Peter Marcus

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 more than 100-page sweeping election reform bill is likely to be introduced by Democrats in the Senate next week, covering everything from moving voter registration deadlines to mailing ballots to inactive voters.

Even before the bill has reached its final draft, Secretary of State Scott Gessler and fellow Republicans have pounced on the proposal, concerned that the bill would create same-day voter registration. The GOP is also critical of what they consider to be a “secretive” drafting process. Gessler said he hasn’t yet seen a draft of the bill.

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.

Brittany Moore said the awful sound her 4-year-old German Shepherd, Ava, made as an Erie police officer fired a bullet that severed the dog’s spinal cord was all part of the most tragic day of her life.

“Imagine watching your best friend get shot to death,” she said at a rally Wednesday at the Capitol, as tears welled behind her thick sunglasses. “Watching her in agony when she is dying, moaning in pain, and you’re not able to comfort her; not able to hold her until she breathes her last breath; not able to say, ‘I love you’ one last time.”

In an act of revolt, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners lobbyist Joe Neville on Wednesday walked out of a legislative investigation into whether he threatened political retribution on Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen.

The Committee to Investigate a Complaint under Joint Rule 36 — including Reps. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, and Sens. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, and Mark Scheffel, R-Parker — must now decide how to move forward without Neville’s cooperation.

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.

A legislative committee recommending legislation to implement marijuana legalization in Colorado on Thursday withdrew an original suggestion to create a single enforcement division after a blistering audit revealed that the division grossly misspent taxpayer resources.

A bipartisan legislative ethics committee on Wednesday morning took shots at Rocky Mountain Gun Owners lobbyist Joe Neville during a hearing into whether he threatened political retribution on Republican Rep. Cheri Gerou of Evergreen.

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.

With the majority of gun control bills in the rearview mirror, Democrats have set their crosshair on regulating the energy industry. Committees of both the House and Senate on Thursday advanced key oil and gas agenda items, readying for another fight with Republicans under the Gold Dome.