Hanna quits amid ethics investigation

Lynn Bartels and April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

Embattled Sen. Deanna Hanna today announced she will resign her seat effective March 22, saying the "politics of the moment" have overcome an ethics investigation into her demand for "reparations" from a group that endorsed her opponent.

"We can ill afford to engage in partisan destruction at the expense of the hopes and dreams of the citizens who elect us," the Lakewood Democrat said in her resignation letter.

"No single member's tenure is more significant than the continuing role of the Senate. While it is with personal sadness that I have reached my decision, I cannot let my personal feelings distract from the important work to be accomplished," Hanna wrote.

Democrats praised Hanna, calling her resignation an unselfish act.

Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, said Hanna owned up to what he called "a costly mistake."

"It takes a lot to admit when you're wrong, but it takes even more integrity to understand the seriousness of your mistake and resign your seat because of it," he said.

Hanna has under fire since the Rocky Mountain News first reported her request for $1,400 in reparations from the Colorado Association of Realtors.

"My reparations request stands," Hanna wrote to the group last summer. "It is my hope that you will make our relationship whole again. There are going to be some very important issues ahead of us."

Critics claimed her letter was extortion and implied that unless she got the money she wouldn't vote favorably on their issues. Hanna, who is in the second year of her second four-year term in the Senate, said she was upset that the Realtors had lied to her, first about their endorsement process and then about giving her the money.

Hanna blamed the ensuing uproar on politics in an extraordinary, politically charged legislative session as Democrats try to hold on to their majority and the Republicans try to take it back in November.

"Make no mistake about it, this is beyond an inappropriate letter written in anger and haste," she wrote. "This will be about the majority control of the Colorado State Senate."

Her letter led to a complaint and the formation of a Senate Ethics Committee.

In addition, her constituents threatened to recall her.

Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon of Denver, who filed the complaint against his Democratic colleague, today praised Hanna, calling her resignation "a unselfish act."

"She did the right thing. It would have been an ugly recall election and she very likely would have lost it," he said. "She didn't want to put herself and the Democratic Party through that."

Hanna apologized on the floor of the Senate on Feb. 27, but her apology was followed by a call for her resignation from Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs.

Sharron Klein, chairwoman of the Denver County Democrats and Pete Maysmith, executive director of Common Cause, also called on Hanna to step down.

A Democratic vacancy committee in her district will appoint a successor. Most politicos expect state Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, to have the inside track.

It’s unclear how the resignation effects he Senate Ethics Committee investigation.

"That's a good question," said Sen. Jennifer Veiga, who is chairwoman of the five-member panel.

Hanna said she believed that the ethics investigation would have cleared her.

"I am certain that the results of the legal and ethics process, when reviewed in context, will absolve me of any wrongdoing other than writing a single letter, a letter which I regret, which was wrong and for which I sincerely apologize," she wrote.