Boulder Democrat Dickey Lee Hullinghorst was elected speaker of the Colorado House as the 70th Session of the General Assembly launched on Wednesday, wielding a slimmer majority than Democrats had in the last session and facing a Republican-controlled Senate for the first time in a decade.

“There are those who say a split Legislature will place many challenges in our path,” Hullinghorst said in her opening-day remarks. “I prefer to regard these as opportunities to work together for all of our constituents. We have the opportunity to work across the aisle in the House, with our friends in the Senate, and with Gov. [John] Hickenlooper to develop bipartisan legislation that will make Colorado stronger.”

Hullinghorst is the second woman to wield the speaker’s gavel — Republican Lola Spradley of Beulah was the first, holding the office for one term starting in 2003 — and only the second from Boulder County, following a Longmont Republican named Rienzi Streeter, who was speaker for a single term starting in 1879.

Democrats hold a 34-31 majority in the House, down three seats after the November election. In the Senate, Republicans rule by a single-seat majority, 18-17.

Hullinghorst sounded familiar Democratic themes in her remarks, pledging to work to strengthen the state’s precarious middle class.

“Our middle-class Colorado families are standing uncomfortably close to the edge of a cliff, only one emergency away from sliding right back to where we were in the depths of the Great Recession,” she said, noting that she knew what it was like to stand on “the edge of the cliff” herself.

State Rep. Mike Foote’s wife, Heidi, and daughters Amelia and Leanna get comfortable on Wednesday morning in House chambers before the Lafayette Democrat was sworn in at the start of the 70th General Assembly.

“I will never forget the mix of hope and desperation, arriving in a new city, with a new husband, looking for a new job, with pretty much nothing but the clothes on our backs and exactly fifty cents in our pockets,” she said, adding that “too many of us are still over the cliff. And far too many are peering over the edge.”

Hullinghorst called on lawmakers to support legislation to boost job training, education funding and affordable housing, as well as maintaining the state’s commitment to renewable energy and considering the recommendations of the governor’s commission on oil and gas regulations, which are due next month. She also made a pitch for lawmakers to “[work] toward responsible ways to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” citing recent tension over police shootings elsewhere in the country.

House Speaker Pro Tem Dan Pabon, D-Denver, takes the oath of office while holding his son Alec on Wednesday in House chambers.

House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, a Loveland Republican, said he was hopeful that legislators could bridge partisan divides and share “a vision for a prosperous Colorado,” though he called attention to a strained urban-rural divide in the state and drew sharp lines over potential oil and gas regulation and refunds to taxpayers under the TABOR amendment.

“For many of us that come from rural communities, we understand Colorado’s identity, we are here to help preserve and protect it. Colorado’s natural beauty is one of the things we value most about living here, and I can tell you none of us would jeopardize it,” DelGrosso said in his remarks. “To my friends across the aisle, if you value the rural identity as much as we do, share our vision and make Colorado’s rural economy as much a priority as our FrontRange.”

Pointing to an uneven recovery across Colorado — roughly a dozen counties post unemployment rates twice as high as the state’s — DelGrosso pleaded with lawmakers to widen their focus. “If you value all of Colorado, you must recognize Denver-centric solutions will not fit every part of our state,” he said.

Calling out state Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver, chair of the House Finance Committee — who responded by shaking her head with a smile — DelGrosso said that his caucus intends to see an anticipated tax surplus returned to voters rather than kept by the state.

House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, chats with former House Speaker Lola Spradley, R-Beulah, on opening day of the Colorado Legislature on Wednesday in Denver.

“Republicans believe that the people can spend their money better than government can,” he said. “TABOR refunds are owed to our taxpayers and we will fight to have that money returned to them.”

Hullinghorst took over from Denver Democrat Mark Ferrandino, who became the first openly gay speaker of the House two years ago, and was term-limited. Ferrandino presided over the initial proceedings, gaveling the chamber to order and dispatching a delegation to summon Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Nancy Rice, who swore in the lawmakers en masse and later posed for photographs with legislators while the House waited on the Senate to catch up with the day’s business.

Before handing the gavel to Hullinghorst, Ferrandino offered what he termed a parting gift to the chamber’s party leaders, Majority Leader Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, and DelGrosso. Noting that about half the lawmakers were occupying more spacious offices across Colfax, Ferrandino quipped that those who enjoyed their new digs should credit Duran and DelGrosso and that those who were unhappy with the trek could feel free to blame him.

The new offices aren’t the only change that greeted lawmakers at the Capitol, House leaders pointed out. Since the Legislature adjourned last spring, scaffolding has been removed from a years-long renovation of the gold dome and legislative chambers have undergone an extensive facelift, peeling acoustical tiling from the walls and removing heavy shutters from the windows, “allowing Colorado’s natural light to help us find the path forward,” Hulllinghorst noted. “There are sunshine laws, and there is plain old sunshine. Both are plentiful in Colorado — and I like it that way.”

Hullinghorst credited former House Speaker Frank McNulty, a Highlands Ranch Republican, with kicking off the restoration (“he got this whole project started over a broken radiator,” she smiled) and thanked Chief Clerk Marilyn Eddins for overseeing the work.

There was an ample contingent from Hullinghorst’s home county in attendance. Her husband, Bob, served as Boulder County treasurer for three terms until just last week, when he stepped down due to term limits. (Former House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, was elected to take his place, and was also there.)

Former state Reps. Mike Cerbo, D-Denver, and Jenice May, D-Aurora, have front-row seats for the start of the 70th General Assembly on Wednesday in House chambers. May, who lost her bid for reelection by over 100 votes to Republican JoAnn Windholz, started work last month as an advisor to House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, and Cerbo is executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO.

Other Boulder officials in the chamber included county commissioners Deb Gardner, herself a former state representative, Cindy Domenico and Elise Jones. Former state Rep. Richard Gebhardt, D-Boulder, who was sworn into office for his first term 50 years ago, sat alongside the commissioners. Members of the Heatherwood Elementary School student council led the Pledge of Allegiance, and University of Colorado students serenaded the House with stunning renditions of the national anthem and “America the Beautiful.”

In addition to Ferrandino, who would become a former speaker as the morning elapsed, four other former House speakers witnessed the proceedings: Spradley, McNulty, Colorado Springs Republican Doug Dean and Denver Democrat Ruben Valdez.

But, it wasn’t all pomp, circumstance and snapshots.

House members introduced 64 bills on Wednesday, including two aimed at repealing contentious gun-control measures passed by Democrats two years ago, one that would make performing an abortion a felony and one that would ban something called powdered alcohol until the federal government puts regulations in place for the substance, all sponsored by Republicans. Among the Democratic-sponsored bills unveiled on the Legislature’s first day was one to create scholarships for preschool teachers, one to extend an economic “gardening” program to support small businesses and one to pay for an additional 3,000 students in the state’s preschools.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com

See the print edition of Jan. 9, 2015 for full photo coverage.