There’s a lot to say about how last week’s election will reshape what goes on at the state Capitol, and sometimes it’s best to say it in numbers:

Blast from the past, with a post-mortem on the election: Rep.-elect Lisa Cutter of Littleton is the first Democrat in state history to hold the House District 25 seat in west Jefferson County, according to former Republican state Rep. Rob Witwer of Genesee, who represented the district from 2005 to 2008.

The straight-shootin’ Witwer – who along with his dad, former Rep. John Witwer, set the standard for bipartisan elected officials in Jefferson County – is threatening to do a sequel to Blueprint, the landmark book he and former KUSA-9News political reporter Adam Schrager wrote about the 2004 Democratic takeover of the state House and Senate.

Witwer tweeted this week that the next version of the book will include a chapter on “the role of scam PACs in the demise of Colorado’s GOP.”

He also had some pretty strong criticism for the gun-rights group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and GOP House leaders (aka Rep. Patrick Neville) over the loss of the HD25 seat.

Witwer is among a cadre of moderate Republicans in Jefferson County who hoped the replacement candidate for the departed Rep. Tim Leonard would be someone more willing to work with the other side. The party instead chose Steve Szutenbach, legislative aide to Sen. Tim Neville, one of the most conservative members of the state Senate (Neville lost his re-election bid on Tuesday).

In another tweet, Witwer said the election results on Tuesday is “what happens when you put partisan ideology ahead of constituent service, community presence, outreach, local issues and listening.” As to fellow Republican Leonard – who spent two weeks in jail in December 2016 for failing to obey a court order that granted his ex-wife sole decision-making authority over educational issues related to their children – Witwer said “under the category of ‘lessons learned,’ if a future state legislator of either party goes to jail during his term, he should resign IMMEDIATELY. (Does this even need to be said?). If not, expect voters to punish his party next chance they get.”

In case you didn’t know: Witwer’s legacy continues. He was one of the driving forces behind Amendments Y and Z, the ballot measures that intend to end partisan gerrymandering in Colorado.

Then there’s having a seat at the table: One of the most consistent messages by Democrats during the election season all over the country, not just in Colorado, was that the party’s candidates needed Hispanic and black voters to turn out and vote. The House Democratic caucus was one of the biggest beneficiaries of that call, and the caucus now has nine Hispanic (including seven new members) and six black members.

But in the leadership elections on Thursday, it looks like the House Democrats stumbled.

Only one minority representative – James Rashad Coleman, who is black – earned a leadership post, that of majority co-whip (the whip’s job is to count votes and keep the caucus together on important votes).

The House Democrats did have a choice to make for the assistant majority leader and chose Rep. Chris Kennedy (a white male) over Rep. Leslie Herod (a black LGBT woman).

Optics, people.

Despite a Latinx caucus of at least nine in the House next year, it should be pointed out that that no one in the caucus put in his or her name in for consideration for a leadership post. That’s not surprising, given that seven of the nine will be first-time lawmakers come January.

Of the other two, Rep. Adrienne Benavidez of Commerce City asked that the caucus cast ballots (secret, of course) for the speaker-designee rather than to elect by acclamation precisely to send a message about the lack of diversity in the caucus’ leadership. But Benavidez also didn’t put her name in for a leadership job on Thursday.

What this means: the Colorado House went from having its first-ever Hispanic Speaker of the House in 2017-18 to having not a single Hispanic in a leadership role.

There are still several other leadership roles that have not been decided. That includes chairs and co-chairs of the committees and that of speaker pro tempore. Those are decisions Speaker-designee Becker will make, along with who will represent the caucus on the Joint Budget Committee (they have two seats to fill). The names being dropped for JBC include Chris Hansen of Denver and Daneya Esgar of Pueblo. Neither is a minority.

There are some pretty strong possibilities among the committee chair appointments. Rep. Janet Buckner of Aurora was vice-chair of education in 2018 and could move into the top spot, given that the 2018 chair, Rep. Brittany Pettersen, has moved over to the Senate. Both the chairs and vice-chairs of Finance and Judiciary are gone, and there were two minority women (both Democrats) on those committees in 2018.

Becker told Capitol M that diversity is important. We’ll see what she comes up with.

Quote of the week: From Emerge Colorado’s Michal Rosenoer: “The Colorado GOP Senate has more men named Kevin in their ranks than women.”

That’s Sens. Kevin Lundberg of Berthoud, Kevin Priola of Henderson and of course, Senate President Kevin Grantham of Cañon City. That will change January when Lundberg and Grantham will both be gone due to term limits. The election changed the Republican Senate caucus from 18 members, with two women, to 16 with just one, Sen. Vicki Marble of Fort Collins.