Tag: opinion
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Why I’m voting Democrat | Jon Caldara
It makes no sense to be a Republican in Colorado. Or a Democrat for that matter. On the day I turned 18, even before I bought my first legal 3.2 beer (remember 3.2 beer?), I went to the courthouse and registered to vote (remember registering to vote?). I joined the Republican Party. Even at 18,…
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Dustin Zvonek pinpoints Colorado’s housing-first homelessness failures | The OpEdge Podcast
As homelessness continues to persist across Colorado, former Aurora City Councilman Dustin Zvonek paints a compelling picture of how the primary policy prescription may be enabling the root cause more than providing a permanent solution. In this OpEdge Podcast conversation with Gazette and Colorado Politics Deputy Opinion Editor Antonio Olivero, Zvonek, now the homelessness fellow…
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Is Jared Polis turning into Dick Lamm? | Jon Caldara
By Jon Caldara Dick Lamm was Colorado’s longest-serving governor, at 12 years in office (a close second goes to Roy Romer). And during those three terms, he slowly drifted to the right. Not because he became a Republican or even a conservative. He never did. He simply spent enough time governing to become less impressed…
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Pay raises for incompetence at the Colorado Capitol | Jon Caldara
By Jon Caldara I am personally responsible for helping overpay socialists to make Colorado unaffordable, overregulated and one windstorm away from a power blackout. I failed you. Colorado legislators already get automatic inflation raises. You know, just like your job (I’m assuming the sarcasm bled through that one). No private-sector worker has that kind of…
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Michael Fields reviews Colorado’s 2026 legislative session | The OpEdge Podcast
Michael Fields, executive director of Advance Colorado, joins OpEdge host and investigative columnist Jimmy Sengenberger to assess the good, the bad and the ugly of the Colorado General Assembly’s 2026 legislative session. Reflecting on the 120 bills passed in 120 days, Fields not only spells out what the budget, transportation and crime ramifications mean for…
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Processing plants are an important piece of the ag puzzle | Rachel Gabel
Concrete barricades blocked the entrance to the Cargill beef plant in Ft. Morgan, Colo., on May 20. About 1,700 workers had been locked out by the company after months of contract negotiations ended with workers voting to reject the company’s last and best offer by a large margin. The workers who couldn’t report to work reported to…
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Too much Tina | Jon Caldara
Really? This much hullabaloo over Tina Peters? We enjoy being distracted by the silliest things, don’t we? Our governor’s commutation of Peters’ sentence is just that — a silly thing. Just as it was nonsensical for the “Free Tina Peters” crowd to act like she was Martin Luther King Jr. in a Birmingham jail, the…
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DJ Summers dives into the costlier state of Colorado | The OpEdge Podcast
Common Sense Institute’s Director of Communications & Research Operations DJ Summers dives deep with The OpEdge Podcast host and investigative columnist Jimmy Sengenberger regarding Colorado’s drop in the institute’s Free Enterprise Competitive Index. Summers shares shrewd insights regarding Colorado’s curious, one-of-a-kind case study of economics, demographics and culture of the past 15 years, when a…
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Questions for Mike and Phil | Jon Caldara
If you’re a fan of the old Seinfeld TV show, you might remember the fat postman, Newman, being asked why postal workers “go postal”? “Because the mail never stops. It just keeps coming and coming and coming! There’s never a let up! It’s relentless! Every day it piles up more and more and more! You…
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Superintendent Michael Gaal on why schools work better without union contracts | The OpEdge Podcast
In the latest episode of The OpEdge — The Gazette’s new opinion podcast — Colorado Springs District 11 Superintendent Michael Gaal reveals why teachers’ union contracts hold schools back. Gaal tells OpEdge host and investigative columnist Jimmy Sengenberger how ending D-11’s labor contract unleashed flexibility on teacher pay, staffing and accountability, while arguing school choice and…