A member of the lobby corps this week informed Capitol M that there’s talk of a betting pool on how long the 2021 session will go, referring to the calendar as “the 101st lawmaker.” Catchy. 

After using up three days in January and the February 16 restart, going to 120 days, continuously, would mean an end date of June 12.

But there’s also talk around the water cooler (pictured, pre-COVID) that the session could wrap before that, and any days left over would be held in case lawmakers are just itchin’ to come back for a couple of days to resolve lingering issues from the pandemic, for example.

While Garnett has said they’ll take as long as they need to get their work done this year, House lawmakers have been sloooowww to get their first five bills in.

The Senate seemingly has had no trouble making their first five deadline, which was Feb. 25. At last count, 171 bills have introduced, with most lawmakers either at or exceeding the five-bill limit-that-isn’t-really-a-limit. Don’t get me started about Sen. Gardner. I believe he’s angling for the record of the most bills introduced by a lawmaker in history, or at least since term limits were imposed back in the 1990s. As of Thursday, he’s got a dozen.

Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg reminded Capitol M that the House had a later deadline, which was March 2. Fair enough, except that lawmakers had an extra FIVE WEEKS to get their bills in, while they were, at least technically, in recess.

The House, as of Thursday evening, had introduced a grand total of 206 bills. That’s fewer per lawmaker (3.17 bills) than the Senate (4.89).

So Capitol M got to wondering: There are 15 new lawmakers in the 2021 session. Could they be the ones lagging a bit? (It should be noted, no one is required to run even one bill, and there’s been times when Capitol M thought that was not a bad idea, given some of the bills that have come up over the years).

But most of those new lawmakers have hit the ground running, and on some pretty substantial issues. Rep. Andy Pico, R-Colorado Springs, has introduced seven bills, including tax modifications, county funding for road projects and on orders related to the pandemic.

Rep. Mary Bradfield, also a Colorado Springs Republican, also has seven, mostly education-related. Rep. Mike Lynch, R-Wellington, leads the class of 2021 with eight measures, half on taxes.

The average number of bills for the class of 2021 is four.

So logically, it means the slackers are the lawmakers who’ve been around for a while and should be paying closer attention to deadlines, lest they inundate the Speaker with late-bill requests.

Baby boom

One thing’s for sure: they won’t be meeting on or around July 15.

Speaker of the House Alec Garnett’s third child with wife, Emily, is due around July 15. As it turns out, it’s the same due date, or within a day, for the baby expected by House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, and her wife, Heather Palm.

Rep. Chris Kennedy’s wife, Kyra, is expecting their first in September. Polis spox Conor Cahill is at home this week, waiting on the birth of his second child.

That makes at least seven babies born or expected by lawmakers and affiliated folks in about 15 months. Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, had a daughter, Isa, to start the boom in December 2019, and then Sen. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, and Rep. Kerry Tipper, D-Lakewood, kept it going.

Kennedy’s from Lakewood, too, which made Capitol M (who also lives in Lakewood) wonder if there is something in the water there. Capitol M is WAY past childbearing age but is switching to bottled water just in case. You never know.

However, given this week’s announcement by Esgar, maybe it isn’t the water in Lakewood. Maybe it’s the water in the state Capitol, or at a minimum in the House Dems’ leadership suite (h/t to spox Jerónimo Ortiz for that one).

When Capitol M started reporting at the state Capitol in the late 1990s, a baby was somebody’s grandchild. You can attribute it to more women getting elected and they’re younger; or more men getting elected who are younger and their wives or partners are of childbearing age, such as Garnett and former state Rep. Jonathan Singer, whose two adorable little redheads often visited. 

Could a daycare center be far behind? Given that Colorado lawmakers like to be first in things, this could be one. 

Wedding bells

Also in the news, as first broken by Jesse Paul at the Colorado Sun, that after 17 years together Gov. Jared Polis popped the question to his partner, Marlon Reis. The couple got engaged in December, just as Reis was about to head to the hospital because he was sick with COVID-19.

According to the Sun, Polis’ proposal “put such a spring in my step.” Reis said. “When I got to the hospital I wasn’t scared anymore. I said ‘I have a great relationship, a great family that I’m going to be coming home to after this.’ “

The couple have two children, 6-year-old daughter Cora and 8-year-old son Caspian. And Gia the wonder pooch.

This article has been updated to correct the number of Garnett’s children.