This week’s face in the crowd: literally…as I was watching the junior livestock auction at last week’s National Western Stock Show, I noticed a familiar face bidding on one of the champion lambs. It was former Democratic Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll of Denver. When I pointed out (via Twitter) that I’d seen him raise his hand, he quickly shot back that “it was an accident, LOL.” He did not win the lamb.

Speaking of livestock: last week I pointed out that Republican Rep. Jim Wilson of Salida has a pretty fair knack for auctioneering.

When the 2018 session got underway this month, Wilson went to work to round up (wrangle?) donations from his fellow lawmakers for the junior livestock auction, an annual tradition at the state Capitol.

The Colorado General Assembly is now the proud owner of a Colorado steer, one of only three available in last week’s auction. The winning bid was $9,500, and the lucky young man is Kaden Franklin, a seventh-grader from Meeker in Rio Blanco County.

Franklin’s steer was the second one lawmakers bid on; according to Wilson, they lost the first one in a bidding war with Pete Coors. “We were lucky” to get one of the few Colorado steers up for auction, Wilson said.

Government math: Republican State Sen. John Cooke of Greeley got exasperated this week with state agencies that opposed his Senate Bill 1 to put more budget money into transportation. It could cause them to get less in the future as they face more demands from growth, their lobbyists testified to the Senate Transportation Committee on Monday.

Cooke pointed out the money from transportation comes from growth in revenue. “Getting a decrease in your rate of increase is not a budget cut,” he lectured. “Anybody who believes that should be in Congress.”

Hick is getting ready to go back behind the wheel: Gov. John Hickenlooper rolled out an electric-vehicle charging station map for the state this week, and he plans on someday motoring around Colorado on juice, not gas.

But the big news is that he hasn’t exactly been behind the wheel of late, since people have insisted on driving him as governor for the past seven years. Hickenlooper said “People wiser than myself worry that even if I’m sitting stopped at a light and someone bumped into me from the back, it would be, ‘The governor has an accident, can he be trusted to drive, let alone govern?’

“Well, luckily, next year I will be a private citizen and you can bet Robin and I will be in the market for a new vehicle, and you can bet we’ll be looking for a vehicle that’s good for the environment with maybe some of the fastest and most powerful acceleration.”

My advice: Let Robin drive, at least at first. I’ll bet (and hope) her driving experience is more recent.