Hobbled by two years of political travail and personal turmoil, Gov. Bill Owens re-emerged this spring as the prime power broker at the state Capitol.
With Democrats in charge of both chambers of the legislature for the first time in decades, some pundits expected Owens to struggle to control the agenda.
Instead, Owens used aggressive negotiations and the veto hammer to reassert himself as the top boss at the statehouse. In the end, compromises were reached on key legislation such as the budget. And Owens set a record for the most vetoes by any governor in modern history.
“Certainly with last year’s election results, there were some suggestions that my governorship would be weakened,” Owens said.
“I don’t think it has been,” he said. “I wish we had a Republican legislature; I wouldn’t have had to veto as many bills. But the system works. My job changed a little bit with a Democratic legislature.”
With the Democrats in charge, Owens found that his best defense was a good offense.
When Democrats offered a budget fix, he seized some of their ideas for his own proposal.
When Democrats tried to strip controversial clean-air rules out of a bill, he threatened to call a special session.
And when Democrats passed bills he didn’t like, Owens used the veto like never before.
“Democrats are in the driver’s seat this session, but the governor has his hand on the steering wheel and the brake,” Jan Urschel, associate executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards, observed in an April bulletin to members.
Democratic bills would get hearings, but then would “be scaled back with a careful nod to the governor,” Urschel wrote.
When lawmakers convened earlier this year, Owens was on a long losing streak.
His fellow Republicans blamed him for losing control of the legislature. His pet projects and candidates were whipped soundly at the polls.
Even his personal life was a shambles. Owens and his wife, Frances, had separated.
By the end of the session last month, Owens had begun putting the pieces back together. He had reunited with his wife. And in the Capitol, he defined the shape of the 2005 session.
“He certainly wielded more influence than I have seen in my time here,” said Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County. “He was more actively involved this year than he ever was before.”
Owens cornered lawmakers in private meetings, and he shaped many bills before they landed on his desk.
On the biggest deal of the year, a proposal to take a temporary break from the refunds required by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, Owens swiped a key piece of a proposal first offered by House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.
Last summer, Romanoff, D-Denver, suggested that lawmakers offer voters a solution to the state’s budget vise. Romanoff proposed asking voters to give up their TABOR refunds indefinitely in exchange for lower income-tax rates.
At the time, Owens didn’t accept the idea. But after state Democrats drubbed Republicans in November’s election, he re-examined the proposal.
In December, Owens put forward his own plan. Like Romanoff, he proposed lowering income-tax rates. But he tied those cuts to a temporary – rather than indefinite – break from TABOR refunds.
Owens suggested letting the state keep $500 million, about two years’ worth of refunds.
The final deal calls for a five-year timeout from TABOR refunds, allowing the state to keep about $3.1 billion.
Romanoff said he wasn’t bothered that the governor adapted part of his plan. Rather, he credited Owens for negotiating.
“I’ve been here for five years,” Romanoff said. “We’ve tried gridlock. It didn’t work.”
When Owens wasn’t able to reshape every bill he didn’t like, he used the mighty veto. After all, Democrats had a majority, but not the two-thirds needed to override vetoes. So far, Owens has killed a record 43 bills, prompting Fitz-Gerald to dub him the “101st legislator.”
The governor’s success this session doesn’t mean that the Bill Owens Fan Club is adding new members.
The governor antagonized the right wing of his party by cutting the deal on the state’s budget system. Colorado’s budget-restraining constitutional amendment is considered the holy grail by many anti-tax crusaders.
And, on the Democratic side, labor unions, gay-rights organizations and women’s rights groups are using the vetoes to call for Democrats to take over the governor’s office in 2006.
Owens declined to tie his use of political clout at the statehouse to his future fortunes. Once considered a potential 2008 presidential candidate, national party leaders are no longer mentioning his name.
This session’s political triumphs have helped put some of his struggles behind him, but the governor said he hasn’t decided what his next step might be.
“I don’t have plans for future political prospects,” Owens said. “But what I want to do is when I’m through with eight years, I want people to say, ‘You know, he gave it everything he had.”‘
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
