Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people, me included, have felt
Speaker 1: politically homeless, and the way things are going, it feels
Speaker 1: more and more like we do have a uni party,
Speaker 1: like everything is the same no matter who you elect.
Speaker 1: And there are other parties that are starting to gain
Speaker 1: a little traction. One of them is the Forward Party.
Speaker 1: And joining me right now from the Colorado Forward Party
Speaker 1: is Dave Ryan to talk about what the Forward Party
Speaker 1: stands for. If you're looking for a political home, you
Speaker 1: may want to listen up, Dave.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: First of all, all right, thanks for having me, Mandie.
Speaker 2: So let me.
Speaker 1: Start by asking you the simple question. Give me your
Speaker 1: elevator speech about the Forward Party. Give me your ninety
Speaker 1: seconds on what you guys are doing, what it's about,
Speaker 1: and why people should be interested in learning more.
Speaker 4: Seri.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah.
Speaker 4: More and more hoters feel like they don't belong to
Speaker 4: either party. I feel like they're political orphans. So that
Speaker 4: you just mentioned and Forward is building a national movement.
Speaker 4: Are home for them, and we are the fastest growing
Speaker 4: new political movement in the country. And it's built around
Speaker 4: the idea that Americans deserve more choice and more voices
Speaker 4: in their democracy. Our polling and polling that we look
Speaker 4: across is there's fifty percent of younger adults wish there
Speaker 4: were more than two parties. Forty three percent across the
Speaker 4: country identify as independence. Around affiliateds here in Colorado is
Speaker 4: just past fifty percent now. And if you look at
Speaker 4: this registration statistics here in Colorado, Democrats and Republicans are
Speaker 4: losing registered voters. Unaffiliateds are climbing rapidly and currently total
Speaker 4: more than all Democrats and Republicans combined. So it was
Speaker 4: originally formed by good government and governance groups from the
Speaker 4: left and the right to come together to work on
Speaker 4: system wide approaches that we believe are dividing us rather
Speaker 4: than bringing together. It's all about incentives. In our current
Speaker 4: system provides incentives that separate us, and the primaries are
Speaker 4: just a great example of.
Speaker 3: How that works.
Speaker 1: I'm right there with you when it comes to primary politics,
Speaker 1: because our current system incentivizes a run to the hard
Speaker 1: right or the hard left, because unfortunately voters don't engage
Speaker 1: in the primaries, So you tend to get the most
Speaker 1: politically purer, to use a word, the people that are
Speaker 1: the most passionate about their party, and they tend to
Speaker 1: be either the hardest right or the hardest left. So
Speaker 1: we then have candidates that run to those edges, and
Speaker 1: even if they try and moderate after you know, they
Speaker 1: win the primary, you're still dealing with people that are
Speaker 1: not necessarily working in what I call the biggest part
Speaker 1: of the political spectrum, which is the flexible center. Right,
Speaker 1: the people that maybe pro gun rights on this side,
Speaker 1: but they may be pro environmental regulations on another side. Right,
Speaker 1: I mean, people that hold varied positions that don't pass
Speaker 1: the political purity test.
Speaker 2: And when I first moved to Colorado, that was.
Speaker 1: One of the things I loved about Colorado is you
Speaker 1: would see a pro Second Amendment bumper sticker right next
Speaker 1: to a Sierra Club bumper sticker.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's just you could support whatever you wanted
Speaker 2: to support.
Speaker 1: That has changed dramatically here, And what does the Forward
Speaker 1: Party want to do? Let's start with that dynamic. What
Speaker 1: do you want to do to change that dynamic?
Speaker 4: Well, first off, from a good governance and systems perspective,
Speaker 4: so we are firm supporters of independent resistricting nationwide, which
Speaker 4: we're fortunate to here in Colorado. That was something that
Speaker 4: Colorado embraced recently, which you know, we believe it's just
Speaker 4: a great thing to put bringing more of that power
Speaker 4: back into the voter's hands rather than the political parties.
Speaker 4: We also believe that every vote should count. Right now
Speaker 4: with the first past the posts elections, and many elections,
Speaker 4: somebody with less than fifty percent can often win. We
Speaker 4: believed in things like ranked choice voting, where every vote
Speaker 4: counts every like, for my case, in a minor party,
Speaker 4: people can vote for a minor party but not be
Speaker 4: a spoiler in the overall election.
Speaker 3: If people are worried.
