On KNUS, Andrews hosted another misinformation-laden session at Capitol with GOP lawmakers and gun lobbyist

Summary: On his Backbone Radio program, John Andrews failed to challenge a Republican state lawmaker and a lobbyist who mischaracterized Democratic-sponsored bills. State Rep. David Balmer claimed that a measure to raise limits on medical malpractice awards is "a clear payback to the trial lawyers," but he did not acknowledge that he has received at least $7,200 from a firm that reportedly is "Colorado's largest medical malpractice insurance company." Additionally, gun lobbyist Dudley Brown misrepresented another bill as one that "forc[es] you to lock up your firearms or be subject to prosecution."

During a March 23 "special report" called the "Colorado Call to Action" on KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio, host John Andrews allowed a Republican lawmaker and a lobbyist to mischaracterize Democratic-sponsored bills introduced during the 2008 Colorado legislative session. After state Rep. David Balmer (R-Centennial) claimed that proposed legislation to raise limits on medical malpractice judgments, Senate Bill 164, is "a clear payback to the trial lawyers who invested deeply into the Democratic campaigns in the 2004 cycle and the 2006 cycle," Andrews failed to ask Balmer whether his opposition to the bill constituted "payback" for Balmer's own campaign contributors, which include what the Denver Business Journal has called "Colorado's largest medical malpractice insurance company." In fact, the Denver-based COPIC Insurance Co. (COPIC) has given Balmer at least $7,200 since October 2004, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's campaign finance database.

Later in the broadcast, Andrews interviewed gun lobbyist Dudley Brown, who mischaracterized Senate Bill 49 as one that "forc[es] you to lock up your firearms or be subject to prosecution." However, as Colorado Media Matters has pointed out, S.B. 49 would not compel all gun owners to "lock up" their firearms: A gun owner would be criminally liable only if a minor who accessed the unsecured firearm then "uses the firearm to cause death or serious bodily injury to himself, herself, or another person or carries the firearm to a public or private school or to any school-sponsored event."

In addition, Andrews allowed state Sen. Nancy Spence (R-Centennial) to promote the Senate Republicans' website, ColoradoSenateNews.com as "a wonderful way to get information to the public," without noting that the website is run -- and its content is created -- by Senate Republicans.

Colorado Media Matters also pointed out that Andrews on February 24 hosted a similar "special presentation" from the state Capitol in which Republicans Rep. Cory Gardner (Yuma) and Senate Minority Leader Andrew McElhany (Colorado Springs) made false and misleading claims about the work of Gov. Bill Ritter and the Democratic-led legislature.

During his March 23 interview with Spence and Balmer, Andrews -- a former Colorado Senate president while an elected Republican -- asked Balmer, "What is the climate with Democrats in charge and a Democratic governor, Bill Ritter, downstairs willing to sign any bill that they will send him?" Balmer replied, "Actually, the trial lawyers and labor unions are -- this is their time." The discussion continued:

BALMER: They are passing bills, ramming bills through chambers, and sending them down to Governor Ritter to sign. One of the worst trial lawyer bills right now is a bill, Senate Bill 164, which will increase medical malpractice liability caps, and the result of that will be a direct increase in cost of medical malpractice insurance, which physicians will have to pass along directly to their patients, which will increase the cost of health care. But it'll also increase the cost of health care because it will result in physicians being forced to practice defensive medicine, do a lot of tests that really aren't necessary, and you're gonna see, at a time when the Democrat majority is willing to do almost nothing to actually solve our health care problems, they're actually causing harm to our health care system by trying to give the trial lawyers a bill to make it easier for the trial lawyers to sue physicians who are just working hard to try to provide health care to Coloradans. So --

ANDREWS: But on the face of it, this doesn't serve the public interest. So, listeners who don't pay much attention to the legislature, pull the curtain back for them, Representative Balmer. What's really goin' on? What would be the motivation of legislators, mostly Democrats, willing to pass a bill like this?

BALMER: It's a clear payback to the trial lawyers who invested deeply into the Democratic campaigns in the 2004 cycle and the 2006 cycle, and they will continue to bankroll Democrat candidates in the 2008 cycle. There's several core constituencies -- special interest groups, if you will -- that are strongly supportive of the Democrat Party. Labor unions, trial lawyers, and various other groups that are bankrolling the Democrat campaigns.

