Colorado legislature
What Colorado Lost to Term Limits
Colorado has lost hundreds of years of legislative experience to its misguided term limit amendment.
Brad Jones
energy
Colorado's green energy revolution
Energy production in Colorado has shifted dramatically over the past 25 years. At the turn of the century, more than three-quarters of the electricity produced in Colorado was generated in coal-fired power plants. A few years ago, wind power overtook coal in total megawatt hours produced, and this
campaign finance
Colorado's "Hook and Squeeze"
Colorado Democrats have been using unsustainable fundraising tactics that threaten to burn out donors and increase cynicism.
interview transcript
Interview with John Padora, August 24, 2026
Note: This interview was transcribed by an AI tool which seems to have done an admirable job, but errors likely remain. It has further been very lightly edited for readability. I conducted this interview for my post, "Colorado's Hook and Squeeze." Brad Jones: I wanted to
online sports betting
$1 Billion on Ping Pong: What Colorado’s Sports Betting Data Reveals
Coloradans have wagered more than a billion dollars on table tennis since the legalization of online sports betting, but that is only a small part of the story.
affordability
Housing affordability in Colorado
Colorado has one of the least affordable housing markets in the country. A recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition ranked Colorado among the least affordable housing markets in the country. This was an issue that came up over and over in my recent review of state legislative
2026 elections
How Colorado Politicians are Talking About the Issues
Democrats and Republicans running for the state legislature are presenting themselves in very different ways. They talk about different issues and they talk about those issues in very different ways. Political campaigns are the key connective tissue between candidates and Coloradans. In this post, I'll review some data
2026 election
Cast Vote Records in the 2026 Democratic Primary in Denver
Analysis of the ballots cast in the 2026 primary election reveals the diversity of the electorate.
Rising temperatures in Colorado over the last 75 years
In my last post, I (perhaps unadvisedly) wandered out of my comfort zone and into some climatological data in the form of snowpack data over the past 40 years in Colorado. While I wait on some official election data to come in, I've got another dataset in the
snowpack
Preparing for a long, fiery summer
What does Colorado's historically dry winter portend for fire season?
opinion
On the risk of reading too much into election results
Just as it was a mistake to read too much into Trump's 2024 victory, it is a mistake to try to read too much into a handful of Democratic primary contests.
Melat Kiros
Understanding Kiros's victory in CO-01
A few relevant data points about Kiros's victory in CO-01.