Weiser announces running mate is Jeffco commissioner Lesley Dahlkemper

[00:00:00]Phil Weiser's running mate is Jeffco Commissioner Leslie D'Alkember. It's a safe and a confident pick from the Democratic nominee and the big front runner for governor. D'Alkember is experienced, she's disciplined, she's unlikely to say or do anything that would be a distraction to the Weiser campaign, but she doesn't exactly shore up any weakness or expand the appeal of Weiser's ticket.

[00:00:20]He may not need it in a state that has elected just one Republican governor in the last half century. D'Alkember's a two-term Jeffco Commissioner. Before that, she was on the Jeffco school board during the political battles that led to the recall of three conservative board members.

[00:00:35]D'Alkember's a former journalist and a communications pro. She sticks to the script. What is not clear is what she would actually do as Lieutenant Governor, a job without many formal duties. And their only joint sit-down following today's announcement, D'Alkember D'Alkember deflected when I asked if she might be bored in this job.

[00:00:55]>> My real interest is in how do we look in creative ways, innovative ways, at some of the toughest issues facing our state, whether it's housing affordability, whether it's attracting businesses to Colorado and jobs that are good for the people of Colorado, access to healthcare and so much more. Wildfire resiliency is a big issue that we work on in Jefferson County. Those are the issues and others that I'm excited to work on with Phil to advance his agenda and to deliver results for Coloradans.

[00:01:21]>> So, it pretty much seems like it's up to the governor how they want their Lieutenant Governor to function, right?

[00:01:27]So, one way to do it is you send your Lieutenant Governor to whatever events you don't want to go to that day. Um, or you could give that person a whole second job in the administration like Governor Polis has done. Uh, that's also allowed him to increase his Lieutenant Governor's salary. Is that something that you'll do?

[00:01:42]>> What we have with Leslie, and this is extraordinary. We have a best available athlete who can play multiple positions.

[00:01:48]So, for baseball fans, think Shohei Ohtani.

[00:01:53]Great pitcher, great hitter. That's Leslie. She can play multiple positions.

[00:01:56]So, my honest answer, I don't know how we're going to use her, and that's a luxury because she can cover so many different positions. Let's take wildfire resilience. We don't have an office of wildfire resilience, but having Leslie as my lieutenant governor gives me somebody who knows how to lead on that issue. We talked about behavioral health, education, former president of school board. One of the issues I'm really concerned about is we've hollowed out our education system, the so-called BS factor, which is BS, but it means budget stabilization. How do we reinvest in education? Leslie's leadership skills gives us really special opportunities.

[00:02:32]So, we'll see.

[00:02:33]>> Picking a running mate from a neighboring county is going to reinforce what Republicans say, which is the Democrats only care about the metro area. How do you respond?

[00:02:41]>> I want to offer two responses. First, get to know both of us, who we are, how we show up. And by the way, Leslie has roots in southern Colorado that she can talk about. The second point is the work I did on the opioid crisis that we've talked about is work I did showing up all across Colorado. The leadership Leslie provided was for all across Colorado. I've had rural county commissioners reach out to me since this announcement telling me how this gives them confidence of my commitment to lead our whole state.

[00:03:14]>> Weiser's campaign celebrated Dal Kemper's work rolling back the Taxpayer Bill of Rights restrictions to allow Jeffco to keep more tax revenue. They tried three times, voters finally approved it. When I asked Weiser and Dal Kemper if that means that they're going to be gunning for TABOR as a whole statewide, Weiser said that voters should always be able to vote on tax increases, but he said the rest of TABOR needs to be up for discussion. Dal Kemper ignored my questions about Republican candidate Victor Marks as if the man does not exist.

[00:03:40]Marks is yet to pick a running mate, though today his campaign declined to have their ticket sit down and take questions from 9 News once it's announced. You can see my full conversation with Weiser and Dal Kemper on the next YouTube channel.