January 30, 2011 10:19 PM UTC

A Love-Hate Relationship With Dave Balmer

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• by: Colorado Pols

As reported last Thursday and Friday, Rep. Dave Balmer’s privileges to visit the floor of the state Senate have been revoked for the duration of the session, in the aftermath of a confrontation there between Balmer and Sen. Gail Schwartz over redistricting. Both Balmer and Schwartz serve on the “Kabuki Kumbaya” bipartisan redistricting committee, and it will be interesting to see how those meetings change in tenor following this incident.

But amid the bipartisan condemnation of Rep. Balmer’s behavior, and the apparent resolution of the incident in a way that both punishes Balmer and avoids the time and expense of a formal investigation, Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp is…well, he’s unhappy with how this all went down apparently. Here’s what he says about it in his weekend newsletter to constituents:

Finally, on a sad note, two legislators argued on the senate floor.  One was a Republican house member, he was being boisterous and demonstrative.  The other one was a Democrat member of the Senate.  An apology by the house member should have been made, and was made to both the senator and to senate leadership.  The matter should have been dropped. But it wasn’t.

You see, a legislative panel was formed by the Democratic majority to investigate the matter.  Later, when the house member apologized to leadership, the investigative panel was dropped, but the house member was still denied access to the senate chamber for the remainder of the legislative session.  Why?  If the apology was sufficient to eliminate the need for the investigatory panel in the first place, should it have not also been sufficient to maintain access to the senate chamber?  

See why so many in the capitol smell politics?

Each of us has an obligation to treat each other decently, even as we fight for our ideas, and often times do so with great intensity.  But as adults, do we not have a similar obligation to also forebear a little with those who might be gesticulating wildly and being a little extra boisterous?

It’s possible that Sen. Kopp just hasn’t had much experience with Dave Balmer, and doesn’t know about the man’s long history of bizarre and even threatening behavior–at least not to the extent our readers do. We think that Kopp certainly shouldn’t put himself further out on a limb here than Balmer’s nominal boss House Speaker Frank McNulty, who had the good sense to not try and defend Balmer’s behavior as mere “boisterousness” that an “adult” should “forebear.”

For one thing, “boisterous” is not synonymous with “creep.” It’s kind of difficult to ignore the fact that these incidents seem to involve women more often than not–we’d say it’s about the only thing that Debbie Stafford and Gail Schwartz will ever have in common.

On the other hand, perhaps Kopp has heard about Balmer’s one redeeming virtue to Republicans; the virtue expressed in the form of a check. No one will dispute that Balmer’s uncanny ability to raise funds for GOP candidates and causes has papered over his character flaws before, even if it hasn’t saved him from ruthless character assassination in leadership elections. It seems like every time we think Balmer is washed up for good, somebody gives him another prominent role; like this seat on the redistricting committee. There has to be a reason, doesn’t there?