Press: Cindy Carlisle for State Senate

Carlisle Distinguished Service Award Named in her Honor

BOULDER, CO—Cindy Carlisle, University of Colorado Regent for the Second Congressional District, announced the official launch of her campaign for the Democratic nomination for Colorado Senate District 18 with the registration of her committee and the appointment of campaign treasurer Tom Hagerty, former Budget Director of the City of Boulder.
State Senate District 18 has long been ably represented by Ron Tupa, who is stepping down due to term limits, leaving the seat open for the first time in eight years. Carlisle believes her 21 years of public service—which include elected positions on the Boulder City Council as well as at the University of Colorado—uniquely qualify her to represent the interests of Colorado's best-educated and most progressive political district.
Carlisle promises to do all she can in the legislature to push higher education to the top of the Democrats' reform agenda. Colorado ranks 48th in state support for, and 50th in revenue per student expended on its colleges and universities. Without a breakthrough in new funding, an education crisis is imminent. "I reject state priorities that value new prisons above strong universities," Carlisle said. "We should aim for no less than excellence now in higher education."
Carlisle will also bring to the legislature her passions for energy sustainability and environmental health. The Center for Energy and Environmental Security—CEES—at the University of Colorado-Boulder has just announced the naming in her honor of the Carlisle Distinguished Service Award for outstanding staff contributions.
Carlisle has been instrumental in helping CEES (formerly the Energy and Environmental Security Initiative) reach national prominence as an interdisciplinary research and policy center at the CU Law School that promotes a globally sustainable energy future.
In addition to Governor Ritter's Colorado Health Plan and measures to reform incarceration costs, Carlisle will champion Colorado as a climate change leader. She will work for lower state carbon dioxide emissions and higher fuel efficiency standards. She will push Colorado to join the multi-state challenge, led by California, to the EPA's refusal to enforce the Clean Air Act.
"Climate change has been an abiding concern," Carlisle said, "ever since I proposed a chlorofluorocarbon ban 20 years ago at the Boulder City Council. What the grass roots and good science taught cities like Boulder, Aspen, and Denver, cities and activists can teach the state. And Colorado can lead the world."