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April 22, 2011 09:28 PM UTC

How Tom Massey Helped Salvage The GOP Brand

  • 27 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

When newly-elected Colorado GOP chairman Ryan Call laughably suggested on television a couple of weeks ago that Republicans had been some kind of great defenders of education funding in the state budget battle, rewriting months of copiously-documented history from every newspaper in the state, we feel pretty confident that Rep. Tom Massey, moderate Republican from Poncha Springs, groaned along with everybody else.

Today, though, if he’s smart, chairman Call is making arrangements to give Massey a ticker tape parade–being perhaps the only Republican in the state who can give Call a defense against the charge of brazenly lying. As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Patrick Malone reports:

Schools in Colorado were facing $250 million in cuts in fiscal year 2011-12 before Massey, R- Poncha Springs and chair of the House Education Committee, rummaged through the couch cushions of the state budget to soften the blow.

“School finance has been a difficult proposition as we’ve worked through it over the last month, to say the least,” Massey said. “We’ve all admitted that a $250 million cut to our institutions of public learning is particularly high and damaging to our small rural school districts in particular.”

He simply refused to accept those cuts…

Massey said he and House Democrats have been working to restore some of the lost funding to schools by negotiating with the governor’s office for at least two weeks with the blessing of House Republican leadership.

“Massey was working with (Democrats) and the governor’s staff on the final details (Wednesday) night in our office,” said House Minority Leader Sal Pace, D-Pueblo. “I’m proud that House Democrats were instrumental in getting this done.” [Pols emphasis]

…Massey’s fellow House Republicans, perceived in the earliest stages of negotiations as a potential obstacle to his plan, overwhelmingly supported it Thursday when it gained preliminary approval in the House, where its next step is a formal vote.

Folks, we’re not interested in denying credit to any legislator, Republican or Democrat, who voted for this plan to restore $90 million in cuts to education. Whether based on a genuine desire to ease the cuts, or mitigation of damage done from months of stories about impending teacher layoffs and cuts to school breakfasts, this was a very smart move for everybody–and welcome further relief for schools, from a situation that looked much worse just a few months ago. This is also not the first time that Rep. Massey has proven to be a go-to reasonable player in the Republican caucus. All of that is correctly noted for the record.

But it won’t totally wipe out memory of those politically masochistic GOP school breakfast cuts, tax credits for bull semen, needlessly revising revenue estimates down, holding the budget hostage over teacher retirement funds–or who Massey worked with to get the deal done, regardless of how his caucus voted. There’s also the intuitive simple truth: voters know which side wants more public education funding, and which side doesn’t. That framing, in case you’ve never heard Sen. Kent Lambert speak on the matter, is very well established.

But in simple CYA terms, Ryan Call has more to thank Massey for than he can ever admit.

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27 thoughts on “How Tom Massey Helped Salvage The GOP Brand”

    2. “Yes, bjwilson83, we now understand that Republicans value education and its contribution to the economy. We do not believe that Republicans are not heartless monsters who lie awake at night dreaming up ways to starve poor little school children. Those were just our talking points, and we sincerely apologize to those who might have been offended by such misinformed and irrational rhetoric.”

      3. Your attempt to gain credibility and respect, through a blatant twisting and misrepresentation of what Pols is saying here, is desperate and laughable.

        Has anyone posted a comment to your blog lately? You know, since it’s so relevant and all.

          1. That’s kind of dumb if you’re so worried. (Which you’re not – you’d welcome that so you can claim to be a victim, something your kind excel at doing.)

          2. did you notice that I didn’t mention your blog’s name? Just saying you have one won’t help anyone find it.

            Wit follows thinking, it doesn’t precede it.

        2. Anyone without ’em hasn’t gotten into the habit of having long rational arguments with beings not yet mature enough to understand logic. But give someone a toddler for long enough and they go all “But you have to go wee-wee in the potty because we can’t afford any more carpet cleaning and you’re getting too big for diapers and don’t you want to wear big boy clothes?”

          That’s what this ongoing war with beej reminds me of–face it, Ari, he’s at that rebellious age where reasoning with him just gives him a chance to exercise his brand new words, “No!” and “Me!”  

  2. All the GOP needs is one guy willing to reach across the aisle; they’ll ALL claim that they’ve collectively worked with the Dems, when it’s been one guy, and the one guy will go along with it.

    1. He’s just about the last of the good Republicans in the House. Although we don’t always agree, you can count on him to actually consider both sides before choosing one AND for him to try to make the side he didn’t choose better.

  4. Just told this to Massey yesterday.

    To echo the (sane) comments made so far, if the Republicans knew what was good for them, they would follow the Massey model of governance.

    1. consensus and developing policies that benefit all.

      That ought to make beej and Craig’s little pea-sized brains explode at the sheer apostasy of a reasonable Republican.

      “Oh My God, this fellow wants to work with Democrats to solve problems.  The Tea Party needs to primary this treasonous mother fucker next year.”

      Aren’t those your real feelings beej?

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