Lois Tochtrop, Queen of the Co-Sponsors

Calculating the mid-term success of our state’s lawmakers might have taken hours of tedious work, but crowning the legislature’s favorite co-sponsor took about as long as it takes a Senate committee to kill one of Dave Schultheis’ bills.

Sen. Lois Tochtrop (D-Thornton) is the House’s favorite gal, co-sponsoring a whopping 28 House bills in the Senate. That’s almost twice as many as runner-up Brandon Shaffer (D-Longmont). Tochtrop also did fairly well getting those bills through the Senate (though the odds were certainly in her favor). Nine had been OK’d by Senate committees by the cutoff date and five had been passed by the full Senate, giving Tochtrop the highest co-sponsor score with 12 points. And the Democrat didn’t just partner with a handful of House members – she spread the love to bills from 23 different representatives. Senators dominated the top of the list, but only because there are more House bills needing co-sponsors. Jennifer Veiga (D-Denver), Suzanne Williams (D-Aurora), Betty Boyd (D-Lakewood), Bob Bacon (D-Ft. Collins) and John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) were also popular co-sponsors. Rep. Jack Pommer (D-Boulder) carried the most Senate bills in the House with nine, but although one of those was signed by Gov. Ritter, only one other had made it past a House committee by the cutoff date. Buffie McFadyen (D-Pueblo West) only co-sponsored five bills but scored more points than Pommer (or any other House member) by helping three of those get through the House.

Fourteen legislators co-sponsored no bills at all, but with zero points, they still beat out Rep. Wes McKinley (D-Walsh) and Sen. Ted Harvey (R-Highlands Ranch), who earned negative points for co-sponsoring bills killed in their chamber’s committee.