Station:    KCOL, 700 am

Guests:    Robinson, Doug

Link:        https://600kcol.iheart.com/featured/kcol-morning-s-with-jimmy-lakey/

Date:        April 9 , 2018

Topics:     Walker Stapleton, Signature Gathering, Petition Circulating, Assembly vs. Petition,

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HOST JIMMY LAKEY: [00:00:00] Fox News Radio 600 KCOL welcomes in Doug Robinson. Good morning, sir. How are you?

GOP CANDIDATE FOR COLORADO GOVERNOR AND NEPHEW OF MITT ROMNEY, DOUG ROBINSON:  [00:00:09] Good morning, Jimmy. [It is]Great to be on your show again. I’m good! I’m stuck on — well, I’m going about four miles an hour on I-25, somewhere in Larimer, on our way to the Larimer County breakfast meeting this morning at Johnson’s Corner.

LAKEY:  [00:00:23] Welcome to the story of Northern Colorado! Once you get above Highway 66 in Longmont it just shrinks down. It’s like a farm-to-market Road on that stretch, and you wonder how in the world for all these years there has been no planning or progress to expand that stretch of roads. It really is ridiculous! Congratulations that you get stuck in it, sir.

ROBINSON:  [00:00:42] Yes. Oh, and that’s that’s my number one priority. So, I think we’ve mentioned this before, but my agenda is pretty simple. It’s a few things. And hold me to this. When I’m governor, you can follow up with me and say, “Did you get this done?” And number one is fixing our roads, now! It has been way too long. We need to raise about $3.5 billion and put that to work. And it starts with I-25, both directions, four lanes, no tolls, no new taxes. And then right behind that, getting our kids ready for the jobs of the future, making sure that they have STEM training and the vocational educational training they need. And third, making government work for Colorado which means protecting TABOR, no new taxes, and making our government more efficient. So, those are the things I’m running on. And roads is right at the top.

LAKEY:  [00:01:28] I want to talk about the Walker Stapleton ballots. You and I talked about a week or so ago on that. I want to come back to that. But let me ask you this question about the campaign. I’m reading a story — I think it was in Westword — about two weeks ago and they looked at, I think it says, the top seven populated counties in the state of Colorado. It’s all up and down, from Larimer down to El Paso, of course, Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, etc — Arapahoe. And the person who makes the median wage in those largely populated counties cannot afford the median house price to purchase a house in those counties. We have runaway housing costs going on in the state of Colorado, which is precluding a lot of people from ever being able to purchase a house in Colorado. Is there something that the governor can do to bring a little bit more balance to wages versus cost of living, which is becoming kind of Californicated, if you’ll let me say that word?

ROBINSON:  [00:02:26] Yeah. This is a huge problem. Just talk to your young people. And I have a guy — a staffer — on my campaign, 23 years old. He says that his friends, they’ve all gone to college, they’ve got loans, and they’re all living in their parents’ homes. [laughs] This is the new thing that you do until you’re like 27 or 28. It’s not right. We’ve got to have better, higher paying jobs. And that’s a key focus of mine. A lot of our jobs have been minimum wage, retail-type job growth. And we have to have more substantive job growth. And there’s also some things we can do to make housing more affordable: improve the permitting process, get government out of the way so lenders and builders can build the homes that we need.

LAKEY:  [00:03:12] We’ve been told — we know that the economy in the state of Colorado supposedly is doing quite well. But, is all of that a facade? Do we not have the job growth market that we’ve kind of been told by the media and told by Hickenlooper that we have? Is it not as great in Colorado as we think it is? The unemployment numbers may be low but the quality of jobs not so high?

ROBINSON:  [00:03:33] Yeah, that’s exactly right. It’s a paradox, here, in that, you know, we do have 2.9 percent unemployment. A lot of those — a lot of the growth in those jobs, when you look at it, have been retail and marijuana industry — tens of thousands, which are low paying jobs. And we have not had to growth in the higher paying jobs that we should have. We also have almost one in four Coloradans on Medicaid. So we’ve got some work to do there economically, even though — I mean, what they’re doing is doing okay. But we can do better. That’s a key focus of mine.

LAKEY:  [00:04:06] I want to get back to the cost of housing. There was some action in the legislature about the construction defects law, that was in there. And we were told they were doing some tweaks around the edges of it, and that was going to allow condominiums to be built — and townhouses and things in a new way — that were going to maybe lower the cost of housing. We haven’t seen yet those housing costs come down. Did they do a total fix on the construction defects law, or is there still something they need to do here?

