April 7, 2025 • 11 mins
KEVIN LUNDBERG IS COVERING THE CAPITOL So you don't have to, and the longtime legislator is on today to talk about the Lundberg Report, which you can find and subscribe to here. He joins me at 12:30 for a chat.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joining me now is a guy who was he was
making the sausage there for sixteen years, and now he's
out of the sausage making arena and into the sausage
viewing arena. His most excellent Lundberg Report and the meeting
that he does on Monday mornings to kind of bring
everybody up to speed is absolutely worth your time and
joining me now to talk about it. Kevin Lundbergh, Welcome
(00:22):
to the show. It's been a very long while, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
It's a pleasure to be on here and to you know, well,
it's not a pleasure to discuss what they're doing down
in the legislature, but I'm glad you're giving some attention
to what they are doing because it's very important to
every citizen.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Now, Kevin, you were in the legislature for sixteen years,
and you were I'm just going to call it the
Bridge years, right, the Bridge years where we went from
a more evenly divided house, Republicans in charge sometimes of
the House and the Senate, a far more reasonable in
my view, these are opinion based statements, of course, a
(01:00):
far more reasonable group of Democrats that were liberals but
not hardcore left wing progressives, and in the ensuing years
we have seen the hard left take over the Colorado
Democratic Party, as it is beginning to take over the
National Democratic Party. And the difference here is that our
(01:23):
state legislature is completely controlled, almost to the point of
a veto proof majority, very very close. Republicans have been sidelined.
And when you look at where we are now compared
to how it was when you were in office, how,
I mean, how different is it? What are we really
(01:43):
looking at?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Almost like night and day? Quite frankly.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I entered the legislature in two thousand and three, elected
in two two, of course, and turned out in twenty eighteen.
And in those sixteen years, ten of them were in
the minority in the body I was in, and six
were in the majority. So I saw a little bit
of everything, which quite right. Back in two three when
I entered, we had a Republican governor and control of
(02:10):
the Senate and the House, and it well, the Sanate
was a little close, but in the House that almost
felt bulletproof. But a whole lot of political manipulation occurred
in the two thousand and four election, and suddenly we
found ourselves in the minority and essentially stayed there since then,
But you're quite right. In twenty nineteen is when things
(02:35):
really took off. And hmmm, seems like we changed governorship
at that point too, but we'll set that aside for
the moment, and I'll simply say that I have been appalled,
not just with the bills, but with the process. This
is something that I learned that the legislative process is
supposed to be a slow grinding system that allows everybody
(02:59):
a place at the table. Now, the majority opinion prevails,
but not after everybody else has been able to voice
their opinions, and oftentimes some negotiations, some amendments, and things
like that occur. And that's what I saw during the
sixteen years I was there.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But it's been breathtaking since then.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Let's start with what happened yesterday on a Sunday morning,
when good God fearing people are at church, the Colorado
legislature gabbled itself into session for what purpose?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Well, and I would say including Scott Bottoms, who is
a representative and a pastor of a church, and so
he wasn't there because he had a pulpit to fill.
But the the the dramatic some of the traumatic transgender
bills were in third reading, as well as a couple
(03:56):
of other bills, one to eighty three being the one
that that actually implements funding of abortions with taxpayer dollars.
Now we knew they had the votes, we knew it
was going to pass. On the third reading is the
final vote, and this for.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The House bills.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Then it goes on to the Senate for the Senate bill,
which was one eighty three. The House was now approving
that as well. But what really was appalling to me
was they did not allow any debate to occur for
these bills on third reading. See, there's a technique you
can do. You can call the question and then it
(04:33):
immediately goes to a vote of the House. Shall we
vote now? And of course the d's followed in lockstep,
well almost I understand five of them said no. I
was in those shoes once in two of three and
I said no to the to the call of the question,
because I think both sides need to have the opportunity
to talk. But they just shut everything down and voted
(04:57):
straight up. The arrogance and the unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Mischute the legislative process. It's just appalling.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Well, you know, I'm going to reflect back to the
big debate, and I'm gonna put debate in air quotes
about SB three, that SB twenty five three, the absolutely
gross and unconstitutional gun bill that was going to pass.
