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Retiring lawmaker hopes to see GOP woman succeed her

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 4, 2006 at midnight

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The political jockeying to replace veteran lawmaker Norma Anderson got under way in earnest Tuesday, just a day after she announced her retirement from the state Senate.

Four candidates already have said they'd like the job, and others are expected to enter the fray. A vacancy committee will hold a hearing Saturday to fill Anderson's seat.

The five-member vacancy committee is expected to announce her replacement before the legislature convenes Jan. 11.

The panel will likely look for someone with similar moderate, philosophical leanings to replace the independent-minded Anderson in an effort to hold on to the Senate seat when it comes up for re-election in November, said Bill Schroeder Jr., vacancy committee chairman.

"We'll put up the candidates that have already filed to run for the seat, and open the field up to others," Schroeder said. "My worry is that we must have a candidate that can stand for election in November and win the seat."

Anderson, 73, was term-limited this year. Her successor will have automatic incumbency this election year.

On Tuesday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed sadness over her early departure. "She's been a good ally for Colorado," said Dan Hopkins, the governor's spokesman.

The four GOP candidates vying for Anderson's seat range from conservative to moderate.

They are Justin Everett, an attorney and consultant; Mike Kopp, a consultant to a nonprofit organization; Barb Neville, an insurance agent; and Kathleen Traylor, a physician at Children's Hospital and daughter-in-law of late state lawmaker Claire Traylor.

All four have filed paperwork to run for the District 22 seat.

Anderson announced her resignation at a gathering this weekend, saying she began re-evaluating her future this summer after attending a class reunion and discovering half her schoolmates had died.

"It gives me a chance to pick my own time to leave," Anderson said Tuesday. "It's a little defiance on my part as well."

Anderson said she would prefer to see a Republican woman succeed her, but wouldn't say whether she plans to endorse Traylor or Neville.

Of the 17 Republicans in the state Senate, two are women.

"I'm tired of the Republican Party not electing women," Anderson said.

Anderson is stepping down a week before what would have been her 20th and final year in the legislature; she is the last remaining lawmaker who served in leadership before term limits hit in 1998.

"I liked her independence, her spirit and her courage," said state Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, now the lone GOP woman in the state Senate.

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