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| 6/19/2009 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Appointed state legislators bypass elections
Joe Hanel
Journal Denver Bureau
DENVER - If Democrats pick a new state senator for Southwest Colorado this year, the appointee would have plenty of company among unelected lawmakers at the state Capitol.
Twenty-one of the 100 members of the General Assembly first won their seats by appointment, not election.
"It's become a practice for both parties to do that so they can have an incumbent's name out there," said Patty Cordova, president of the League of Women Voters Colorado chapter.
The next appointee could be from Southwest Colorado. Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, might leave the Legislature soon to be Colorado state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development office. Sources expect the appointment to be finalized soon. USDA officials said the White House is handling the announcement of all state directors.
This year has seen a large Democratic exodus from the Legislature. In addition to Isgar's likely resignation, Senate President Peter Groff and Denver Sen. Jennifer Veiga have resigned. Groff took a post in the U.S. Department of Education, while Veiga is leaving the state for family reasons. In the House, Denver Rep. Anne McGihon quit to work for a Washington law firm, and Golden Rep. Gwyn Green resigned for health reasons.
Early this year, Loveland Republican Rep. Kevin Lundberg left the House to move across the hall to the Senate, where he was appointed to replace Sen. Steve Johnson, who won election to the Larimer county commission. Party committees picked replacements for all five of the legislators who resigned this year.
In total, 11 of the 35 current senators and 10 of 65 representatives were originally appointed to their seats.
Under the state constitution, House members are elected every other November to serve two-year terms, while senators get four-year terms. But if a member retires before the term is over, Colorado law gives the power to pick a replacement to a local vacancy committee made up of officers from the retiree's political party.
The number of people on vacancy committees varies by district, but it's a much smaller group than the voters at large. Two Denver Democrats have been appointed to the state Senate since May by vacancy committees of 126 and 156 people.
Cordova blames term limits for the high number of appointed lawmakers. By having a term-limited member resign a year before their eight-year limit, party chiefs can give their favored candidate a year of incumbency before the election.
"It's working for the parties. But I don't think it's the best way to go about electing our legislators," Cordova said. "The voters have to get a little smarter and figure out what's going on."
The League of Women Voters opposes term limits, but it does not endorse candidates.
Isgar joined the Senate through appointment in May 2001, when Jim Dyer resigned. Isgar won two subsequent terms through election.
The year he served in the Senate before he faced election helped him, he said.
"It gets your name out there for sure, but the other thing - especially if you're a Democrat in a Republican district - it lets you establish a record, so they can't portray you as just another liberal Democrat," Isgar said.
Isgar's Senate district is the most heavily Republican of any currently held by a Democrat. Republicans make up 40 percent of active voters, compared to 30 percent each for Democrats and unaffiliated voters, according to May numbers from the secretary of state's office.
Rep. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, has announced that she will run for Isgar's Senate seat in 2010. Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry and state GOP chairman Dick Wadhams have endorsed Roberts as their preferred Republican candidate.
If Isgar resigns and a replacement is appointed, Roberts would have to buck the historical trend that shows that once a legislator wins appointment, victory in the next election is very likely.
But it's not guaranteed. Since 2000, four appointees - all Republicans - have gone on to lose elections. Two lost in primaries to other Republicans - Lakewood Sen. Kiki Traylor in 2006, and, famously, Colorado Springs Rep. Douglas Bruce in 2008.
San Luis Valley Sen. Lewis Entz lost his re-election bid to Democrat Gail Schwartz in the Democratic wave election of 2006. And Sen. Dave Owen of Greeley, who was appointed to the House in 1987 and was seeking to return after term limits forced him out of the Senate, lost to Democrat Jim Riesberg in the same 2006 landslide.
Reach Joe Hanel at joeh@cortezjournal.com.
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