Jason Crow on his role investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow is the top Democrat on the House committee wrapping up its investigation into the attempted assassination earlier this year of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

As the panel prepares to release its report next year, Crow is reflecting on what he’s learned and how the Secret Service can improve.

“There wasn’t good communication and command and control here,” Crow told The Colorado Sun on Thursday. “That led to a cascading series of failures at multiple levels that resulted in the shooting.”

Among Crow’s takeaways:

• Secret Service agents at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, were communicating with each other and local law enforcement through text messages on personal phones and by email and handwritten notes. “There wasn’t a unified communication system, which is unbelievable and something that I had years ago when I was operating in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Crow, an Army veteran.
• There isn’t a see-something-say-something culture at the Secret Service, which meant that when countersnipers at the rally were placed in the wrong position and an anti-drone detection system didn’t work, no one spoke up. 
• Crow said the failures that led to the shooting are borne on both the rank-and-file Secret Service agents who were in Butler that day and also the agency’s leadership. “Leaders set the tone,” he said. “They establish culture and they have ultimate authority.”

The congressman sees some of the fixes as relatively easy. The military, for instance, already has unified communications systems in place that could be deployed with the Secret Service.

Funding for the Secret Service is part of the path forward. Based on the way Republicans griped during a committee hearing Thursday, that could be a hiccup.

“There are actually ways of doing a lot of the things that we talked about and the reforms that need to be done that won’t cost anything or that may even save money,” Crow said. “But there are some areas that will require some investment. So working with the Republicans on the task force to figure out how we find that money is going to be an important task and it’s something that we committed to carry forward into the next Congress.”

NOTHING MORE ON MOTIVE

One of the big questions that still looms over the assassination attempt is the Pennsylvania shooter’s motive. Crow said the committee didn’t make any progress on that front.

“We had challenges getting the FBI and the Department of Justice to give us information — information about his phone, the digital scrubbing of his profile and whether or not he had contacts or any other affiliates that he was in touch with,” he said.

Crow said the FBI declined to hand over answers to those questions because the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

“That’s an answer that we have wholly rejected,” he said. “Congress is the Article I branch. It has supreme authority to conduct oversight of the executive branch. We receive the nation’s top intelligence — information about our military operations — every single day, our most classified, sensitive secrets. You can’t tell me that we can’t figure out a way to receive and properly handle that information to execute our oversight obligation.”

Crow said Congress will work next year to force federal investigators to share what they know.

BIGGER PICTURE

“I’ve been here for almost six years now, and this task force has been one of the better experiences I’ve had in terms of working in a bipartisan and very substantive way,” Crow said.

COLORADO LEGISLATURE

Who is in the mix to replace Kevin Van Winkle in Senate District 30

Republican state Sen. Kevin Van Winkle was elected Nov. 5 to the Douglas County Commission and he will resign his legislative seat effective Jan. 9 — the day after the 2025 lawmaking term begins.

“It has been an honor and privilege to serve the people of Colorado,” he wrote in his resignation letter, submitted Nov. 22.

Van Winkle’s departure, just two years into his first term in the Senate, means a Republican vacancy committee in Senate District 30 — which includes Highlands Ranch, Castle Pines, Lone Tree and Roxborough Park —will meet to select his replacement for the final two years of his term.

Here’s who is planning to seek the vacancy committee’s appointment:

• Former state Rep. Kim Ransom, who left the legislature in early 2023 because of term limits after eight years in the House. “What I’m thinking is that someone experienced will be able to best serve Senate District 30 — someone who knows and understands the way the legislative process works,” she told The Colorado Sun.
• Former Colorado GOP Vice Chair Priscilla Rahn, who ran unsuccessfully against Van Winkle in the primary for the Douglas County Commissioner District 3 race. “I just feel like I want to be involved in making life better for people,” she said. “As a teacher I’d love to pass some really good funding bills.”
• Former University of Colorado Regent John Carson, who also ran in the District 3 commissioner race, is also eyeing the vacancy appointment. He said his top focuses as a lawmaker would be paring back state government growth, eliminating the state income tax and requiring local governments to enforce federal immigration law.
• Ephram Glass, who ran unsuccessfully this year to represent House District 39.

It appears the vacancy committee’s meeting hasn’t been scheduled yet, but it will likely happen in early January.

One person emphatic about not being interested in replacing Van Winkle is Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Littleton.

“I am happy representing the people who elected me for HD39,” she said.

Bradley said she is supporting Ransom’s vacancy appointment bid.

