Gov. John Hickenlooper avoided painful decisions on strict oil and gas regulations proposed by fellow Democrats in the state legislature after his administration’s lobbying efforts resulted in bills that didn’t have the votes, or were so watered down that they were no longer controversial.

Our great state suffered a major setback last week when my colleagues on the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee decided to vote against 21st century Colorado in favor of 20th century business as usual.

Last week’s issue of The Colorado Statesman was host to a pair of guest judiciary commentary articles extolling the virtues of the newly-opened Colorado Justice Center.

Admittedly, it is an impressive edifice — as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted, with an “architectural grandeur” imposing a feeling of being “humbled before the majesty of the law.”

The legislature this week made significant progress advancing several key pieces of legislation addressing the energy sector. Proposals include increasing fines, reducing conflicts of interest on the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, stricter accident reporting requirements, creating a statewide groundwater testing program, beefing up inspections at wells, and raising the rural renewable energy standard.

The Senate on Thursday backed sweeping elections reform legislation that has polarized the legislature, resulting in marathon debate that kicked off Tuesday when Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, moved for the entire 126 pages to be read at length.

The Democratic-controlled Senate passed House Bill 1303 by a party-line vote of 20-15, despite the stall tactic. Amendments were later approved by the House, which sent the bill to Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, for his signature.

Moments after cheers of “Sí, se puede!” — “Yes, we can!” — filled a packed hall on the Auraria campus on Monday, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law a bill to provide in-state tuition rates to undocumented students at state colleges and universities, capping a decade-long effort to pass the legislation.

“Holy smokes,” Hickenlooper said to the hundreds of students, educators, immigration-rights activists and business leaders as he took the stage at the signing ceremony. “Are you guys fired up?”

Last week, people across the United States observed Law Day. It is a time each year to celebrate the rule of law and the role the courts and legal system play in helping people peacefully resolve disputes in modern society. Here in Colorado, we were privileged and honored to have U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor help us mark the occasion.

DECLASSIFIED DRONE REPORT OF MISSION: OBLIVION

Instructions: Launch a critical drone at target and report back findings and observations regarding threats to American filmic interests.

Target: The movie Oblivion, reportedly harboring actors Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurylenko, Melissa Leo, and Morgan Freeman; under the direction of Joseph Kosinski.
Location: Any theater showing target movie.

A near midnight-hour debate Friday on taxing marijuana turned into a House kerfuffle when majority Democrats interrupted remarks by Republican Rep. Bob Gardner of Colorado Springs in order to save 13 bills on the calendar, causing the GOP to storm out of the chamber in protest.

The great legislative gun debate of 2013 has nearly concluded, with a less than explosive ending to one of the most controversial policy issues facing the legislature this year.

The House on Monday voted 36-28, with one lawmaker excused, backing Senate Bill 197, which would require domestic violence offenders and people with restraining orders to surrender their firearms. Reps. Beth McCann, D-Denver, and Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, and Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, sponsored the measure.

The 2013 legislative session has been the busiest in recent years on the issue of water, particularly on how the state can conserve in a time of drought.

The work for the 2013 legislators began last summer, with the annual interim water resources review committee. The group of 10 legislators traveled the state last summer and fall, hearing about water conservation and legal issues on water rights. The end result was a recommendation for eight measures for 2013: two joint resolutions and six bills. Three other proposed bills were not approved by the entire com-mittee, but members of the committee sponsored two of those bills anyway.

One of the most partisan bills facing the legislature did not disappoint this week as the House on Friday backed the controversial sweeping elections reform measure. The lower chamber’s vote came after more than 80 citizens packed a legislative committee room on Monday during a cold spring snowstorm to voice their opinions on the polarizing proposal.

Despite more than 28 hours of committee hearings, debates and dozens of amendments, the new school finance act, Senate Bill 13-213, may still have a long way to go.

The bill came out of the Senate on April 7 on a party-line 20-15 vote. On April 15, the bill went through another seven hours of debate in the House Education Committee, which passed it on a 7-6 party-line vote. SB 213 has yet to garner even one Republican vote.

They weren’t making a fashion statement. It also wasn’t an attempt on the day following Tax Day to show that the tax man had taken everything, including their shoes.

Liquor laws that vary from state-to-state inhibit consumer access and increase price. “When it comes to wine we are at a disadvantage here in Colorado as compared to New York, New Jersey and California,” says Steve Lewis, owner of Giuliana Imports in Denver, Colorado. “In those places, the three-tier distribution system has been done away with, more or less.”

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday night pushed through legislation that would offer Colorado driver’s licenses to all residents of the state, whether they are a legal resident, or an undocumented immigrant.

Senate Bill 251, sponsored by Sens. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Commerce City, and Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, is said to have bipartisan support. But that was not the case Wednesday as the measure passed on a party-line vote of 3-2.

The Senate on Tuesday remembered the late former Sen. Paul Sandoval for being a hustler considered the “Godfather” of Colorado political circles. Sandoval died on April 24, 2012 at the age of 67 after the hardest campaign of his life, a painful battle with pancreatic cancer.

