We almost spit out our afternoon diet soda when we read a tweet that said, “Colorado’s Jared Polis: Very much a next-gen Dem when it comes to free-market matters.” Actually, we’re still laughing. Jared Polis now wants to be a free-markets guy. Please. Only if he agrees with your industry. If he doesn’t, watch out. He’ll either introduce legislation to regulate you out of business or spend his own cash to pass ballot initiatives to regulate you out of business.

Perhaps he’s forgotten 2013 when the state’s economic viability was on the precipice because he wanted unreasonable setbacks that essentially would have eliminated a huge portion of oil and gas development in Colorado. Why would he do this, you ask? Because someone dared to frack within the line of sight of his garage. Yes, really. In order to talk him off the ledge, Governor Hickenlooper actually had to hold a series of stakeholder meetings all around the state to come up with some lame recommendations that weren’t really implemented anyway. Total cluster.

But it’s not just his shenanigans in 2013. Since then, he’s spent his legislative career pushing regulatory boondoggles. Here are just a few bills he introduced:

  • ExCEL Act of 2015 ties bank’s hands on how they administer student loans
  • Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act, which is obvious
  • Demand Letter Transparency Act of 2015, which would have required people who send demand letters for intellectual property to provide extensive background information (yes, they’re annoying, but regulating them still isn’t free market thinking)
  • A resolution to further regulate tobacco products
  • Bill to transition away from fossil fuels to renewable sources by 2050; this is definitely not free-market activity
  • Giving Workers a Fair Shot Act, which places additional burdens on businesses

And these are just recently.

So, Polis can describe himself anyway he wants to the media, but it doesn’t make it so. He still has a record for which he must answer.