This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.

COLORADO SPRINGS | Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser kicked off debate season Thursday night without his main opponent in the race for Colorado governor, Republican Victor Marx, facing off instead against independent candidate Greg Lopez at an event in Colorado Springs.

In his first debate appearance since his Democratic primary victory over U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in June, Weiser renewed his promise to Colorado voters to stand up to President Donald Trump. He denounced the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the state to secure the release of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, and its efforts to interfere with mail ballots.

Producing a pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution, he turned to Article I, Section 4: “What it says is the states manage the time, place and manner of elections,” he said.

“President Trump is taking away our sovereignty as a state,” Weiser continued. “If you believe in federalism and the Constitution, you call out lawless behavior that’s a threat to our sovereignty and efforts to interfere with our elections. Whether as attorney general or governor, I won’t tolerate that lawlessness. I won’t bend the knee. I will always fight back.”

Lopez, an unaffiliated candidate who served a six-month stint as a Republican member of Congress in 2024, promptly reached into a pocket to show off a constitution of his own.

“As an unaffiliated candidate, I represent the people, not a party,” said Lopez. “And so I will stand tall any time someone is trying to do harm to the people of Colorado.”

But Lopez, who has run for governor twice before as a Republican, did little throughout the hourlong debate to distance himself from his former party on policy. He assailed gun control laws, endorsed a pair of anti-trans initiatives set for Colorado’s November ballot and said his first priority as governor would be to target “all the regulations and all the fees” to improve the state’s business climate. In sharp contrast to Weiser, who again criticized Gov. Jared Polis’ commutation of Peters’ sentence for her role in a 2021 security breach in her elections office, Lopez said he supported the decision.

Thursday’s debate was hosted by KOAA and Colorado Politics at the Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts, and billed as a double-header with a 5th Congressional District debate that preceded it. Organizers said Marx, who narrowly defeated state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer to win the GOP nomination for governor, declined their invitation.

“Victor Marx isn’t here. He wasn’t ready to answer questions about the Constitution,” Weiser said. “I worry that he’s not ready to protect Colorado and our constitutional rights.”

Affordability issues

Weiser pledged to lower the cost of housing in Colorado by boosting the supply of starter homes, argued that healthcare affordability can be improved by expanding free primary care, and touted his effort to block the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger as a tangible example of how he’s worked to keep costs down for consumers.

On housing, Weiser spoke of striking a balance between state mandates promoting denser, more abundant housing and the role of local control by municipal governments. His stance is a softer one than Bennet, his Democratic primary opponent, had endorsed by the end of that campaign, earning the endorsement of housing-supply advocates by promising to take a tougher line against cities that stand in the way of housing development. The issue has bedeviled Polis in his second term, with six Front Range cities suing the state over new housing rules passed on his watch.

“The relationship I foresee is one of collaboration, and one of, how do we push each other? How do we lift each other up?” Weiser said. “That means we’ve got to challenge local governments … to lower those permitting fees, (and) create incentives to build the types of homes, including near transit, that build more livable and sustainable cities.”

Lopez, whose political career began in 1992 when he was elected mayor of Parker, said he “would never take local control away from a jurisdiction.”

“When government at the state level brings down unfunded mandates across the state, this is basically telling you that the state government fully doesn’t understand the struggles of a small community, the struggles of land use,” Lopez said.

Weiser again declined to endorse Proposed Initiative 195, a ballot measure backed by progressive groups to establish a graduated income tax system and raise taxes on those earning more than $500,000 a year. The measure, which as a constitutional amendment faces a high bar for ballot qualification, is awaiting certification by the secretary of state’s office.

“I don’t take positions until something is actually certified, so I’m not going to offer an answer,” Weiser said.

Marx a no-show

Weiser, who has served as attorney general since 2019, is the heavy favorite to win November’s general election and succeed Polis, who is term-limited. Colorado has elected only one Republican governor in the last 56 years, and Democrats are widely expected to gain ground in a favorable midterm election year.

Both of Marx’s GOP primary opponents said they would not support him in the general election, calling him a “grifter” and a “con man.” A ministry leader in Colorado Springs, he has struggled to answer questions about his sensational claims about his own life and his work overseas as a self-described “high-risk missionary.” In one widely publicized interview with 9News in May, he declined to answer when asked how many people he has killed.

Marx previously challenged Weiser to a debate with no moderators. The two major-party candidates are currently scheduled to meet on stage only once, at a Colorado Chamber of Commerce forum in early October. Marx confirmed his attendance at that event only after the Chamber of Commerce removed 9News’ Kyle Clark — who conducted the viral Marx interview and later tangled with him at a GOP primary debate — with a Chamber employee.

In Marx’s absence, Thursday’s debate gradually took on an air of cordiality, with Weiser praising Lopez’s “spirit” and willingness to engage in the democratic process. The two candidates found common ground on concerns over the environmental and economic impacts of data centers, and Weiser, who said the issue would be a top priority in his first days in office, invited Lopez to work with him on data center legislation.

“Victor Marx, if you’re watching, we’re having a lot of fun here,” Weiser said. “We’re learning from one another. This is what democracy looks like.”

“This wasn’t too long a commute — it’s a little longer to come to Grand Junction to join us,” he added, referring to next month’s Club 20 debate on the Western Slope. “Please. Victor. What are you afraid of?”

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