{"id":8578,"date":"2018-03-05T12:05:12","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T19:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/?p=8578"},"modified":"2018-03-04T16:05:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T23:05:25","slug":"how-to-pass-a-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/how-to-pass-a-law\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Pass A law"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"legislative<\/a>

A legislative hearing on motorcycle topics a few years ago.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

I mentioned recently that the legislative effort by Sen. Lois Court to curb driver distraction<\/a> caused by texting and other use of electronic devices went down to defeat in the Republican-controlled Senate. Court is a Democrat.<\/p>\n

Those of us who are motorcyclists and others who find texting drivers a personal danger don’t really care what the party affiliation is of someone proposing to fight this very real danger. Aren’t our elected representatives supposed to work for what is best for the public, not for what is best for their own party? And how does it work counter to either party’s interests to cooperatively combat a clear evil?<\/p>\n

I’m not pointing fingers at the Republicans alone. I know it works in both directions and I don’t care who is doing it, it’s outrageous. You’re there to serve us, not yourselves.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I was a little surprised at the latest communication I received from Stump, the ABATE of Colorado<\/a> lobbyist working for all motorcyclists down at the capitol. He said he had been hanging out with legislators of both parties and learning even more than he already knew about getting a bill passed. And thinking specifically of this distracted driver bill of Sen. Court’s, he offered the thought that the way to get it passed may simply be to change the make-up of the Senate so the Democrats control that house.<\/p>\n

He was very specific about how it could be done. Here is what he had to say:<\/p>\n

ABATE is a non-partisan organization and has champion legislators on both sides of the aisle. The following scenario is merely factual information from a Democrats viewpoint. Below is a possible scenario of the upcoming elections to increase the Democratic presence in the Senate:<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00b7 Andy Kerr (D) is term-limited, so we need to elect Brittany Pettersen (D) to take his place (District 22 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Jefferson County \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Edgewater, Lakewood, Littleton)
\n\u00c2\u00b7 Cheri Jahn (U) is also term-limited – we need to replace her with Jessie Danielson (D) (District 20 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Jefferson County — Wheatridge)
\n\u00c2\u00b7 Mike Merrifield (D) is term-limited – we need to replace him with Pete Lee (D) (District 11 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c El Paso County, Colorado Springs area)
\n\u00c2\u00b7 Leroy Garcia (D) is an incumbent we need to re-elect (District 3 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Pueblo County, Pueblo area)
\n\u00c2\u00b7 Kerry Donovan (D) is an incumbent we need to re-elect (District 5 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Chaffee, Delta, Eagle, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Lake & Pitkin Counties \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Avon, Basalt, Buena Vista, Crested Butte, Eagle, Minturn, Pitkin, Poncha Springs, Vail)<\/p>\n

We need to defeat two Republicans:
\n\u00c2\u00b7 Tim Neville (R) needs to be defeated by Tammy Story (D) (District 16 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Boulder, Denver, Gilpin & Jefferson Counties)
\n\u00c2\u00b7 Beth Martinez-Humenik (R) needs to be defeated by Faith Winter (D) (District 24 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Adams County, Northglenn, Thornton, Westminster)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, back up a little and go to that first statement: “ABATE is a non-partisan organization and has champion legislators on both sides of the aisle.” I understand the disclaimer in the next sentence (“The following scenario is merely factual information from a Democrats viewpoint.”) but it sure feels like he’s playing with fire here. A lot of ABATE members, not to mention motorcyclists at large, who are Republicans.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, in regard to this particular issue there is truth in what he’s saying. If those people in office care more about their own partisan politics, and less about the public good, then they probably should be replaced. But what if the new people are just as partisan in the other direction? Aren’t there other issues of concern to motorcyclists where the Republicans are more sympathetic than the Democrats? Do we flip both houses of the legislature every other year and try to score legislatively with each side quickly?<\/p>\n

How about this as an alternative: Each and every one of us should question our legislative candidates and vote only for those who reject this extreme partisanship. Elect the ones who promise to work across the aisle for the good of the people. And then hold them to it. If they win and prove themselves just as nakedly partisan as the last one, vote them out next time–regardless of whether they belong to your party or not.<\/p>\n

Biker Quote for Today<\/h3>\n

We have to stop to text–so should you!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned recently that the legislative effort by Sen. Lois Court to curb driver distraction caused by texting and other use of electronic devices went down to defeat in the Republican-controlled Senate. Court is a Democrat. Those of us who are motorcyclists and others who find texting drivers a personal danger don’t really care what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168],"tags":[725],"class_list":["post-8578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motorcycle-legislation","tag-distracted-driving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8578"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8581,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8578\/revisions\/8581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}