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Another Colorado Lawmaker Targeted For Recall

Bente Birkeland
/
RMCR

Colorado senate Democrats blasted gun rights groups Wednesday for trying to recall another state lawmaker. Two Democrats were ousted in September over support for stricter gun laws. The latest campaign targets Westminster Democrat Evie Hudak.

It鈥檚 the second try at Hudak for second amendment supporters. They failed in an earlier attempt to gather enough signatures to force a recall vote against her.

鈥淪ilence is consent, and we will not be silent,鈥� Mike McAlpine with the campaign said. 鈥淪enator Hudak has chosen to blatantly disregard her oath, infringed upon our rights, and has voted to increase our taxes, kill our jobs, and make us less safe.鈥�

The group has two months to collect about 18,000 signatures to put the recall before voters. Hudak is in a swing district and won re-election by a narrow margin. Gun rights supporters feel they have momentum on their side after Democratic senators John Morse and Angela Giron .

鈥淧ersonally I don鈥檛 think a recall mechanism is the best way for us to resolve our policy differences,鈥� Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora) said.

One Democratic senator called the attempted recall, ridiculous. Another, Matt Jones (D-Longmont) says it鈥檚 a tactic out of the Washington playbook.

鈥淎ll of the sudden, this kind of gotcha win at all costs is coming to Colorado and it鈥檚 not good for governance and it鈥檚 not good for the people and problem-solving,鈥� Jones said.

Gun rights activists say it鈥檚 just the opposite.

They blame east coast gun control advocates such as for helping Colorado pass universal background checks and a ban on high capacity magazines of more than 15 rounds.

For her part, Hudak is keeping mum. She scurried out of a meeting Wednesday morning refusing to discuss the recall campaign and directing reporters to her staff.

Bente Birkeland is an award-winning journalist who joined Colorado Public Radio in August 2018 after a decade of reporting on the Colorado state capitol for the Rocky Mountain Community Radio collaborative and KUNC. In 2017, Bente was named Colorado Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), and she was awarded with a National Investigative Reporting Award by SPJ a year later.
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