http://www.longmontfyi.com/region-story.asp?ID=8269

Publish Date: 6/16/2006

Ex-gov. wants to convert fellow Democrats on immigration issue


By John Fryar
The Daily Times-Call

DENVER — Former Gov. Dick Lamm acknowledged Thursday that some of his allies in the anti-illegal-immigration movement are turning up the political heat on the Legislature’s Democrats.

Lamm said he wants his fellow Democrats to retain their majority control of the Legislature in this year’s elections.

But Lamm is also a leader of Defend Colorado Now, the organization trying to gain a November ballot spot for its proposal to cut off all non-emergency and non-federally mandated state and local government services to anyone who’s not in this country legally.

“I am an issue person before a party person,” Lamm told reporters after a Thursday Defend Colorado Now rally on the state Capitol steps. “I feel very strongly on this issue, and I would like a vote of the people.”

Lamm, Colorado’s governor from 1975 through 1986, wants the Legislature to take up immigration in a special session if the state Supreme Court refuses to reverse a Monday ruling that blocked Defend Colorado Now’s initiative from being petitioned onto November’s ballot.

Some anti-illegal-immigration activists and Republican politicians have warned that lawmakers who vote against such measures in a special session could find those votes used against them in this year’s legislative election contests.

Lamm, however, said: “It is not my intention to defeat Democrats. It’s my intention to convert them. And I do not want to see Democrats lose control of the Legislature.”

Democratic legislative leaders have touted the Legislature’s bipartisan accomplishments on immigration during the regular session, citing seven bills targeting concerns such as immigrant smuggling and forged identity documents. Some Republicans, however, have complained the Democrat-led Legislature did not go far enough, citing several GOP lawmakers’ bills that were killed in party-line committee votes.

“For a Democratic Legislature to do what they did should not be denigrated,” Lamm told reporters.

During the Defend Colorado Now rally, Lamm thanked Republican Gov. Bill Owens for “coming to our rescue” after the 4-2 Supreme Court ruling that the organization’s proposed ballot initiative was unconstitutional because it contains more than one subject.

Owens said Tuesday that he’s likely to call a special session to have the Legislature consider putting its own services-cutoff proposal on the ballot.

“Democrats have to understand that compassionate programs need borders,” Lamm said during the rally.

He said the government’s ability to afford health-care “safety nets” for the poor will be jeopardized if everyone, including illegal immigrants, has access to such programs. “We have to match the people who pay the taxes with those people who get the programs,” Lamm said.

Edie Sonn, a spokeswoman for Keep Colorado Safe, an organization fighting against the Defend Colorado Now initiative, said, “I don’t really understand the purpose” of Thursday’s rally. “These guys are fighting a rear-guard action” since the Supreme Court already has ruled against the constitutionality of the initiative.

Defend Colorado Now’s leaders have another week and a half to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling. They’ve also asked their supporters to keep circulating petitions to get the proposal on the ballot in case the court reverses its ruling.


John Fryar can be reached by e-mail at jfryar@times-call.com.