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Welcome to Retirement Unpacked with Al Smith, owner of Golden Eagle Financial. You want a retirement plan that alleviates your fears about the future so you know your money will last. As a chartered financial consultant, Al Smith will help you find a balance between the risk and reward of the market and the safety of your retirement income. And now, here’s your host, Al Smith.

Al Smith (Host) : 0:25

Welcome to another program of Retirement Unpacked. If you’ve been a listener for a while, I would encourage you to sort of take stock of where your own finances are. And if you think you would like a second look or something of this nature, give my office a call. 303-744-1128. and we can have a conversation to sort of see if you’re on track. Now, one thing I would encourage everyone who’s listening is to get out there and vote. I know a lot of people think, well, gee, Colorado is a red state, you know, my vote really doesn’t matter. Well, there are a lot of more local elections, state Senate, state House of Representatives, judges, dog catchers, all kinds of people are running for office in And I encourage you not only to vote, but do a little research about the person for whom you’re voting, because I think it’s really important. And we only have six days before that happens. And we’re in for a special tweet this afternoon because Robin Carnes is with us. And Robin, you’re running for the state Senate. Is it District 16? Is that right?

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 1:50

Yes, that’s correct.

Al Smith (Host) : 1:51

Well, that’s great. Well, tell us a little bit about why we should vote for you.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 1:57

Okay. Well, sounds good. First of all, you need to vote for me because we got to shake things up down under the Golden Dome. Somebody played a song, Rockin’ Robin, that I’m going to rock the vote because you know what? We are going to rock the vote. It is time to rock the vote. Right now, what the state Senate is facing is a super minority, which means just to break it down, Al, for your listeners, there are 35 elected state senators for Colorado. And of those 35 state senators, there are only 12. that are Republican. So if we lose one seat, we will dip into a super minority, which means we will have one party and all of their political ideologies in charge, pulling every lever under the golden dome, which, you know, you talked about Colorado being a red state. Actually, we’re a dark blue state right now, but I think we are more purple and then we are dark blue from what i’ve been hearing under you know as i’m knocking on doors and meeting voters so if we would go into a super minority meeting if we if we go into 11 seats versus 12 um senator paul and dean always says if we were in the majority we’d get our way but at least if we have balance meaning we keep that third 12 seats, we at least get to have a say. If we don’t get a say, even the governor, whether you love him or loathe him, he will lose veto power.

Al Smith (Host) : 3:24

Well, I apologize calling us a red state. I guess that was wishful thinking. I’ve lived here for a long time, and we used to be a red state, almost like an agricultural state back when they called Denver a cow town. At that time, it was kind of… a red state and then surprise with the approval of legalizing marijuana and some other things. And we turned into a blue state. But we should still very much pay attention to our local leaders, because in the Senate, And in the statehouse with those, if they become a super majority, I read a little bit about the person whom you’re running against and some of the things he supported. And I know when I looked online a little bit, they have some big progressive group that if you want to find out about him. So I’m sure they’re going to say all these wonderful things about how he was for. needle exchange programs in Centennial and keeping 85 percent of our Tabor refunds. And tell us a little more about the uphill battle. Not that you can’t be elected, but the battle you’re having against him because of that out of state money that’s been coming in.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 4:45

Yes. I’m so glad that you, you talked about that. And I, I just want to make a comment too. I love the fact that, you know, we used to call Colorado the cow town because we moved here over 20 years ago from Iowa. I am an Iowa farm girl, good Midwestern values. And we came to Colorado and And it was still somewhat red, but that changed very, very quickly right before our eyes. So it is a bit of an uphill battle. I am a challenger. I am going after this incumbent seat. But I’m telling you, my opponent didn’t truly win the district that he is now running in. About two years ago, Senate District 16, which is basically the south metro area, so you have Littleton, Centennial, Ken Carroll Valley as the primary cities, Columbine Valley. The boundaries are going to be Quebec on the east, C-470 on the south, all the way up to about West Bowles Avenue, and then coming across on, it’s going to turn into Littleton Boulevard, then also… Orchard Road. And so it’s home to over 133,000 people. But two years ago, it was a different district. So it was redistricted. And in that redistricting process, they gained 16 precincts, all of which are heavily conservative, which makes this seat competitive and winnable. And that’s why when I was approached about running for it, I’m currently a centennial city councilwoman, so it may seem like a stretch to go from city council all the way to Senate. But I was asked to run. And when I looked at the state of the district and, more importantly, the state of the South Metro area and all of Colorado, you know, I thought, now’s the time. You have to take perhaps leaps of faith when doors open. You keep going until they close. And it has turned into just that, a very competitive seat. I just want to talk about the district itself. We have 50% that are unaffiliated in Senate District 16. Additional 26% are Republicans and 24% are Democrats.

