“If C Wins, You Lose.”
The line sums up the fatal flaw of Marc Holtzman’s entire campaign for governor. Now, it could be the swan song of presumptive Republican candidate Bob Beauprez.
If C Wins, You Lose was an issues group with which a judge said Holtzman illegally commingled his gubernatorial campaign. It made a cool bumper sticker for those who opposed Referendum C, which let the state keep some money that would otherwise have been refunded under TABOR, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
“If C Wins, You Lose” also described Holtzman’s political fortunes and currently forebodes Beauprez’s.
Opposition to Referendum C doomed Holtzman long before a judge ruled against him last week. The fork plunged into his cooked political carcass in November, when Colorado voters passed Referendum C. The outcome of that vote made superfluous Thursday’s announcement by the Colorado secretary of state that Holtzman failed to collect enough valid signatures to petition onto the Republican gubernatorial primary ballot. Holtzman may yet get on the August primary ballot through an appeals process, but he won’t win.
He attacked Republican backers of Referendum C with such personal zeal that they promised his demise.
The trouble for the GOP is that Beauprez currently flirts with duplicating Holtzman’s self-destruction. The retiring 7th District congressman backs a fiscally disastrous constitutional initiative that limits the amount of money spent on Referendum C. The initiative would limit revenue collections to the $3.7 billion projected before the Referendum C vote. An improving economy has boosted this projection to $4.25 billion over five years.
“Both Ways Bob,” as the often- visceral Holtzman campaign likes to call him, opposed Referendum C. But he did it so quietly that the loudest sound you heard was his sigh of relief when no one noticed.
Not this time.
As Holtzman’s bones got picked clean over Ref. C last week, flesh began to separate from Beauprez’s body politic. No less a butcher than a reluctant, but straight-shooting, Republican state treasurer wielded the knife. Treasurer Mike Coffman’s numbers guy, Ben Stein, delivered the bad news: The constitutional amendment to limit Ref. C spending – the one Beauprez bragged about supporting, the one he proudly continues to support – is written so that it will ruin the state budget. Coffman, who also opposed Referendum C, calls the constitutional initiative “technically flawed” because it is retroactive to the 2005-06 fiscal year.
“Technically flawed” in this case means financial disaster.
According to an internal state memo provided by Coffman, passage of the anti-Ref. C initiative would force Colorado to cut its budget $400 million in less than six months. The money would be needed to refund dollars already spent under Referendum C.
The likely cuts, according to the memo, include $65 million from the senior citizens’ homestead exemption that Ref. C funds recently restored. The likely cuts also include $115 million in transportation money, $145 million in capital construction and $28 million for police and fire pensions. Gone, too, would be some water projects, local government grants, additions to higher-education stipends for Colorado’s kids and better reimbursement rates to hospitals providing care for the needy.
In return, refunds would be about $50 a person in the first year of the program, and $33 a person in the second year, the memo says.
Those refunds would cost about $1 million a year to mail.
This is the agenda Beauprez bought into by continuing to oppose Referendum C.
“When the congressman signed the petition (to limit spending), he made the statement that no initiative is perfect,” said Beauprez campaign manager John Marshall. “He supports capping (Referendum C) at $3.7 billion.”
That is not what the referendum said. It said the amount of excess revenue could go up or down, depending on the economy.
So let Beauprez explain the referendum’s evils to old folks who just got their real-estate tax break back because of C.
Let him explain to college students why they didn’t deserve the extra money C provided.
Let him explain to commuters why they should forgo C-financed roads and sit day after day in gridlocked traffic so they can get 50 bucks back at the end of the year.
Let him explain to business-minded Republicans how to pay for infrastructure needed to attract good jobs.
Then let him ask all these people for their votes.
If Bob Beauprez can’t grasp the economic myopia that took down Marc Holtzman, he doesn’t deserve to be governor. And this time, when it comes to Referendum C, he can’t have it both ways.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
