November 10, 2006 08:34 PM UTC

Ritter Transition Team and Friends

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• by: Colorado Pols

We didn’t get a chance to get to this yesterday, but Gov.-elect Bill Ritter’s transition team is already hard at work. As the Rocky Mountain News reports:

Gov.-elect Bill Ritter moved quickly Wednesday to put together a new administration, appointing a transition team that included a prominent Democratic Party attorney and a former Republican lawmaker.

Ritter held his first post-election news conference wearing jeans and cowboy boots on the steps of the Capitol. Even with just three hours of sleep, Ritter spoke excitedly about the opportunity to reinvent state government and tackle difficult problems such as the high cost of health care.

To help him in recruiting talented people to head up state agencies, Ritter appointed a three-person transition team. That group will be led by Jim Lyons, a local attorney who is closely linked to former President Clinton, and will include Daniel Yohannes, a well-known banker, and former Republican state Sen. Norma Anderson.

The appointment of Anderson brought audible gasps from the crowd, but Ritter said he was determined to reach out to the GOP.

Appointing Anderson was a nice touch and a solid statement that he plans to be a moderate governor. Jim Lyons’ appointment as head of the transition team speaks volumes about what Ritter thinks of the help Lyons provided when he first left office as Denver DA and worked for a year in preparation for a run for governor. Lyons raised a lot of money for Ritter and offered office space and whatever else Ritter needed early on.

Another big winner emerging from Ritter’s triumph is former legislator and gubernatorial candidate Mike Feeley, who signed on early with Ritter and served as campaign treasurer. Feeley provided sage counsel to Ritter and was also a key advisor to Ed Perlmutter. Feeley and Lyons now figure to jump to the top of the list of power players in Colorado politics as lawyers/lobbyists.