SENATE DISTRICT 31 VACANCY

There are eight Democrats who plan to vie for the vacancy appointment in Senate District 31 to replace outgoing Democratic state Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver.

Hansen’s resignation will come after he won reelection Nov. 5 to a second four-year term in the Senate. He is stepping down to become the CEO of the La Plata Energy Association in southwestern Colorado.

The people interested in replacing Hansen are:

• State Rep. Steven Woodrow
• State Rep.-elect Sean Camacho
• Denver Director of Policy Matt Ball
• June Churchill, the self-proclaimed “bike mayor” of Denver
• RTD Director Jaime Lewis
• Monica VanBuskirk, a health care policy guru
• Chris Chiari, CEO and founder of The 420 Hotels Inc
• Shaneis Malouff, chief of staff at the Auraria Higher Education Center

Hansen’s resignation takes effect Jan. 9. The vacancy committee in Senate District 31 plans to meet Jan. 7.

THE POLITICAL TICKER

SONYA JAQUEZ LEWIS

Democratic state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis of Longmont on Wednesday night amended a campaign finance report she filed over the summer after being contacted by The Colorado Sun about discrepancies.

Jaquez Lewis disclosed $450 in payments to one of her aides that he says were reimbursement for chores like yard work and bartending at a party at her home and for knocking on doors on behalf of an Adams County commissioner candidate who was running in the Democratic primary against the wife of one of Jaquez Lewis’ intraparty legislative rivals.

Colorado candidates are prohibited from using campaign funds for “personal purposes not reasonably related to the election of the candidate.” They also are barred from using their campaign accounts to donate to other campaigns.

Jaquez Lewis told The Sun the aide’s work “benefited me by allowing me to interface with donors and further my political support.”

SENATE DISTRICT 29

State Rep. Iman Jodeh, D-Aurora, says she will run for the vacancy appointment in Senate District 29 to replace outgoing state Sen. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, who will resign Jan. 9.

“I am ready to carry forward the values that have informed my work in public service,” she said in a written statement.

Jodeh, when she was elected in 2020, was the first Muslim lawmaker in Colorado. She is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants.

CONGRESS

Mitchell Rivard will become the next chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, according to Politico.

Rivard previously served as chief of staff for Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan, who is retiring from Congress, and had stints with Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Jennifer Granholm.

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NONPROFITS

Colorado political nonprofits report their financials

A few notable political nonprofits in Colorado recently filed their annual tax reports. Here are the highlights from what’s in them:

• The Common Sense Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, spent about $3.5 million in 2023, about $2 million of that on salaries, up a total of about $1.5 million over the previous year. The organization’s highest-paid employee last year was President and CEO Kristin Strohm, who earned $320,000. 
• Other highly paid Common Sense Institute staff in 2023 included Chief Operating Officer Cinamon Watson, who earned $260,000; Colorado Executive Director Kelly Caufield, at $200,000; and Colorado Vice President of Policy Chris Brown, who earned about $200,000. (The nonprofit also has operations in Arizona.)
• The Bell Policy Center, a liberal fiscal policy think tank, spent about $1.4 million in 2023, about $900,000 of which went to salaries. That represented a roughly $500,000 decrease over its total spending in 2022. 
• Scott Wasserman, the president of the nonprofit, earned about $140,000 in 2023. He left the group earlier this year and has been replaced by outgoing House Speaker Pro Tempore Chris deGruy Kennedy, D-Lakewood. 
• Advance Colorado, the conservative political nonprofit, reported raising $3 million in 2023 and spending about $2.4 million. It didn’t report paying any staffers a salary.
• The Independence Institute, a conservative political nonprofit, spent about $2.7 million in 2023, about half of which went to pay staff salaries. The highest-paid employee was President Jon Caldara, at about $160,000. 
• Conservation Colorado, the liberal political nonprofit focused on the environment, spent about $1.3 million in 2023, down about $1 million from the previous year. The highest paid employee was CEO Kelly Nordini, at about $90,000. Nordini also was paid $153,000 last year by the Conservation Colorado Education Fund, an affiliated nonprofit.

SENATE PRESIDENT’S NONPROFIT EARNINGS

Incoming Senate President James Coleman, D-Denver, was paid $120,000 in 2023 for his role as founder of the Denver nonprofit FaithBridge, which, according to its tax filing, supports equity and expanded opportunities for students across Colorado.

The nonprofit, like most nonprofits, doesn’t disclose its donors. It is not, however, a political group like the others listed above.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

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• How did Democrats keep their Pa. House majority during a red wave? Redistricting is part of the answer.
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• Texas weighs social media bans for minors as schools and police face challenges
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