May 10, 2023 10:51 AM UTC

Winners and Losers from the 2023 Legislative Session

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• by: Colorado Pols

With the 2023 Colorado legislative session now in the books, it’s time for us to hand out some grades.

As always, we focus more on the politics than the policy here at Colorado Pols (for a more policy-centric “Winners and Losers” list, check out ProgressNow Colorado or Axios Denver). 

WINNERS

Colorado Families (For Real)

Politicians always claim to be helping families, but that help is not always as significant as it is made out to be. That’s not the case in 2023. The legislature did two very important things for Colorado families that flew under the radar a bit: 1) Increasing the child tax credit, and 2) Amending the school finance bill in preparation to REALLY fully-fund K-12 public schools for the first time in decades. 

The latter is a particularly big deal. As Erica Meltzer reported for Chalkbeat Colorado last month:

Legislators have toyed with the idea of fully funding Colorado schools several times in recent years, but always held back amid economic uncertainty. While Colorado’s constitution requires school funding to go up each year by the rate of population and inflation, lawmakers haven’t met that requirement since the start of the Great Recession. 

Since 2009, Colorado has withheld more than $10 billion from its schools.

Now the school finance act that passed unanimously out of the Senate Education Committee Wednesday includes a provision that would require the state to fully fund K-12 schools starting in the 2024-25 budget year. 

The school finance act also includes a significant funding increase for state-authorized charter schools beginning with the 2024-25 school year. 

Cat Herders

Democrats were thrilled in November when voters handed them a historic 46-19 majority in the State House, but it’s no small task to work with such a huge number of lawmakers. House Speaker Julie McCluskie dealt with some internal hiccups in her first session holding the gavel, but overall she handled her caucus well considering that some friction is inevitable with such a large and diverse group of people. McCluskie could be the first person since Andrew Romanoff to serve as House Speaker for four years. 

House Majority Leader Monica Duran played a significant role in helping McCluskie to keep the legislative calendar on track despite regular filibuster tantrums from House Republicans. No caucus is ever going to get everything across the finish line, but Duran helped to make sure that the top-ticket items kept plugging along. 

Anybody Who Wants to Pay Less for Health Care

Reducing health care costs has been a regular mantra for Democrats and Gov. Jared Polis, and the legislature made big gains on the front in 2023. Lawmakers capped the price of EpiPens (HB23-1002); created limits on hospital “facility fees” (HB23-1215); set Medicaid reimbursement rates for Community Health Services (SB23-002); capped the interest rate for medical debt at 3 percent per year (SB23-093); and reduced the cost of prescription drugs by taking on the middleman (Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs) with HB23-1201 and HB23-1227.

DeBottoms

The “Unambiguously Lame Duo” of Republican Reps. Scott “There is No” Bottoms and Ken “Skin” DeGraaf grabbed the House Floor microphone early in the session and then never really let go. The largely-idiotic rants from the Colorado Springs duo didn’t help House Republicans to accomplish anything, but in speaking to the MAGA Republican base and regularly grabbing headlines, the two freshmen raised their name ID significantly and became the go-to cranks for the House GOP. They’ll spend the next few months fighting it out over which one of them is “Batman” and which one is “Robin.”

People Who Don’t Want to Be Killed by a Firearm

The highlight of the 2023 session is undoubtedly a host of gun violence prevention bills passed by the Democratic majority despite filibusters and other nonsense opposition from Republicans. We wrote about this at length earlier, so we won’t repeat ourselves on the details.  

Tom Sullivan

Sullivan moved to the State Senate this year after a couple of terms in the State House, but his new legislative address didn’t change the fact that he is the legislature’s conscience on gun violence prevention. Sullivan’s artful explanation for why Democrats shouldn’t be focusing on an assault weapons ban helped clear the path for other important gun violence prevention bills. As Sullivan wrote in a constituent newsletter:

Since 2019, we have passed 11 common-sense GVP bills that have elevated Colorado to the top of statewide legislation in this space nationwide. The country is watching and applauding our success. We have elected the largest Democrat majority in 60 years and that is in part because of the actions we have taken when it comes to the public health crisis that is gun violence. We can be very proud of that.

Indeed we can, sir.

