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House District 21 is currently represented by Lois Landgraf.
The candidates in this upcoming General Election for House District 21 are Mary Bradfield (R), Liz Rosenbaum (D), and Michael Seebeck (L).
We sent out a questionnaire to the candidates regarding the recovery of COVID-19 economic impacts, legislation they hope to introduce and what they think should be done to help fund our schools. Here are the responses from those who filled out our questionnaire:
Mary Bradfield
Q: How should the General Assembly work to recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19?
A: I believe that we must protect and support small businesses and their opportunities for sustainability and growth. The 2019 legislature passed some business damaging legislation which should be reversed. The Governor has overstepped his authority and that should be reined in.
Q: If elected, what is one piece of legislation you hope to introduce and why?
A: One of my three important issues has to do with mental health. I would like to see mental health treatment become more of a priority with emphasis on treatment access and duration, insurance payment options, and increased availability of certified and competent mental health providers.
Q: School funding has become a topic of discussion in recent years- what do you think needs to be done to fund our schools?
A: It is true that many states pay their teaching staffs better than Colorado does. However, each school district is responsible for allocating much of the funds it receives from the state to provide the best education for their students. Perhaps each district should be encouraged to analyze from top to bottom the value and educational benefit of each budget line item.
Liz Rosenbaum
Q: How should the General Assembly work to recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19?
A: Eliminate Gallagher and TABOR, these two measures continue to de-fund our public education system, critical social services programs, and every economic crisis puts our state in a bigger downward spiral. We are ranked 49th in the United States with our pay to educators, and the pay is not keeping pace with cost of living here in CO. We need to have a focus on growing long term careers in our state rather than job hopping and supplemental incomes through a gig economy. Working families and children have taken a back seat for far too long in our state.
Q: If elected, what is one piece of legislation you hope to introduce and why?
A: My first piece of legislation will be to change the time period for litigation from contamination from two to five years. Injuries as a result for an auto accident have three years to file a claim. The contamination from toxic firefighting foam that happened here in Southern El Paso County only allowed two years for people to file a class action lawsuit, leaving people without yet knowing negative results to their health yet (auto-immune diseases take up to five years to properly diagnose) are now out of time for filling for the class action lawsuit. Working families in our community have endured five major contaminations since the 1970's here. I have worked with legislators the last few years to set up HB19-1279, HB20-1119 and 1143, SB20-218 to protect our drinking water systems and now we need to protect ourselves.
Q: School funding has become a topic of discussion in recent years- what do you think needs to be done to fund our schools?
A: My next piece of legislation will be to increase the salaries and wages for: teachers in the classroom, custodians, teacher assistants, and bus drivers. First year teacher pay needs to start at $45,000 per year, and corresponding increments the way it needs to be in the first place. Every year we ask the people who educate our children to do more, and this last year the educators have done work through the summer and spring breaks to completely revolutionize their curriculum, and they have done this without being paid for this additional time. Teaching is not a three year gig, but it has become one. Our budget is a moral document of what we value in our society, and we are not showing we honor our children and future economic success if we continue in this disastrous direction.
Michael Seebeck
Q: How should the General Assembly work to recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19?
A: First and foremost, repeal the governor's oft-abused emergency powers, and place those powers in the hands of the various county commissioners, and not the unelected and unaccountable health bureaucrats. One size does not fit all, and the economic devastation that they and Polis have wrought upon the state must never be repeated.
Q: If elected, what is one piece of legislation you hope to introduce and why?
A: 1. Repeal the governor's abused emergency powers.
2. Reform CDOT such that it is not Denver-centric and is county-centric.
3. Refer a ballot issue to close the fee/excise loophole in TABOR.
Q: School funding has become a topic of discussion in recent years- what do you think needs to be done to fund our schools?
A: Get the feds and state out of it completely and let it be addressed locally. Amendment 23 has lived up to its predicted disaster, and it has hurt the entire state.
