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March 20, 2007 08:53 PM UTC

CBS4: Amendment 41 is a "Political Football"

  • 39 Comments
  • by: WinstonSmith

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Full article, video, and lots of links to good info about the matter can be found here:

http://cbs4denver.co…

Snippets:

So now the legislature is struggling with how to clarify 41 so that it doesn’t lead to the goofy results so many are afraid of. But guess what folks, Amendment 41 (which has been politically controversial from the beginning) has become a big political football.

State Senator Steve Ward, a republican from Littleton, put it this way, “I think there are some people who want to use Amendment 41 implementation as a way of giving a black eye to the sponsors of the Amendment.”

He’s referring to the state senate leadership, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and President Pro Tem, Peter Groff. Both have been reluctant to embrace a legislative fix to 41, and seem to be more interested in embarrassing Jared Polis, than they are in carrying out the voters’ intentions regarding Amendment 41. Neither Fitz-Gerald nor Groff would agree to be interviewed for this story.

There’s also a couple of interesting back stories to consider. Sen. Fitz-Gerald and Jared Polis are political rivals expected to face off in Colorado’s 2nd congressional district in 2008. As for Sen. Groff, it’s a matter of public record that Groff was one of the biggest takers of lobbying gifts in the Colorado legislature before Amendment 41 went into effect. His public comments suggest he is neither a fan of Amendment 41, nor of Polis.

In the end, Amendment 41 is going to be fixed, but it’s also going to take some more legislative time, which means taxpayer money. But that’s the problem with having a state constitution that can so easily be amended by voters in a ballot measure, you end up with a document littered with poorly written law, and once it gets into the constitution, it’s very difficult to change or remove.

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39 thoughts on “CBS4: Amendment 41 is a “Political Football””

    1. …would be campaign finance reform that was passed as a statutory ballot measure in the late 90’s (?), subsequently gutted by the general assembly.  That’s why Amendment 27 was put on the ballot in 2002–to keep the legislature from thwarting what voters wanted.

      1. The General Assembly then enacted contribution limits which were thought to pass constitutional muster, only to tick off Peter Maysmith and Common Cause who wheeled out A-27 with its lower dollar limits.

          1. The Supreme Court opinion was about a different law in a different case.

            Did anyone appeal the district court opinion in Colorado?  If not, the injunction ordered by the district court was effective and Colorado legislature would have had no power to ignore it. 

    2. Ethics reform is one of those things, like campaign finance reform, that is VERY unpopular among those whom it affects (members of the legislature). That’s why these things NEED to be in the constitution; they simply will be gutted and won’t exist otherwise.

      Look at how politicians like Joan FitzGerald and Peter Groff are doing everything they can to undermine Amendment 41, even to the point of scaring public employees. It’s really shameful, but it shows why these kinds of things need to be in the state constitution.

      1. Or is it merely as assumption of bad faith on the part of the legislators?

        As for Fitz-Gerald and Groff, you can’t accuse them of tinkering with A.41, can you?  They are about as hands off on this thing as possible.

  2. Amendment 41 is very clear and no legislative fix will ever fix it.  It needs to be repealed, pure and simple.  Fitz-G and Groff are doing the right thing.

    1. Especially concering the relationship between the prohibitions section and the penalty section.  These two sections don’t match up too well if we look only to the plain language of the Amendment.  This ambiguity provides an opening for the legislative fix.

    2. It doesn’t even define “gift” in the definitions section. That is the thing it is trying to limit and it doesn’t define it? That isn’t very clear to me.

  3. more interested in having an issue to use against Polis in next year’s primary than she is in ensuring children of state employees can receive scholarships to continue their education.

    Rather f-ed up priorities if you ask me…

        1. Why hasn’t Joan yet endorsed the House compromise bill and accompanying resolution for the supreme court’s guidance? I’m not saying it’s a great thing, but I am interested in her reasons for not joining this compromise.

        3. I am sick and tired of politicians who are looking out for themselves AND not taking care of the state. Her very attitude on 41 tells me that she is exactly what I thought; a self-serving politician.

          As it is, I am guessing that 41 will end up helping jared,not hurting him iff the supremes back it. If they throw it out, it will hurt him. I am further guessing that he will probably come up with more ideas that are good for the state. I may end up putting in some time for polis just because it is time to bring in folks who are NOT corrupt, NOT part of the system, AND WILL shake things up.

            1. But I have looked in on the things that he has done (blue mountain, his education group, 41, etc) and he is slowly helping to improve things.  From where I sit, I can see that he has made a difference even though he did not need to.

              Now, there is ~2 years before the election. It makes sense that he will do at least one more project to get noticed with or just because he can. As it is, I doubt that he ever had intentions of going into politics. Of course, I think that we are speculating and he is probably not going to run. 🙂

              OTH, most politicians strike me that they are doing things to move up the food chain and get to lucrative lobby money. I have no doubt that most, if not all, started out as TB and with good intentions, but over time, I think that lure of money has changed them. But who knows. Perhaps I am just cynical towards politicians these days and not giving them their due. 🙂

  4. When does the CD-2 line change? Polis can’t really be this far ahead of the other Dems anymore – unless it is just the money factor that is going to get him nominated. If so they might as well queen JFG now and save the election costs.

    1. But that isn’t surprising this far out from the election. The only thing that surprises me is that the usually astute Colorado Pols thinks anyone in CD-2 has better odds of winning at this point than Musgrave in CD-4 or Lamborn in CD-5. Fitz-Gerald may be the favorite, but she certainly doesn’t have incumbent like strength in CD-2.

      In addition, I know for certain that at least one person on the line has committed to another that they won’t run. I’m not sure whether the “official” support is there yet, but a few endorsements from the right people could shake things up.

  5. have you heard the radio ad slamming FitzGerald for stopping the compromise legislation in the Senate.  I don’t know if she has or not but this ad is hard a hitting 60 second piece blaming her directly.  I couldn’t catch what group was paying for the ad but I’d like to know who is really paying for it not who is on the tag line.

        1. I am one of the few on this site who supports 41. I am opposed to how she is acting. There are mistakes with 41, but it seems that they can be corrected. More importantly, some are working to do so while others are working (actively and passively) to stop the fixes.

          I am sure that at the next election, the politicians who are fighting it will be remembered for it.

          1. is that no other Dem Senator is involved in the 41 conversation except Groff & FitzGerald, Dem Senate leadership.  Could it be they are taking the heat and structuring the compromise to keep other Senate Dems from getting sandbagged by the R’s on this issue.  Yes, the R’s are trying to make political hay by either accusing the D’s of running over the constitution to spite the people’s will or refusing to fix a “simple” problem to spite the people’s will.  I do think the weight of opinion has shifted to fixing the problem and the R’s are going to loose the ability to make this an 08 campaign issue. 

            I do wish the conversation (re: Polis) had not been so bombastic but if a compromise gets put together and the D’s get out of this without giving the R’s a campaign issue, I will believe Groff and FitzGerald did a great job of protecting their caucus and doing the right thing.

            1. I guess that I had not thought of that. You make it sound like a team sport rather than an individual game. Looking at it from that angle, I guess that I can see that there is a bit of a trap that they have to get through.

          1. There’s one or two references to the Merrifield/McFayden group – Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government – as “Coloradans for Ethics” on the Web, but there’s nothing formally recognized by the state by that name AFAICT.

            1. Thanks for looking this up but groups don’t have to register before they produce ads.  So it may be a while before we can find who the money folk are, if that is ever revealed.

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