ANDREWS: So they get out the vote for these candidates. They give through various windows through which you can give -- hard and soft campaign money -- and then they get favors done for them, like this outrageous medical malpractice bill, even if it doesn't serve the public interest.

However, Andrews failed to point out that, according to the Secretary of State's campaign finance database, COPIC has contributed $7,200 to Balmer since October 2004. Furthermore, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Balmer's top two contributors during the 2006 election cycle were COPIC and the Colorado Medical Society, giving $2,400 and $1,400 respectively.

Balmer's characterization of S.B. 164 as Democratic "payback" for trial lawyers echoed comments made by Gardner, who said the measure "was nothing other than Democratic payback to one of the party's traditional support groups," and called it "the trial lawyer enrichment act" in a March 12 Denver Post article. As Colorado Media Matters noted, COPIC has contributed $3,600 to Gardner's campaigns since December 2005.

As the Business Journal reported in its March 10 print edition and online March 7, "With more than 6,000 Colorado policyholders, Denver-based COPIC Insurance Co. covers about 80 percent of the state's doctors and holds more than $286 million in assets."

Andrews later interviewed Brown, a gun lobbyist and co-executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), which calls itself "Colorado's No-Compromise Gun Rights Organization." Brown misrepresented S.B. 49, describing it as "a bill that will shut, that will essentially force government, government will force you to lock up your firearms. It's basically, we call it the trigger lock bill, because it's essentially by law forcing you to lock up your firearms or be subject to prosecution." Brown later added:

When your door is forced open and some thug is in your house, you don't want to offer them coffee and suggest, "Just a minute; I need to get the trigger lock off my firearm or open my safe," or something to that effect. You need a tool to handle them. And it might be just a flashlight, it might be the phone, you might run out the house. You might have little kids in your house, and so you might need to defend it, and in many cases people around the country have died because of these very dangerous laws that force you to lock up your firearms. Now, understand, I'm not -- I'm a firearms instructor. I'm not suggesting that, you know, I set .45-caliber pistols my coffee table for my kids to get a hold of. But firearms for self defense need to be available by parental control for adults.

The legislation, which passed the Committee on State, Veterans & Military Affairs on February 4, bears the official title "A Bill for An Act Concerning Measures To Prevent Injuries Resulting From the Unsupervised Access to Firearms by Minors, And, In Connection Therewith, Reducing The Incidence Of Teenage Suicide." Contrary to Brown's misrepresentations, its language makes clear that misuse of the unsecured firearm by a minor that results in injury or death is a necessary condition for prosecution. The legislation:

Makes it an unclassified misdemeanor if:

• A person keeps a firearm within any premises that are under his or her custody or control; and
• He or she knows or reasonably should know that a minor is able to gain access to the firearm without the permission of the minor's parent or legal guardian; and
• The minor obtains access to the firearm; and
• The minor uses the firearm to cause death or serious bodily injury to himself, herself, or another person or carries the firearm to a public or private school or to any school-sponsored event. [emphases added]

Under the bill, gun owners can protect themselves against liability by keeping the firearm in a secure place, by disabling the gun with a gun lock, or by storing ammunition for the gun separately or "in a locked and secure location":

(3) Subsection (1) of this section shall not apply if:

[...]

(f) The firearm is kept in a locked container or in a location that a reasonable person would believe to be secure;

(g) The firearm is locked with a locking device that has rendered the firearm inoperable;

(h) The firearm is kept on premises that are under the person's custody or control and the person has no reasonable expectation, based on objective facts and circumstances, that a minor is likely to be present on the premises; or

(i) The firearm and corresponding ammunition are stored separately, or, if stored together, the ammunition is stored in a locked and secure location.

As Colorado Media Matters noted, Gardner similarly mischaracterized S.B. 49 as "the 'Let's-disarm-citizens-so-criminals-can-have-their-way-with-you' bill" on Newsradio 850 KOA host Mike Rosen's February 19 program.

From the March 23 broadcast of KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio:

ANDREWS: Nancy Spence, David Balmer, good to have you both with us today.

SPENCE: Thank you. It's good to be here.

BALMER: Great to be here.

ANDREWS: You know, my definition of a conservatively governed, a responsibly governed, Colorado includes just a few key measuring sticks, Nancy and David. I would be looking at whether we're passing laws and policies, whether we are imposing taxes and spending the people's money in a way that honors these five things: individual responsibility, individual liberty, limited constitutional government, free markets, and traditional American values. If we go by that yardstick, even when Republicans are in charge, as was the case a few years ago when I was serving down here, sometimes state government hardly gets an A grade. With Democrats in charge, it's even tougher. Let me start with you, David Balmer. What is the climate with Democrats in charge and a Democratic governor, Bill Ritter, downstairs willing to sign any bill that they will send him? How's it goin' this year?

