Jabs begin as legislature concludes

Bipartisan gloves come off as gavel comes down

By Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Video

Rocky legislative reporters Chris Barge and Alan Gathright review the 2008 session. Watch »

Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Rep. Bob Gardner gathers his thoughts before speaking Tuesday in the House on SB 183, which could free some men falsely accused of fatherhood from the obligation of child support.

As Democrats raced Tuesday to write what were the final chapters of the 2008 legislative session, Republicans passed around a playbook for taking back the House and Senate this fall.

House Republicans issued press materials casting Gov. Bill Ritter as the face of the Democrats' failure to move a once-giant agenda.

Democrats criticized Republicans for going on a campaign- style attack before the session adjourned a day early.

"I think that's disappointing but not surprising," said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. "When you're in the minority, you can either take pot shots at the party in charge or you can actually work together and solve problems."

GOP Capitol staffers, who put the materials together, made an expanded, 16-page version available to Republican lawmakers as a guidebook of talking points for town halls, speeches and, no doubt, the campaign trail.

House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, said the materials served as an appropriate summary of what Republicans thought were the overriding themes of the 66th General Assembly. "I think we've been clear from the beginning that we thought the governor lacked leadership," May said.

"It's why we have no transportation plan that came out. It's why health care was oversold, and so they attacked the insurance industry to compensate for the lack of some other health care policy."

Republicans have their work cut out if they are to put a dent in a 40-25 deficit to Democrats in the House and a 20-15 vote shortfall in the Senate.

"What is interesting and a little disappointing is that spending taxpayer dollars on that kind of rhetoric only feeds the cynicism that people already have when it comes to politics and government," Ritter's spokesman Evan Dreyer said, responding to the Republicans' criticism.

The blast came on the same day Ritter issued a State of the State speech to the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, highlighting bipartisan progress on a slate of "broad and ambitious goals."

He said the legislature under his leadership:

* "Batted 1.000" on a business development package.

* Balanced that with strong environmental regulations.

* Worked to reduce the dropout rate by reforming education and funding school construction.

* Made progress on health care by setting out on a three-year path to insure 50,000 of the state's 150,000 uninsured kids.

He said the state is wise to wait until after the presidential election to decide on whether to raise more than $1 billion per year for universal health care.

But as for transportation, "quite frankly it was one of the biggest disappointments of the session," he said.

bargec@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5059

Playbook fact check

* GOP claim: "People have questioned Gov. Ritter's decision to follow through with plans for a secret trip to Iraq after learning about the worst outbreak of mass violence since Columbine when two Colorado religious centers were attacked."

* Reality: On Dec. 9, Matthew Murray, 24, killed four people at a youth missionary center in Arvada and a church in Colorado Springs. The same day, Ritter left on a long-planned trip, kept secret for national security reasons, with two other governors to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait after being briefed that Murray was dead and the situation was over.

* GOP claim: "Gov. Ritter has disrupted the 100-year peace between business and labor in the state, setting off a ballot war that could have disastrous consequences for our state's business climate and its economy."

* Reality: Ritter signed an executive order Nov. 2 granting unions increased access to state government. By that time, a national "right-to-work" movement was already gaining steam in Colorado. Ritter failed to head off a brewing ballot fight between right-to-work proponents and labor interests, who have proposed competing measures.