The Colorado AFL-CIO today released its "2011 Working Families Scorecard," the first time that the labor organization has released its legislative scorecard to the general public.
It should come as no surprise that Democrats generally rated better than Republicans on legislation tracked by the AFL-CIO (17 Senate Democrats and 20 House Democrats received 100% scores). At the low end, Republican Rep. Don Beezley picked up the worst score, at 27%; Rep. Wes McKinley and Rep. Sue Schafer hold the ignominious tie for the lowest score among Democrats with 79%.
There were a few interesting scores that raised our collective eyebrows:
Republican Sen. Greg Brophy: 50% score
Republican Sen. Kevin Lundberg: 39% score
Brophy and Lundberg are the leaders of the ultra-right wing of the Republican Party among Colorado legislators, and their scores weren't all that bad for bills backed by labor interests -- especially considering that their lifetime scores are 26% and 19%, respectively.
Speaker of the House Frank McNulty and House Majority Leader Amy Stephens: 47% score.
We wonder if McNulty and Stephens intentionally tried to stay below 50%, but these are numbers that could prove harmful to the re-election prospects of each should they face a primary challenge.
Democratic Rep. John Soper: 88%
An electrician by trade, Soper is one of the few former union members in the legislature and has a 98% lifetime score -- which makes his opposition on 3 pieces of tracked legislation in 2011 all the more curious.
Democratic Rep. Ed Casso: 80%
Casso has always tried to trumpet himself as "labor's best friend," with a lifetime score of 95% and high-profile public battles with former GovernorBill Ritter on his resume. Casso's working-class image took a hit over his Payday Lender support, and this 80% score--which is one point away from being the worst score for a Democrat--comes at a bad time for someone looking at a potential run for higher office if redistricting is kind to his Adams County roots. Casso has never struck anyone as being the brightest bulb in the lamp, but this is particularly awkward for him ahead of 2012.
You can view the full scorecard here, or read the press release after the jump.
After a tense final 24 hours to the legislative session, House Republicans blinked first in a high-stakes game of chicken over a payday lending amendment to an essential rule review bill.
The decision by the House GOP, following a long day of negotiations, will allow the state to avoid an expensive special legislative session that would have been called by Gov. John Hickenlooper had the rule review bill not been passed...
After meetings with Hickenlooper, McNulty and the House GOP caucus took up the bill around 6:15 p.m. and, after a short speech, adopted a motion by Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, to recede from its earlier position and adopt the Senate bill without the payday lending amendment.
Gov. John Hickenlooper is pretty much universally getting the credit for ending this, and his blistering of Republican hides in the most explicit terms we've seen since he took office is a big reason why this battle turned so spectacularly against Speaker Frank McNulty.
Who is, bipartisan lip service aside, the unconditional loser.
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WEDNESDAY UPDATE #5:Blink. McNulty loses. The "Midnight Payday Payback" is dead, 65-0.
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WEDNESDAY UPDATE #4: Senate votes to adhere to their version of Senate Bill 78. "Payday payback" amendment stripped from the bill, which now goes back to the House. One Republican, Sen. Ellen Roberts, broke with her caucus and voted to adhere to the original version.
Now the decision to convene a $21,000-a-day special session to decide the fate of the "payday payback," or not, rests with Speaker Frank McNulty and his House GOP caucus.
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WEDNESDAY UPDATE #3: New statement from the Senate Majority Press Office--full text after the jump. Says Majority Leader John Morse:
By taking this bill hostage, McNulty has shown that he cares more about predatory lenders than the well-being of Colorado teachers, oil and gas producers, hunters, the poor or the elderly. Frank McNulty is standing up for predatory payday lender organizations while making Colorado citizens feel like they've been slapped with a wet leather glove.
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WEDNESDAY UPDATE #2: Amended "payday payback" Senate Bill 78 passes House on a party-line 33-32 vote. Last night, Tim Hoover of the Denver paper reported that Democratic Reps. Ed Casso and Sue Schafer, sponsors of the earlier failed House Bill 1290 "payday payback," were originally on board with this amendment, but sensibly backed away as the controversy grew. The lone Democratic vote yesterday in favor of the amendment from Rep. Rhonda Fields was reportedly made in error--and wasn't repeated today.
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WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Numerous sources now reporting that a special session to deal with the House GOP's last-minute "payday payback" amendment to the rules review bill is a real possibility--the Senate has no plans to adopt this amendment, and will reportedly adhere to their original version. If the House doesn't back down from their brinksmanship on behalf of payday lenders, hundreds of critical rules in this bill on a daunting range of issues will expire.
Democratic Rep. Sue Schafer (that's her on the left) appears to be the vote that may kill the Payday Lending reform bill we have written about repeatedly in this space (ever since Payday Lenders started spamming us).
The Payday Lending reform bill hasn't seen much action since a flurry of activity a week ago, and we hear that has a lot to do with Schafer's opposition after listening to former HD-24 Representative (and current state Senate candidate) Cheri Jahn, who worked to kill previous Payday Lending reform bills when she was in the legislature.
That's right -- two Democrats from a strongly-Democratic district may be primarily responsible for killing Payday Lending reform for the second time.
For those of you unawares, there is still one unresolved primary race in Colorado. In HD-24 (Wheat Ridge), two Democrats were running for the seat vacated by the term-limited Cheri Jahn. Vote counts on Primary Night had Sue Schafer ahead of Dave Ruchman by less than 20 votes, prompting a delay while Jefferson County went through Provisional ballots.
Now that all ballots appear to have been counted, Schafer has defeated Ruchman by 29 votes. You read that right -- 29 votes!
The margin of victory does not trigger an automatic recount, but our understanding is that Ruchman could request a recount because the race is so close. Stay tuned to this one, because heavy Dem registration numbers mean the Republican challenger is irrelevant; the next state Rep. from HD-24 will come from the winner of Schafer/Ruchman.
Democratic Rep. Sue Schafer (that's her on the left) appears to be the vote that may kill the Payday Lending reform bill we have written about repeatedly in this space (ever since 