Al Smith (Host) : 6:54

Are the 50% who are unaffiliated, are they asleep?

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 6:58

I don’t know. No, I think you bring up an interesting point. I think because we have seen a lot of crazy of extremes in both parties, they’re just fed up. They’re fed up with the far, far right antics and the far, far left antics. And so we decided when I decided to run, to run just – a purple race. You take red, Republican, blue, Democrat, you bring those two colors together, you get purple. It’s the color of champions. It’s the color of winners. And I wanted to win over, I’m a Republican through and through, and that’s obvious on the ballot, but I also, I can’t win with just Republicans. You have to win the seat first. And so I’ve got to win over those unaffiliates who may be turned off by some of the choices our Republican Party in this state has made.

Al Smith (Host) : 7:57

Well, I think it’s really important. And I think the fact that that district was realigned, so to speak, should give you a superb opportunity to beat the incumbent. And I live in this district. I’ve already voted. I voted for you. And And I also voted for Jeff Patty, who’s the representative in that district, I believe. Yes. But I think we need to have a strong showing. And I think more importantly, even, is we need to let the public know what the alternatives are. And those alternatives are keeping people. Your Tabor refunds. I know a lot of those folks who are listening, probably nearly all of them, got a check in the mail sometime in the last year for the Tabor refund. And your opponent wanted the state to keep 85 percent of that.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 8:53

Yes.

Al Smith (Host) : 8:53

I don’t know how anyone could vote for him.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 8:55

Yeah, it’s ridiculous. And, you know, I’ll tell you what’s happening. In addition to the Tabor refunds that he wants to take away, which, by the way, belong to the people. I mean, Tabor, the way it was initiated was just a brilliant move. And we do need to protect Tabor. But what’s happening is… All of this outside dark money, this special interest money has poured into my race to the tune of I think it’s between 60 to 75 percent of the money that my opponent has has all come from out of Colorado. So the biggest eye opener to me and we’ve not done too bad either when it comes to the five targeted Senate races on the Republican side. We are second in fundraising just next to our beloved Senator Cleve Simpson, who is an incumbent. And he’s going to win, too. But we have not done too bad. But all this money is coming from outside Colorado. And I didn’t realize what a stronghold there is on this state and why there is so much outside interest in Colorado. So the money, it’s not coming from Senate District 16. If you look at the donations… Tracer that he has versus what I have. I mean, we’re raising money. Max gift is $450 a person. And mine, the vast majority is coming from people that are living in the South Metro area. A little bit from Iowa. My family is a great support to me. But everything is here in the state. Part of it’s because I’ve got a huge following being a Centennial City Councilwoman. So we’ve tried to keep… you know, this as a local focus, which, by the way, the state right now, Al, the state, we had city council a couple weeks ago, there are 17 pieces of legislation that the state has passed that local municipalities have to keep an eye on right now. And so it’s really upsetting, because what’s happening is they’re making decisions that are not in sync with what, you know, our home rule has agreed to. And so municipalities are having to take more of a stance on these issues because it affects our residents day in and day out.

Al Smith (Host) : 11:12

Well, it sure does. And one of the things I was saying, and this is obviously too late for this election, but I think going forward what they should do, it’s very easy to Google and see someone’s voting record. But along with that, I think they should show where their resources are coming from, where their donations are coming from. or coming from because you know that that says a lot and I think one of the reasons there may be a lot of money flowing in against you is your opponent is in favor of that law which says if you own an apartment building and you want to sell it you have to first make it available to the state, to the government, which to me sounds like that’s going to be a place to live for people who are not here illegally. And this isn’t bashing immigrants. This is just saying that we don’t want the complexion of where we live changed because of a law that your opponent supports.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 12:15

