October 02, 2008 07:17 PM UTC

Trimpa And Unions Finesse Grand Ballot Compromise

• 0 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Update by DavidThi: SoS office has confirmed that they are withdrawn!

Just in the nick of time, as the Rocky Mountain News breaks the story:

Colorado labor unions agreed late Wednesday to pull four initiatives from the statewide ballot, just hours ahead of today’s withdrawal deadline.

The decision ends weeks of intense negotiations between labor and business interests to defuse what would have been an all-out brawl leading up to November’s election.

The details will be announced at an 11:00 a.m. press conference Thursday and were still being worked out late into the evening after the parties met for several hours Wednesday toward a resolution.

The agreement will allow unions to spend all of their campaign resources fighting three potentially damaging ballot measures aimed at weakening labor activity in the state. Sources declined to say exactly how business leaders would coordinate their efforts with the labor community. But those details will likely become clearer after the measures are formally withdrawn from the Secretary of State’s office.

The measures that will not be put to a vote include: mandatory employee healthcare premiums, a safe workplace proposal, a just cause measure that limits employers’ ability to fire workers and a corporate fraud initiative that makes executives criminally liable for wrongdoing.

For those of you who don’t know about Hogan and Hartson’s Ted Trimpa, well, you should. He’s the one who brought this pact, the most unlikely partnership since Referendum C, together, helping reinforce his growing waterwalker mystique. It’s also true that labor wasn’t really looking forward to taking the blame for the potentially serious unintended consequences of a couple of these proposals. The infusion of cash to fight the anti-labor initiatives will help, as will the new and respected business community spokespeople getting out the message–that while the idea of Amendment 47 (and 49 and 54) “sounds good,” the details are devilish.

Best news of all: your wait time at the polling place just shortened by four agonizing choices.