For Republicans looking to maintain control of the Senate, and perhaps make inroads in the House, being able to stop the bills Democrats want is as important as getting their own bills passed.

Sen. Kevin Grantham, R-Canyon City, made the trip to Denver June 3 to speak at a morning meeting of the Denver Republican Party. During his remarks, he talked about the 2013-2014 Legislative sessions and the liberal bills passed in those two years as a major reason Republicans had to maintain the majority in the Senate this November.

“Those two sessions, we saw more anti-gun legislation, anti-free market legislation. We saw more green energy mandate legislation and so on and so forth than we’ve ever seen out of our Legislature,” Grantham said. “That’s why we need to keep (the Senate). The governor is going to be in office for the next two years. There’s nothing we can do about that. We have a House that we might be able to take it back, but we have the Senate right now and I know we can keep it. We need your help.”

Grantham, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, laid out the battleground for the Denver Gop’ers and highlighted four of the closest races in his eyes: Sens. Laura Woods, R-Arvada, and Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa, reelection bids, and open seats in SD 25, where Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, has termed out and SD 26, where Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, termed out as well.

“It’s all about awareness just like in any seat or any race. Those will be the most critical. We’ve got folks, and I’m sure they do on their side as well, talking about these races and getting out to the other areas of the state and getting whatever help we can get,” Grantham said to the Statesman after the meeting. “It’s not a secret these are the races we (see as close).”

Outside of the Senate, Grantham talked failed bills in 2016 (and the veto of the red light camera bill) and the November ballot including Amendment 69, which would create a single-payer health care system in the state.

By the way, the quickest way to get a reaction out of a Republican crowd to is to mention Amendment 69. Whenever the amendment was mentioned, the crowd in Denver hissed on cue. Republicans across the state have made the defeat of that amendment one of the top priorities, Grantham included.

Grantham said both bills to create a presidential primary that failed in the Legislature were rushed and he was afraid that the ballot measure being proposed would cost too much money, along with the confusion of having multiple ballots mailed to the same person.

While he objected the idea that the 2016 legislative session was do-nothing, he pointed to more than 400 bills making it to the Governor’s desk. But he also pointed to the failure to get construction defect reform passed as the real example of a failure by lawmakers in the state.

“If we want to talk about real bipartisan things that didn’t get done, let’s talk about construction defects,” Grantham said to the Statesman. “We had Republicans and Democrats for sponsorship, we had support amongst the bodies of the Senate and the House for this legislation last year and this year.But it still got the death penalty in the House because of one person.”

That one person Grantham referred to was Speaker of the House Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Gunbarrel, who helped kill the bill before it could hit the House floor. Grantham, along with other Republicans who have talked about defect reform, believe that with Hullinghorst termed out now and new leadership in the House for Democrats, the likelihood of a deal being done has increased.

“New leadership would make this hopeful that there’s at least dialogue and something can be passed. Right now there’s no real dialogue on this subject. But there will be new leadership so yeah, I’m hopeful,” Grantham said.

– ramsey@coloradostatesman.com