Speaker 1: About let's call that what it is, Dave like, people say,
Speaker 1: you're wasting your vote. If you vote for that third
Speaker 1: party candidate, you're wasting your vote. I wasted my vote
Speaker 1: in two thousand and voted for Ralph Nader. I would
Speaker 1: have been horrified if he'd won, but I was voting
Speaker 1: for the viability of a third party candidate.
Speaker 2: I love ranked choice voting.
Speaker 1: I think it's a great idea, and once politicians start
Speaker 1: to understand it, I think they will embrace it as well.
Speaker 3: I think so. I think I think there's a great example.
Speaker 4: I mean, we've had several examples just in the last
Speaker 4: couple election cycles where.
Speaker 3: A minor party actually changed the election. You know, a congressional.
Speaker 4: District EID is a great example where Barbara Kirkmeyer ended
Speaker 4: up losing, but it was a very close race, and
Speaker 4: you know that there was in my opinion, and that
Speaker 4: was a spoiler situation.
Speaker 3: Now, the liberty we don't want that. We want we
Speaker 3: do the ability for.
Speaker 4: People to vote who they want to without ruining the
Speaker 4: the you know, the the chances of the main candidates.
Speaker 2: So what are some of the others.
Speaker 1: Well, I've talked a lot about ring choice voting on
Speaker 1: the show, so I don't want to derail this conversation
Speaker 1: by going deep on that. What are some of the
Speaker 1: other ways that you would would perceive it would be
Speaker 1: effective to to slow down the polarization or maybe bring
Speaker 1: us back together.
Speaker 4: So open primaries to me is a is a is
Speaker 4: a great thing. It is It's something that there was
Speaker 4: a run taken at its last last election cycle. It
Speaker 4: didn't succeed. It took on a number of points to
Speaker 4: try to combine it all together on that balance proposition
Speaker 4: to me, having a primary where whatever part of the
Speaker 4: spectrum you are associate with, you are all combined into
Speaker 4: a single primary and the voters choose, you know, the
Speaker 4: top four or five, and then those four or five
Speaker 4: go on to a general election. It is it forces
Speaker 4: every candidate instead of pandering to the extremes, It forces
Speaker 4: them to not only focus on their base, but also
Speaker 4: on the modern the moderate, flexible middle has to come
Speaker 4: along with them, and they have to win those hearts
Speaker 4: and minds to be able to be effective in the
Speaker 4: in the election.
Speaker 1: So let me ask this, because what I see on
Speaker 1: the Forward Party platform, and I've been to the website,
Speaker 1: I have dug through all the issues.
Speaker 2: For me, everything begins and ends.
Speaker 1: I'm a single issue voter, and that is debt and spending,
Speaker 1: because I think that is like the tip of the
Speaker 1: spear in our country because without without managing that, nothing
Speaker 1: else is going to matter. Right when we run out
Speaker 1: of money and we can no longer no one's buying
Speaker 1: our debt and we're just printing money like mad, then
Speaker 1: people will begin to understand how significant the debt is.
Speaker 1: But I don't see a lot or or a lot
Speaker 1: of specifics about.
Speaker 2: Those angle issues like abortion.
Speaker 1: It's not in here at People on the on the
Speaker 1: text line right now saying is the Forward Party pro
Speaker 1: life or pro choice. UH. For me, it's about debt
Speaker 1: and spending, because all things begin an end for that.
Speaker 1: What other policy positions have you guys talked about or
Speaker 1: when will those be developed?
Speaker 2: If at all?
Speaker 3: That's a that's a development situation.
Speaker 4: Maybe the the uh what we don't want to do,
Speaker 4: which which really makes us unique as far enders as
Speaker 4: I understand in the political environment, is we don't have
Speaker 4: a top down, uh driven platform that says every candidate
Speaker 4: must follow this these rules or you're going to run
Speaker 4: and follow the party. Right, So somebody in Grand Junction
Speaker 4: is going to be different than Boulder, It's going to
Speaker 4: be different than Pueblock. And we we have a number,
Speaker 4: you know, the many relationships at all levels of government
Speaker 4: now that uh, and we talked with people you know,
Speaker 4: you know pro gun, as you mentioned before, pro gun,
Speaker 4: pro environmental, pro life, and there are so many common
Speaker 4: you know, folks who aren't you know, who aren't driven
Speaker 4: towards that single issue that realize that we as a
Speaker 4: society have to deal with a lot of different things
Speaker 4: and we need the best people to come forward and
Speaker 4: work together with people that are different than them to
Speaker 4: come up with a solution that works for their communities.
