Colo. Gov. Drops Off GOP National Radar -

[otohara]

DENVER - He was a cover boy for the National Review, a Republican governor whose tough talk on taxes and accountability in education made him a darling of conservatives who wondered whether he might be White House material in 2008.


Then something happened. Gov. Bill Owens sort of dropped off the national radar and now faces perhaps his toughest task: persuading Colorado voters to give up $3.1 billion in tax refunds over the next five years to help bring the state out of the red.

Owens will be doing his lobbying alongside Democrats, who took over both houses of the Legislature this year for the first time in 44 years. The two sides worked together to come up with the November ballot proposal, something that angered more conservative members of the GOP.

Democrats are praising his bipartisanship.

"We respect his decisions and he respects ours," said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff. "But if you told me a year ago that the Democratic leadership and Republican governor were going to forge nine-tenths of their agenda, I wouldn't have believed it."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=5&u=/ap/20050614/ap_on_re_us/colorado_governor

[Oreo]

1. If only...

MN Governor Tim "Fees not Taxes" Pawlenty followed his lead. Our state is about to shutdown because he refuses to raise taxes but is first in line to raise what he calls fees.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. With fees, people simply don't partake in what they are charging for.

Or don't pay. In America, the ones most able to pay are protected from having to pay. It's the reagan legacy.

[UCLA Dem]

2. Thats why there are no reasonable repukes. They get run out of town.

[denverbill]

4. I "almost" wish Democrats hadn't won back the Legislature.

10 years of Republican mismanagement is finally coming home to roost. Republicans are the ones that decided to cut the universities loose from Tabor by changing the way they are funded. Now that the universities are proposing massive tuition increases, it's the Democrats that will probably take the blame.

[coloradodem2005]

5. Especially with Owens and O'Donnell calling for tuition caps.

Shit.