Station:    KNUS, 710 am

Show:       Chuck & Julie Show

Guests:    Neville, Patrick

Link:        https://chuckandjulie.podbean.com/e/chuck-julie-june-14-2019-hr-3/

Date:       June 14, 2019

Topics:    Values First Colorado, House Fundraising, Recall Colorado, Brittney Petterson, Heroin Injection Sites, “Heroin Girl,” Jesse Danielson, LeroyGarcia, Tom Sullivan Recall, Rochelle Galindo, Cole Wist, Kevin Priola, National Popular Vote, Senate Recalls, ‘French Surrender Monkey Caucus, “No on [Proposition] CC,” Bill Owens, Michael Hancock, TABOR, Referendum (Ref) C, Refernedum (Ref) D, Hank Brown, Jamie Giellis, George Brauchler, Walker Stapleton, Advisory Committee, 527

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HOST JULIE HAYDEN [00:00:04] Hey, Patrick! Thank you for your time. Hey, and Happy Father’s Day to you.

COLORADO HOUSE MINORITY LEADER, PATRICK NEVILLE [00:00:08] Oh, hey! Thanks.

HAYDEN [00:00:10] So, I guess, you know, we like to be — you know, as we did through the whole legislative session — like to check in with you. So let me kind of start off with just something open ended. [Is there] anything you have on your radar that you want to put on everybody else’s radar, or that you want folks to be aware about, what’s going on?

NEVILLE [00:00:27] Oh, there’s plenty on my radar, because I just got back. We’re going to probably be involved in some Senate recalls. So, what we did is we actually split off as a separate entity from Values First Colorado, which is the House organization for the House fundraising.  And Recall Colorado is now its own separate entity. So we’re raising good money into that. And I think we’re gonna have some Senate recalls pop up. And we’re going to be heavily involved in that.

HAYDEN [00:00:52] OK, I saw the name Brittney Petterson, our favorite, the heroin injection site poster child.

HOST CHUCK BONNIWELL [00:00:56] Yeah, the heroin girl!

HAYDEN [00:00:57] Is that one of them? Or can you talk about what you might — who you might be looking at?

NEVILLE [00:01:02] Yeah, there’s her. There’s Jesse Danielson, who is obviously a big target. She is just the most radical leftist, probably, in the entire capitol.

BONNIWELL [00:01:12] That’s saying something!

NEVILLE [00:01:14] And then, there is LeroyGarcia who tries to claim, “I voted against [the] red flag [bill],” but did nothing to stop it.

BONNIWELL [00:01:20] That was a joke vote.

HAYDEN [00:01:21] Right. Right.

BONNIWELL [00:01:21] What a joke vote!

HAYDEN [00:01:21] Well, you know that he knows he’s not representing her district — right?– when he starts talking like that. Well, you know, let me ask you this, because you know, you were incommunicado on vacation, and [joking]. I wasn’t sure if that was authorized. [laughs]. But–.

BONNIWELL [00:01:33] Did we not — did we authorize that, Patrick?  I don’t recall authorizing that.

NEVILLE [00:01:33] No, I missed you guys, though.

HAYDEN [00:01:33] There you go!

BONNIWELL [00:01:33] [laughs].

HAYDEN [00:01:42] But the Sullivan recall — I mean, there were some people–.  To me, I think that — I understand why they decided to do that. I get that. But you know, when you look at [how] the other side was forced to spend money–.

BONNIWELL [00:01:54] One hundred thousand dollars worth!

HAYDEN [00:01:54] The other side was forced to put time, effort, energy into it.  So, and meanwhile, people got energized.  So, what’s your–?

BONNIWELL [00:02:03] I guess I want to — you know, double it. I mean, I’d rather have people try, you know. There was Rochelle Galindo, we got her out.

HAYDEN [00:02:07] [It’s better that people] try, and [then] have to drop it [later] than not try at all.

BONNIWELL [00:02:07] Yeah! Yeah, I mean, it’s going to be a tough one when you have Cole Wist — who was a candidate for there that he got and saying he shouldn’t be recalled. Well, that’s going to make it much tougher. You can always count on the Kevin Priola types out there. But I’m glad that people went out and gave it a try.

NEVILLE [00:02:31] Right, and you know, we always said from a Recall Coloorado standpoint, that we were never the drivers behind any of these efforts, but were kind of the clearinghouse for it. So, they set up a recall, and we were there to back them. And we did that, and we got a lot of good information from those efforts. And not to say that we couldn’t stand it up again. We could. But yeah, we’re at where we’re at now, and, you know, there’s several other things standing up, whether it’s the National Popular Vote   –.