Speaker 4: Here in Colorado, Colorado Forward Party, we're focused on the
Speaker 4: state level, so we're not so much focused on what
Speaker 4: goes on at the national level, even though it kind
Speaker 4: of sucks the oxygen out of the room.
Speaker 3: Sometimes.
Speaker 4: We're focused on what's right for our communities, and we
Speaker 4: want candidates who put a priority on serving their community.
Speaker 4: That's got to be priority number one, and it's got
Speaker 4: to be you know, candidates, whether whether they're from the
Speaker 4: right side or the left side or in between, they
Speaker 4: commit to us that they will work with their peers
Speaker 4: to come up with solutions for their community.
Speaker 2: I actually like that.
Speaker 1: I tell people on this show all the time, and
Speaker 1: I mean it that as much as we talk about
Speaker 1: federal politics, as much as we talk about the Trump administration,
Speaker 1: as much as we talk about Congress, the stuff that
Speaker 1: happens here in Colorado has a much more direct and
Speaker 1: immediate impact on.
Speaker 2: Our lives at a very visceral level.
Speaker 1: So I think that's a very smart move too many people,
Speaker 1: And I look at the Libertarian Party in this case,
Speaker 1: they run a presidential candidate every single presidential cycle, but
Speaker 1: they're not running anybody in the school board elections, right
Speaker 1: They're not running anything in the county Commission races.
Speaker 2: So I think it's a very smart play.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like and I'm not that was a
Speaker 1: little bit of a hedge on your part, but it
Speaker 1: almost sounded like we're gonna let candidates make their own
Speaker 1: decisions about social issues.
Speaker 4: Is that part of the plan, that is that is
Speaker 4: essential to us moving forward here? And because you know,
Speaker 4: every community is different, every to every candidate is different.
Speaker 4: We are going to be developing a platform over time,
Speaker 4: but it's got to come from the ground up. And
Speaker 4: as we build our base here in Colorado, as we
Speaker 4: build it nationally, we're first going to start here in
Speaker 4: Colorado and and come together on the issues that unite us.
Speaker 4: And and we're also going to ask our candidates to
Speaker 4: take a very you know, a very earnest and hard
Speaker 4: working effort at resolving some of those those critical cultural
Speaker 4: issues that divide us. Well, we don't we don't take
Speaker 4: a hard position on some of those things that you
Speaker 4: just mentioned.
Speaker 2: What what are the hard planks?
Speaker 1: What what are the things that you feel like are
Speaker 1: the key cornerstones of the forward party that if you
Speaker 1: had to tick the boxes and say here's what's really
Speaker 1: important to us, that we do want you to focus
Speaker 1: on what are those things?
Speaker 4: So if if I look at you know, I mentioned
Speaker 4: the the the ability for every vote to count, right,
Speaker 4: and do we call it ranked choice voting or uh,
Speaker 4: you know, a different form of that where every voters
Speaker 4: has an ability to choose, Hey, here's my first choice,
Speaker 4: but here's my second choice. If the first person doesn't win.
Speaker 4: That engages every voter, and it causes our our candidates
Speaker 4: to appeal to a much broader spectrum than they normally would.
Speaker 4: I mentioned open primaries absolutely, and for a minor party,
Speaker 4: I mean rank choice voice voting is essential for a
Speaker 4: minor party to be able to express itself and have voters,
Speaker 4: you know, express their opinion. And we may not win
Speaker 4: a race, but well, our talent will increase just because
Speaker 4: that people will realize I can vote for forward first,
Speaker 4: but boy, that Democrat or Republican is likely going to win,
Speaker 4: so I'm going to vote them second, right, And and
Speaker 4: so that's real. Open primaries I just see as essential
Speaker 4: to removing the captivity that our political leaders have over
Speaker 4: over politicians. Open primaries free up our elected officials to
Speaker 4: be able to vote their conscience. And we've seen a
Speaker 4: number of cases where candidates would prefer to vote something different,
Speaker 4: but they're forced into positions to go along with the party.
Speaker 4: We've got to find a way to break that cycle.
Speaker 4: And uh, you know, just I get to like good governance.
Speaker 3: We've had.
