It’s that time again, PeakNation™. The legislature is finally out of session. We think. Until special session. Welcome to the fourth annual Colorado Peak Politics legislative awards where we honor the winners and shame the losers.
This year wasn’t as rancorous as last year – Democrats were on their best behavior since it’s an election year. As usual, Democrats, who control the Colorado House, the Colorado Senate and the Governor’s Mansion, promised Coloradans the world and delivered very little.
Without further ado, we bring you, first, the Losers of the 2014 Legislative Session. There were many.
Democratic leadership gone wild – From Senate President Morgan Carroll storming off her perch to whip votes in the middle of a vote to Speaker Mark Ferrandino throwing a temper tantrum about putting State Treasurer Walker Stapleton on the House floor, this year’s Democratic leadership has proved that nothing is too low for them. But, that’s not all. Several Democratic initiatives not only fizzled but blew back in their faces (see: radical abortion bill and equal pay measure).
Colorado’s women – Speaking of the equal pay measure…. This was, perhaps, one of Democrats’ biggest flops of the session. In an attempt to gin up the so-called “war on women”, Democrats pushed an equal pay resolution, hoping to highlight Republicans’ aversion to government-controlled pay. The only problem? As it turns out, Republican politicians pay their ladies better than Democrats, leading to cries of hypocrisy that extended all the way up to fragile U.S. Senator Mark Udall.
Colorado’s first-time homebuyers – We have a problem here in Colorado – a lack of cheap housing near fun stuff. Part of the problem is that trial lawyers have run amok raking in huge profits with construction defects. This was going to be the legislature that addressed that. We snickered knowing Morgan Carroll’s undying allegiance to trial lawyers. Turns out we were right. Sorry.
Sen. Andy Kerr – When you are a vulnerable incumbent, typically you try not to make any waves. Kerr has managed to do the opposite. From his embarrassing fumble on an election year abortion bill to two years of bizarre votes against his district, he’s in for a rough re-election campaign.
John Morse – You know why.
Bald Eagles – One of the negative affects of wind energy is the negative impact it has on birds, specifically bald eagles (um, our national bird). Republican Rep. Libby Szabo introduced a resolution to protect bald eagles from wind turbines. It failed on party line vote. It would seem that devotion to nature extends only so far as it lines the pockets of green energy investors.
Alan Salazar – Oh, poor Alan. He’s on this list because he harassed and marginalized Sen. Steve King’s plan for an air fleet to fight forest fires. And told the media that there was no way that King’s plan would happen. Until it basically did. Sorry, Alan. This wasn’t your year.
Stay tuned for the Winners of the 2014 Legislative Session, which can be found here.
"their ladies" ???