HAYDEN [00:03:03] Right.

BONNIWELL [00:03:04] Yeah, yeah.

NEVILLE [00:03:05] –or, you know, the Senate recalls, which — maybe our efforts are better directed in that area.

HAYDEN [00:03:10] Well, you know, here’s –.

NEVILLE [00:03:10] So, like, I’m in the House. I would love to be Speaker of the House and not just Minority Leader,.

HAYDEN [00:03:14] Yeah.

NEVILLE [00:03:15] But, um, we’re at a point where–.

BONNIWELL [00:03:15] [it would be] a lot more fun!

NEVILLE [00:03:15] Yeah, but we’re at a point where if we can take back control through the Senate, I’m willing to help. I’m here for the cause. I’m not here from myself.

HAYDEN [00:03:27] Well, you know, and I think that what you said is so important, because — and I want to underscore that. The way — as I understand it — you guys did, and the way I think we should look at it, is if the citizens in the district decide that they want to launch a recall effort, that’s up to them, right?

BONNIWELL [00:03:41] Go ahead and try.

HAYDEN [00:03:44] Who are we to say, “No, no, no!  That’s not a good idea? That’s not polite!” If they want to do it, they can do it. If they get the signatures and they get the person recalled, well, then clearly they were right — right? Clearly they had a point. If they get the signatures and lose,  that’s still — it’s up to them, right? I think nobody should — no matter what side you’re on, if somebody wants to launch a recall in the district they have every single right to do that.

BONNIWELL [00:04:08] But you always have the official ‘French surrender monkey caucus’ of the Republican Party, which is always the establishment, right?  I mean, they always want to raise the white flag, even before hostilities have started.

HAYDEN [00:04:25] Right.

BONNIWELL [00:04:25] And then, we’re all supposed to be–.  Now, are you on this “No on CC?”  I thought I saw you — you’re allowed to be a minor figure in it, or something?

NEVILLE [00:04:35] I am, yeah! So, I’m on the advisory committee of the “No on CC.” And again, it’s  just one of those efforts where if we can actually band together and support something that we all support, I’m going to be on board for [it]. So–.

BONNIWELL [00:04:51] And that’s great for you, because it’s run by rhinos, you know?  It’s the official–.

HAYDEN [00:04:54] Maybe you could put something — some Red Bull or something — in their coffee or something. [laughs]

BONNIWELL [00:04:54] Yeah! Yeah, they’re bringing back Bill Owens. Now, the last time we all ran into Bill Owens was when he was at a fundraiser for Michael Hancock. You know? Because he wanted to make sure he could get some sleazy development into Denver. But I was told at a meeting by my betters that we all have to welcome Owen’s back. Oh, sure, in 2005 he destroyed TABOR by [Ref] C, getting a five year exemption.  He didn’t get [Ref] D, although he supported both of them. And ever since then, all he’s ever done is suck up to Democrats. But now, he’s coming back. Woot woot!  We’re all supposed to be excited!

NEVILLE [00:05:38] This one is more dangerous than the others. I mean, this is permanently taking away your consent on whether or not you can vote–.

BONNIWELL [00:05:43] Oh, I got it!  But I — why can’t you be on the — be part of the A team, rather than shoving you down to the help [status].

HAYDEN [00:05:43] [laughs] Well, that’s what Patrick — we can address that later, which he probably can’t comment on, anyway, Chuck.

BONNIWELL [00:05:43] All right. But just — somebody said, “We have to support Bill Owens and Hank Brown! Now, everybody thinks they betrayed us back in 2005 but now they — we have to welcome them back.” And I go, “No, we don’t!  We don’t have to welcome them back! They’ll never help us on anything!”

HAYDEN [00:06:03] Well, let’s get Patrick to explain, though– [trying to calm Chuck] Okay. Okay, okay, Chuck. But Patrick, let me give you a chance to explain, because this is an important one.

BONNIWELL [00:06:13] All right.

HAYDEN [00:06:13] What exactly would this do, and why do we need to fight it?

NEVILLE [00:06:17] So, this would permanently take away your consent on whether or not you can vote to keep your taxpayer refunds. That’s what it does. And we need to defeat it. It’s — this is — this is so important. I can’t tell you how important this is. So, we need to look at this very closely. We need to educate the voters. We need to defeat this. And so, if there’s — you know I don’t always agree on all the issues with all the people involved in this, but if we can actually agree on this, let’s do it!

