Leaders Roundtable: Colorado's Top Legislative Officers: In a wide-ranging discussion, the state's chamber bosses share thoughts on leadership, the pros and cons of term limits and the value of coaching successors.

• Author: Huhn, Taylor
• Position: LEADER PROFILES

In Colorado's term-limited General Assembly, a leader's time in office ends after eight short years.

Some, including House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, Senate President Pro Tempore Kerry Donovan and Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, have wrapped up their final regular session as leaders. Others, like Senate President Steve Fenberg, Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno and House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, still have a couple years left. NCSL recently caught up with the Legislature's top brass as they finish their time in office--or contemplate doing so--to find out what makes them tick and how they view their roles as leaders.

Why did you pursue a leadership role?

* Senate President Pro Tempore Kerry Donovan: As the only lawmaker in the Democratic caucus with agricultural experience, as well as representing a largely rural district, I felt it was important that I made sure that those issues were being elevated on the leadership level.

* House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar: I really wanted to make sure that voices from southern Colorado and from smaller areas were heard on leadership as well, so I decided to step up and run.

* Senate President Steve Fenberg: 1 worked very hard on helping my caucus get into the majority in 2018. and it felt like I could either kind of go along for the ride, or I could be a part of shaping and bringing to reality what voters elected us to do. So. I ran for majority leader, and I was the majority leader for several years. And then, a few months ago, the question was whether I should step up and run for the presidency. It was another opportunity where it felt like I could help shape the caucus during this moment of transition. And it felt like the right thing to do.

* Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert: I spent a couple years as vice chair and then chair of our Senate Business Committee and was then elected in my third year as the Senate majority leader. (Holbert was majority leader in 2017-18.) That was the one position in legislative leadership that I really had an interest in, due to the unique characteristics of the power structure in the Colorado Senate.

* House Minority Leader Hugh McKean: A lot of my members call me an institutionalist because some of the deepest relationships I had coming into this position were with staff who'd been here for 30 or 35 years. I understood from a really early point the value of this institution as a whole. And I think that view takes you out of the partisan side of things and makes you look at how to lead an institution. I thought institutions like this deserve to be led well.

* Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno: The caucus kind of asked me to consider doing it. So that was a big driving factor. But the other was the fact that many states are in a really unique fiscal environment right now. There is so much federal...