Littwin: Senate Dems stood up against one of their own. Now how can Colorado Dems stand up to Trump?

I think the most important thing to say about the state Senate leadership’s punishment of Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Longmont — an apparent serial abuser of legislative aides — is that they did the right thing.

They didn’t have to do it. The Democrats, who overwhelmingly control the Senate and, of course, Senate leadership, didn’t have to embarrass one of their own — who, yes, had already embarrassed herself — by so publicly banning Jaquez Lewis from using state funds to pay her aides.

Apparently, she can still use campaign funds to pay future aides, which is another ugly politics story, so it’s not like the money will come out of her pocket.

But the story is out there — one Latino legislative aide being tasked with doing unreported yard work for Jaquez Lewis — and the punishment is more than just a warning. It’s a statement.

And the fact that Dems stood up for justice allows us to say something good about them, in a time in which there is so little good to say about politics or politicians anywhere, even as Donald Trump floods his high-level nominations with what columnist Frank Bruni calls an “embarrassment of wretches.”

Or as Jared Polis embarrasses himself, and anyone who innocently voted for him, by enthusiastically endorsing perhaps the craziest of all the wretches, RFK Jr. And now Polis watches — with enthusiasm? — as Trump announces nominations of RFK-adjacent crazies, most of them anti-COVID vaxxers, to run the FDA, NIH, CDC and other key positions meant to keep America healthy.

This could be the time for Polis to say he might have made a mistake in endorsing RFK Jr., seeing what has immediately followed his nomination. Holding your breath for too long, though, can’t be good for your health.

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Another important thing happened with the state legislature in the past few days. All the races are now called, and Democrats, despite huge majorities in both houses, lost a supermajority in the House and fell just short of one in the Senate.

I don’t know exactly how to feel about that. I’m not a fan of supermajorities as a rule. But if Democrats had the supermajority, they could conceivably counter Polis’ veto threats on key issues like, say, a state ban on assault-style weapons, which is not to say that Polis wouldn’t win out anyway.

But having a loyal opposition is important. Power, as the saying goes, tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Of course, many Colorado Republicans are basically loyal to Trump and not to much else. 

And the fact that Republicans made very little progress in the state this election season, which included an 11-point Trump thumping by Kamala Harris, probably says nearly as much about the state of the party — including GOP chair Dave “God Hates Flags” Williams and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Canoodling Carpetbagger — as it does about Trump. 

But Republicans did make one critical pickup in the 8th Congressional District, where Gabe Evans narrowly beat Democratic incumbent Yadira Caraveo. Democrats actually picked up a seat in the U.S. House, leaving Republicans with an Ozempic-style 220-215 majority. If Caraveo had won, that would have made it 219-216, with 218 votes needed to pass legislation.

The 8th CD was drawn to be close, and Caraveo won the seat narrowly two years before. So, you probably can’t take too much from the result, except that it was costly nationally.

The question, though, is how Colorado Democrats will use their power as an important state — nearly surrounded by a difficult-to-part red sea — in opposition to the dangerous Trump restoration. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston already got a lot of blowback for his suggestion that if the military — possibly in the form of the Texas National Guard — came to town to begin mass deportation, city police and protesting residents would meet them at the city border.

The cops didn’t like it, and Johnston immediately backed down on police involvement. But he’s still sticking with the notion that residents would rise up in support of migrants and that he would join them, even as new immigration czar, Tom Homan, threatens to jail him.

I’d like to think Coloradans would put on a large display of nonviolent resistance if somebody came along to split up their neighbors’ families.

I’m more confident that the state legislature, along with voters, will do what they can to counter as much of MAGA cruelty as they can. But what happens if Republicans pass a national abortion ban? What happens if Trump actually follows through with his plan to deport millions of migrants without papers, including Dreamers and longtime residents, after first holding them in what amounts to concentration camps? What happens if Kash Patel comes to run the FBI and, say, Pat Stryker ends up on the enemies list? Or if Trump sics the IRS on, say, Tim Gill? What happens if Homan starts arresting Colorado officials?

That’s a lot of responsibility to consider, for Polis and the legislature, when it’s hard enough just to responsibly run your own state.

So, how will Colorado Democrats define themselves in what couldn’t be a more critical time?

This is a time of testing. And Colorado, a bright blue state in which Democrats hold every statewide office, will be one of the key states to stand in opposition to MAGA World.

It’s a test Colorado can’t afford to fail.

Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.

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