And I have to wonder, Kevin, because we saw lots
of people that were up in the gallery taking pictures
of Democratic legislatures during the alleged debate. They were playing
(05:33):
candy crush. They were one of the legislators had a
sticker book. She was out putting stickers in her sticker book.
They were no more paying attention to the people that
were testifying against that bill. So maybe they just decided
to end the charade, like they're not going to listen.
They know they have the votes, so why bother even
giving the impression that they give a rats ask what
(05:54):
the other people who may have voted for a different party.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, that's one way to describe it. I'll tell you it. It's, uh,
you know, when you're in the majority, you do get
a little bit cocky on okay, we can get away
with this and get away with that, and and it's
it's human nature for some of that to occur. But
(06:18):
but you're quite right. It has reached a point and
there actually there's actually another side to this too that
that I greatly disagree with, and that is when COVID hit,
the legislature decided that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
They just go online.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Now, online is great to allow citizens to come and
testifying committee, but for legislators to think they can legislate
from home over you know, Zoom's great works in a
lot of you know, you talked about that Monday morning
call I have, but we do that on Zoom and
it's an incredible place for conversation to occur, but it
(06:51):
is a lousy place for legislation, and and it degrades
the the the process. You know, people are somewhat surprised
when they watch the legislature in action because there's a
lot of talking on the side, and there's a lot
of not playing Candy Crush on your computer, by the way,
but there is a lot of things going on that
(07:14):
has to happen in order for everybody to give their
input and to understand what others are talking about as well,
that's gone away. I'm yeah, you're right. They've turned the
legislature into a charade. And I believe the people of
Colorado are starting to wake up, even as we see
across the nation a whole lot of political changes. Well,
(07:37):
twenty twenty six just might be a very interesting election year.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
What are some of the big, big things that you've
been keeping your eye on in this legislative session. Obviously,
the gun bill is a big one. We're still waiting
to see if the governor is going to veto that.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Well, yeah, but you know it's gun bill's plural. Yeah,
there are nine bad bills. Let me go back to you.
You mentioned my report that I published every week, and
I do it year round, but when the legislatures in session,
I try to look at every bill and identify what
I consider good bills and bad bills, and then I
tracked them through the process. Well, and I came up
(08:13):
with a couple of other categories. One woke bills and
and what was the other one? A dumb and dangerous
bills because some of them are just so over the top.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
But forget me, I forgot where I was.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Headed just talking about the gun bills. We started with nine.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, there are eight or nine gun bills that are
designed to choke down the citizens' ability to actually bear
arms and be able to defend themselves and their family
gun bills. There have been a long list of bills
going after the rental industry. You know, it has gone
(09:02):
to the point that that I know a lot of
people who have had rental properties in Colorado that said,
I'm getting out of here because it is so unreasonable.
There's a bills that deal with the whole global warming.
I'm going to call it hoax, you know, I'll just
(09:23):
tell you where I think. And so you see a
lot of bad bills going that way. And then there's
the whole transgender issue that's primarily being pushed in our
public schools. There are many many There's a bill out
there right now that will allow a death certificate to
not reflect the actual sex of an individual, but will
(09:45):
give their preference instead. It's just kind of like bizarre
because it's you know, you're you're not really honoring that
person one way or the other. You're changing a an
official document that's used by medicine to determine why people
die of certain diseases, and you take out their Yeah,
(10:06):
you know, I mean this stuff. You just can't make
it up. Really, they've gone so far. So that's kind
of a quick snapshot on some of the bad bills.
But you know, when I go down the list, it
really covers about every area of life here in Colorado, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And don't forget Tabor. Oh I want to go after Tabor. Well,
we've got.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Another lossing about that, Kevin. What I'd love to do
is have you on on a more regular basis where
we can kind of have a deeper conversation about this
aro out of town right now. So I'll follow up
and we're going to get you scheduled for a regular
check in because I don't want to do what you're doing,
follow the Colorado legislatures close. So I will I will
w my CUB reporter and let you handle.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
That from now on. Okay, fair enough. Well, it does
take a few late nights to get it done, but I.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Bet it does. You can subscribe to the Lundberg Report
just click on the link that I put there and
strongly recommended. He's doing a great job and everybody needs
to know some of this stuff is just bad news.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Kevin.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
We will talk to you again soon.
