Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers (R) is reaching out statewide to voters urging them to guide a referendum that would make it drastically harder to amend the state’s constitution november.

If passed, the odds for just about any sort of future gambling expansion could be drastically reduced.

Suthers, who opposed the legalization of marijuana during his time as Colorado’s attorney general, is on a new crusade: to avoid amending the state Constitution. To quickly attain that goal, he’ll ironically first need to amend the law.

Appearing in a new commercial campaign, Suthers opines, ‘The Founding Fathers managed to make it hard to amend the United States Constitution, it set fourth fundamental rights that should be protected because they knew. The Colorado Constitution is a far different story.’

The campaign arises from the ‘Raise the Bar Safeguard Our Constitution’ coalition. According to the combined group, the Colorado Constitution has been amended over 150 times, while the United States Constitution is changed just 27 times.

‘Our state calls for the exact same initiative process to amend our Constitution as our state laws,’ the organization says on its website. ‘ This framework has made Colorado’s ballot and Constitution among the most effortlessly changed within the country.’

Former Colorado Springs Mayor Mary Lou Makepeace is also lending her support and appearing in a tv spot.

Suthers Sulking

Colorado is certainly one of just five states which have legal charitable, pari-mutuel, commercial, tribal, and racetrack gambling, as well as a continuing state lottery. Tribes are permitted to operate casinos on their sovereign land, and localities are allowed to accept casino gambling though just three did so.

The majority are small-scale gambling venues situated together in hill towns like Black Hawk.

Suthers would like to keep it like that.

Officially known as Amendment 71, improve the Bar wishes to mandate that petitions to change the state Constitution receive signatures from at the least two percent of voters in all 35 Senate districts. The general public would then require to vote in favor of the amendment by at the least 55 percent.

Current legislation to maneuver a petition ahead calls for five percent of the previous vote for secretary of state, but those signatures are collected anywhere in Colorado.

Proponents for lots more Constitution that is stringent amendment argue groups presently go into Denver and Boulder to get the necessary John Hancocks, and those two cities does not necessarily represent Coloradans as an entire.

If the Suthers coalition wins, amendments would become impossible seemingly. Gaining two percent support in every part of hawaii, from the heavily conservative remote regions to your heavily liberal towns and cities, might function as the perfect recipe for inaction.

Weed Yay, Casinos Nay

In 2014, voters in Colorado passed Amendment 64, the ‘personal use and legislation of marijuana,’ by a margin of 55.3 in favor to 44.7 percent opposed. But during that election that is same rejected a motion to expand gambling.

The owners of this Arapahoe Park horse track and 11 off-track betting parlors had desired permission from the public that is general allow its facilities to include slots and table machines, with 34 per cent of total income going to support education.

The Arapahoe Park and locations that are off-track owned by a group of investors based in Rhode Island.

‘East Coast casinos tried to create a gambling monopoly inside our Constitution,’ Suthers concludes in the commercial. ‘It’s time and energy to make sure constitutional amendments have broad public support.’

Voters were at the top of marijuana, but low on gambling.

The gaming amendment failed overwhelmingly as a lot more than 70 percent of voters went from the motion.