Groff, Carroll featured on CNN

Colorado Senate President Peter Groff and House Speaker Terrance Carroll (via satellite) were featured this afternoon during CNN's live inaugural coverage from Washington, D.C.

Colorado became the first state in the country to have African-Americans simultaneously leading both houses of its state legislature when Carroll, D-Denver, was sworn in as Speaker earlier this month. Groff, D-Denver, took the Senate gavel last year.

Asked by Soledad O'Brien about the historic accomplishment and what it meant, Groff said Colorado is "a state where you can break some ground," noting that it was the first state to elect an African-American to statewide office when voters selected George Brown as Lt. Gov. in 1974.

Groff noted that tomorrow's swearing-in ceremony marks "one of the paths that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about. It's really going to be a phenomenal experience tomorrow to sit and hear and watch as an African American male become president of the U.S."

Carroll said that he was hoping to see Obama's message of "hope and opportunity and renewing America's promise" continue, and that Obama's election does not mean that the hard work is done. We have to "complete the circle of opportunity."

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