From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: A higher profile for webb
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 01:18:23 GMT

By Mark Eddy, Denver Post Staff Writer
December 13, 1992

Boycott fight gives mayor a measure of national stature

Amendment 2 has created a deep rift and damaged the economy in Colorado, but it 
may be the best thing yet for Denver Mayor Wellington Webb's career.

He has been seen in sone quarters as merely a caretaker of the many projects 
begun by former Mayor Federico Pena.  But now Webb has taken a highly visible 
lead role in the fight against the amendment and the national boycott of 
Colorado.

Over the past two weeks, he has appeared on "The Arsenio Hall Show," 
"Entertainment Tonight," ABC's "Good Morning America," and numerous national 
and local radio talk shows and has been mentoned in stories in People magazine, 
Time magazine and "The CBS Evening News."

In New York City this month, he met with Mayor David Dinkins and the editorial 
staffs of The New York Times, Washington Post and Village Voice to denounce the 
boycott.

Despite Webb's efforts, Dinkins announced soon after their meeting that his 
city would join Atlanta and Boston in boycotting Colorado. More cities are 
expected to follow.  Denver already has lost at least $10 million in 
conventions and other business.

Webb has contended from the start that the boycott will split the state further 
and make it harder eventually to overturn Amendment 2.  Denver, Boulder and 
Aspen voted against the amendment and already has ordinances to protect gays 
from discrimination, he has noted repeatedly.

In trying to slow the swelling boycott, some observers say, Webb has emerged 
from Pena's shadow and shown himself to be a skilled politician unafraid to 
take risks.

"I think this has let Webb come into his own as a public figure and actually 
made him a national figure in some ways that Pena did not quite accomplish," 
said Larry Dodd, director of the Center for American Politics at the University 
of Colorado at Boulder.  "He's handled it well, and he has done credit to 
himself and Denver."

Until recently, Webb felt he wasn't getting the respect he deserves.  While 
overseeing construction of Denver International Airport, he has signed 
Continental and United airlines to leases.  He also is overseeing more than 
$300 million in bond projects.

At his State of the City address last summer, Webb angrily said that signing 
the airlines was a major accomplishment, as was his increased emphasis on 
routine city services.  Still, the idea persisted that he was only putting the 
finishing touches on Pena's dreams.

Pena was credited for landing showy, big-ticket items such as a major league 
baseball team, the Colorado Convention Center, the Denver Grand Prix and the 
new airport.

When Webb took office in June 1991, he said his administration would 
concentrate on less glamorous but essential city services.  "People are going 
to find that I'm very pragmatic."

But with the boycott prompted by Amendment 2, Webb has stolen the spotlight for 
his own.

"I think that he has gained a degree of stature with the reasoned and balanced 
interpretation (of why the amendment passed) that he has provided." Dodd said.  
"There has not been a lot of blame-casting on his part, but a balanced 
explanation of how poorly worded the initiative was and how confusing the 
wording was."

Such accolades for the mayor aren't being echoed by activists on either side of 
Amendment 2, however.  Boycott Colorado organizers say Webb's New York trip was 
a failure for him and a victory for gay and lesbian activists.

The trip put a national focus on Colorado and Amendment 2 that grassroots 
activists never could have achieved on their own, said Boycott Colorado 
spokeswoman Terry Schleder.  She said she thanks Webb for being a "walking 
billboard for the hate state."

"We also think it's real irresponsible for him to enocurage gays and lesbians 
to come to this state," she said.  "It's dangerous here for gays and lesbians."

Colorado for Family Values and other supporters of Amendment 2 have attacked 
Webb and Gov. Roy Romer for using their positions to criticize the new law, 
which pased by more than 100,000 votes.

In a late November interview, before Colorado for Family Values stopped 
commenting on Amendment 2, spokesman Kevin Tebedo said Webb's work means "the 
people in Denver who voted yes on Amendment 2 are being told they don't count.  
You've got the mayor deciding for 500,000 people that he's fighting his own 
personal battle...That's not right."

Nonetheless, in fighting for Denver's economic interests and the rights of 
gays, Webb has come across as a cool customer.

On the Arsenio show, the mayor wore his trademark running shoes and remained 
unruffled when David Smith, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance 
Against Defamation, unexpectedly was called form the audience and argued 
passionately in support of the boycott.

Webb hadn't bene expecting a debate, but he simply reiterated his belief that 
the best way to overturn the amendment is for people to come to Colorado and 
help supporters of gay rights.

In New York, he traded the running shoes for wingtips.  He should have stuck 
with his Nikes.  He was besieged at almost every stop by Lesbian Avengers 
loudly protesting his anti-boycott stance.

After a morning interview was interrupted by chanting Lesbian Avengers, Webb 
quickly adopted tactics to try to ensure that his negotiations got more 
attention than the protesters.  He began showing up early for appointments and 
several times leaped form his limousine a block or two from his stop so he 
could sneak into his next interview.  Even when he was mobbed by the New York 
media at city hall, Webb kept calm.

Nonetheless, said Denver Councilman Ted Hackworth, the New York trip "was very, 
very negative."  It's time for Webb to stay home and run the city, Hackworth 
said.

And that's what Webb said he plans to do.

"I can't be the point guy," the mayor said.  "There has to be someone who 
addresses this issue full time.  Members of the business community and 
individuals who believe this issue should be addressed" have to come up with an 
alternative strategy to the boycott.

Clearly, the emotional battle and 12- to 16-hour days are taking their toll.  
By the time Webb had finished meeting with Dinkins and holding a news 
conference in New York, he decribed himself as "physically and mentally 
exhausted."  Instead of hopping a plane for Toronto as planned, the mayor 
headed home.

Yet while some deemed the New York trip a disaster, Webb said he did what he 
set out to do: He kept New York from instituting a full boycott and talked up 
Denver's new airport while promoting Colorado tourism  New York implemented 
only a travel boycott, as opposed to the full trade and travel boycott Boston 
approved.

It's unrealistic to expect Webb to stop the boycott, Dodd said.

"Webb really has only a limited ability to slow down this movement, because the 
civil libertarian and the gay communities both feel so strongly that this 
message has to be sent loud and clear before other initiatives and referendums 
in other states follow suit."

Although Webb is walking a political mine field, Amendment 2 is the type of 
issue politicians can use to vault into higher office, said Tom Cronin, a 
political science professor at Colorado College.

"In states like California and Colorado where political parties are relatively 
weak (compared with eastern states), cadidates for office often develop their 
bases, loyalists and contributors by being involved in issue politics," Cronin 
said.

Former Gov. Dick Lamm gained fame by fighting to keep the Olympics out of 
Colorado, Cronin said.  And Jerry Brown used the base he built while promoting 
campaign reform to win the governor's race in California.

"More and more, the people who run for governor in a lot of western 
states...often hitch their campaign or build their base by being involved in an 
initiative," Cronin said.

But for now, Webb will settle for getting back to business as usual.

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