Speaker 4: Down testifying in front of the Legislature on a couple
Speaker 4: of different issues good governance around just basic things like
Speaker 4: you know, our our constitution. We have a requirement that
Speaker 4: every county have three commissioners for you know, a certain population,
Speaker 4: and it's optional if you grow, you can still stay
Speaker 4: with three if you want. That sets up some pretty
Speaker 4: our dynamics when now you're county is you know, a
Speaker 4: five hundred thousand people and you still have three commissioners.
Speaker 4: But because of the way we elect those commissioners in
Speaker 4: that county, political party controls the process.
Speaker 2: Douglas County, you're talking about Douglas County.
Speaker 3: Not the names, right, that's the names.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, you're talking about Douglas County. And I'm
Speaker 1: right there with you, Dave, I'm right there.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of them. There's a couple of so
Speaker 3: you know, we we have we have.
Speaker 4: People elected officials that we support and I'll shout out
Speaker 4: Bob Marshall as one. We have elected officials that we
Speaker 4: support that are that drive those kind of that drive
Speaker 4: those kind of discussions, you know, vacancy boating or vacancy sold.
Speaker 2: Many vacancy committees of garbage.
Speaker 5: Colorado is notorious nationwide the number of people that we
Speaker 5: haven't elected office that gout there by vacancy and end
Speaker 5: up going on and because they're now incumbents, they have
Speaker 5: a much greater chance. We have thirty percent of the
Speaker 5: legislators came through the venacancy appointment process.
Speaker 3: There was some I'm gonna let me go into this
Speaker 3: if I could. I mean, we have legislation passed this year.
Speaker 4: That triggers if a person resigns within a certain time
Speaker 4: frame after election, it forces a special election in an
Speaker 4: odd year, which we don't haven't haven't done before here
Speaker 4: in Colorado. And coincidentally one of the bills, two days
Speaker 4: after it became effective, a commissioner in al Paso County
Speaker 4: resigned and that triggered an appointment which was quite contested,
Speaker 4: and it.
Speaker 3: Triggers a special election on November fourth. In that election.
Speaker 4: Limits who can participate as a candidate, and it limits
Speaker 4: who can vote.
Speaker 3: That happens.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it happens to be a repof we can who
Speaker 4: resigns or a normal appointment processes.
Speaker 3: You have to appoint a report.
Speaker 4: But now we're calling this a special election funded by taxpayers,
Speaker 4: and if you're a Democrat, you can't run as a candidate.
Speaker 4: We have a guy that wants would run, that would
Speaker 4: run for office.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've done there is replace the people of the
Speaker 1: vacancy committee with other partisans that will only be allowed
Speaker 1: to vote in an election that will only have people
Speaker 1: from their party in it.
Speaker 2: That's what you're telling the Well.
Speaker 4: Another was some negotiations that allows unaffiliated voters to vote
Speaker 4: in that election, but Democrats registered Democrats can't vote, No
Speaker 4: minor party candidate.
Speaker 3: Can run, and the Democrat candidate can't run in us
Speaker 3: what we call a special election.
Speaker 4: That should be it's a taxpayer funded election and it
Speaker 4: constrains who can run or who can vote. I just
Speaker 4: didn't that'd be the type of thing that we're be
Speaker 4: We kind of scratch our head.
Speaker 1: So essentially, the Forward Party seems to be focused like
Speaker 1: a laser on the strung true imbalances that have created
Speaker 1: an unfair advantage for the two party system. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's really what it gets down to, right, Yeah, exactly no.
Speaker 4: But the two major parties control everything, right, and we
Speaker 4: have we have to find from a system perspective, the
Speaker 4: ability to I mean moost two major parties are essential
Speaker 4: to our democracy. There's no, I mean no debate on this, right,
Speaker 4: but it is it is the control that they have
Speaker 4: and the ability to shut down other voices that need
Speaker 4: to be heard. Uh, that that is really problematic for us. Man.
Speaker 1: So I just got this text message and they said,
Speaker 1: how about a balanced budget amendment? But let me ask
Speaker 1: that as a follow let me ask a follow up question.
Speaker 1: When will the bigger platform items be decided? Where is
Speaker 1: the where are we in the process of the formation
Speaker 1: of the Forward Party? If people want to get involved
Speaker 1: now so they can be a part of these discussions,
Speaker 1: when will those discussions move forward? Because like it or not,
Speaker 1: I agree with everything you're saying about the structural issues,
Speaker 1: but this is like very granular politics stuff, right, most
Speaker 1: people are are we going to have a balanced budget amendment?
