2011 Legislator Awards . . .

Senator Pat Steadman (D) became a Senator representing Denver and Adams County following the resignation of Senator Jennifer Veiga in 2009.  As a former lobbyist representing a variety of nonprofit organizations, he was well versed in the legislative process and hit the ground running. He was appointed to serve on the Joint Budget Committee in 2011 and also chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. We are honoring him for being a smart, thoughtful and strategic member of the Joint Budget Committee and for bringing a strong sense of social values to the budgeting process. We also value his bipartisan approach to lawmaking, as evidenced by his sponsorship across party lines of a number of criminal justice related bills.  We also are recognizing him for his sponsorship of SB172 - the Civil Unions bill.

Representative Tom Massey (R) was first elected to the State House in 2005, representing Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Park, Pueblo and Saguache Counties. His background is as a Real Estate Broker, and a continuing interest has been education. He serves as Chair of the House Education Committee. He was instrumental in engineering a 2011 budget compromise to restore $90 million to the Education budget (SB209 – Long Appropriations bill), and has been a leader throughout his legislative career for both funding and policies to support and improve education for children. He is also an active member of the Colorado Commission on Aging, and provides guidance to the Commission as they consider issues of importance to older Coloradans. CSLC is pleased to recognize Rep. Massey for his support of issues of importance to the youngest and oldest Coloradans. Finally, Rep. Massey has been a leader in fostering civility and bi-partisan cooperation in the legislative process, and has consistently evidenced the highest standards of civility in all his legislative communications and activities – with his fellow legislators as well as with the public. Rep. Massey is being honored especially for his civility in lawmaking and leadership.

Senator Morgan Carroll (D) was first elected as a State Representative in 2005, representing Arapahoe County.   She was elected to the Senate in 2009. She serves as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and also serves on the Health and Human Services Committee.  She is also a member of the Legislative Audit Committee and the Legal Services Committee.  She most recently served on the Colorado Reapportionment Commission.  Her occupation is as a consumer rights attorney. This shows in her work.  We are honoring her for her strong advocacy on behalf of the individual and consumer.   She has worked on issues like transparency, consumer protection, workers’ compensation, and prison reform.  Her legislation reflects a thoughtful understanding of how systems impact people. In particular we are honoring her for Sponsorship of SB 72, which would have added teeth to our current state civil rights laws regarding employment; Sponsor ship of SB 68, which would have increased consumer protection enforcement against deceptive or unfair trade practices;

• Sponsorship of SB 176, which shed light on solitary confinement of the mentally ill in our prisons.

Former Representative Jim Riesberg (D) was first elected to the Statehouse in 2005, representing Weld County. Prior to his election, he worked for a variety of Weld county nonprofits.  He also served as treasurer for Colorado Social Legislation Committee.   He served in the General Assembly until 2011, resigning to be Colorado’s Insurance Commissioner.  We are honoring him for his entire legislative career.  Trained as a gerontologist, he championed bills on behalf of older adults. 

• His largest bill fiscally was HB 09-1293 establishing the “Hospital Provider Fee,” which enabled Colorado to cover many of those who were uninsured prior to the Affordable Care Act. This past year, he sponsored HB 11-1216 “Disability Benefit License Plate Numbers” to allow certain vanity plates to be auctioned to help pay for  those qualified to obtain disability benefits.

Finally, he provided strong leadership as Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee.