January 28, 2010 08:36 PM UTC

"Business As Usual"

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels writes for The Spot:

Democratic House Speaker Terrance Carroll said a GOP leader “flagrantly conducted business as usual” and checked in with a major donor before casting a vote on a mortgage bill.

Carroll said that House Assistant Minority Leader David Balmer of Centennial placed a call to the donor, a mortgage expert, during a committee hearing Wednesday in front of “dumbfounded” audience members and committee members.

Afterward, Balmer was the lone “no” vote on House Bill 1141 by Carroll, which protects home owners when they seek loans. The other four Republicans on the Business Affairs & Labor Committee voted for the measure.

…Said Carroll: “They can try to spin it however they want but what happened was clearly inappropriate. I can’t think of a single instance where a Democrat in committee has taken out their cell phone and called a major donor to ask how to vote on a bill.”

According to Bartels, Rep. Dave Balmer called former U.S. Senator Bill Armstrong–board member of the Cherry Creek Mortgage Company among his many hats. Republicans claim that Democrats are trying to “distract” from other business at the capitol yesterday, namely the suspension of several tax breaks for business interests that moved forward in committee votes.

We’d say it’s more than a little unseemly to call a donor in the middle of the hearing about a bill directly related to said donor’s business, but Balmer is known for doing impulsive, politically horrifying stuff like this–it’s called “tone deafness.” And yeah, it’s definitely worth a mention regardless of whatever else was going on yesterday: the best way to avoid such “distractions” is to not do something this plainly stupid.