Nick Coltrain

nickcoltrain@coloradoan.com

It had been a while since Megan Eleazer came to a legislative town hall. Not since 2015, when she joined maybe two dozen people to hear from local lawmakers at one.

On Saturday, she joined a standing-room-only crowd at the Old Town Library, five times the number of people compared to her last visit. Even as temperatures struggled to reach double digits outside, the mass of people had some folks overheating inside.

She was at least in part spurred by the recent presidential election. The political landscape has shifted dramatically, leaving many in the left-leaning Fort Collins scrambling to make their voice heard in an era of President-elect Donald Trump.

Larimer County went to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10,000 votes, or almost 5 percentage points, in November. State Sen. John Kefalas beat his Republican challenger by more than 20 percentage points; House Rep. Joann Ginal won her re-election bid by almost 10.

"It doesn't matter how busy I am," Eleazer said. "We have to get active because otherwise, nobody is going to hear us."

FoCo group rallies Friday against Trump Cabinet picks

The town hall Saturday, hosted by Kefalas and Ginal, both Fort Collins Democrats, is part of their pre-legislative session routine. They usually draw a few dozen people — last year's event, at New Belgium Brewing Co., had maybe 40. This year, about 130 people showed up. The sign-in sheets were filled completely, front and back, with tiny printed letters from constituents letting their lawmakers know they want on their mailing lists.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis experienced a similar phenomenon at a town hall he hosted at the Foothills Unitarian Church last month. Hundreds showed up where dozens usually do, with an air of concern about the shake-up at the federal government.

Kefalas said the crowd was probably a record for the event. Ginal noted that it drew younger and older folks, and many new faces. Questions from the audience ran a gamut of topics from K-12 education and judicial performance reviews to homelessness. But health care, and the looming questions of what Congressional action on the Affordable Care Act, struck a particular chord.

Ken Orgoglioso raised the question of health care to the legislators Saturday. He realized right now a lot of it is wait and see — Ginal, who will chair the House Health, Insurance and the Environment Committee, has a cheat sheet comparing the various ACA repeal-and-replace proposals — but he wanted to make sure it was on his representatives' radar.

"We talked about a lot of issues today, but it seems Congress is going to really act on its first priority of repealing the Affordable Care Act," Orgoglioso said.

He cited news reports speculating that outright repeal of the ACA, commonly known as Obamacare and which included Medicaid expansion, would hit the state for billions of dollars in economic impact. He hoped business groups would get involved with these types of events to help organize action in response to whatever Congress decides to do.

Ginal and Kefalas said they are keeping an eye on the efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, but, compared to some states, they believe Colorado is in a relatively good place for minimizing any shocks from it going away. It formed its own exchange, for one, which will operate for at least a few more years.

Fort Collins sends climate change letter to Trump

That's not to say the lawmakers are at ease. Ginal worried about what may happen if Medicaid turns into a block grant delivered to the states, or what changes to coverage may look like. In particular, she worried about people with pre-existing conditions, the elderly and the young.

"People are going to be left out, and that concerns me," Ginal told the crowd. "Where do we draw the line of who gets left out, who gets let in?"

When guessing what drove such high attendance to the event — was it people feeling energized, concerned or wanting to take some kind of action — Orgoglioso said it was probably all three.

Eleazer said she thinks a lot of people feel disenfranchised from their government, and wanted to take advantage of access to their local lawmakers. Her personal issue was with money in politics. If that is limited, which in turn mutes outside influence, many issues affecting the public start to get resolved, she reasoned.

"The election has been kind of a catalyst for (getting active), good or bad," she said.

Continuing action

Action groups forming at Foothills Unitarian Church

A general meeting will be held at the Foothills Unitarian Church, at 1815 Yorktown Ave. in Fort Collins, on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. It will seek to put community members into breakout groups to address issues of interest, such as health care, immigration and more.

Fort Collins for Progress event