The Tribune compared him to Carter and then quoted the governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter, Jr., a man who seems to govern in the same unchallenging manner that Obama might exhibit.
Ritter said that Obama should make a good plan for dealing with legislators. He also recalled one of the first pieces of legislation that Colorado Democrats sent to his desk after his 2006 election, a bill that made union organizing easier. He vetoed this bill.
Ritter said Obama “certainly wants to avoid having that happen.”
For those wondering, the Denver Post has the particulars on this guy:
His bold veto of an ill-timed labor union bill in the early days of his young administration buoyed the hearts of nervous business leaders who had bucked conventional wisdom just months earlier by supporting the Democrat over Republican Bob Beauprez.
But recent moves by his administration have more than a few in the business community scratching their heads.
The earlier bill would have made it easier to set up all-union workplaces in Colorado. Ritter, who supported its substance, vetoed it anyway, saying he didn't like the way the bill came about. Business leaders, he said, had been left out of the loop.
It was a savvy way out of the corner that Democratic legislators had forced him into, and it very well could have saved his governorship.
But shortly thereafter, he signed an executive order allowing state employees to have their union dues automatically withdrawn from their paychecks. (Gov. Bill Owens had overturned the rule.)
And during these sleepy summer months while lawmakers were away, there was quibbling over proposed policy changes that would give unions greater access to state buildings to organize. Then rumors began to surface about a collective bargaining bill for state employees. Suddenly, top Republicans were accusing Ritter of playing "footsie" with labor unions.
Documents released last week detailed his administration's quiet cooperation with two big unions on a proposed bill to allow state employees to bargain collectively for higher salaries. Ritter's spokesman has said it's no secret that the governor wants to strengthen "partnerships" with government employees, but denied anything surreptitious.
Even as he won over business leaders last year, Ritter never backed away, at least publicly, from his pro-union stance.
Here's the thing to know about Ritter. In 2005, when no one - and I mean no one, except maybe his wife, Jeanne - was giving the longshot candidate a chance, Ritter, a lifelong union man, went about quietly courting Big Labor.
When pundits were musing about who was going to jump into the fray to really challenge Beauprez - Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper? House Speaker Andrew Romanoff? Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald? - Ritter was busy building up a base of support.
By the fall of 2005, a full year before the election, he had wrapped up endorsements of the state's major unions, and the former union pipe layer had the Democratic nomination all to himself.
But Ritter needs to be careful about dancing too long and too close with the ones who brought him to the dance. Even though any proposed collective bargaining would impact only government employees, there are worries it could be just the beginning of unions gaining a stronger foothold in Colorado.
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