May 20, 2012 01:02 AM UTC

Final Sine Die for Several Jeffco Legislators

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• by: Colorado Pols

With Wednesday’s close of this year’s special legislative session, several Jeffco legislators will be saying farewell to their respective chambers under the gold dome. Indeed, Wednesday marked the last day in the Capitol for many members of the Jeffco delegation because of term limits and last year’s turbulent reapportionment process.

State Senator Betty Boyd has risen to the upper ranks of the legislature, serving as the Senate’s president pro tempore. Boyd’s also been a fixture in Lakewood – she’s been in the Senate for eight years after spending four in the House. Boyd is unable to run for office due to term limits and her SD-21 seat was drawn out of Lakewood as part of the reapportionment process.

State Representative Jim Kerr is also falling prey to term limits. Kerr, first elected in 2004, made a bid for the State Senate following Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp‘s resignation last year. He narrowly lost his campaign for that seat to Tim Neville at a contentious vacancy committee meeting. Term limits preclude Kerr from serving another term in the House, so he’ll no longer be present at the Capitol next year. Given his recent proclivity for biting remarks, perhaps that’s for the best.  

If it’s any consolation for Kerr, his vacancy committee opponent Tim Neville won’t have any Capitol office space next session, either. Neville was drawn out of his current district during reapportionment and now resides in the same seat as Jeanne Nicholson, who’s not up for re-election until 2014. Neville, then, simply does not have a Senate seat to run for – Wednesday marked his first and last Sine Die as a legislator (setting aside, of course, the close of the regular session this year).

Neither State Representative Ken Summers nor his Democratic colleague Andy Kerr will be seeking re-election to the House. Although the legislators are both in their third term and are eligible to run for and serve in another legislative session, both were drawn into the same House district as State Representative Max Tyler. Instead of a three-way battle between incumbents, Kerr and Summers are facing off to fill the seat Neville will be leaving vacant. So while one of the two veteran lawmakers will be indeed returning to the Capitol, neither will spend any more time in the House.