As Election Day approaches the Capitol rumor mill is churning at twice its normal rate, and we are working overtime just to keep up.
The biggest topics of speculation: Who will be Colorado’s next Secretary of State? Who will take over for term-limited leadership in the General Assembly? And most exciting, of course, the secret political dealings behind this year’s ballot initiatives.
As Face The State previously reported, House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is rumored to be the next Secretary of State. Many Capitol insiders were predicting Gov. Bill Ritter would choose Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, but sources say Romanoff’s appointment is a “done deal.” But the Colorado Statesman is reporting that Gordon “seems sure” he’ll get the job and has contacted Ritter to express his interest.
Even though new leadership won’t be confirmed until just before the legislative session in January, speculation is wild about who is going to take over for Romanoff, Gordon and the Senate GOP Leader Andy McElhany.
Sources say Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, is on the short list for Senate Majority Leader, and Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, is rumored to be the next Speaker of the House. McElhany’s potential replacements include Sen. Josh Penry, Sen. Mike Kopp and Sen. Greg Brophy. We predict Penry will get the job, though all three are more than qualified.
But our favorite rumors are about the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and its back door dealings with union bosses. These rumors were substantiated by news reports about a high level meeting that took place Tuesday night. Present at the meeting were Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce President Joe Blake, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 President Ernest Duran Jr., and Jess Knox, director of Protect Colorado's Future, a union-backed coalition.
News reports proclaimed that no deal was struck, and now rumors are flying about what will happen next. Our sources say the unions will pull their own ballot measures and that the Denver Chamber will come out against Amendment 47's Right-To-Work initiative in “a big way.” Supposedly, Ritter's Chief of Staff Jim Carpenter is trying to organize a press conference to announce the deal. The thinking is that after the recent unflattering news coverage, Ritter is trying to rush a deal before the business community can back out. Back out? How did the Chamber even begin to join in to a union coalition dedicated to not only maintaining mandates on the business community, but also increasing them?