He was memorialized as a wheeler and dealer who did not rest solely on Democratic races, though he was a Democrat through and through. When Republicans he admired came to him for his blessing, Sandoval was willing to break partisan divides.

A blank page.

That’s both a writer’s bread-and-butter and stumbling block.

When faced with a blank page, some recoil at the prospect of having to create an award-winningly unique product. Others see an opportunity to express themselves, even if it may be mundane.

Editor’s Note: The following message to members of the General Assembly appeared in an ad in the April 5 issue.

“Definition of Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. — Albert Einstein

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, faced hecklers on Monday during a hydraulic fracturing debate with Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones, during which he restated his support for the oil and gas industry, but stopped short of taking a position on controversial energy bills moving through the legislature.

U.S. Sen. Mark Udall raised upwards of $1.5 million for his reelection bid in the first quarter of 2013, his campaign announced on Monday. The Eldorado Springs Democrat — who has yet to draw a Republican opponent for next year’s election — will report “over $2.5 million” cash on hand, a Udall spokesman said, adding that checks were still arriving in the mail on the day after the fundraising period had closed.

This story has been updated to reflect Andrew Romanoff's first quarter fundraising figures.

Attorney and Democratic Party power broker Steve Farber, who about this time last year caused a flurry in Colorado political circles by hosting a fundraiser for Republican Congressman Mike Coffman’s reelection in CD 6, has jilted the incumbent and on April 4, co-chaired a big name $1,000 to $5,200 a-person fundraiser for Andrew Romanoff, Coffman’s likely Democratic challenger in 2014.

What a difference a year makes.

Senate Democrats on Thursday pushed through the upper chamber a $20.5 billion budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, despite cries by Republicans of a premature and irresponsible spending agenda.

The new school finance act, Senate Bill 13-213, survived its first committee hearing last week, but it took three days to do it.

The Senate Education Committee, after 15 hours of hearings stretched over three days, sent SB 213 to the full Senate for debate. Bill sponsor Sen. Michael Johnston, D-Denver, told The Colorado Statesman he expects the Senate to take up the bill next week, after they finish work on the 2013-14 state budget and a Good Friday recess.

Secretary of State Scott Gessler says the stakes couldn’t be higher in his bid for a second term as Colorado’s top elections officer. The Republican — he affectionately embraces the nickname “honey badger,” because he says he’s always willing to keep fighting — officially launched his campaign for the 2014 election at a fundraiser in Byers last Thursday.

A visibly shaken Gov. John Hickenlooper on Wednesday morning signed three controversial pieces of gun control legislation just hours after learning that his Department of Corrections chief, Tom Clements, was gunned down at his home in Monument Tuesday night.

Taking to the microphone at a media availability, Hickenlooper called the killing a coincidence, but said the timing highlights the significance of the bills.

Colorado’s community colleges are seeking permission from the General Assembly to offer four-year bachelor’s degrees, but it’s pitting Democrats in the state Senate against each other, and drawing the kind of opposition from the state’s public universities that one university president likened to a “food fight.”

Mayor Michael Hancock initiated a rite of spring for the Mile High City last week when he took to two wheels and showed that he really is fit to preside over Denver.

At a news conference on March 14 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Hizzoner peddled the news that 30 new stations of the Denver B-Cycle system will be installed in the coming months, increasing the city’s shared bike system to over 700. Among the 30 new stations, three are in high-visibility locations — The Denver Zoo, The Denver Museum of Natural History and the Auraria campus. The other new stations began service on March 18.

Legislative leaders were quick to point the finger at their political counterparts as the midsession approached on March 7, with each party arguing that the other is out of touch with the will of Colorado voters.

Democrats first defended their ambitious agenda so far this session, which has included a comprehensive package of gun control legislation, and controversial measures to support same-sex civil unions and provide in-state tuition to undocumented students.

The Colorado Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments on a lawsuit that could dramatically change the system of K-12 school finance in Colorado.

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call easily fended off a spirited challenge from former Douglas County GOP chairman Mark Baisley in a bid to win reelection as head of the state GOP on Saturday at the party’s biennial reorganizational meeting at Cherry Creek High School.

The occasional bleating noises that have emerged from the offices of health care providers since the 2009 adoption of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are about to swell into a full-throated chorus of high decibel wailings and lamentations. Within a few weeks insurors will be filing their premium schedules with state Insurance Commissions for the medical plans they are required to offer on health care exchanges. These insurors will no longer be allowed to exclude pre-existing conditions, establish annual or lifetime benefit limits, nor can they require co-pays for many preventive procedures.

Dear Editor,

I am dismayed by the content of the article on HB13-1114 in the March 1, 2013 issue. Here follows my description of the bill and the outcome of the hearing:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar sounded the alarm over climate change during his remarks at the Governor’s Forum on Colorado Agriculture last Thursday in Denver.

