After weeks of intense partisan warfare, House Democrats and Republicans made overtures last week that they were ready for a truce.
On Friday, when Republican Rep. Jim Welker of Loveland apologized on the House floor for sending along a racially charged e-mail, Democrats had the chance to make a stinging political example out of him.
Instead, they criticized Welker but also accepted his apology. Then, members of both parties used the occasion to declare a fresh start at the session’s halfway point.
Earlier in the week, newly elected Republican House leader Mike May sent word to the state party that its political theater, which included leaving fake bags of money for Democrats, was no longer welcome at the Capitol.
Welker said he was sorry for forwarding an essay written by the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson that said “welfare-pampered blacks” in New Orleans waited for the government to bail them out after Hurricane Katrina.
Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, who is black, said the Welker debate turned into a broader one about the Capitol’s political atmosphere.
“It was kind of weird, wasn’t it?” he said. “It’s just a sign of the frustration we’ve all been experiencing over the first 60 days or so of the session – the complete vitriol that’s permeated this place.”
Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said the partisan rancor of the past few weeks must be put aside.
For his part, May tried to put the kibosh on the Republican Party’s attempts to draw attention to $83,000 of in-kind contributions to several Democratic lawmakers’ office accounts.
“I will not tolerate it. When the legislative session is on, the elected officials are driving the bus,” May said Friday. “I don’t want to be in the middle of something I can’t control.”
But a spokeswoman for the party said officials reserve the right to “continue to employ similar strategies, if necessary.”
The political stunts May wants to quash involve Republicans’ attempts to learn the identity of Research and Democracy, the group that gave the money.
Republicans have delivered a cake frosted with a thank-you note to the House Democrats supposedly from Research and Democracy. And last week, they delivered fake bags of money to House Democrats labeled “Research and Democracy.”
The money bags arrived shortly after Republicans and Democrats had concluded an amicable negotiation over the creation of a state rainy-day fund.
When Democratic leaders confronted him about the prank, May said he had to convince Democratic leaders that he had bargained in good faith. He said he had not known the party’s spin machine had been in the building.
“I had no idea what they were talking about, and they looked at me like, ‘Oh, sure,”‘ he said. “We were in the process of working rather cooperatively. We were able to piece that back together and hold the leadership together, but it was tense for a minute.”
Democratic House Majority Leader Alice Madden had recently responded to the Republicans’ records requests by demanding that the GOP disclose similar records. She rescinded the request the same day.
Other events that have heightened the partisan atmosphere included Democratic Sen. Deanna Hanna’s resignation last week amid a possible recall election and an investigation into a letter she sent asking for $1,400 in “reparations” from a group that endorsed her opponent.
Former Republican House Minority Leader Joe Stengel is being investigated by a House ethics panel for $23,760 in off- session pay he collected for working 240 of 247 days after the legislature adjourned last year, including time when he was vacationing in Hawaii.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-820-1633 or cfrates@denverpost.com.
