Owens faces pro-gun hecklers
By Fred Brown
Denver Post Capitol Bureau Chief
June 4, 2000 - Gov. Bill Owens was booed and heckled by gun-rights advocates
at the Republican state convention on Saturday, but he ignored the noisy
protest to deliver a brief summary of the accomplishments of his
administration.
Both of Colorado's major political parties held their statewide party meetings on
Saturday, to nominate a handful of state candidates and elect dozens of
delegates to their respective national conventions this summer.
They also heard speeches - or tried to. A couple of times, Owens had to repeat
himself as pro-gun members of his party shouted "No more gun control" and
waved orange sheets of paper bearing the slogan.
Speech's focus not on guns
It appeared that about 20 to 25 percent of the 3,050 delegates were waving the
signs, but fewer than 50 came to the front of the hall to continue to heckle
Owens intermittently during his speech.
The Republican governor proposed a modest package of gun controls for
approval by the 2000 Colorado legislature. Although both houses of the General
Assembly have Republican majorities, most of the bills failed.
Owens focused on education reform, tax cuts and open-space preservation in
his speech, mentioning only one gun bill that immediately revokes the parole of
a parolee found to be carrying a weapon.
The governor said he knew the protest was coming, but he hadn't planned to
mention gun control in his speech, anyway.
"When you come to a Republican convention, you want to talk about Republican
accomplishments," Owens said.
The protest was organized by the state's more militant gun-rights organizations,
including the local chapter of Gun Owners of America and a group calling itself
the Tyranny Response Team.
Owens called the protesters "a small minority" and noted that the party's
presumptive presidential nominee, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, supports the
same kind of gun controls he does. "My position on guns is one that respects
the Second Amendment," Owens said, referring to the Bill of Rights guarantee
of a right to bear arms.
"I will probably lose some votes from the most aggressive, in-your-face gun
activists," Owens said, adding, "All I'm trying to do is strengthen efforts to keep
guns out of the hands of criminals and children." Minor flare-up on abortion
The protest was the most obvious evidence of the dispute between old-line
traditionalists and the Colorado Republican Party's more militant right wing.
"Two years ago, abortion was the big issue,"
Owens noted.
There was a minor flare-up over that issue, too, at Saturday's GOP meeting.
Anti-abortion activists moved to amend the rules to permit debate on and
amendments to the report of the state party's resolutions committee. But they
lost that vote, as well as another vote to allow individual resolutions to be
adopted by a simple majority vote instead of a two-thirds margin.
As it turned out, all 15 resolutions passed handily, including one urging that
prairie dogs not be considered an endangered species and another encouraging
an end to the program re-establishing the lynx in Colorado.
The lynx resolution, supported by 81.1 percent of delegates, was the second
least popular. The lowest vote-getter, at 80.6 percent, was a resolution
supporting a ban on "partial-birth" abortion.
The major business for both parties, though, was the nomination of candidates.
The Democrats had had their major factional dispute the night before, when
Denver City Councilwoman Ramona Martinez failed in her 11th-hour attempt to
set up a party primary with incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette.
Martinez couldn't persuade twothirds of the 1st Congressional District's
delegates to support suspending party rules. She did, however, win 105 of 253
delegate votes.
The major statewide office at stake in Saturday's party meetings was Colorado
secretary of state. The incumbent, Republican Donetta Davidson, has to stand
for election because she was appointed to fill a vacancy when Vikki Buckley died
only six months after being sworn in for a second term.
Davidson was nominated without opposition Saturday, as was her Democratic
opponent, public relations executive Anthony Martinez.
Whoever wins the election in November will serve the two years remaining in
Buckley's term, which expires in 2002. That will put the secretary of state back
in cycle with the other major statewide offices - governor, lieutenant governor,
attorney general and treasurer.
None of those offices is up for election next fall, and there's no race for the U.S.
Senate this time around.
Democrats, who trail Republicans by 150,000 in statewide voter registration, had
a tough time filling their slate for November.
They were unable to find a candidate to run against Republican Peter
Steinhauer for the at-large position on the University of Colorado Board of
Regents, and they have no candidates for either the 4th or the 5th
Congressional District.
Eileen Duggan, a Douglas County Democrat who had been nominated Friday
night to take on seven-term Republican Joel Hefley in the 5th Congressional
District, had second thoughts overnight.
"After thinking about it, I thought I should withdraw," she said Saturday. "That
must have been the quickest campaign in the universe." Democrats also
nominated Jared Polis, a Boulder greeting card and flowers-by-Internet
entrepreneur, to run for the at-large position on the State Board of Education.
Polis will face either Ben Alexander or Sandy Panetta as next fall's Republican
candidate. Panetta, of Highlands Ranch, won 47.8 percent of Saturday's
delegate vote to set up an Aug. 8 primary with Alexander, the incumbent on the
state board.
