Legislative Update: Transportation Legislative Review Committee and Elections
Hello Motorcyclist Enthusiasts,
The Colorado General Assembly Regular Session is officially over for 2016, but the Interim Committees continue to meet throughout the remainder of the calendar year. From my experience, the purpose of the Interim Committees is to get updates and reports from various agencies and departments; tour facilities to gather first-hand information; and to discuss topics that could be brought up for legislative action in the next session.
While there are nine Interim Committees, the Transportation Legislative Review Committee( TLRC) is the one of most concern to motorcyclists. The TLRC is comprised of the members of the Senate and House Transportation Committees. The Senate Transportation Committee has five members and the House Transportation and Energy Committee has thirteen members; therefore, the TLRC is comprised of eighteen total members.
The TLRC is chaired by the House Transportation and Energy Committee chair in odd- numbered years and by the Senate Transportation Committee chair in even-numbered years. Senator Baumgardner is the Chairman this year.. The“ official, complete” Statutory Authority( purpose) and History for the TLRC can be found at the June 10th Committee Charge Memorandum on the TLRC page or at: www. colorado. gov / pacific / sites / default / files / TLRC 2016 Committee Charge. pdf.
The agenda for August 1st meeting was a presentation of the Transportation Commission District Research Study pursuant to HB16-1031. The agendas for the August 31st and October 5th meetings haven’ t been finalized yet, but I expect the topic of“ Autocycles” to be brought up. I’ ve requested it to Chairman Baumgardner a few times during session and the Legislative Liaison for the Colorado State Patrol has also brought this topic to his attention, so we’ ll see if it gets scheduled. These are open sessions at the Capitol so I’ ll try to keep everybody informed when I see“ Autocycles” put on the agenda.
Also of importance, in case you weren’ t aware, 2016 is an election year! Colorado had its Primary election on June 28th.
For the Senate seats there were 41 candidates running( 20D / 21R). Most of the districts only had 1 candidate, so there were really only 5 contested races for Senate seats. The House seats had 135 candidates running( 67D / 68R). Again, most of the districts had only 1 candidate with only fifteen contested races. Actually, that made it easier for me as I only sent out questionnaires to the contesting candidates. I sent out thirty-three questionnaires and received four replies. Of course, all the candidates who replied were motorcycle“ friendly”. Would you reply if you weren’ t? Of those four that replied, only one of them won the primary election. FYI – one candidate won his primary by only sixty-nine votes.
So now I’ m getting ready to send out questionnaires for the General Election coming up on November 8th. I’ m looking over the candidate lists, which contain thirty-five Senators and one hundred sixteen Representatives. If I narrow it down by deleting the districts that have one candidate running unopposed and the districts that have“ landslide” candidate races( i. e. SD-33: there were 15,516 Democratic voters and 1303 Republican voters in the Primary) I will only have to send out seventy-three questionnaires. And since some of those seventy-three candidates I know to be biker“ friendly” already, I might be able to cut it down even further. Actually, I plan to review all the candidates again before I send out my questionnaires. It might be beneficial to have our“ friendlies” commit in writing to supporting ABATE. I’ ll post my findings when I’ ve compiled all my data.
So what is your part in all this, other than voting for the candidates we find to be biker“ friendly”? ABATE presented a seminar,“ Working Campaigns and Getting Biker-Friendly Legislators Elected”? I won’ t go into the entire seminar, but some of the topics presented are: Why Working Campaigns is so Important; and What is Required of Volunteers( Walking Districts; Help with Mailings; Phone Banking; Yard Signs; Helping with Fund-Raisers). I will gladly email the entire eight-page outline to anyone wanting to know more. You can contact me through Thunder Roads Magazine.
So get ready to volunteer and persuade others to volunteer. Based on the questionnaires returned and close races, I’ ll try to pinpoint those candidates that really need help. Even if your candidates are running in a“ landslide” race, they’ ll be campaigning and will appreciate and remember bikers helping out. Maybe then we’ d have a little more clout down at the Capitol! Stump Legislative Affairs Officer – ABATE of Colorado
6 Thunder Roads Magazine ® Colorado September 2016 www. thunderroadscolorado. com