Unaffiliated candidate Greg Lopez says voters are tired of both parties

Four days before Election Day, Greg Lopez was getting texts from Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters telling him they had voted for him. The unaffiliated candidate for governor said he felt good about those messages because they matched what people told him in person when he visited Globeville, Park Hill, Montbello, Pueblo, Cortez and Sterling.

Lopez served in Congress, sat on the Budget Committee and the space science and technology committee, and left with a view of the national debt: it stands at $40 trillion. He also served as former mayor and town manager of Parker and as director of the United States Small Business Administration. He described his governing philosophy as people over politics, do no harm and do what works.

He spent more than 30 years as a Republican before changing his registration. Lopez said he looked at the makeup of active voters in Colorado: 50% are unaffiliated, 25% are Democrats and 23% are Republicans. He said he did not want to answer to political bosses or defend positions taken in Washington he did not agree with.

Lopez was asked whether his candidacy could split the vote and help Phil Weiser or another candidate. He answered that votes belong to voters rather than parties, and that he grew up a Democrat, is bilingual and served as president of the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He said drawing support across party lines is how a democracy works.

On state spending, Lopez said Colorado has enough revenue and a spending problem. He pointed to the Joint Budget Committee's use of baseline budgeting, which he said considers only new money and not the prior year's figures. His proposal is to move to zero-based budgeting and start at zero on every line item to test whether the money achieves something. He also said he wants to build a Colorado version of DOGE, eliminate programs that are not working, and not cut services.

Lopez said COVID relief money given to states went to ongoing programs that have run for two to three years, and that the governor's office and the attorney general's office have both added employees. On housing, he proposed creating 25,000 starter homes at around $235,000, saying water and sewer taps can cost $40,000 to $70,000 per home. He said his experience as a mayor and city manager gives him the background to work with zoning and developers.

Lopez said he stopped a wolf coming into Colorado by understanding the protocol, and he cited his father's sixth-grade education and his mother's 10th-grade education as reasons he does not forget where he comes from. Election Day is four days away.