The lighter side of the Capitol, usually. This week, it’s poignant.

When people talk about the late House Minority Leader Hugh McKean of Loveland, it’s always a mix of laughter and tears, remembering his larger-than-life smile, bear hugs, and “I love you’s.”

This week was no exception.

The tears started first, starting with Rep. Ron Weinberg, who represents McKean’s district, as he began talking about a resolution to name a portion of Colorado State Highway 402 from US Highway 287 to Interstate 25 in Larimer County as the “Rep. Hugh McKean Memorial Highway.”

Joining the House on April 23 was former state Rep. Amy Parks, McKean’s partner, elected to finish his final term, and his adult children.

McKean died on Oct. 30, 2022; as it turns out, that was Weinberg’s birthday. “To be thrown into such shoes sucked,” Weinberg said through his tears. “I hope I will serve him proud…he was a force to be reckoned with.”

He said he sometimes sits in the McDonald’s drive-through, looks to the skies, and asks McKean, “Why the hell did you do this to me?”

The signage will cost about $1,300, and Weinberg is setting up a GoFundMe page for donations. Given how respected McKean was at the state Capitol and far beyond it, he believes this will take no time at all.

Weinberg said he drives Highway 402 daily and cannot wait to see McKean’s name on it.

He said he hopes people drive 402 one day. “And you see that name, you remember what he did in this chamber, how he forged relationships between Democrats and Republicans. It wasn’t about ‘R’ and ‘D’; it was about what was good for the state of Colorado,” Weinberg said.

A teary House Speaker Julie McCluskie sat next to McKean for an orientation getaway after she was first elected in 2018. She recounted that she worried about sitting next to a Republican, a worry that vanished quickly.

“Every time we laugh in this chamber, I hear Hugh’s laugh, that bellow of joy and excitement,” McCluskie said.

Republicans recruited by McKean for the 2022 election also spoke of his heart and passion. The first meeting between Rep. Rick Taggart of Grand Junction and McKean was at a Starbucks at Colorado Mesa University, and that’s where Taggart got his first McKean hug, even though they’d just met. “I need you to do this,” McKean said emphatically, as described by Taggart. When Taggart got up to leave, McKean said, “You’re not leaving without a commitment!… I expect you to win!”

Taggart was elected to the House just two days after McKean died. He is one of at least six current House Republicans recruited by McKean for the 2022 election.

Rep. Matt Soper of Delta served four years with McKean and talked of McKean’s emphasis on statesmanship, reaching across the aisle, and saying “I love you,” which he often did.

Soper recounted his first bear hug and “I love you” from McKean. He said he’s not a “touchy” person, and when that happened, all he could think of was, “I don’t know what world I’ve just stepped into, but this is not the world I come from!”

“It’s true, Hugh loved us, and I love him too,” Soper said.

Rep. Ryan Armagost of Berthoud was also part of the McKean class of 2022 and tried to talk McKean out of recruiting him. “Hugh’s the one that got me into this mess,” Armagost joked. “His mode of reassurance [was] I love you, brother, you’ve got this.”

House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese of Colorado Springs was also part of the 2022 class, although not recruited by McKean. However, once she won her primary, he tasked her with traveling the state and helping other candidates get elected. She said McKean wanted her in leadership and believed she was the caucus’s future. “These two great men [including the late Rep. Rod Bockenfeld] saw in me something special that I didn’t see in myself, and I’m grateful for the light they shown on me…”

Whenever McKean is mentioned, Rep. Shannon Bird of Westminster said she will also take the opportunity to speak about how kind and loving he was. Everyone loved him, including her constituents, she said. She sat in front of him in her first session and got to know him. “He was the perfect example of everything that’s right about Colorado,” and how to get along.

She suggested they do a town hall together, and they started with Bird going to Loveland. At this town hall, there had been some significant partisan battles in the House, and “I got to answer for all of it.” It was a tough but fair crowd, she said.

Two weeks later, he came to her town hall, and the reception was decidedly different.

Everyone loved Hugh, she said. People fawned over him, calling him “lovely and charming.” No one could ever miss what a special person he was, she said.

Bird said he’d show pictures of his family in the House and texted pictures of flowers to Parks every day. “That’s more than my husband does,” Bird said to laughter.

Rep. Dan Woog of Frederick said he believed in the debate, respected the institution, was an unforgettable presence, and loved everyone, regardless of differences.

Rep. Ryan Gonzales of Greeley ran for the House unsuccessfully in 2022 and won the election in 2024.

From the beginning, he and McKean shared stories of background and principles, and Gonzales said McKean was vibrant. The second run, when he won last November, “was for Hugh,” Gonzales said. “Hugh believed in me, Hugh helped me and helped me get here.”

Rep. Mary Bradfield of Colorado Springs first met McKean at an arcade with then-Rep. Lois Landgraf, Bradfield’s predecessor. The bells and whistles and clinking and clunking were louder than the conversation, she recounted, to laughter. The french fries came, and McKean squirted ketchup all over his shirt.

He always offered to help. The first time Bradfield presented a bill, a member of her own caucus excoriated her and the bill. “I was like a deer in the headlights,” Bradfield said, and then she walked out of the building, thinking she could take off and never come back. It was awful, she said.

Instead, she walked around the block, and McKean was in her office when she came back. He “talked her off the ledge” and into staying another day, ensuring she was okay. He did learn, she said, that she’s tougher than she looks and can make it on her own.

“He often told me, ‘you’re okay…Hugh, I know you’re doing okay as well.”

Rep. Dusty Johnson of Fort Morgan also had a “stains” story. It was coffee, and she spilled it during her days as a legislative aide to Sens. Pelton. McKean made it a point to check on her while she was battling a health issue. It was pure love, Johnson said.

Rep. Jarvis Caldwell of Monument was first a legislative aide in early 2022 and in October, was hired by McKean as the House communications director. He recounted his last call with McKean, a few hours before he died, to Colorado Politics.

It was over replacing the recently resigned Rep. Tim Geitner of Falcon, and a GOP vacancy committee was meeting that day, Oct. 29.

The vacancy committee needed 45 for a quorum, and they had 45 in attendance, but three people refused to sign in, keeping the committee at 42. Don Wilson, the former mayor of Monument, was the candidate, but some from within the El Paso County Republican Party were trying to sabotage the effort, according to Caldwell. Eventually, the committee could not get the last three people to sign in and had to disband.

McKean and Caldwell talked that night, and McKean commented that he’d spoken to the governor. The governor would appoint Wilson, and the El Paso GOP’s sabotage efforts would be for naught. Then, it was on to talking about gold monetary policy.

“He made you feel so important, no matter who you were,” Caldwell told the House.

Odds and ends

Obligatory animal pictures: The Colorado Cat Care Society was at the Capitol Wednesday with three adorable kittens, just 8 weeks old. Studies have shown that a cat’s purr can lower your blood pressure, and within 14 days to go before the end of the session, it couldn’t hurt.

Three cheers for anarchy, sort of

Well, he was wearing a tie, and the rules (that don’t exist in the Senate) don’t say where it has to be worn, right?

Jesse Paul of the Colorado Sun said he was testing the sense of humor of Chief Senate Sergeant Frank Lombardi this week. Paul didn’t get booted, so there’s that.