Some Colorado legislators are leaving office early to avoid getting caught in the confusing provisions of Amendment 41 – in particular, the “revolving door” rule that bars a legislator from becoming a paid lobbyist for two years after leaving office.
Lawmakers Ron Teck, Dan Grossman and Joe Stengel announced last week that they would resign before their terms end officially in early January – and before the new constitutional amendment takes effect, which it will once the governor certifies the election results.
This is an unintended consequence of the new constitutional provisions on conflict of interest, but it should not be a surprise.
The lobbying corps is overrun with former legislators.
Lobbying is one of the best employment opportunities for ex-lawmakers, and some of the most powerful lobbyists once were on the other side of the glass walls that separate the lawmaking chambers from their lobbies.
Hundreds of lobbyists are registered with the secretary of state’s office, but no more than maybe 70 or 80 are at the Capitol regularly during the legislative session, and maybe half of those are really influential. A high proportion of the really influential are former legislators.
Ruben Valdez, who was speaker of the House when Democrats had a 1975-76 majority, is one of them. So are former Republican legislators Bill Artist, Frank DeFelippo and Steve Durham. Among other former Democratic lawmakers, Joan Green and Richard Soash should be counted among the most powerful and well-connected.
There are more, of course. The Center for Public Integrity, which frowns upon the practice, lists 33 in Colorado, although two or three on its list aren’t currently registered. In 2005, across the country, 1,300 former state legislators were registered lobbyists.
The former legislators sell their “unique access,” the center said, and many of them are able to multiply their comparatively meager legislative salaries by a factor of five, six or even more times.
Teck said he didn’t want to limit his job opportunities. Grossman already was working for an organization that promotes environmental legislation.
Stengel had some ethical problems this year. He was criticized for excessive billing of daily expenses, and he gave up his role as House minority leader as a result.
Teck and Grossman, though, are considered two of the legislature’s most high-minded. Yet they’ve become poster boys for the ethically questionable revolving door that sends many ex-legislators immediately into the lobbying ranks.
Lobbying has a bad reputation, but it’s an important part of the legislative process, especially in states like Colorado, where legislators don’t have large, full-time office staffs to research legislation and its implications. Lobbyists do that, and the most successful ones do it accurately and reliably.
Common Cause, which drafted Amendment 41, says critics are overreacting, and there are ways to fix the problems.
The amendment does address legitimate concerns. The revolving door is one of them, and there should be limits on lobbyists’ gifts. But it’s a constitutional amendment, not a statutory change. Its shortcomings can’t be corrected without another vote of the people.
It’s another example of how it’s too easy in this state to change the constitution. Most states have a higher standard for constitutional amendments. Only Colorado and Nevada have identical petition rules for statutory or constitutional changes – and Nevada requires proportionately twice as many petition signatures as Colorado does.
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a political analyst for 9News.