Oh, yes. And I’m glad you brought that up because the stark contrast between he and I is I am very much a proponent of owning a home. I think that that is part of the American dream is you work hard, you save up, you can make that down payment. Plus, there’s multiple resources available for those first time homebuyers. And to be able to own a home, it’s your greatest investment. And that is just becoming harder and harder. The fact of the matter is we do not have enough inventory. So when you’re looking at the lack of townhomes and condos, it affects the entire society. So if you’re wanting to downsize and you have no place to downsize to, then you can’t free up your home that maybe would become the future home of a young family. This impacts your school systems. And so my opponent, not only is he not in favor of that, but he also is backed by the trial lawyers. They gave him a huge chunk of change. to go against me and what the trial lawyers do nobody knows this but they’re fighting to keep construction defect laws in place which means that if somebody builds say townhomes or condos and let’s just say there’s a there’s a defect of some type there’s something that’s wrong they the builders can be sued up to seven years um And without an ability to fix the problem. And so those trial lawyers, they just want to get rich. And meanwhile, you have insurers of builders that are leaving the state because they see this as a lose-lose situation. The developers can’t build because they can’t take on that risk. Hence, we still have a housing shortage. So there’s a stark contrast between he and I. And it is a shame. It is an absolute shame.

Al Smith (Host) : 14:02

Yeah, I’m not against some regulation in the housing industry, but when it stifles growth and it makes it incredibly difficult for people to own homes, that makes things very, very difficult for young people who want to purchase a home. And we’re going to talk more right after the break about the things that are facing Colorado and how you can be our representative in the Senate.

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Al Smith (Host) : 15:53

Welcome back to the second half of our program, Retirement Unpacked. And as I mentioned earlier, if you want to find out if you’re on track saving for your retirement, give my office a call and you can come in. Have a cup of coffee. We’ll have a conversation. We won’t dive just into your statements. We’ll ask some questions and learn about what you want your retirement to look like. Give my office a call, 303-744-1128. And we’re in for a treat, which I mentioned earlier. Robin Carnes is here with us. She’s running for the state Senate District 16, which includes Centennial, slightly west Jefferson County, Columbine Valley, Littleton. And she has some great ideas and great things that are going to make our legislature more responsive to the needs of the people. Would you agree with that, Robin?

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 16:55

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I’ll tell you, as I have been knocking on doors and getting to know people, constituents, the number one issue that’s coming up, whether you are right or left or right down the middle, it is affordability and the high cost of living here in Colorado. And so we cannot be balancing the budget on the most vulnerable backs, right? Like families and folks that are just struggling to pay their grocery bills or their energy bills. And it’s it’s across the board. So that’s a major issue we’ve got to look at. Also, crime and public safety. I have a husband who works for Douglas County Law Enforcement, and we we strongly support all of our men and women in blue. And right now, our state is just not very friendly to law enforcement or to the policies. They may they may. present well in in favor of law enforcement but when it comes down to legislation the laws aren’t written well so that law enforcement can’t actually you know be backed up and doing their job and and that you know that impacts everything that impacts a higher cost a higher cost of living because insurance goes up premiums go up right groceries go up somebody’s got to pay for the crime and the damage and unfortunately it’s it’s us as taxpayers

Al Smith (Host) : 18:14

Well, you’re absolutely right. And if our peace officers aren’t highly respected, and like I know, some parts like California, there are droves of people leaving various police departments, which makes it much more difficult to recruit new people, they have to be paid higher, and end up getting people who maybe are applying for the wrong reasons. But I think we should highly support the law enforcement people that we have in your district as well as Douglas County. I know I live right in downtown Littleton, and every time I see a Littleton police officer, I thank them for their service because I believe Littleton’s a pretty safe area, and it’s largely because of the work that they do. Now, I think your opponent, correct me if I’m wrong, but he… was in favor of a bill that was making it difficult for police officers to incarcerate immigrants, not just immigrants here illegally, but immigrants who have committed crimes.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 19:23

Yes. And that’s just a travesty. In fact, let’s just talk about immigration right now, because I just talked with a constituent this morning, and she wanted to know exactly what my thoughts were on immigration. I’m all for legal immigration, legal, coming here the right way. And you talk to those who come here legally, and they’re the ones that are the most fired up. And so I think that we need to be adults and we need to own the fact that we have a problem here in our state, in many of our cities. And we’re starting to feel it in some of the suburbs, the municipalities, because the illegal immigrants that have come to downtown Denver, they’re not staying in downtown Denver. They’re moving to the outskirts. And our poor municipalities, you know, Centennial, Littleton, Columbine Valley, we’re not prepared. They don’t have the resources to be able to support them. So it’s really, it’s a lose-lose situation in that they’ve been promised a false bill of goods. They’ve been told one thing and they get here and it’s something different. Not to mention that there’s somebody who’s having to pay for it all and it’s our taxpayers, which is incredibly unfair.

