{"id":215,"date":"2026-05-15T21:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T21:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=215"},"modified":"2026-05-15T21:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T21:03:07","slug":"tina-peters-isnt-the-first-colorado-convict-to-become-a-central-figure-in-a-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=215","title":{"rendered":"Tina Peters isn\u2019t the first Colorado convict to become a central figure in a governor\u2019s race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The two men most likely to replace Gov. Jared Polis next year have been clear: They do not think former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters should be let out of prison early.<\/p>\n

Read more Does each chronically homeless person cost taxpayers $30,000 to $50,000 per year?<\/a><\/p>\n

When asked during a recent Democratic primary debate whether Peters\u2019 nine-year sentence for orchestrating a security breach of her county\u2019s election system in 2021 was too harsh, Attorney General Phil Weiser, whose office helped prosecute Peters, said \u201cno way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d said U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.<\/p>\n

Peters, whose sentence was cut in half Friday by Polis, has become a central figure in Colorado\u2019s 2026 gubernatorial race. While both Democrats running to be Colorado\u2019s next governor have said she deserves to remain behind bars, two of the three Republicans in the race have said she should be let out immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m governor, if this isn\u2019t taken care of, Day 1 she is being set free,\u201d said pastor Victor Marx, a Republican gubernatorial candidate. \u201cI\u2019ll open the jail cell myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time someone in a state prison has become a key figure in a Colorado gubernatorial race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2014, when then-Gov. John Hickenlooper was running for a second term, the Democrat suggested in a passing remark to a journalist that he might commute Nathan Dunlap\u2019s death penalty sentence if he lost his reelection bid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dunlap was 19 years old in 1993 when he shot five people, four of them fatally, at a Chuck E. Cheese in Aurora. Dunlap had been fired from the restaurant a few months before the shooting, which was an act of revenge.<\/p>\n

Read more Colorado lawmakers debated education bills over teacher housing, state testing and more. Here\u2019s where they landed.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hickenlooper had given Dunlap an indefinite reprieve from capital punishment about three months before he was set to die. The incumbent governor\u2019s Republican challengers in 2014 made Dunlap part of their platform, vowing to execute him if they were elected to the state\u2019s highest office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m governor, Nathan Dunlap will be executed,\u201d Republican Bob Beauprez said at a debate.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper\u2019s off-the-cuff comment that he was considering commutation went public when a recording made by one of his staffers was released through an open records request. The issue became a central part of the governor\u2019s race that year.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Hickenlooper won and his reprieve for Dunlap stayed in place until 2020, when Polis signed a bill repealing the death penalty in Colorado and converting the sentences of Colorado\u2019s three death row inmates \u2014 including Dunlap \u2014\u00a0to life in prison without the possibility of parole.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Polis, in an interview Friday with The Colorado Sun, said how his successor might approach Peters\u2019 case didn\u2019t factor into his decision to reduce her sentence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI really did not think about what other governors might do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But it has been on his mind when making other clemency decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s certainly people that I deny with the thought that, \u2018Oh, maybe they\u2019ll come back (and) the future governor will feel differently,\u2019\u201d Polis said. \u201cBut because these actions are decisive and constitutional, they\u2019re really just based on what\u2019s in front of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Colorado nonprofit leader who killed himself, leaving wife and young daughter, had chronic brain disease<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two men most likely to replace Gov. Jared Polis next year have been clear:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis"],"yoast_head":"\nTina Peters isn\u2019t the first Colorado convict to become a central figure in a governor\u2019s race - Colorado Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=215\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tina Peters isn\u2019t the first Colorado convict to become a central figure in a governor\u2019s race - Colorado Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The two men most likely to replace Gov. 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