In Colorado House District 49 race, issues around drugs, mental health services dominate

Colorado voters living in House District 49 will elect a new representative this November in light of big changes as a result of redistricting.

District 49 voters will not have a chance to re-elect Republican Mike Lynch, the current representative, because he is now running for re-election in House District 65. Instead, the incumbent in this race is Democrat Judy Amabile, who currently represents House District 13. First-time politicians Katie Lehr, a Republican, and Daniel Lutz, a Libertarian, are also looking for a shot to represent a portion of the state’s mountain communities.

Before redistricting, District 49 essentially was rural western Larimer County and a small sliver of the county east of Interstate 25 between Wellington and Windsor. Now the district has grown significantly to the west and stretches from the state’s northern border to south of Idaho Springs and includes unincorporated parts of Boulder County. A majority of active voters in the district are unaffiliated, though there are roughly 10,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the new district.

Both Amabile and Lehr live in Boulder County, while Lutz resides in Clear Creek County.

More:You may be voting in a new district in Colorado this election. Here's why, and how to check.

Amabile and Lehr both have entrepreneurial backgrounds and started businesses in Boulder. Lutz has a military background and served in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Before becoming a politician, Amabile co-founded Polar Bottle, a Boulder-based company that designs insulated water bottles to keep liquids cooler. Amabile said her past experience as an entrepreneur and employer helped inform her transition into politics. Amabile was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2020.

During her first term, Amabile sponsored 25 bills that were signed by the governor and served on the Business Affairs & Labor Committee; State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs Committee; and the Public & Behavioral Health & Human Services Committee. She was also the primary sponsor on several bills related to access to mental and behavioral health services and improving conditions in Colorado’s prisons.

Lehr owns a general contracting business in Boulder with her husband. She said it has given her firsthand experience of how inflation and state regulations have impacted local businesses like hers. Though improving inflation and rolling back regulations are legislative priorities, Lehr said she decided to run to repeal a law the legislature officially passed in 2020 that decriminalized certain drugs.

Lehr is referring to House Bill 19-1263, which reclassified possession of less than 4 grams of certain drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor drug charge. Lehr said she believes the legislation is to blame for the increased drug usage and deaths throughout the state, particularly regarding the spread of fentanyl.

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“It was the thing that made me the most angry and the most animated,” Lehr said. “Everyone in Colorado should be angry about what’s going on with the drugs.”

Lutz said he hopes to bring his perspective from living in a mountain community to influence legislation that will provide more resources to natural disasters his community faces regularly, like wildfires.

“It’s hard not to have a top-down perspective when you live at 10,000 feet,” Lutz said.

Here’s how candidates compare when it comes to addressing drug use and homelessness

Lutz said he sees homelessness as an affordability issue and would focus on affordable housing solutions like manufactured housing and mobile homes. With regard to drugs, he said he’s in favor of decriminalization efforts and believes it should be treated as a medical issue.

Amabile said she sees the state’s major issues like homelessness and drug overdoses as the result of “massive systemic failures” that are tied to bigger challenges like lack of affordability and access to mental and behavioral health care.

“I believe everyone out on the street is in one kind of crisis or another,” Amabile said. “On the day you decide you’ve hit rock bottom, we can’t say to someone, ‘We can get you help in six to eight weeks.'”

Amabile said the legislature should prioritize funding for comprehensive facilities that provide care from the moment someone is in crisis and also extend to long-term resources an individual might need. She also said funding needs to go toward helping people with more severe forms of mental illness like bipolar personality disorder or schizophrenia.

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Amabile said housing first — a common solution to homelessness, particularly in Boulder County, that prioritizes providing housing to homeless individuals before other services — is a “perfect solution” for people who lose their homes because of poverty. But for members of the homeless population who have substance use disorders, “it can’t be housing only, there has to be supportive housing that meets their additional needs,” Amabile said.

Lehr’s approach to drug issues and homelessness focuses more on repealing legislation and implementing harsher punishment for drug users.

Lehr said she is opposed to housing-first solutions to address homelessness, saying that people “don’t deserve services on the taxpayer’s dime,” and “hard-core drug users are service resistant.” She said she recognizes there are people who are homeless because they’re in a housing crisis and they should be able to receive services if they need them.

Lehr believes Colorado made a mistake by reclassifying certain drugs and said the 2020 bill is to blame for the rise in fentanyl deaths across the state.

Lehr didn’t say how creating harsher punishments for drug users would help homeless individuals but would rather “wait and see” what happens once the law is repealed.

Lehr said these issues, while not as prevalent as they are in concentrated population areas like Denver and Boulder, are trickling into mountain communities that don’t have enough resources to deal with them.

"It's accelerating at such a rate that it seems like it's only inevitable that something really terrible is going to happen.”

How the candidates answered questions on relevant issues

Energy needs and greenhouse gas emissions:

Lehr said she doesn’t believe greenhouse gas emissions should be a bigger priority than addressing the state’s energy needs and that the only way to fulfill those needs is to bring back jobs in the oil and gas industry. Lehr also said the state should consider investing in nuclear energy rather than solar and wind energy because it’s more reliable.

Lutz said he’d like to see the state invest in hydroelectric power and implement tax breaks for businesses to incentivize employers to let their employees work from home, putting fewer cars on the road.

