It happens like clockwork.
Washington Park’s redbuds bloom each year the first week in May. Goslings take over City Park. And at the Capitol, lawmakers end their session with a crescendo of kvetching.
The perennial bad legislative chi was exacerbated this year by a ginormous budget crisis and an exodus from office among the party now in control. As of mid-term, at least 10 percent of Democrats are either bolting or considering resignation.
Senate President Peter Groff may have the best excuse, having snagged a plum job in the Obama administration.
Citing career pursuits, Rep. Anne McGihon resigned after losing a fight to become House speaker and being stripped of a chairmanship. Rep. Gwyn Green is stepping down, partly to spend more time with her grandkids. And Sen. Jennifer Veiga is moving to Australia.
Two more Democrats, Sen. Jim Isgar and Rep. Karen Middleton, are angling for federal jobs.
Each has his or her reasons. And granted, you might expect a few might to resign now that their party runs Washington.
Still, so many departures raise eyebrows about their griping, especially after they worked so long and hard, presumably to take control.
“Let’s face it, even for Democrats, the Capitol is a crummy place to be,” says Mike Feeley, a lobbyist and ex-lawmaker.
“To hear them complain,” adds analyst Eric Sondermann, “it’s like they’re wrapping up a military tour in Baghdad.”
Every year, burnout sets in among lawmakers, their aides and the hired guns paid to persuade them. “Nine days left” or “Only six days to go,” whined the moaners last week, as if panting through the last leg of a marathon.
Much has been said — especially with Sen. Arlen Specter’s defection — about the sorry state of the Republican Party. What goes unspoken is what a bummer it can be to be a Democrat, especially in Colorado.
It’s been a tough session to be a tax-and-spender.
And there has been a lack of vision in the state party. Many Dems are dissing colleagues who voted against the in-state tuition bill. And many grumble that they don’t have a partner in Gov. Bill Ritter, feeling defeated by suspicions that he may veto one of their hardest-fought battles: trying to repeal the death penalty.
There are other downsides for those on both sides of the aisle. Ethics reforms allow them no more free lunches, golf outings or other perks that helped make lawmaking, you know, fun. Adding to the grind is how limited their authority is by budget strictures such as Amendment 23 and the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR.
Colorado makes it all too easy to bail out of office. Dems lose no seats by quitting, given that state law ensures that partisan hacks may anoint other party members as successors. Twenty-five states hold far more democratic special elections.
Being politicians and all, lawmakers don’t squawk publicly about their jobs. They just gripe while waiting at the bank or downing Red Bulls for breakfast. Blatant bellyaching might be unseemly to voters who work full-time for a living.
Missing in their complaining is recognition that they signed up for the job.
Overlooked by their resignations is a sense of public trust. They campaigned, won and presumably learned the ropes in office. And then they up and changed their vocation, as casually as one might upgrade a cellphone.
Somehow, lawmaking has come to seem joyless, like drudgery that has to be endured, rather than a privilege to be honored and a responsibility to be met.
Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.
