Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik

A Republican lawmaker broke party ranks and joined Democrats to reject a major abortion bill in Senate committee Thursday.

The measure requires women seeking an abortion to wait 24 hours and mandates that doctors give them the opportunity to view an ultrasound image, as well as listen to a description of the unborn child’s ability to feel pain.

Freshman Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik, R-Thornton, said she is concerned about the mandates on women and physicians in the bill.

“I’d like to see more work done on this, more discussion, more thought put into this,” she said. “My people have spoken to me and they don’t feel this bill is in their best interest.”

The vote came as a surprise because it is one of the only conservative bills to get voted down in the Republican-led Senate since the party took power in January. Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, said he was disappointed an abortion bill would fail before getting to the floor. The vote, he said, ignores that “two human beings go into a clinic and only one comes out alive.”

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Rep. Jenise May, an Adams County Democrat who lost her re-election bid, will work as a special adviser to the speaker for the next two years. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

UPDATED: A top aide to Democratic Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst abruptly left the state Capitol on Thursday and her current job status is unknown.

Jenise May, a former state representative from Aurora, left amid questions that she violated House rules by making a bid for state Senate, the Durango Herald’s Peter Marcus reported. House rules forbid employees from seeking legislative office.

May lost her re-election bid in November and told The Denver Post that she would join Hullinghorst as a special adviser Dec. 11. But three weeks later, she filed to run for state Senate District 25, campaign filings show.

“I’m just going to go home,” May told the Durango Herald as she left the Capitol. “I’m just going to close my candidacy. What else can I do? It’s a policy, I didn’t even know. I just found out. … All I can do is say I left, what more?”

May’s employment status “is unclear, said Dean Toda, a Hullinghorst spokesman. “The speaker sent Jenise home today to clear this up.”

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Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, speaks at a press conference on closing tax haven loopholes in offshore accounts earlier in the 2015 legislative session. Her bill to help Coloradans save for retirement died in a Senate committee this week. (Photo by Joey Bunch/The Denver Post)

The outcomes were much different this week on two similar House bills aimed at addressing Colorado’s age issue. Legislators call it the “silver tsunami,” which is expected to make landfall when Baby Boomers retire and lower the boom on Colorado’s public services and tax rolls.

On Monday, Rep. Dianne Primavera’s bill to create the Colorado Strategic Planning Group on Aging that’s expected to help the state prepare passed the Senate, 27-8, and is on its way to the governor’s desk for a signature.

On Thursday, Rep. Brittany Pettersen’s bill to create a state Retirement Savings Task Force to help individuals prepare was shot down by Republicans on the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

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Gov. John Hickenlooper is close to wrapping up his fifth legislative session. (Photo By Brent Lewis/The Denver Post)

Gov. John Hickenlooper urged lawmakers Thursday to kill a House bill banning red-light cameras and photo radar, and instead introduce new legislation with restrictions on the devices and the revenues they raise.

Last year, a red-light camera bill from a fellow Democrat, then Speaker House Mark Ferrandino, died after the governor made it clear he didn’t want the measure making it to his desk.

This year, Hickenlooper made his suggestions known publicly rather than working behind the scenes. He proposed the legislature restrict the use of fines to be credited only toward traffic safety improvements and related purposes, rather than to a local government’s general operating revenue.

He also said it should limit the use of photo-radar and red-light cameras to intersections and road/highway segments located in school zones, construction and roadway work zones, areas determined to have disproportionately high traffic accidents, injuries and fatalities, areas with high volumes of traffic violations coupled with resident or business requests for automated traffic enforcement.

“Lastly, the General Assembly should direct the Colorado Department of Transportation to conduct a comprehensive study of the use of these technologies, including an impartial analysis on their impacts to road safety and effect on driver behavior,” the governor said.

“We believe this approach will preserve local governments’ authority to decide whether to employ this important traffic safety tool, while also ensuring public confidence and trust.”

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It may be an under-the-radar race in Denver’s quieter-than-usual election. But the city auditor’s race, open for the first time in 12 years as term-limited Auditor Dennis Gallagher leaves office, is sure to be consequential.

“The auditor is an independent position for a reason — to be the advocate for the people of Denver,” says candidate and current Councilman Chris Nevitt. The other candidate, former state auditor Timothy O’Brien, says: “People in Denver are concerned about oversight of their hard-earned money and we’re not getting that.”

I spoke to both Denver auditor candidates together Wednesday during “On the Spot,” the weekly Denver Post TV political show. You can watch the entire On the Spot interview above, or click here. The Post also profiled the two candidates in a story this week.

In the interview, the political insider Nevitt and accountant O’Brien draw out distinctions between each other’s backgrounds and qualifications that underline different approaches each would take to the office.

Monique Left Hand Bull testifies Wednesday in favor of a bill requiring schools with Indian mascots and images to first get tribal approval. Her daughters, LacyJay, 7, and Lucille, 8, who attend South Lakewood Elementary School, also testified. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

As expected, a bill that would require tribal approval for public schools to continue using American Indian mascots died tonight in a Republican-controlled Senate committee today.

The State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee voted 3-2 on a party-line vote against House Bill 1165, which narrowly squeaked out of the House with every single Republican and one Democrat opposed to the measure.

The sponsor, Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Westminster, talked about the hurtful impact of Indian mascots on Indian youth, as did several witnesses with Indian ancestry, including Lucille Left Hand Bull, 8, and LacyJay Left Hand Bull, 7.

“I am not your mascot,” LacyJay said in a halting little girl’s voice.

“I have been bullied because I am an Indian. Redskin is a bad word and it is name calling,” Lucille said.

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Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst (CGA)

Responding to a request from Gov. John Hickenlooper, the House speaker introduced a bill late Wednesday that would revamp the state budget process.

House Bill 1389, sponsored by Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, would exempt the $689 million in fees paid by hospital providers from the state’s revenue collections. The accounting change would have vast effects on state spending, boosting lawmakers ability to spend on transportation and education. But it would also negate the refunds anticipated under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in 2018, which are expected to range from $50 to 682 for single filers.

The proposal, discussed in private for most the session, came to the forefront April 16 when the Democratic governor issued a letter urging lawmakers to take action before the May 6 adjournment. Democratic and Republican lawmakers raised serious questions about the proposal and any opposition may not let it reach the finish line before lawmakers leave town. The toughest critics accuse the governor of trying to weaken TABOR, a third-rail in Colorado politics.

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Bill Levis, the former director of the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel, tells a House committee on Wednesday that the agency still needs a role in protecting consumers’ interests in telecom cases. (Photo by Joey Bunch\The Denver Post)

Two bills aimed at retaining the state’s watchdog agency over utility rates for households, farms and small businesses got endorsements from House and Senate committees Wednesday. Nonetheless, the bills remain on a statehouse collision course, akin to the game of chicken, with only a week remaining in the legislative session.

What’s at stake is potentially millions of dollars the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel trims from rate-hike requests electricity, gas and telephone providers make to the state’s Public Utilities Commission.

The widely supported agency is scheduled to sunset on July 1 without reauthorization. A Senate bill that passed 8-1 Wednesday strips out the OCC’s involvement in the mostly deregulated telecom industry. A rival House bill, which passed 7-6, keeps in that responsibility.

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