May 21, 2026 12:39 PM UTC

Party Censure Caps Polis Peters Commutation Folly

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Chase Woodruff reports for Colorado Newsline, last night Colorado Democrats made good on their promise to punish Gov. Jared Polis for his long-anticipated but nonetheless politically inexplicable decision to commute the sentence of convicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, delivering both a formal rebuke as well as a ban on the governor speaking at party-sanctioned events:

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was formally censured by his own party Wednesday for his decision last week to grant clemency to Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk convicted on multiple felony counts for her role in a breach of her office’s election system.

More than 200 members of the Colorado Democratic Party’s central committee voted overwhelmingly to adopt a resolution censuring Polis for “conduct inconsistent with the (party’s) commitment to democratic institutions, election integrity, and public accountability,” and barring him indefinitely from formal participation in party-sponsored events. Preliminary results showed the measure passed with 89.8% support, party officials said.

“Colorado has spent years building trust in our elections and proving they are secure,” the declaration reads. “At a time when democracy and voting rights are under attack across the nation, weakening accountability for someone convicted of undermining that trust is a mistake.”

Via Colorado Public Radio, Gov. Polis responds after last night’s censure vote:

In response the Party’s official censure, a spokesperson for Polis told CPR News, “The Governor made this decision based on the facts of the case and what he believed was the right thing to do. Sometimes the right thing isn’t the popular thing with everybody. Democracy is strongest when disagreement is met with debate and dialogue, not censorship.”

As we discussed yesterday, “debate and dialogue” has not been the governor’s friend in the days since he announced the commutation of Peters sentence, set to result in her being freed at the end of the month. In any situation where continued talking just make things worse, the best time to stop was before you started, and the second best time is right now. Since it’s extremely unlikely that the legislature will reconvene to consider a stronger penalty before Gov. Polis leaves office in January, this could be where the formal repercussions end.

Democratic candidates, especially those running in high-profile primary races, have generally been quick enough to put daylight between themselves and Polis’ actions to escape collateral damage. Sen. John Hickenlooper promises to fight Peters getting any money from Trump’s Insurrectionist Compensation Fund, and Sen. Michael Bennet has vowed not to reward Polis with his seat in the U.S. Senate if elected governor.

Because the courts were going to reduce Peters’ sentence either way after the appeals court ruled the original nine-year sentence was too harsh and inappropriately punished Peters for constitutionally protected speech, it remains a major mystery why Gov. Polis chose to make himself a political pariah, at least for the time being, by short-circuiting the judiciary in the process of rectifying that perceived error. Letting the courts handle this hot-button case could well have produced a similar outcome without the political pain and suffering for Gov. Polis.

But that didn’t happen, and we’re not here to make excuses on his behalf.