Al Smith (Host) : 20:33

Well, I totally agree with that. And we have people that are suffering enormously from the two recent hurricanes that we’ve had. And what I’ve been hearing, and I can’t back this up statistically, but I have heard that some of the money that should have gone to FEMA has gone to house illegal immigrants and that we should really take care of our own citizens first. And the folks who were here illegally, those who were committing crimes, that should be taken care of by our various police forces.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 21:09

Yes, absolutely. In fact, we have friends down in Florida, too, who have just been ransacked. with the hurricane. And, you know, they’re from Colorado. They’ve been in the Tampa Bay area for the last two years. And they said it’s just devastating when you look at it. Their house was protected, but all the neighbors, all the beaches, you know, if they were low enough, it’s just completely been ransacked. And it’s horrible. You talk about a helpless feeling, and then when you look for help, and it should be there, and it’s not, that’s even more of a crisis.

Al Smith (Host) : 21:42

No, Franklin Graham and his group have been there, especially in Carolina, because that’s where they’re from. And they have a much bigger footprint than FEMA or the Red Cross, a client of mine. volunteered in Hawaii when they had those dreadful fires, which the lady who wrote a book about that is going to be on my show later, but that was a devastating event where they actually kept people out of their homes after the fires. But I think our country and our state and our municipalities, we need to place our citizens first, and the government should be our servants rather than the other way around.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 22:28

Oh, I love it. I love it. In fact, Al, I wanted to hit on, you know, a lot of people want to know, what are your issues? And although I think that’s helpful, when I get elected, I will be in the minority. And so it doesn’t really matter what my issues are, but here’s what I think will be helpful. My philosophy of government is that we need it to be limited. And it shouldn’t exceed its delegated powers, right, or distribute wealth or for citizens, for that matter, just to perform acts of charity against their will, which is happening. And so I’m just a believer that we can do better than this. We, the people, we’ve got to be holding our current elected officials accountable. And we want to make sure that those that are in government, they’re upholding the Constitution and establishing the rule of law. to really define and protect and enforce those individual rights that we have, right? So I’m a big believer, and this is what I’ve been trained in in Centennial. Centennial is a contract model. So we came into existence over 21 years ago, and yet we’re lean. We’re very long-term.

Al Smith (Host) : 23:31

It’s a long, skinny municipality from Broadway to past Parker Road.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 23:38

Yes, I say we are long and lean, but that’s how we govern, too. And that’s really the best government. It’s limited. It’s lean and balanced. And that’s really why you asked at the beginning of the conversation, why vote for me? It’s because if you believe that balanced government and lean government is best, you’re going to want to vote for Robin Carnes.

Al Smith (Host) : 23:57

Well, I certainly already did. But I do know that those of you who are listening, I obviously encourage everyone to vote. But before you go vote, you know, go online. There’s all kinds of resources to learn about the people for whom you’re voting. And learn what their opponents have supported. And, you know, find out if you… Want the government, state of Colorado, to be spending your money on all kinds of things that you may not agree with. Or if you’re more interested in someone who is concerned about saving your tax money, making sure you get a bigger TABOR refund and respecting our law enforcement and putting Coloradoans first. First.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 24:48

Yes. Can I just say protecting the people and punishing those that do evil. That’s really the role of government to protecting those that do right and punishing those that do wrong. That’s got to be happening. You know, Al, if they go in and look online, And I just want to say too, I know that we are over the target. They’ve spent so much money against me in attack ads. My boys came home from school last week and they said, mom, mom, you made Monday night football. And I said, what? And they said, mom, there was an attack ad against you. So we’re over the target. And I tell you what, we will take anyone else who is able to give us some money. You can visit KarnsForColorado.com. We are still taking donations. We’re going to fight to the finish, and we are going to win for Colorado.

Al Smith (Host) : 25:34

I’m glad you brought that up. I was going to ask so people can reach you by… going on to karnes, C-A-R-N-E-S, forcolorado.com.

Robin Carnes (Guest) : 25:44

Yes.

Al Smith (Host) : 25:45

And if you want to have a conversation with me, call my office, 303-744-1128. God bless you. Thank you for listening. And let’s continue to pray for our friends in Israel.

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Thank you for listening to Retirement Unpacked with your host, Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial.