Editor’s note: This story and its headline were significantly revised at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, July 30, 2024, after The Sun discovered an internal tabulation error in its analysis of votes cast by lawmakers at the Colorado Capitol this year. The error led to an overstatement of Republican support for bills passed during the 2024 lawmaking term. It also resulted in an undercounting of bills passed along party lines. Finally, the error led to an overcount of the number of bills passed with at least one Democrat voting “no.”
Of the 519 bills that became law in 2024, all but 58 passed with bipartisan support. That’s the second lowest rate of bipartisanship in the five years The Sun has analyzed votes by legislators. Seventeen bills passed on a straight party-line vote, with all 31 Republicans voting “no” and all 69 Democrats voting “yes.” At least one Democrat voted “no” on 31% of the bills that became law. That’s the highest percentage of Democrats voting “no” since 2019. A chart reflecting these numbers was also updated.
Additionally, the name of Sen. Janice Rich, R-Grand Junction, was corrected in a chart. And the headlines on two charts were updated to indicate that they show final votes taken by lawmakers on bills that became law.
This story was updated again at 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, to correct the names of Sen. Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, and Reps. Julia Marvin, D-Thornton, and Emily Sirota, D-Denver, in two charts.
All but 58 of the 519 bills that became law in the 2024 legislative session passed with bipartisan support, a Colorado Sun analysis of House and Senate votes shows.
That’s the second lowest rate of bipartisanship in the five years The Sun has analyzed votes by lawmakers. This year’s rate was 88.8%. The lowest rate calculated by The Sun was 88.2% in 2023.
The highest rate was in 2019, at 95.9%
Divisions among House Democrats and the willingness of Senate Republicans to reach across the aisle resulted in only 17 bills passing on a straight party-line vote, with all 31 Republicans voting “no” and all 69 Democrats voting “yes.” That’s about half the number in 2023.
About three-quarters of the measures introduced in the House and the Senate passed both chambers. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis vetoed six of those 525 bills. Lawmakers introduced 705 bills in 2024, the second highest in the past 12 years exceeded only by 2018, when 721 bills were introduced.
Differences between the House and Senate grew more pronounced this year, the second in which Democrats had a 46-19 supermajority in the House and a 23-12 advantage in the Senate.
- Seventy of the bills that became law passed unanimously. But the state Senate approved 180 of the bills on unanimous votes, while the state House approved only 77 unanimously.
- Of the 519 bills that became law this year, 23 passed with only a single Republican vote. But nearly 52% had majority approval from Republicans.
- At least one Democrat voted “no” on 31% of the bills that became law. That’s the highest percentage of Democrats voting “no” since 2019.
The 58 bills that passed with no Republican “yes” votes included:
- House Bill 1059 to create an independent commission to set the pay for state elected officials. Nine Democrats also voted against the measure.
- House Bill 1121 creating a right to repair electronic equipment. Three Democrats voted against the bill.
- House Bill 1288, which created a pilot program to increase awareness of two state tax credits for low-income families.
- House Bill 1313 promoting higher housing density near transit
- Senate Bill 230, which imposes new fees on oil and gas production in Colorado to raise money for transit.
No House Democrat voted in favor of every bill
For the first time in five years, no House Democrat voted in favor of every bill that became law.
Three Democrats voted “no” only once and four voted “no” twice. House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, said the diversity of the supermajority Democratic caucus had sparked more frequent dissension.
“We not only come from a variety of lived experiences and unique identities, but we represent dramatically different parts of our state, rural areas as well as urban centers,” she said. “Maybe it’s a lack of pressure that we may have seen in past years, that everybody sticks together to get a bill across the finish line.”
McCluskie voted against two measures, one that creates an independent commission to set the pay for state elected officials and another that allows motorcyclists to ride between cars when traffic is stopped.
But the speaker noted that how bills change through the process may also change some minds. McCluskie noted that a water quality bill she sponsored was amended about two dozen times on the House floor. Rep. Marc Catlin, a Montrose Republican with water expertise, initially voted against the measure. But after it was amended in the state Senate, he changed his vote.
“Those votes can often speak to how hard we’re working on both first chamber or second chamber,” she said. “I’m really proud of the fact that so many of our members work in a bipartisan way.”
On the Republican side of the House, six of the 19 Republicans voted “no” 57% of the time or more. Rep. Stephanie Luck, R-Penrose, voted no nearly 69% of the time.
Luck said she uses a litmus test for each bill, asking questions such as “is this the role of government?” or “is it properly within the state, legislative, government jurisdiction?”
“I have to answer ‘yes’ in order to vote in favor of a bill, and it gets very difficult to satisfy all of those different tenets of that test,” Luck said, adding the approach allows her to act on her principles and be “consistent with the promises I made to the people who voted me into office.”
Senate sees more unity, less friction
Senate Republicans supported bills that became law more often than their House counterparts.
GOP Sen. Kevin Van Winkle, who is running for Douglas County commissioner, voted “no” 51% of the time, followed by Sen. Mark Baisley, R-Woodland Park, at 49%.
The other 10 senators voted “yes” 61% of the time or more. Sen. Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, voted “yes” nearly 79% of the time. He is running for reelection against Democratic teacher and Navy veteran Vivian Smotherman in a reconfigured district that is more competitive.
Simpson said he’s focused on how legislative proposals affect his rural Colorado constituents.
“That’s not a strategy or intention,” Simpson said. “It’s just how I look at policy. I strongly support the Republican Party, but also recognize the reality of where we’re at in Colorado, in the General Assembly. It’s not intentional that I’m bipartisan. It’s just about working with people to try to get good outcomes.”
Simpson said he asks himself “is it helpful for my rural communities, either from economic development or health care or any of the other policies we go through?”
Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, said the Senate finds “the common ground where we can, and we make the common sense where we can.”
Part of that may be a greater sense of that middle ground in the Senate.
“The more extreme ideological element from both the left and the right is visible, much more visible, in the House than it is in the Senate,” he said. “In the Senate, it’s like, yeah, I’m not in love with that, but … I can live with that. And I think that ‘I can live with that’ is not something that either of the extremes are willing to ever say, because they’re extreme by definition.”