Max's Minute | Blogspot

There is something deeply wrong and deeply dangerous about a mayor using the machinery of city government to place law enforcement in tension with law enforcement. That is exactly what is happening in Denver. Let me be clear. I am 100 percent pro-law enforcement. I support the men and women who put on the badge, take the oath, and step into danger so the rest of us can live in peace. That includes local police. It includes deputies. It includes state officers. It includes federal officers. A civilized republic cannot survive without respect for lawful authority and the officers charged with carrying it out. What it cannot survive is political leadership that deliberately pits one branch of law enforcement against another for ideological theater. Mayor Mike Johnston has crossed into reckless territory. His Executive Order 152 does not read like the work of a mayor focused on public safety. It reads like the work of a politician determined to obstruct, posture, and inflame. It bars ...

For many Coloradans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), housing is not simply hard to find. It is hard to find the right kind of housing. Housing that is safe. Housing that is stable. Housing that supports independence while keeping people connected to their community. HB26-1061  exists because people with IDD deserve more than “best effort.” They deserve a clear pathway to real homes in real neighborhoods, with real opportunities to belong. This bill is designed to strengthen community integration housing by aligning Colorado’s affordable housing tax credit process with projects that intentionally serve the IDD community. HB26-1061 focuses on practical outcomes. It creates a targeted priority in Colorado’s administration of affordable housing tax credits for “community integration housing” that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It requires setting aside at least 10 percent of the state’s annual competitive federal Low-Income Housin...

The HB26-1021 Second Amendment Protection Act was killed in committee on a strict party-line vote. Despite the setback, the hearing produced strong debate and opened doors for future discussions about gun rights, constitutional limits, and policy direction. The fight over firearm law reform in Colorado is far from over. HB26-1021 aimed to repeal a large number of Colorado firearm regulations. These included background check requirements for private transfers, safe storage mandates, age limits and waiting periods, permitting requirements for dealers, local ordinance authority, magazine restrictions, gun show rules, and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The bill’s sponsors and supporters argued that many of these laws have not demonstrated effectiveness in reducing criminal gun violence. The bill was defeated in the House Judiciary Committee by a 7-4 vote along party lines. Opponents framed it as a threat to public safety because it would have repealed nearly all of Colorado’s g...

Recently, a post by Douglas County Watch criticized a sermon delivered by Pastor Bryan Fields of Grace Chapel Castle Rock and suggested that his message on immigration made its way into the Capitol through my remarks in the well of the Colorado House of Representatives. Let me begin with this. I am proud to be part of the Grace family. Grace Chapel provides spiritual leadership that calls us to lead in love and to stand firmly in truth. Pastor Fields’ sermons challenge me to grow in character, humility, and conviction. I value that influence. I embrace it. Faith should shape the moral compass of any serious leader. At the same time, there is an important distinction between the pulpit and the well of the House. A sermon calls people to spiritual transformation. A legislator speaks within a constitutional framework. When I rise to speak in the well, I do so under oath. My words are governed by the Constitution, statutory authority, and the duty I owe to every constituent, regardless of ...

I serve in the Colorado House of Representatives to represent the citizens of House District 45 first. Public safety is not an abstraction. It is the condition that allows families to thrive, businesses to grow, and communities to trust one another. The rule of law is the foundation that makes that possible. A proposal advanced this week at the Capitol, allowing lawsuits against federal immigration agents for carrying out lawful duties, strikes at both. This legislation does not exist in a vacuum. It reflects a growing impulse to treat enforcement itself as a moral failing. That impulse is misguided. When a state punishes those tasked with enforcing the law, it creates hesitation where decisiveness is required. It replaces clarity with confusion. In that vacuum, criminal networks flourish, victims multiply, and order erodes. No society can remain safe when those sworn to protect it are treated as adversaries. America has always been a nation of immigrants, but it has never been a nati...

Colorado families are being crushed by the cost of housing. We all see it. Young adults cannot afford a first home. Seniors on fixed incomes feel trapped. Working families are forced farther from jobs, schools, and support systems. So when Democrats roll out another “affordable housing plan,” I read it with one question in mind. Will this actually lower housing costs, or will it grow government control, weaken local communities, and produce more bureaucracy than results? From what’s been reported publicly, this new Democrat agenda follows the same playbook we’ve watched for years. Big promises. Heavy-handed mandates. Centralized control. More spending. Less local authority. More pressure on counties like Douglas, where we have worked hard to build safe neighborhoods, responsible development, and strong infrastructure. Colorado needs more housing. But we need the right kind of housing growth, done in the right way, for the right reasons. And that means respecting the people who actua...