Colorado: Mark Hillman

State Rep. Don Marostica, R-Loveland, has angered his Republican colleagues by signing on as the co-sponsor of a Senate Bill 288, a measure that will eliminate the Arveschoug-Bird Amendment, which caps general fund growth at 6 percent each year. When Marostica learned that Independence Institute President Jon Caldara and former treasurer Mark Hillman were exerting pressure to kill his bill, he told the Rocky Mountain News Thursday: "They're has-beens. They're losers."

On a slow news day, Marostica's comment made big headlines. A day later, the Rocky reported that Marostica’s gaffe earned him two meetings with House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, and one with Colorado GOP Chairman Dick Wadhams.

As the Colorado Springs Gazette reports:
Having called a pair of GOP bigwigs "losers" and "has-beens" after being pressured to drop a budget bill, Republican state lawmaker Don Marostica remained defiant Thursday.

Marostica, a state representative from Loveland who sits on the powerful Joint Budget Committee, said that he was pressured by House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, to withdraw his name from a bill he is co-sponsoring that would repeal a law limiting state spending.

Marostica blamed the pressure on Independence Institute President Jon Caldara and former state treasurer Mark Hillman, and said Thursday, "When I was called into the principal's office yesterday, it was, 'We've got some outside influences that want you to not take this through.

Rep. Don Marostica will apologize to Republican leaders he called "losers" and "has-beens" but will push forward with a spending bill that has turned some in his caucus against him.

The Loveland Republican appeared at a Thursday news conference with Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, to announce the duo's sponsorship of Senate Bill 228, which would repeal Colorado's 6 percent general fund spending limit.

Known as Arveschoug-Bird, it restrains the growth of budgets for departments such as higher education and human services.

Marostica's appearance at the news conference came one day after he was pulled into two meetings with House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, to discuss GOP opposition to the bill.

Marostica will apparently keep his seat on the JBC, but as penance will have to apologize to Mark Hillman and Jon Caldara. This is the best way for the Republican leadership to defuse what was rapidly becoming a terrible situation for them. The ousting option would have meant a total melt-down for the state legislative GOP.

But the punishment is telling: if Marostica's offense was to co-sponsor a common-sense budgetary fix, why has Mike May determined that the appropriate punishment is an apology to Jon Caldara and Mark Hillman?

The answer provides some insight into the dynamics at the State Capitol this year:  
Republican leadership works in a totally different way from Democratic leadership.