{"id":1612,"date":"2026-05-29T13:03:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1612"},"modified":"2026-05-29T13:03:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:03:50","slug":"candidates-for-colorado-governor-address-business-lobby-concerns-in-glendale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1612","title":{"rendered":"Candidates for Colorado governor address business lobby concerns in Glendale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0DENVER<\/strong> | Two Democrats and two Republicans pitched their campaigns for Colorado governor to a roomful of business leaders in Glendale on Wednesday, offering different visions for the state but finding plenty to agree about \u2014 with the business community and with each other.<\/p>\n

Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet told the forum, organized by groups including Colorado Concern and the Downtown Denver Partnership, that he doesn\u2019t want Colorado \u201cto become Northern California or Southern California.\u201d Bennet faces\u00a0Attorney General Phil Weiser\u00a0in a head-to-head Democratic primary, the winner of which will be the heavy favorite to be elected the state\u2019s next governor in November.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cI want us to be something different, but we can\u2019t do any of it if we don\u2019t have a growing economy,\u201d Bennet told attendees as they ate a catered breakfast at the Infinity Park Event Center. \u201cWe can\u2019t do any of it if we\u2019re on the front page of the Wall Street Journal twice in three weeks as being the place that\u2019s repelling business from our state. That won\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Springs pastor and first-time candidate Victor Marx, running in a\u00a0three-way GOP primary, struck a more nostalgic tone, inviting the crowd to recall a \u201csimple\u201d past when kids could ride their bikes at night and \u201cdrink from the faucet\u201d when they came inside \u2014 but brought things back around to a similar message.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember when, Denver, you could come and not worry about your car being stolen or being mugged?\u201d Marx said. \u201cI believe in that Colorado, and I believe we can get it back. But without the business community to provide jobs, for economical sustainability, with businesses leaving \u2014 we\u2019ve got to turn some things around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside the Downtown Denver Partnership and Colorado Concern, an advocacy group made up of chief executives from the state\u2019s largest businesses, organizers of Thursday\u2019s forum included the Denver Metro Building Owners and Managers Association, the Denver Metro Commercial Association of Realtors, and the Urban Land Institute Colorado. Bennet, Weiser, Marx and Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, also seeking the GOP nomination for governor, made separate 20-minute appearances on stage, where they answered pre-submitted questions from a moderator.<\/p>\n

Weiser pointed to Agile Space Industries, a Durango-based rocket manufacturer that recently expanded in Oklahoma, because, he said, \u201cpermits that would have taken here months (or) more than a year, in Oklahoma, the same issue got done in days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sets out an agenda for this community,\u201d Weiser said. \u201cAn agenda to get the wind at the back of building a growing economic climate, so that Colorado is a place where people want to and can start and build growing businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennet called himself \u201cthe only candidate in this race with significant private sector experience,\u201d touting his work acquiring distressed companies for Phil Anschutz, the Colorado billionaire and conservative megadonor, in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have amazing assets in this state,\u201d Bennet said. \u201cWe have aerospace, we have space, we have national defense, we have energy, we have technology \u2014 the depth of these sectors is so much more profound than when I was working for Phil Anschutz all those years ago \u2026 So we can turn this state around, but we have to have the right leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complaints from the business lobby<\/h4>\n

Colorado will elect a new governor in 2026 amid a growing chorus of discontent from its conservative business lobby, which has cited recent high-profile\u00a0corporate relocations\u00a0and\u00a0slowing rates\u00a0of population growth as proof that the state is overburdened by rules and regulations.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Chamber of Commerce says it has\u00a0\u00a098 \u201crelocations or lost opportunities to other states\u201d since 2019, and in an 11-page report released this year it claimed Colorado has enacted an estimated 205,000 \u201cbusiness restrictions,\u201d the sixth-highest total of any state in the country.<\/p>\n

The complaints come despite the fact that Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, elected in 2019 and term-limited this year, has consistently angered the progressive wing of his party by\u00a0blocking legislation\u00a0he considers anti-business \u2014 and despite the rise of the\u00a0Colorado Opportunity Caucus, a bloc of business-backed Democratic moderates that has come to wield significant power in the Legislature since being formed in 2024.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, when hundreds of business leaders sent an\u00a0open letter\u00a0to the state\u2019s top elected Democrats, urging them to \u201cremove barriers and reestablish Colorado as a preferred geography for technology investment,\u201d Polis \u2014 an addressee of the letter but a centimillionaire tech investor himself \u2014 added his\u00a0signature.<\/p>\n

Business groups also had plenty to celebrate during the 2026 legislative session, which the Chamber itself\u00a0called\u00a0\u201ca year in which business concerns were heard.\u201d Colorado lawmakers\u00a0approved a near-total repeal\u00a0of a landmark consumer protection law concerning artificial intelligence deployment, killed bills that would have redirected business tax breaks to low-income families, passed a measure to require regular reviews of state regulatory burdens, and more. A bill passed by Democratic lawmakers to\u00a0ease union formation\u00a0and another to\u00a0prohibit surveillance pricing\u00a0are among the measures expected to be vetoed by Polis soon.<\/p>\n

One-party control<\/h4>\n

Kirkmeyer, a veteran of Colorado Republican politics who has represented Weld County in the state Senate since 2021, blamed the state\u2019s struggles with economic growth and affordability on \u201cone-party control.\u201d Democrats have held all four statewide elected offices and both chambers of the Legislature since first sweeping them in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats, for the last eight years now, have made a mess out of our state. We are unaffordable. We are unsafe. We\u2019re unraveling,\u201d Kirkmeyer said. \u201cOne-party control has put us in this position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Weiser partially echoed that concern, arguing that state government is in need of \u201cculture changes\u201d when it comes to listening to the business community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a state where one party has control, you lose what (former Gov.) Roy Romer brought intensely to every conversation, which is, \u2018What part of the truth am I missing?\u2019\u201d Weiser said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a regulatory policy conversation and the people who would be affected by the regulation are not at the table, you\u2019re not positioned to make good public policy,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about regulations that went from an anecdote to a proposed bill to enacted and then signed, and the people who the law would have affected felt like they never had a chance to be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou talk about an effectively one-party system which we have in the state,\u201d the forum\u2019s moderator, Colorado Politics editor Luige Del Puerto, said to Weiser. \u201cThat\u2019s your party, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Boys Volleyball: 2026 All-Centennial League teams<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Read more Aurora police arrest suspect in fatal apartment shooting<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Read more EDITORIAL: Polis should help police increase transparency by signing law mandating it<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story was first published at Colorado Newsline. \u00a0DENVER | Two Democrats and two Republicans pitched their campaigns for Colorado governor to a roomful of business leaders in Glendale on Wednesday, offering different visions for the state but finding plenty to agree about \u2014 with the business community and with each other. Democratic U.S. Sen. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[1238,116,39,2303,1242],"class_list":["post-1612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metro","tag-barbara-kirkmeyer","tag-gov-jared-polis","tag-phil-weiser","tag-senator-michael-bennet","tag-victor-marx"],"yoast_head":"\nCandidates for Colorado governor address business lobby concerns in Glendale - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=1612\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Candidates for Colorado governor address business lobby concerns in Glendale - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This story was first published at Colorado Newsline. \u00a0DENVER | Two Democrats and two Republicans pitched their campaigns for Colorado governor to a roomful of business leaders in Glendale on Wednesday, offering different visions for the state but finding plenty to agree about \u2014 with the business community and with each other. 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