The Democratic primary fight for House District 6 has turned into a rare, ugly and very public battle between the candidates and their supporters.

The race is also serving something of a proxy fight between Democratic lawmakers in the General Assembly who have their eyes on the Denver Mayor’s race in 2023. 

As redrawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission, House District 6 stretches from the state Capitol on its western edge to Lowry and Fairmont Cemetery to the east, including all or parts of the Capitol Hill, Uptown, Congress Park, Cheesman Park, East Colfax, Hale and Montclair neighborhoods in Denver and Lowry and Windsor Gardens in Aurora. The district is 67% white, the highest among House districts in Denver.

One of the House candidates, Katie March, once worked as a legislative aide for House Speaker Alec Garnett, who is term-limited. Garnett, who represents House District 2, now lives in HD 6 after the political maps were redrawn. 

The other candidate, Elisabeth Epps, is a prominent Black criminal justice reform advocate and founder of the Colorado Freedom Fund. She’s also been active in the debate over House Bill 1326, which made simple possession of fentanyl or fentanyl compounds of between 1 and 4 grams a felony, siding with Democrats who opposed those tougher criminal penalties.

The House seat has opened up as district’s incumbent legislator, Rep. Steven Woodrow of Denver, had been drawn out of HD 6 and into the new House District 2, which is located south and west of HD 6, and which now includes the Washington Park neighborhoods.

The public face of the battle surfaced in early May, when a poll, commissioned by the labor-backed One Main Street Colorado, asked Denver voters about the two candidates. It was the poll’s questions on Epps that drew strong condemnation and accusations of racial bias on social media.

One Main Street Colorado later apologized but also maintained that “to anyone who viewed a recent scientific poll with a racial bias … that was not the purpose of our research.”

March disavowed any connection to One Main Street or to the poll, although she has been endorsed by one of the unions that backs One Main Street Colorado, Journeyman Plumbers Gasfitters Local Union 3, and has taken a contribution from One Main Street’s registered agent, Andrew Short.

Labor-led coalition doubles down on poll that sparked outrage in Democratic legislative primary

The most recent salvo between the two campaigns came this week from Epps supporters, who blasted March for taking money from a lobbyist, Collon Kennedy, whose ties to the National Rifle Association got their ire up. Kennedy is a long-time regular at the state Capitol who was barred from lobbying for several years after failing to register as a lobbyist and fined $74,000 following a complaint filed by then-Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver.

Kennedy gave $600 to March’s campaign.

March responded via Twitter to Epps supporter Deep Badhesha, a policy analyst for the House Democrats, that she would never take money from the NRA and would return his contributions.

Kennedy’s firm, AOK Strategies, lobbied for the NRA, but that relationship ended in 2018. 

Once March returned the contributions, Badhesha, in a tweet Wednesday, accused her of taking contributions from “Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, etc. You name it & it’s there.”

Pollster Floyd Ciruli said the race is shaping up as a warm-up to the mayoral contest for next year. 

Ciruli said the battle in HD6 stems from a “combination of the issues splitting” the candidates, such as on fentanyl, which he said is a perfect example of the lines being drawn among Democrats. He added the feud shows how difficult it is for Democrats to work through their progressive agenda but also adopt pragmatic responses to issues, such as crime.

“Crime will likely be one of the big issues in the mayoral race, along with homelessness,” he said, adding the intensity and positions taken by candidates in the race reflect the intra-party divisions on these issues.  “There are no compromise positions.” 

Both Garnett and Sen. Chris Hansen of Denver, who sits on the Joint Budget Committee and whose name has come up as a potential Denver mayoral candidate in the 2023 race, endorsed March. Garnett, too, is widely considered as a potential mayoral candidate, although the speaker insisted he has no plans of running for the seat next year.

Hansen recently held a fundraiser for March, who has also been championed by a long list of Democratic leaders and other lawmakers, including former Speaker Crisanta Duran, current Sen. Janet Buckner of Aurora, former Sen. Lois Court of Denver, Reps. David Ortiz of Centennial, Monica Duran of Wheat Ridge, and Alex Valdez of Denver, whose name also pops up on the list of potential Denver mayor candidates. 

Garnett sponsored HB 1326, and while not a fan of making simple drug possession a felony, fought to ensure the bill didn’t die over that language. Valdez and Hansen were also “yes” votes on the bill in its final form.

On Epps’ side are Hansen’s JBC colleague, Rep. Leslie Herod of Denver, who’s also on the list of potential Denver mayoral candidates, and Badhesha. Other supporters include a long list of Democrats from the more progressive wing of the party, such as Sens. Pete Lee of Colorado Springs and Julie Gonzales of Denver; Reps. Steven Woodrow, Jennifer Bacon, Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Emily Sirota, all of Denver; Rep. Iman Jodeh of Aurora; former Rep. Joe Salazar of Thornton; and, former Speaker Terrance Carroll of Denver. 

Gonzales, Bacon, Lee and Sirota objected to the refelonization language in HB 1326, and all but Lee voted against the bill’s final version.

Big money is pouring into the race. 

Indeed, it’s unusual for primaries to rake in big bucks, but the two candidates have collectively hauled in almost $300,000, with Epps leading with $158,000 raised through May 25.

That level of fundraising in a primary dwarfs more than most general election races for the state House or Senate––. For example, in 2020, Woodrow, who had won his seat initially through a vacancy election, secured a total of $152,356 for the entire election cycle, with 80% of that money raised through the end of June. Woodrow faced a primary opponent, Daniel Himelspach, who raised $101,337.

Colorado Politics’ Ernest Luning contributed to this report.