http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/g ... %2C00.html

Lamm takes a beating over deal

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News
June 29, 2006
Dick Lamm's phone rang about 5 a.m. Wednesday.
It was KHOW-AM radio show host Peter Boyles, berating him live on the air.

"What are you doing?" Boyles demanded, according to Lamm.

Boyles was among a chorus of critics accusing Lamm of betraying the anti-illegal immigration movement by making a back-door deal with the group's foes a day earlier.

Later Wednesday, Lamm woke up after a colonoscopy to more angry phone calls.

"Everybody's made their people unhappy," Lamm said. "(House Speaker Andrew) Romanoff's people are unhappy. My people are unhappy.

"No good deed goes unpunished."

In less than 24 hours, Lamm's deal, at first hailed as a possible fix for Colorado's increasingly bitter divide over illegal immigration, was seemingly unraveling.

How had such a promising plan gotten so off track?

The story starts two weeks ago.

That's when the flurry of phone calls, e-mail and meetings began between two veteran pols and House Speaker Romanoff.

On one side was Lamm, an early and outspoken critic of illegal immigration. On the opposite was former Denver Mayor Federico Peña, who has blasted past proposals to stem illegal immigration as ill-conceived and mean-spirited.

Somewhere in between was Romanoff, who brought all three together.

In hours of talks, Romanoff, Peña and Lamm forged an immigration reform proposal modeled on parts of a new Georgia law, with provisions to deny services to illegal immigrants to penalize employers who hire them.

As part of the deal, they agreed tentatively to take off the table a proposed ballot measure to deny taxpayer-funded services to illegal immigrants.

Peña and Lamm announced the union and change in strategy in a joint news release Tuesday afternoon.

But politics then muddied the picture.

John Andrews, co-chair of Lamm's group, Defend Colorado Now, quickly attacked Lamm's deal and accused him of selling out the group's supporters.

Gov. Bill Owens also threw a wrench in the plan. Wednesday, he outlined a wider agenda for a special legislative session. Additionally, he included consideration of the ballot measure to deny services to illegal immigrants, known as Initiative 55.

Compromise talks began June 13, the day after the state Supreme Court disqualified Initiative 55. When that happened, Owens threatened to bring lawmakers back into session to send the measure to the ballot.

Lamm, Andrews and the other two leaders of Defend Colorado Now, Fred Elbel and Waldo Benavidez, met on how to take advantage of the opportunity the governor presented with the special session idea.

About the same time, Romanoff called Lamm and Peña, asking how the opponents could come together. Lamm and Peña responded enthusiastically, Romanoff said.

A week later, the Defend Colorado Now leaders voted to let Lamm begin negotiating with Peña on ways to adopt parts of the Georgia law.

That's when Andrews began breaking ranks with his colleagues. He said he wanted to focus on getting legislators to send Initiative 55 to voters and pass all provisions of the Georgia law.

Between last Thursday and Monday, Lamm, Romanoff and Peña crafted the final framework. Andrews was on vacation.

Owens knew about the talks, but did not agree with the final terms. Lamm said he asked Owens to host a news conference to announce the union, but Owens declined. Owens' office denies that request was made.

In any event, when the news release went out Tuesday, Owens was in the dark. And he told Lamm on Tuesday that he was not pleased, Lamm said. Owens said the three were "undercutting what he was trying to do," Lamm said. Lamm theorizes Owens wanted to use the ballot initiative as leverage to force Democratic lawmakers to pass a larger set of bills.

"The governor is under a lot of pressure from the Republican Party. Nothing is going well for the Republican party except the immigration issue," Lamm said.

Owens said he just wants to give voters a say on Initiative 55.

"Over 40,000 Coloradans signed the petition and now feel disenfranchised," he said. He has pointed out that the three leaders of the compromise plan are Democrats.

Romanoff said that anger over the Lamm/Peña deal was expected.

"If we're going to hold out for making everyone happy, we're going to be here until hell freezes or Washington acts," he said.