May 05, 2023 01:47 PM UTC

Washington Post Highlights Colorado Lawmakers

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• by: Colorado Pols

Two Colorado lawmakers are the prime subjects in separate Washington Post stories published today.

First up: Casey Parks writes about State Rep. Brianna Titone (D-Arvada), one of the clear-cut stars of the 2023 Colorado legislative session. Parks dives into Titone’s efforts to reach across the political aisle and form friendships with the likes of Republican House Minority Leader Mike Lynch:

Lynch was a U.S. Military Academy graduate who kept horses and made belt buckles for a living. Titone was the state’s first transgender lawmaker. Neither had run for office expecting to befriend the other, but they’d built a connection that worked, in part, because Titone had done her best not to ruffle feathers. She was a geologist who knew how to talk farm equipment, and she focused her legislation on homeowner’s associations and other suburban concerns — nothing overtly trans…

…Nationwide, Titone is one of just eight transgender state legislators. She’s the only one who leads a party with a supermajority, and because of that, she holds more power than perhaps any other trans lawmaker. After the Club Q shooting, Titone realized she could do something few others could. She could meet with Republicans. She could show them trans people were not weird or threatening. They could be fun and easygoing, the kind of colleagues you talk shoes with.

The entire story, which examines how Titone navigates her way through a lot of entrenched bias against transgender people in general, is well worth a read.

Meanwhile, Karen Bruilliard talks with State Sen. Tom Sullivan (D-Centennial) about his success in advancing gun violence prevention legislation — and his rational arguments related to an assault weapons ban:

With their biggest majority in 60 years, Colorado Democrats returned to the Capitol in January vowing to take on gun violence in a state scarred by mass killings — Columbine, the Aurora theater, the Boulder supermarket, Club Q. On April 28, activists and lawmakers celebrated as Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed four gun-control bills some hailed as the most significant ever.

But missing was a proposal that divided gun-control proponents and highlighted the evolving political landscape of a blue state with a deep Western hunting and agricultural ethos: A ban on the sale or transfer of assault weapons had been defeated a week prior in a House committee on which Democrats hold nine of 13 seats. The view of Sullivan, one of the legislature’s leading gun-control champions, helps explain why.

“This isn’t transportation. This isn’t education. This is guns. We haven’t been comfortable talking about guns in the state of Colorado — ever,” Sullivan said. “Why don’t we try to strategically move forward, instead of blowing up the house?”

The quick demise of the state ban profoundly disappointed supporters. But it did not shock some. The new laws put the state “absolutely at the forefront of good gun laws,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action and a former Colorado resident. But the ban “just wasn’t something that was going to happen this year.” [Pols emphasis]

Both WaPo stories are well-timed. The 2023 Colorado legislative session comes to a close on Monday.