Jared Polis (D): Legal. Strong pro-choice advocate.
Walker Stapleton (R): Mostly ban, with exceptions for rape, incest and life of mother. Won't say if he'll sign abortion restriction bills.
Q: Let employers withhold contraceptive coverage from employees if disagree with it morally?
Polis: No.
Stapleton: Unknown.
Q: Let Planned Parenthood receive public funds for non-abortion health services?
Polis: Yes.
Stapleton: Unknown.
Jared Polis (D): Yes. The only candidate who supported legalization in 2012. Treat it like alcohol. Opposes Justice Department's war against states with legalization.
Walker Stapleton (R): Unknown. But is concerned about unintended consequences of legalization, including mental health issues.
Jared Polis (D): Yes. Advocates for increased across-the-board funding and preschool for all. Has also supported related levies and bonds and will continue to do so.
Walker Stapleton (R): Yes. But "it is critical to ensure that these dollars actually make it into the classroom."
Q: Support recent teachers' strikes?
Polis: Yes. Stop underpaying teachers, "instead of criminalizing [their] right to.demand fair compensation."
Stapleton: Unknown.
Q: Education: Support providing vouchers or tax breaks to parents to send their children to private schools with public money?
Polis: "I've voted against vouchers every time they've come up in Congress. I don't support diverting funds from public schools to private schools. Period."
Stapleton: Yes. Advocates "school choice" and believes "each student that gets . $10,000 in funding should take that money .& .do whatever they want."
Jared Polis (D): Yes to limiting greenhouse gases. Supports participation in Alliance. Introduced "100 by `50 Act" to transition to 100% clean and renewable energy by 2050.
Walker Stapleton (R): No to limiting greenhouse gases. Says a major reason he is running is to "offer a full-throated defense of the state's oil-and-gas industry against [those] that want it regulated more tightly."
Q: Support government investment in renewable energy?
Polis: Yes. Increase regulatory incentives for energy efficiency & renewables.
Stapleton: No. Favors "free enterprise & open & competitive marketplace."
Jared Polis (D): Unknown.
Walker Stapleton (R): No. Is concerned about escalating trade war hurting Colorado industries.
Jared Polis (D): Supports gun rights for defense & sport, but would ban bump stocks, end black market gun sales, temporarily suspend dangerous people's access to firearms, & increase gun safety.
Walker Stapleton (R): No. Wants to repeal 2013 gun control laws & will oppose all efforts to limit guns. Supports letting law enforcement seize weapons from people deemed a threat.
Jared Polis (D): Keep ACA and improve it. Work toward universal single-payer system. Believes Medicaid expansion in Colorado has been an enormous success.
Walker Stapleton (R): Repeal ACA & end Colorado's ObamaCare exchange. Shrinking Medicaid expansion would be among main changes he'd champion.
Jared Polis (D): Yes. "Outraged" .by Trump's "callous & short-sighted decision" to end DACA & "cast nearly 1 million aspiring Americans back into the shadows." Supports earned path to citizenship for other illegal immigrants, combined with increased border protections.
Walker Stapleton (R): Has said supports Trump proposals, which gave DACA recipients legal status but not path to citizenship in return for building the wall and tightening legal immigration. Has also supported deporting anyone in the country illegally.
Jared Polis (D): No. "I proudly wrote the bill to repeal @RealDonaldTrump's tax giveaways [to the wealthy]."
Walker Stapleton (R): Yes. "I was the only treasurer in the country with the courage to support Donald Trump's tax cuts."
As Stapleton has said throughout his candidacy, he remains a proponent of school choice, namely charter schools. "It's up to the next governor to make sure our classrooms are adequately funded and parents have more choices when it comes to their child's education," Stapleton said in a statement. "I'm confident my proposals will help hardworking Colorado families and, most importantly, help our students succeed."
His savings plan proposal would allow parents to save for education expenses, "including early childhood education, music lessons, tutoring services, and career and technical educational programs," according to the platform plank.
"In order to retain the best teachers in the country, we should be using our education dollars to pay our teachers and get more money into classrooms to help students succeed," said Stapleton. "This can be done with existing funds if we increase transparency in the budgeting process and direct dollars to the teachers and the classrooms where they belong."
Stapleton called it "commonsense policy" to cut a tax break to parents' spending on education.
Stapleton's ancestral family has a history of public service dating back more than a century, something Stapleton touted in campaign ads. He noted his great grandfather served 5 terms as Denver's mayor and helped build the first civic center in Colorado, and the first municipal airport in the Mile High City.
But Benjamin Stapleton's legacy also includes a dark chapter. He was a high ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920's, which had infiltrated both parties and virtually all levels of government.
Stapleton says he's not his great grandfather--he was born 25 years after the elder Stapleton died--but he hasn't expressly denounced Benjamin Stapleton's involvement in the KKK, until now. "I categorically condemn racism of all forms and I categorically condemn hate organizations and they will have no place in my administration as governor," he said.
Stapleton sees the program--which returned more money during his tenure than all previous years combined--as one of his better known successes. Democrats, however, hope to turn that popularity against him by convincing voters the program has been mismanaged.
The Great Colorado Payback started in 1989 as a way to tell people about all the unclaimed property the state keeps, such as the contents of forgotten safe deposit boxes and bank accounts.
When Stapleton took office in 2010, he established a tradition of timing his TV ads with March Madness, the spring college basketball tournament. And that's when things took off. The program grew from about 60,000 claims per year to nearly 140,000 in 2017. The size of the staff and its methods for processing claims, however, remained the same. The result was a mess
A: "A managed Medicaid model means the following:˙It means a proliferation of community health care centers. I've got a little clinic across the street. When my kids get sick˙I take my kids across the street to an RN, and I pay $10 to $15 for a copay. The pharmacy is right there. If I took them to their pediatrician, I'd be paying 4 times as much and the insurance company would be billing me 6 or 7 times as much.
"As Colorado's treasurer, I stopped the largest tax increase in state history, and I led the fight against a single-payer health care system--and we won again," a smiling Stapleton says in the ad, which also pictures his wife, Jenna, and their three young children.
Then, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence smile and wave as they briefly cross the screen. Stapleton brings up two key issues for Trump supporters--the Republican tax reform bill and so-called sanctuary cities.
"I was the only (state) treasurer in the country with the courage to support Donald Trump's tax cuts, and as your next governor, I'll end these dangerous sanctuary city policies. I'll take the fight to the liberals and beat 'em again," Stapleton says.
"As Colorado's treasurer, I stopped the largest tax increase in state history, and I led the fight against a single-payer health care system--and we won again," a smiling Stapleton says in the ad.
Then, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence smile and wave as they briefly cross the screen.
"I was the only (state) treasurer in the country with the courage to support Donald Trump's tax cuts, and as your next governor, I'll end these dangerous sanctuary city policies. I'll take the fight to the liberals and beat 'em again," Stapleton says.
A "Truth Test" report by 9News labeled as "false" the assertion about Stapleton standing alone in support of the Trump tax changes, citing examples of several other state treasurers who publicly backed the tax measure.
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The above quotations are from 2018 Colorado Gubernatorial race: debates and news coverage.
Click here for other excerpts from 2018 Colorado Gubernatorial race: debates and news coverage. Click here for other excerpts by Walker Stapleton. Click here for other excerpts by other Governors.
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