Fifteen Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … The Colorado House of Representatives was considering a resolution honoring women in politics, with women from both sides of the aisle joining together to support the measure. State Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver, sponsored the resolution to designate March as Women in Politics Month, to coincide with Women’s History Month, also in March. “Colorado is the second state in the nation for its number of women in the Legislature,” Borodkin said. “That’s something we should celebrate.” Only Washington state had a higher share of female lawmakers than Colorado’s 35 percent — 24 members of the House and 11 senators. “We’ve made great inroads as women into the world of politics, but we still have a long way to go,” said state Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood. “Women are still less likely to seek political office than men, but we all benefit from a more balanced representation.” …

… Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh was in Denver to announce that Attorney General Ken Salazar, Senate President Stan Matsunaka and House Minority Leader Dan Grossman would be serving as state co-chairs of the Democratic Leadership Council. “It’s an honor for the DLC that the three top state Democrats in Colorado have agreed to lead the charge for progressive change in their state,” said Bayh. “They will be an important part of our national efforts to grow the New Democrat movement around the country.” The DLC was advocating for a policy agenda moving beyond traditional conservative and liberal divides, organizers said. “Having the three top state Democratic leaders on board demonstrates the transformation of the Democratic Party in Colorado,” said DLC President Jim Gibson. “The announcement proves that, increasingly, Colorado Democrats are New Democrats.” The Colorado group would work closely with a group of 31 state legislators who said they rejected “New Deal liberalism,” and instead promoted equal opportunity but not equal outcomes with a realization that government can’t solve all problems. State Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, chaired the New Democrat Caucus under the dome.

… Republican stalwart Hal Shroyer wanted to remind lawmakers that the right to petition is inscribed in Colorado’s constitution, despite what appeared to be an all-out effort to undermine it, he wrote in a letter to the editor. “The Colorado Legislature’s number one purpose this session is to do away with the initiative process — the right of the people to circulate petitions and place an issue on the election ballot,” he warned. First was a “very clever, innocuous” bill that would allow a voter to remove his or her name from a petition after signing it, right up until the day before the election. “Of course a person can’t change his vote after it is cast,” Shroyer scolded, “even if the person changes his mind.” There was another bill that would require initiative signatures be evenly spread by congressional district, giving an area of the state veto power over ballot measures, he continued. “The Legislature is afraid of the people except when they have an issue they don’t want to vote on (for political reasons), then they put it on ballot by referendum,” Shroyer wrote, before lambasting additional bills aimed at restricting ballot access by residents. “The Legislature should remember that if the people are too dumb to understand what they are voting on that these are the same people who elected them,” he concluded. …

… State Rep. Don Lee, R-Littleton, whose district included Columbine High School, won committee approval for his “Bullying Bill,” which would augment the previous session’s School Safety Act by requiring that “safe school plans” include a policy on bullying. “We’ve all looked for reasons why Columbine happened,” said Lee, whose children attended the high school. “The students there say that bullying was a problem, as it is in many of Colorado’s schools today. We need to ensure that all schools are addressing the issue.” The bill would require that every principal issue an annual report on the policy’s success and the condition of the learning environment at his or her school. The bill defined bullying as “any written or verbal expression, or physical act or gesture, or a pattern thereof, that is intended to cause distress upon one or more students.” State Sen. Penfield Tate, D-Denver, was the Senate sponsor. …

… A statewide poll of Colorado voters revealed “startling new concerns” about growing population pressures. By wide margins, Coloradans were seeing a deterioration of their quality of life because of rampant development and increasing population — and they didn’t think that “smart growth” policies could solve the problem, according to the survey conducted by Ridder/Braden, Inc., for the D.C.-based Negative Population Growth policy group. Rapid growth and crowding topped voter concerns, the poll results showed, with complaints about traffic, sprawl and development getting lots of mentions. By wide margins, Colorado voters said they believed the pace of development was threatening the quality of education, putting the state’s natural resources at risk and leading to big traffic problems. Seven in 10 respondents said that traffic congestion was cutting into time spent with family, and they weren’t happy. The same share of voters said it was up to the state government to “enact policies that reduce development and halt population so that a high quality of life, a healthy environment and a sound economy can be maintained.”

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com