While Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff will soon be out of a job, he is getting recognition for his service before he leaves office.
Romanoff, D-Denver, is one of eight people in the nation selected as a “public official of the year” by Governing Magazine.
The magazine selects its winners based on nominations and on its own coverage of public officials across the nation.
Executive Editor Alan Ehrenhalt cited Romanoff’s backing of Referendum C, which imposed a five-year time-out on state spending limits required under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, as well as the speaker’s efforts at bipartisanship. “He was able to operate in a bipartisan way, which is not easy in a legislature,” Ehrenhalt said.
Romanoff, who will be leaving the legislature this year due to term limits, said he was flattered by the award but that former Republican Gov. Bill Owens deserved much of the credit for Referendum C. “That measure would not have passed without his leadership,” Romanoff said.
Romanoff said he owed his bipartisanship to his father, a Republican, and his mother, a Democrat — though he notes they now are divorced. Tim Hoover, The Denver Post