BALMER: Actually, the trial lawyers and labor unions are -- this is their time. They are passing bills, ramming bills through chambers, and sending them down to Governor Ritter to sign. One of the worst trial lawyer bills right now is a bill, Senate Bill 164, which will increase medical malpractice liability caps, and the result of that will be a direct increase in cost of medical malpractice insurance, which physicians will have to pass along directly to their patients, which will increase the cost of health care. But it'll also increase the cost of health care because it will result in physicians being forced to practice defensive medicine, do a lot of tests that really aren't necessary, and you're gonna see, at a time when the Democrat majority is willing to do almost nothing to actually solve our health care problems, they're actually causing harm to our health care system by trying to give the trial lawyers a bill to make it easier for the trial lawyers to sue physicians who are just working hard to try to provide health care to Coloradans. So --

ANDREWS: But on the face of it, this doesn't serve the public interest. So, listeners who don't pay much attention to the legislature, pull the curtain back for them, Representative Balmer. What's really goin' on? What would be the motivation of legislators, mostly Democrats, willing to pass a bill like this?

BALMER: It's a clear payback to the trial lawyers who invested deeply into the Democratic campaigns in the 2004 cycle and the 2006 cycle, and they will continue to bankroll Democrat candidates in the 2008 cycle. There's several core constituencies -- special interest groups, if you will -- that are strongly supportive of the Democrat Party. Labor unions, trial lawyers, and various other groups that are bankrolling the Democrat campaigns.

ANDREWS: So they get out the vote for these candidates. They give through various windows through which you can give -- hard and soft campaign money -- and then they get favors done for them, like this outrageous medical malpractice bill, even if it doesn't serve the public interest.

[...]

ANDREWS: Well, there is a lot for KNUS listeners to be hollering about. We'll give you the contact information again in a moment. But, very quickly as we wrap up with Senator Nancy Spence, Representative David Balmer -- Nancy, is it true that one person's voice is drowned out down here by a thousand lobbyists and lots of high-paid special interests, or can the phone call, the email from constituents still make a difference?

SPENCE: They can absolutely make a difference. I've had hundreds and hundreds -- literally hundreds of post cards -- on a bill that's going through the session right now. And I look at them, I look at who's sending them. The public needs to be involved, and they need to let us know. John, just let me quickly say, ColoradoSenateNews.com is a wonderful way to get information to the public.

ANDREWS: ColoradoSenateNews.com.

SPENCE: Yes.

ANDREWS: David Balmer, give me an "amen." That's all that we have time for.

[...]

ANDREWS: Looking at this current '08 session, Dudley, are there still some bills related to the right to keep and bear arms that we need to be trying to pass or trying to defeat?

BROWN: Yes, there's certainly one bill that's troublesome -- that's Senate Bill 49 -- and it's a bill that will shut, that will essentially force government, government will force you to lock up your firearms. It's basically, we call it the trigger lock bill, because it's essentially by law forcing you to lock up your firearms or be subject to prosecution.

ANDREWS: The other side calls it "safe storage," but any of us who believe that it's important to have a firearm in our homes to defend ourselves, we feel as if that defense is being rendered meaningless.

BROWN: When your door is forced open and some thug is in your house, you don't want to offer them coffee and suggest, "Just a minute; I need to get the trigger lock off my firearm or open my safe," or something to that effect. You need a tool to handle them. And it might be just a flashlight, it might be the phone, you might run out the house. You might have little kids in your house, and so you might need to defend it, and in many cases people around the country have died because of these very dangerous laws that force you to lock up your firearms. Now, understand, I'm not -- I'm a firearms instructor. I'm not suggesting that, you know, I set .45-caliber pistols on my coffee table for my kids to get a hold of. But firearms for self defense need to be available by parental control for adults.

ANDREWS: And existing law already has a lot of liability for people who are reckless and irresponsible.

BROWN: Absolutely, and it should.

ANDREWS: But coming to the bottom line, Dudley Brown, this is Senate Bill 49, it's in committee. If it gets out of that committee, it probably gonna roll through with majorities in both houses, so --

BROWN: It will.

—C.H.