Days before the election, Ana and Deep welcome Logan Davis, investigative columnist at the Colorado Times Recorder and author of The Red Print, the award-winning map of Advance Colorado’s money, to explain who built the longest ballot in state history and why. Logan walks through how Advance emerged in 2020 to deliver for Phil Anschutz after the Colorado GOP made itself unelectable, how a Democratic legislature anointed Michael Fields by negotiating property tax cuts with him in 2023, and how $14 million moved in 2024 from family foundations and donor-advised funds through a dozen groups with the same officers and the same compliance person. Then the whole shop: Anschutz funds the groups that write the measures, the think tank that blesses them, and the newspapers that endorse them, and this month his companies told employees at the Broadmoor, Xanterra, and Anschutz Exploration to follow the Gazette’s voter guide. Also: why the Colorado Democratic Party is holding election night at an AEG venue, why eight of this year’s measures are built to win lawsuits later, and a twenty-minute argument between Deep and Logan over Amendment 85 that neither of them wins. Tea Time with Logan: predictions on every statewide race and all fourteen measures, Boebert, CD-8, Talarico, El-Sayed, and whether 134 and 135 pass. Last episode of the election cycle.

Who Is Advance Colorado? whoisadvancecolorado.org The Red Print, Colorado Times Recorder: https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2025/08/the-redprint-how-advance-colorado-and-anonymous-donors-shape-the-political-landscape/72168/ Colorado Times Recorder: coloradotimesrecorder.com

Check our our new substack: leftintheattic.substack.com/

The LITA November 2026 Ballot Guide: leftintheattic.com/voterguide

Chapters00:00 A Nice Little Propaganda Machine

00:49 Halloween Weekend And The Party Bus

02:57 Meet Logan Davis

03:37 “I Found A Candidate’s Second Family”

07:05 The Political Workers Guild

10:17 Advance Colorado Fills The GOP Vacuum

15:59 The Property Tax Blackmail

25:29 Reading The 990s Backwards

30:13 The Award-Winning Flowchart

35:34 Twelve Groups, One Compliance Person

39:25 MAGA Or Chamber Of Commerce?

41:43 Who Anschutz Funds In Washington

45:37 Batting .500 With Eight On The Ballot

49:05 Courts, Power, And North Carolina

51:26 Initiatives, Think Tank, Newspapers

52:52 The Broadmoor Emails

54:43 Election Night At An Anschutz Venue

59:12 Eight Measures Built To Sue Later

01:03:47 The Amendment 85 Fight

01:22:12 Michael Fields DM’d Ana

01:25:21 Tea Time: Predictions

01:30:51 The Measures, Pass Or Fail

01:35:15 Talarico, El-Sayed, Mejía

01:37:47 Call To Action

01:39:01 Wrap And Outtakes

Meet Your Hosts

Ana Mitchell, Ph.D., is a former CDC scientist who was swept up in federal cuts and is now reinventing herself as a civic coach and creator. After a decade reducing disparities in health and education, she’s building Civically Fit (see civicallyfit.org) to make civic engagement accessible, authentic, and sustainable. A proud Latina and Colorado native, Ana is focused on helping people build community and power through everyday civic action.

Deep Singh Badhesha is an attorney, political strategist, and the founder of Lamp Strategies, a public affairs firm, with more than a decade of experience shaping campaigns and policy in Colorado. A former public school math teacher, Colorado Supreme Court clerk, Colorado House Democrats staff, and Capitol lobbyist for Denver Public Schools, he now works across campaigns, ballot initiatives, and legislative fights, and turns up on TV and radio to argue about all of it. He's the son of Punjabi immigrants, a Colorado Springs kid, a new dad, and a longtime organizer who believes community, not saviors, will rebuild the Left. He also has way too many hot takes on everything from food and sports to politics.

Links:

Website: www.LeftInTheAttic.com

Instagram: @leftintheatticpod

TikTok: @leftintheattic

Email: LeftInTheAtticPod@gmail.com

Voicemail: (303) 416-2846

Ana and Deep welcome Governor Jared Polis to the attic for a conversation about eight years in office and where he and the left part ways. Polis walks through the education record and the gaps that remain, then defends a supply-side approach to housing where he and the hosts agree right up until rent stabilization. Ana asks the question the episode turns on: if the referee is paid by one team, is the referee impartial? Polis says no, backs publicly financed elections, and says he never took PAC money. Then the disagreements: the surveillance pricing veto, whether the billionaires who own the venues get to decide who speaks (Melat Kiros’s canceled rally), why Europe’s universal healthcare proves capitalism works, why Donald Trump is a socialist, and why he commuted Tina Peters’s sentence instead of letting a judge resentence her. In the ballot lightning round, Polis calls Amendment 87 “the worst one on the ballot,” backs Prop NN, calls Amendment 83 “awful,” and says the anti-trans measures are “nasty and mean.” In Tea Time, Ana and Deep debrief an interview that went friendlier than they expected, disclose their paid work on 84, 85, 7A, and 132, and walk through the LITA ballot guide: yes on 85, 87, NN, and 7A, no on everything else.

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The LITA November 2026 Ballot Guide: [insert link]The LITA endorsements grid: leftintheattic.com/voterguide#grid

Make your own ballot guide and see what 85 would change: https://www.courageouscoloradoaction.org/no-84-yes-85#create-your-guide

Disclosures: Deep is contracted for communications and strategy work on the No on 84 and Yes on 85 campaigns through Courageous Colorado Action. Ana did paid content for the Colorado Connector (7A), previously did paid content for the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, which opposes Prop 132, and is contracted for communications work on 84 and 85. We held every one of these positions before any contract existed and would do so freely!

Chapters

00:00 The Worst One On The Ballot

00:33 Sparkling Water And South Park

02:51 Meet Governor Jared Polis

06:03 The Education Governor’s Ledger

18:50 Supply Side vs. Tenant Protections

24:32 Is The Referee Impartial? “No.”

30:58 The Surveillance Pricing Veto

36:42 Who Gets A Microphone: Melat’s Canceled Rally with Hasan Piker

41:53 Healthcare, Capitalism, And Socialist Trump?

48:03 Tina Peters: Why Not Let The Judge Do It?

52:10 Lightning Round: 87 Is “Devastating”

01:04:53 A Message For The Left: 55 Percent

01:06:50 Tea Time: The Debrief

01:13:20 The LITA Ballot Guide

01:20:28 Why We’re A Yes On 85

01:31:48 The Rest Of The Ballot

01:42:43 Wrap And Behind The Scenes

Meet Your Hosts

Ana Mitchell, Ph.D., is a former CDC scientist who was swept up in federal cuts and is now reinventing herself as a civic coach and creator. After a decade reducing disparities in health and education, she’s building Civically Fit (see civicallyfit.org) to make civic engagement accessible, authentic, and sustainable. A proud Latina and Colorado native, Ana is focused on helping people build community and power through everyday civic action.

Deep Singh Badhesha is an attorney, political strategist, and government affairs professional with over a decade of experience shaping political campaigns and policy in Colorado. A former public school math teacher, Colorado Supreme Court clerk, and senior policy analyst, he now works across campaigns, ballot initiatives, and legislative fights. He’s South Asian, a new dad, and a longtime organizer who believes community—not saviors—will rebuild the Left. He also has way too many hot takes on everything stemming from food and sports to politics.

Links:

Website: www.LeftInTheAttic.com

Instagram: @leftintheatticpod

TikTok: @leftintheattic

Email: LeftInTheAtticPod@gmail.com

Voicemail: (303) 416-2846