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<v Speaker 1>We're going to talk to a guy much like my

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<v Speaker 1>friend Valdemar who is running in the first congressional district,

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<v Speaker 1>who picked up the mantle to run in a district

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<v Speaker 1>that isn't very favorable for Republicans, but Michael Demana did

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<v Speaker 1>it anyway. He's running for the second district House seat.

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<v Speaker 1>And welcome to the show. Michael.

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<v Speaker 2>Good afternoon, Mandy, thank you for having me.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad that there are

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<v Speaker 1>Republicans trying to make some gains in these really blue districts.

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<v Speaker 1>So I want to ask you, Michael. I bet a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of my listeners have never heard of you. Tell

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<v Speaker 1>people a little bit about yourself.

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<v Speaker 2>I'd be happy to and I'm also sure that's true.

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<v Speaker 2>They probably haven't heard of my opponent either, because not

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<v Speaker 2>too many people in this district even know who that is.

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<v Speaker 2>But in any event, tell you a little bit about

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<v Speaker 2>me and my background. Little bit. I am a fourth

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<v Speaker 2>generation denveright, so I've lived here in my entire life.

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<v Speaker 2>I was born in Saint Joseph's Hospital, educated in Catholic schools,

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<v Speaker 2>high school, grade school, went to university colleg out of

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<v Speaker 2>a Boulder for my undergraduate work and graduated from the

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<v Speaker 2>University of Denver Law School, where I've been. I have

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<v Speaker 2>practice law in this city for a little over fifty

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<v Speaker 2>two years. My partner and I were the form the

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<v Speaker 2>first minority owned law firm in Denver, so we're very

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<v Speaker 2>proud of that. And we owned a nineteenth century building

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<v Speaker 2>on seventeenth and the High Street where we did our

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<v Speaker 2>practice for over forty years together. So that's a little

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<v Speaker 2>bit about me and a little bit about my background.

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<v Speaker 1>So you're obviously accomplished. Why do you want to put

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<v Speaker 1>your face in the wood chipper of politics? What made

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<v Speaker 1>you jump into the second House district race?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, a couple of things. One, I'm not a politician.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm just like everybody else that lives in the House

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<v Speaker 2>district too, and lives in Denver, And candidly, I just

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<v Speaker 2>got sick and tired of what was happening to my

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<v Speaker 2>beautiful city and my wonderful state. And I just said,

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<v Speaker 2>I've had enough, and a lot of people that I

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<v Speaker 2>know have had enough. What are we going to do

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<v Speaker 2>about it? Well, somebody needs to stand up and say

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<v Speaker 2>something about it. And I decided that that was going

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<v Speaker 2>to be me.

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<v Speaker 1>So let's talk about your vision for the second House district.

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<v Speaker 1>What do you think are the number one concerns and

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<v Speaker 1>how do you want the legislature to address them?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, the number one concern in my view is crime.

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<v Speaker 2>What's happened to our city and our state with regard

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<v Speaker 2>to crime has just been unacceptable anymore. We've given the

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<v Speaker 2>Democrats and liberals their opportunity with you know, no cash bail,

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<v Speaker 2>with lowering penalties on sentinel and doing a whole number

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<v Speaker 2>of other things, including welcoming immigrants into this city and state,

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<v Speaker 2>and we've seen what's happened. In January, our governor said

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<v Speaker 2>that he wanted to make Colorado the tenth safest state

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<v Speaker 2>in the nation, because at this point we are the

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<v Speaker 2>number third most unsafe state in the nation for felony crime.

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<v Speaker 2>So why the governor was going to need five years

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<v Speaker 2>to do it, I guess it's because he's only going

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<v Speaker 2>to be around for four and then we'll deal with

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<v Speaker 2>the rest of it after he leaves. But in any event,

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<v Speaker 2>let me tell you very briefly what the legislature did

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<v Speaker 2>for the first of those five years. Nothing. Yeah, absolutely nothing.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, Michael, I actually I would argue the opposite. I

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<v Speaker 1>think that the legislature did a lot. They decriminalized ventanyl,

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<v Speaker 1>they made car theft a misdemeanor. They did a lot

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<v Speaker 1>to contribute to our current crime situation here in Colorado.

