Douglas County special election weighs home rule

State of play: The measure asks voters whether a commission should write a new charter declaring Douglas a home rule county.

• If approved, a second vote on the charter's language would take place in November.

The intrigue: The all-Republican county commission referred the measure to the ballot — with little public input — to give itself more authority to push back against the Democratic-led state Capitol.

• "We see every year the state legislature encroaching … on traditionally local issues with state blanket mandates," county commissioner George Teal told CPR News.
• If approved, Douglas would become the third home rule county in the state, alongside Weld and Pitkin. (Denver and Broomfield exercise home rule authority as combined city-county governments.)

How it works: A home rule county ostensibly gets more control to adopt ordinances and avoid state mandates. All the cities in Douglas County have home rule powers.

• Yes, but: It's not unconditional authority, experts say. How much power the county commissioners would wield under home rule status ultimately depends on how the charter language is written.

The big picture: Douglas County's leaders may be Republicans, but the county is far from the conservative bastion it once was.

• Republicans lead Democrats in voter registration by 15%, but unaffiliated voters are the plurality at 49.4%, state figures show.
• President Trump won the county by a mere 7 percentage points in the 2024 election.

What they're saying: "Anti-Trump sentiment in Colorado has driven unaffiliated voters away from Republicans since 2018, so 'home rule' proponents must be able to separate the merits of the issue from that political dynamic," writes Dick Wadhams, the former GOP state chair, in Colorado Politics.

The bottom line: How unaffiliated voters come down on the question will determine the outcome. So far, this voting bloc accounts for 45% of the vote, according to county figures.