04-03-2025
Restaurants owners who testified in support of tipped wage bill were doxxed: Democrats
DENVER (KDVR) — The restaurant owners who have testified in favor of a tipped wage bill at the Colorado Capitol have been threatened and doxxed, according to the bill's sponsors.
Rep. Alex Valdez, a Democrat representing downtown Denver, said he's been working to contact opposition to the bill, but so far has not been able to sit down with anyone. He called the statements made against restaurant owners who testified in support of the bill 'vile.'
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The Colorado House Democrats also released information about flyers distributed in the Capitol, saying they were 'alarmed and disturbed by the distribution of a deeply disrespectful flyer targeting a member at the Capitol and by attacks on the business who testified in support of legislation in recent days.'
'We want to make it clear that these actions are unacceptable,' Speaker Julie McCluskie and House Majority Leader Monica Duran said in the release.
They said the flyers and statements will have a 'chilling effect' on the public and legislative process. They did not provide details on what was said on the flyers.
The bill in question is dubbed the Restaurant Relief Act and would require local governments with a minimum wage that exceeds the state minimum wage to provide a tip offset for tipped employees that is 'equal to the tip offset amount described in the state constitution, which is $3.02,' according to the bill's summary. The bill would put all tipped workers in the state at a minimum wage of $11.79.
'Once we had our first committee hearing, we obviously heard a lot of emotional testimony but what happened afterwards was that the folks that are in opposition to the bill decided to take to doxxing a lot of the restaurant owners who came and testified,' Valdez told FOX31 on Monday.
'The language was vile, the things that they said were vile,' he added.
Kjersten Forseth is with the Colorado AFL-CIO, which opposes House Bill 1208.
'We haven't organized any tactics like that and we certainly don't support hateful or offensive tactics,' Forseth told FOX31 on Monday night. 'We're seeing a lot of passion around this bill because tens of thousands of Coloradans are worried about their wages being cut. That's money they count on for rent, groceries, utility bills and other every day expenses. As the cost of living skyrockets, we hope the legislature will reconsider cutting wages and instead prioritize saving people money.'
Colorado AFL-CIO said it has requested time with Valdez and other sponsors of the bill.
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Valdez said that because of this, the House Finance Committee (which was scheduled to discuss the bill on Monday afternoon) would only hear from restaurant owners whose businesses have already closed, 'so that they don't fall victim to the progressives who are getting on their websites and their ratings for their restaurants and saying horrible things about the owners.'
Valdez said that Denver has lost 22,000 jobs in the restaurant industry 'thus far,' noting data from the past three years, and said the rate of job loss has accelerated.
'What we're really trying to do right now is throw a lifeline to an industry that is so critical to my district. I represent downtown Denver, and a lot of the area where a lot of our restaurants are,' Valdez explained. 'It's evident what's going on, to me. And to not try and do anything about it is really just to throw our hands up and allow Denver's restaurant scene to completely disappear, which I'm not happy with.'
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He said the bill has faced 'a lot' of opposition. Valdez also said that he expects amendments to the bill in committee, but worries that the bill's opposition will not make themselves known.
'We've never had a meeting with the opposition. We've asked them to come to the table — they never did,' Valdez said. 'This is kind of a new experience, I haven't been a part of a bill where we really couldn't engage the other side. I also haven't been part of a bill where you saw instances of doxxing either. I think it's indicative of just how ugly politics can be.'
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