OPINION: 'Sun-moon' theory explains Democrats and Republicans at Colorado Legislature

Jun. 10—During the 2023 session of the Colorado Legislature, which adjourned its 180-day annual session last month, the Democratic Party enjoyed large majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Despite large Democratic majorities, however, three major bills widely supported by many Democrats, particularly liberal and progressive Democrats, failed to be enacted.

Those three bills involved work and pay schedules in the restaurant industry, rules and procedures for evicting renters, and forcing large apartment houses into single-family zoned neighborhoods.

How could this happen when the large Democratic majorities in both houses should be in almost full control?

Political analysts have an answer for this seeming contradiction. It is called the "sun-moon" theory of political parties, and it has been around for almost three generations.

The theory developed during the 62-year period, from 1932 to 1994, that the Democratic Party dominated the U.S. House and Senate. Except for 1953-1954 (following Republican Dwight D Eisenhower's sweep election into the White House), the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress by comfortable majorities for decades.

Political observers noticed that things work differently when one party is in total control of a two-house legislature. The sun-moon theory sought to explain the differences.

The theory was developed by a widely read, respected newspaper columnist in the 1950s and 1960s named Samuel Lubell. His ideas were taken up by legislative scholars.

"The sun" is the powerful winning political party that has large majorities in both houses of a state legislature. It shines brightly as it goes about its business, totally controlling the output of both House and Senate. As long as the sun remains united, any bill the sun supports is typically passed into law.

In Colorado, thanks to big election victories in the 2022 general elections, the Democratic Party is a bold and brightly shining sun. It easily passed nine of the 12 most important bills in the 2023 session and did not need any Republican votes to get the job done.

"The moon" is the minority party. It is weak and powerless because of recent failures at the ballot box. It has little power of its own as the sun does. It can only reflect the light that comes from the sun.

And the minority moon can only do that at certain times. Similar to the phases of the real moon, the legislative moon waxes and wanes, only shining reflected light and then only at certain times.

Now, we borrow another word from astronomy: the comet. Divisive issues that come before legislatures are like comets. They strike the majority sun, thereby causing bits and pieces of the sun to spin off into space. Ready to catch those bits and pieces is the moon.

If enough pieces break off the majority sun and are attracted to the minority moon, the moon may become larger than the majority sun, although just for that brief moment.

And so it went in the Colorado Legislature this spring. Three large comets — rules for restaurant employees, tenant rights against landlords, and state mandated apartment buildings in single-family housing zones — struck the majority sun and caused key parts to break away.

These errant majority-party legislators gravitated to the minority moon and, combined with the Republicans, had enough votes to defeat the three controversial bills.

Note that this sun-moon theory gives the minority Republicans a potentially fruitful or corrective role to play at the Legislature, even though they are woefully in the minority. Whenever the majority Democrats split on a major issue, the Republicans can pick one side or the other and, at least for that one piece of legislation, be part of a majority winning coalition.

Sun-moon theorists (count us in) like to say that, when one political party dominates a legislature, political issues are primarily solved "within the majority party" rather than "between the majority party and the minority party."

That's a way of saying that, as long as the Democrats at the Legislature remain united and form a brightly burning sun, they get to make the major decisions among themselves about legislative bills. The Republicans do not get to participate at all.

If, on the other hand, the sun is split by an issue, two-party politics comes into play, as deserting Democrats form a majority by combining with Republicans.

Democrats won the legislative redistricting struggle in 2001, so the Colorado Legislature is currently gerrymandered strongly in favor of Democrats. That condition will remain in effect until the next redistricting in 2031.

So for the next several years, we predict that the sun-moon theory will provide a plausible explanation of what is happening in the Legislature.

The majority Democrats will shine brightly and get much of what they want, as long as they remain united. But divisive issues will come along and break off key parts of the sun. That will create opportunities for the moon Republicans to join with the dissident Democrats to briefly take control.

So when Democratic bills are occasionally defeated in the future in the Legislature, think sun-moon theory.