Joining me now is a guy who was he was
making the sausage there for sixteen years, and now he's
out of the sausage making arena and into the sausage
viewing arena. His most excellent Lundberg Report and the meeting
that he does on Monday mornings to kind of bring
everybody up to speed is absolutely worth your time and
joining me now to talk about it. Kevin Lundbergh, Welcome
(00:22):
to the show. It's been a very long while, sir.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
It's a pleasure to be on here and to you know, well,
it's not a pleasure to discuss what they're doing down
in the legislature, but I'm glad you're giving some attention
to what they are doing because it's very important to
every citizen.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Now, Kevin, you were in the legislature for sixteen years,
and you were I'm just going to call it the
Bridge years, right, the Bridge years where we went from
a more evenly divided house, Republicans in charge sometimes of
the House and the Senate, a far more reasonable in
my view, these are opinion based statements, of course, a
(01:00):
far more reasonable group of Democrats that were liberals but
not hardcore left wing progressives, and in the ensuing years
we have seen the hard left take over the Colorado
Democratic Party, as it is beginning to take over the
National Democratic Party. And the difference here is that our
(01:23):
state legislature is completely controlled, almost to the point of
a veto proof majority, very very close. Republicans have been sidelined.
And when you look at where we are now compared
to how it was when you were in office, how,
I mean, how different is it? What are we really
(01:43):
looking at?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Almost like night and day? Quite frankly.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I entered the legislature in two thousand and three, elected
in two two, of course, and turned out in twenty eighteen.
And in those sixteen years, ten of them were in
the minority in the body I was in, and six
were in the majority. So I saw a little bit
of everything, which quite right. Back in two three when
I entered, we had a Republican governor and control of
(02:10):
the Senate and the House, and it well, the Sanate
was a little close, but in the House that almost
felt bulletproof. But a whole lot of political manipulation occurred
in the two thousand and four election, and suddenly we
found ourselves in the minority and essentially stayed there since then,
But you're quite right. In twenty nineteen is when things
(02:35):
really took off. And hmmm, seems like we changed governorship
at that point too, but we'll set that aside for
the moment, and I'll simply say that I have been appalled,
not just with the bills, but with the process. This
is something that I learned that the legislative process is
supposed to be a slow grinding system that allows everybody
(02:59):
a place at the table. Now, the majority opinion prevails,
but not after everybody else has been able to voice
their opinions, and oftentimes some negotiations, some amendments, and things
like that occur. And that's what I saw during the
sixteen years I was there.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
But it's been breathtaking since then.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Let's start with what happened yesterday on a Sunday morning,
when good God fearing people are at church, the Colorado
legislature gabbled itself into session for what purpose?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Well, and I would say including Scott Bottoms, who is
a representative and a pastor of a church, and so
he wasn't there because he had a pulpit to fill.
But the the the dramatic some of the traumatic transgender
bills were in third reading, as well as a couple
(03:56):
of other bills, one to eighty three being the one
that that actually implements funding of abortions with taxpayer dollars.
Now we knew they had the votes, we knew it
was going to pass. On the third reading is the
final vote, and this for.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
The House bills.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Then it goes on to the Senate for the Senate bill,
which was one eighty three. The House was now approving
that as well. But what really was appalling to me
was they did not allow any debate to occur for
these bills on third reading. See, there's a technique you
can do. You can call the question and then it
(04:33):
immediately goes to a vote of the House. Shall we
vote now? And of course the d's followed in lockstep,
well almost I understand five of them said no. I
was in those shoes once in two of three and
I said no to the to the call of the question,
because I think both sides need to have the opportunity
to talk. But they just shut everything down and voted
(04:57):
straight up. The arrogance and the unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Mischute the legislative process. It's just appalling.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Well, you know, I'm going to reflect back to the
big debate, and I'm gonna put debate in air quotes
about SB three, that SB twenty five three, the absolutely
gross and unconstitutional gun bill that was going to pass.
And I have to wonder, Kevin, because we saw lots
of people that were up in the gallery taking pictures
of Democratic legislatures during the alleged debate. They were playing
(05:33):
candy crush. They were one of the legislators had a
sticker book. She was out putting stickers in her sticker book.
