The Colorado Sun reports that Michael Bennet and Phil Weiser, the two Democrats running for Colorado governor, are struggling to show major policy differences on many of the state’s biggest issues. The Sun says they are broadly aligned on TABOR posture, labor law changes, nuclear power, housing policy, rolling back some regulations, and reversing Gov. Jared Polis’ practice of withholding funding from municipalities that do not comply with state housing laws. Instead, the race has leaned heavily into which candidate has the tougher anti-Trump posture.
Isn’t this just peak Colorado ruling-class comedy? The Democratic primary is being sold like a heavyweight fight, but on actual Colorado policy it looks more like two guys in the same Patagonia vest arguing over who can furrow his brow at Washington with better diction. Normal Coloradans are drowning in housing costs, taxes, fees, congestion, crime anxiety, and state-government dysfunction, and the front-runners are offering a boutique resistance seminar with podiums.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The Sun’s headline says the quiet part out loud: looking for big policy differences between Bennet and Weiser? There aren’t many. That is not a debate. That is a mirror with two microphones.
- Both men are products of the same Democratic ecosystem: credentialed, polished, elite, and deeply convinced that saying “values” and “Trump” enough times will make voters forget Colorado has real state problems to solve.
- Bennet is the longtime federal insider trying to rebrand himself as Colorado’s fixer. Weiser is the attorney general and professor-class technocrat presenting himself as the competent moral guardian. Different packaging, same governing aisle.
- The Sun notes they have fought more over Trump posture than over core Colorado issues like housing and taxes. That is the scam of substitution: nationalize the race so nobody has to dwell too long on the mess the ruling party helped make here at home.
- Yes, they have some differences on climate, health care, water storage, rent control, data center tax credits, phones in schools, and campaign finance. But the big picture is still painfully familiar: more elite management, more government engineering, more promises that the next spreadsheet will finally save working families.
My Bottom Line
Colorado Democrats love to talk about diversity, equity, inclusion, representation, working families, lived experience, and listening to the marginalized. Then, when it comes time to pick the next governor, the system coughs up two polished establishment figures from the same elite-manager assembly line. Beautiful. Very authentic. Very brunch-panel revolutionary.
This is not really a grand ideological showdown. It is a ruling-class product comparison. Bennet says he has the vision. Weiser says he knows how to execute. Both are asking voters to believe that the same governing philosophy that helped produce Colorado’s affordability crisis should be trusted to solve it with slightly different PowerPoint transitions.
And spare us the idea that Trump is the only issue. Colorado has roads, schools, water, housing, crime, energy, taxes, fees, insurance, land-use fights, business headaches, and families trying to stay afloat. Washington matters. Federal policy matters. But the governor of Colorado is supposed to run Colorado, not star in another season of Resistance Karaoke.
The orange national distraction button still works on command, and the Democratic machine knows it. When candidates do not want to fight over the consequences of state policy, they point east, yell “Trump,” and hope nobody notices the local kitchen is on fire.
Colorado does not need another elite-manager audition. It needs someone willing to admit the ruling party’s recipe is bad. Bennet and Weiser may argue over seasoning, but the dish is still the same thing Coloradans have been choking down for years.
Source: The Colorado Sun
Share your thoughts...