'Reparations' - or a shakedown?

Senate right to probe fundraising demand

Published February 24, 2006 at midnight

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Surely they teach it in candidate school: If you insist on shaking down lobbyists for cash, don't do it in writing.

Apparently the lesson was lost on Sen. Deanna Hanna, D-Lakewood. Now she must pay the price. She's being investigated by a five-member ethics committee created by her own fellow Democrats, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and Majority Leader Ken Gordon.

Such an investigation is almost without precedent at the legislature.

The 3-2 majority given to Democrats may sound like the fix is in, but that's the ratio Senate Rule 43 commands: five or seven members in approximate proportion to the two major parties' strength in the body. Democrats run the Senate 18-17.

Even if Hanna wins, she loses. Her reputation is scarred even if the committee decides no reprimand or censure is in order. (It could also order expulsion, but there's no chance of that happening.)

Gordon, D-Denver, deserves credit for filing the complaint that precipitated the probe.

What Hanna did was demand "reparations" from the political arm of the statewide Association of Realtors, which had contributed $1,400 to Hanna's 2004 opponent, Republican Tori Merritts.

Both had sought money from the Jefferson County branch of the group, which decided to stay neutral in the campaign. But later Hanna discovered that the statewide group had given $1,400 to Merritts. After Hanna won she asked it for the same amount.

She was given only $400. In 2005 she demanded the rest. "My reparations request stands," she said in a letter which - imagine! - eventually found its way into Republican hands. "It seems a rather small price to pay for creating a fracture in my relation with your organization."

She asked it to make their relationship "whole" again and then added, ominously, "There are going to be some very important issues ahead of us.

"You have a choice. So do I."

There's no evidence she planted a horse's head in the Realtors' bed, but her threat seems real.

The incident demonstrates once again the symbiotic relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists, and how the former, after a few years in office, begin to think of contributions from the latter more as a right than a privilege. If Hanna's actions don't deserve a reprimand, we don't know what would.

And what's with "reparations," which smack of the Treaty of Versailles? We all know where that led.

All for a lousy $1,400.

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