They were no more paying attention to the people that
were testifying against that bill. So maybe they just decided
to end the charade, like they're not going to listen.
They know they have the votes, so why bother even
giving the impression that they give a rats ask what
(05:54):
the other people who may have voted for a different party.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Well, that's one way to describe it. I'll tell you it. It's, uh,
you know, when you're in the majority, you do get
a little bit cocky on okay, we can get away
with this and get away with that, and and it's
it's human nature for some of that to occur. But
(06:18):
but you're quite right. It has reached a point and
there actually there's actually another side to this too that
that I greatly disagree with, and that is when COVID hit,
the legislature decided that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
They just go online.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Now, online is great to allow citizens to come and
testifying committee, but for legislators to think they can legislate
from home over you know, Zoom's great works in a
lot of you know, you talked about that Monday morning
call I have, but we do that on Zoom and
it's an incredible place for conversation to occur, but it
(06:51):
is a lousy place for legislation, and and it degrades
the the the process. You know, people are somewhat surprised
when they watch the legislature in action because there's a
lot of talking on the side, and there's a lot
of not playing Candy Crush on your computer, by the way,
but there is a lot of things going on that
(07:14):
has to happen in order for everybody to give their
input and to understand what others are talking about as well,
that's gone away. I'm yeah, you're right. They've turned the
legislature into a charade. And I believe the people of
Colorado are starting to wake up, even as we see
across the nation a whole lot of political changes. Well,
(07:37):
twenty twenty six just might be a very interesting election year.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
What are some of the big, big things that you've
been keeping your eye on in this legislative session. Obviously,
the gun bill is a big one. We're still waiting
to see if the governor is going to veto that.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Well, yeah, but you know it's gun bill's plural. Yeah,
there are nine bad bills. Let me go back to you.
You mentioned my report that I published every week, and
I do it year round, but when the legislatures in session,
I try to look at every bill and identify what
I consider good bills and bad bills, and then I
tracked them through the process. Well, and I came up
(08:13):
with a couple of other categories. One woke bills and
and what was the other one? A dumb and dangerous
bills because some of them are just so over the top.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
But forget me, I forgot where I was.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Headed just talking about the gun bills. We started with nine.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, there are eight or nine gun bills that are
designed to choke down the citizens' ability to actually bear
arms and be able to defend themselves and their family
gun bills. There have been a long list of bills
going after the rental industry. You know, it has gone
(09:02):
to the point that that I know a lot of
people who have had rental properties in Colorado that said,
I'm getting out of here because it is so unreasonable.
There's a bills that deal with the whole global warming.
I'm going to call it hoax, you know, I'll just
(09:23):
tell you where I think. And so you see a
lot of bad bills going that way. And then there's
the whole transgender issue that's primarily being pushed in our
public schools. There are many many There's a bill out
there right now that will allow a death certificate to
not reflect the actual sex of an individual, but will
(09:45):
give their preference instead. It's just kind of like bizarre
because it's you know, you're you're not really honoring that
person one way or the other. You're changing a an
official document that's used by medicine to determine why people
die of certain diseases, and you take out their Yeah,
(10:06):
you know, I mean this stuff. You just can't make
it up. Really, they've gone so far. So that's kind
of a quick snapshot on some of the bad bills.
But you know, when I go down the list, it
really covers about every area of life here in Colorado, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
And don't forget Tabor. Oh I want to go after Tabor. Well,
we've got.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Another lossing about that, Kevin. What I'd love to do
is have you on on a more regular basis where
we can kind of have a deeper conversation about this
aro out of town right now. So I'll follow up
and we're going to get you scheduled for a regular
check in because I don't want to do what you're doing,
follow the Colorado legislatures close. So I will I will
w my CUB reporter and let you handle.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
That from now on. Okay, fair enough. Well, it does
take a few late nights to get it done, but I.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Bet it does. You can subscribe to the Lundberg Report
just click on the link that I put there and
strongly recommended. He's doing a great job and everybody needs
to know some of this stuff is just bad news.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Kevin.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
We will talk to you again soon.
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