February 15, 2007 08:00 PM UTC

Hillman Speaks Out on Amendment 41

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• by: Colorado Pols

According to a press release:

A former Senate Republican leader, who carried legislation to enact a campaign-reform amendment approved by voters in 2002, says his bill was fundamentally different from a now-pending attempt to exempt large groups of people from voter-approved Amendment 41.

Mark Hillman, who served as Senate majority leader in 2003-04 and as minority leader in 2005, was Senate sponsor of a 2003 bill that implemented Amendment 27. Hillman disputes current claims that the bill made substantive changes to Amendment 27 in the way that some now propose for Amendment 41, the government-ethics law voters adopted last November.

“Legislators are in a real bind. Either they uphold the plain language of the constitution, which is the first oath that they take, or they do what is politically popular and ignore the plain language of the constitution.”

“(The enacting bill) did not narrow the plain language of Amendment 27,” Hillman said. “House Bill 1132 could have been written to cast a broader net, but you cannot go into that bill and find anything that directly contradicts the plain language of Amendment 27.”