The lighter side of the Capitol, usually.

The green jacket has a new owner/victim

After almost two weeks of wonder, nay even breathless anticipation, House Speaker Julie McCluskie has chosen Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg of Loveland to be the next bearer/wearer/victim of the House green jacket, which dates to either 1974 or 1993, depending on who you ask.

The jacket, which is an interesting shade of green that does not appear to exist in nature, has been passed along between House Democrats and Republicans for decades and belongs to a lawmaker of Irish descent.

Weinberg is likely to be the 20th wearer of the jacket, which comes with notes that have been stuffed into its pockets over the years. The notes have outgrown the jacket and are now stored in a folder.

What’s in the folder is a mix of the history of St. Patrick’s Day, jokes, toasts because, of course, there are spirits involved and a few personal notes from one lawmaker to another.

In her letter to Weinberg, McCluskie recounted the history of the green jacket, along with this admonition: “First, the Coat shall never leave the Capitol complex; and second, its great powers shall not be used for partisan advantage and therefore required that when the holder’s public service was done, it should be given to a worthy member of the other party.”

Mazel Tov.

The BRAKKE Signal, or humor from the JBC

It’s been a relatively humorless time across the street at the Legislative Services Building, where the Joint Budget Committee has been hammering out $1.2 billion in general fund cuts to the 2025-26 state budget.

However, the members, as well as the staff, have found a few moments for levity.

One was in designating a “Brakke” signal, a nod to the Batman signal for Gotham City.

That’s Justin Brakke, the JBC staff analyst who handles Public Safety and Corrections. The JBC has taken to putting up a “Brakke signal” whenever they need him on the QT. That has happened quite a few times as the JBC worked to finalize the 2025-26 state budget.

When the JBC closed out the budget on Wednesday night, perhaps out of relief, they were in a more jovial mood than they had been for the last several weeks.

To wit, the last item the committee addressed before closing the budget was a minor technical correction resulting from a staff error by JBC analyst Mitch Burmeister.

He’s a big fan of the Will Ferrell movie Elf, and as he walked into the JBC hearing room to discuss what the committee needed to do, he was complete with his Elf sweater and his walking-in music was from the movie to the giggles and applause of everyone.

Burmeister was the first presenter when the budget discussions began, and as it turned out, the last one before the budget was finalized.

His appearance was to correct a technical error he had made, which required an adjustment of $1,500 tied to compensation for the Department of Natural Resources, along with legislation to address the issue.

This is how he described it, which he read verbatim:

“In the process of entering line item amounts in the Department of Natural Resources, staff encountered an error in the amount of incremental PERA as a component of salary survey that was entered. Staff put this error on himself,” Burmeister read.

“Fortunately, the magnitude of the error is small, so small that it might be able to fit on a sh-elllllf.

“In fact, staff might even describe it as a mere bush-elf full of funds that need adjusting. Staff has brought this to the committee, despite the error resulting from staff, in a spirit of s-ellllfl-essness and ask that the committee approve this technical adjustment so that staff can eradicate this annoying dams-elf fly of an issue.”

The elfing-around came to an end shortly after.

And then it was done, with a motion to close the 2025-26 budget. “For the love of God, let me make the motion,” pleaded JBC Vice-Chair Rep. Shannon Bird, D-Westminster. And yes, it passed on a 6-0 vote.

Why is Rep. Carlos Barron’s photo on everyone’s desks?

Wandering through the GOP side of the House, one might notice that the legislative portrait photo of Rep. Carlos Barron, some with autographs, adorns some of the desks. 

“It’s the hair,” Barron said recently. He explained that when he got his official picture, there was an extra copy, and that appears to have turned into more copies. All of a sudden, they started showing up on the desks of other House GOP members. 

URP!

The long-awaited rejuvenation of the Capitol Cafe is finally underway; its new operator has started offering fresh sandwiches, with more offerings to come.

The cafe is apparently on the books for a remodel: The Capitol Building Advisory Committee recently approved plans for a redesign that will include an espresso machine and other updates. Stay tuned for more details.

Steerage?

Apparently, the third floor press room is considered to be first class and the basement press room is referred to as steerage, and you know what happened to the steerage passengers on the Titanic, right? Possibly attributable to Jesse Paul of the Colorado Sun.