U.S. Rep Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, is retiring from his Congressional District 7 seat, leaving a big empty spot for either party to fill. There’s a primary on the GOP side with three candidates. Democrat Brittany Pettersen muscled out other Democratic competitors to take the blue side of the ballot.

Pettersen was elected to the state House of Representatives for the 2013 session, served six years in the House, and is just completing four years in the state Senate. She was raised in Jefferson County where most of CD-7 is located, though the district now stretches west and south through Park, Teller, and Custer counties.

Pettersen was in her early 30s when she jumped into her first House district race, taking her seat that covered sections of Lakewood. She now holds the SD-22 seat that covers middle-to-south Jefferson County. In the House, she graduated to chair of the Education committee. In the Senate she chaired the Finance committee, although with her current run, she held her committee assignment for only a short time. She currently has no committee assignment.

Over her tenure Pettersen sponsored 176 bills. She’s shepherded 128 through to passage. Her successes increased with time. She had a solid pass rate her first session, with 11 bills sponsored, eight signed by the governor, and three failed. Her pass rate flipped in 2015 with five bills signed and 10 failed. In 2016, she improved her record to nine bills signed and 10 bills failed. But what’s interesting is that several of her early failed bills became successes over time.

The Colorado Secure Savings Plan is a good example. This legislation creates a savings program for workers whose companies don’t offer retirement savings plans. Pettersen offered legislation in 2016 to provide a place for individuals to automatically invest into a retirement plan sponsored by the state. She ran the bill again in 2018 and it failed. In 2019, when she moved from the House to the Senate, she ran a version of the bill to create a board to study the idea. That bill was signed by then Gov. John Hickenlooper. Then, voila, in 2020 she passed a bill to implement the program.

Early childhood education is another personal passion for Pettersen. In 2014 she passed a bill for income tax credits for child care expenses for low-income taxpayers. In 2015, she advocated for increasing the number of preschool program students. The next year she passed legislation to extend the child-care income tax credit and she tried to increase funding for full-day kindergarten. That idea failed. Fast forward to today and Gov. Jared Polis and Pettersen can take credit for a vast expansion of full-day kindergarten.

Pettersen has been active in employment issues. She’s been a leader on legislation to protect job applicants from salary history questions. She tried in 2019 to pass legislation to enable state workers to form a partnership with the state executive branch to negotiate agreements between the executive and workers. It failed. In 2020 the legislation passed. This year, similar legislation worked its way through to enable some county workers to negotiate agreements with county executives.

Pettersen has been busy in the health-care arena. She’s well known for her commitment to preventing opioid addiction. Every year she’s run numerous bills to provide substance-abuse care, prevent substance-abuse addiction and offer substance-abuse disorder treatment in the criminal-justice system. In 2020, she passed legislation to allow community hospitals to use opioid antagonists to save patients who overdosed on opioids. She’s strengthened the health preventive programs that insurance plans must offer and protected contraception prescription supply coverage.

Pettersen’s voting record is consistent with Democrats throughout her 10 years in office. This year, she voted with her colleagues YES 509 times, with no NO votes on bills that have moved on to Polis.

There’s only one area where there’s a breach in Democrats’ policy, and that’s public education. Pettersen supports funding public schools. She’s also supported funding charter schools including the equalization of mill levy override dollars between traditional and charter schools. Recently she voted to allow innovation school zones to receive arbitration with their local school boards, a concept opposed by many school districts and other education policy groups.

Pettersen’s record stands solid as a person who has delivered on many Democratic priorities. She’s never lost an election. She’s in a strong position to win CD-7.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.