From: WAND_M@gold.colorado.edu
Subject: Romer vows to uphold amendments
Followup-To: amend2-discuss@cs.colorado.edu
Originator: doherty@ucsu.Colorado.EDU
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 02:57:44 GMT

>From Gazette Telegraph, Colorado Springs
December 14, 1992

Recall effort puts governor on defensive

By Jim Buynak

The people seeking to recall Colorado's governor "do not have the facts 
straight," Gov. Roy Romer said Sunday.

Romer said he is abiding by the will of Colorado voters in implementing 
recently adopted amendments despite his personal opposition to them.  That 
opposition led a Colorado Springs-based group to mount a recall campaign 
against the governor.

The group of about 30 people, formed last week and called "We the People for 
the Recall of Roy Romer," announced its intentions Saturday.  It contmnds that 
Roner "overstepped his position as governor" because of his public opposition 
to the new amendments--particularly Amendment 1, a tax-limitaton measure, and 
Amendment 2, which bars laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual 
preference.

"Let's get the facts straight," Romer said in a telephone interview Sunday.  
"They got 'em wrong.  My position on Amendment 1 is, it's the law."

He said he has met with lawmakers across the state in the past five days trying 
to determine how to implement the tax-limitation law.

"I have a meeting in Colorado Springs (Monday) on that," he said.  Romer will 
meet area lawmakers at 8:30 a.m. today at Pikes Peak Community College to 
discuss how to implement Amendment 1.

Amendment 2 is also the law and it will be upheld, he said.

"There's a suit being filed against it and the attorney general and I are going
to defend it," he said.  "I hae an obligation to defend it, even though I 
disagree with it."

Romer said he has objected to other amendments, but never has failed to back 
them once they became law.  He campaigned against the proposal that allowed 
gaming in the towns of Cripple Creek, Central City and Black Hawk.  Voters 
approved that measure in 1990.

"I was never in favor of gambling but when that was passed I knew it was the 
law and implemented it," he said.

But Douglas Briggman, the Colorado Springs auto-repair shop owner who chairs 
We've heard that before," he said of Romer's claim of backing the amendments.  
"It's another example of Slick Roy Doublespeak."

Romer said he would welcome a meeting with the group so he could clarify his 
position.

"I pay attention to anyone who is concerned as to what I do," the governor 
said.  "I would like to sit down with them and tell them how I feel."

Briggman's group would have to collect about 278,000 signatures--25 percent of 
the voters who cast ballots in Romer's 1990 election victory--to force a recall 
vote.  If a vote is called, a simple majority can oust the governor, Briggman 
said.

He estimates that it will cost about $300,000 to run the recall campaign.  The 
group expects to hold a news conference later this month to publicize its 
plans, and believes it could submit the needed signatures to the secretary of 
state within six months.




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