< PREVIOUS ] [ 1988 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
Just how well do candidates keep their promises?
I started wondering the other day, when I received a questionnaire from my state representative, Ken Chlouber of Leadville.
His questions covered most current Colorado controversies: Lotto, Central Standard Time, branch banking, highways. Naturally, it neglected the issues that Chlouber campaigned on two years ago.
In 1986, when he was a laid-off miner running for the legislature, Chlouber spoke to a local Republican women's club.
I think the same way you do,
he said. Put
criminals in prison, put prayer back in schools, and put
the blue lights back on snowplows.
Perhaps campaign issues are more sophisticated in the civilized regions of Colorado, but up here, that was enough to get Chlouber elected.
How's Chlouber been doing since then? His fellow
Republicans have from time to time proposed plans to limit
prison population. I'm not too sure how this would work.
Maybe along the lines of See here, Mr. Felon, we can't
allow you into one of our state prisons for a mere armed
robbery. You go out and make something out of yourself with
a kidnapping or an extortion, and then maybe we'll consider
admitting you.
At any rate, limiting prison population is the precise
opposite of Chlouber's promise to Put criminals in
prison.
Prayer in schools? That's a flagrant violation of both the state and federal constitutions. When he took office, Chlouber presumably took an oath to uphold those constitutions. So maybe that's why we haven't heard anything on that score.
Since Salida isn't near any world-class ski resorts, I seldom see snowplows. But the few I've noticed sport gaudy orange lights; if you see flashing blue lights, you're probably in a K-Mart.
Even if he hasn't made any progress on a single one of his major campaign issues, Chlouber has seen some success in promoting H.B. 1166, which makes it illegal to interfere with hunters.
I asked some friends who hunt if they'd ever been
interfered with. None had. As one put it, We're out
there toting knives, pistols, high-powered rifles --
nobody's about to mess with us.
Chlouber's law is a solution to a non-existent problem. The rest of us may have to guess at what constitutes interference. Your old pickup backfires while going downhill on a public road. The noise spooks a six-point buck a hunter had been stalking. Will you be fined?
Or you happen upon a steel-jawed trap while walking in the woods. Right now, you could dispose of this safety hazard before some child or pet steps in it. But it could soon be a crime.
There is the argument that hunting is a risky, but legal, activity that produces revenue for the state. So hunters deserve state protection. Cigarette smoking is likewise a risky, but legal, activity that enhances state revenues -- and every time I pick up a paper, I see that new means are being devised to harass smokers.
Further, there are wholesome activities that really could use some state protection. Have you tried walking lately?
Motorists turning right on red will mow you down in the crosswalk. Many neighborhoods don't have sidewalks, and in those that do, the walks often aren't shoveled after a snowstorm. Thousands of children walk to school -- and they'll be walking in the dark during the cold months of winter if Colorado advances the clock, just so metropolitan drivers can postpone the day that they will gag on their own fumes.
Not that drivers couldn't use some protection, too. Whatever else that garish fluorescent cross on Mt. Lindo is, it's also a traffic hazard. Just try driving up U.S. 285 some night; thanks to the glaring cross, it's like driving against a steady stream of people who won't dim their brights. With your vision thus impaired, you can barely make out the twisting road. You certainly can't see any roadside deer who might be readying themselves to plunge into your windshield.
Perhaps that collision with a game animal would make you into a hunter. And then your state representative would worry about your opinion -- if you lived.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1988 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >