May 13, 2009 11:46 PM UTC

Colorado Pols Legislative Session Awards - Part Deuce

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• by: Colorado Pols

You’ve seen the big awards in Part I, so now it’s on to the second and final half of the Colorado Pols Legislative Session Awards: 2009. Click below to read the results and offer your own input…

MR. IRRELEVANT

Republican Rep. Mark Waller

Here’s how we classify Mr. Irrelevant: You could have removed them from the session entirely and nobody would have known they were gone. This award comes from a combination of low profile, small workload, and relevance of legislation. In these criteria, Waller was 3-for-3.

Waller’s biggest contribution to the 2009 legislative session is because of who he isn’t, not who he is. Waller beat the infamous Doug Bruce in a Republican primary last summer, ridding the GOP of a humongous headache in the process. But as a legislator…well, let’s just say the other 99 members under the Golden Dome could have done just fine without him.

Waller was the sponsor of four bills in 2009, two of which had no co-sponsor in the Senate and thus never made it to the floor for a vote. He was listed as the sponsor on two other successful bills. but both had several other sponsors and neither were controversial pieces of legislation. It’s safe to say that the 2009 legislative session would have been virtually unchanged whether Waller was there or not-as long as it wasn’t Bruce who was there instead.

Waller’s campaign slogan may have been, “Colorado Can Count On Me,” but maybe he was talking about something else.

BEST FRESHMAN LEGISLATOR

TIE: Democratic Sen. Linda Newell and Democratic Rep. Sal Pace

We’ll be the first to admit that we had no idea who Linda Newell even was as recently as last September, which was when we first started hearing that she might be about to pull an upset over former Republican Rep. Lauri Clapp in the generally-Republican area south of Denver. But once she was in office, Newell performed well and was consistently mentioned as a savvy new senator.

In her first legislative session, Newell did a good job of representing her district and voting her conscience, rather than sticking to the party-line as most freshman in either caucus tend to do. She was one of five Democrats who voted against in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, for example, which made a lot of sense given that she doesn’t represent a district that is particularly friendly towards illegal immigrants in general.

As for Pace (a Pols’ reader favorite for Best Legislator) he wasted little time in making an impact in his first session; Pace introduced HB1317, which would bar the State Land Board from selling or leasing land to any federal agency for the purpose of expanding the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. The bill has been a hot topic recently, with Republicans like Scott McInnis, Rep. Doug Lamborn and others lobbying Ritter to veto the legislation.

BEST IN LEADERSHIP

New Senate Majority Leader John Morse

We’ve already written extensively about Morse, who was our Runner Up for “Best Legislator” in 2009. The new Senate Majority Leader showed his leadership chops in helping to push through the most significant piece of legislation of the session: SB228, which repealed the damaging Arveschoug-Bird Amendment. While not even officially in a top leadership position at the time, Morse showed great political courage by taking on an issue that may not be well-received when he runs for re-election in his Colorado Springs district in 2010.

WORST IN LEADERSHIP

Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry

Hey may go on to become governor, but Penry was an absolute disaster for Republicans (including many we’ve talked to) as Senate Minority Leader and official speaker on all things coming from the legislature. The GOP had no plan for the 2009 session aside from just opposing everything that Democrats proposed, and their lack of direction was more than obvious.

Penry also erred significantly in failing to quickly condemn harmful comments from Senators Dave Schultheis and Scott Renfroe; his refusal to condemn their remarks gave them more credence and added to a problematic image of Republicans as thoughtless, hateful ideologues. It is the job of those in leadership to make sure that their Party is seen in a positive light, and it was an absolute no-brainer for Penry to have come out and said something like, “Sen. Schultheis’ unfortunate comments do not reflect the views of the Republican Party.” Instead, his silence spoke volumes-both about what Republicans might really believe, and about his interest in preserving his political future with the influential El Paso conservative crowd over protecting his caucus as a whole.

DUMBEST LEGISLATION

HB-1152

There wasn’t an obvious winner this year as in year’s past, when we saw bills introduced to prohibit the placing of microchips in people’s brains. But a couple of bills did strike us as being particularly idiotic, such as HB-1152, sponsored by Republican Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg and co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Lois Tochtrop, which was killed in committee. BH-1152 dealt with horse racing, and its second major provision would allow this:

Historical horse racing, in which the patron wagers on the outcome of races previously held at licensed horse tracks and digitally recorded, but as to which identifying information has been deleted so that the patron must make the same type of judgment as to the likely winner as if the race had not yet been run.

Really? How would this be enforceable? How would you stop someone in another state from calling his buddy in Colorado with the results of the race, and then placing a huge bet on a guaranteed outcome? Didn’t Biff get rich doing this in “Back to the Future, Part 2”?

While they’re at it, the legislature should allow betting on all previously held sporting events. It would be a great way to help fix the economy if you could bet on the winner of last year’s Super Bowl.

WORST EMERGING TREND

Resigning Early from the Legislature

In the 2009 session, legislators resigned for various reasons. Whether taking a new appointment from President Obama (Sen. Peter Groff) or just plain retiring (Rep. Gwyn Green), there have been more vacancy committee meetings than months of the year thus far.

Some resignations were definitely worse than others, like the early departure of Rep. Anne McGihon, who was just re-elected last November. McGihon owed it to her constituents to at least stick it out for one term, rather than abruptly resigning early in the session. This trend highlights the need for higher salaries for legislators, because not only does the low $32,000 per year salary have many legislators always looking for another job, it also prevents many good possible replacements from even considering a run in a vacancy committee.

MOST LOVED AND HATED LEGISLATOR

Democratic State Sen. Morgan Carroll

This could be an annual award for Carroll, who is beloved by many for her principled stands on important issues but also loathed by others for refusing to even bend on some of those issues. We like Carroll because she is in the legislature for the right reasons-she really does want to make positive changes. But we do think she could stand to tone it down a notch from time to time.

Thoughts? Comments? Quibbles? Got your own suggested category? Comment below…