Party leadership?
Who’s in charge of the Colorado Republican Party?
That’s what Democratic House Majority Leader Alice Madden says she wants to know, after a Republican leader’s request that the GOP stop doing publicity stunts at the Capitol fell on deaf ears.
The gimmicks to bring attention to Republican complaints about Democratic fundraising have included a cake with a frosted thank-you note and bags of fake money.
Last week, Republican House Minority Leader Mike May asked the party to stop, but a party spokeswoman said it would not.
“I thank Mike May for trying, but it’s an interesting little mystery of who’s running the show,” Madden said.
Payback will come – later
Anyone who thought recent pleas for a kinder, gentler second half of the legislative session were just talk might have been surprised by the conversation in Republican Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany’s office Monday.
Gathered to discuss filing an official challenge of Democratic Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, 15 Senate Republicans chose not to do it – yet.
A better opportunity will come, McElhany told them. So they agreed, some of them begrudgingly, to bide their time.
The Republicans are upset by Fitz-Gerald’s procedural ruling last week that barred them from adding an illegal immigration bill to a worker’s compensation measure.
Teacher-controversy echo
Jay Bennish didn’t just make NBC’s “Today” show with his controversial lecture about the president at Overland High School.
The geography teacher – or his story, at least – also has turned a once-quiet bill at the Capitol into a vehicle for a political fight.
After Colorado Springs Republican Sen. Doug Lamborn tried to amend Senate Bill 176 to make unchecked political bias grounds for dismissing a teacher, Democrats now may kill the bill, even though Lamborn’s amendment failed. Why? To keep a similar amendment from popping up in the House, said Arvada Democratic Sen. Sue Windels, chair of the Senate Education Committee.
But the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, thinks the House should consider something like Lamborn’s Bennish amendment.
“What’s wrong with that?” she said. “It’s not a partisan issue. It’s about impressionable kids getting impartial viewpoints.”
Scouts can take a joke
Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver, praised the Girl Scouts visiting the House of Representatives on Monday morning but joked that her endorsement could be a mixed blessing.
“Everything I know today, I learned from the Girl Scouts,” she said. “I hope that doesn’t hurt them.”
Boyd resigns from House
Choking back tears, Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, on Monday announced her resignation from the state House of Representatives, effective March 22 at 8 a.m.
She is expected to be named a state senator, replacing Sen. Deanna Hanna, D-Lakewood, who is resigning amid an ethics investigation.
“I’m humbled and at the same time extremely proud to have served in this house for these six years,” she said. “I will miss you all.”
