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Campaign Updates>
Denver Post: A Rookie of the Year
April 30, 2006
Legislative rookies of the year
By Bob Ewegen
The Denver Post
The Denver Post, 30 April 2005
In the spirit of the National Football League's "rookie of
the year," let's salute five of the 15 first-term
legislators in the Colorado General Assembly who've made an
exceptionally strong impression in their first year,
as well as recognizing some able veterans.
Any such selection is arbitrary, but based on conversations
with lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists, the rookies of
the year are:
House Democrats: Bernie Buescher, Grand Junction, and
Kathleen Curry, Gunnison.
House Republicans: Bill Berens, Broomfield, and Josh Penry,
Grand Junction.
Senate Democrat: Brandon Shaffer, Longmont.
Shaffer's selection is easy, since he's actually the only
true rookie in the Senate, whereas all the other first-term
senators had previous experience in the House. Still, the
young Navy veteran is impressive.
"He has mastered rules and procedures. He thinks for
himself and is not afraid to argue against a trend. He is
bright and conscientious. He asks a lot of questions
because he wants to get it," Majority Leader Ken Gordon
notes.
On the Republican side, first-term senators Nancy Spence
and Shawn Mitchell excelled in the House and while not
eligible for the "rookie" label, they've impressed their
new colleagues by their industry and fairness.
In the same vein, the new Senate president, Joan
Fitz-Gerald, has surprised many who remembered her
sometimes confrontational style as minority leader by her
fairness and courtesy as the body's presiding officer.
When I asked her about the seeming change, she said, "When
you're a minority leader or a majority leader, you have a
responsibility to your party to make a record. When you're
president of the Senate, you have a responsibility to
the institution you lead."
It's a responsibility that Republicans and Democrats alike
agree Fitz-Gerald has met with aplomb. Both parties also
give high marks to minority leader Mark Hillman for
fairness and a collegial style.
In the House, both parties elected seven newcomers.
Democrats placed two of theirs, Curry and Buescher, into
unusually powerful positions for freshmen.
Buescher has excelled on the crucial six-member Joint
Budget Committee, where he is Colorado West's only
representative. Curry, an expert on water issues, chairs
the key Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources
Committee.
Republicans, newly relegated to the minority after 28 years
of House suzerainty, can't chair committees. But Penry, a
onetime aide to former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, immediately
made an impact with his own expertise. He's crafted the
water roundtable bill, House Bill 1177, that has passed
both
chambers and is awaiting final action to reconcile Senate
amendments. It will give Colorado's long-warring water
factions a place to seek win- win solutions.
Berens, who was mayor of the city and county of Broomfield
before moving to the House, arrived with the pragmatic
attitude most local officials display.
There's nothing like local government experience to learn
that there's no difference between a Democratic pothole and
a Republican pothole.
Worried about the state's growing backlog of capital
construction needs, Berens prompted a staff study that
showed the state is at least $1.3 billion
a year short of meeting its construction needs. His
leadership helped shape the debate over the Referendum C
and D twins that will be presented to Colorado voters this
fall to ease Colorado's budget crisis.
Noting that three of the four outstanding freshmen were
from the Western Slope, I asked Curry what sets her
compatriots apart from Front Range legislators. She agreed
with my own impression: rural lawmakers are more
willing to work across party lines than the often more
ideological Front Range legislators. Berens shares that
down-to-earth focus.
Finally, it should be said that House Speaker Andrew
Romanoff of Denver and
Majority Leader Alice Madden of Boulder excelled in their
leadership debuts,
as did the majority staff they assembled after nearly three
decades in the
political wilderness. On the Republican side, the assistant
minority leader,
Mike May, served with grace and dignity.
Is there an overall winner from this outstanding field?
Yes.
We the people win when our elected servants put our needs
above their egos
and downplay the partisan vitriol.
Bob Ewegen is deputy editorial page editor of The Denver
Post. He has
covered state and local government since 1963.
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