Issues

Housing and Homelessness

Colorado’s housing crisis has gotten out of control. People cannot afford rent or save enough money to buy a first home. Homeowners are faced with skyrocketing tax increases. As a result, working class people and those on fixed incomes are being forced out of their homes and our community. To address the root causes we must change land-use laws, expand public/private partnerships, and incentivize the building of safe, affordable housing. We must: invest in proven programs that support renters and minimize displacement; repurpose abandoned or misused buildings; and stabilize taxes to keep those on fixed incomes from being pushed into homelessness.  

My Ideas:

  • Create the option to pay proporty taxes in more than one or two payments.

  • Protect tenants from massive rent hikes and surprise fees by regulating corporate landlord practices.

  • Implement a land use plan that makes sense and gives more opportunity for homeowners to build apartments or cottages on their properties to increase the housing supply.

  • Expand the Senior Property Tax exemption and make it portable, to help protect seniors on a fixed income from rising property taxes.

  • Expand programs that help first-time homebuyers and eliminate the hurdles that keep young people from being able to purchase a house when they want to.

Education

Our school system needs to successfully provide every student in Colorado with a world-class education. We have to make the right investments in student success through technological innovations, making sure our school buildings are modern and safe, and paying our teachers the salary they deserve. As a former educator I know how critical it is that students are prepared for post-high school opportunities. Teachers need financial and emotional support and Colorado owes it to our kids to make sure they have every chance to succeed.

My Ideas:

  • Fully eliminate the Budget Stabilization factor that short-changes our kids and fight to make sure every future budget meets our obligations to our schools.

  • Make investments in building upgrades and security systems so students have welcoming and safe places to learn.

  • Increase pay for teachers and support staff.

  • Expand programs and create partnerships around apprenticeship programs and job-skill training to make sure students are prepared for good jobs once they leave school.

  • Protect our LGBTQ students from the despicable wave of GOP attacks on everything from sex-ed to gender inclusivity.

Climate

The climate crisis is here and impacts Coloradans every day through more extreme weather events, more severe storms, and a changing climate that takes away consistent jobs in agriculture, tourism, or conservation. We need to continue Colorado’s transition to renewable energy, enforce our air quality standards, and continue our leadership in environmental efforts because our children deserve nothing less. We also have to recognize this as an equity issue, as it is our communities of color and lower-income areas that are hardest hit. The solutions needed to mitigate climate change require investments to protect these communities and ensure clean air and clean water for all Coloradans.

My Ideas:

  • Expand Colorado’s renewable energy production and manufacturing to speed up the timeline to a full transition to renewables.

  • Enforce our air quality standards to protect the communities impacted by pollution, especially around our interstates and industrial areas.

  • Create subsidies for low-income families who want to transition to electric appliances or vehicles.

  • Fully fund our forest fire and flood prevention programs to protect communities as well as our statewide air quality.

Immigrant Rights

I have spent decades working for immigrants in our community while interpreting and enforcing the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act. As a prosecutor I trained other prosecutors and defense attorneys about the adverse consequences to immigration status due to criminal convictions, and fought to require proper advisements of those consequences before defendants entered pleas. As a law professor, I created experiential internships representing immigrants at the immigration detention center (which led to the creation of the immigrant serving non-profit RMAIN). Serving as the first and only Mexican-American Appellate Immigration Judge I know and understand the intersection of federal and state rights regarding immigration and am committed to navigating solutions for DACA recipients and all immigrants who reside in Colorado. I can also ensure that solutions consider the allocation of responsibility between the federal and state governments.

My Ideas:

  • Protect Colorado immigrants from the abusive and manipulative tactics used by ICE to deport people simply trying to live their lives.

  • Create data privacy laws that will keep private personal data from being mined and used to determine immigration status.

  • Work to expand the Immigration Legal Defense Fund so all immigrants who are dealing with the justice system have proper representation.

  • Use state agencies to regulate the GEO facility in Aurora to make sure people are being treated humanely and that the facility increases its standards.

  • Collaborate with the Federal elected officials to fix the broken immigration system and provide support to states dealing with rising costs related to immigration.

Reproductive Justice

The right to an abortion is under attack by conservative judges and legislators across America. Thankfully, Colorado has remained a safe haven for abortion rights due to the amazing work of our state legislature. We need to continue the work to expand access to all of our communities, and we must address the historical harms to women of color. Reproductive healthcare equity must allow everyone in Colorado the same ability to get the services they need regarding their reproductive choices. We must also increase protections for providers who serve those fleeing Republican states to receive abortion services. Finally, we must strengthen privacy protections of patients to keep their records secure, especially from Republican Attorney Generals who have been targeting medical records.

