{"id":38167,"date":"2022-09-28T23:20:50","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T05:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fentanyl-features-in-colorados-first-gubernatorial-debate\/"},"modified":"2022-09-29T05:20:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T05:20:50","slug":"fentanyl-features-in-colorados-first-gubernatorial-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fentanyl-features-in-colorados-first-gubernatorial-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Fentanyl features in Colorado\u2019s first gubernatorial debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Colorado
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks before a debate on Wednesday in Pueblo. (David Zalubowski\/Associated Press)<\/span>David Zalubowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PUEBLO \u2013 Colorado\u2019s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, and his GOP challenger, Heidi Ganahl, offered differing versions of the state with the economy, crime, education and post-pandemic recovery among the top issues in their first debate Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Ganahl, a University of Colorado regent, bookended her remarks by attacking Polis over Colorado\u2019s high fentanyl overdose rates, inflation and what she called poor education standards in public schools.<\/p>\n

Polis defended his four-year record as governor by highlighting the state\u2019s record job numbers while firing back at Ganahl for appointing a running mate who has claimed that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020.<\/a><\/p>\n

Polis, a wealthy tech and education entrepreneur and former five-term congressman, is seeking a second term in this increasingly blue state. Ganahl, herself an entrepreneur and, as a regent, the only statewide elected Republican official, is seeking to become Colorado\u2019s first Republican governor since 2007.<\/p>\n

\"Republican
Republican candidate for Colorado governor, Heidi Ganahl, speaks during a debate on Wednesday in Pueblo. (David Zalubowski\/Associated Press)<\/span>David Zalubowski<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The debate was staged at Colorado State University-Pueblo, where red-shirted Ganahl supporters filled up most of the university\u2019s ballroom. Polis\u2019 backers held blue-bordered signs and kept to their own column of seats.<\/p>\n

After Polis attacked Ganahl\u2019s running mate, Danny Moore, for denying the 2020 presidential election outcome, Ganahl sidestepped the accusation of extremism. Moore has made it clear that he respects President Joe Biden, she said, \u201cand so do I.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ganahl, who describes herself as \u201ca mom on a mission,\u201d argued that rising crime and drug-related overdoses have harmed children and lambasted Polis for signing a 2019 law that weakened penalties for certain types of fentanyl possession. Ganahl pledged to declare a state of emergency over the fentanyl crisis and remove Colorado\u2019s so-called sanctuary status for immigrants.<\/p>\n

Polis defended other solutions to the drug crisis, including better treatment practices on top of more stringent penalties that the governor signed this year for the drug\u2019s dealers.<\/p>\n

The incumbent also attempted to flip the script on crime \u2013 a topic Republican candidates are hammering on across the country \u2013 claiming that Ganahl\u2019s proposals to reduce the state gas tax and remove income taxes altogether would defund law enforcement officers and prisons across the state. He labeled her proposals as \u201cdefund the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remark brought forth groans from Ganahl\u2019s supporters and Ganahl\u2019s swift denial.<\/p>\n

Both candidates walked a finer line on climate change policy as they try to garner votes in a state that still relies heavily on oil and natural gas extraction.<\/p>\n

Ganahl proposed an all-solutions approach to energy policy, including coal and nuclear power. Polis championed a more green energy policy while tipping his hat to the oil industry. \u201cYou drive a Tesla,\u201d he said to Ganahl, \u201cI drive an internal combustion engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polis\u2019 first term has been marked by early successes in expanding access to health care, capping the cost of certain health goods such as insulin and expanding early childhood education. Thanks to Democratic majorities in the Legislature, he enacted a series of measures designed to curb health care costs and increase transparency. He instituted universal kindergarten and has launched an effort to achieve the same with pre-K students.<\/p>\n

Democrats have come under criticism for a bill Polis signed in the wake of the George Floyd protests that lessened penalties for many small crimes, increased accountability for police misconduct and exposed police officers accused of misconduct to civil lawsuits from the public.<\/p>\n

Ganahl has tried to tie Polis to Biden in blaming both for inflation that\u2019s eaten into the incomes of Coloradans. Polis this year expedited tax refunds and has delayed or lessened fees for many services and small businesses.<\/p>\n

Ganahl also pledges to eliminate the state income tax to drive economic growth and reduce the size of the state bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Ganahl is the founder and former CEO of the pet care franchise Camp Bow Wow and also founded several charities, including the children\u2019s charity Moms Fight Back. She\u2019s been involved in founding a charter school and advocates both school choice and a greater say by parents in their children\u2019s education.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s debate was hosted by the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce. The candidates have other debates and issue forums in the works in coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis speaks before a debate on Wednesday in Pueblo. (David Zalubowski\/Associated Press)David Zalubowski PUEBLO \u2013 Colorado\u2019s Democratic governor, Jared Polis, and his GOP challenger, Heidi Ganahl, offered differing versions of the state with the economy, crime, education and post-pandemic recovery among the top issues in their first debate Wednesday night. Ganahl, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[819,28,1509],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-headlines","tag-state-elections"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38167"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}