ROBINSON:  [00:04:34] They didn’t go far enough. They took a step in the right direction –this is last legislative session. You know, a few years ago, the Democrats passed through a law that basically allowed for really easy lawsuits. And it basically shut down the construction of condos, which is really the first step often in somebody having their own home ownership. And so we made a partial fix this last legislative session. We didn’t go far enough. I think we need to get to an arbitration system, [inaudible] to protect homeowners right. But we need to allow the builders to have the confidence to build, the lenders have the confidence to lend. So we still have some more work to do there.

LAKEY:  [00:05:13] Yeah, I just thought the report there was in Westword newspaper was just stunning, that the median income earner can’t buy the median house price in our most populated county. Something’s out of balance in the state of Colorado, and it’s been getting more and more out of balance and it hasn’t been dealt with by the existing governor. We definitely need a governor who’s going to start dealing with that, because Colorado is a great place to live, but if you can’t afford to live here you have to go somewhere else.

ROBINSON:  [00:05:39] Yeah, exactly. And at the end of the day, it’s really the economic issues that make the biggest difference for families across our state. I think we need somebody that has real experience in that direction to come in and really make those changes and really make Colorado the best place in the country to live, work, and raise a family. We’ve got some work to do. We’re not in a bad spot, but we can we can do much better.

LAKEY:  [00:06:02] I want to switch gears, here. I want to go to this petition controversy. You brought it up on my show a couple of — about a week and a half ago, you brought it up. And [you] said Walker Stapleton, in your reports in your study and research campaign had found out that he had used to this company called Kennedy petition circulators who were not qualified by the letter of the law to circulate petitions for a Republican candidate in the state of Colorado. And you had petitioned or requested the Secretary of State to look at it — Wayne Williams office. And they said, “Well, we see that they’re registered and that’s all we can do.” Now a group who has gone after Congressman Doug Lamborn’s campaign — who used the same company that Stapleton used — and they’re going to court tomorrow to see if they can get some of these — some of this cleared up. And Walker Stapleton has now jumped in on the Doug Lamborn case and has decided he’s going to fight for Doug Lamborn because they both used the same petitioners. Give me your thoughts. What are you hearing on this–I call it Petition-gate –in the governor’s race and the Fifth Congressional race? You kind of led the charge here, and said, “Hey! Something is nefarious!” What are you hearing? What’s the latest? And how are you involved now?

ROBINSON:  [00:07:12] Yeah, so this is something that we just discovered accidentally through our own petition process. And I had a choice to make, you know, a couple of weeks ago:  would I just cover this and sweep this under the rug? Would I expose it? And I believe, you know, Republicans were the party of integrity were the party of free and fair elections. And so, I said, “No! Let’s let this come out.” And so it has. And it looks like Walker has made the decision to jump in on this Lamborn case. It is the same circulator, the same issues — I believe — there, that he has. And so, this is really going to be interesting to see how this plays out tomorrow. I think as you know, the Secretary of State did certify Walker’s petitions on Friday afternoon. And so there’s a period of time — five days from there — where any complaints or so on can be brought. And so we’re going to see how this plays out over the next few days.

LAKEY:  [00:08:10] Are you going to just simply rely on the ruling of the Lamborn case, or do you plan to bring your own protest or a court case against Stapleton, here, during this protest period?

ROBINSON:  [00:08:22] So, we haven’t decided yet. So all options are on the table for us. We’re looking at it. We’re going to make a decision on it. But we still are gathering more information at this point.

LAKEY:  [00:08:35] Will you be — or any representatives of your campaign be at the courthouse tomorrow when the case is heard before the judge in Denver?

ROBINSON:  [00:08:41] I don’t know. [laughs] That’s a great question.

LAKEY:  [00:08:49] [laughs].

ROBINSON:  [laughing] We haven’t, uh, — we haven’t, uh, — I imagine we probably will have somebody there. That would be my guess. But, uh, we haven’t talked about it yet. It’s early in the morning on Monday. So, I’m sure we’ll talk about that later.

LAKEY:  [00:09:01] Yeah. It seems as if Walker — if this case goes against Lamborn, it seems like it’s going to automatically reflect on Walker Stapleton. And it would be an unbelievable landscape if a legendary known petition circulation company — the Kennedy company — get slapped on the wrist and you end up with a ballot without Walker Stapleton and without Doug Lamborn. That would be a shakeup in Colorado politics! And it seems to me — I’ve looked at the case, I’ve been on some calls, I’ve done some investigation. I had Michael Francisco on last week — the attorney — and broke the story here. And it seems to me, Doug, that that is — it’s very possible that we could end up with a ballot with no Walker Stapleton and no Doug Lamborn! That’s a shakeup in Colorado politics!

