colorado workers around $750 million per year. We need to fight to make sure that Colorado remains a leader in economic growth and innovation and to ensure that everyone has a fair shot to benefit from our success; and

• Fighting for an economy and legal environment that supports entrepreneurs7 and eliminates barriers to entry for new businesses in our state. Colorado must be a leader in creating an environment that encourages investment and enables entrepreneurs to succeed.

Education
I have had the distinct privilege to serve both as a professor and dean at the University of Colorado School of Law during my career. Of all the many opportunities I’ve been given, this one stands out as a unique opportunity to engage with and help develop young minds. My experience in the world of education has instilled in me a commitment to ensuring that all those who seek an education have an opportunity to receive it safely and affordably.

During this campaign, I’ve heard the stories of countless students who are frustrated by the state of education. Students in rural Colorado who don’t have access to reliable broadband suffer a significant disadvantage where the simple act of doing homework becomes an insurmountable challenge. As the recent tragedy of Parkland looms over our schools, students I speak to across the state worry about their safety in classrooms, and parents I speak to express the extreme anxiety they feel when dropping their children off for school. Finally, Coloradans who’ve found themselves mounted with large student debt after their university education are often victimized by predatory debt companies who make getting on one’s feet almost impossible.

I am passionate about ensuring accessible education for everyone. This was a priority when I was Dean at the CU Law School. At the time, law school enrollment was down nationally by 40%; at our institution, it was up 10% I also decreased average indebtedness of law school graduates by $16,000 through increased scholarships and by holding tuition constant. Finally, I worked hard to increase employment opportunities so students could pay back their debts. One such initiative was to create a multi-million-dollar loan repayment program for students who took low-paying jobs in public service or in underserved parts of our state.

I am committed to continuing to support and advance education across our state as Attorney General. I will:

• Take on predatory debt collectors who take advantage of vulnerable students. Recently, for example, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro took action against the student loan servicer Navient for misleading borrowers. I will protect and defend students against this threat to their education.

• Bring broadband to all areas of Colorado so that students are not placed at a disadvantage by living elsewhere than the Front Range. The ability for students to access reliable WiFi in order to complete their homework, engage in the world, and prepare for college cannot be underrated

• Enforce our gun laws and work with the legislature to develop safer measures so that we can guarantee a safe education for our children.

Equal Justice for All
As the state’s top law enforcement officer, the Colorado Attorney General is sworn to uphold the United States and Colorado Constitutions. As your next Attorney General, it will be my job to advance the principles of justice, freedom, equality, and fairness for all. I take this commitment very seriously.

Our nation’s vision of equal opportunities for all is a core part of my life’s work. To translate that vision into reality, our country needs dedicated leaders committed to equality for all Americans. Across the nation, State Attorneys General have stood up for equal rights when our freedoms are under assault. When one of us is subject to illegal discrimination or the possibility of targeted hate crimes, we are all at risk. We must call out hate and injustice when it emerges.

As your next Attorney General, I will defend the rights of Coloradans and stand up for civil rights against federal overreach. I will:

• Fight for the rights of the LGBTQ community. Our LGTBQ family members, friends, and colleagues have the right to live without fear of legal action or retaliation. I will challenge discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender, like the President’s unlawful ban against transgender individuals serving in the military;

• Defend women’s access to reproductive healthcare and fight for equal pay for equal work, the importance of which I experienced firsthand when I clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Women’s rights are a core issue for me. Read more about my plan here; and

• Ensure that we protect voting rights are protected, and that every citizen’s voice is heard during our elections. Our democracy depends on it.

Gun Safety
In the almost twenty years since Columbine, Coloradans have gone from asking, “How could this happen?” to “When will this happen again?” When I speak with high schoolers and other young people, their number one concern is gun safety and protection from the threat of another tragedy.

Coloradans have a right to gun ownership, but just like any right, we can develop reasonable protections that keep weapons away from those who pose a threat to society while continuing to allow responsible citizens to own and use guns for hunting, sporting, and self-defense. A fundamental responsibility of our Attorney General is to keep Coloradans safe. That means we need our Attorney General to defend, enforce, and build on our existing gun safety rules.

My opponent has opposed Colorado’s gun safety measures and wants to roll back common-sense laws like background checks and magazine limits. He will support the NRA’s opposition to banning bump stocks and has tuned out the calls of Moms Demand Action and Colorado Ceasefire, organizations I am proud to stand with.

