The Rocky Mountain News
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Senate control may hinge on growth issue

By John Sanko
May 2, 2001

It took Democrats 40 years to win control of the Colorado Senate, but some political insiders think it could take them a lot less time to lose it if growth legislation fizzles.

Gov. Bill Owens and fellow Republicans already are pointing fingers at Senate President Stan Matsunaka, D-Loveland, for the way he has handled one of the key issues of the session.

First, there were the closed-door meetings Matsunaka held with developers, environmentalists and local government representatives to craft a bill.

Then came the stalling tactics. First a growth bill from the Republican-controlled House, HB 1225, sat in committee untouched for weeks after its passage on April 4. Then Matsunaka delayed action on the Senate floor with the end of the session now only a week away.

"Until we get the 18 and 33 and one, I'm just going to sit on it," Matsunaka said on Monday, referring to the fact it takes 18 Senate votes, 33 House votes and the governor's signature to put the measure into law.

The take-it-or-leave-it tactics infuriated Republicans. Owens left no doubt that if he didn't get a bill by the end of the session next Wednesday, he'd call legislators back into a special session on the following day.

Sen. Ed Perlmutter, D-Jefferson County, the primary Senate sponsor of the growth bill, has been adamant, as well -- he won't support legislation that he says would accomplish little or nothing.

"Those guys (House Republicans) sent us a totally ridiculous bill," Perlmutter said. "We've got experts working on this and trying to come up with a good compromise, and it's obvious to me he (the governor) is trying to scuttle this whole thing. We're not going to let him."

Political consultant Floyd Ciruli, who has been on the edge of the growth debate by doing work for the Colorado Forum, agrees the Democrats' handling of the issue could backfire at the polls next year. Democrats hold an 18-17 advantage in the Senate.

"Whichever party gets blamed with not being reasonable and not following a good process, they're going to be vulnerable," Ciruli said, noting the blame could shift either way. "The politics of this is very tricky.

"Democrats campaigned very hard on growth," he said. "They can attribute some of their wins to having command of that issue. They won in suburbs where growth is a lot of concern.

"Now they have to be at least somewhat nervous that their strategy doesn't look like it was obstructionist or didn't produce a consensus. It's an important issue for them. They campaigned on it, and they may have won the Senate on it."

Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Tim Knaus said that if Republicans hadn't been tools of the developers and had tried to write a fair bill originally, Senate Democrats would not have been forced to spend so much time at the end of the session getting it into shape.

And he points out that Republicans controlled both houses and Owens was governor last year when they failed to reach any agreement on a growth bill.

"The governor is blowing smoke about these meetings," Knaus said. "He's trying to divert attention from the fact that he has exercised no leadership on this."

State Republican Chairman Bob Beauprez is convinced the Democrats' handling of the growth issue will help his party in the next election.

"It's not good government," Beaupez said. "Frankly, it's juvenile. I hope it bites them right in the backside. It should."