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Successor to Cerbo selected

Ferrandino state's first gay male rep

Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 21, 2007 at midnight

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Mark Ferrandino has become Colorado's first openly gay male legislator after being appointed to replace Rep. Mike Cerbo.

Cerbo, D-Denver, resigned last week to become director of the Colorado AFL-CIO.

Cerbo, who represented District 2, endorsed Ferrandino, calling him an accessible, outgoing and responsive replacement whose experience will help the legislature in its budgeting discussions.

A vacancy committee of party activists and local elected Democrats voted 23-3 in favor of the 30-year-old fiscal policy wonk at a meeting Wednesday night.

"I'm proud to be representing my constituents and the GLBT community," Ferrandino said Thursday. "I'm a qualified Democrat who wants to do good, who also happens to be gay."

The treasurer of the state Democratic Party and a former co-chairman of the Colorado Stonewall Democrats, Ferrandino said he will resign his party posts after helping to smooth the transition to a new treasurer.

Ferrandino worked in the White House budget office before relocating from Washington to Denver in 2003, when his partner got a job in Colorado with the U.S. Customs Service.

He said that while he has no plans to push any specific issue, his experience positions him well to help fellow lawmakers tackle health care reform.

"I want to make life better for the people of the state of Colorado," he said.

His appointment comes a week after Gov. Bill Ritter appointed the state's first openly gay district court judge.

Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, became the state's first openly gay female legislator when she was elected to the House of Representatives in 1996.