Listeners. You are in for such a treat this week. Our guest, Kate Compton Barr has been featured on National CBS News, The Washington Post, and even AOL.com, remember that? Kate is running for State Senate in North Carolina.
“But Ian and Jason, this is a Colorado Politics Podcast, why would you have a candidate running in North Carolina on the show?”
Well, we’re glad you asked, but after listening to this interview, you won’t have to ask much more, because Kate is smart, qualified, and funny as hell; all traits we personally look for in our elected officials. Jason even thinks she might be Governor of North Carolina one day, and if she runs, we’ve promised to be her first two contributors.
She’s also starting the absolutely hilariously named “Can’t Win Victory Fund” to support candidates like her drawn into impossible-to-win districts to draw attention to the ills of gerrymandering. AND AND AND, she actually has a PLAN to reverse partisan gerrymandering in North Carolina. If you want to hear the details, you’ve gotta listen to this week’s episode, which includes this real zinger about North Carolina college sports rivalries, “If you went to Duke, people assume you’re from New Jersey.”
Ouch.
We also get deeper into the continuing saga of the Arizona GOP doing the job the Colorado GOP is ostensibly supposed to be doing, namely, funding mailers for not only Gabe-ish Evans, but now peculiarly wading into the rough waters of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District on behalf of our favorite “Bread Sandwich,” Jeff Hurd. The best Dave Williams we know, David O. Williams, has this for Real Vail:
Frisch campaign manager Camilo Vilaseca, in an email statement to RealVail.com, wrote that the out-of-state spending on Hurd is clearly all about water:
“It is telling that thirsty, out-of-state, and down-river interests like the Kansas-based Koch brothers, Arizona political parties, and Denver lobbyists working to suck Southern Colorado’s water up to Denver are doing anything they can to elect Jeff Hurd to Congress. It’s because they know he’ll be nothing more than a yes man for party leadership, and will happily sell off Western and Southern Colorado’s water to the highest bidder. We need Adam Frisch in Congress because he’ll defend our water against wealthy out-of-state interests like the ones currently trying to buy Jeff Hurd a seat in Congress.”
Arizona’s agriculture industry is one of the largest consumers of water from the endangered Colorado River, where flows are dramatically diminished by manmade climate change and a persistent decades-long drought in the American Southwest.
That’ll leave a mark.
We also discussed the HUMONGOUS ballot that most Colorado voters will have this cycle, with no fewer than FOURTEEN ballot questions for voters to weigh in on and, depending on where you live, many more county and local questions on top. We were going to do a little Get More Smarter Ballot Issue Voter Guide but honestly, honestly, It’s October 22 and I still don’t actually know how I’m voting on this year’s guide. So, as a cop out, pop on over to ProgressNow Colorado’s annual Progressive Voters Guide and just take their word for it.
That’s it for us this week! If you loved listening to it as much as we loved recording it, you can thank us by subscribing to the pod wherever you listen, following us over on Nice Twitter aka Threads, and forwarding this email or sharing this post with your friends, your enemies, and North Carolina State Senator Vickie Sawyer! THANK YOU so much for listening, and we’ll see you next time!
Episode 212: Get in Losers: We're Going Losing! (feat. Kate Barr)