This kind of acrimony is silly. Just because you and he disagree about business regulation does not mean he is a monster. Romer has always been a friend of education, and the ACLU ranks him very highly (92%) on his defense of civil rights and civil liberties.
Here's what Romer is all about....
Susan Greene - The Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/greene)
Greene: Overexposed Sen. Romer likes the limelight
By Susan Greene
Denver Post Columnist
POSTED: 05/13/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
I did not sit, day after day, at the Capitol, and so I can't speak with authority on which lawmakers were the most persuasive, hardworking or powerful this session.
But as a news watcher, I can say who was most overexposed.
Chris Romer is a first-term state senator who's quick to tell you he's the son of the former governor, even if you don't need to be told.
If there's a reporter's notebook, a microphone or TV camera in the room, the Denver Democrat is likely to find them. If there was an issue making news on any given day, he was quick with a bill in response. His legislation in some cases seemed ripped quite literally from the headlines. All too often during the 120-day session, it was all Romer, all the time.
It's customary at the statehouse for lawmakers to introduce a maximum of five measures, although there are plenty of exceptions. By my count, Romer sponsored five times that many â?? nine Senate bills and three resolutions, plus 12 bills and one resolution in the House.
"What can I say? I've got lots of energy," he says. "I'm good at moving the dialogue."
Romer began the session huffing about the need for medical- marijuana legislation. If it was unclear where he stood on the issue, that's because actual policies seemed to matter less than the fevered publicity of his involvement. After months closely tracking his proposed legislation, even Colorado's most active pro-cannabis advocate isn't clear whose side he was
on.
"We could never figure out if he was out there to help patients or help law enforcement. His stance was ever-shifting, depending on who was his audience," says Brian Vicente of Sensible Colorado.
Romer called me in January to cover his scheme to ask fellow lawmakers to try pot for a day. Weeks later â?? and after much mockery â?? he suggested in front of a crowd of lawyers that it was my crazy idea.
Then came his bill to restore streetcars to Colfax Avenue, a plan the mayoral hopeful says is a longtime dream. It just happens, he says, that he introduced it shortly after John Hickenlooper signaled a potential vacancy in the mayor's office by announcing his run for governor. All politics, after all, is local.
"Oh no," he says, "that was just a coincidence."
Who could forget Romer's bill to pay students to read â?? proposed the day after Time magazine published a cover story on the idea?
"OK. You got me on that one," he tells me. "But I was thinking about it long before the session."
Ever the self-promoter, Romer describes his collaborative success in curbing payday loans as nothing short of miraculous. "It was a miracle win," he says of a bill to regulate payday loans.
Call me cynical. But, given widespread outrage about predatory lending these days, a miracle it was not.
Romer, like most of his colleagues, had his wins and losses. I credit him for being a good sport acknowledging, if only in hindsight, that his lawmaking style is a little like Larry King's approach to marriage: Just try it and see what sticks.
We have eight months until the 2011 session and a year until the mayoral election. Meantime, he wants you to know that he can't help if the news media keep calling.
"I do like a good fight, and so does the press," he says. "Nobody covers a license-plate bill."
Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or
[email protected]