3/27 UPDATE: 

One day after repeal bill dies at #COleg RT @chrisvanderveen: James Holmes offers to plead guilty in order to avoid #deathpenalty.

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) March 27, 2013

Credit: The Iowa Republican

Despite a massive legislative majority, liberal Democrats saw a second major defeat at the Capitol today, with the death penalty repeal going down in a bipartisan vote in the House Judiciary Committee.

Voting no, Rep. Lois Court (D-Math) said “we need to stop, take a deep breath and think about the ramifications of death penalty repeal.”

Also voting no was Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Lakewood).

Another bill, which would send the issue to voters in 2014, where it’s all but certain to lose, is still pending.

This comes on the heels of the death of HB1226, the ban on concealed carry on college campuses.

While Democrats hold a massive 37-28 majority in the House and a sizable 20-15 lead in the Senate, some of their most left-wing bills have been defeated at the hands of a vociferous conservative opposition.

In the case of the death penalty repeal, Democratic sponsors knew the deck was stacked against them, with recent polling showing Coloradans support keeping the punishment in place by a whopping 68%-27% majority.

So it’s no wonder they scheduled the testimony with only 24 hours notice. Or that they allowed the anti-death penalty side to go over their allotted time by hours.

Testimony still favoring proponents after 5 hours, raising Qs of whether Dems are intentionally stacking deck on #deathpenalty bill. #coleg.

— Charles Ashby (@OldNewsman) March 20, 2013

Well, it turns out all those legislative shenanigans weren’t enough to push through a bill that the people of Colorado are very clearly and uniformly against.

Check this from the last poll conducted on the issue in Colorado:

Backing for capital punishment was consistent across political party lines, with a majority of Republicans (81 percent), Democrats (57 percent) and Independents (66 percent) all opposed to outlawing Colorado’s death penalty.

Even self-described “liberals” were evenly split on the question, with 49 percent saying they opposed scrapping capital punishment.

Opposition to abolishing the death penalty was also consistent across gender lines, with both men (72 percent) and women (63 percent) opposing efforts to end capital punishment.

While the 2012 elections were no bright spot for Colorado conservatives, the fight goes on, and is beginning to include a few wins along the way.