DENVER – Perhaps no bill better epitomizes the 2016 legislative session than the apparently futile efforts to create a presidential primary in 2020.

The chairs of both the Colorado Republican and Democratic parties supported the plan, as did the Republican secretary of state and the Democratic governor.

Two bills dealing with the issue were defeated.

“How did that happen?” Gov. John Hickenlooper asked reporters during his end-of-session availability Thursday. “That seemed like something that was going to be a fairly easy bipartisan win, and, again, no one has really explained how that fell apart.”

The basic theme of Hickenlooper’s post-session press conference: Things went down in flames.

Lawmakers failed to pass bills addressing looming taxpayer refunds, developers’ fear over multifamily housing litigation, teen sexting and access to life-ending drugs for the terminaly ill.

And like Hickenlooper, no one seems clear on why so few compromises were met.

There wasn’t a great deal of animosity between the two parties, and unlike at the federal level there was no petty budget showdown over non-budget-related issues.

Kelly Brough, president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, said Friday she didn’t understand the breakdown.

“It, frankly, was hard to tell because some of these never lent themselves to discussion to understand why you would vote no,” Brough said, who led a bipartisan coalition of supporters for both the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights fix and the construction-defects reform. “When we worked together and really listened to each other and came up with solutions that worked for all of us, we felt like that should work for lawmakers, too. … I might be a little more tolerant, but our members felt like we’ve been working for over three years on construction defects and two years on the hospital provider fee. This wasn’t new information for anyone there, and it felt like politics.”

Enough was left on the table that Hickenlooper said he is considering calling lawmakers back for a special session this summer.

Both the Democratic speaker of the House and the Republican Senate president were in discussions until the session ended about a bill to forestall imminent TABOR refunds and spend the money on roads and schools. Senate President Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, never supported the plan and it died in a Senate committee.

It’s hard to imagine another three days of legislative work would change his mind on that issue, but everyone admits they were painfully close to striking a deal on construction-defects litigation reform.

“I think the two of us could have written it ourselves,” said House Speaker Dickie Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder. “I think there was too much concern that the stakeholders have been with us this far [so] we couldn’t do it unless they said, ‘OK, we’re going to get it done.'”

Senate Majority Leader Mark Scheffel, R-Parker, agreed. Scheffel backed two Democrat-sponsored affordable housing bills, however. The very small bites of the apple are now awaiting a signature from the governor and would allow first-time homebuyers to grow investments for a tax-free down payment and set aside about $6.5 million in tax credits for developers of affordable housing.

Perhaps a few more days would have seen a on the construction-defects issue.

That brings up the issue of timing.

Many of the biggest bills of the session weren’t introduced until the waning half of the 120-day session.

Hickenlooper bemoaned that fact with one of the big bipartisan bills that did pass.

The epic beer and wine compromise, which would allow grocery store chains to hold more than one liquor license while protecting local liquor stores, may be one of the few bills he vetoes.

“It’s interesting they made that much progress in five days,” Hickenlooper said. “I’m not sure that’s good. I’m being very candid. I’ve read through the synopsis and the synopsis, I thought, was more confusing than a crossword puzzle. I think something this complicated and with such deep roots usually takes more discussion – more negotiation before we find a good compromise.”

Countless lawmakers took the strategy of introducing major bills late. The draft legislation was closely held between key stakeholders before being introduced. That meant public scrutiny suffered. Little notice was given to the public before committee meetings when public input was taken, and some issues were taken up late at night.

Bills are supposed to be introduced in January, but leaders of the House and Senate can grant lawmakers late-bill status.

House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, blames politics for the breakdown, particularly Democrats in the House, who killed a bill that he proposed to ask voters to allow the state to take out millions of dollars in bonds to pay for transportation funding.

“I don’t know why the transportation bonding issue was killed,” DelGrosso said. “The reality is we went in with amendments and addressed all of the concerns that everybody had on the bonding issue. I think towards the end of the session, there were some folks here that were unhappy with some of their bills dying in another chamber, and so I think politics came into play at the end with some of those bills. Hospital provider fee, I know was important to some people, and so since we didn’t get hospital provider fee, well, we’re not going to give anybody anything.”

Hullinghorst said the transportation bonds bill would have hurt education funding.

“At the last minute in committee … the Republicans, Minority Leader DelGrosso, actually introduced a bill that would raise taxes,” Hullinghorst said.

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter @CapitolSchrader

In this Nov. 3, 2015, file photo, the gold-covered dome on the State Capitol shines in the late afternoon sun in downtown Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)

David Zalubowski