Boulder Weekly Endorses Edie 2020

I was honored to be endorsed by the Boulder Weekly. Here is their profile from the 2020 Voter Guide.

State Representative — District 10

Edie Hooton (D) Kenneth J. Stickney (R)

Edie Hooton is a progressive voice at the State House, working on issues important to those of us in Boulder County. Since first elected in 2016, she’s led the charge on mobile home park regulations, sponsoring legislation that allows mobile homeowners to lodge complaints against parks at the state level, form HOAs and have the first right of refusal if their park goes up for sale, as well as updating the laws that govern mobile home parks. She helped pass a slew of bills providing and expanding access to medical marijuana, including adding autism spectrum disorder to the list of qualifying conditions for those under 21 and allowing its prescription for chronic pain in lieu of opioids. 

In 2020, her main legislation focused on community choice energy — although it ultimately failed to go to appropriations due to the coronavirus pandemic. But the idea is that it would pave the way for communities across Colorado to procure and purchase energy from alternative sources, other than the local investor-owned electric utility, but without upending the local utility’s current status as sole supplier of transmission, distribution and customer service functions. 

Essentially under such a system, communities, like Boulder, could meet their renewable energy goals without having to wait on companies like Xcel to transition or go through a lengthy municipalization process. Hooton is committed to bringing it back if reelected, with some slight changes. She also isn’t in favor of Boulder Ballot Issue 2C, the franchise agreement with Xcel, which Boulder voters are considering this year, but did say the two are not mutually exclusive.

She plans to continue pushing the state legislature on the things most important in Boulder, as she says most of the opposition she’s faced is within her own party. Climate and racial justice, mental health parity, expungement of non-violent cannabis convictions, and expanding funding for homeless youth service providers are just some of the things she hopes to accomplish in the next term.