The proponents of a state budget-reform deal are off to a slow start in selling the plan to voters – with an awkward message-making effort, conflicting themes from top leaders and a lagging advertising campaign.
The sputtering launch of the campaign that some elected leaders say will be the most important vote of the decade is prompting worries that supporters are falling behind.
“I think they should be concerned,” said John Straayer, a political-science professor at Colorado State University and a longtime observer of state politics. “I assume they are trying to do the right thing, but it’s incomplete.”
Backers of Referendums C and D have been so focused on winning endorsements from business groups, labor unions, environmentalists and other associations that they’ve let opponents seize attention for their message.
The opponents – led by former state Senate President John Andrews and Jon Caldara, the top officer of a conservative think tank – have passion and poetry on their side.
They have crafted clever catchphrases – “No Refund for You” and “Vote No; It’s Your Dough.” They are airing inspired radio ads. They have attracted national support.
And they are making it personal.
The problems with the backers’ efforts surfaced most clearly last week during a speakers’ training session with business leaders in downtown Denver.
Bill Ray, policy director for the Vote Yes on C&D campaign, offered a prosaic message that he felt executives should make in their speeches.
“If we try to break down the cuts to each program, people just kind of glaze over,” Ray said.
He urged the 50 assembled executives to say that approving the referendums will be good for the state – a message that the executives found less than inspiring.
On point after point, business leaders challenged the campaign’s staff for offering a message too vague on details and not focused enough on the consequences if voters reject the plan.
“It says in here that I’m not supposed to talk about specifics,” said Janet Arrowood, managing director of the Write Source Inc., a Golden-based communications company. “Most folks want to know what’s in it for me.”
She urged the proponents to come up with examples of how the state’s budget constraints affect everyday life of citizens in Colorado. As an example, she suggested pothole-pocked roads that don’t get repaired in a timely manner.
“They don’t care about Medicaid, because that doesn’t affect them, but they do care about the alignment on their cars,” Arrowood said.
When asked what to say when voters ask what will happen if the measures don’t pass, Ray said, “I don’t want us to use scare tactics.”
The stumbling start by the professional staff in charge of the campaign stands in contrast to the elected leaders who are making the pitch – although they have crafted separate messages for their audiences.
Gov. Bill Owens is reaching out to Republicans by explaining that a positive vote on Referenda C and D will protect the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, known as TABOR – a rallying cry for fiscal conservatives.
While some opponents say the measures gut TABOR, the governor contends that without them, the state’s dire financial circumstances will get worse and then voters will blame TABOR and vote to repeal it.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, has been pounding another message: The referendums are good for the economy.
Good roads, an educated workforce, a high quality of life and a low tax rate will persuade businesses to locate and expand in Colorado, he said in a speech to nonprofit administrators last week. He also says it will be cheaper to fix the state’s broken roads and schools now, rather than postpone the bill.
“If you don’t fix the leaky faucet,” Romanoff said, “it’s going to cost more when the plumber comes later.”
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
