(Photo: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)
On Monday, Alex Burness, a reporter for The Denver Post, tweeted a Washington Post article reporting that President Trump is contemplating "unilaterally taking steps to stop tenant evictions and lower payroll taxes, adding that such moves might be necessary if a new coronavirus relief bill can’t be brokered with congressional Democrats." Such a move, Burness tweeted, "would put [Colorado Gov.] Jared Polis to the right of Donald Trump on evictions." About an hour and a half later, Polis, a Democrat, responded to this charge in a reply to Burness, claiming to "strongly support action by Congress to protect renters, and I also supported efforts (ultimately unsuccessful) at our state legislature to have a moratorium on evictions through November. I also called for federal action in my most recent letter to our federal delegation." Shortly thereafter, Burness posed this question to the governor:
Polis was a member of Congress before his election to the governorship in 2018. Throughout his decade in the House of Representatives, he received a total of $223,421 in campaign contributions from the real estate industry, the fourth-largest amount of money he took from any industry during his congressional tenure. Additionally, according to his last financial disclosure statement as a congressman in 2017, he owned an average of $25.97 million in real estate investments, the third-largest average value owned in the industry out of all members of Congress at the time, and the then-congressman's largest value owned in terms of his average investments in industries. His investments in the real estate industry accounted for about 8.5% of his total net worth of $306.21 million at the time.
Burness is not the only one asking Polis this question; David Sirota, an author, columnist, and editor who also lives in Colorado, retweeted Burness's reply to the governor with the following comment:
As of this writing, Polis has not yet responded to either Burness or Sirota.
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