The 2024 session not as bipartisan as some believe | NOONAN

The 2024 General Assembly wasn't as amiable as some have suggested. Not only is Gov. Jared Polis vetoing a number of important bills, separating him from some people-oriented policies of a majority of the legislature, but the two chambers diverged in how they voted on legislation. Overall, Senate Republicans provided a soft "no" on bills while House Republicans shouted their "NOs" for everyone to hear. As usual, Democrats mostly hung together.

The session didn't have a record number of bills introduced, but it did break the high side of bill volume with 705 pieces of legislation. Of introduced bills, 525 passed both chambers and are now under Gov. Polis's review.

Three recently-vetoed bills offer insight into the governor's thinking. HB24-1008 on wage theft shines light on his pro-business accommodations. The HB24-1260 veto of a bill that protects workers who don't want to listen to political or religious lectures from employers adds to his business bona fides. The veto of HB24-1010 on pharmaceutical coverage by insurance companies proves his pro-business bias plus his resistance to regulation of the health insurance industry. He's only acted on just more than half of passed bills, so he has time to put his foot down on more legislation before the end of June.

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As pointed out by many sources, a majority of passed bills had bipartisan support, even if some of that bipartisanship was over the dead bodies of certain legislators. A majority of House Republicans were particularly dismissive.

Twelve House Republicans were "upside-down" on their yes-to-no votes on passed bills, with five GOPers voting NO more than 300 times. The fewest YES votes came from Rep. Stephanie Luck from the Canon City/Salida district. She only called out YES 112 times on final votes, with 354 NO votes and 55 final vote absences. Rep. Kenneth DeGraaf was just behind Luck at 113 YES votes and 331 NOs with 77 final vote absences. He's from the north Colorado Springs area. Rep. Scott Bottoms, also from Colorado Springs, rounded out the top three NO voters, with 329 nays to 127 ayes and 65 final vote absences.

These three legislators were on the low end of bills sponsored and the high end of bills killed. Luck sponsored three bills. They bit the dust. DeGraaf didn't pass his five sponsored bills, and Bottoms bottomed out on his four bills. Maybe they were discouraged, which accounts for their high-end number of absences on third reading or final bill votes.

Only five Republican House members voted YES on passed bills more often than NO. Rep. Rick Taggert from Grand Junction was the most supportive of passed legislation with 381 YES votes to 138 NOs. He sponsored 60 bills and passed 50. He missed only two final votes. Rep. Mary Bradfield was the House GOPer with the next-most YES votes at 290, with 222 NO votes. She only missed five final votes. She sponsored 15 bills with 14 passing. There appears to be a relationship in the House between how engaged legislators are with bipartisan work and their attendance.

Republicans in the Senate had a very different experience from their House colleagues. Ten Senators voted YES on more than half of passed bills, with only one member, Kevin Van Winkle, voting NO more than half of the time. His record shows 208 YES votes to 267 NO votes with 68 absences on final votes. He sponsored 18 bills and 12 passed. Republican Sens. Barbara Kirkmeyer from Weld County and Perry Will from southern Colorado were the most supportive of passed bills. Kirkmeyer voted YES on 375 final votes, with 150 NO votes and eight absences. Will voted YES on 365 bills, with 163 NO votes and five absences.

The Senate was lax in final vote attendance. Three senators missed more than 100 final votes: Janet Buckner at 162, Jesse Danielson at 102 and Rhonda Fields at 101. Nine more senators missed more than 50 final votes. Only 12 senators missed 10 or fewer final votes. Sen. James Coleman receives a perfect record star for not missing any final votes. Reps. Judy Amibile, Shannon Bird, Cathy Kipp, Karen McCormick, Emily Sirota, Brianna Titone, Elizabeth Velasco and Don Wilson receive perfect record stars for their perfect final vote attendance in the House.

As in previous years, Democrats in both chambers were more united in their final votes on bills. Rep. Elisabeth Epps from central Denver had the most NO votes among Democrats at 58. She sponsored some high-profile bills that were ultimately defeated, including an open meetings bill and the automatic weapons prohibition legislation. Rep. Shannon Bird from Westminster was an outlier with 43 NO votes on passed bills. Her district is tight in registration between Republicans and Democrats. As a member of the Joint Budget Committee, she sponsored 104 bills. All but eight passed.

It is true a substantial majority of bills that passed this session were bipartisan, but as these records show, many Republicans didn't play that role. Those who kept to their partisanship didn't achieve results in terms of completed legislation.

Ultimately, the governor may do most of the work for moderate Republicans, especially in preserving business priorities. He has about 200 more bills to sign or veto. That's plenty of opportunity to show who's boss of this state.

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