Hickenlooper and Baisley Clash on Western Slope Housing

Aspen —The wind off the Continental Divide doesn’t care about your mortgage rate. It howls down I-70 with equal indifference toward the ski lodges in Aspen and the dirt roads winding through Garfield County. In these towns, the cost of living isn’t a statistic; it’s the reason your neighbor moved to Denver or sold their shop.

Two men are fighting over who gets to represent this state in Washington, D.C., on November 3. U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D) and State Sen. Mark Baisley (R) are the final candidates for one of Colorado’s two open Senate seats. The Aspen Times sat down with both to ask them five questions about the Western Slope. The answers reveal a stark divide on how to fix what’s broken here.

Hickenlooper calls the current situation a "cost-of-living emergency." He points to federal funding he helped secure for affordable housing construction and a state bill that bans Wall Street banks from dominating the local market. His plan is blunt: keep fighting to end the war in Iran to lower gas prices and fix healthcare. He believes federal money builds stability.

Baisley disagrees with the premise that government is the solution. He argues that reducing the burden of government is the primary way to address affordability. His proposed legislative agenda is specific. He wants to eliminate student debt by forcing universities that benefited from the Obama loan federalization to use their endowments to pay it off. He wants to remove property values from the tax calculation formula entirely. That change would stop the wild swings in property tax bills that have hit Western Slope homeowners hard. It guarantees steady funding for special districts like libraries and fire departments based on previous budgets, not current market spikes. He also wants to create relief for farmers and ranchers by making lease payments for farm equipment fully deductible as ordinary business expenses in the year paid. That improves cash flow immediately.

On immigration, Baisley blames the Biden Administration for allowing approximately 14 million people to bypass legal processes in 2023, citing a Pew Research report. He links that influx to housing shortages and gang activity. He wants Congress to oversee enforcement strictly, encouraging the Department of Homeland Security to use only nonlethal force when arresting those who interfere with law enforcement. He stopped short of finishing his quote on how America is enriched by immigrants, leaving the sentence hanging in the piece.

Hickenlooper’s response to the immigration question was cut off in the provided text, but his stance on housing suggests he views federal intervention as a tool for stabilization rather than disruption.

The difference is clear. Hickenlooper wants to spend federal dollars to build housing and lower costs. Baisley wants to cut the rules that he argues drive those costs up in the first place. One sees a market failure requiring a federal hand. The other sees a government overreach requiring a leash.

For folks in the valley, this isn’t abstract politics. It’s whether your property tax bill doubles next year because a tech worker bought the house down the road. It’s whether your farm equipment lease hurts your cash flow or helps it. It’s whether the federal government is a partner in building affordable homes or an obstacle to local control.

The Aspen Times asked these questions because the Western Slope is a distinct region with distinct problems. The candidates know this. Hickenlooper has the incumbency advantage and a track record of bringing federal projects to Colorado. Baisley has a message that resonates with those tired of watching their tax bills climb and their local workforce shrink.

Who wins this seat will shape the next six years of federal policy affecting everything from gas prices to farm subsidies. The rest of Colorado will vote for their own candidates, but the Western Slope’s specific pain points — housing, taxes, and rural infrastructure — are front and center in this race.

Baisley’s plan to decouple property taxes from assessed value is a bold move. It ignores the reality that special districts often rely on current valuations to fund new growth. Hickenlooper’s reliance on federal funding ignores the reality that federal money comes with strings attached and can dry up when political winds shift.

Neither candidate offered a magic bullet. That’s because there isn’t one. But they did offer two very different philosophies for how to live in a place where the land is beautiful, expensive, and increasingly unaffordable.

Read that again. Baisley wants to use university endowments to pay off student debt. That is a significant shift in how higher education funding works. Hickenlooper wants to ban Wall Street banks from the local housing market. That is a significant shift in how finance works here.

The November 3 election will decide which philosophy gets to test its theories on the Western Slope first.