Gov. Bill Owens might be too busy working on the state budget to attend his party’s fence-mending get-together in Silverthorne next week, a spokesman said Wednesday.
GOP chairman Bob Martinez organized the event to encourage unity after months of Republican feuding over Referendums C and D. Crafted by Owens and Democratic lawmakers, the two ballot questions propose a five-year suspension of Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights refunds – an unwelcome prospect for some fiscal conservatives who say the state doesn’t need the $3.7 billion shot in the arm that the refunds would provide.
U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, a Republican candidate for governor in 2006 who opposes the referendums, also might not attend, campaign spokesman John Marshall said.
“He’d like to attend,” Marshall said. “We’re just going to have to see if we can get him back from Washington in time. We’re going to try to make it work.”
Beauprez’s Republican primary opponent, former Owens Cabinet member Marc Holtzman, said he hopes to see both Owens and Beauprez next week at the ranch of Ed McVaney, former chairman of software company J.D. Edwards. Holtzman has been actively campaigning against the referendums, irking many Republican supporters.
“It was billed as bringing together all the key people in the party,” Holtzman said of the gathering. “I would certainly hope that he and Bob Beauprez and others would consider it as important as I do to do all we can to unify our party.”
Martinez could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
It “might be a little easier” for the governor to join the Nov. 4 make-up session if the referendums pass, Owens spokesman Dan Hopkins said, but whatever voters decide, he still could be too busy with the budget.
“The focus (next week) may be on running the state,” Hopkins said. “Neither budget is finished. Both are complicated. It’s going to be more complicated, certainly, if C fails.”
Last week, Owens released two potential budgets – one that he will propose if the Nov. 1 referendums pass; the other, containing $255 million in cuts, if they fail. His official budget proposal needs to be submitted to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee by mid-November, Hopkins said.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
