MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Join The Sun on May 15 at the University of Denver for a free, in-person event recapping the 2024 legislative session. Gov. Jared Polis will be interviewed live, followed by state lawmakers, including Sen. Jim Smallwood and Rep. Iman Jodeh.
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The end of Colorado’s 2024 legislative session means the end of an era in the General Assembly.
When lawmakers return to the Colorado Capitol in 2025, there will be no more Democratic senators or representatives who were at one point in the minority and no more Republicans who served in the majority.
That institutional knowledge and experience is departing with five senators — Democratic Sens. Steve Fenberg, Kevin Priola and Rhonda Fields and Republican Sens. Bob Gardner and Jim Smallwood — who are leaving the legislature after reaching their term limits. For the first two years of each of their two terms in the Senate, Republicans controlled the chamber.
Democrats have controlled the 35-member Senate since 2019. The party now has a 23-12 majority in the chamber — one vote shy of a supermajority — and the GOP won’t have a shot at winning back the gavel until at least 2026. That means the earliest Republicans could control the Senate is 2027.
A majority in the House is widely seen as out of reach for Republicans for the foreseeable future.
“I’m so grateful that I was in the minority for two years,” Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat and the outgoing Senate president, told reporters this week. “It was incredibly helpful and shaped who I am as a legislator because I knew what it was like to not have a voice and I knew what it was like to have to have relationships with the other side in order to get anything done. It can be problematic to have an entire majority legislature that’s never experienced that.”
Fenberg said being in the minority gave him an appreciation for protecting the minority’s voice in the legislative process.
Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican, said being effective as a member of the minority party takes a greater skill set.
“You can get things done in the majority — a lot of them,” Gardner said. “You can get fewer things — but equally important things — done in the minority. You have to work hard to be in the minority and you have to think every minute of every day about how you’re going to make a difference and make a change.”
He said an easy way to be in the minority is to vote “no” on everything. But that has no impact.
“You can just vote and when you walk away not have anything to show for it,” he said, “or you can work hard and make a difference.”
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THE HISTORY BOOKS
You’d probably have to go back 60-some years to find another period where there were no Democrats serving in Colorado’s legislature who hadn’t at one point been in the minority, as well as no Republican senators or representatives who hadn’t served in the majority.
Democrats controlled the General Assembly for a period from the mid 1950s into the early 1960s.
Republicans, however, controlled both chambers of the Colorado legislature for decades from the late 1970s into the 2000s.
THE HOUSE
The 19-member Colorado House Republican caucus, meanwhile, is losing its most experienced members.
Rep. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, is termed out and running for the Senate after eight years in the lower chamber. Three of the other longest-serving Republican representatives, Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron, is running for Congress, as are GOP Reps. Mike Lynch and Gabe Evans. (Holtorf was appointed to his seat by a vacancy committee in 2019, while Lynch was elected in 2020 and Evans in 2022.)
Rep. Rod Bockenfeld, an Arapahoe County Republican first elected to the legislature in 2018, isn’t running for reelection because he is being treated for cancer. He often participated remotely or was excused during the 2024 lawmaking term.
That leaves 14 returning GOP representatives — assuming they all win reelection — with the caucus veteran being Rep. Matt Soper, who was first elected in 2018.
Every other member of the caucus was either elected in 2020 or 2022.
YOU HEARD IT HERE
Jones was honored Tuesday morning by state representatives, who gave him an extended standing ovation. Jones has served as chief clerk since 2020, but has worked as a nonpartisan staffer for the General Assembly for 33 years, including stints in Legislative Legal Services and Legislative Council Staff.
In brief remarks to the chamber, Jones implored lawmakers to treat each other with respect.
“There’s a lot of energy in this room and in this building. Some of it positive, a lot of it can be negative,” Jones said. “You don’t have to like the policy but you can still like the person. Remember that, please.”
MORE
Senate Secretary Cindi Markwell is also departing — allegedly for real this time.
You’d be hard pressed to find someone with as much institutional knowledge as Markwell, who has worked on and off at the Capitol since 1980. She came out of retirement in 2018 to serve as secretary for a second time after her first retirement from the role, which she also held from 2011 to 2015.
Markwell was supposed to retire at the end of the 2023 session, but she came back for one last year.
Markwell’s lasting impact on the Capitol includes overseeing the recent renovation of the Senate.
THE NARRATIVE
Republicans in the legislature aren’t willing to denounce Initiatives 50 or 108
Republicans in the Colorado legislature may have sponsored, voted for and celebrated the property tax relief bill passed in the final days of the 2024 lawmaking term, but they aren’t willing to walk away from deeper cuts on the November ballot.
Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, told reporters Thursday that he supports Initiative 50, which would cap the annual statewide increase in property tax revenue at 4%, and Initiative 108, which would big-time slash the state’s property tax assessment rates. The ballot measures are from Advance Colorado, a conservative political nonprofit, and are supported by Colorado Concern, a nonprofit representing CEOs in the state.
“I believe we have done a good thing with (Senate Bill) 233,” Lundeen said of the property tax relief measure passed by the legislature. “I will move forward trying to restrain the expansive growth of government anywhere I can.”
House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican, didn’t give the measures a full-throated endorsement, but she wouldn’t rule out supporting them either.
“We’re not taking positions on ballot initiatives,” she said. “But the one thing I do want to stress is that we are for — Republicans are for — reducing taxes. And so anything that reduces taxes and gives people choices, I think is important. But we are not taking positions on other people’s ballot initiatives that weren’t initiated by the legislature.”
Yes, they weren’t initiated by the legislature, but they will force the legislature’s financial hand if passed.
Initiative 108 would have an estimated $3 billion effect in its first year and require the legislature to reimburse schools and local governments for $2.25 billion of that revenue reduction. That’s roughly 8% of the entire state budget. The hit would be greater in subsequent years.
Meanwhile, Initiative 50 would also likely drain state coffers by requiring the legislature to send more money to schools. That’s not to mention the effect on other local government budgets.
When pressed about the legislative effects of Initiatives 50 and 108, Pugliese cautioned that it was too early to know what will ultimately be on the ballot. (Initiative 50 has qualified, while signature gathering for 108 would still have to be completed — and verified by state elections officials — for the question to get on the November ballot.)
“Right now we’re standing behind the legislation that we put forward,” she said. “We think that is the right solution for Colorado.”
When asked about the fiscal impact of the measures, Lundeen said the government has grown too much in recent years and that the money could be found by making “the priorities the priorities — public education, roads and bridges, mobility in whatever form you may like.”
Both Pugliese and Lundeen voted for 233.
The view from a moderate Republican running for reelection in a swing district: State Sen. Cleave Simpson of Alamosa told reporters he wasn’t ready to take a position on the ballot measures.
“Let’s take this win — that’s $1.3 billion property tax relief for Coloradans — close the gate on that one and think about what’s the most appropriate way to provide necessary tax relief in Colorado,” Simpson said, referencing the estimated first-year impact of Senate Bill 233. “I’m not convinced that these two ballot initiatives are (the solution). They may be, I’m just not ready to commit to that yet.”
Simpson voted for 233.
FALLOUT FOR COLORADO CONCERN
The political fallout over Colorado Concern’s decision not to support Senate Bill 233 and instead back Initiatives 50 and 108 continues.
Janine Davidson, president of Metropolitan State University of Denver, resigned from the nonprofit’s board on Wednesday, apparently over the property tax situation. She said continuing to serve on the board “would compromise the core principles and mission I am duty-bound to uphold.”
“It is my belief that TABOR creates deep challenges to a high functioning, representative government and our state’s public provisions, reflects a lack of respect for government institutions, and perpetuates a decline of trust in our elected officials,” she wrote in a letter announcing her decisions. “I fear this is a formula for an unhealthy system and cannot support actions or positions that put the vitality of our state services at risk, including higher education.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic majority in the Capitol has all but written Colorado Concern off.
“It is frustrating to see an organization publicly disparage a policy that they helped shape in a large way,” said Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat. “They are not taking actions that would increase their relevance in this building.”
COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO: Deal, and no deal: Why one of the legislature’s biggest bills likely won’t prevent a ballot battle
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THE POLITICAL TICKER
GOVERNOR
Gov. Jared Polis is kicking off his annual statewide bill-signing tour today, with stops in Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver. Among the measures he will sign are House Bill 1304, which would prohibit parking minimums for certain residential housing near some bus and train stops, and Senate Bill 20, which would let restaurants offer to-go alcohol and delivery in perpetuity, whereas otherwise it would have to stop on June 30, 2025. The governor has until June 7 to sign or veto bills passed during the 2024 legislative session, or let them become law without his signature.
5TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
The House Freedom Fund, the campaign arm of the U.S. House Freedom Caucus, endorsed Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams this week. Williams faces conservative commentator Jeff Crank in the June 25 primary in the heavily Republican 5th Congressional District in El Paso County. In its endorsement, the super PAC said Williams “stands in stark contrast to many party chairs in that he doesn’t cower to pressure. He is an unapologetic conservative.” The endorsement likely gives Williams access to the PAC’s fundraising assistance, but the group had less than $800,000 in cash at the end of March.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
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Corrections & Clarifications
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