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<v Speaker 1>So I'm not going to let you off that let

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<v Speaker 1>them off that easily. You were being kind. I don't

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<v Speaker 1>have to be kind because I'm not running for anything.

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<v Speaker 2>Thank you, Thank you, Mandy. I meant they did nothing

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<v Speaker 2>for the citizens, right, they did everything for the criminals. Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>I've been in the courtroom over thirty years practicing criminal

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<v Speaker 2>defense law. Every time that I met someone accused of

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<v Speaker 2>a crime, they had two questions. One, that's the fee,

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<v Speaker 2>But number two, how much time am I going to do?

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<v Speaker 2>How I'm going to attack this issue is not let

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<v Speaker 2>the Democrats get continue to get away from lowering penalties.

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<v Speaker 2>In fact, my view is and one of the first

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<v Speaker 2>pills I will offer is that if you are convicted

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<v Speaker 2>of a crime involving a firearm, you will not only

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<v Speaker 2>do the underlying sentence for the crime, You'll do an

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<v Speaker 2>additional five for the firearm. Now that's an additional five years,

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<v Speaker 2>not without without parole, without good time, without earn time,

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<v Speaker 2>without all the other craft that they put onto these

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<v Speaker 2>things to let these guys out earlier. It will be

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<v Speaker 2>five years, and I believe that that will significantly decrease crime. Say,

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<v Speaker 2>the other thing is we've got to start backing our

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<v Speaker 2>police officers. We just simply have to start doing that,

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<v Speaker 2>and we are not doing that, as you can see.

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<v Speaker 2>In fact, in Denver we have something on the ballot

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<v Speaker 2>this year that we're going to allow non citizens to

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<v Speaker 2>become members the Denver Police Department and Fire department. Why

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<v Speaker 2>because we can't get police officers to do it. Why

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<v Speaker 2>can't we get people to want to be police officers

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<v Speaker 2>because we don't back them. We just simply do not

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<v Speaker 2>back them. In fact, they can be personally liable for

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<v Speaker 2>twenty five thousand dollars of damages if they are sued. Now,

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<v Speaker 2>you tell me who wants to do a job like that,

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<v Speaker 2>and what's in our legislator's response. They've left it to

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<v Speaker 2>the people because we have Proposition one twenty eight, which

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<v Speaker 2>I hope people will vote for, which requires violent criminals

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<v Speaker 2>to do wait for it, eighty five percent of their

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<v Speaker 2>sentence and if they're convicted of free violent crimes, they

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<v Speaker 2>have to do one hundred percent of their sentence now

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<v Speaker 2>you mean to tell me that the Colorado legislature cannot

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<v Speaker 2>agree on this kind of an issue and needs to

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<v Speaker 2>send it to the people to make the decision. That's

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<v Speaker 2>what I'm talking about, about favoring criminals and not protecting

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<v Speaker 2>the citizens of this state and the city.

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<v Speaker 1>I agree, hoohearted ly. Let's talk about affordability that those

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<v Speaker 1>two things. I think there's three things happening right now.

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<v Speaker 1>People are concerned about crime because no matter how many

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<v Speaker 1>talking heads on Twitter tell us that crime has dropped dramatically,

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<v Speaker 1>the reality is I was talking to a friend of

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<v Speaker 1>mine and she said, yeah, my son's friends truck was

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<v Speaker 1>stolen from the airport. I said, no, no, no, there's

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<v Speaker 1>they fixed that. You know they've got that. And she

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<v Speaker 1>said no, this was like three weeks ago. So they

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<v Speaker 1>can tell us that crime has fallen off a map,

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<v Speaker 1>but the reality is people are still having their cars stolen.

