Let’s make a backroom deal!
Accusations of backroom deals, paybacks and kickbacks have been the rage in Colorado in recent months, starting with the resignation of a Democratic state senator who faced a recall election and exploding with the news that U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner was entering the U.S. Senate race and Republicans were jumping out to make room for him.
The campaign for the Democratic incumbent, U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, called the decision a “shady scheme hatched behind closed doors.” And another Republican candidate in the race, Sen. Owen Hill of Colorado Springs, was equally unhappy.
“This is the exact same corruption and backroom deals that have caused the Republican Party to lose elections year after year,” Hill said at the time.
But he, too, eventually dropped out and threw his support to Gardner.
A backroom deal? Hill told supporters that he realized in order to defeat Udall, “we must avoid a contentious primary election, in order to emerge with a nominee that is not bruised and battered heading into the general election.”
Former Republican Gov. Bill Owens said what some call a backroom deal is in many cases “rational public policy.”
“What you are trying to accomplish is the advancement of your policies on important issues,” he said. “Sometimes that reflects putting the best candidate forward who can unite the party and have a chance in November.”
Merriam-Webster says the term “backroom” to refer to a deal was first used in 1940, but it doesn’t say how.
“The use of the phrase makes it sound like there is some sort of quid pro quo, that it was not constructed in plain view and transparently and therefore it is corrupt and bad,” said Kyle Saunders, an associate professor of political science at Colorado State University.
“That’s not necessarily the case, and there’s no evidence of it with Gardner. I think Gardner made the decision seeing the winds that are out there. It wasn’t a backroom deal. It was politics.”
“Tired Washington ritual”
During a debate on health care reform in late 2009, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado criticized fellow Democrats for cutting what he called “backroom deals” to ensure the bill’s passage.
Still, he said, he would vote for what became known as “Obama-care” — despite “the same tired Washington ritual” that produced it — because it closed a prescription-drug loophole and provided tax breaks to small businesses.
Last year, state Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, faced a potential recall sparked by her support for gun control in the 2013 session. Two other Democratic senators already had been recalled, leaving Democrats with only an 18-17 majority. When she resigned, Republicans were livid.
Conservative talk-radio host Mike Rosen suggested in his column in The Denver Post that Hudak stepped down after being promised a plum government job with a six-figure salary that would boost her pension. “It’s payback time,” he wrote.
The comment still infuriates Hudak.
“There was no deal. I resigned and I was out of a job. I lost my health insurance,” she recently said. “Maybe Republicans think they would never resign unless they were offered something.”
Saunders said parties now don’t have the clout to cut the backroom deals they used to be known for, and he pointed to Colorado’s bizarre 2010 race for governor.
“We darn sure tried to cut a backroom deal,” said Dick Wadhams, who was chairman of the Colorado Republican Party at the time.
Political neophyte Dan Maes won the GOP primary but lost one endorsement after another as his résumé unraveled. He refused to drop out, although former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo, running as a third-party candidate, said he would get out if Maes did so Republicans could pick a new nominee.
With those two splitting the vote, Democrat John Hickenlooper won the governor’s race.
Two step aside
Gardner entered the Senate race in late February after two leading GOP Senate candidates, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck and state Rep. Amy Stephens, agreed to step aside.
Buck immediately announced he was running for Gardner’s seat in the 4th Congressional District; three other Republicans have jumped in.
“If it was a backroom deal, it wasn’t very good for Ken Buck,” Saunders said. “He has strong opponents.”
Gardner had told Stephens if she stayed in, he wouldn’t run against her.
“I got out because I really think we can win the Senate seat with Cory,” she said. “That’s why I did it, although it was really tough because my volunteers had worked so hard. I didn’t get a backroom or a frontroom deal.”
Democrats were incensed at Gardner’s unexpected decision to challenge Udall in a race he had passed on the year before.
“It’s no surprise that a Washington ideologue like Congressman Cory Gardner worked with party bosses to cook up the ‘Centennial State Swap,’ the shady scheme hatched behind closed doors that enabled him to swoop into the Senate race,” Udall spokesman Chris Harris said.
But Udall knows a little something about stepping aside in a U.S. Senate race.
Ten years ago this month, Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell unexpectedly dropped his re-election bid for the U.S. Senate.
On the night of March 9, then-Congressman Udall dialed reporters. “I’m in,” the mountain climber said. “I’m packing my sleeping bag and racking my ropes, and I’ll have more to say about it tomorrow.”
But think-tank founder Rutt Bridges already was in the race, and Attorney General Ken Salazar had decided to run. The next morning, they ate breakfast at a Westminster restaurant and talked about what to do. Udall and Salazar both still wanted to run.
That afternoon, Udall climbed the steps of the state Capitol and stood by Salazar’s side as Salazar announced he would seek the Democratic nomination. Salazar won that November.
What kind of a deal had been reached in those few hours?
There wasn’t one, Udall’s then- chief of staff, Alan Salazar, said at the time. After breakfast, Udall and his wife and friends huddled together talking about how important it was that a Democrat reclaim the Senate seat.
“Wouldn’t it be really bold,” Udall finally asked, ” if a politician could put aside his ambition and put the party first?”