By Fred Brown
Denver Post Capitol Bureau Chief
June 4, 2000 - Gov. Bill Owens was booed and heckled by gun-rights advocates
at the Republican state convention on Saturday, but he ignored the noisy
protest to deliver a brief summary of the accomplishments of his
administration.
Both of Colorado's major political parties held their statewide party meetings on
Saturday, to nominate a handful of state candidates and elect dozens of
delegates to their respective national conventions this summer.
They also heard speeches - or tried to. A couple of times, Owens had to repeat
himself as pro-gun members of his party shouted "No more gun control" and
waved orange sheets of paper bearing the slogan.
Speech's focus not on guns
It appeared that about 20 to 25 percent of the 3,050 delegates were waving the
signs, but fewer than 50 came to the front of the hall to continue to heckle
Owens intermittently during his speech.
The Republican governor proposed a modest package of gun controls for
approval by the 2000 Colorado legislature. Although both houses of the General
Assembly have Republican majorities, most of the bills failed.
Owens focused on education reform, tax cuts and open-space preservation in
his speech, mentioning only one gun bill that immediately revokes the parole of
a parolee found to be carrying a weapon.
The governor said he knew the protest was coming, but he hadn't planned to
mention gun control in his speech, anyway.
"When you come to a Republican convention, you want to talk about Republican
accomplishments," Owens said.
The protest was organized by the state's more militant gun-rights organizations,
including the local chapter of Gun Owners of America and a group calling itself
the Tyranny Response Team.
Owens called the protesters "a small minority" and noted that the party's
presumptive presidential nominee, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, supports the
same kind of gun controls he does. "My position on guns is one that respects
the Second Amendment," Owens said, referring to the Bill of Rights guarantee
of a right to bear arms.
"I will probably lose some votes from the most aggressive, in-your-face gun
activists," Owens said, adding, "All I'm trying to do is strengthen efforts to keep
guns out of the hands of criminals and children." Minor flare-up on abortion
The protest was the most obvious evidence of the dispute between old-line
traditionalists and the Colorado Republican Party's more militant right wing.
"Two years ago, abortion was the big issue,"
Owens noted.
There was a minor flare-up over that issue, too, at Saturday's GOP meeting.
Anti-abortion activists moved to amend the rules to permit debate on and
amendments to the report of the state party's resolutions committee. But they
lost that vote, as well as another vote to allow individual resolutions to be
adopted by a simple majority vote instead of a two-thirds margin.
As it turned out, all 15 resolutions passed handily, including one urging that
prairie dogs not be considered an endangered species and another encouraging
an end to the program re-establishing the lynx in Colorado.
The lynx resolution, supported by 81.1 percent of delegates, was the second
least popular. The lowest vote-getter, at 80.6 percent, was a resolution
supporting a ban on "partial-birth" abortion.
The major business for both parties, though, was the nomination of candidates.
The Democrats had had their major factional dispute the night before, when
Denver City Councilwoman Ramona Martinez failed in her 11th-hour attempt to
set up a party primary with incumbent U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette.
Martinez couldn't persuade twothirds of the 1st Congressional District's
delegates to support suspending party rules. She did, however, win 105 of 253
delegate votes.
The major statewide office at stake in Saturday's party meetings was Colorado
secretary of state. The incumbent, Republican Donetta Davidson, has to stand
for election because she was appointed to fill a vacancy when Vikki Buckley died
only six months after being sworn in for a second term.
Davidson was nominated without opposition Saturday, as was her Democratic
opponent, public relations executive Anthony Martinez.
Whoever wins the election in November will serve the two years remaining in
Buckley's term, which expires in 2002. That will put the secretary of state back
in cycle with the other major statewide offices - governor, lieutenant governor,
attorney general and treasurer.
None of those offices is up for election next fall, and there's no race for the U.S.
Senate this time around.
Democrats, who trail Republicans by 150,000 in statewide voter registration, had
a tough time filling their slate for November.
They were unable to find a candidate to run against Republican Peter
Steinhauer for the at-large position on the University of Colorado Board of
Regents, and they have no candidates for either the 4th or the 5th
Congressional District.
Eileen Duggan, a Douglas County Democrat who had been nominated Friday
night to take on seven-term Republican Joel Hefley in the 5th Congressional
District, had second thoughts overnight.
"After thinking about it, I thought I should withdraw," she said Saturday. "That
must have been the quickest campaign in the universe." Democrats also
nominated Jared Polis, a Boulder greeting card and flowers-by-Internet
entrepreneur, to run for the at-large position on the State Board of Education.
Polis will face either Ben Alexander or Sandy Panetta as next fall's Republican
candidate. Panetta, of Highlands Ranch, won 47.8 percent of Saturday's
delegate vote to set up an Aug. 8 primary with Alexander, the incumbent on the
state board.