Denver technology mogul Tim Gill made a huge impact on American politics last year, the current issue of The Atlantic magazine says. The article depicts Gill as the shrewd leader of a group of “rich gay philanthropists who quietly joined forces” to defeat anti-gay state candidates nationwide.
With timing and stealth, the group helped defeat 50 of the 70 Republican and Democratic candidates they targeted from Iowa to Massachusetts. Gill alone gave $15 million in political donations to help candidates win elections.
Gill is best known in Colorado politics for having helped the Democrats regain control of the legislature in 2004 for the first time in four decades. He had a hand in expanding on those gains last year.
The article notes that Gill persuaded former Gov. Bill Owens in 2005 to sign a bill protecting gays under Colorado’s hate crimes law. The bill had been defeated by Republican legislators several years running.
Mystery officers revealed
The First Amendment Council, a group suing to block the voter-approved Amendment 41 gift ban, has four well-known Coloradans on its board. Bill Becker, director of Adams County Economic Development, is chairman; Norma Anderson, former state senator, is vice-chair; Tim Jackson, president of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, is treasurer. Don Childers, president of the Colorado Bankers Association, is on the board.
The group’s February lawsuit listed only Becker as an officer. Attorneys who filed the suit declined to name other members of the group, citing its 501(c)4, tax-exempt, nonprofit status, which does not compel it to disclose membership.
Anderson and Jackson confirmed the names last week.
Weissmann bill R.I.P.
Rep. Paul Weissmann’s controversial bill proposing to abolish the death penalty in Colorado and shift the money to a cold case unit appears stalled in the House Appropriations Committee. The bill got a lengthy hearing Feb. 7 before the House Judiciary Committee, which passed it 7-4 before moving it to Appropriations, where word is that the bill has become “too hot” for Democrats to handle.
Appropriations Committee Chair Bernie Buescher was non-committal when asked about reports of the bill’s quiet demise. “I’ve seen stranger things around here,” Buescher quipped, then added: “I haven’t scheduled it.”
By law, the bill must have a hearing only in the Judiciary Committee.
The Webb law
Former Mayor Wellington Webb is the reason Denver mayors can’t pick replacements for council members who resign early, like Rosemary Rodriguez and Elbra Wedgeworth.
The charter requires a special election to fill vacancies unless the vacancy occurs within 90 days of a scheduled election, in which case the seat remains empty.
In his new book, Webb says the change occurred during Mayor Bill McNichols tenure, when councilman Elvin Caldwell planned to seek re-election, then resign to take a position in McNichols Cabinet and have the mayor appoint his aide a man Webb says “wasn’t part of my political circle.”
Webb says that he and his cronies persuaded Caldwell to carry the ordinance to change the charter or face a tough re-election battle against Webb’s wife Wilma, a threat he never planned to carry out.
While the charter change was “good government,” Webb confesses, it came back to haunt him as mayor when he was unable to appoint several council replacements.
Just wishful thinking?
With the midway point of the 2007 legislature approaching, lawmakers and lobbyists are betting that the 120-day session will end early.
With fewer bills this year and no big surprises expected, why not? The session, which costs taxpayers roughly $15,000 a day, is scheduled to adjourn May 9. But Sen. Peter Groff said an early recess is “probably just wishful thinking.”
Julia C. Martinez (jmartinez@ denverpost.com) is a member of the Denver Post editorial board.
