Colorado General Assembly
General information
Type:	State legislature
Term limits:	8 years in the Senate, 4 terms (8 years) in the House
Session start:	January 4, 2019
Session end:	May 3, 2019
Website:	Official Legislature Page
Leadership
Senate President:	Leroy Garcia (D)
House Speaker:	KC Becker (D)
Majority Leader:	Senate:Stephen Fenberg (D) House:Alec Garnett (D)
Minority Leader:	Senate:Chris Holbert (R) House:Patrick Neville (R)
Structure
Members:	35 (Senate), 65 (House)
Length of term:	4 years (Senate),2 years (House)
Authority:	Art V, Colorado Constitution
Salary:	$30,000/year + per diem
Elections
Last election:	November 6, 2018 Senate House
Next election:	November 3, 2020 Senate House
Redistricting:	Colorado Reapportionment Commission has control

Colorado convened its legislative session on January 4, 2019, and legislators remained in session until May 3, 2019. No party had aveto-proof supermajority this legislative session. Following the2018 election, Democrats had a 19-16 majorityin the Senate and a 41-24 majorityin the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Democraticstate government trifecta.

Click the links to read more about the 2020state Senate andstate House elections.
Click the links to read more about the 2018state Senate andstate House elections.

Partisan control in 2019

See also:State government trifectas

Colorado was one of 14 Democraticstate government trifectas at the start of 2019 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas,click here.

Colorado was one of 28 state legislatures where no one party had aveto-proof supermajority. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called aveto-proof majority or, sometimes, asupermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures,click here.

The following tables show the partisan breakdown of theColorado State Legislature in the 2019 legislative session.

Colorado State Senate

From 1992 to 2018, the Colorado Senate was competitive, flipping partisan control five times. This was not unusual as the Colorado Senate has a history of being a toss-up chamber. Between 1900 and 2018, the chamber changed partisan hands 14 times. The table below shows the partisan history of the Colorado Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2018. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin'sParty Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

Democrats controlled the chamber following the 1900 elections. By 1956 the chamber had switched control eight times. The competitiveness waned after the 1962 election, as that year marked the beginning of solid Republican control until the 2000 elections.

In the early and mid-1990s, Republicans had a three- to seven-seat advantage over Democrats. Starting in 2000, Democrats saw a resurgence and partisan control of the chamber underwent several rapid shifts. In 2000, the Democrats took control of the chamber for the first time in nearly 40 years, winning a one-seat majority. In 2002, Republicans flipped control of the chamber back in their favor by the same one-seat majority. In 2004, this happened again with Democrats reclaiming the one-seat majority. After the 2008 election, Democrats held 21 seats, the most their party had held since the 1958 elections.

The Democratic advantage persisted through the 2012 elections. However, in 2014 Republicans took control of the chamber again with another one-seat majority. They maintained their one-seat majority in the 2016 elections yet lost it to a 19-16 Democratic majority in 2018.

Colorado House of Representatives

From 1992 to 2018, the Colorado House was competitive, flipping partisan control three times. This was not unusual as the Colorado House has a history of being a toss-up chamber. Between 1900 and 2018, the chamber changed partisan hands 19 times. The table below shows the partisan history of the Colorado House following every general election from 1992 to 2018. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin'sParty Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

Democrats controlled the chamber following the 1900 elections. By 1950 the chamber had switched control 10 times, an average of once every five years. It was even more competitive between 1950 and 1976, switching control six times. But the 1976 election marked the beginning of an almost 30-year period of Republican majorities.

In the early and mid-1990s, Republicans were able to boost their majority to over 40 members, coming within three seats of the 44 needed for a two-thirds supermajority. Starting in 1998 though, Democrats saw a resurgence. They picked up seats in the next three elections until taking back control in 2004. Democrats maintained their majority for six years before the 2010 election turned the chamber red again. Democrats gained five seats in 2012 and won back control. Republicans made some gains in the 2014 election, but it was not enough to win the chamber. After the 2018 election, Democrats held 41 seats.