HAYDEN [00:06:48] That’s good!

NEVILLE [00:06:48] Let’s move forward and let’s defeat it.

BONNIWELL [00:06:49] Why am I such a party pooper?  I don’t know, but seeing Bill Owens get back up there–. The last time I saw him was licking the boots of Michael Hancock to show they could destroy Jamie Giellis. How does Bill Owens look in the mirror anymore?

HAYDEN [00:07:05] Let me — Okay, thank you, Chuck. So, Patrick, let me get back–.

BONNIWELL [00:07:05] I’m just saying, Julie.  I’m just saying.

HAYDEN [00:07:05] I know. Let me get back and it — can you explain that better, because here’s — I think — what the other side will say, and that is, “Oh, you hardly ever get that money back anway! It’s just a few dollars, and it doesn’t mean anything to you but we could do a lot of great things with it if we have it!”   What — what’s the truth behind what — what the between –.  Wait, let me start again. What’s the truth behind what they’re trying to do? What’s the truth behind this situation? And again, what do you think people need to understand?

NEVILLE [00:07:36] I mean, my goodness! A few dollars to a family means a lot.  And it willl do a lot better for our Colorado economy if the families actually keep that money and actually spend, it themselves. What we’re looking at is the government trying to keep more of your money — and we’ve had so much of your money. We had $1.2 billion last year, [and] I think an extra $400 million this past year. So, we’ve had more and more of your money, and we’re not spending it wisely. I would just rather the families of Colorado keep that in their pockets and the working families of Colorado can actually spend it on their own. And this measure would take that ability away, and take the ability for families to actually vote on whether or not they want to keep their refunds or not, forever. So, this is even worse than Ref C — which I opposed Ref C whole-heartedly. I was a college student when that came forward. But this is much worse than that because there’s not a 5-year time out. It is in perpetuity, so it is forever.

BONNIWELL [00:08:39] And it is far worse. [Referring to Bill Owens] It was very hard to say, “Well, when I was in office, I wanted to get rid of it for 5 years. But you shouldn’t get rid of it permanmently,” and be the head of something. I mean, if he were on the ‘Cleaning the Bathroom Committee’ or something, but ….

HAYDEN [00:08:48] Chuck!  Chuck, move on! Move on, move on!

BONNIWELL [00:08:48] We never move on!  We do not forgive. We do not forget!

HAYDEN [00:08:48] [laughs] We’re’ talking with State Rep Patrick Neville, Minority Leader about referendum CC. And Patrick, isn’t this also –.  Well, two questions: the first one is, you know, if you listen to the other side they make it seem as if, you know, Colorado — we’re all on the verge of everything completely crumbling and falling apart, that we have less and less money in the state budget, and everything is going to be terrible if we don’t give them more money. But aren’t — didn’t you tell us earlier that Colorado — they have more money than they’ve had. The state — the budget keeps increasing, increasing, increasing.

NEVILLE [00:09:27] Right! Yeah, we’ve had more money every year I’ve been in office, and I got elected in 2014. So the first year I took office was in 2015. And we’ve had more money year after year after year. And you know, they want to talk about roads and things like that.

BONNIWELL [00:09:44] Oh, yeah! [facetiously] They’re great with roads. Yeah! Sure!

NEVILLE [00:09:45] We’re trying to put more money into roads without raising your taxes. But that’s what they’re trying to do. And they’re trying to say, “Oh, no! No, no! This isn’t a tax increase! We’re just going to keep money that would go back to you!”  But somehow that’s not a tax increase? No, it is a tax increase. And more importatnly this is taking away your consent forever.

HAYDEN [00:10:06] Well and it’s another — and my second question is: this is just another route on their never-ending attack on TABOR because they hate it — that they have to ask taxpayers to raise their taxes. I mean, and so they just want to get rid of that, so they can just do whatever they want and raise taxes however they want. You know? Because, by gosh!, under Jared Polis we can’t have oil and gas anymore.  That’s going to be going to be hitting us pretty soon.

BONNIWELL [00:10:29] Yeah, we’ve got to make up all that money.

HAYDEN [00:10:29] We’ve got to make up all that money.