ROBINSON:  [00:09:42] That would be a huge shakeup. And, you know, they’ve had every opportunity just like the rest of us to do this the right way, and to oversee the group that they hired. And, you know, I believe this group was using people from out of state to come in and circulate, which is not what the rules are. Then you get played by the rules. So, we’ll see how the court looks at it, and what all the facts are. We’ll let those come out. And I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it is certainly going to be a big deal over the next few days.

LAKEY:  [00:10:16] I know you’ve got to get to a breakfast, here. One last question: Some people might would say that — maybe they’re Stapleton or Lambert fans–and say, “Well, it’s not Doug’s fault! It’s not Walker’s fault! They hired this Kennedy cat. This Kennedy cat did them wrong. And the people that signed the petition, they intended to sign the petition and it was their intent to put — to give them their signature. So, let sleeping dogs lie. I think that’s faulty logic. What do you think, sir.?

ROBINSON:  [00:10:44] I think so, too. I mean, this is a process that we have, and we need to clean it up. I mean, this is — I don’t think this is probably the first time that this has happened. You know? This has probably been going on for a while, this process of recruiting people to come in and circulate. That’s not the way it’s supposed to go. You’re supposed to recruit Colorado citizens that are registered to vote here to do the job for you. And so, this needs to be cleaned up. It will help future elections. And I think it is — you know, we as Republican, who are the party of integrity and fairness in election processes. And so I think we need to see that through.

LAKEY:  [00:11:24] Yeah. Well, what are you speaking on this morning at the Larimer breakfast? Are you getting a chance to  – – are you the keynote? Or are you just going to give  them the stump speech?

ROBINSON:  [00:11:32] Yeah, so this morning, it’s just the five-minute stump speech. I have been the keynote up here twice in the keynote here twice. And then, I’m — we’re going on — just for your listeners, if any of them are interested — we’re going to be speaking in Greeley at the Weld County Women’s Republican Club at noon. And then at 6:00 tonight, UNC has their big debate with [a] Channel 7 anchor coming up from Denver to lead that. And they’ve got Democrats and Republicans. It’s a two hour thing, 6 to 8 [p.m.] at the University Center on the UNC campus. And that’s going to be interesting. It’s always interesting to hear the Democrats, because they have such a different view for where they want to take Colorado. You know, they want to blow up TABOR, they want — they’re not comfortable with just sanctuary cities. They want us to be a sanctuary state. They want to do away with the energy industry as we know it in Colorado — a very different view. This is for all your listeners: Get out! Get energized! This election really matters!

LAKEY:  [00:12:29] And that event is to — the Greeley meeting at lunch today, the Larimer County breakfast this morning. And then the debate tonight, is where?

ROBINSON:  [00:12:36] It’s at the University of Northern Colorado, the University Center, 6:00 p.m.]

LAKEY:  [00:12:42] Okay. That’s tonight, [for] anybody who wants to go there. And if your website — if anybody wants to peruse your website, how do they go there?

ROBINSON:  [00:12:51] Yeah! Thank you, Jimmy. So yeah, I need support. [laughing] I need people to — to, uh, get online and look at my stuff. It’s DougforColorado.com, or “Doug for CO” on Facebook. And, please check me out and learn more about my candidacy. Thank you, Jimmy!

LAKEY:  [00:13:07] You got it! I’ve got a couple of e-mails from you and other candidates: there’s also going to be a meet-and-greet and a coffee meeting sometime this weekend in Firestone, Colorado. So, a lot of listeners there, so you know, you’re hanging up north of E-470 quite a bit this week. And welcome. Welcome to the northland, sir! Welcome to the North land.

ROBINSON:  [00:13:24] Yeah! Yeah, on Wednesday we’re going to be back up here at Mood House, which is downtown Fort Collins  o n College Avenue at noon, we’ve got a meet-and-greet. And then Java Mama, 7:00 p.m. Wednesday in Firestone. So, any of your listeners are welcome to come out and get a 40 minute dose of Doug Robinson at either of those events.

LAKEY:  [00:13:45] You got it! Doug Robinson, it’s a pleasure sir! Speak well this morning! We’ll talk soon. Thank you for your time. No decision made on whether they’re going to file any further court case against Walker Stapleton. We’ll break it when it happens, I promise you that. I’m on it. Fox News Radio, 600 KCOL.