My one week off around the holidays turned into five. If you are new here, the Scott Sheet is a hobby. That is what I tell myself when I feel the nagging guilt for not hopping into your inbox three to five times a week. I love writing this. I also live inside a calendar that thinks it is a tank tread. You know how that goes. You blink, and December becomes the Super Bowl of January.
My 2026 blasted out of the gate. My final election campaign is at full steam, which means there is a fresh daily layer of doors to knock, calls to take, and fires to put out before they become wildfires. I stepped into the role of Chair of the Weld Board of County Commissioners, which adds a little more to the plate. In mid January, Julie got a shiny new hip. I have been helping her recover, and she is doing wonderfully. If you remove the politics from medicine, American doctors can feel like miracle workers. I have seen it with my own eyes at our kitchen table. Gratitude does not begin to cover it.
Commissioners Ross, Maxey, and I flew to Washington, D.C., to meet our delegation and the agencies. We carried Weld County’s case straight to the folks who can move levers that the state will not touch. The feds are not famous for speed, but when they share our practical instincts more than the virtue signalers under the Gold Dome in Denver, you take the meeting, you make the argument, and you push for the win. And speaking of the Gold Dome, the new legislative session has me packing a bag for two or three days a week in Denver. I will be testifying on behalf of the people of Weld, and against the latest batch of good-sounding, bad-doing bills that float up inside the Denver–Boulder bubble.
So yes, January was action packed. And no, I did not have much time for the Sheet. In the tiny slivers of spare time, I did something unglamorous that might finally help. I sat down in front of the machinery behind the Sheet and tried to make it better. I like writing. I like talking to you. I do not like cutting and pasting into content managers, email clients, social platforms, and a dozen logins that each want to send me a six digit code. That tedium is a wall between my brain and your inbox. I have been building a little automation to knock holes in that wall. If this works, it should be easier to share thoughts quickly and clearly, instead of letting my penchant for perfection stall communication.
That communication matters. More than I can say. In this last legislative session of the Polis administration, nearly every Democrat bill reads like a Hail Mary to socialism. That is my view from the ground. The serious Republicans do not have many tools to intercept. And not every Republican is serious. That is the part that stings. We have to talk to each other. We need to get into the normie water table, which is my way of saying we must stir the folks who are busy building lives. They ignore the Gold Dome because they are working, parenting, caring for parents, and trying to make it through another Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Gold Dome is regulating, legislating, and speechifying our state toward systems that look like communism on a layaway plan. Truly. The best antidote is not a clever speech. It is regular citizens who learn what is happening and who take simple actions inside their neighborhood, town, and county.
Let me be very clear about what I am asking from you. Share the Scott Sheet with people who might not speak our language yet but are open to plain talk. Invite them to subscribe. Tap follow on the social channels we list at the bottom of each Sheet. Forward an issue that hits home for a friend who never watches a hearing or reads a bill summary. If you meet me in the grocery store and shout, I am a Sheet Head, you will make my day. But we need more than high fives. We need to enlist legions. That means moving beyond the choir and into the kitchen, the mechanic’s bay, and the soccer sideline. We win when a normal person who never steps inside a Capitol decides to write one email, and then another, and then shows up when it counts.
Here is the argument for hope in a season that can feel heavy. Colorado is still full of people whose instincts are sound. They want safety, a paycheck with some room left after taxes and groceries, and a school that teaches more reading and less ideological sorting. They are not obsessives. They are tired. If we can lower the friction between information and action, we can wake up the Great Suburban Normie without asking anyone to quit their job and become a lobbyist. Five minutes of attention, repeated by thousands, beats five hours of outrage, shouted by a few.
I want to steelman the other side, because it is important to be fair even when we are fighting. Many public servants in Denver genuinely believe they are protecting the vulnerable. They see policy through the lens of compassion, and they worry that local control can become a dodge for neglect. They look at Weld and think we are stubborn for the sake of being stubborn. Compassion is not a monopoly. It belongs to no party. When society has worked for thirty years to remove God from the public square, we shouldn’t be surprised when they try to replace that removed God with government. That is wrong. But I also admit that our tone can harden into anger if we are not careful. People are weary of constant outrage. They tune out the moment they smell it. So the work ahead is to speak plain truth, to keep the humor, and to remember that the person on the other end of the committee dais is a person, not a villain in a costume.
What now. First, I will keep showing up at the Gold Dome to testify against bad ideas and for a Colorado that works. You will see more frequent Sheets because the back end is getting simpler. Second, I will try something new this year that aligns with that normie water table idea. Call it Civic Drip. One clear action, once a week. Sometimes it will be a phone call or an email. Sometimes it will be a city council agenda item you can read before dinner. Sometimes it will be a story from a neighbor that reminds you why we fight for this place. Small, clear, repeatable.
Third, the brand is growing. The Scott Sheet began as an extension of ScottKJames.com. It has taken on a life of its own. You will see new sites, brands, and logos as we march through 2026. I will do that in my spare time, which means it will be imperfect, and that is fine. The goal is not polish. The goal is connection that equips action.
Finally, thank you. Thank you for reading after a five week gap. Thank you for praying for Julie and for celebrating with us as she heals. Thank you for trusting me with your attention when there are a thousand other tabs to open. I cannot promise to be perfect or to write on a clock, but I can promise to fight for Weld, to fight for sanity, and to invite you into the fight in ways that make a difference. If you have been a quiet Sheet Head, this is your nudge to become a loud one. Tap forward. Tap follow. Tap reply and tell me what is happening on your block that I need to see. We will not win Colorado back in one thunderclap. We will win it cup by cup, poured into the normie water table, week after week, until the ground shifts and the roots take hold.
Five weeks off. Full steam ahead. Let’s go.
