Cary Kennedy

Cary Kennedy announced her candidacy for Governor of Colorado in April of 2017. She was the Colorado State Treasurer from 2007 to 2017 and is a former Deputy Mayor and Chief Financial Officer for Denver.

Biography

[1]

Issue Ideas & Proposals

Education

Kennedy's website lists under-investment, teacher shortages, and lack of equity as the most important issues facing education in Colorado, and outlines the following key goals as governor:

Teachers:

• Raise teacher pay to at least the national average
• Ensure the public employee's retirement association is financially secure
• Expand the teacher talent pipeline through higher ed scholarships, apprenticeships, and other measures.
• Include teachers in evaluation systems and increase their professional advancement opportunities

Equity:

• Empower families to engage in their child’s education opportunities for parents like after-school classes, including ESL, GED, personal finance, and technology classes; expand district-wide family development programs that teach parents how to work with teachers.
• Universal access to quality preschool and full day kindergarten.
• Make access to technology more equitable by providing more opportunities for students to access technology needed for school work, like computers or tablets, and broadband services.
• Ensure that every district can support nurses, counselors and all needed support staff. Provide access to services that address out of classroom factors like food insecurity, and provide the services necessary to allow disabled students to learn and grow with their classmates at their neighborhood school.
• Replicate the principles of community schools and give districts the support the need to embrace these principles in schools across Colorado.

[2]

Environment

• Boost green business by doubling the Renewable Energy standard, ensuring Colorado homes and business can access a 100% renewable energy option, and enabling the best possible environment for electric car sales and operation.
• Work together with Coloradans toward the goal of conserving 1 million acres and 400,000 acre-feet of water by 2050.

[3]

Gun Reform & Safety

• Ban military style assault weapons designed to quickly kill large numbers of people.
• Keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others.
• Fight the NRA and the gun lobby.

[4]

Criminal Justice Reform

• Kennedy promises to sign a law banning the death penalty in Colorado if one is presented to her, but notes that she must enforce the law if the legislature does not ban it. As governor, should death penalty convictions be directly appealed to her, she promises to consider all the facts of the case and meet with all parties involved before making a decision.
• Prioritize prevention and mental health services above incarceration, as well as confront racial biases in the justice system.

[5]

Social Justice

Kennedy calls for:

• A ban on conversion therapy in Colorado. [6]
• Changing the cultural norms that tolerate sexual abuse and gender violence.
• Supporting survivors of harassment and abuse when they come forward, respecting their choice on how to report, and protecting their confidentiality.
• Changing the culture of harassment in the Colorado State Capitol, through confidential reporting, thorough investigation of all reports, and strong action on credible reports including potentially calling for resignation or, if applicable, terminating employment.
• Codifying Obama-era guidance on Title IX protections for university students who lodge accusations of sexual assault and harassment. Protections would include ensuring an investigation does not drag on with no conclusion, and the right to appeal a decision.
• Fighting racism and racial injustices through policy to eliminate employment, education, and poverty inequities.

[7]

Affordable Housing

As governor, Kennedy would establish an affordable housing fund to support communities in finding initiatives to address their particular challenges. The Fund would:

• Invest in a variety of affordable housing opportunities by financing the construction, maintenance, and preservation of the affordable housing supply in communities across the state.
• Invest in mixed-income housing opportunities that maintain diverse and inclusive communities across the state.
• Preserve affordable property so that it can be used for affordable development, not just more out-of-reach development.
• Support programs that provide rental/down payment assistance, address homelessness, increase homeownership, and help Coloradans attain affordable housing.

In addition, Kennedy outlined a plan to protect renters' rights:

• Increase landlord transparency, so that before accepting an application fee a landlord should provide a description of the tenant's rights and landlord responsibilities for maintaining the home, say whether or not they make application decisions based on criminal background checks and how far into an applicant’s past those background checks extend, and say if they make application decisions based on if the tenant has previous history of eviction.
• Make it illegal for landlords to deny applications based on the source of income, intended to protect those with Section 8 vouchers.
• Raise the eviction filing fee that landlords pay to evict families and use those funds for legal assistance for tenants being evicted.

Kennedy cites her history of working on affordable housing and homeownership programs in Denver to support her commitment to further advancing those issues as governor. [8]

I-70 Expansion

In response to an issue questionnaire sent to candidates by the Colorado Elections Project, Kennedy declined to state a position on the I-70 expansion, saying she would not take a campaign position on any specific infrastructure project. She did note that she has heard many concerns from residents whose health, safety, and housing security may be impacted, and committed that as Governor she would review all the options for the project. [9]

Funders

See the State Governor 2018 Campaign Finance page for more details on Kennedy's notable donors and an analysis of her campaign's financial support sources.