The lighter side of the Capitol, usually.

A lawmaker who shall go unnamed … maybe … recently brought up his record of bipartisanship, meaning that he made quite the effort to get lawmakers from the other side of the aisle to agree to be prime co-sponsors on his measures in 2019.

So that raised the question at CoPo: who ranks as the most bipartisan lawmakers?

It’s an interesting question to ask, particularly with such a lopsided Democratic majority in the Colorado House, and a reasonably risk-free majority by Dems in the state Senate (although that may get interesting when Sen. Brittany Pettersen takes off for maternity leave toward the end of January or early February).

The first thought is how to define bipartisan. Senate President Leroy Garcia has pointed out on several occasions that upwards of 90% of the legislation from the 2019 session was bipartisan, but that meant for some bills that only one Republican voted for one bill or another. It’s a shaky definition at best, and not one that will apply here.

A couple of caveats: this list uses prime sponsorship and how often that lawmaker got someone from the other party to sign on as a prime co-sponsor. This also includes lawmakers who signed on as prime co-sponsors for bills coming from the other chamber. The list applies to bills only as introduced.

Having one party control both chambers also changes how bipartisanship works. Both parties needed the other when each party controlled a chamber, as was the case in the sessions from 2015 through 2018.

What that meant for 2019: the heavy lifting on bipartisanship was done mostly by a cadre of Republicans. Any lawmaker with an R behind his or her name had to have a Democratic co-sponsor in order for a Republican-originated bill to make it to the governor’s desk. It also doesn’t hurt if the lawmaker is something of a moderate and/or from rural Colorado.

There were three Republican lawmakers with perfect 100% bipartisan scores in 2019.

Rep. Marc Catlin of Delta sponsored 15 bills and every last one of ’em had a Democrat as a co-sponsor. Sen. Don Coram of Montrose also hit 100%, with 10 bills sponsored and all 10 with Democratic prime sponsorship. Rep. Perry Will of New Castle, who started the 2019 session a month late after being appointed to the seat formerly held by now-Sen. Bob Rankin of Carbondale, went five for five.

While he didn’t hit 100%, Sen. Kevin Priola, R-Henderson, was number three in the number of bills carried in the 2019 session, with 44, and all but one had a Democratic sponsor or co-sponsor. You’ll also see the name of Rep. Jim Wilson, R-Salida, on a lot of bipartisan bills; he sponsored 24 and all but one had at least one Democratic co-sponsor.

Assistant Minority Leader Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch, sponsored 13 and 12 had Democratic co-sponsors. Rep. Lois Landgraf, R-Colorado Springs, went 19 for 20. Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, was six for seven. Sen. Ray Scott, R-Grand Junction, was eight for nine.

Sen. Jack Tate, R-Centennial, carried 31 bills, and 29 of them had Democratic co-sponsors.

Among the first-year lawmakers: Reps. Janice Rich, R-Grand Junction and Matt Soper, R-Delta, both had Democratic sponsors on all but one of the bills attached to their names in 2019. Rich had eight out of nine; Soper had Democrats on 12 out of 13 bills he sponsored or co-sponsored. In the Senate, first-year lawmaker Dennis Hisey, R-Fountain, sponsored 14 bills, all but one with a Democratic co-sponsor. Rep. Colin Larson of Littleton was 11 for 13.

The Democrats with the highest percentage of bipartisan bills: Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp of Arvada, who sponsored 14 measures, with Republican co-sponsors on 13. Rep. Donald Valdez of La Jara carried 17 bills and 16 had Republican co-sponsors.

From there, however, the percentages drop fairly precipitously. Few Democratic lawmakers had more than 50% of their bills with Republican co-sponsors, but among them: Sen. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, had 27 out of her 39 bills with Republican co-sponsors, and Senate President Leroy Garcia of Pueblo, who carried 17 bills (not including bills from the legislative council) and had 10 bills with Republican co-sponsors. Rep. Edie Hooton of Boulder carried 14 bills, and 10 had Republican co-sponsors. Sen. Pete Lee of Colorado Springs carried 39 measures, 25 of which had Republican co-sponsors. Sen. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, also sponsored 39 measures and 25 had Republican co-sponsors.

One might also be curious about who is the least bipartisan. Those honors (?) go to one House Democrat.

Rep. Emily Sirota of Denver carried seven bills, none with Republican co-sponsors.

The two issues that seemed to draw some of the most bipartisan work: education and marijuana.

And in case you’re wondering, near as Capitol M can find, there was just one bill in the 2019 session that had only Republican sponsors and was signed into law: it was on banning the posting of images of a suicide, and was sponsored by Sen. Vicki Marble of Fort Collins and Rep. Lori Saine of Firestone.

Will 2020 be as bipartisan? Stay tuned.

Correction: Capitol M failed to catch two House bills Sen. Jessie Danielson carried in the Senate that had Republican sponsors. I regret the error.