Dave Williams

Calling Dave Williams a “winner” may be a dubious honor, but we dare anyone to find a softer landing for someone so undeserving. The former State Representative and current Chair of the State Republican Party spent most of the session working “remotely” as a legislative aide to Republican Rep. Brandi Bradley. Williams was paid for a 40-hour work week despite the fact that his position as State GOP Chair is also supposed to be a full-time job. When details about his seemingly no-show job became public in late April, Williams miraculously appeared in the chambers of the State House. This didn’t make his fellow Republicans very happy, but it made Williams some money. 

Brianna Titone

The third-term Democratic lawmaker from Arvada took a star turn in 2023 that was capped by a long, glowing profile in The Washington Post. Colorado’s first openly-transgender lawmaker made headlines for her firm but fair speech on the House Floor following some typically-disgusting comments by Republicans regarding transgender people. Titone followed that up by directing a first in the nation “right to repair” bill for Colorado farmers that was so impressive that Republicans tried to take credit. 

Wildfire Resources

This also flew under the radar, but the passage of a couple of wildfire-related bills will no doubt prove prescient later this summer. Senate Bill 23-161 and HB23-1288 among others will provide much-needed resources for fighting wildfires, including the purchase of a new helicopter, and protections for homeowners

Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud

House Republicans proved during the legislative session that they are apparently no longer going to pretend to moderate their viewpoints. For example:

♦ State Rep. Matt Soper threatened civil war if Democrats proceeded with gun violence prevention legislation;

♦ Several House Republicans used the introduction of a simple Equal Rights Amendment resolution to demean transgender people and attack abortion rights;

♦ House Minority “Leader” Mike Lynch said this in response to a question about how he would manage a House majority: 

Republicans also had no problem acknowledging that they will oppose any gun violence prevention legislation for any reason (even dumb ones). Scott Bottoms unashamedly told his church congregation that Republicans “don’t care” about the impact of gun violence on Coloradans, and Rep. Mary Bradfield told 9News that she would never support gun regulations because “I’m a Republican.” Given that the overwhelming majority of Americans – and Coloradans – support increased gun regulations, these comments won’t be very helpful for the GOP in 2024.    

Check out our “Losers” after the jump below…

LOSERS

House Minority “Leader” Mike Lynch

The cowboy hat-wearing Republican from northern Colorado proved to be as inept a caucus leader as we have ever seen in this state. Things got off to a rough start when no House Republican bothered to join the standard resolution honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and it got worse from there. Lynch demonstrated the strategic mind of a moth when he openly said that he would introduce “really drastic right-wing legislation” if given the opportunity. He also made little effort to moderate some truly ridiculous legislative ideas.  

[mantra-pullquote align=”center” textalign=”left” width=”90%”]“Negotiations between the parties have fallen apart at times, as some House Republicans have refused to accept the terms of deals that others were ready to accept.”

     — Colorado Public Radio (4/11/23)[/mantra-pullquote]

With only 19 Republicans, Lynch shouldn’t have had so much trouble keeping things organized. Yet it only took a few weeks to understand that the caucus was paying no attention to Lynch. He tried to make deals with Democrats to end Republican filibusters, but members of his caucus immediately destroyed any compromise by refusing to stop talking. In early March, Lynch presided over a press conference blasting Democrats for moving too slow; the very next day Republicans began a half-assed filibuster against another gun safety bill. It’s no wonder that nobody took Lynch or House Republicans seriously because it was impossible to know who was speaking for the caucus. When Republicans tried walking out of the Chamber on the last day of the session, Democrats just went ahead and voted without them. 

On the plus side for Lynch, at least nobody in his caucus literally threatened to kill him.

Candidates for Denver Mayor

Campaigning for a huge job like Mayor of Denver while also serving in the state legislature turned out to be a worse idea than it sounds for two Democrats. State Sen. Chris Hansen and State Rep. Leslie Herod both attempted to juggle their legislative responsibilities with a citywide campaign and earned “also-ran” status for their efforts. 

Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen

Did you realize that there were Republicans in the State Senate in 2023? 

You didn’t?

Well, there you go. 

Republicans Rooting for Democratic Infighting

Following the end of the 2021 legislative session – literally minutes after the final gavel – Republicans who were obsessed with internal battles tried to oust their own Minority Leader; they even held a vote on the subject (the late Hugh McKean survived by a vote of 15-8). Republicans had 24 caucus members in 2021 – almost half of the 46-member Democratic majority in 2023 – so it was natural to wonder if Democrats would fall victim to their own intra-party squabbles in this legislative session.

While it would have been unrealistic to expect a massive Democratic majority to not end up in a few disagreements, Democrats largely avoided major intra-party fights. There were a few internal squabbles – including grumbling from a few freshmen in the House on the last day of session – yet nothing that was particularly noteworthy or harmful. 

Republican Strategery

Republicans entered the 2020 legislative session with the stated goal of trying to slow down the sausage factory, even going so far as to seek legal avenues to shorten a legislative session that was delayed because of the COVID pandemic. Those obstruction tactics didn’t work.

Republicans attempted the same performative obstruction tactics in 2021. It didn’t work.

In 2022, Republicans went back to the same well. Former House Minority Leader Patrick Neville summed up the GOP strategy when he acknowledged, “I don’t know if we have an agenda.” You’re probably noticing a pattern here: It didn’t work.

So, naturally, Republicans kicked off the 2023 legislative session WITH THE SAME FAILED STRATEGY. As we wrote in this space in April: 

It doesn’t matter what issue is being discussed; for House Republicans, the only response is to delay.

On Thursday, House Majority Leader Monica Duran invoked a rule to end third reading debate over SB23-093 (“Increase Consumer Protections Medical Transactions”) and move to a vote in the House chamber. Among other things, SB23-093 would cap interest rates on medical debt in order to help prevent Coloradans from going bankrupt over emergency medical bills.

The legislation passed, with only four ‘NO’ votes. House Republicans had been intentionally delaying discussion about a bill that they actually supported.

In 2023, Republicans tried to be more pointlessly obstructive with several half-assed filibusters that ultimately did nothing to change the outcome of the legislation being discussed. They pushed idiotic legislative proposals of their own that had zero chance of advancing out of a committee. Their final act, in the final hour of the 2023 session, was to walk out of the House Chambers so that they could talk about walking out of the House Chambers. The “Unambiguously Lame Duo” of Republican Reps. Scott “There is No” Bottoms and Ken “Skin” DeGraaf made Republicans look even more ridiculous than normal, but it should be noted that they were only following the same GOP script that never seems to change. 

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO)

This was an odd session for the no-compromise gun group that has dominated internal Republican politics for years. Things got off to a horrific start for RMGO when lobbyist Kevin Lorusso testified in a House committee that Black males shouldn’t be counted in gun violence statistics. The group’s Executive Director, Taylor Rhodes, floundered for a long time before finally recognizing the damage of this testimony.  

As gun violence prevention legislation moved forward, Rhodes promised to turn the State Capitol into a “circus” of opposition from gun rights activists. That circus turned out to be more of a small carnival, with RMGO organizing only a handful of people to testify at various committee hearings. In the end, it wasn’t all that difficult for Democrats to pass five significant pieces of legislation addressing gun violence. 

While RMGO’s influence among a broader group of Republicans seems to be fading, their hold on GOP insiders remains inexplicably firm. As we wrote in February: “When the militant gun rights group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) tells Republicans to dance…they f***ing dance.”

Non-MAGA Republicans

Virtually everything that Republicans did in the 2023 legislation amounted to a love letter to their MAGA base. If you organized a few dozen people to hold a rally for some extreme purpose, Republicans were right there with you. If you wanted to attempt to ban all abortion, despite the fact that Colorado voters DO NOT WANT THIS TO HAPPEN, these GOP lawmakers were happy to oblige. This list of bills from Team DeBottoms is all right-wing gobbledegook with no hope of advancing out of committee. We saw the same thing with a trio of late resolutions pushed by the likes of Rep. Stephanie Luck (R-Penrose) and Rep. Brandi Bradley (R-Douglas County). Much of this is the result of the fact that the only Republicans who can get elected in Colorado are those who appease the base enough to win a Primary Election; but if Republicans don’t try to branch out from the MAGA nuts, they’ll never get out of this cycle of losing.