For the second straight year, the Democrats in majority control of the legislature shut the place down two days early. This is intended to show how efficient they are. The Republicans, when they were in charge, never ended more than a few hours ahead of the deadline of midnight on the 120th day.
The early departure of the honorables is a mixed blessing. Two fewer days of lawmaking means two more days of mudslinging. OK, maybe that’s a bit cynical. Most legislators take a break after the end of the session, and the rest of Colorado can stop to smell the flowers. But the state nominating assemblies are coming right up, and there, partisanship rules.
Political campaigning is a year- round game, but it really picks up after the legislature goes home.
When the campaigns are in full cry, three or four months from now, the legislature’s record of successes, and especially failures, will be a focus of races for the General Assembly.
It was a pretty good year. Voters had given legislators permission to spend more of the money the state collects from existing taxes, and that removed one of the major sticking points of recent years.
The legislative achievement voters will notice most is that it finally passed a statewide smoking ban. Government’s power to condemn land was restricted, the state’s pension plan was repaired and the costs of prescriptions may have been reduced.
But for all that the legislators accomplished – and they accomplished about as much as they could, given the restrictions voters have placed on them – the focus in the upcoming campaign season still will be on what they didn’t do.
Negative campaigns work. Or so they say. Maybe it’s because everybody eventually goes negative, and somebody always wins.
But in today’s politics, it isn’t necessary to say specifically what you’d do to solve problems. It’s more effective to say that the other guys haven’t done enough to come up with solutions.
Democrats hope to retain legislative control. They haven’t had a good history of keeping a majority, in either chamber. Since the Kennedy administration, 40 years ago, their record has been two years and out.
But national politics are working in the Democrats’ favor. The president’s approval ratings are woefully low, and Republicans in Congress are faced with scandals and voters’ rage at illegal immigration and gas prices. Bad news for Washington Republicans could be good news for Democrats everywhere else.
Colorado Democrats will accentuate the positive of how well they did at running the legislature. But don’t be surprised if they also use a negative – that the Republicans were obstructionists.
Republicans will attack the Democrats on several fronts, including immigration, same-sex marriage and ethics.
Democrats didn’t even put immigration on their to-do list this year, but it was at the top of the Republicans’ list. Obviously, the Republicans had a better handle on what the public was stirred up about. The Democrats managed to produce a few measures to address problems with smugglers, phony documents and employers. But Republicans wanted more, and they’ll make a big issue of it in the campaign ahead.
Democrats tend to be sympathetic toward same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships. But this is an issue that fires up the conservative Republican base – and, the Republicans hope, a lot of traditionally married couples as well.
Ethics is an issue that cuts both ways. Nationally, the Republicans have more problems; Tom DeLay and Scooter Libby are two of the most prominent. But locally, the state GOP has been calling attention to every conflict of interest it can think of.
All in all, there’s plenty of material for both sides to make mud balls.
Today is Mother’s Day, and one of the things mothers tell their children goes something like this: “If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.” So if more people listened to their mothers, we’d have fewer politicians – and fewer journalists, come to think of it.
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a political analyst for 9News.
