Colo. role may rise with Dem-controlled House
Centennial State delegation determined to hold Trump accountable
Colorado’s House delegation is going to have a higher profile in the next Congress as Democrats prepare to take control of the lower chamber for the second half of President Donald Trump’s term.
Rep. Diana DeGette, a Denver Democrat, wants a promotion to majority whip — the No. 3 post in the House.
Jason Crow’s victory over Republican incumbent Mike Coffman in the 6th Congressional District, along with the election of Joe Neguse in the 2nd, gives the Colorado delegation, like the House itself, a Democratic majority.
And Reps. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, and Ken Buck, R-Windsor, sit on key committees where the fight over whether and how to investigate Trump is expected to
play out.
“Democrats taking the House really restores the system of checks and balances that our founders envisioned,” DeGette told The Denver Post on Wednesday. “Trump and his allies in Congress have tried to do whatever they wanted without a check and balance. We’re going to make sure we hold the Trump administration accountable.”
DeGette, a 22-year House veteran, wants to help lead that charge while also pushing for compromises on immigration and transportation. In a letter to her colleagues Wednesday morning, she announced her bid for whip.
The whip counts the votes for their party and pulls together different coalitions to pass legislation. It will be a critical position for House Democrats because they’re projected to hold a narrow majority in the next Congress that includes several new members from traditionally red suburban districts.
She is running against South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn.
“This was really the year of the woman,” DeGette told The Denver Post. “Women are the reason we took this congressional majority, and we’ve only ever had one woman whip, and that was Nancy Pelosi.”
Pelosi on the hot seat
DeGette’s candidacy comes amid calls from some House members for a change of Democratic leadership. Pelosi, currently the minority leader, has been a favorite of target of the right for several years, and some are questioning whether she is the right person to lead Democrats as they retake control of the House.
DeGette, Perlmutter and Crow all support Pelosi’s ouster.
DeGette thinks her seven-term stint as chief deputy whip — which included the vote to pass the Affordable Care Act — makes her the ideal candidate for whip.
She said she sees an opportunity to work with House Republicans and even Trump on immigration and transportation bills come January. Outgoing Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, who didn’t seek re-election, was the roadblock to legislation on both of those issues for the past two years, DeGette said, because he wouldn’t bring bills to the floor if they needed Democratic votes to pass.
“Immigration reform has passed the Senate before,” she said. “It’s something everybody knows needs to happen.”
Perlmutter said he enthusiastically supports DeGette’s bid for whip.
“I do think it’s time for a change in leadership,” he said. “I think we’ve had these leaders in place for 15, 16, 17 years. I think some fresh perspectives would be good.”
The coming fight over investigations
Buck, who now finds himself in the minority, said he isn’t sure the House will be able to pass bills — even ones with bipartisan support — if Democrats get mired in an endless series of investigations about the president.
Pelosi and others have promised to use their power as the majority party to investigate Trump’s business and financial dealings and ties with Russia.
“I don’t think that’s reaching across the aisle and trying to find compromise,” Buck told The Post on Wednesday.
Buck sits on the House Judiciary Committee as well as the Judiciary subcommittees on Immigration and Border Security and Antitrust Law, which means the former prosecutor could find himself at the center of several contentious Democratic investigations. Buck said he plans to add an attorney to his staff in the coming weeks.
“I’m ashamed that those to the right and left of me in Congress are playing politics with investigations,” Buck said. “Once we find the truth, we can put a political spin on it.”
Trump fired his own warning shot on Twitter. “If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to consider investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level,” he wrote.
A few hours later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at Trump’s request — a move seen by some as a step toward shutting down special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Colorado’s newly elected representatives, Crow and Neguse, both called the news about Sessions troubling.
“I think it’s very clear this administration is making moves to disband the Mueller investigation, and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Crow said. “At least Democrats have the power now to conduct the investigations that are necessary.”