Leadership in 2019

Colorado State Senate

• Senate president:Leroy Garcia (D)
• Majority leader:Stephen Fenberg (D)
• Minority leader:Chris Holbert (R)

Colorado House of Representatives

• Speaker of the House:KC Becker (D)
• Majority leader:Alec Garnett (D)
• Minority leader:Patrick Neville (R)

Regular session

The following widget shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2019 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation met these criteria yet in 2019. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

Standing legislative committees

See also:Standing committee andList of committees in Colorado state government

Astanding committee of astate legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

At the beginning of the 2019 legislative session, there were26 standing committees in Colorado's state government, includingsix joint legislative committees,10 state Senate committees, and10 state House committees.

Joint legislative committees

Senate committees

House committees

Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process forreferring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states,initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are alsomany other types of statewide measures.

The methods by which the Colorado Constitution can be amended:

See also:Section 1 of Article V andArticle XIX of theColorado Constitution andLaws governing ballot measures in Colorado

Colorado Constitution
Preamble
Articles
I •II •III •IV •V •VI •VII •VIII •IX •X •XI •XII •XIII •XIV •XV •XVI •XVII •XVIII •XIX •XX •XXI •XXII •XXIII •XXIV •XXV •XXVI •XXVII •XXVIII •XXIX •Schedule

TheColorado Constitution provides three mechanisms for amending the state's constitution—a citizen-initiated process, a legislative process, and a state constitutional convention. Once on the ballot, a55 percent supermajority vote is required for the approval of any constitutional amendment put on the ballot by the legislature or by a citizen initiative, except those that only remove language from the constitution, rather than adding language or changing existing language.

Initiative

See also:Initiated constitutional amendment

Aninitiated constitutional amendment is acitizen-initiated ballot measure that amends astate's constitution. Eighteen (18) states allow citizens to initiate constitutional amendments.

In Colorado, thenumber of signatures required for an initiated constitutional amendment is equal to 5% of the votes cast for the Colorado secretary of state in the preceding general election. Colorado has adistribution requirement for initiated amendments. Signatures must be collected from at least 2% of the registered voters who live in each of the 35 state Senate districts. A 55% vote is required for voter approval.

Combined initiated constitutional amendments and state statutes

See also:Combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute

Acombined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute is acitizen-initiated ballot measure that amends both a state's constitution and state statute. There are at least two (2) states that allow citizens to initiate combined amendments and statutes.

In Colorado, thenumber of signatures required for a combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute is equal to 5% of the votes cast for the Colorado secretary of state in the preceding general election. Colorado has adistribution requirement for initiated amendments. Signatures must be collected from at least 2% of the registered voters who live in each of the 35 state Senate districts. A 55% vote is required for voter approval.

Legislature

See also:Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

Atwo-thirds (66.67%) vote is required during one legislative session for theColorado State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 44 votes in theColorado House of Representatives and 24 votes in theColorado State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

Convention

See also:Convention-referred constitutional amendment

According toArticle XIX of theColorado Constitution, thestate Legislature can refer a state constitutional convention question to the ballot. Atwo-thirds (66.67%) vote of legislators in each chamber is required.

Historical context:

• A total of108 measures appeared on the statewide ballot in Colorado during the 20-year period between 1999 through 2019.
• Through all years between 1999 and 2019, odd and even, the approval rate for measures appearing on Colorado's ballot (all types) was 42%.
• From 1999 through 2019, the number of measures on statewide ballots ranged from zero to 14.
• From 2000 through 2018, an average of about nine measures appeared on the statewide ballot duringeven-numbered years. The approval rate for measures on the ballot in even-numbered years was about 41%.
• Duringodd years, an average of 1 measure appeared on the statewide ballot.
• From 1999 through 2019, about 42% (45 of 108) of the total number of measures that appeared on the statewide ballot were approved, and about 58% (63 of 108) were defeated.

Historical partisan control

The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Colorado.

See also

Elections	Colorado State Government	State Legislatures	State Politics
Colorado State Senate elections, 2018 Colorado State Senate elections, 2016	Colorado General Assembly Colorado House of Representatives Governor of Colorado Colorado Supreme Court	State legislative elections, 2018 State legislative elections, 2017 State legislative special elections, 2017 State legislative elections, 2016	State government trifectas State government triplexes State executives State courts Ballot measures

External links

• Colorado State Assembly homepage

Footnotes