Public Safety

Public Safety includes law enforcement, fire mitigation, AND mental health.

Bob supports FUNDING law enforcement. One way to provide more resources to law enforcement is to return to a robust public mental health system. Jails have become mental health facilities of last resort, which doesn't help the police, average citizen nor the people who should be involuntarily committed before they are involuntarily incarcerated for issues stemming from mental health.

Oregon recently instituted an interesting law that allows those who would not have committed a crime "but for" a mental health condition to be committed to the state mental health authorities, rather than the state correctional institutions, for the maximum sentencing period that crime could have carried. That does not mean the individual is forced into a mental health institution, but that they are monitored as if on probation and required to follow the mental health care prescribed to them.

Bob additionally supports revoking personal recognizance bonds for auto theft which was recently put in place by Colorado's legislature in a recent criminal justice reform bill (most reforms were long overdue). Auto theft, however, is a skilled crime and those who engage in it likely have done it before to learn their craft and are likely to do it again.

Allowing those arrested for auto theft to return immediately to the streets without any bail or other conditions has likely contributed to Colorado's skyrocketing auto theft rates. Auto theft is a serious crime, especially for those without the resources to afford insurance or who have insufficient funds to quickly replace the transportation they rely upon for work, medical appointments, and to take care their families. Auto theft should be treated as the serious crime that it is as it is most devastating to the most vulnerable in our population.

Gun Safety

Bob is a gun owner, a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL), has a concealed carry permit, and was the Team Captain for two Marine Corps shooting teams.

Bob supports the Rule of Law, and the Constitution is the basic law of the land and the Second Amendment is part of the Constitution. But every right comes with corresponding responsibility.

Bob, therefore, supports constitutional gun safety measures like Red Flag Laws, whose procedures are not materially different than if the state came into your home to take your child because you were a threat to the child or yourself.

Bob will fight to prevent 2nd Amendment absolutists, who do not recognize any limits, from overturning Colorado's gun safety laws.

LGBTQ+ Rights

I fully support the LGBTQ+ community, people and persons in having the full rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities as all fellow Americans and human beings.

I feel ridiculous to have to even say such a statement. But obviously there are people who believe that children should be deprived of a good home with a caring parent or parents solely on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Or who believe that their fellow Americans should be penalized or discriminated against solely for being "different".

I'll always fight against discrimination of attributes that have no impact or bearing on the task at hand. General "Mad Dog" Mattis was far from a progressive. But he fought against Mr. Trump's attempt to discharge trans service members for the simple reason that if you can find an American capable of getting through Marine Corps boot camp and is willing to stand in a fighting hole next to you… why would you ever discharge such a person simply for being "different." I have, and would bring, that same perspective.

Public Education

We need to re-emphasize vocational-tech, and reinvest in higher education, but with the understanding that increased state funding includes better state control.

We need to provide a subsidy for teacher professionalism - a tax free stipend for full time equivalents in the state. We shouldn't have to hear about teachers paying out-of-pocket for classroom supplies, training, and more.

A tax free stipend that teachers can use at their discretion for training or classroom use will treat them like the professionals they are, and can be structured as state matching funds for participating school districts.

Bob was the first legislator to move the teacher tax credit out of a committee in 2023. This helps to offset teacher's out-of-pocket expenses. In 2024, Bob again introduced the bill and had it successfully passed out of the Finance Committee unanimously. Although the bill dies in the appropriations committee, Bob is committed to ensuring Colorado's teachers are not just appropriately compensated, but are provided professional respect.

Environment

I grew up in Colorado’s mountains and remember traveling down I-70 to Denver and seeing the vista of the infamous "Brown Cloud" hanging over Denver. And then experiencing Denver’s "chewy air". No one should have to live in that.

Clean water and air is a necessity for long term health and economic development. Failure to see and address the economic externalities of such costs is bad business.

Denver made the forward thinking decision in the 1920s to buy mountain parkland in the counties to its west to protect it for future generations. We have to start being as forward thinking as our past generations if we want Colorado and America to remain the beautiful bastion of liberty and economic freedom that it has been and always must be.

Reproductive Rights

Bob does not want to see ten year old rape victims forced to carry a pregnancy to term. Nor does he want to see the physician who saves such a CHILD from severe medical complications threatened with retaliation. And Bob does not want to see bounties placed on women, and those who aid them to obtain an abortion, where private citizens can profit financially by informing upon their fellow citizens. Nor have interstate travel made illegal for those who travel across state lines to engage in conduct legal in another state.

These are ACTUAL events and laws that have occurred under GOP policies since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And they are the laws and behavior of a totalitarian state like East Germany, not the liberal Democratic order that the United States has championed since its founding. It is unAmerican.

Bob is committed as a Colorado State Representative to fight against the radical anti-abortion zealotry of the GOP that seeks to undermine our Free Republic.

Veteran's Issues

Bob's background and experience has led him to become a key champion for veterans' and military issues that had been ignored or not addressed.

In the 2023 session as a first-term legislator, he rallied the bipartisan veterans in the state house to override the powerful Joint Budget Committee to ensure that additional funding was included in the budget so that all veterans could have appropriate honors rendered at their funerals.

Additionally, the legislature is only allowed to refer 5 ballot measures to the voters each term. Bob ensured that one of the five addressed a significant oversight where veterans with an Individual Unemployability (IU) designation from the VA were excluded from the disabled veterans homestead exemption.

In 2024, Bob also prime sponsored and passed the "Purple Star Program", a DoD program that more than 40 states had already adopted to help military dependents better integrate into schools. No other legislator would take the issue up before Bob worked for its passage.