As lawmakers convene to choose new leadership in the wake of the 2008 election, we plan to profile many of the new Democratic Speakers and Majority Leaders.

Before last week, this country had never seen a legislature where the presiding officers of both chambers were African Americans.

That changed when Democrats in the Colorado General Assembly elected State Representative Terrance Carroll to serve as Speaker of the House alongside reelected Senate President Peter Groff.

Carroll is a four-term state representative, as well as an attorney and an ordained minister.

He grew up in Washington DC and graduated with a bachelor of arts from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He then moved to Colorado and earned both a law degree from University of Denver and Masters of Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

Carroll is also a graduate of the Summer of Leadership Institute at Harvard University Divinity School's Center for the Study of Values and Public Life and John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In the legislature, Carroll has served as the chair of the House Judiciary Committee and assistant majority leader. He is a leading advocate for education reform in the state.

The future speaker has already begun to lay out an agenda for the next legislative session that includes balancing the state budget, revitalizing the states transportation network, and reforming the school financing system.

Early this morning, the Colorado Independent published a profile of Lauri Clapp, a conservative gadfly running for the state senate. We at the DLCC know her all too well from her days in the House of Representatives:

Indeed, during her eight-year tenure she, along with the group of other noisy GOP colleagues, was a passionate opponent of abortion, supported required placement of the Ten Commandments in public schools and restricting marriage to between a man and a woman only. She wanted a law requiring pregnant women to view ultrasound images of their fetuses before being allowed to get an abortion. She sponsored a law barring government agencies from being able to sue gun manufacturers and supported the carrying of concealed guns in schools.

Her Democratic opponent is Linda Newell -- a business consultant who has served on served on both the Denver Metro Regional Workforce Development Council the Governor’s Taskforce on Workforce Development. She is running for public office for the first time.

Right now, the GOP has a fundraising advantage in the race, and the district leans Republican. But neither lead is insurmountable. As the Independent mentions, people in the state are watching this race closely. We'll be keeping tabs as well.

Freshman State Rep. Dianne Primavera’s story is an inspirational one. Not only has she dealt with serious health issues on a very personal level through her own battles with cancer, but, she has also fought hard to improve health care for all of Colorado’s families. Even before her election to the Colorado House, she worked in the health care field, and throughout her career, she has received numerous awards-– including the Governor’s Peak Performance Award for Citizen Satisfaction. It is difficult to cover all of the health care bills that Representative Primavera has sponsored. Here are just a few.

She sponsored 2 of 11 key bills signed by the governor this June as part of his “Building Blocks to Health Care Reform” plan. HB 1385 creates a guide on the website of the Colorado Division of Insurance in order for residents to compare available health plans in a standardized, systematic way to make the best possible decision when they purchase insurance.

Primavera was also a sponsor of HB 1372, a groundbreaking bill which creates the Colorado Stem Cells Cure Fund. It creates a check-off option on the state income tax form in order to contribute to the fund. The bill enables Colorado’s new mothers the chance to donate the stem cells found in umbilical cord blood after birth – which could help research on treatment for adult diseases such as Alzheimer’s. You can read her editorial on HB 1372 in the Rocky Mountain News. Click here and here for more information on both of these bills.

Rep. Primavera is also helping uninsured Colorado children through her co-sponsorship SB 161, which will simplify the difficult application process for children’s health insurance under Medicaid and the Child Health Plan Plus.

I have written previously about Democratic efforts around the country to require health-insurance coverage for autism and bills addressing autism by legislators such as Chris Edwards of Oregon. Rep. Primavera is also working to help families that are grappling with autism. She was a co-sponsor of SB 163 to streamline, simplify, and unify services for those with autism.

Primavera was also a sponsor of HB 1301, an important bill to set aside $1.5 million from the state's tobacco settlement to pay for cervical cancer vaccinations for girls who don't have health insurance. You can read about this bill in the Rocky Mountain News. She has also sponsored a tax check-off bill for cancer education.

Rep. Primavera has been described as a “tireless” healthcare advocate. But in this case, that adjective is inadequate in describing the incredible, heroic efforts of this Colorado legislator.