January 12, 2024 02:01 PM UTC

Dems Debunk GOP Micro-Minority Whinefest

• 8 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

FRIDAY UPDATE: As the Colorado Springs Gazette’s Marianne Goodland reports, that didn’t take long:

In case you were wondering how long it would take for the shenanigans of the 2023 legislative session to show up in 2024, the answer is: Day 3.

House Republicans launched a brief filibuster Friday morning over House Bill 24-1084, which is a repeal and re-enactment of a measure from the 2023 special session in November. That was House Bill 23B-1002, which doubles the Earned Income Tax Credit, using TABOR surplus dollars.

Rep. Scott Bottoms, R-Colorado Springs, filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court on Dec. 28 against House Speaker Julie McCluskie and Gov. Jared Polis, who signed the bill into law, claiming he had been denied his constitutional right to have the bill read at length on Nov. 9 during its final vote…

Only 117 days to go, folks! If they can’t win, the next best thing is to make the rest of us hate the game.

—–

We wrote earlier this week about the pre-session spin from Republican Colorado House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, complaining that the Democratic supermajority “prohibited the voices of Coloradans from being heard” in the previous session by invoking parliamentary rules that allow the majority to put an end to obstruction tactics from the minority. Lynch promised to “use whatever tactics we have at our disposal” to ensure the 46-seat supermajority cannot “disregard the voice of the people,” meaning a repeat of last year’s obstructive antics and a high likelihood that majority leadership will have to procedurally shut the minority down once again.

Yesterday, Colorado Democrats responded with an analysis of the actual time spent speaking in House debate by both parties in the 2023 session, focusing on the period after Democrats started invoking what’s known as “Rule 14” to limit debate. If you at any point bought into Minority Leader Lynch’s allegation that majority Democrats were unfairly shutting Republicans out of the debate on legislation, here are the hard numbers that prove he’s full of bull:

Colorado House Republicans’ claim that they were being “silenced” in 2023’s legislative session is belied by an analysis of floor time data.

The Colorado Democratic Party’s analysis of the floor time used for legislative business between the day Rule 14 was first invoked – March 25th – and Sine Die – May 8th – reveals that Republican members spoke more than twice as long as Democratic members.

In a direct contradiction of their complaints of being disallowed from speaking, the truth is that Republicans dominated floor discussion both with their comments and political tactics used to further their political message instead of delivering for working Coloradans.

Despite their historically small minority – holding just 19 of 65 seats in the House, or 29.2% – Republican members spoke for nearly 60% of the legislative discussion time on the floor in the final 37 days of the 2023 session. [Pols emphasis]

Until the patience of the supermajority was exhausted in late March of last year, the 46-19 Republican micro-minority had more or less full rein to obstruct the passage of legislation through the House through filibuster-like speeches meant to valuelessly kill time and regular demands for legislation to be read at length. Once Democrats began invoking longstanding rules that allowed the majority to curtail those obstruction tactics, Republicans still managed to hold the floor for almost 60% of speaking time. That’s 19 Republicans getting more speechification time than 46 Democrats.

How can Republicans possibly claim they are being “silenced?” These numbers don’t lie. Even after Democrats cracked down–weeks later than they could have–the rump minority still hogged the floor for more than twice the time as double the number of Democrats. The reality as it played out on the House floor less than a year ago was the exact opposite of “prohibiting the voices of Coloradans from being heard.”

Not only did supermajority Democrats give the minority their say, but Democrats gave Republicans much more leeway to obstruct than was necessary. And these rank falsehoods are what Republicans gave the majority in return.

When it happens again this year, don’t let this history be rewritten.