February 22, 2016 03:12 PM UTC

It's a Trap! Neville Leads Senate GOP To Messaging Disaster

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• by: Colorado Pols

Today, the GOP-controlled Colorado Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 16-070, this year’s edition of perennial “work for less” legislation that would cripple the ability of labor unions to organize in Colorado workplaces.

“Work for less,” like abortion bans and other pieces of hard-conservative legislation coming out of the Republican Senate, is of course destined for a quick death in the Democratic-controlled Colorado House. The rationale behind Republicans introducing politically distasteful legislation with no realistic change of passage is generally to motivate their base voters to turn out in elections–the theory being that these bills will do more to motivate friendly voters than rile up opponents. In the case of Tim Neville, sponsor of SB16-070, the bill has natural value in his GOP U.S. Senate primary campaign.

But it doesn’t always work. If the goal behind Senate Bill 70 was to motivate base Republican voters more than the liability created by the legislation would hurt, Senate Democrats did a masterful job “trolling” the attempt. Before passage of SB-70 on second reading, the bill was amended to include the following provisions:

8-3.3-104. Prohibited activities. ON AND AFTER THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS SECTION, AN EMPLOYER SHALL NOT DISCRIMINATE AGAINST AN EMPLOYEE WHILE CARDS ARE BEING CIRCULATED, DURING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, OR WHILE A LABOR ELECTION IS PENDING, BY:
(a) APPLYING PHYSICAL RESTRAINT;
(b) PREVENTING BATHROOM USE;
(c) ELIMINATING LUNCH BREAKS;
(d) REDUCING PAY; OR
(e) DEMOTING THE EMPLOYEE.

But today, Neville ran a procedurally unusual last-minute amendment which stripped this language entirely from his bill. At first blush, that might not seem out of the ordinary. But in the context of a bill that was going to die anyway, Neville’s insistence on removing the language you see above is far more of a political problem.

Why, you ask? Because Republican Colorado Senators just voted to make it legal to take away bathroom breaks from employees. It doesn’t matter if you’re a union member or not, the characterization of this vote–with no embellishment needed–is a political nightmare for every Republican who cast it. We understand that Neville wields a great deal of power in the Senate GOP caucus, but to follow him blindly into this trap as they did today is really quite astounding.

Don’t believe us? Just wait until you see the TV spots and mail pieces.