Meet the Gatekeepers: The People Actually Running the Colorado Senate in 2026

What This Bill Actually Does

Every January, before the Colorado Senate can debate a single tax credit or argue over a new zoning law, they have to handle some basic constitutional housekeeping. Senate Resolution 26-002 is exactly that—the official, legally required roster of who is hired to run the legislative machinery for the Second Regular Session of the Seventy-fifth General Assembly. While it might look like a dry corporate HR document, it is actually the organizational chart for the most powerful room in the state. Lawmakers vote on the bills, but these are the professionals who write them, schedule them, guard them, and ensure the state's legal code is updated without errors.

At the very top of the operational food chain is the Secretary of the Senate, Esther van Mourik, alongside her senior advisor Cindi L. Markwell. Think of the Secretary as the CEO of the chamber. She oversees everything from parliamentary procedure to the multimillion-dollar operational budget. Beneath her is an army of highly specialized clerks who manage the life cycle of every piece of legislation. You have the Reading Clerk (Justin Shofler) who literally reads the bills aloud on the floor, the Calendar Clerk (Jonathan Brown) who dictates what bills are debated on what days, and the Journal Clerk (Olivia Hart) who serves as the official historian. If a business law is challenged in court ten years from now, a judge will look at the Journal Clerk's notes to determine exactly what the legislature intended.

Then you have the two distinct sides of the political aisle. The resolution officially appoints the partisan staffs for both the Majority (Democrats) and Minority (Republicans). These teams are led by Chiefs of Staff Arriana Belkin and Jason Helland, respectively. Their teams include policy analysts, budget experts, and communications directors. These are the folks reading the 500-page bills overnight and writing the briefing memos that tell Senators what a bill actually does. Finally, the Sergeants-at-Arms, led by Chief Ted Abad, serve as the security and protocol officers, maintaining decorum on the floor and in the viewing galleries.

What It Means for You

If you're a parent trying to navigate a new education bill, or a professional wondering why your licensing fees just went up, you might think you need to talk directly to your elected Senator. The reality is, you'll likely be dealing with the people listed in SR26-002. This resolution is essentially your contact sheet for getting things done at the Capitol. When you send an email or make a frantic phone call to your Senator's office, it is the constituent engagement managers—like the Majority's Miah Ntepp—and outreach coordinators like Sophia Jantz who actually field your request, track your issue, and decide how quickly it gets escalated to the lawmaker.

If you ever decide to take a day off work and drive down to Denver to testify in person, the Sergeants-at-Arms are going to be your guides. They enforce the rules of the building. They will tell you where you can sit in the gallery, remind you to take your hat off, and make sure nobody is bringing prohibited items or causing a disruption during a heated debate. It can be intimidating to walk into the Capitol for the first time, but knowing that guys like Frank Lombardi, Lee Vitgenos, and Dennis Pinto are just there to keep the process orderly can help lower your blood pressure.

So, what should you do with this list of names? Keep it handy. If you are passionate about a specific issue this year, don't just email your Senator's generic inbox.

• Action Item 1: Find the Policy Analyst who handles the subject you care about (e.g., healthcare or housing, handled by folks like Andrew Fish or Mary Aboud) and CC them on your emails to your legislator. They are the ones actually reading the fine print.
• Action Item 2: If you plan to visit the Capitol to testify this session, introduce yourself to the Sergeant-at-Arms at the committee room door—they can tell you exactly how far behind schedule the hearings are running.

What It Means for Your Business

For general contractors, real estate developers, and restaurant owners, the Colorado General Assembly is basically a giant risk-and-opportunity engine. Every week, laws are proposed that could change your compliance costs, your labor rules, or your tax liabilities. While your trade association or hired lobbyist focuses on schmoozing the politicians, the smart money pays attention to the staff listed in SR26-002. The Policy Directors and Senior Budget Analysts (like Taylor Stein for the Majority or Colin Mullins for the Minority) are the ones actually writing the fiscal impact reports and finding the loopholes or hidden costs in a new regulatory bill.

Here's the part that matters most for business compliance: the Enrolling Clerks. When a complex business regulation gets amended at 11:30 PM on a Friday night, the Enrolling Clerks (John Escamilla, Mary Klinger, Shannon Lochtefeld) have to accurately stitch those handwritten, last-minute changes into the final statutory text. A single missed comma, an accidental 'shall' instead of 'may,' or an incorrect date can completely change your legal obligations. If your industry is fighting for a specific amendment to a labor law, these clerks are the final gatekeepers ensuring the text that passed is the exact text that goes to the Governor.

Furthermore, you need to respect the mechanical limits of the legislative process. In an era of digital everything, physical copies of bills and amendments are still required on the floor. If a massive property tax bill drops, the Print Shop Clerk (Joellen Kramer) has to produce physical copies for all 35 Senators before the debate can legally begin.

• Action Item 1: Share this staff roster with your internal compliance or legal team. If you are tracking a specific bill, knowing who the Calendar Clerk is can help you anticipate when a vote is actually going to happen.
• Action Item 2: When proposing an amendment to a business regulation, have your lobbyist brief the relevant Policy Analysts from both the Majority and Minority staffs THIS WEEK. If the analysts understand your industry's technical concerns, the Senators will too.
• Action Item 3: Monitor the Journal Clerk's daily outputs to verify exactly how your industry's key amendments were officially recorded in the legislative record.

Follow the Money

You aren't going to find a multi-million dollar fiscal note attached to SR26-002 because it operates under the pre-existing legislative budget. However, these salaries represent a significant chunk of the General Assembly's annual operating costs, which are funded directly by Colorado taxpayers through the state's General Fund. We're talking about the permanent, professional infrastructure of the state government that allows the legislative branch to function independently from the Governor.

While this specific resolution doesn't raise your taxes or appropriate new dollars directly, the people hired by it are the ones to watch. They control exactly how the state's $40+ billion budget is analyzed, debated, and finalized. The Senior Budget Analysts appointed here are the folks scrutinizing agency requests, digging into the Governor's budget proposals, and advising lawmakers on whether a new social program or tax cut is actually mathematically sound. Every dollar the state spends this year will pass across their desks first.

Where This Bill Stands

SR26-002 had the fastest, smoothest path imaginable at the Capitol. It was introduced in the Senate on January 14, 2026, and passed its third and final reading the exact same day with absolutely no amendments. On January 15, 2026, it was officially signed by the President of the Senate, James Rashad Coleman Sr., making it a done deal.

Because this is an internal chamber resolution—simply dealing with the internal operations, rules, and staffing of the Senate—it doesn't need to go over to the House of Representatives, nor does it require the Governor's signature. It is fully effective immediately. The people named in this document are currently sitting at their desks in the Capitol, running the 2026 legislative session right now.