The most important political dynamic in Colorado today is one that is so obvious that it is easy to miss: that is the monopoly on power and control that the Denver-Boulder region exerts over the rest of our state. Consider the breakdown of where Colorado’s top elected officials hail from: the governor from Boulder: the lieutenanat governor from nearby Denver: both U.S. Senators (as of January), from Denver; the current and incoming speakers of the House, from Boulder and Denver respectively; the secretary of state, the state attorney general and the Senate majority leader — all from Denver-Boulder. Those of you who wonder why our state has lurched to the left need look no further than … Denver-Boulder and the values these cities represent, which are from the far left. The rest of Colorado and its values do not concern them.

These Denver/Boulder-centric corps of elected Democrats enjoy outsized influence and control over the rest of our state. They have a leftist, myopic, liberal worldview which their positions allow them to consistently impose on the rest of Colorado, whether the other 62 counties and their citizens like it or not.

Example: SB19-181, the Oil and Gas legislation that has hamstrung Colorado’s once vibrant O&G industry. One party has control over all of Colorado with its most powerful elected officials being pulled from two counties whose values are out of sync from the rest of the state.

Should El Paso County and the rest of Colorado just accept that this is the way things are and submit to permanent political domination from the Denver/Boulder bastion? I say no! We can and must begin to reassert the voice and diversity of our great state in the Capitol; but the first step is to realize just who is actually running our state and where they are all from; it is a small core of Denver/Boulder politicians who are turning Colorado into California, the citizens be damned.

Wake up my fellow Coloradans and vote wisely in 2022.

Larry Liston is Senator-elect for Senate District 10.

Larry Liston.