My Ideas:

  • Support a Ballot Initiative 89 to Constitutionally Amend and guarantee the right to an abortion in Colorado.

  • Protect Colorado from attacks being launched by Republican lawmakers and legal activists that aim to prevent access to reproductive care.

  • Join healthcare providers, racial-justice organizations, and reproductive rights groups to ensure the right of every person to access essential reproductive healthcare and to have autonomy over their bodies.

  • Ensure that safe abortion is supported by policy and grounded in law, and that it’s de-stigmatised, funded, and easy to access no matter what your income or immigration status is.

  • Bar employers from denying reproductive healthcare in their insurance plans.

LGBTQIA Rights

Attacks on our LGBTQI+ community from the right-wing, are disgusting and dangerous. I have always fought against hatred, including opposing Amendment 2 in 1992. I will continue to fight for and uphold the rights of the LGBTQI+ community. I support legislation that protects gender-affirming care, strengthens our hate-crime laws and gives resources to LGBTQI+ youth who face discrimination and isolation.

My Ideas:

  • Expand healthcare access for the LGBTQIA community, especially youth members who often face unique challenges.

  • Expand the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws to ensure no one faces bigotry at their workplace, school or when finding a place to live.

  • Strengthen hate-crime laws to protect our neighbors from harassment and intimidation.

Healthcare

I believe that healthcare, including mental health, is a basic human right. We need to do everything we can in Colorado to increase access, lower prices and recapture Medicaid eligible recipients who lost healthcare with the termination of the COVID emergency. Additionally, we must hold insurance companies accountable, raise the minimum standard of care, and find ways to negotiate drug prices in order to help our working-families access healthcare. I believe in the Colorado Option and want to see a robust state program to compete with insurers to keep costs down.

My Ideas:

  • Make insurance and hospitals pricing more transparent and fair.

  • Increase access to mental health services for low-income communities through training and placement incentives.

  • Cap the price of prescription medications and work on purchasing agreements to lower costs of specialty drugs.

  • Expand our Colorado Option plans to drive down the cost of insurance on the ACA marketplace.

  • Create information campaigns to get more eligible Coloradans covered by Medicaid.

My Ideas:

  • Raise the minimum wage to make sure that every Coloradan can support themselves and their family comfortably.

  • Eliminate the barriers to joining a union, including closed-door meetings, multiple votes, and burdensome thresholds for a workplace to unionize.

  • Fund infrastructure investments that will improve our public transit, public schools, energy, and water systems.

  • Create grants and loan-programs targeted specifically to small businesses in our community and businesses owned and operated by people of color.

  • Invest in apprenticeship programs in critically needed fields where employers are struggling to find workers.

  • Protect the incredible small-businesses in our district that make North and West Denver such incredible places to live.

Economic Opportunity

North and West Denver have some of the most amazing and unique small businesses in Colorado. From incredible food to beautiful art, our families sustain themselves through hard-work at small businesses. We need to provide incentives for expansion and training, support our BIPOC business owners with tax credits and make sure that we raise the minimum wage. I am a strong supporter of unions and believe that we need to make the process of unionizing a workplace easier and more accessible to protect our workers.

Preventing Gun Violence

Gun Violence has inserted fear into our schools and public gatherings. Instinctively we all have to make plans for our safety when we enter our schools, places of worship, grocery stores and public venues. The threat of gun violence is a public health and mental health crisis. We must enact sensible  legislation to prohibit the use of assault weapons, expand services to those who suffer from the trauma of gun violence and put an end to the rampant misuse of weapons.

My Ideas:

  • Expand our background check, red-flag and waiting period laws to close all loopholes and ensure that violent offenders cannot purchase firearms.

  • Increase requirements for scrutiny and regulation on private-party sales and gun shows.

  • Expand safe-storage laws to protect children from accidents.

  • Fund support programs for mental health and victim assistance to help those in domestic violence situations.

  • Increase resources for suicide prevention.

  • Regulate or ban the sale of assault weapons in Colorado.

Transportation and Infrastructure

House District 4 has many of the most dangerous streets in Denver. They include city and State roads. We must address the condition of these roads and expand opportunites for repair and other modes of transportation. Becasue we are so close to the city center we have opportunies to create effective solutions to meet the need of residents to safely transit in and through our neighborhoods. We must protect and expand RTD lines and expand pedestrian and multi-modal methods of travel.

My Ideas:

  • Fight to maintain the election of the RTD Board to provide represention.

  • Evaluate the coordination between the State Department of Transportation’s collaboration with local jurisdictions to enhance requirements for collaboration and minimize the times that roads are torn up.

  • Evaluate current and potential efforts to enhance pedestrian and bicyle safety.