NEVILLE [00:10:33] Yes! It’s crazy! And it’s — you know, that’s one of the most frustrating aspects of being an elected [representative] and working with some of the people down there, is they are so upset! They just think this money is theirs. It’s not! It’s the taxpayers’ [money] and we should rightfully ask the taxpayers, year after year, if you want to keep their money for a specified project, speciry the project and ask them. The problem with this is, they don’t even specify a project! They kind of just blatantly say — through a separate bill — “Oh, a third will go for this, a third will go for that, and a third will go for this.” Yet they don’t actually lay out what the project will be. There is no specific road project that’s outlined in the bill. It’s just taking away people’s money, and taking away their refunds.

HAYDEN [00:11:19] And you know, we’ve talked to people who are, I would say, Jared Polis supporters, when we were talking about, you know, the vaping tax they wanted to add, right? And they are people who say, you know, Polis and this very progressive legislature down there on the Democrat side of the aisle, they have a very ambitious agenda. And again, they’re getting rid of the more traditional ways of getting money in Colorado, like oil and gas, jobs, things like that. And so they need to find ways to pay for this very progressive agenda. So I think that’s another danger. This isn’t just for roads or things like that, that everybody needs. These are things that they are pushing — you know, healthcare for all, all this kind of stuff — that they’re pushing, a progressive agenda that they have no way to pay for except to charge us more.

NEVILLE [00:12:09] Yeah, that’s correct. This is not about full day kindergarten. We already did that without raising your taxes, without keeping your refunds. We did that this last year. Me, I voted against it. I did not support that. But we — all those things that were promised, that’s what they’re running into:  is the fact of the matter is the Democrats promised a lot of things to voters and now they realize they don’t have a blank check to keep all their promises. So, now they need more money.

BONNIWELL [00:12:36] More money. They always need more money.

HAYDEN [00:12:36] They always need more money. So, vote ‘No’!

 [00:15:18] [….]  [Chuck goes off on a rant about Patrick’s bill to allow for sports gambling — Chuck is a critic].

HAYDEN [00:15:19] I want to talk to you about the National Popular Vote recall. That seems like that’s going well.

BONNIWELL [00:15:26] That’s going fast.

NEVILLE [00:15:27] It is going well.  We have to be prepared, and we have to be ready, because if we actually are successful collecting all the signatures we need for that, they will be really well funded if that goes to the ballot.

HAYDEN [00:15:38] Yes.

BONNIWELL [00:15:38] Yes. Yes.

NEVILLE [00:15:41] Really well funded. And so, that’s one of those things we have to be prepared for. We can’t just get stuff on the ballot and hope the voters–. I mean, that’s what Republicans are good at — right?

BONNIWELL [00:15:50] Yes, yes.

NEVILLE [00:15:51] Like, we get excited and we get something on the ballot, and you know, everything is going to be okay. And we don’t work. So, once that hits the ballot, we have got to be prepared to work hard to make sure that that that gets repealed because the Democrats will have that–.

BONNIWELL [00:16:05] I agree. In addition, the good part about it is, usually in Colorado we have all this Democratic money plus all this Democratic outside money. But at least for the national popular vote, I know some money will come in from the outside, because a lot of other states know how important it is.

NEVILLE [00:16:21] They do, but the problem is a lot of Democrat donors know how important it is.

BONNIWELL [00:16:23] Yeah, good point.

NEVILLE [00:16:23] So, they’re going to be all in favor of that. And we have the Ted Trimpas of the world, who was the lead lobbyist on that.

HAYDEN [00:16:28] Yeah.

BONNIWELL [00:16:28] [unintelligible] evil.

NEVILLE [00:16:31] And, you know, he’s smart. He knows what he’s doing. So, we have to be prepared if that goes to the ballot, we have to actually defeat that. Becasue if it doesn’t get defeated at the ballot, it puts us in–.

BONNIWELL [00:16:44] Real jeopardy, yeah.

NEVILLE [00:16:45] Right.

HAYDEN [00:16:45] Yeah. You know, you’ll take notice of this: Ted had texted me saying that he had sent some kind of letter or text — I think — to Ken Buck saying, “Damn, you Republicans! You’re getting smarter,” he said.  You know, he was hoping that they would not notice how the National Popular Vote would energize the base and actually get the recall thing going to fight it. So he said, it’s made — like you said, they’ve got a plan and they’ve got the money. But at least we’re fighting back and they recognize that.

BONNIWELL [00:17:11] Everyone wants to talk to Patrick. He’s been away, so we’ll select a call of all the people. We’ll go to Charlene

HAYDEN [00:17:13] I think you just hung up on Patrick, though.  Hi, Charlene!

