Elections

The opening will be gone in a flash. Elections season is barely behind us, but the next major legislative elections will be held in 2018 – or as the new old saying goes: “Two years is the new two weeks! Put down that coffee, fool, and start knocking doors!”

Guzman

Guzman may be exactly the right figure to lead the effort. Chosen by her Democratic colleagues to head the Senate caucus for the second year in a row, Guzman derives her strength as a leader for the personal respect and affection she engenders on both sides of the aisle. She is praised by lawmakers for the thoughtful approach she brings to issues and has been lauded for working hard to fully consider opposing views. With Guzman leading the repeal effort, the conversation might get the kind of head start through which it could shed hours of calendar time that otherwise would be filled with posturing and point making.

Hickenlooper

When Hickenlooper won the governorship, he supported the death penalty. Then, in 2013, he was faced with signing off on the execution of convicted killer Nathan Dunlap. Hickenlooper was deeply conflicted. Ultimately, he granted Dunlap a reprieve, a move that drew harsh criticism as soft for the fact that it signaled his opposition to capital punishment as it is practiced today even as it left Dunlap subject to the leanings of the state’s next governor.

Fields

What about former Aurora state Rep. and freshman Democratic Sen. Rhonda Fields? Has Guzman won her over?

Fields is a dependably liberal lawmaker, but she has made repeat headlines for powerfully opposing efforts to repeal the death penalty in Colorado. Her opposition is passionate and articulate and tied to personal tragedy.

Two of the three inmates on death row in Colorado landed there for gunning down Fields’ son, Javad Marshall-Fields, and his fiance, Vivian Wolfe. The two were killed on a street corner to prevent Marshall-Fields from testifying in a gangland murder case.

Fields told Westword that the 2012 movement to repeal the death penalty felt like a “slap in the face.” She also noted that, in the wake of the chilling Aurora Theater massacre, the effort would send the wrong message to a shocked and reeling nation. “I think it’s an insult to crime victims,” she said. “I don’t think the timing is right.”

Priola, and frustrated Republicans

What about quiet Republican Senate support? Republicans control the upper chamber and can see to it through committee assignment that any progress the bill might win early on is halted long before it can make it to the floor for a vote.

But Guzman may have at least one like-minded colleague across the aisle and, who knows, careful negotiation might bring support from unexpected quarters.

Former Henderson state Rep. and freshman Sen. Kevin Priola, a devout Catholic, in 2012 joined with Democratic House colleagues to sponsor a death penalty repeal bill. Priola has won election after election in tough districts in tough years and last year won a top legislative race for carefully watched swing Senate District 25.

Other Republicans are deeply frustrated with the current state of the death penalty in Colorado.

Sen. Kevin Lundberg a Berthoud Republican, is one of the strong veteran conservatives in the chamber. Last year he ran a bill that echoed frustration felt in many corners of the state when James Holmes, the Aurora Theater shooter, received a life sentence without parole. His Senate Bill 64 aimed to eliminate the state requirement that 12 jurors unanimously agree to impose a death penalty. The bill died in committee. Guzman strongly opposed it.

But the bill clearly came from Lundberg’s heart. He told The Colorado Statesman after the hearing last year that the state’s death penalty system no longer functioned and had become policy in name only. “Is the death penalty in Colorado a reality or is it a fiction?” he said, shaking his head.

The current state of the death penalty is surely a continuing, if not gnawing, source of dissatisfaction for him. There was a sense in the way Lundberg talked about it that suggested he felt the state was not being straight with its residents. That would still be the case in his mind, given that nothing in regard to the policy has changed, and so it might be the kind of sentiment in which Guzman could find a door to open onto an alternate reality Colorado Senate that might advance her bill.

– john@coloradostatesman.com