Two candidates aiming to replace state Sen. Julie Gonzales debated rent stabilization and political experience at a community forum Monday night.
Chela Garcia Irlando is a mom and executive director for an environmental nonprofit. Andres Carrera has worked for several Denver politicians, including Mayor Mike Johnston. They both want to represent Colorado Senate District 34, which covers downtown Denver and about 166,000 people.
The forum at Hearthstone Cohousing was attended by about 50 people, with a focus on housing policy.
The two diverged on one issue: rent stabilization. Carrera said he opposed rent stabilization legislation. Rent stabilization is a type of rent control. It includes policies that set limits on how much private landlords can increase rent from year to year.
“Rent prices are absolutely out of control and bringing down rent prices is my No. 1 priority, but I don't think that rent stabilization is the way to do that, and that's because the data is telling us that it leads to a decrease in the number of units,” Carrera said. “In Denver over the past two years, you saw 37,000 new apartment units being built across the city that led to a 7% decrease in rent. I am totally for decreasing rent, but the way that you do that is not by hampering development. The way that you do that is by building more apartments left and right. You do that through permitting reform.”
Cities in Colorado are banned from implementing almost all forms of rent control, with state lawmakers shooting down an effort to legalize it in 2023. Researchers have found mixed results for rent control elsewhere.
Garcia Irlando said she favors rent stabilization.
“I strongly support rent stabilization and rent control. Fifty-six percent of our district are renters — 56%. That means the majority, right? There are different ways to do rent control, by the way. You can do it to adjust for property tax increases. You can set a flat percentage, you can set it to the cost of inflation,” she said. “There are many different mechanisms that support the building of residential units and apartments and condos and duplexes and still protecting renters.”
Garcia Irlando asked Carrera why he supports commercial rent control, something he had said at a different forum, but not residential rent control.
He claimed that commercial rent stabilization provides 1.2 million jobs for the state and helps mom-and-pop shops.
The two agreed on every other policy question. They both were in favor of allowing multi-unit properties on single-family lots and no longer requiring large lots for single-family homes. Neither was in favor of a repeal of a law that requires just cause for evictions.
They both said they looked up to prominent progressives. Garcia Irlando said she’s inspired by Sen. Bernie Sanders, who officially endorsed her campaign, and Carrera cited Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez because of her strength.
The biggest argument of the night
The main argument of the night came after a final question about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Both candidates are Mexican Americans descended from immigrants, something both are proud of.
But they argued fiercely about how effective each had been in advocating for a law attempting to rein in ICE agents.
Carrera said he gathered 1,500 signatures for a petition in favor of a proposed state law. Garcia Irlando claimed that Carrera had never actually submitted the signatures, weakening the push for the new law.
“I'm a hell no on cooperating with ICE. (I started) a petition to ban the use of masks by ICE, because, call me crazy, I don't believe in secret police in the United States of America. We were able to get more than 1,500 signatures on that issue in particular,” he said. “I'm not going to wait until I'm the state legislator to begin moving the needle on an issue that impacted my family directly. You can expect me to be the person who would be ICE's worst nightmare at the state legislature.”
However, Garcia Irlando pushed back on his claim, saying statehouse politicians weren’t informed of the petition.
“Your representative, if you live in this district, killed a bill in committee that would have banned masking for all law enforcement, including ICE agents. And to my knowledge, your petition (supported) that kind of legislation,” she said. “And when I asked you if you had submitted it to the chair of the committee where the bill was killed, or to any of the legislators who sat on that committee or just any legislators, you said no. And so I would love some clarification there.”
Carrera said that legislators did know. And he said it wasn’t his fault that local Democrats helped defeat the bill, which would have required local police to intervene to stop excessive force by immigration agents and set some limits on law enforcement officers’ use of face masks.
“The legislators who were in question knew about the petition, saw that 1,500 people signed, knew who was in their district and unfortunately voted the wrong way. I do not support the vote of Rep. (Cecelia) Espenoza and she knows that. The petition's … purpose, it called attention to an important issue. And I'm proud of the work that I did. Question for you: What did you do?”
“I spoke with my representatives. And when you say you directed people, there were less than 50 people to my knowledge that actually testified. And that was one of the big reasons that Espenoza said she didn't have enough community support for that,” Garcia Irlando responded.
“It bothers me that when there was an issue of great public importance that you say that you care about, you did nothing. I did something and I'm very proud of that. And I'm not going to apologize for it,” Carrera said.
She responded: “You did not do anything with that information, though. And then lastly, I will say … many legislators commented that (your petition) was actually deflecting from the process because there were immigrant rights organizations doing the work.”
After more back and forth, the moderators squashed the tiff to regroup.
“I think it is like we're just letting it get a little messy, which I'm cool with. I'm comfortable with and appreciate that this is sticky stuff,” said Trace Faust, a resident of Hearthstone and moderator of the forum. “It's personal, and we appreciate it and so appreciate y'all hanging in with us.”
Closing remarks
Carrera went first.
“As the grandson of immigrants who worked as farmworkers, seamstresses and janitors, I want others (in those professions) to build a beautiful life here in Denver. I have ideas that are similar to my opponent, but the main difference is that I’m not just a progressive, I’m a progressive who's gotten things done,” he said, citing his work on homelessness and immigration with Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration. Carrera was Johnston’s political director.
Concluding the forum, Garcia Irlando spoke about her own policy goals.
“I want to ensure that we are prohibiting corporate ownership of single-family homes, especially out-of-state corporations, because they are buying up our housing stock and not making it accessible for families to afford to live here. I believe that we need to tax luxury and second homes because too often we have an 8% to 10% vacancy in our district alone. This is a crisis that we're in. It's an affordability crisis. It's an equity crisis as well,” said Garcia Irlando, who leads the Next 100 Coalition, a national environmental nonprofit.
A third candidate, Michael Guzman, has withdrawn from the race.
