Rep. Gary Lindstrom, the freshman Democrat from Breckenridge who is running for governor, voted to kill another Democrat’s clean-air bill Friday, causing it to die by one vote on the House floor.
It was an accident, he said.
Lindstrom meant to vote “no” on a Republican lawmaker’s attempt to kill House Bill 1113, but he voted “yes,” confused about where in the process the bill was at the time, he said.
“I thought I was voting on the bill” itself, not the bill-killing amendment, he said.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Anne McGihon of Denver, has mis-voted herself, she said. House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, and House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, also have entered incorrect votes, they said.
“It happens all the time,” said McGihon, whose proposal was reintroduced Friday afternoon as House Bill 1309 and set for a hearing Monday in the House Health and Human Services Committee. The bill would authorize state regulators to exceed the air-quality requirements of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
It’s a key step to controlling the presence of airborne toxins such as mercury in Colorado, McGihon and supporters of her legislation said Friday.
Opponents – mostly Republicans but also some Democrats – said it would hurt industry in the state by creating unreasonably harsh emissions standards for refineries and other facilities.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
