Lawmakers, staffers, lobbyists and reporters shuffle through the narrow hallways between committee rooms in the capitol. Not enough chairs line the walls between the doors. It's an anteroom heavy with murmuring gossip and speculation. Although showy debate flares up on occasion in the two-story-high House and Senate chambers, much of the real action takes place in these tiny committee rooms. Sitting outside one of the committee rooms, Sen. Pat Steadman told the Colorado Independent he believes the fate of SB 172, the same-sex civil unions bill he introduced Monday, will be decided by the members of the
House Judiciary Committee.