Max's Minute | Blogspot

Primary elections are personal. People work hard for their candidates. They donate. They walk neighborhoods. They call voters. They put their reputations behind the people they believe are best prepared to lead. Then the votes come in. Some candidates win. Some do not. That is the nature of self-government. I will say plainly that not all of my candidates won this primary. So if you are disappointed today, I understand it. I am in the same boat with many of you. But disappointment cannot become disengagement. The primary is over. The mission is not. Republicans now have a responsibility to look forward, support our nominees, and do the hard work necessary to win in November. Colorado cannot afford another cycle of Democrat control. We cannot afford more inflationary policy, more attacks on parents, more soft-on-crime legislation, more regulatory pressure on small businesses, more hostility toward energy, and more government that treats taxpayers like an endless revenue source. The left...

Coloradans believe in something simple and important. The people who live in a community should help decide what that community becomes. That principle is called local control. It is not a technical concept. It is a promise. It means your neighborhood is shaped by the people who live there, raise families there, and invest their lives there. That promise is being tested at the State Capitol. In recent sessions, the legislature has passed and proposed a series of housing bills that override local zoning authority across Colorado. These include mandates eliminating local parking standards, forcing higher density development near transit corridors, requiring approval pathways for housing on church and school property, and allowing certain housing developments to bypass local zoning entirely. More recently, the HOME Act allows public institutions, transit agencies, housing authorities, and nonprofits to construct housing projects on qualifying land regardless of local zoning rules. These p...

When I first ran for office, I made a promise to represent the people of Douglas County with clarity, courage, and a fierce commitment to preserving what makes our community exceptional. That commitment led me to become a vocal supporter of the Douglas County Home Rule Charter. This initiative was never about rebellion. It was about resilience. Each legislative session at the State Capitol brings a new round of policies that pull authority away from local communities and concentrate it in Denver under the gold dome. From statewide zoning mandates that strip your elected county commissioners of land use authority, to top-down education reforms that disregard the values of local families, we are watching the slow but deliberate erosion of local control. Home Rule offered Douglas County the opportunity to push back intelligently, constitutionally, and proactively. Let me be clear: Home Rule is not a silver bullet. It doesn't give a county the power to defy state law or rewrite the Con...

As the representative for Douglas County in the Colorado General Assembly, I see every day how unique and exceptional our community truly is. We don’t just talk about safe neighborhoods, responsive government, and principled leadership - we live it. That’s why I strongly support the Douglas County Home Rule initiative and have stepped up to run for a seat on the Charter Commission. At its core, Home Rule is about protecting the values that have made Douglas County a model for governance in Colorado, especially our uncompromising commitment to public safety and law enforcement. While other jurisdictions have defunded police, tied the hands of officers, or turned a blind eye to rising crime, Douglas County has taken the opposite approach: we invest in safety. We back our deputies, equip our first responders, and keep our communities secure. Home Rule gives us the ability to preserve that model and strengthen it. Douglas County Attorney  Jeffrey A. Garcia  has prepared and publ...

House Bill 25-1147 represents a significant erosion of local control by imposing state-level mandates on municipal courts, particularly in communities like Castle Rock within Douglas County, which has effectively addressed unprecedented levels of retail theft and crime. This bill would cap municipal court sentences and standardize procedures in a manner that undermines home rule authority, a right explicitly protected under Article XX of the Colorado Constitution. Castle Rock, home to thriving retail hubs such as Park Meadows Retail Resort and the Outlets at Castle Rock, has prioritized prosecution of retail crime to protect local businesses and consumers alike. By homogenizing municipal court policies statewide, this bill ignores the unique challenges and successful strategies implemented by local governments that are far more in tune with their communities’ needs than distant state bureaucrats. Home rule was established to ensure that local governments can address issues directly af...