© 2024 KSUT Public Radio
NPR News and Music Discovery for the Four Corners
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Senate Minority Leader Guzman Talks Election Losses And 2017 Goals

Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman
Bente Birkeland
/
Capitol Coverage
Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman

Democratic Sen. Lucia Guzman, representing District 34 (Denver), is the only legislative leader returning to her role, but it’s something she didn’t expect. Guzman said Democrats fully anticipated winning the majority in the Senate, but after the November election they are still one seat shy. The GOP holds a 18-17 seat advantage.

Listen to Bente Birkeland’s interview with Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman.

In this interview, she reflected on the election, and looked ahead to the next few months. Here are a few highlights.

On the fallout of the November election and her party’s failure to gain the Senate majority:

Guzman: People are let down, and people need lifting up, and they need some ways to deal with the fact that they are not, in fact, chairing a committee, but they are on that committee. That’s where the heavy work comes from; it really comes from leadership. That lower morale comes from not only our loss in the state senate but also the national elections.

On the position she created for conservation, clean energy and climate change:

Guzman:  I had planned long and hard for our being in the majority. And one of the plans I had was to separate agriculture, natural resources and energy. I was going to separate energy from that committee because I feel that is one of our most important issues for these next two years.

On working with the Republican majority:

Guzman: I think we’ll be able to work together. In two or three different areas we want to come to some kind of an agreement, because over the past years members of both of our parties, our constituents, have wanted certain things to happen. ... There’s not an evil and good situation here. It’s just someone won, and someone lost, but the players in many ways are the same.

Capitol Coverage is a collaborative public policy reporting project, providing news and analysis to communities across Colorado for more than a decade. Fifteen public radio stations participate in Capitol Coverage from throughout Colorado.

Copyright 2017 KUNC

Bente Birkeland has covered Colorado politics and government since spring of 2006. She loves the variety and challenge of the state capitol beat and talking to people from all walks of life. Bente's work has aired on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, American PublicMedia'sMarketplace, and she was a contributor for WNYC's The Next Big Thing. She has won numerous local and national awards, including best beat reporting from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors. Bente grew up in Minnesota and England, and loves skiing, hiking, and is an aspiring cello player. She lives in Lakewood with her husband.
Related Stories