Colorado legislators are latest to form rural caucus

Rep. Tim Dore

Following in other states' footsteps, rural lawmakers in Colorado are forming a bipartisan caucus "to advance the interests of Coloradans who live outside the Front Range," where most of the state's population lives, Kurtis Lee reports for The Denver Post. The rural caucus was formed by Sen. Mary Hodge (D-Brighton) and Rep. Tim Dore (R-Elizabeth). Dore told the Post, “As the state representative with the largest House district in land area, I understand issues facing my district and rural Colorado. Most state legislators reside in the Denver metro area and are not focused on rural issues. By creating a Rural Caucus, we will be uniting legislators across the state to stand together on issues unique to rural Colorado.”

Sen. Mary Hodge

Hodge, who lives in an outer suburb of Denver, noted that she grew up on a farm in Yuma County, on the Nebraska border, "and some of my family still farms and ranches in Yuma County. The entire eastern part of Senate District 25 is rural. I’m thrilled that those constituents will have a place where their ideas, solutions, and thoughts can be discussed.”

"The formation of the caucus comes at time when Republicans have assailed Democrats as waging a so-called 'war on rural Colorado,' after the 2013 passage of gun-control bills and a electricity mandate on rural electric co-ops," which depend on coal, Lee writes. "The caucus, says Dore, hopes to help find consensus on legislation such as a bill that would lower the renewable energy mandate from 20 percent to 15 percent." (Read more)

In November, five of 11 Republican-heavy rural counties that had secession on their ballots voted to secede. Also, Two Democratic state senators who backed state gun-control laws were defeated in recall elections, and another senator resigned before a recall election could be held.