As your Attorney General, I will:

• Support a “red flag law” that allows concerned family members and peers to report troubling behavior to law enforcement, preventing those who pose a threat to themselves and others from buying and keeping firearms;

• Ensure that background checks continue to be a mandatory part of gun ownership, keeping guns out of the hands of possible felons and those with domestic violence charges;

• Counsel the legislature to develop a law that bans bump stocks, like the kind that was used in the Las Vegas shooting last year, and raise the minimum age of purchase to 21;

• Work with gun owners to improve our policies on gun storage. Often, tragedies occur when someone other than the gun owner has access to a firearm. Over half of yearly gun deaths in Colorado are suicides; and

• Support Safe to Tell, a program in the Attorney General’s office that allows for the reporting of threats to children and enables the effective investigation of them.

Health Care
With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the United States made important strides in creating a just and equitable health care system. But we still have a long way to go, and efforts to set back the law’s protections are taking us backwards.Quality, affordable healthcare should not be negotiable, and access should not be reliant upon one’s financial status or location. I am committed to ensuring this right to all Coloradans.

Coloradans pay 17% more for healthcare than citizens in similar states. On the Western Slope, the situation is even more dire, with citizens now paying over $100 more per month on health care than the statewide median. Consequently, too many Coloradans are buried in medical debt or are one medical hardship away from financial disaster.

While traveling the state, I’ve heard people share their anxieties about health care, and their stories fuel my passion to fight for better health care for all Coloradans.

As Attorney General, I will:

• Stand up against the federal government’s attack on affordable health care. I will work to protect the Affordable Care Act’s provisions that enable hundreds of thousands of Coloradans to have access to reliable health care.

• Defend Colorado from health insurance fraud. Colorado has fared poorly on this front in the past, with only 3 of 28 states in a recent audit performing worse than we did on Medicaid waste. I will work hard to turn this record around and prosecute those entities than commit health care fraud and take away money that should be spent helping out those in need.

• Enforce competition laws, using my experience as an Obama Administration antitrust official, to make sure that health care providers and health care insurers compete on cost and quality for the benefit of all Coloradans.

• Ensure broadband access across Colorado. When I visited Craig, Colorado, I learned that the hospital there lacks access to reliable broadband, instead depending on a single fiber line that often gets cut. That vulnerability undermines progress and endangers lives. We need to do better. Here’s my plan for bringing broadband to all Coloradans.

Immigration
The story of immigration is personal to me. My mother was born in a concentration camp on April 13th, 1945, the day before Buchenwald was liberated by the American army. My grandparents and mother — both Holocaust survivors — came to the United States as refugees, and were welcomed to a country where they could build a better life. Our nation’s greatness owes a lot to our welcoming attitude toward immigrants from around the world who come here to share their talent and hard work and to benefit from our freedoms and economic opportunity. My family has lived this experience.

Our tradition of welcoming immigrants is under attack from the federal government. The separation of families at the border is inhumane and illegal. DACA recipients live in fear that information they gave under the promise of protection will now be used against them. Jeff Sessions has imposed an unconstitutional travel ban against Muslims that discriminates against individuals based only on their religion. All around our state and country, immigrants are afraid.

To protect our immigrants and develop a sound immigration policy at this time in our history, we need engaged citizens and responsible leaders to step forward. Colorado has a proud history of standing up for justice. Governor Ralph Carr opposed Japanese internment camps during World War II. Today, we must condemn hateful and xenophobic attitudes before they have a chance to take root.

As your Attorney General, I will:

• Defend decisions by our state, our cities, and our counties to refuse to cooperate with DHS in deporting law-abiding members of our communities;

• Band together with other states’ Attorneys General to stop future injustices against immigrants, like the separation of families at the border and discrimination against immigrants based on their religion;

• Defend our Dreamers, and their right to live in this country— the only one they’ve ever known as home — without fear of deportation; and

• Support federal legislative reform efforts, including protection of the DREAMers and an effective guest worker program that ensures both the protection of immigrants and continued economic development in our rural and agricultural areas.

Land, Air & Water
No issue is more important to my children than protecting our land, air, and water. In Colorado, we value our natural resources and the great beauty of our state. Today, we are witnessing the devastating effects of climate change. We have a moral commitment to our next generation to defend their health, safety, and environment. We deserve an Attorney General committed to protecting our land, air, and water, not one who joins the Scott Pruitt agenda and denies climate change is happening.

As our next Attorney General, I am committed to protecting our land, air, and water, addressing the reality of climate change, and standing out against efforts by our federal government to undermine protections of clean air, clean water, and public lands. Conservation Colorado has endorsed me to do just that.

I am committed to:

• Standing up to failures of the EPA to protect our air quality4 and defend our clean energy future.

• Providing sound legal advice to the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission and working collaboratively with localities on this important issue to ensure that our public health is protected; and

• Leading on our management of water, ensuring that local municipalities have access to sound legal counsel over our water rights and that water across the state is appropriately conserved, distributed, and preserved.

Marijuana
The ratification of Amendment 64 — which legalized cannabis in Colorado — once again showed that our state is a national leader when it comes to innovative, progressive solutions. Legalizing marijuana allows the state to tax the drug, producing revenue that can be directed to remarkable programs, including a mental health initiative in Eagle County. In Pueblo, 563 students were given scholarships of up to 2000 dollars from revenue created by an excise tax on marijuana2 in the county.

Furthermore, at a time when our prisons are overcrowded and drug treatment options are lacking — an issue I will work on once elected — the legalization of marijuana allows us to treat cannabis possession as the public health and welfare issue it is, rather than as a criminal justice issue. Jeff Sessions’ attempted crackdown on marijuana legalization challenges the authority of states to make individual decisions on what’s right for them, and threatens Colorado’s sovereignty.

• We need an Attorney General who recognizes the nuances of this issue and understands the benefits Colorado has experienced in the wake of cannabis legalization. I will:

• Protect Colorado’s sovereignty against federal overreach, ensuring that our right to decide how we legislate and manage marijuana remains in our hands.

• Consider effective uses of tax revenue, using the models established in Eagle and Pueblo to drive innovative initiatives in other counties.

• Work with law enforcement officers across the state to ensure that the expected benefits of legalized marijuana — less crowded prisons and ensuring that cannabis users stay out of the criminal justice system — are experienced to the fullest extent.

• Defend the rights of counties to decide for themselves how to manage marijuana. As a parallel to Colorado’s stance with the federal government, counties know their local economies and issues best. They should have the right to decide how to manage cannabis and I will work with them to help them do so.

Opioids
Few policies involve the trauma and raw emotion of the opioid crisis. This epidemic knows no boundaries1; it’s rural and urban, male and female, people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, and young and old. It is impacting our friends, families, health care organizations, the criminal justice system, and entire communities.

One Coloradan dies of an opioid overdose every 17 hours. In Alamosa county, 90% of prisoners in the jail2 are opioid users. In Colorado, we saw a 100 percent increase in the number of opioid prescriptions between 1999 and 2016. And during that time, the number of overdoses also went up drastically: over 200 percent from 1999 to 2014. As Colorado’s next AG, I will lead on this issue and have a plan3 for treating this epidemic as a public health issue rather than as a criminal justice issue.

When I visited Garfield County, I spoke to Matt who saw firsthand the effects of addiction in his community. Matt explained, “when somebody has any other kind of disease we don’t throw them in jail, we throw them in a hospital.” Similarly, Jason Chippeaux, the COO of a health care provider in Pueblo, described the epidemic as “a wildfire with zero containment — growing, but lacking unified command. In the meantime, people are dying.” Another provider, JC in Crowley County, echoed the sentiment that “people are dying” and expressed frustration that his attempts to open a treatment clinic were repeatedly impeded by bureaucratic obstacles.

As Attorney General, I will:

• Prioritize the treatment of opioids as a public health crisis, helping those suffering from addiction to get treatment and a chance at recovery, rather than putting them in jail or prison;

• Join a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies4 that deceived users, telling them that opioid-related drugs would not become addictive;

• Allocate funds from winning the lawsuit to treatment resources;

• Streamline the permitting process for opening health clinics, prioritizing transparent information and responsive customer service; and

• Encourage empathy for those suffering from opioid addiction through legal and moral leadership, seeking to reduce the stigma that often prevents people from getting help.

Protecting Our State's Rights
Protecting Our State’s Rights The sovereignty of our state depends on an Attorney General who is committed to fighting for Coloradans’ best interests and preventing the federal government from damaging our civil liberties, environmental health, and economic interests. The current Administration’s actions on issues ranging from immigration to environmental protections prove that we need an Attorney General who will be strong in defending Colorado.

As Attorney General, I will:

• Challenge the president’s unlawful and inhuman tactics on immigration. I will band together with other state Attorneys General to stop the separation of families at the border; challenge a discriminatory travel ban against Muslims; defend our DACA recipients; and protect Denver and other localities from being commandeered by the federal government. Read more about my stance on immigration here.

• Fight for Colorado’s right to continue its legalized marijuana, despite Jeff Sessions’ attempted crackdown. In Colorado, legal marijuana has eased the overcrowding of prisons and created new sources of tax revenue that can be directed to university scholarships, as in Pueblo, or mental health resources, as in Eagle. Colorado’s sovereignty depends on our ability to make decisions about what is best for our state, and I will prevent the federal government from curtailing our marijuana laws.

