Democrat Infighting Derails Transparency Push At State Capitol

By Jesse Paul, Taylor Dolven | KUNC Radio

This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at coloradosun.com.

An effort to bridge the divide between more liberal and more moderate Democrats in the state legislature has fallen apart.

The two sides were working on a bill to increase transparency around legislative caucuses in response to the Colorado Opportunity Caucus’ retreat at a hotel in Vail in October. The caucus is made up of moderate Democrats at the Capitol and doesn’t disclose all of its donors, though at least one of their funders is a nonprofit that has targeted liberal Democrats in primaries.

But now the two sides are no longer talking about their transparency effort and the more liberal faction Friday introduced a very similar bill without their more moderate counterparts.

“I don’t believe in speaking for my colleagues as to why they aren’t on it or their opinions about (Senate Bill) 108,” said state Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat, who, along with state Rep. Yara Zokaie, D-Fort Collins, represents the more liberal faction and has been leading the push for the transparency measure.

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