Credit: Colorado News Agency
4pm UPDATE: Apparently the Ag committee’s name hasn’t been shortened. It was just a press release mistake. Can’t say we blame the House Dem staff for being a bit off today, seeing that nearly all of their friends working for Senate Democrats were just summarily fired by incoming Senate President John Morse.
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With incoming State House Speaker Mark Ferrandino naming the chairs of House committees today we now know why it took them so long. It must have taken at least three weeks of focus groups and white boarding to come up with the Business, Labor, Economic and Workforce Development Committee. That’s right, the BLEWD committee.
In his first meaningful task as the next House Speaker, appointing House Committee chairs, Ferrandino cratered. He made up new committees and increased the number of committees to placate the far left…just as we at Colorado Peak Politics reported was likely to happen…shunning key Colorado industries and sticking mainly to appointing far left liberals to chair his committees.
Out of respect to him, we’ll start with the bright spots, er, spot. Rep. Millie Hamner (D-Dillon) is a solid pick to head the Education Committee. She’s bucked Big Labor before by pressing education reforms centered on putting students and teachers first and sloppy educrats last.
In the maybe category is Rep. Angela Williams (D-Denver) as chair of the BLEWD Committee. For her sake, we hope she had no part in the ridiculous name of the committee (even Denver Post scribe Lynn Bartels has already mocked the name). That aside, Williams does have small business experience. Problem is, she hasn’t shown the backbone to buck the many liberals in her caucus. Given the radical far left majority in the House Dem caucus, she’ll likely have the chance to this year. We’ll wait and see if she does.
In an apparent purposeful and pointed slight to rural Colorado, Ferrandino dropped Livestock and Natural Resources from the Ag Committee…further indication that Denver Democrats have written off rural Colorado. Adding insult to injury, Rep. Randy “Tractor Tax” Fischer (D-Ft. Collins) was appointed chairman. Yes, the same guy who tried to push a punitive tax on, of all things, tractors, now is responsible for the oversight committee.
To lead the newly created Obamacare committee, aka the Public Healthcare & Human Services Committee, is returning Rep. Diane Primavera (D-Broomfield) of “Dirty Dozen” fame. A dangerous assignment for a politician who never met a tax increase she didn’t like. Last time Primavera was in the State House she tried to ban a bevy of beauty care products from being sold in the state. With a record like that, her appointment to help implement Obamacare should be jarring for conservatives.
Rep. Max “Children Are Like Maggots” Tyler (D-Lakewood) was tapped to lead the Transportation Committee. Our guess is that he’s still not as important as he thinks he is.
With Reps. Dan Kagan (D-Cherry Hills Village) and Pete Lee (D-CO Springs) heading the Judiciary Committee, crime victims are sure to come second to the “rights of criminals.” Shameful and sad.
Rounding out the leadership posts are Ryden, Court and Fields…hard left Democrats with very little fame to claim as legislators.
If Ferrandino was aiming to show that he was a new kind of Democratic leader interested in bipartisan work and protecting Colorado’s economy…he BLEWD it.
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