The Colorado Republican Party is at war with itself over what to do with the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Disagreement is nothing new for Republicans. They have had longstanding internal battles over social issues like abortion and homosexuality, and cultural issues like gun control and prayer in the schools.
But this TABOR debate has put a crack in the one reliable bedrock principle of the Grand Old Party: fiscal conservatism.
The split shows up in the battle for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, where lesser-known Marc Holtzman accuses establishment favorite Bob Beauprez of insufficient revulsion at Referendums C and D, which defer TABOR tax refunds for five years.
It’s evident in some Republicans’ disappointment at Gov. Bill Owens. They say the governor formerly known as conservative has betrayed the party platform by asking voters to let the state keep revenue it raises with existing taxes, if only temporarily.
But Owens says Republicans risk damaging their party if the two referendums fail, because voters will blame them for the resulting major budget cuts.
Centrist Republicans in the legislature may be campaigning for the two amendments, but “the bulk of our party is united behind ‘no,”‘ says Joe Stengel, the minority party’s floor leader in the state House. It’s “not quite accurate” to say there’s a split, the Littleton Republican contends.
Stengel opposes the two amendments. Sen. Norma Anderson, the legislature’s longest-serving current member, favors them – and she says she has confronted ample evidence of a split. “I have gone into all the Flat Earth societies and debated,” she said.
She’s irritated at the Republican opponents’ characterization of state government as a runaway tax hog. Before Democrats took over last year, “There’s been 40 years of Republican control” of the legislature, she points out. “How could there be a lot of fat in the budget?”
Anderson, who has been majority leader in both House and Senate, says the split is between limited-government Republicans and those who seem to want no government at all, “which leads to anarchy.”
That’s an exaggeration, says Stengel. “I recognize we need to spend money” – and that legislators need to keep government reasonably fit, he adds, not “choke it away to nothing.”
He also sees a bright side to the debate: “It’s good for the party. I will help define us. Are we not much different from the Democrats? Tax and spend? Or are we a party that thinks government should live within its means?”
And yet half a dozen Republican lawmakers are joining Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon a walk around the state to support the two referendums. Like Owens, they’re pragmatists, not ideologues, said Gordon, a Denver Democrat. “This is not easy for the governor. I give him credit.”
Gordon thinks the Republican division is more evidence of the GOP’s “culture war,” and that Holtzman and Beauprez, in their pandering to hard-line Republican primary voters, “are advocating something that’s bad for Colorado.”
“The Republicans should want to get this settled, or they could inherit this mess,” adds Pat Waak, the state Democratic Party chairwoman.
Owens thinks the party split will heal quickly if the referendums pass. “The effects will be short-lived,” he said. “TABOR falls off the political radar for at least half a decade.”
But if the referendums fail, “it will have a demonstrably negative impact on our party in the ’06 elections,” Owens said.
“I’m for C and D because I’m a conservative and I support TABOR. If we don’t fix the problem, TABOR will collapse.”
If the referendums fail, Owens said, then in next year’s legislative session, just as political campaigns are hitting their stride, legislators will be forced to cut $400 million in spending.
And that will hurt Republicans’ chances in the 2006 elections, because so many of them are opposing any change.
“The Democrats’ budget cuts will be blamed on my party,” Owens said. “People will ask, ‘OK, smart guys, what’s your answer now?”‘
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.
