As we’ve documented pretty much all year, Colorado Democrats can – and have – done whatever they have wanted to state law. From gigantic new taxes disguised as fees, the continued effort to abolish TABOR, and most recently, a sledgehammer on the heads of the oil and gas industry, the liberal loons at the state capitol have taken our rights and our right to earn with impunity.
That’s what made the… death… of the death penalty repeal bill so fascinating to behold. You see, the bill’s sponsors, Senators Julie Gonzales and Angela Williams of Denver, introduced this affront to justice without letting all relevant stakeholders know in advance. That would be in line with other bills this year, such as Senate Bill 181 (the oil and gas crippler) similarly lacking a stakeholder process.
But there was one, fairly crucial member of the sponsoring Senators’ own caucus who wasn’t consulted prior to the death penalty repeal measure being introduced: Senator Rhonda Fields, whose own son’s life was taken by two of the three people currently sitting on Colorado’s death row.
Think about how insane and cruel that is from Senators Gonzales and Williams.
Of course, Senator Fields opposed the bill from the outset, giving emotional interviews and testimony to that understandable effect.
All of that being said, fast forward to the bill’s swift and amazingly entertaining demise earlier this week: Senate Democrats, lacking the votes within their own caucus to pass the measure even on a party-line vote (remember, they have a 19-16 advantage in the Senate), laid the bill over until the last day of session, effectively… well, killing it.
What happened next was amazing. Senators Gonzales and Williams openly and viciously turned on each other, hesitant members of the Democratic caucus, and even party leadership. The Colorado Independent‘s Alex Burness captured this amazing display of open warfare in a Tuesday story about the bill’s failure; be sure to read it in full, but we’ve included some of the juiciest bits for your astonished eyes to digest:
“Sen. Williams showed a deep disrespect to our colleagues at multiple points through the process,” Gonzales said, adding that Williams’s decision not to join her on the floor “was but one of the signs of disrespect during this process.”
“Gonzales said that among the other signs was that Williams failed to solicit Fields’s input on the bill, which was introduced in the Senate, celebrated in a press conference and debated in a committee hearing on three consecutive days — an unusually swift timeline for any bill.
“’I consider that a 1-2-3 punch,’ Fields, the only Democrat who announced they’d vote against the bill, said at the time.
And later:
“Next year’s repeal effort, which will be the sixth in Colorado in about a dozen years, will lead with the kind of “respect and conversation” that this year’s process lacked, Gonzales said.
“She and Williams agree that the bill needs another chance in 2020.
“’Absolutely,’ Williams said. ‘I’ve already pulled the title.’
“But Williams and Gonzales are unlikely to work together as the lead sponsors of next year’s bill.
“‘She should check her facts,’ Gonzales said, ‘because I’ve already pulled the title.'”
Folks, these people have unchecked power and are choosing instead to throw haymakers at each other directly to a friendly media outlet.
Seriously, just read the damn thing. Their own fighting words do more to paint the picture than ours possibly could.
Start popping your popcorn, folks. When they’re not tanking our economic future, the folks in charge under the golden dome are giving us one hell of an episode of (actual) Family Feud.