Nearly a third of this year鈥檚 state lawmakers are newly elected, and they鈥檒l be expected to debate a host of complex issues from Medicaid to marijuana, gun laws to the death penalty.
KUNC鈥檚 statehouse reporter Bente Birkeland takes a look at the first week of the session, and gets reporter鈥檚 thoughts on the Governor Hickenlooper鈥檚 State of the State address.
Conversation Highlights:
Reaction From Ed Sealover, Denver Business Journal:
He essentially gave the legislature what he hopes is its agenda for the year, from setting up statewide rules for oil and gas drilling, to dealing with some sort of gun control measure, he was a bit less specific with that. To even asking them to take on the question that鈥檚 dogged this place for the past decade, how do you go about constitutional reform.
On Fracking:
Sealover notes that Democrats and the Governor may not agree on how strict new rules should be. Hickenlooper is a strong advocate of the oil and gas industry.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to be the real sticking point there, is how far is the Democratic legislature going to go toward the side of public health and safety, versus the side of promoting the oil and gas drilling industry.鈥�
Reaction From Tim Hoover, Denver Post:
鈥淭his speech was by far his most substantive and wide ranging. He鈥檚 been a spectator for essentially the last two years, sitting outside the boxing ring watching the guy in blue and the guy in red smack the hell out of each other. And now it鈥檚 two guys in blue, and Hickenlooper鈥檚 in there too.鈥�
On Universal Background checks for all Gun Purchases:
鈥淭here were a lot of gun issues he didn鈥檛 talk about. Would he favor any sort of restrictions on high ammo clips? Would he favor some sort of ban on the sale of certain kinds of assault style weapons?鈥�
