The lighter side of the Capitol, and this time, the best of 2023.

A salute to the funniest guy in the building

That would be Eric Bergman of Colorado Counties Inc., who is unmatched in his ability to hand out (and take) a joke.

But no joke involving the clown prince of the Capitol would be complete without a reminder of the strangest thing that happened this session: Bergman was accused of being a king of “dark money” in a video from Jimmy Smirz of Psyched 4 (and who later showed up to testify against the bill putting Proposition 122 into play). While Smirz later walked back that accusation, the video in which he tried to tie Bergman to the 2010 US Supreme Court Citizens United decision, along with a variety of other weird connections that frankly don’t make a lot of sense, is still up.

Bergman took it in stride, and the lobby corps, which had NO sympathy at all, came up with this:

Other Bergman-esque moments: May the Fourth, since he’s the biggest Star Wars geek in the building.

And to start off the session, what every Capitol fashionista should have: CCI socks. 

What goes with good food? Moments of fun, which were way too few and far between this session

A big thank-you to the following for moments when people actually got along: the Colorado Restaurant Association, for bringing a trio of food trucks to the Capitol; the Colorado Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, which hosted the annual BBQ near session end on the Capitol’s East Side, and allowed those tagged as Rocky Mountain Oyster virgins to try something new. It even made the news for a couple of the state Capitol’s newest reporters.

A salute to the hardest-working press corps out there

The 2023 session was unique for more than the fact that there were 31 new lawmakers in the House (and boy was that FUN watching them figure out the rules, NOT) and 11 in the Senate, although most were move-overs from the House. It also saw four new reporters in the Capitol Press Corps: Seth Klamann of the Denver Post, Lucas Brady Woods of KUNC, Elliott Wentzler of the Colorado Sun and Jesse Bedayn of the Associated Press. While they were new to the Capitol beat, they are all excellent journalists and Capitol M couldn’t have been more happy have them in the gang.

We also bid a sad farewell, sort of, to Ed Sealover of the Denver Business Journal. While he left the DBJ to join the Colorado Chamber of Commerce in several capacities, we weren’t really rid of him, since he continued to cover the business legislation for the Sum & Substance, a new news site for the chamber. How can we miss you if you won’t go away? (That’s a joke, OK?)

In all seriousness, Ed, a stalwart of the press corps, is very much missed, and just celebrated a milestone birthday. Won’t say which one, but it starts with “F.”

Gov. Jared Polis even stopped in with a cake and to wish him a happy new beginning, one in which Ed doesn’t have to work 60 hours a week. 

Speaking of the governor…

There were a few Capitol M-worthy moments during the 2023 session that involved the gov. 

The best one involved his persistent use of illustrations when he’s doing anything, but this one went a bit awry. 

During a March presser on improving math scores, the gov had a whiteboard set up in which he wrote down various bits of information about this initiative, and in which he misspelled the word “educator.” He left out the “C”.

That was pointed out to his staff via text mid-presser, and promptly fixed. “I’m being told that I didn’t draw the ‘c’ dark enough,” Polis said, and then sort of pretended to fill it in.

And without further ado: awards!

Funniest lawmaker of the year: without a doubt, it was Rep. Ron Weinberg of Loveland. Whether it was his humorous attempts to gain “aye” votes for the morning’s approval of the journal (and he seems to have started a trend there), or getting his desk piled with Democratic objects d’art, or allowing himself to be the butt of jokes, like this one:

Capitol M was in despair at the beginning of the session, concerned that all the humor had left the building with the 2022 class. Rep. Weinberg restored our faith in the funneh.

Best dog of the year: There was something of a great battle for who has the best dog.

Contestants: Rep. Karen McCormick and Pippin; Rep. Ryan Armagost and his trio of service dogs, including Seamus, Rep. Said Sharbini and Mikey (clearly the best-dressed dog), and Rep. Matthew Martinez and Chico.

The winners, and no disrespect to the other contestants: Bonnie, Jinx and Graffit, in memoriam.

Bonnie was the beloved dog of the Colorado Sun’s Jesse Paul; Jinx and Graffit were K-9s who gave up their lives in pursuit of suspects in the past year. 

C’mon, you didn’t think Capitol M would have risked annoying any lawmaker by not choosing their dog, right?

Happy summer!