• Defend our land, air, and water. Colorado was the first state to impose regulations on methane emissions, a significant step towards protecting our land, air, and water. These regulations became a template for nationwide rules. Unfortunately, Scott Pruitt and the EPA have suspended these rules, hurting our environmental health and safety here in Colorado. In response, a number of State Attorneys General have stepped up to challenge Pruitt’s actions and have fought successfully to keep the Methane Rule in place. Our current Colorado Attorney General is not one of them, but I will be. Read more about my commitment to environmental protections here.

• Stop Jeff Sessions from undermining the Affordable Care Act. We need to ensure that Colorado’s citizens have continual access to coverage for pre-existing conditions and Medicaid expansion. Read more about my plan to defend healthcare here.

Water
Water is the lifeblood of our state. Our agricultural economy, tourism industry, and quality of life in this beautiful state depend on it. Colorado faces a simple math challenge—our population is increasing and natural storage and flows of water are decreasing on account of climate change. We can meet this challenge, but only with the innovative and collaborative leadership that Colorado is known for.

In 2018, we are, once again, experiencing drought-like conditions. This year, our snowpack level is far below average, with some areas of the state hovering around only 50% of normal. These areas are unlikely to return to the norm, which is a painful consequence of climate change. As a headwater state, Colorado’s water flows to eighteen states and Mexico and is subject to nine different formal agreements. And the projected growth of Colorado’s population—which could see a 50% increase by 2050 from 2015 levels—means that we cannot be complacent in how we manage our water.

As our next Attorney General, I will:

• Protect our allocation of Colorado River water and ensure that our state is not held liable for non-compliance with any relevant agreement, especially in light of the Central Arizona Project’s refusal to join a collaborative effort to create a more sustainable river system;

• Bolster our mutually beneficial relationships with the other states to enable us to manage our water supplies during an extended drought. The solutions to managing our water must be collaborative; if we end up in a fight–either between regions in Colorado or with others states–we are all going to end up losing.

• Support the Colorado Water Plan, which provides a valuable framework for managing water. An Attorney General must protect water rights, ensure the continued vitality of agricultural communities, protect outdoor recreational economies that rely on our rivers, and allow reasonable transfer arrangements.

• Recognize that alternative water transfer arrangements present an opportunity, a risk, and a challenge. If they are not overseen appropriately, the risk is that such arrangements can result in a “buy and dry” scenario, which is how Crowley County’s local economy was imperiled. The challenge is thus to allow for reasonable transfers, encourage innovation, and protect local agricultural economies.

• Engage effectively with the Colorado Water Conservation Board and work collaboratively with its members to meet the challenges ahead. I will also engage with the Basin Roundtables, which provide a crucial form of local governance and feedback on the development of an effective water policy here in Colorado.

Women's Rights
My mentor, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, spent her career fighting to ensure that women receive equal protection under the law. Here in Colorado, we’ve led the fight for women’s rights, becoming the first state to enact women’s suffrage by popular vote and liberalizing our abortion laws before Roe v. Wade. Equal rights for women are non-negotiable. I will continue to fight for equal justice for all as your next Attorney General.

At a time when the Supreme Court is posed to undermine reproductive rights, we cannot elect an Attorney General who opposes Roe v. Wade; my opponent has called for this decision to be overruled. If women do not have autonomy over their bodies and healthcare decisions, then they do not receive the equal protection our Constitution guarantees. As your next Attorney General, I will fight tirelessly to ensure that women are treated equally and fairly.

As Attorney General, I will:

• Defend women’s access to transparent healthcare information, affordable contraceptives, and safe choices about their health care3. Our federal government has repeatedly tried to undermine women’s health care choices. I will protect Colorado from these actions.

• Fight for equal pay for equal work, and fight against sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination against women in the workplace. I will not only protect these rights through policy and legal action, I will make the Attorney General’s office a model in recruiting, supporting, and promoting women, creating a first-ever Deputy Attorney General for Diversity and Inclusiveness.

• Create a Sexual Assault Assistance Unit of specialized prosecutors and investigators in the Attorney General’s office to offer their experience and expertise to district attorneys across the state on sexual assault cases. It is essential that we train investigators to ensure that survivors feel heard and respected when interacting with law enforcement. Taking the wrong approach to sexual assault cases can lead to further mistreatment of victims in the process and make or break such cases. Consequently, we must train law enforcement on how to recognize, understand, and respond effectively and empathetically to trauma victims.^[21]