That explains how liberal Democrats in the Colorado Senate were able to defeat Gov. Bill Owens' smart-growth package. But those 12 liberals are a majority of the 18-member Democratic majority. There's nothing unusual about factions using such partisan leverage to get an ideological lock on the Senate. Conservatives weren't a majority of the Senate the previous two years either. But conservatives were a majority of the-then Republican majority and elected conservative Ray Powers as Senate president.
Senate presidents have the power to assign bills to committees.
Powers used State Affairs as his killing ground. Matsunaka remade the State Policy and Planning Committee into his personal political abattoir. Matsunaka's mincing machine worked overtime during the recent special session that Owens called to push his smart-growth package. The four Democrats on State Policy and Planning started by killing every single bill introduced by a Republican senator. Then, they killed every bill sent to them by the Republican-controlled House.