Governor-elect Jared Polis has an ambitious agenda of policies and programs to starting working on in January and he's already put together policy teams that include former Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace and Dr. Malik Hasan, owner of NuVue Pharma, the marijuana business here.

Polis's staff announced the transition teams on Friday and they cover all the major issues — transportation, economic development, health, consumer services, energy and education.

For example, Pace and former House Speaker Crisanta Duran, of Denver, will co-chair the transportation group, which will also look at infrastructure needs. Pace was an early Polis supporter.

Hasan is one of the co-chairs of the health and human services group, along with former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, who currently heads Mental Health Colorado, a non-profit agency.

Another Southern Colorado voice is former Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp, of Lamar, a member of the energy and agriculture group.

Polis's new chief of staff, Lisa Kaufmann, chaired his election campaign and said the Polis team is looking for citizen volunteers to participate in the issue groups. Interested people can sign up at BoldlyForward.co

Polis will be stepping into the governor's office in January at the same time Democrats will formally take majority positions in the state Senate and continue in that role in the state House.

Republicans responded to Tuesday's loss of power in the Legislature with a warning of sorts. Yes, Democrats now have all three branches of state government, state Sen. Chris Holbert, R-Parker, said in a statement.

"But that's not a license to run roughshod over the 46 percent of district residents in Colorado who didn't support their candidates or ideas but still need to be heard, represented and respectfully treated at the statehouse," he said.

New Senate President Leroy Garcia, of Pueblo, didn't talk about running "roughshod" over anyone in his victory comments last week.

But the problem with winning a commanding majority is that both Senate and House Democrats will have their own legislative agendas, as well as the new governor.

"I have a good relationship with the new governor and we will work closely together," Garcia said after being named to lead the Senate at a Democratic caucus last Thursday.

"But I also have senators in my caucus who will want to advance their bills this year, so it will require coordination with other leadership," he said.

And Democratic lawmakers aren't the only ones with expectations for the coming session. Voter groups like Moms Demand Action, that backed Democrats, will want to see results on issues that matter to them, like stricter gun laws.

While state voters put Democrats in charge next year, they didn't help lawmakers by approving any ballot measures to resolve the tough questions of how to pay for major road improvements or how to settle the fight between the oil and gas industry and local communities over minimum setbacks, or buffer zones, between gas wells and nearby houses, schools and waterways.

Garcia didn't mind that. He said the best way for Democrats to build on Tuesday's election results was to concentrate on solving fundamental problems of how to pay for better roads, improving higher education and such.

"That's what the public expects of us," he said. "We need to deliver on the issues that concern them."

Still, Polis offered voters a long list of promises in his campaign — better health care, free kindergarten, cheaper college costs and so on. He will probably give an initial plan of action on those many issues when he delivers his first state-of-the-state speech the opening week of the session in January.

proper@chieftain.com