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January 28, 2011 10:08 PM UTC

Reminder: Dave Balmer is a Straight-Up Creep

  • 16 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #2: Statement from Senate President Brandon Shaffer after the jump: “The Senate chamber must be a sanctuary for the exchange of ideas in an atmosphere free of intimidation. I will not tolerate a breech in decorum. We have real work to do for the people of Colorado.”

UPDATE: The AP reports, Rep. Dave Balmer will not face a Senate investigation over his conduct toward Sen. Gail Schwartz. But he is banned from the state Senate floor for the duration of the session, and will formally apologize for his behavior.

—–

In March of 2007, Republican Rep. Debbie Stafford got a taste of Dave Balmer’s ugly side. The Rocky Mountain News reported at the time:

Rep. Debbie Stafford, of Aurora, said that a fellow Republican in the House told her she would be a target in future elections if she supported a construction-defects bill that the homebuilders industry opposed…

“There is a specific House rule that says a lobbyist cannot threaten a legislator, for that matter any other public employee, with violence or economic or political reprisal,” [Speaker Andrew Romanoff] said. “There is no corresponding rule in the House with respect to threats made by lawmakers, and I think there should be.”

Stafford said that a number of people lobbied her to vote against House Bill 1338, including Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial, the assistant minority leader.

Stafford left the Republican Party soon thereafter–not that she was considered a great prize by Democrats, with some erratic and impolitic statements in her own past, but she was allowed to serve out her term as a Democrat in peace.

Dave Balmer has had a rough ride trying to move up in the ranking of Republican leadership in the Colorado House. It wasn’t due to a lack of trying: Balmer was always regarded as a potent fundraiser, and as the story above recounts, he was useful as an enforcer for GOP leadership from time to time.

But Balmer also has a troubled past. We’ve discussed his odd history as a state legislator and congressional candidate in North Carolina–a political career that ended in allegations of resume embellishment and a bizarre “disappearance.” In 2008, this history resurfaced when other Republicans used it against him during a bid for minority leadership. During the last election cycle, more unsavory personal details from Balmer’s past in North Carolina emerged. Until he was appointed to the bipartisan redistricting committee, we thought the guy was done; just biding his time until term limits put him out of his misery.

But Frank McNulty, for whatever reason, thought Balmer would make a good addition to this nominally important committee–and appears to have paid for it. The AP reports:

A Colorado Senate committee will be appointed to investigate the behavior of a state representative a witness says made “boisterous noise and a lot of hand gestures” during a discussion about redistricting in the Senate after adjournment.

Senate President Brandon Schaffer, D-Longmont, tells The Denver Post that the committee will look into the behavior of Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial. A witness says Balmer was talking to Democratic Sen. Gail Schwartz of Snowmass Village Wednesday when a sergeant at arms asked Balmer to leave.

Albert Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. At some point this rule has to be applicable to Dave Balmer in anything resembling a position of influence. We’re pretty sure that the only reason Balmer hasn’t been Jim Welkerized long before now is his uncanny ability to charm wealthy Republicans’ wallets open.

Well, at some point, the ugly is going to catch up with the charm.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, January 28 2011

Representative Balmer banned from Senate Chamber

Will formally apologize on House floor

DENVER-Today, Senate President Brandon Shaffer (D-Longmont) banned Representative David Balmer (R-Centennial) from the Senate chamber for the remainder of the legislative session. This action comes in response to an incident which took place on Wednesday, January 26 in which a Senate Sergeant-At-Arms asked that Balmer remove himself from the Senate chamber due to his aggressive behavior toward Senator Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass Village).

“This morning Representative Balmer came to my office to apologize for his conduct on the Senate floor when he confronted Senator Schwartz. Mr. Balmer’s behavior was unacceptable, and for that reason I have revoked his privilege to enter the Senate chamber for the remainder of the legislative session.

At my request Representative Balmer will apologize publicly in the House chamber at his first convenience.

The Senate chamber must be a sanctuary for the exchange of ideas in an atmosphere free of intimidation. I will not tolerate a breech in decorum. We have real work to do for the people of Colorado.”

Comments

16 thoughts on “Reminder: Dave Balmer is a Straight-Up Creep

  1. washed up on the beach in NC covered in sea weed? And then he said his head hurt and he had amnesia? One of my favorite WTF political stores of all time.

    1. I think that it actually a swamp that ol’ Deliverance Dave came staggering out of. He fled the state shortly he turned back and then somehow showed up here and got elected to the State House.

  2. Albert Einsteinonce said that stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting the same result.

    Maybe its just me or the fact that it’s Friday but I think Einstein might have praised expecting the same result from doing the same thing.

    I think the phrase goes something like:

    stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

    1. I usually see it as “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over” etc.  Einstein didn’t say it.  Apparently it came from a novel by Rita Mae Brown.  This is a pet peeve of mine.  I’m done now, thanks for your patience.

  3. He could have threatened to recall Stafford if she didn’t vote the way he wanted her to…

    This does appear to be a pretty major jackass move.  Classy, David.

    1. You’ve been notably missing in the Gessler related threads, unless I missed some late breaking comments. Glad to see you still are capable of knowing a jackass when you see one.  Sometimes, anyway.

  4. “making what he called boisterous noise and a lot of hand gestures toward Schwartz”

    Did he burp and give her the finger?

    I hate censorship in the press.

    1. of random movements.  Did you remember the bill that made masturbatory movements officially illegal? Excruciating.

      It also doesn’t really matter because the other place doesn’t have to justify or explain itself in this case. “That wasn’t that bad!” doesn’t matter. In fact, assume it really wasn’t that bad. Otherwise he’d be in legal trouble. Like a skirt I’d wear to a bar but not work. He was in the chamber as a big boy, hands to ourselves and at our sides. Please.

      My main point is that it’s probably not censorship, more like sparing us.

  5. is great news for those of us in his district. We have tried to defeat Balmer in this heavily Republican area four times. Each time his lead has gotten a little closer. He ran against the very intelligent and determined Mollie Cullom three of those times. The fourth time, Carol Levine, a newcomer to Democratic activism in Arapahoe County, only lost to him by a 14 point spread, if my memory serves me correctly (will look it up), and Carol did very little campaigning. As a progressive, Balmer’s conservative voting record has been deplorable by my standards.

    In his defense, he is a nice man. He did vote against the Colorado House Bill 1124 which would have saddled animal rescue groups with expensive and burdensome restrictions and requirements, thus hurting animals in the long run. The bill was opposed by many animal rights groups, veterinary agencies and organizations for pets. Naturally, the bill was embraced by corporate America under the guise of making restrictions tighter for animals (a veil for bankrupting animal rescues and animal rights groups). Balmer returned my calls on the issue immediately, and he was genuinely concerned about the animals. He is a huge dog lover.

    http://www.examiner.com/pets-i

    1. He does mention preserving Cherry Creek dog park as an off-leash dog park as a priority. With that, I wholeheartedly agree and support him. (Seriously — there are a lot of dog lovers out here — myself included.)

      On another issue, he says he believes in “Defending our borders and enforcing our immigration laws”. As a State Rep., I wonder to which borders and immigration laws he is referring. To my knowledge, our borders between Aurora, Centennial and Greenwood Village have been fairly peaceful. We have not had many people climbing the reservoir fence in quite awhile.  

      1. If the problem isn’t dealt with now than there will be many, many brown people all over the place – maybe even moving from Aurora to Greenwood Village.

        Can’t have that happening, now can we…

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