CALLER CHARLENE [00:17:22] Oh, hi there! Chuck, I just want to say I’m with you all the way. The only way for the establishment to get in on all of this grassroots enthusiasm is to put the face of Patrick Neville on their team.

BONNIWELL [00:17:37] Yes! Yes!

CALLER CHARLENE [00:17:37] And you know, when I saw that team of Brauchler and Owens and —  I [don’t]  think i knew who the other one was, I was like, they’re just trying to pull themselves up out of their losing streak.  And, they’re — you know, I’m sure they care about the issue, as we all do.

BONNIWELL [00:17:53] Oh, I know the other one was, Charlene. Walker Stapleton!

CALLER CHARLENE [00:17:55] [laughs].

BONNIWELL [00:17:55] Nothing excites the base more than having Walker Stapleton’s face on there.  Yeah, let’s get Walker up there, to be the face of — because you know, Walker really excites people and really gets –. What happened to Charlene?

HAYDEN [00:18:10] She left [unintelligible] — I think there’s an electrical storm or a phone glitch, though, because we lost Patrick. And then we got Patrick back, but then we lost Charlene. So Charlene, thank you!  Let me just bring Patrick up now so we can say goodbye to him one more time.

BONNIWELL [00:18:21] Are you there, Patrick?

NEVILLE [00:18:22] Yeah, I’m here.

HAYDEN [00:18:25] Okay, sorry.

BONNIWELL [00:18:25] Charlene was saying [that]  nothing excites the base more about ‘No on CC’ than to see Walker Stapleton, Bill Owens, — I forget who — there was someone else.

HAYDEN [00:18:34] She said they should just have your name on it.

BONNIWELL [00:18:34] Yeah, she said we need your face up there. We don’t need you cleaning the toilets.

HAYDEN [00:18:42] Chuck!

BONNIWELL [00:18:42] Well, that’s what they — they put him on the advisory committee, to advise the assistant principal or something.

HAYDEN [00:18:42] Well, Patrick, advise them.  So–.

NEVILLE [00:18:51] [laughs] You know, the bottom line is: you win by addition, not by subtraction. So–.

BONNIWELL [00:18:54] Well what’s ‘addition?’ Is Walker Stapleton and Bill Owens addition?

HAYDEN [00:18:55] Chuck!  Let him — let him finish.

NEVILLE [00:19:00] Anyone anyone who wants to help us defeat this, I will accept their help — I mean, work with them to help defeat it.

BONNIWELL [00:19:02] Well, me too. Well, I’m an inclusive guy. But can’t we have some conservative heroes, too?

HAYDEN [00:19:12] Chuck!  Patrick, I’m — and I’ll make truck stop. Where — Where should people go to get — because you said, you know, you said you’ve got a couple of different efforts ,now. Where do you want people to go?

NEVILLE [00:19:21] Yeah, if you go to RecallColorado.com, that’s where you’re going to get all the up-to-date information about any recalls going on, or future recalls going on in the state of Colorado. So, go there. If you want to donate — not to recalls, but to actually taking back the House, we have our own website and our own — that’s Values First Colorado, and that’s the 527 we have for the House. We’ve split those two into two separate entities, so any effort — any money going into RecallColorado.com will go strictly towards recalls.  And that’s not just to House recalls, that will be any recalls that happen throughout Colorado, whether they’re legislatively or for the governor, or any of those. So, yeah, RecallColorado.com is really the effort for those folks that are energized about recalls. And I wouldn’t let them be deterred or, you know, with what happened with Sullivan recall. That could still pop up again. There’s other recalls that might be even more important, more influential, and we’re going back those. We’ll back all of them.

BONNIWELL [00:20:24] Well, at least Tony Sanchez will not be saying, “Oh, I don’t think we ought to recall that Brittany–.

HAYDEN [00:20:31] Yeah!  Really, because she told the truth the whole way through.

BONNIWELL [00:20:31] Yeah! “Oh, yeah, we have got to keep her in office!”

HAYDEN [00:20:34] Hey, Patrick, thank you. [We are] glad to have you back in Colorado. Thank you for your time. […] And Happy Father’s Day to everybody in your family.

BONNIWELL [00:20:39] Yeah, say hello to your dad.

HAYDEN [00:20:39] Thanks, Patrick.

NEVILLE [00:20:39] Thanks, guys. All right.