Gov. Bill Ritter‘s cabinet is, so far, bare when it comes to Western Slope interests. That didn’t escape Reeves Brown, executive director of Club 20, a Western Slope advocacy group.
Brown produced a map pinpointing the hometowns of Ritter’s cabinet appointees and wrote, “That vast blank white area on the left is the Western Slope.”
Ritter has acknowledged the gnawing lapse and said he “wants to make sure we have the voice of the Western Slope” represented in government. Then he pointed the finger back at Brown, who was a member of his transition advisory committee on economic development. Ritter said Brown “submitted no West Slope names for his committee.”
Brown told a reporter his Western Slope applicants failed to meet the “rigorous standards” his committee employed to pare down applications.
Go forward, not back
In his State of the State address last week, Ritter said he’ asked Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien to “lead the effort to meet or exceed the federal benchmark of having 80 percent of our children immunized by 2008.”
We’re betting she can do it. After all, Colorado’s rate for fully immunizing children increased to 83.4 percent in 2005, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures. The news was heralded in a Sept. 14, 2006, state health department press release. Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer said they re-checked the figures with the health department when questions arose on Friday, and the health department says Colorado is at 78 percent.
Turns out a sixth vaccination, for chickenpox, had been added to the formula, dropping Colorado to 78.6. But that also drops the national average to 76.1 percent.
In any event, the state’s numbers can never be too high.
Up, up and away
Now that the champagne from his Friday night inaugural parties has gone flat, and Saturday’s whistle-stop train tour of the Front Range is over, Ritter plans on taking wing to celebrate his inauguration across the state.
Ritter and friends will take off from Denver at noon Friday and land in Sterling for a rally. Then it’s on to Burlington, La Junta and Trinidad for various events. It also will be the governor’s first look at damage inflicted on the plains by back-to-back blizzards.
Saturday could be exhausting as Ritter hops from Alamosa to Durango, Steamboat Springs, Rifle, Montrose and finally Grand Junction. Sunday begins in Eagle and ends in Denver.
Have you met my intern?
Tired of the endless introductions and tributes on the House floor, Reps. Michael Garcia, D-Aurora, and Mike May, R-Parker, plan to introduce a resolution today to change House rules, laying out criteria for who can be introduced.
“There are certain members who have introduced every constituent in their district,” May said.
People can still receive tributes, but not all would tie up the House floor. “This will move the days along, for sure,” May said.
Republican radio
Republicans who got drenched in last fall’s Democratic tidal wave are turning to the comforts of talk radio. First it was former U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez, who filled in for Dan Caplis on KHOW’s Caplis and Silverman drive-time show.
Now former Senate Majority Leader Mark Hillman will take a turn at the mic Tuesday, subbing for the vacationing Mike Rosen on 850 KOA. Hillman, a onetime reporter for the Burlington Record, certainly has a voice for radio.
Former GOP lawmaker Rob Fairbank will be an in-studio guest and will chat about Amendment 41. Writing on his blog, called Politically Direct, Fairbank was the first to note the potential conflict former Rep. Tom Plant may have under Amendment 41 as Gov. Ritter’s new head of the Office of Energy Management and Conservation.
As Fairbank notes, most blog discussions have centered on Plant being prohibited by Amendment 41 from “lobbying” his former legislative colleagues for two years. But Fairbank contends 41 also prohibits Plant from talking with the governor about the agency he heads.
Dan Haley (dhaley@denverpost.com) is a member of The Post’s editorial board. Read the Haley’s Comment blog at denverpostbloghouse.com/haley.
