And while a 1993 law bars lobbyists and their employers from giving campaign donations while the legislature is in session, there is no prohibition against gift-giving during that period. Been treated to weekends at ski resorts and at the Colorado Rockies spring training camp, a Caribbean cruise, a hot-air balloon ride and a bottle of Seagram's Scotch whisky. When legislative committees that handle health-care issues held a summer meeting in the southern Colorado city of Trinidad two years ago, a lobbyist for the state nursing home association paid for their hotel rooms. Some legislators also accepted scholarships and educational trips from groups such as the University of Virginia, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the U.S. Information Service that were not advocating a legislative agenda in Colorado. But the overwhelming number of gifts to legislators, both by number and dollar value, were given by lobbyists and special interest groups ranging from U S West and Public Service Co. to the Colorado Credit Union League, the University of Colorado and the Colorado Association of School Executives.
Unsolicited gifts arrive all year.
Every legislator used to get a free RTD bus pass, until the agency's board scrapped that policy in 1995. In recent years, all 100 legislators have been offered memberships to the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Petroleum Club. They've also been invited to the Rocky Mountain Home Show, and dog racing at Arapahoe Park and Mile High Greyhound Park. While business executives, celebrities, journalists and others get similar freebies, some Colorado legislators say people elected to represent the public shouldn't accept gifts solely for personal use. I couldn't believe what I was given,'' said Rep. Penn Pfiffner, who declines all such freebies but has kept free passes and invitations in a file that is now nearly an inch thick after three years.