Snubbed by Republican Gov. Bill Owens on Wednesday, Democratic Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald said she intends to put out a call today for a special session on immigration.
Fitz-Gerald announced her intentions after the governor scrapped a public meeting with legislative leaders Wednesday morning in order to tour the Mato Vega fire near Alamosa and authorize $3 million in firefighting resources.
The meeting was not rescheduled, and the governor is out of town the rest of the week, said Owens spokesman Dan Hopkins.
Fitz-Gerald said she was told the governor is available by cellphone. She said she hopes that she and Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff will be able to talk to him today about the parameters they would like to put on the special session.
“Hopefully, he’ll agree to our call,” Fitz-Gerald said.
Romanoff put it differently.
“The plan remains to call a special session if we can’t get the governor to agree to an agenda that makes sense, but I’m confident that he will,” he said.
So marks the latest round of political jockeying to dictate the terms of a special session.
Owens sparked the fight last week when he threatened to call lawmakers back unless the Colorado Supreme Court reverses a ruling that bans a citizen-sponsored November ballot measure to eliminate state services to illegal immigrants.
Two days later, the Democrats, who initially called a special session unnecessary, said they were considering calling a session of their own.
And this week, Democrats announced a plan to tackle immigration in a special session by strengthening enforcement of current laws and urging the verification of employment-eligibility status.
The governor, Hopkins has said, is threatening a special session because he wants the legislature to put the measure on the ballot and give the voters the right to weigh in.
The high court ruled the initiative violated the requirement that such amendments deal with only one subject.
Owens could try to craft a narrow special-session call that would force lawmakers to vote on whether to resurrect the ballot initiative.
Democrats, Fitz-Gerald said, are trying to avoid being put in that position.
“I didn’t want to see us put into a box to either agree with (initiative supporter and former Republican Senate President) John Andrews or to look like we didn’t want to do anything,” Fitz-Gerald said.
But Democrats need two-thirds of the lawmakers to agree to come back on their terms, and Republicans have signaled that they intend to back Owens.
Senate Republican Leader Andy McElhany said the Democratic plan demonstrates a “lack of outrage over four Democrats in black robes that trashed the citizens’ right to petition and right to vote.”
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at cfrates@denverpost.com or 303-820-1633.
