U.S. Senate See Full Big Line

(D) J. Hickenlooper*

(R) Somebody

80%

20%

(D) Phil Weiser

(D) Joe Neguse

(D) Jena Griswold

60%

60%

40%↓

Att. General See Full Big Line

(D) M. Dougherty

(D) Alexis King

(D) Brian Mason

40%

40%

30%

Sec. of State See Full Big Line
(D) A. Gonzalez

(D) George Stern

(R) Sheri Davis

50%↑

40%

30%

State Treasurer See Full Big Line

(D) Brianna Titone

(R) Kevin Grantham

(D) Jerry DiTullio

60%

30%

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Somebody

90%

2%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd*

(D) Somebody

80%

40%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert*

(D) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank*

(D) Somebody

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen*

(R) Somebody

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(R) Gabe Evans*

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(D) Joe Salazar

50%

40%

40%

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
January 15, 2025 02:37 PM UTC

Colorado Springs City Council Determined To Ignore Their Own Voters

  • 1 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Colorado Springs City Councilman Dave Donelson.

As the Colorado Sun’s Olivia Prentzel reports–after the voters of Colorado Springs passed a ballot measure in November to allow recreational marijuana sales within city limits by the same shops who currently sell weed to the city’s medical marijuana patients, and at the same time rejected a measure referred by the City Council that would have made it impossible for those medical marijuana shops to do so, conservatives on the City Council are considering the bizarre and unprecedented step of asking voters to weigh in a third time by posing the question again in the upcoming April municipal election:

Weeks after residents voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana sales in Colorado Springs, elected leaders are considering putting the issue back on the ballot in April, saying people who voted “yes” could have been mistaken.

The city council is expected to vote at its next meeting Jan. 28 whether to re-refer the issue to the April 1 ballot, when voter turnout is historically lower than general elections, claiming that “confusing” language had muddied the issue…

The language of Colorado Springs’ Ballot Question 300 comes out to just under 200 words, and very clearly says what it does–allowing medical marijuana shops to apply for retail licenses, with the number of licenses limited to the number of medical shops on Election Day. But failed 2022 GOP House candidate and Councilman Dave Donelson is nonetheless very concerned that voters were misled some nefarious way into…well, voting against Dave Donelson’s wishes:

Among those pushing for a new ballot measure on pot was Councilman Dave Donelson, who suggested during a work session Monday that Question 300 was poorly worded and may have misled voters. He proposed that residents have the chance for a new vote to “know once and for all if these citizens want recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs or not.”

“The previous vote, I think, was confused,” Donelson said. “And I think it really could have had the impact that something passed that the majority of citizens don’t really support.”

This is ironic since the only action to “confuse” voters over the question of recreational pot in Colorado Springs was the one taken by City Council to introduce a second measure that if passed would have had the effect of invalidating the first. Voters rejected that measure while approving Question 300, sending a clear message against the City Council’s longstanding desire to keep recreational marijuana out of the city.

The plan following this full-scale defeat from the City Council appears to be to ignore the voters entirely, and hold out for a smaller, redder electorate in the municipal election to nullify last November’s results. If they proceed with this plan it will be one of the most cynical manipulations of the democratic process you’ll ever see at any level, and the only reason the idea isn’t national news (yet) is it’s a conservative municipal government of a conservative town disregarding the will of their own voters.

In that one sad respect, it’s a case of voters getting the government they deserve.

Comments

One thought on “Colorado Springs City Council Determined To Ignore Their Own Voters

  1. Well, it could turn into an interesting referendum:

    What’s on the April 1, 2025 Municipal Election Ballot?

    The six District City Council seats are up for election this time. Each voters’ ballot will contain only the District City Council race for their area of town based on the current City Council District Boundary lines and possible ballot questions.

    So, voters can consider their council member's vote on putting the issue on the ballot AND perhaps one of the key questions for voters will be if the member will actually trust the voters or not.

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Gabe Evans
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

105 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!