House OKs bill requiring legislators to take office within 14 days

   DENVER - Despite being on the losing side of a 64-1 vote, Rep. Douglas Bruce claimed victory Wednesday after the House passed a bill that would require legislators to take office within 14 days after they are appointed.

    The bill was partly inspired by the Colorado Springs Republican's decision to delay taking his House seat until after this session began. Bruce was appointed to a vacant seat Dec. 1, and he waited 44 days to be sworn in.

    Both Democratic and Republican leadership in the House publicly rebuked Bruce for his decision. Bruce said that nothing in the law prevented him from postponing his swearing in.

    The bill, which now goes to the Senate, would change that.

    "Everybody in here agrees: When you run for office, you better take office," Rep. Paul Weissmann said. The Democrat from Louisville and Rep. Dorothy Butcher, D-Pueblo, are the bill's prime sponsors.

    If the bill becomes law, vacancy committees would have to pick a replacement for an outgoing legislator within 30 days of the seat becoming open. A lawmaker would have 14 days to be sworn in, but the House speaker and Senate president would be able to waive that deadline in certain situations.

    Bruce has acknowledged that his decision allows him to get around the term-limit law. Had he been sworn in before the term started, he would be able to serve three more terms. He can now run for four terms.

    He also had said he wanted to remain on the El Paso County Board of Commissioners a bit longer.

    Bruce said the bill included language implicitly criticizing him for not taking office. Those clauses are gone, and the House added a clause saying term-limit law would not be affected.

    "The heart of it was to chastise me, and now the chastisement has disappeared," Bruce said.

    The bill also lost a measure stripping the governor of the power to appoint a new secretary of state, treasurer or attorney general when those offices become open.

    Weissmann said the first draft of the bill drew the opposition of many Democrats because Gov. Bill Ritter may be able to appoint a Democrat to replace Secretary of State Mike Coffman, a Republican who is running for U.S. Congress.

    What passed, Bruce said, is a token, toothless law.

    The bill would fill a gap in the law, its sponsor said.

    "We've told him it's not about him," Weissmann said. "We're after a situation. We're not after him."