In politics, a touchdown is a touchdown.
State Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican, spoke to Colorado Politics Friday evening about the ethics complaint filed against him by Chris Forsyth of the Judicial Integrity Project.
Colorado Politics trained its lens on the Capitol during the 2021 General Assembly, and caught these iconic and sometimes ironic moments.
Agree with him or not, Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron, never lacks for a turn of a phrase, even if he sometimes has to walk back a few flourishes that came off as cruel or, worse, casually racist.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, a group closely linked with former Minority Leader Patrick Neville of Castle Rock, was among the forces on the right agitating for the removal of House Minority Leader Hugh McKean in the waning days of the legislative session.
The 2021 session is finally over, and in this episode of Colorado Politicking legislative reporter Pat Poblete, chief legislative reporter Marianne Goodland and senior reporter Joey Bunch sum up the highs and lows from the session, and how they could affect the upcoming election year.
In recapping the session, the governor focused on two main areas: transportation funding and saving Coloradans money on health care.
“On issue after issue, I think this legislature had heard you,” he said.
A selection of comments on the 73rd session of the Colorado General Assembly.
Colorado Politics has been chronicling the bills since their inception.
Colorado Politics covered the ins and outs of the bill as it has made its way through the General Assembly. Read our extensive coverage of the bill, its changes, the stances for and against and in-between, and its journey.
The House of Representatives signed off on a proposal to push the dates of certain criminal trials three or six months into the future on Friday, setting the speedy trial bill on a speedy run through the Senate in the final days of the legislative session.
In the waning days of the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers under the Gold Dome are putting the finishing touches on the $800 million Colorado Recovery Plan stimulus package.
An amendment on a hemp agent Delta-8 brought controversy to Thursday's third reading of House Bill 1317, a wide-ranging measure seeking to study the effects of high-potency THC products on the developing brain and keep those products out of the hands of teenagers.
The Colorado Politics staff examines how the state is advancing from the pandemic, from the statehouse to the courts, the tourist industry, music venues, museums and more.
The pride of the Senate Republicans, their entry for this year's rubber band ball drop, has been missing for a week now.
The Senate introduced five bills Friday afternoon and ran them so fast through committees that it was a race to see whether anyone would get to see what was in those bills before they were reviewed by the committees.
House Bill 1304 faced only minor opposition in the Senate, with a unanimous vote from Senate Education and only two "no" votes in Senate Appropriations. There was no debate on the bill in the Senate Friday.
Colorado Politicking host Pat Poblete sits down with senior investigative reporter Chris Osher, chief legislative reporter Marianne Goodland and senior writer Joey Bunch to discuss the executive and legislative action at the statehouse.
An effort to clamp down on the use of arrests and cash bail in the name of community safety on Thursday cleared the Senate on the strength of Democratic votes.
Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, said his objection is not to the appointees themselves, but the lack of geographic diversity in Polis' appointments to boards and commissions
Here are legislative committee hearings and other events of note for the week ahead at the Colorado state Capitol.
For the second straight day, Republicans in the state House of Representatives slammed the brakes on the chamber’s agenda, drawing out debate through the first weekend workday of the legislative session and well into the evening.
The lighter side of the Capitol, usually, although for this edition, it's going to take a while to get there.
Friday's long day saw Republicans playing the delay-of-game tactic, asking for bills to be read at length and other maneuvers to grind the House to a halt in the closing weeks of the 2021 session.
General Assembly leaders have previously indicated they were aiming to adjourn for the session around Memorial Day, though those projections were complicated by a handful of outstanding issues.
Senate Bill 273 drew strong pushback from law enforcement and bail bondsmen. It also was opposed by both judges who provided testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and divided the opinions of three district attorneys who appeared to testify.
It's crunch time in the legislature, and on this week's "Colorado Politicking," legislative reporter Pat Poblete and chief legislative reporter Marianne Goodland tell us what's on the table, with an analysis from senior writer Joey Bunch.
But unlike Tuesday's House Public & Behavioral Health & Human Services Committee hearing where House Bill 1317 was approved unanimously, House Finance Committee members from both sides of the aisle voted against the proposal.
Rep. Marc Catlin's first time in the chair was not for a couple of minor bills, either: The second bill on the calendar has a mix of support and requests to amend from the marijuana industry and Colorado Farm Bureau.
A bill signed into law Thursday by Gov. Jared Polis doubles the amount of marijuana that adults can possess from one ounce to two.
The funding in House Bill 1290 from House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, and Rep. Perry Will, R-New Castle, would represent the first real money pumped into the Office of Just Transitions.
Gov. Jared Polis wants to turn the former site of Colorado’s Japanese internment camp into a national park, preserving the area and its history for future generations.
In an effort to curb a rising tide of abuse by teens and young adults, Colorado lawmakers are seeking to crack down on high-potency marijuana concentrates under a bipartisan bill that on Tuesday won unanimous approval from a House panel.
"We're continuing to do the important work that needs to be done when it comes to stakeholding such a big policy," she said. "We were hopeful that we'd get to that point of introducing it this session, [but] I don't know that we've been able to reach all corners of the stakeholder table."
Colorado’s highest court on Monday heard arguments over whether state legislators have the authority to enact a law that would adjust the voter-approved state redistricting process, with several justices skeptical of the legality or prudence of lawmakers’ proposal.
The Colorado Department of Transportation began funding Revitalizing Main Streets grants last summer to stimulate the economy, as the pandemic took hold. In March the General Assembly put another $30 million into the program. The state announced more projects receiving funding on Monday afternoon.
After three months of fighting with law enforcement over a bill that would limit their ability to arrest those accused of low-level offenses, Sen. Pete Lee, D-Colorado Springs, is trying a do-over that he hopes will tone down the heat.
Five days after Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet held a Capitol news conference pushing her mental health legislation, a bill she is sponsoring requiring insurers to cover an annual mental health exam advanced in the House.
The state House of Representatives on Monday advanced legislation seeking to build on last year’s police accountability package, setting the stage for a final vote to move the bill on to the Senate.
Joey Bunch: "Experts in criminal justice say that what happens in the first 72 hours after an inmate is released determines how likely and how fast they might make a U-turn back into incarceration."
Here are legislative committee hearings and other events of note for the week ahead at the Colorado state Capitol.
The former Greeley math teacher, Democratic state representative and member of the legislature's Joint Budget Committee doesn’t count success in media hits, unlike the others elected from border to border.
The lighter side of the General Assembly, usually.
A bill seeking to create a state government office designed to curb gun violence on Friday advanced to a final vote in the House over objections from the chamber’s Republicans.
The holiday, championed then and now by Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Vail, encourages Coloradans to learn about and appreciate the abundance of outdoor opportunities and stewardship responsibilities.
The conversation was driven by Senate Bill 260, the legislature's plan to put $5.2 billion into the state's aging, overcrowded transportation system over the next decade. The plan, though, is funded primarily with new fees on gasoline, electric cars, deliveries and more, indexed to inflation.
A bill seeking to limit the use of ketamine on Thursday moved one step closer to clearing the House after lawmakers gave it preliminary approval after tacking on amendments to narrow the scope of the legislation.
Ag Commissioner Tim Schultz told Colorado Politics after the hearing that "when you're talking about small towns in Colorado, about main street, chances of bringing Microsoft to that town doesn't exist. That town turns around one person at a time." Take a vacant building, turn it into 10-15 work spaces, and a gallery to sell those things, and that could translate into business for the local diner, for example. "It changes the will of the community around."
Childhood victims of rape and other sexual misconduct whose deadline to hold their perpetrators legally liable has long passed are one step closer to accessing the justice system, as the Colorado Senate on Thursday approved a bill to allow survivors' claims to go forward regardless of when the abuse occurred.