More than 150 politicos of all stripes packed the historic Carriage House at the Governor’s Residence at Boettcher Mansion in Denver Wednesday night for a session-opening shindig thrown by Colorado Politics.

Republicans rubbed shoulders with Democrats, toasting the young political news website and the nearly 120-year-old publication it incorporated last year.

Vince Bzdek, editor of both Colorado Politics and The Gazette of Colorado Springs, welcomed the crowd, which included U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, former Gov. Bill Owens, former U.S. Rep Bob Beauprez, Secretary of State Wayne Williams and more than a dozen current and former state lawmakers, as well as a passel of lobbyists, consultants and assorted Capitol denizens.

“One of the reasons we launched Colorado Politics is we believed strongly there’s a difference between journalism and the media,” Bzdek told the crowd. “We’ve been accused of creating false news and been called an enemy of the people. As a result, I think it’s actually been good for journalism. We’ve had to better define ourselves, reassert our standards and re-acquaint people with the value of good journalism.”

Both Colorado Politics and The Gazette are owned by Denver-based Clarity Media Group.

The site’s publishers, he said, gesturing to Clarity Media president and CEO Ryan McKibben and Gazette publisher Dan Steever, started Colorado Politics “not because they saw a strong money-making opportunity, but because they believe the First Amendment is first for a reason.

“We believe in good journalism and good politics, and that one begets the other. We believe the better people in politics know and trust each other, the better they do their job.”

The power of the press, Bzdek added, can bring people together.

“And that’s why we’re here tonight.”

In brief remarks to the revelers, Senate Majority Leader Chris Holbert, R-Parker, applauded the divided General Assembly’s ability to bridge divides and get legislation passed, in contrast to what lawmakers manage to do in the bitterly partisan nation’s capital.

In 2016, he noted, 56 percent of the bills introduced passed the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House and went to Gov. John Hickenlooper for his signature, and the Democrat vetoed just two of them. Last year, Holbert recalled, in the wake of “kind of a divisive national election,” the percentage of bills passed by the Legislature – still under divided control – jumped to 62 percent.

Holbert recalled that Hickenlooper faced tremendous pressure near the end of last session to veto a bipartisan bill backed by state Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, and state Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, from the far spectrums of both caucuses, to put the brakes on civil asset forfeiture – but he didn’t yield and signed the legislation.

House Majority Leader K.C. Becker, D-Boulder, echoed Holbert’s praise for the ability of lawmakers to work across the aisle.

“We’re from very different parts of the state,” she said with a nod toward her Senate counterpart, “but we can find common ground, we can talk to each other, we can work through the issues. It’s the thing that’s special and unique about Colorado. People talk about the Colorado Way, and I absolutely believe it to be true, and I think that’s the spirit we’re going to go into the (this) session with.”

She added, “To all of our colleagues: It’s easy to get pulled to the extremes, and at the end of the day, we really have to do what’s right for the people of Colorado, and what the people of Colorado want to see is good bipartisan work, people solving problems for hard-working Coloradans.”