This questionnaire was first published for the June 2024 primary. Candidates were given the option to update their responses and answer additional questions. This questionnaire has been updated, wherever noted.
Office: Colorado Senate, District 18
Campaign website: judyforcolorado.com
Relevant experience
House of Representatives, D49 (previously D13)
2021-present
I have served as a State Representative in the Colorado General Assembly since 2021, sponsoring a strong slate of progressive and pragmatic bills, including measures to increase mental health resources, improve the criminal justice system, increase gun safety and make communities more resilient in the face of wildfires fueled by the climate crisis.
I moved to Colorado as a child and attended CU Boulder for undergraduate school and to attain an MBA. I co-founded, owned and for 25 years operated Polar Bottle, a business that manufactures sport water bottles. I am a mother of three adult sons. One of my sons developed a serious mental illness at the age 18. I was inspired to seek public office after experiencing our broken mental health care system firsthand. Managing a growing business with up to 85 employees, and parenting three boys has informed every part of my life and work in the General Assembly.
My leadership roles in the House have included:
- Chair of the Business Affairs & Labor Committee
- Member of the House Appropriations Committee
- Member of the House Judiciary Committee
- Member of the Legislative Council
- Chair of the Legislative Oversight Committee — Colorado Jail Standards Commission
- Chair of the Legislative Oversight Committee — Treatment of Persons with Mental Health Disorders In the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System Committee
- Member of the Behavioral Health Transformational Task Force
- Member of the House Health & Human Services Committee
- Member of the State Affairs Committee
Priorities
- More progress on adequate treatment for people with serious mental illness. We can’t grow used to seeing people suffering in our streets — in homelessness, psychosis, and deep addiction. We have to create adequate infrastructure to stop this cycle before it starts. I have and will continue to advocate with Boulder County for a dedicated mental health tax, so we can build the infrastructure needed to provide adequate care. I passed a study bill to consider involuntary care in the most extreme cases, similar to California’s CARE courts. That study was recently completed. I want to build on this progress through legislation in the Senate.
- More progress on the climate crisis. I passed a bill in 2023 to study issues faced by oil and gas workers as Colorado begins to disentangle local economies from this volatile and toxic industry, and builds the clean energy sectors we need. I want to pursue legislation based on that study in 2025. I also want to continue working to create greater resiliency for climate-driven challenges (fire disasters, drought, air pollution) already impacting our communities. After the Marshall Fire, I learned so much about the inadequacies of homeowners insurance in the face of these disasters. I have brought several successful insurance reform bills, and a bill to create solutions for mountain communities where many carriers have exited.
- More progress on housing availability and affordability. This session I successfully ran the ADU bill and supported other measures to protect tenants, build more affordable housing and help ensure housing equity. All of that will make a difference, but there is more work to be done.
Proudest accomplishments from most recent term
- Driving a deeper understanding of serious mental illness. I’ve worked hard to make the case that inadequate treatment of serious brain diseases leads to some of our biggest problems: repetitive emergency room visits, criminal justice system involvement, homelessness, and suicide. Collaborating with groups like Mental Health Colorado and parents of adults with serious mental illness, we have made changemakers see the moral bankruptcy and real costs of society’s failure to provide adequate care. This has helped me pass previously unlikely bills, some of which specifically focus on disentangling mental illness from incarceration. I am proud of successful measures limiting the use of solitary confinement in our county jails and inhumane metal restraints in our prisons. I am proud of my work to create Colorado’s Jail Standards Commission, which is establishing minimum operating standards for county jails, including how to treat people with disabilities. I have worked on policies to address Colorado’s broken competency-to-proceed system, including diverting people appropriately out of the criminal justice system and into care. I am proud that I pushed hard to spend $65 million in ARPA funds to create more mental health beds at the state hospital and step-down beds across the state. We have a long way to go. I want to build on this progress.
- Passing data-driven gun violence prevention legislation. In 2021, 2023 and 2024, I was/am actively involved in a concerted strategy to pass meaningful gun violence prevention legislation. I was the primary sponsor of a measure to enact a three-day waiting period for gun purchases, and a bill to restrict gun sales to those found guilty of violent misdemeanors. I am of course motivated by the terrible mass shootings Colorado communities have endured and also want to prevent every day gun violence and suicide.
