mining operations, was killed in committee, but later revived in the state senate. With Sen. Ron Tupa, Kefalas was the house sponsor of legislation designed to reduce the cost of college textbooks by requiring textbook publishers to disclose costs and offer textbooks unbundled from additional materials, and he sponsored legislation to allow outpatient surgery centers to establish peer review committees; both bills were signed into law by Gov. Ritter. For his support of ambulatory surgical centers, Kefalas was awarded the Legislator of the Year Award by the Colorado Ambulatory Surgery Center Association later that year. Kefalas also sponsored a bill to authorize local pilot tests of ranked choice voting methods. Kefalas sponsored a bill to establish a Colorado Housing Investment Fund, but withdrew the bill when proponents moved forward with a similar ballot initiative. He later expressed frustration when plans for the ballot measure were withdrawn. Building on his 2007 bill to allow purchasing of "green" products, Kefalas also sponsored a measure to require Colorado governments to consider products' expected life and cost of ownership in making purchasing decisions, which was signed into law. Among Kefalas' top priorities is restoring and expanding Colorado's earned income tax credit, a move which met with resistance from legislative leaders in 2007 due to budget constraints. Kefalas introduced a bill in the 2008 session to restore Colorado's EITC at ten percent of the federal credit, but the bill was defeated in a House committee. 2008 election Holding office in a closely contested district, Kefalas was expected to be targeted by Colorado Republicans during his 2008 re-election bid, which he formally announced in January 2008. Since taking office, Kefalas sought to maintain a dialogue with constituents by leading a series of monthly "community conversations" on topics ranging from health care to mobile home parks, and named sustainable economic development his top priority in office. Former Rep. Bob McCluskey announced his intention to run against Kefalas in February 2008, pitting the two against each other for the third time in as many election cycles and creating a competitive race in what was seen as one of Colorado's "swing" districts. During the campaign, Kefalas held a fundraising advantage over McCluskey, with $60,000 cash on hand — three times as much as McCluskey — in mid-September. By late October, Kefalas had raised over $100,000, about $15,000 short of McCluskey's fundraising total; which included $65,000 that McCluskey donated to