Senate Democrats Looking for Social Issue

Colorado Senate Democrats, anxious to hold and possibly expand their majority, have been looking

Sen. Andy Kerr

for wedge issues that break in their direction and that are especially stimulating to the base.

They have been cautious due to the need to make this legislative session less partisan and raucous. Hence, more gun restrictions and gay rights expansions were back burned. But, the “War on Women” is a tried and true strategy, and claiming to fight the imminent threat of new abortion restrictions from pro-life Republicans was seen as useful for incumbents, especially in the Denver suburbs.

The fact there are no abortion restrictions on the Colorado political horizon was no bar to trying to pass a vaguely worded resolution attempting to generate some political reaction and media coverage. Initially, it seemed to work when Democrats proposed a pro-abortion resolution to put the legislature on record opposed to restrictions and Republicans and the Catholic Church on the defensive.

Although the Democratic leadership got coverage, it’s not clear the Democrats won the engagement. The Church and Republicans came out in force against it. The new Catholic archbishop took a leadership position and anti-abortion activists produced the largest overflow rally since the gun control fracas last year. The effort was so transparently political, the leadership appeared as exactly what the Governor and other allies warned them to avoid – aggressive partisanship.