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House Democrats pick Carroll to replace Garcia

By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published February 5, 2008 at 6:30 p.m.
Updated February 5, 2008 at 6:30 p.m.

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House Democrats, with an eye on keeping control, chose a rising star with a knack for inspiring oratory Tuesday to replace a fallen star, Rep. Michael Garcia, as assistant majority leader.

Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, beat out respected maverick Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville in a secret ballot vote.

Garcia, of Aurora, abruptly resigned Friday after a woman lobbyist accused him of sexual misconduct at a bar.

Carroll's appointment is the first in a series of changes to come for Democrats as they try to maintain their majority in the House.

Democrats have built their majority to 39-25 in the House and 20-15 in the Senate since taking over the legislature for the first time in 40 years four years ago.

"Make no mistake about it, this vote today is as much about next year and next session as it is about this session," Weissmann told his Democratic colleagues as he asked for their vote Tuesday. "We're in an odd situation after this next election ... We're starting from scratch."

Carroll, 39, is now the highest-ranking Democrat with a political future in the House after November. House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and Majority Leader Alice Madden are term-limited.

Carroll's appointment could elevate his chances of becoming House Speaker later this year.

Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, has expressed interest in the leadership spot. Interestingly, the chair of the powerful Joint Budget Committee urged his colleagues' support for Carroll's appointment Tuesday.

"I don't think that we can put together a better team" than Romanoff and Madden, Buescher said. "But we can put together a team that can continue the foresight, the careful planning and the hard work that they've done. And that leads me to Terrance."

Carroll said he ran for the position for the same reason he worked as a community organizer in the inner city, as a Boulder police officer, and as an urban district director for the Boy Scouts:

"It's always been for one reason and one reason alone - so that those people who are marginalized, those people who are passed on and crushed down, all have an opportunity to be successful, all have what Thomas Jefferson once talked about - the equality of opportunity, that access to be great," he said.

Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams said Colorado voters have by now had time to see how Democrats behave when they are in control and will start taking them out at the polls.

"There is a generational change about to occur in the legislature, and whether we gain control of the legislature or not in 2008, it is going to happen, and it's going to happen by the 2010 cycle, because you can see the energy and vitality is on our side and not theirs," Wadhams said.