Amabile said the state should continue to focus on transitioning to clean energy and use emerging technologies like solar and wind power in order to do so. Amabile also said the state should focus on widespread vehicle electrification to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

We asked each candidate if they believed both national and Colorado elections were fair and safe. Here’s how they responded:

• Amabile: “Yes. Mail-in voting is safe and so democratic that we can get a higher voter turnout. I believe Joe Biden was duly elected and I believe I was duly elected.”

• Lutz: “Yes. I’ve lived here for seven years and never had a problem with any of the elections I participated in as a voter.”

• Lehr: “I don’t know. I'll give you two data points which call into question what is happening right now in Boulder County as we speak.”

Lehr expressed concern over races in District 10 and District 12, which both encompass parts of Boulder County. Edie Hooton was the incumbent candidate in the District 10 race before announcing on July 30 she was withdrawing from the race. Hooton was unopposed in the Democratic primary, which meant the Boulder County Democratic Party had 30 days to find a replacement candidate. They selected Boulder City Council Member Junie Joseph.

Lehr said she believes it wasn’t fair that Joseph didn’t have to run in a primary election. Lehr also referenced another Democratic candidate who is running for re-election in District 12, claiming the person doesn’t live in the district they’re running in.

Lehr said she did not have any concerns over election fairness or safety in her own race.

When asked if her uncertainty carried over into the 2020 presidential election, Lehr said “I don’t think anyone in the United States of America knows what actually happened state by state.”

Lehr shared some claims about alleged election fraud in Pennsylvania, which have not been substantiated.

In response to the results of the 2020 election, Lehr told the Coloradoan that she attended a “legal, lawful, permitted rally,” for former President Donald Trump near the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021.

In an interview on a local conservative radio show on Jan. 15, 2021, Lehr said she was among the first wave of rally attendants who marched to the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of the election, at the urging of Trump.

Lehr said she was outside the Capitol until about 3:30 p.m. on Jan. 6 before heading home, saying she had heard someone had been shot. Lehr said the “protest” was peaceful, apart from "a violent group at the front that came prepared to struggle and fight with the police." Lehr said she had a hard time believing that the violent group of people were "real MAGA supporters."

Gun safety:

Lutz said he believes education on how to use and “respect” guns would help reduce the rate of gun violence and mass shootings. Lutz said he believes schools should arm teachers who want to carry weapons at school to protect themselves and believes more education on mental health will help deter gun violence, with regard to suicide.

Lehr believes gun violence falls into two categories: “mass shooters” who tend to come from white suburban neighborhoods and have mental health issues and “criminal shooters” who, she said, are often involved in gang violence in inner cities like Chicago. Lehr said she would address each category separately with its own piece of legislation. Lehr said she is not supportive of red flag laws, banning guns or banning bump stocks.

Amabile said she is supportive of legislation like mandatory waiting periods for gun sellers to address suicidal gun violence. She also believes there should be mandatory and immediate background checks for anyone who wants to purchase a gun and is in favor of banning the sale of guns for people who have been convicted of violent misdemeanors.

Reproductive health care:

Amabile said she is an “enthusiastic supporter” of Colorado’s protections on reproductive health care and supports further legislation to protect Colorado physicians who perform abortions in the event another state tries to prosecute them for performing the medical procedure.

Lehr said Roe vs. Wade “needed to be overturned” and that she doesn’t believe there is a right to privacy when it comes to abortion.

Lutz said he doesn’t have a solid position on abortion. He said Colorado’s current laws on abortion align with his Libertarian principles, but he also understands the “right to life” and that government has an obligation to “protect the right to life."

Inflation and affordability:

Lutz’s general approach to affordability is to eliminate wasteful spending at the state level. He said he doesn’t have all of the tools as an average citizen to provide details but is generally in favor of actions that will cut costs to small and medium-sized businesses so they can make their prices cheaper for average consumers.

Amabile said there’s only so much that can be done at the state level to reduce inflation, but to cut costs for Coloradans, she supports capping rent increases and health care costs and also making child care cheaper.

Lehr said she believes business in Colorado are “overregulated and overtaxed.” She would try to reduce the cost of housing by deregulating the building industry and cutting taxes.

Campaign finance and more about the candidates

Amabile has raised $64,992.88 in campaign contributions since Oct. 4, the most recent campaign finance deadline. Her two biggest donations — each $2,000 — came from the Public Education Committee and Colorado Wins Small Donor Committee.

Amabile has been endorsed by the Colorado Medical Society, the Colorado Education Association and Colorado Professional Fire Fighters. She’s also been endorsed by Rep. Joe Neguse.

Amabile’s campaign website is judyamabile.com.

Lehr has raised a total of $20,328.59 in campaign contributions as of the Oct. 4 deadline, and her biggest donation was $5,000 from the Larimer County Republican Party. Lehr has been endorsed by the Colorado Women’s Alliance and received a 100% pro-life rating from Colorado For Life.

Lehr’s campaign website is katieforHD49.com

Lutz has raised $2,974.45 in campaign donations since the Oct. 4 deadline. He has received several donations from private individuals. Lutz does not have any endorsements on his website. His campaign site is www.lutzfor49.org.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado House District 49 election: Mental health, drug issues dominate