“No matter what you may hear from some people, including some people in this room, our climate is, in fact, warming,” Salazar told the nearly 200 attendees gathered for the day-long conference at the Denver Renaissance Hotel.

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Tuesday threatened to veto legislation that would ensure statewide collective bargaining rights for Colorado firefighters. But union officials and the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, believe the Democratic governor will be spared some of the political battery that his Democratic predecessor, Gov. Bill Ritter, experienced for opposing a similar measure.

A monumental and at times grueling week under the Gold Dome was filled with marathon public hearings and more than 12 hours of House floor debate on gun control. The conversation saw a lot of love lost between Republicans and Democrats during this Valentine’s Day week. But as the midnight hour passed late Friday night, Democrats walked away victorious, clearing a major hurdle by pushing centerpiece agenda items through the divided lower chamber.

Arapahoe County Democrats had plenty to celebrate at the party’s biennial reorganizational meeting on Monday at Cherry Creek High School.

Not only did the traditionally Republican county continue its tilt toward Democrats — President Barack Obama won the bellwether county by 10 points over Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and Democrats retook the state House in part by ousting an Aurora Republican — but what some are already anticipating could be the most hotly contested congressional race in the country next year is taking shape there.

Former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff’s path to take on incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, an Aurora Republican, became clearer this week after a Democratic legislator said she wouldn’t join what could be one of the country’s marquee congressional races.

State Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, on Friday quelled speculation — fueled by her daughter’s Facebook post the previous week — that she would run in the 6th Congressional District and threw her backing behind Romanoff.

After a 20-month process to reform the state’s telecommunications laws resulted in the dramatic death of a 71-page comprehensive legislative package last year, lawmakers and the industry are bracing for yet another fight at the Capitol.

The question is whether legislators will introduce piecemeal portions of the legislation from last year that aimed to modernize the state’s telecom laws, or once again go for a larger package. That issue could be left in the hands of newly elected Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs.

Dear Reps. Coram, Everett, Humphrey, Joshi, Nordberg, Saine, Sonnenberg, Szabo, Scott and Wright,

Thank you for taking the time to understand that HB13-1041 is a very flawed bill with its “public-be-damned” approach to the average citizen’s (and press’) rights to access their public records. Many of your colleagues did not take the time to understand the unintended (?) consequences of the bill and just who and what is behind 1041.

Attorneys for Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler on Wednesday filed a lawsuit seeking to limit a probe by the Independent Ethics Commission into whether he misspent public dollars. Just one day earlier, the secretary narrowly escaped an audit of his office’s use of discretionary funds after the Legislative Audit Committee tied on a vote to authorize the investigation.

Dear Editor,

I am a progressive and proud of it. I also think that the country benefits from constructive debate. So I am all for the Republicans getting back on their feet. But that won’t happen as long as the basic problems are ignored. Like that the constitution will work great regardless of the racial makeup of the country. Like that the browning of America is not the problem. Like that gay people do not threaten marriage but unemployment does. Like that high concentration of extraordinary weapons produces extraordinary crimes.

Dear Editor,

Yesterday a Colorado political committee was announced to recruit volunteers, seek donations, and perhaps hire professional staff to recall any legislator who does not support the referral of SB 11, the civil union bill.

Coloradans have expressed overwhelming opposition to homosexual marriage. The civil union bill is just an attempt to do a side-run around this opposition and give the homosexual lobby all the benefits of marriage without using the term.

Dear Editor,

While I respect Rep. Kevin Priola’s right to his opinion and standing as a state representative to put forth legislation (however misguided it may be), I do resent his characterization of the Argonaut as being in favor of any liquor law changes including additional licenses or that it “would help out folks like Argonaut.” (“Battle brewing,” Colorado Statesman, Jan. 18, 2013). We have never voiced any opinion on that and we don’t think he should try and speak for us.

The race to chair the Colorado Republican Party got a little less crowded this week.

Grassroots organizer Lori Horn announced at a meeting of the Arapahoe County Tea Party on Tuesday night that she was ending her campaign for state GOP chair and instead would be running for vice chair at the biennial reorganization meeting in March. Her move leaves incumbent state Republican chairman Ryan Call and Douglas County Republican chairman Mark Baisley as the only two announced candidates. Current vice chairman Don Ytterberg — also the head of the Jefferson County Republicans — is the other announced candidate for vice chair.

A Senate committee waved ahead a bill to establish civil unions for gay couples in Colorado on Wednesday over objections that it infringes on the religious rights of adoption agencies and bakers.

“When two people are fortunate enough to have found someone that they want to share the rest of their life with, why should the state of Colorado stand in the way?” asked state Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, one of four openly gay lawmakers sponsoring Senate Bill 11 this year.

The seventh time could be a charm, backers of the proposed Colorado ASSET bill say.

If Democratic legislators get their way this year — and their solid majorities in both chambers make that exceedingly likely — Colorado high school graduates who aren’t legal residents, but who meet certain other criteria, will soon be able to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities.