Candidate Profile: Mark Milliman (R)

Q: Please tell the readers a bit about yourself.

A: I am running for the state assembly because, as an engineer, the decisions being made by the governor and other officials did not make factual sense to me. I am not running to make politics my career. I am doing this to serve my district and state with the experience and knowledge I’ve acquired doing business globally over the last 3-plus decades.

I am an electrical engineer by profession that works in the telecommunications industry. Most of my career was spent delivering broadband services to countries throughout the world to improve their quality of life and introduce democracy. As engineers we are trained to solve problems, not just identify them, and when we do, those solutions should be based on solid facts and information considering all of the risks involved. This is what I see lacking in our current state government. I have lived in unincorporated Boulder County for 16 years. I have raised two children: one is in the Army Reserve and the other attends Silver Creek High School.

Q: What issues do you see as the most pressing, and what are your plans to fix them?

A: The three biggest issues we were facing before COVID-19 are topics that pertain to all Coloradans: economy, education, and infrastructure. Our economy was singing along nicely but the current ideological legislature put business under attack with onerous regulations that penalize different segments of our economy.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the energy industry where they are essentially regulating companies out of business. Other segments are impacted with greater fees/taxes and regulations. Now compound that with the continued impact of a single person rule in the state and the devastation the governor is causing to every sector of our economy and we have an unmitigated disaster on our hands. Colorado needs leadership based on experience, facts, and risk.

We need leaders that are in touch with the people and their problems. COVID-19 has exposed the weaknesses in our educational system and infrastructure where we need sound policy solutions and not just higher taxes. I want to serve my district (HD-11) and the state to bring that knowledge to restore Colorado to its previous greatness.

We need to address the immediate challenge for small, medium, and large businesses to fully open and get back to work. Achieving that goal means making sound policy decisions based on facts and data. I am not running with a specific letter behind my name, but as a citizen of this state that recognizes we all have hopes and aspirations that we all want to achieve.

Q: In light of current circumstances, what can you do to help local issues?

A: My priorities have changed a bit since COVID-19. In light of the current issues, we need to address the extreme power we’ve given to the governor and many unelected officials that run county health departments. When the powers were first issued it seemed to make sense but we never hoped to use them. Now that we have, we see the weaknesses in them.

We see how the governor has unilaterally implemented policies that have not been fact- or science-based and that have caused great harm to many people and businesses. Those powers need to be limited and checked by the legislature.

The number one thing that we need to do locally is to allay the excessive fear our media and governments have caused over COVID-19 through education. We need to protect our elderly population at home and in care centers. The state has ignored the conditions in these facilities for years and the overwhelming number of cases and fatalities in LTCF prove out that fact. About 80% of our fatalities in this county are in elder-care facilities. Yet we are focusing on the 79% of the population that is not as vulnerable.

The next thing we need to do is work towards fully reopening our schools. Our county is not open if our schools are not open. SVVSD and BVSD need to fully reopen to provide our children the education they deserve. Anything less than a full reopen will disproportionately affect lower income and minority families that need public school beyond education. I have reached out to SVVSD to discuss a sensible reopening. I understand the potential fears parents may have but the truth is that only 6.5% of the outbreaks are for children less than 20 years old and almost all of them don’t require hospitalization. Also our children are how we develop herd immunity to prevent future outbreaks.

Finally I will press BCPH, CDPHE, and Governor Polis to end the emergency orders and let businesses reopen. Florida, Texas, and Georgia have safely reopened business and continue to see new cases drop. We need to learn from states that have successfully reopened and emulate them. There are so many businesses that have been lost due to these unnecessary closures (I have data to back up that claim), and we need to understand what we can do to make it easier for them to start to restore their business to pre-March levels. Programs in the CARES Act may not always be as helpful as they sound so I’d work with our Congressional representation and bureaucrats to make the relief tenable for our local businesses.