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<v Speaker 1>We are really really high up in the number of

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<v Speaker 1>sexual assaults that we're reporting. It is not good. How

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<v Speaker 1>do you in the legislature go to address that we

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<v Speaker 1>just talked about. But now let's talk about affordability, which

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<v Speaker 1>is the second issue that people I think are really

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<v Speaker 1>concerned about. In Colorado.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, we have your listeners probably know this. This last

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<v Speaker 2>fiscal year, our budget was forty billion dollars forty billion

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<v Speaker 2>next year, next fiscal year, it's projected to go up

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<v Speaker 2>to forty three billion, Mate, if not higher. We can't

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<v Speaker 2>print money and we can't borrow it, so that money

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<v Speaker 2>has to come from the people of this state, and

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<v Speaker 2>that comes through can't do taxes because they have to

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<v Speaker 2>ask our permission, which is why we have a ballot

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<v Speaker 2>amendment on our ballot this year wanting to increase the

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<v Speaker 2>sales tax on firearms and ammunition. But they do it

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<v Speaker 2>through fees, fees, because our Supreme Court has decided that

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<v Speaker 2>a fee is not a tax. Yeah, well, so, as

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<v Speaker 2>I'm concerned, it comes right out of my pocket, whether

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<v Speaker 2>you call it a fee or a tax, and that

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<v Speaker 2>needs to stop. We need to take a look at

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<v Speaker 2>all of these sees that we impose upon our citizens

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<v Speaker 2>which are not legal because they have not been voted on,

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<v Speaker 2>and we need to start eliminating some of them. How

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<v Speaker 2>about the bag fee? Do they know where that money goes? No, no,

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<v Speaker 2>of course not.

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<v Speaker 1>Do you know what's funny? Do you know what's funny

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<v Speaker 1>about the bag fee? And the entire premise behind getting

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<v Speaker 1>rid of plastic bags in Colorado because you then go

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<v Speaker 1>and the bags end up in a whale swims through

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<v Speaker 1>a bag, and then that all comes from Colorado. That's

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<v Speaker 1>the thinking there. But do you know where you can

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<v Speaker 1>still buy plastic bags? The coastal state of California, where

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<v Speaker 1>they could actually end up in the ocean. You can

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<v Speaker 1>still buy plastic bags there, but not in Colorado. It

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<v Speaker 1>makes zero.

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<v Speaker 2>Sense exactly, And that, of course, is what we're coming.

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<v Speaker 2>We're becoming. We are becoming a California, and I just

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<v Speaker 2>don't want that to happen, and I want to try

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<v Speaker 2>to stop it. And the way to stop it is

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<v Speaker 2>for me to get elected. Because if we keep electing

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<v Speaker 2>the same people expecting that they're going to do something different,

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<v Speaker 2>what we're going to get is the same people and

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<v Speaker 2>exactly the same result.

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<v Speaker 1>Michael Demana is running in House just for two for

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<v Speaker 1>the Colorado State House. Michael, make your pitch. Why should

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<v Speaker 1>people vote for you?

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<v Speaker 2>People should vote for me for one reason and one

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<v Speaker 2>reason only. If you like the way things are right now,

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<v Speaker 2>if you don't have any problem what's happening to your

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<v Speaker 2>city and your state right now? If there's a guy

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<v Speaker 2>in office that you can vote for, but if you

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<v Speaker 2>want something to change, you want somebody to go into

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<v Speaker 2>that legislature and try to change things for your betterment,

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<v Speaker 2>then you go to Demana for HD two dot com.

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<v Speaker 2>You look at my website. Help me with a few

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<v Speaker 2>dollars as you can, and I would really appreciate your prayers.

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<v Speaker 1>Michael, I just got this text message before you go, Mandy.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm a lawyer who had Mike Demanda mediate several cases

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<v Speaker 1>over the years. My experience was he is extremely smart, measured,

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<v Speaker 1>reasonable and rational. Didn't know he was running, so thank

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<v Speaker 1>you for having him on. He's got my vote.

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<v Speaker 2>Bob. That's one, Mike, Yeah, one's that makes my weekend.

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<v Speaker 2>Matthew all right so much