The new little basket on Rep. Morgan Carroll‘s desk is rubbing lobbyists the wrong way. It’s where their business cards await her attention. Carroll, a Democrat and lawyer from Arapahoe County, angered lobbyists soon after arriving at the Capitol in 2005 because she refused to leave the House during floor debate to chat with them. That was a break with legislative tradition that put some noses out of joint.
For the first week or so, Carroll said she tolerated the long-standing tradition of accepting notes and cards from lobbyists who wait outside the House and Senate chambers to schmooze lawmakers. (They’re not allowed inside). Then she stopped accepting them entirely – until this year when she set out the basket.
Carroll says the cards and chats distract from floor debate. “I’ll talk to people seven days a week, just not while I’m voting on a bill,” she said.
But lobbyists complain that Carroll didn’t hesitate to solicit their campaign contributions yet now refuses to take their cards during debate.
Carroll said she has been “threatened that I’d never see another dime, and never pass another bill.” Fellow lawmakers coaxed her, and lobbyists complained to leadership. Undaunted, she challenged colleagues to “give me a good reason why a lobbyist can’t talk to me the other 23 hours of the day when I’m not involved in debating a bill.”
Incidentally, Carroll won re-election in November with 62 percent of the vote, up from 55 percent two years earlier. She also received more grassroots donations from constituents who support a representative who pays attention.
Expanding civil rights
Gov. Bill Ritter wants more Civil Rights Commission offices opened in Colorado to make it easier for people to register employment and housing complaints. Joint Budget Committee Chairman Abel Tapia said Pueblo and Grand Junction are likely sites for the new offices. Several were closed during the recession due to budget constraints, leaving only the Denver office open.
Commission director Wendell Pryor says complaints have declined from about 1,000 in 2003 to 800 a year now. But Tapia said the lower numbers probably reflect the absence of locations to register complaints. The commission is funded through a mix of state and federal dollars.
Romanoff looks to future
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff says he hasn’t decided what he’ll do when his term ends next year.
“I want to get married and have kids,” Romanoff said last week.
Friends and associates are urging him to run for another office, but it might not fit into his family plans. Romanoff, 40, intends to finish legal studies at the University of Denver but doesn’t want to practice law. “I’m open to suggestions,” he said.
Since he was elected to the House in 2001, Romanoff has been called the most eligible bachelor in Colorado politics, even though he has a reputation for being all business and says this session has been “unusually consuming.” “When I have time to do anything, I spend most of it with my dog Zorro” (so-named because “he leaves his mark everywhere”), Romanoff says.
After being featured in a 2005 Denver Post column in which he made it clear he was “available,” Romanoff was bombarded with letters and e-mails from admirers. Many sent photos. One photo showed a pair of legs and contained a note suggesting Romanoff could view the rest when they met. So, has he met anyone special? “Should I answer that? I probably shouldn’t. No, I better not,” the speaker said.
Colorado holds steady
Colorado likely won’t gain any seats in Congress through 2030, but it won’t lose any either. That’s according to the University of Virginia Center for Politics, which calculated the number of seats each state will gain or lose based on U.S. Census population projections.
While California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah are on track to gain seats, Colorado is projected to hold steady at seven. Seats in Congress are doled out based on population shifts. Colorado gained its seventh seat in Congress after the 2000 census showed it added 1 million residents in the 1990s. The university’s Crystal Ball website indicates Pennsylvania, Iowa and Rhode Island could lose seats.
Julia C. Martinez (jmartinez@denverpost.com) is a member of the Denver Post editorial board.
