Following Gov. Bill Ritter's surprise announcement this week he will not continue to seek re-election, Democrats are scrambling to find a replacement nominee. Will there be a primary, or can party leaders coalesce around a "consensus candidate"?
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Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, announced this week he would discontinue his re-election campaign. Ritter describes his decision as "deeply personal." FTS has response from Democrats and Republicans under the gold dome.
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Our loyal readers know we love to write about the status updates Colorado lawmakers post on Twitter, the short-message social networking site. Last night we received a post-Nuggets game tweet from House Speaker Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, which cannot be ignored.
After the Lakers beat the Nuggets 103 to 94 in game five of the Western Conference finals, Carroll wrote: “that's ok Laker fans...you got this one. But, at least our state isn't going broke.”
By Andrew Ripemoff
Remember the Weekly World News? You know, the tabloid that regularly ran headlines like this:
ALIEN GIVES BIRTH TO 300 POUND BABY – ELVIS IS THE FATHER
I think The Denver Post has hired some of those writers. One of the paper's recent front-page headlines may not have been as tantalizing as a tabloid, but it sure caught my attention.
FTS staff writer Rachel Boxer recaps the final weeks of the Colorado legislature's first regular session in 2009. Listen for audio from House Speaker Terrance Carroll, House majority leader Paul Weissmann, minority leader Rep. Mike May, Rep. Amy Stephens, Senate minority leader Josh Penry, and Sen. Al White.
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On the House floor Thursday, Speaker Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, razzed reading clerk Kevin Neimond for being featured on Face the State's Hottest Politico's list. We just want to clear one thing up: if you would have called us back, we would have included you!
Upon discovering a loophole in Colorado's car registration system that can make it cheaper to pay repeated fines for having an unregistered vehicle than actually paying to register one, House Speaker Terrance Carroll is sounding the missed revenue opportunity alarm, calling Dems to action to fix this slip-up next session.
An ongoing debate pitting bail bondsmen against Larimer County's pretrial service program is raging, with a focus on who can better provide services associated with the arrest, bonding, and monitoring of those accused of crimes.
New information is coming to light about the School Finance Transparency Act, which was killed by Democrats in the House Education Committee March 19.
Also known as Senate Bill 57, the bill was postponed indefinitely after four hours of committee debate that lasted late into the evening. Speaker Terrance Carroll and House Minority Leader Mike May arrived to work the next morning ready to revive it. But they were too late.
House Bill 1305, which opponents charge encourages out-of-state lawsuits against Coloradans, sailed through the Colorado House of Representatives last week.
House Speaker Terrance Carroll and former Speaker Andrew Romanoff are both Denver Democrats, but their leadership styles on the House floor couldn't be more different.
House Speaker Terrance Carroll may be a Denver Democrat, but after watching a video produced by Denver TV station KWHD about his “inspirational story,” where he encourages students to take personal responsibility for their lives and their education, he sounds an awful lot like a conservative.
When the Rocky Mountain News announced Thursday that today's paper will be its last, politicos united in sadness by scrambling to their Facebook pages.
House Speaker Terrance Carroll’s Facebook status read, “Terrance Carroll is sad the Rocky Mountain News is closing down tomorrow.” Republican and former lawmaker Rob Witwer’s status read, “Rob Witwer is sad the last edition of the Rocky Mountain News is Friday. Goodbye, old friend.”
FTS staff writer Rachel Boxer has the latest from the Colorado General Assembly. House speaker Terrance Carroll has implored colleagues to be more formal when addressing one another, but is anyone heeding his call? Also, county Republican parties across the state are tapping new leaders to help turn the tide in 2010.
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And you thought state government was boring. The Face The State newsroom TV is tuned most mornings to the Colorado Channel, a live simulcast of the state House of Representatives. Today, we noticed a wildly gesticulating Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, making quite a to-do out of a relatively routine motion relating to the House journal. As the Denver Post's Jessica Fender blogged at the time, Balmer was addressing his colleagues in ye Olde English, and quite an exaggerated version at that. But Balmer's quixotic oratory is a gem best seen on video. Take a look, below the fold.
WEDNESDAY 9:47 AM
DEMOCRATIC HOUSE/SENATE CAUCUS
House Speaker Terrance Carroll leads a free-flowing discussion with fellow Democrats and gubernatorial staff on this sessions’ legislative priorities.
By Andrew Ripemoff
Okay Dems, you now have it all. The Colorado House & Senate. Both houses of Congress. The White House. And as far as I know, the regional superintendent in charge of sewage disposal for La Plata County.
Colorado’s top legislators are loving life in 2009. Senate President Peter Groff and House Speaker Terrance Carroll, both Denver Democrats, have been featured on CNN twice in just the last two weeks.
As the first state in the nation to see both houses of its state legislature led by black lawmakers, legislators and their staffers are now getting the rare opportunity to take today off to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
State Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, was sworn in today to serve out the term of Steve Johnson, who left the Senate to serve as a Larimer County Commissioner. Respected lawmaker that he is, Lundberg left quite a power vacuum in one of Colorado's most venerable institutions. We're talking about the "Capitol Choir."
President-elect Barack Obama’s new media campaign revolutionized the use of the Web as a political tool, and now local lawmakers are following suit as a growing number create accounts with social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
The Capitol Rumor Mill is always churning out gossip, so we try our best to ask people if something is true before printing it.
Lucky for us, the information age has made it exceedingly easy to get ahold of people, including state lawmakers. Most of them have Facebook accounts or MySpace pages, while others don’t hesitate to give out their personal cell phone number or e-mail addresses.
But Rep. Anne McGihon, D-Denver, has none of the above.
I told you recently about Terrance Carroll, the next speaker of the Colorado House. He’s busy getting to work – but will he bring change, or just more of the same?
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At a recent speech before a business group in Denver, state House speaker-elect Terrance Carroll outlined his agenda for the coming legislative session. Carroll has promised positive change, but are his decisions thus far just more of the same?
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Attorney Lee Mickus with the Colorado Civil Justice League responds to state House speaker-designee Terrance Carroll's assertion there will be no "significant" changes to the legal system in 2009.
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