{"id":261,"date":"2026-05-20T04:06:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=261"},"modified":"2026-05-20T04:06:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:06:01","slug":"jared-polis-says-his-tina-peters-decision-will-be-remembered-fondly-despite-growing-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=261","title":{"rendered":"Jared Polis says his Tina Peters decision \u201cwill be remembered fondly,\u201d despite growing outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday said he doesn\u2019t regret his decision to commute the prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, despite widespread condemnation from Democrats and some Republicans, who said it will embolden election conspiracy theorists ahead of the 2026 midterms.<\/p>\n

Read more Colorado launches $4M emergency tree-cutting project along highways with high risk of wildfire<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think this will be remembered fondly,\u201d Polis said at The Colorado Sun\u2019s annual legislative recap event at the University of Denver. \u201cThe nation needs to have a reconciliation and healing.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cPeople know I\u2019m a man of action,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m a bold person, I\u2019m going to do things that I think are right, and that\u2019s why people put me here. They want me to do things that I think are right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters, an ally of President Donald Trump who has touted election conspiracy theories, was convicted in August 2024 of orchestrating a security breach of her county\u2019s election system in a failed 2021 attempt to uncover voter fraud. Polis on Friday cut Peters\u2019 nine-year prison sentence in half and ordered her to be released on parole June 1, saying she was being unfairly punished for her political views.<\/p>\n

In the days following his announcement, the outrage over the commutation has only grown in intensity, with some Democrats going so far as to call for his impeachment or censure. <\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who is running to replace Polis, said that he won\u2019t consider appointing Polis to his seat should he win the governor\u2019s race because of the Peters decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI view the decision that he made with respect to Tina Peters as disqualifying,\u201d Bennet said on CNN.<\/p>\n

Peters was convicted in August 2024 of three counts of attempting to influence a public official; conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation; official misconduct; violation of duty; and failure to comply with an order of the Secretary of State.<\/p>\n

Polis on Tuesday reiterated that he felt Peters\u2019 sentence was too harsh for her crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what we looked at is sort of comparables for the sentencing on those, and frankly, there are public officials on nearly identical charges that get probation,\u201d Polis said. \u201cSome get a year, some get two years. We couldn\u2019t find any that were nine years. And when you look at why that was cited by the judge, he effectively cited her courtroom antics slash speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polis noted that while many were outraged by his decision, others believe she did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019re not focusing on here are the millions of Coloradans who felt that a particular Coloradan was punished for her beliefs, and in a Colorado for all, that\u2019s simply not the kind of Colorado we believe in,\u201d Polis said. \u201cNobody should be punished for their beliefs, you should be punished for crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The governor said he was opposed to the Trump administration giving Peters money out of a $1.8 billion fund it wants to create to compensate people who feel they were targeted by the Biden administration\u2019s Justice Department or other Democrats.<\/p>\n

Vice President J.D. Vance said Tuesday that Peters was a prime candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat whole thing is completely bogus,\u201d Polis said.<\/p>\n

Finally, Polis brushed off the notion that commuting Peters\u2019 sentence was a form of political suicide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no plans to run for anything,\u201d Polis said, \u201cbut certainly this, like everything I do \u2014 people know I\u2019m a man of action. I\u2019m a bold person. I\u2019m going to do things that I think are right, and that\u2019s why people put me here.<\/p>\n

Special session to censure, impeach Polis is extremely unlikely<\/h2>\n

Top Democrats in the legislature, speaking at The Sun event, said it\u2019s highly unlikely the General Assembly will convene a special session \u2014 as some Democrats have called for \u2014 to try to censure or impeach the governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A special session can be called by the governor or through two-thirds support of each the House and Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Colorado\u2019s lakes, reservoirs won\u2019t have enough water for most kinds of boating this summer<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the governor almost certainly won\u2019t call a special session to censure or impeach himself, that leaves things to lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Both House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, and Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, D-Denver, said there was not two-thirds support in either of their chambers to call a special session. Democrats don\u2019t have supermajorities in either chamber, meaning they\u2019d have to get Republican support for a special session.<\/p>\n

Many in the GOP had been calling on Polis to release Peters early.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019d have a hard time convincing Republicans to do anything on this specific issue,\u201d House Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell, a Colorado Springs Republican, said at The Sun event. \u201cI think most would agree with the commutation of that sentence.<\/p>\n

McCluskie said she doesn\u2019t think Polis\u2019 actions rise to the level of impeachment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn impeachable offense includes high crimes, acts of malfeasance,\u201d she said. \u201cI do not believe this rises to that level.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Sen. Matt Ball, a Denver Democrat, said he was frustrated that the governor waited until two days after the legislative session ended to announce his decision on Peters, effectively leaving the legislature with no opportunity to respond.<\/p>\n

All 66 Democrats in the legislature sent Polis a letter during the session, which ended Wednesday, urging him not to let Peters out early.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s good for his legacy,\u201d Ball said.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators disrupted Polis\u2019 remarks<\/h2>\n

Polis\u2019 remarks at The Sun event were drowned out by a small group of protesters who took the stage at the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs and talked over much of his interview. Polis was not physically present in the room but was being interviewed via Zoom, which was broadcast on screens the demonstrators tried to block.<\/p>\n

Nick Naris, 22, one of the protesters, told The Sun that Peters\u2019 commutation pushed his group to upstage Tuesday\u2019s event at DU.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfair to real voters,\u201d Naris said of Polis\u2019 commutation. \u201cIt\u2019s an unfair decision. I think most of us believe that, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

What started as a protest of the Peters\u2019 decision quickly became a platform for a range of grievances against the governor, who is term-limited and leaves office in January.<\/p>\n

Naris, a University of Colorado Denver student, said he was with the group Climate Defiance, which \u201cfocuses on humiliating and calling out climate criminals.\u201d Polis\u2019 support of data centers, his cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and other issues put him on the group\u2019s target list.<\/p>\n

Polis could not hear the protests but was informed of the demonstration in the middle of his interview with Jesse Paul, The Sun\u2019s political reporter and elections editor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to be civil, and obviously respect that, and obviously at the same time whoever\u2019s doing that is not going to be like incarcerated or punished,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope they\u2019re just politely asked to leave, and hopefully they will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campus security escorted the protesters away after a 30-minute interruption<\/p>\n

Colorado Sun public policy editor Justin George contributed to this report, as did freelance reporter Colleen Slevin.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more The six biggest themes of Colorado\u2019s 2026 legislative session<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Jared Polis made the remarks at The Colorado Sun\u2019s annual legislative recap event, only to be drowned out by a small group of protesters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-and-government"],"yoast_head":"\nJared Polis says his Tina Peters decision \u201cwill be remembered fondly,\u201d despite growing outrage - 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=261\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jared Polis says his Tina Peters decision \u201cwill be remembered fondly,\u201d despite growing outrage - Colorado Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gov. 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