Fort Collins – The state Democratic Party’s executive committee backed on Saturday the budget referendums slated for the November ballot, lending the measures a boost but creating what some committee members believed will be a partisan taint.
The endorsement gives proponents of Referendums C and D access to one of the state’s two largest grassroots political networks, but the other one is already out of reach.
The Republican Party has already indicated that it won’t endorse the measures, Sheila MacDonald, campaign manager for “Yes on C and D,” told the meeting in Fort Collins.
Part of a carefully crafted compromise between Democratic legislative leaders and Republican Gov. Bill Owens, Referendums C and D would suspend the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, for five years, heading off what supporters say would be drastic budget cuts by the legislature next year.
Proponents have begun what they expect to be a $4 million effort to get the measures passed. More than 180 people and organizations have endorsed the measure, including the Republican mayor of Colorado Springs and Larimer County, according to Katy Atkinson, a spokeswoman for “Yes on C and D.”
“There are organizations that have never agreed on anything before coming together on this – business organizations, labor organizations, economic development groups. In 30 years of politics, I haven’t seen this broad a coalition come together on anything,” Atkinson said.
Even so, several members of the Democratic executive committee openly worried that their party’s endorsement would be a mistake, especially without an endorsement by state Republicans.
“By our actions today, we’ve just ensured that this will be a partisan issue. We’ve just ensured that Republicans will be against it,” Darryl Eskin, a delegate from Adams County, told the meeting.
Some delegates objected to using party resources on the measures rather than defending the party’s majorities in the legislature. Others complained that Referendum D, which allocates money for highway, education and other projects, slighted their counties.
But party leaders said it would be a disaster not to support Democratic legislative leaders who helped craft the measure.
“Each one of us could say that because it doesn’t have my specific project, I’m going to oppose it. But that would be the proverbial cutting your nose off to spite your face. If this doesn’t pass, nobody gets anything,” said Bob Bacon, a state senator from Fort Collins.
In other action, the executive committee decided that next year’s state party convention will be May 19-20 in Greeley. That city is part of the 4th Congressional District where Republican U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave is being targeted in the 2006 elections.
Staff writer Michael Riley can be reached at 303-820-1614 or mriley@denverpost.com.