Speaker 1: Do we have a pro life or a pro choice
Speaker 1: playing do? What are what is our opinion on various issues?
Speaker 2: Like how is that all getting sorted out?
Speaker 4: You know? That's a great question because I mean, when
Speaker 4: do we talk about, you know, the nuts and bolts
Speaker 4: of changing things structurally so that things are less polarizing
Speaker 4: people's eyes beully is over ye. I mean you've got
Speaker 4: to really be a political junkie to get into these
Speaker 4: nuts and bolts. But it's the foundation of making improvements
Speaker 4: in our society. Uh So, but answer answer the question directly.
Speaker 4: Anybody can get involved with us right now. Go to
Speaker 4: calif Coloradofward party dot com. There's an easy way to
Speaker 4: sign up. Somebody will contact you and indicate where your
Speaker 4: interests are. We have, uh, you know, weekly meetings, we
Speaker 4: have subcommittees that are chartered on specific tasks and and
Speaker 4: we have different topics that we that we do that
Speaker 4: we do talk about and admittedly it's focused on uh
Speaker 4: it's focused on helping our our nonpartisan candidates at school
Speaker 4: board and municipal levels be successful. It's focused like next year,
Speaker 4: you'll see us at the at the county and legislative level,
Speaker 4: supporting various candidates and promoting certain legislation around good governance,
Speaker 4: the the the the overall score. I mean, we're a
Speaker 4: brand new party. We're just getting our feet on the ground.
Speaker 4: We we intend to stay bottoms up, but that it
Speaker 4: is essential over time that we develop platforms that people
Speaker 4: can that resonate with people. And whether it's a balanced
Speaker 4: budget or or you know, or or water rights or
Speaker 4: you know, environmental issues. You know, everybody wants our country
Speaker 4: to be healthy, in our communities to be healthy, and
Speaker 4: people to be have access to you know, the success
Speaker 4: will path no matter whether in the rural areas or
Speaker 4: in an urban center. And so it's it's it's uh,
Speaker 4: you know, that's got it. It's got to come together.
Speaker 4: We have conceptually a Project twenty twenty eight. We and
Speaker 4: we we had we had Project twenty twenty eight before
Speaker 4: the other projects started, namely, but Project twenty twenty eight
Speaker 4: is about because we're we're we're we're accepted in a
Speaker 4: dozen states right now here here we have we have
Speaker 4: ballot access here in Colorado and the total of five
Speaker 4: states and another another seven who are recognized by those states,
Speaker 4: and and and quite a few more states coming on
Speaker 4: board with us. And so it's all about building a
Speaker 4: national recognition and national visibility. Uh. And it's that brand awareness,
Speaker 4: right so people and people hear the word Forward Party,
Speaker 4: they understand what it represents, so I would say, by
Speaker 4: you know, towards twenty twenty eight, that's what we're driving
Speaker 4: toward too.
Speaker 2: Well. I want to just say this.
Speaker 1: One of the things that's missing from the Forward Party
Speaker 1: national website that is I think a core issue and
Speaker 1: incredibly important is fair districting. And if you want to
Speaker 1: have an issue that you can get out in front
Speaker 1: of right now, the jerrymandering that's going on all over
Speaker 1: the country, I don't care which party's doing, and it's bad,
Speaker 1: it's bad, bad, bad bad. But I don't see a
Speaker 1: specific point on the Forward Party website. But Dave, let
Speaker 1: me do this. We'll check back in with you periodically.
Speaker 1: We'll find out what's going on with the Forward Party.
Speaker 1: I'm very interested and if I have listeners out there
Speaker 1: who are very big and concerned about some of these issues,
Speaker 1: go ahead and get involved. They're not going to make
Speaker 1: you stay if you don't like it, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you don't enjoy it.
Speaker 4: You can believe life gets it the way a lot
Speaker 4: of times. So we we certainly acknowledge that we love
Speaker 4: people who come forward. We love people who are interested
Speaker 4: in our democracy and making sure their communities are moving forward.
Speaker 1: Dave Brian from the Colorado Forward Party, A pleasure to
Speaker 1: talk to you. We'll check back in in a few
Speaker 1: months and see what's happening.
Speaker 2: New stuff in the Forward Party as well.
Speaker 4: Cool.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Madie, all right, thanks Dave,