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With close to a third of lawmakers being appointed to office instead of elected by voters, the Colorado General Assembly likely holds a record that few state legislatures would want.

A Colorado Politics analysis showed that of 24 out of the 28 current state lawmakers appointed by vacancy committees, fewer than 40 party insiders on average picked the individuals who would represent the people at the state Capitol, instead of the 89,000 residents of a House district or the 165,000 people who live in a Senate’s political boundary.

The state’s congressional redistricting illustrates how gerrymandering hollows out the political center and strengthens the fringe, experts say. It also helps explain Kevin McCarthy’s downfall.

Leading change is both a top-down process and a bottom-up process. The goal is to educate and energize colleagues at every level, especially those on the front lines, about the power of your plans, and to be educated and energized by the pragmatic wisdom of their experiences. Change programs work when they shape the behaviors and unleash the enthusiasm of the people closest to the work — the technologists who write code, the front-line employees who interact with customers, and customers themselves, who have the deciding vote on whether a company is doing something worthwhile. Put simply, it’s hard to reach people’s hearts and minds if the CEO’s head is in the clouds.

The deep-pocketed former DaVita CEO has already spent millions on democracy-related initiatives in Colorado in recent years

Former CEO of DaVita Kent Thiry says the best way to grow a business is through the culture.

Whether it’s investing in a workshop to help employees become aware of their weaknesses, or a team building exercise, it’s the culture that helps build a business.

In the final weeks before the Nov. 3 election, supporters of a down-in-the-weeds effort to overturn a tax law in Colorado received a cascade of big checks, for a grand total of more than $2 million.

All came from Kent Thiry, the former CEO of DaVita, one of the largest kidney care companies in the country. This was not the first time he donated big to a ballot initiative aimed at tweaking the nitty-gritty details of how Colorado functions. Nor will it be the last.

Kent Thiry, the architect behind DaVita’s 20-year growth, brings his village mindset to Colorado initiatives

After 20 years as CEO of Denver-based DaVita Inc., Kent Thiry has turned to a variety of local projects aimed at helping small businesses and workers recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Thiry heads the Energize Colorado Gap Fund, which provides loans for small businesses, using private funds and a $20 million in federal money earmarked for the program by the legislature with support from Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

These days in politics, there are few surprises. Party doctrine guides the votes of government.

Colorado has an independent streak as long and wide as the Continental Divide, as its largest bloc of voters are unaffiliated. While voters embrace Democratic candidates on the statewide ballot in Colorado, they rarely embrace tax hikes or brakes on oil and gas.