A bill that would switch Colorado back to a presidential primary system has been in a holding pattern in the House as outside groups opposed to the measure hold talks with sponsors of the bill.

HB 1454, sponsored in the House by Reps. Tim Dore, R-Elizabeth, and Dominick Moreno, D-Denver, has been repeatedly laid over for a third reading in that chamber since it passed on second reading after a late night debate on April 28.

Dore said he and Moreno would like to have a Senate Republican sponsor (Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman, D-Denver, is the bill’s sponsor in the chamber), but the bill’s third reading vote has been delayed while Dore and Moreno work with outside groups that oppose parts of the bill.

Complaints about the bill include an amendment added last week that would make HB 1454 supersede any ballot measure to create a primary system that makes its way on the ballot and is passed by voters.

“There’s a bunch of moving parts with this. The Senate is one of them,” Dore said. “We’d love to have a Republican sponsor, but we don’t need it — we have a Democratic sponsor so we can get it over there. There have been conversations, and I don’t want to ruin them by talking about them, but we’ve actually now had conversations with other groups on the outside thinking about the initiative. I’m hopeful they’ll be fruitful conversations. They reached out to us.”

Given fierce opposition to the proposal from outside the Capitol and from conservative Republican lawmakers — including Reps. Justin Everett, R-Littleton, and Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock — the chances the bill survives a trip to the Senate will depend on who the sponsors are able to line up in support and whether sponsors can flip groups opposed to the measure before the session comes to a close.

As of Wednesday, Dore wouldn’t comment on the timing of a third reading vote in the House because of the the moving parts still in play.

— Ramsey@coloradostatesman.com