- Creating greater common ground in the Business Affairs & Labor Committee. As Chair of this committee, I work hard to build consensus on bills before they are heard. On Friday mornings, I hold alternate meetings with labor representatives and business interests. This year we have passed meaningful pro-labor legislation that will make a difference for working families across the state. This includes wage theft legislation, prevailing wage for broadband deployment, and a bill that prohibits employers from forcing employees to attend meetings about religion, politics and discouraging workers from joining a union. We also passed legislation on environmental issues, and three gun violence prevention bills.
[Editor’s note: the wage theft legislation and the bill on prohibitions regarding employer speech were both vetoed by the governor after this questionnaire was submitted.]
See Amabile’s sponsored legislation for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021
Efficacy rating (as calculated by Boulder Weekly): 91%
49 of 54 bills on which Amabile was a prime sponsor were sent to or signed by the governor.
Lightning round
Yes/no answers only
Do you support the state’s elimination of local occupancy limits? Yes
Do you support ending the state’s prohibition on local rent control? Yes
Do you support requiring or allowing more density in your jurisdiction as a way to address the affordable housing crisis? Yes
Do you support the Front Range train as the state’s highest priority for passenger rail? Yes
Additional questions added for the November 2024 general election:
Who are you supporting for president and vice president ? Harris – Walz
Do you support local efforts to increase the minimum wage? Yes
Do you support an end to the state prohibition on rent control? Yes
Do you support interventions for human-caused climate change? Yes
Do you support for SB24-157 which narrowed the definition of what constitutes a public meeting? Yes
When was the last time you paid rent? How much was it? And where?
I haven’t paid rent since around 1987 in Boulder, and it was about $500 a month. Obviously, things have changed dramatically. I am aware that half of Colorado renters are spending more than 30% of their income on housing, and this creates extreme challenges. I have a strong record of supporting legislation to protect renters. I voted yes to prohibit residential occupancy limits and yes on eviction protections. I also support tax credits for renters and funding for rental assistance for those facing eviction. Representative Javier Mabrey, who is the strongest voice at the Capitol for renters rights and equity, has endorsed my campaign.
What would you say are the top issues facing District 18, and what are your plans to address them?
- Housing is a huge issue in SD 18. Essential service providers, teachers, middle and low income people find it difficult to live and work in this community. It’s a complex problem and for a long time, change has been limited by local zoning. This year’s push by state legislators represents a new and more progressive approach. It includes a bill to encourage greater density in transit oriented communities, my bill allowing more ADUs, lifting occupancy limits, etc. If elected, one idea I am considering is legislation to limit the role of private equity in Colorado real estate.
- Climate resiliency, including wildfire hardening and disaster planning. I have brought several property and casualty insurance bills. These policies improve consumer protections, help insure that properties are adequately protected and ensure that every property can be insured. Next year, we will build on this progress. Regarding Xcel’s handling of the most recent wind event, this has to be better. I have met with Xcel and am prepared to bring legislation regarding PUC oversight if significant improvements are not apparent over the interim. Last year I ran a bill that looked at protecting workers who will lose their jobs because of phasing out oil and gas and from automation. Next year I plan to run legislation that will implement the policies identified by this study.
- Homelessness and addiction. I will continue to advocate for measures that disentangle mental illness from incarceration. I will continue advocating with local governments to pass a dedicated mental health tax and create the medical infrastructure needed to provide people with the treatment they need. I want to build upon the legislation I’ve passed and the coalitions I’ve built to continue the work on these efforts.
How do you plan to balance the necessary evolution of our transportation system with current realities of car-dependency such that people who have to drive aren’t too negatively impacted, but people who don’t have to are encouraged to make other choices?
Transportation is the largest single source of emissions in Colorado. We can and must encourage people to use cars less by providing realistic and useful alternatives. A measure I support that is under consideration in the General Assembly that encourages greater residential density and more walking, biking, and public-transit use, which all reduce driving.
The Colorado Clean Cars Act directs vehicle manufacturers to ensure 82% of vehicles sold in Colorado are electric by 2032. We have to increase our charging infrastructure alongside this mandate to make EVs a viable choice in people’s everyday lives. Colorado has serious road safety issues. High vehicle speeds contribute to GHG emissions, and safety issues can discourage walking and biking (I support SB24-195 and SB24-065). We have to make the best use of Federal transit dollars available to the state to address our transportation needs. I support SB24-184, which aims to leverage millions in federal infrastructure funding to bring passenger rail service to Colorado and expand public transportation options across the state.
Given the realities of a changing climate and limited government resources, how do you plan on balancing mitigation and adaptation for already-impacted populations in D18?
We have to continue funding wildfire hardening and mitigation efforts to prevent disasters like the Marshall Fire. We have to push harder to demand that Xcel make the changes needed to prevent fires, and take action that goes beyond power shut offs. We have to anticipate what people will need. I am grateful to the many Marshall Fire survivors who have so willingly shared their experiences, and helped me pass a number of insurance reforms with future wildfire victims in mind. I have worked with coalitions of survivors, insurance reform organizations, the state insurance commissioner and the insurance industry to formulate significant improvements. These measures have passed with bipartisan support. I passed legislation to establish the Office of Climate Resiliency and this year I am working on a bill to establish an Office of Climate Sustainability.
How does JEDI factor into your policy making?
Justice, equity, diversity and inclusion factor into every part of my approach to policy making. It is particularly important in the work that I do around criminal justice reform. People of color, LGTBQ people, the economically disadvantaged and those with serious mental illness have been harmed by our broken criminal justice system and other systems of oppression. They are the reason I do this work.
What efforts do you make in your daily life to consider and understand people with different lived experiences from your own?
- Having a loved one with a serious mental illness has informed a great deal of my work as a legislator. For example, my son has experienced the criminal justice system first hand, and that is one reason I have worked so hard on bills to disentangle mental illness from incarceration.
- I meet weekly with a group of parents whose adult children with serious mental illness are cycling through homelessness, emergency room visits and jail. I get a letter every single week from families seeking help. Their stories are tragic. The solutions I’m working on take time to make a difference. But we have made significant progress during my time in the legislature.
- One of my sons is a preschool teacher here in Boulder. He and his wife want to own a home someday and have kids. But the economics make this extremely difficult. I think about them every time I take a vote that impacts workers.
- My sister was a public school teacher in Saint Vrain, Boulder Valley and Adams 12 for her entire career. She taught ESL and Spanish literacy at some of the poorest elementary schools in each of these districts. Another sister worked for decades as a nurse. They remind me how important it is for the state to back up and support the people who selflessly serve.
- My brother is a defense attorney in upstate New York, and often represents people that no one else will defend. His work reminds me of the humanity in every person.
- I owned and operated a manufacturing business for 25 years in Boulder. That experience has proven invaluable to my work at the Capitol. At my company, Polar Bottle, we employed about 65 people at a range of salaries, many of whom were recent immigrants from the conflict in Serbia. I’m proud that we paid all of our workers fairly and gave them time off when they needed it. This made our company so much stronger. I’ve brought a dual understanding of business ownership and workers’ rights to the Capitol. I was appointed in my first year to serve on the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee, where I now serve as Chair.
When’s the last time you changed your mind about something, and what was it?
I have changed my mind about bills based on constituent letters or committee testimony that gave me a deeper perspective (showing up and writing to lawmakers does make a difference!). I have a strong stomach for nuance. Sometimes things that sound good initially don’t hold up to scrutiny. Other times, an idea that sounds far fetched deserves a closer look. I am naturally curious. I am not dismissive. I am willing to sponsor bills that have no professional lobbying support. This session I am running a bill to provide insurance coverage for kids suffering from the condition PANS/PANDAS (long story, and a good one). The initial constituent letter I received about this didn’t stand out, but I sensed something significant. I’m glad I took a closer look.
What question would you ask a fellow candidate on the ballot?
I would ask anyone who is running how they intend to bring a spirit of cooperation to their work. I am interested in candidates who are able to build coalitions and focus on doing what’s best for constituents.