Almanac Home Browse By State Browse By Name State of Colorado Gov. Romer (D) Sen. Campbell (R) Sen. Allard (R) Rep. DeGette (D-01) Rep. Skaggs (D-02) Rep. McInnis (R-03) Rep. Schaffer (R-04) Rep. Hefley (R-05) Rep. Schaefer (R-06)

Boulder, Colorado, nestled right up against the Front Range of the Rockies, the home of the University of Colorado, is billed by its convention bureau as " a combination of lycra-clad athletes, New Age artists, and thoughtful intellectuals sipping cappuccinos." It was called the nation's number one town for outdoor sports by Outdoor magazine, and an "international mecca for people who thrive on physical challenge and risk" by the Rocky Mountain News's Clifford May. Boulder is the nation's leading center for bungee jumping, mountain biking, snowshoe running, rock and ice climbing, downhill skiing, land surfing and hot-air ballooning, plus the home of the Buddhist Naropa Institute and the Boulder School of Massage Therapy. All of which is suggested by the terrain: Boulder literally looks up at erose rows of peaks rising to 14,000 feet from a mile-high plain laid out in mile-square grids much farther than the eye can see. Just to the south is another high-risk site, the government's Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, closed down in 1989 after revelations of mismanagement and unsafe practices.

The 2d Congressional District of Colorado is centered on this part of metro Denver. It includes all of Boulder County, Rocky Flats, some lightly-populated but picturesque Rocky Mountains acreage, including Central City with its new gambling casino, and lower-middle to middle-income suburbs north and northwest of Denver -- Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Westminster, Thornton, Northglenn, Broomfield. Here families of comfortable affluence and struggling finances, of fundamentalist religion and environment-loving liberalism, live in subdivisions with views of the mountains, close to metro Denver's biggest shopping malls. In the 1990s, greater Boulder grapples with the effects of commercial and residential "growth management," as development is restricted to just one percent annually and open space is protected by a "blue line" barrier, causing housing prices to soar. This Metro North area is politically marginal, while Boulder is typically heavily Democratic; overall, despite occasional Republican speculation to the contrary, this is basically a Democratic district.

The congressman from the 2d District is David Skaggs, a Democrat who grew up in New Jersey and came to Colorado after serving as a Marine in Vietnam. He was one of those baby boom liberals who came to the fore in the 1970s; like the California Gold Rush generation who held most major offices there from 1850 when they were in their 30s to the 1890s when they were in their 70s, this generation of politicians held most of Colorado's top posts for two decades. Now Skaggs is one of the last in office. Skaggs was an aide to Congressman Tim Wirth in the 1970s; in the 1980s he was elected to the Colorado legislature. In 1986 when Wirth ran for the Senate, Skaggs won the House seat, beating Democratic National Committee Vice-chair Polly Baca in the primary and hard-campaigning Republican Mike Norton in the general.

Skaggs has worked aggressively on local issues while taking a role in the Democratic leadership in fighting for principles. He was one of the first to call for the closing of Rocky Flats, though it was a major employer, and in late 1996 he was pressing for the Clinton Administration to produce a plan for disposing of its used plutonium. He worked to pass the Colorado wilderness bill in 1993 and, with a seat on Appropriations, successfully worked to ban flights over Rocky Mountains National Park, but failed to get 91% of it declared a wilderness. He worked to pass a federal-Gilpin County land transfer and passed a ban on new dams on North St. Vrain Creek; he also worked to fund the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder.

Overall, Skaggs's voting record is well to the left of the House, although he did vote for the final version of the welfare reform bill in 1996. He ran for chairman of the Democratic Study Group in 1995 against Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut; the vote was 93-93, after which she withdrew in his favor. A Democratic deputy whip, he rounded up votes for the 1990 and 1993 tax increases; he led opposition to the supermajority tax bill in 1996 and challenged the line-item veto in court in 1997, along with Senators Robert Byrd and Daniel Patrick Moynihan; in April a federal judge struck down the line-item veto, calling it unconstitutional. On the Intelligence Committee he attacked secrecy classifications as enormously and unduly costly. He has led moves to defund TV Marti, which attempts to broadcast to Cuba; the House zeroed it out in 1996 but it was restored in conference. In retaliation to an earlier move to defund Radio Marti, Florida Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart killed a $23 million appropriation for NIST.

Skaggs's opponent in 1994 and 1996 was former legislator Pat Miller, a strong opponent of abortion. In 1994 she ran a lightly funded campaign, and held Skaggs to 57%. In 1996 she spent much more -- $458,000, though not enough to compete with Skaggs's $778,000 -- and campaigned heavily in Denver suburbs while avoiding Boulder. The Boulder Daily Camera printed a transcript of her telling a citizen militia group in 1994 that she supported their agenda and that elected sheriffs will not protect the people; naturally all the local papers attacked her and endorsed Skaggs. Skaggs won again, but only with the same 57% he had in 1994 -- a sign perhaps that this district is becoming more marginal. Now Skaggs is one of only three Democratic congressmen from the Rocky Mountain states; the others are from Denver and an Hispanic-majority district in Arizona. He continues to be an active partisan, but also seems bent on encouraging civility in the House; he and Republican Ray LaHood originated the idea of the bipartisan House retreat in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in March 1997.

After term-limited Governor Roy Romer decided not to run for the Senate, state Democrats looked to Skaggs to challenge Ben Nighthorse Campbell in 1998. But in October 1997 Skaggs surprisingly announced he would not run for Senator or for reelection. Though he had won endorsements from leading state Democrats, Skaggs said that he lacked the "fire in the belly" to run for office again. University of Colorado law school Dean Gene Nichol, who finished second in the 1996 Democratic Senate primary, filed for the Democratic nomination to succeed Skaggs. Other Democratic possibilities in the 2d District include Boulder City Councilman Homer Page, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas, state Representatives Mark Udall and Carol Snyder and former state Senator Paul Weissman. Potential Republican candidates include Boulder City Councilman Bob Greenlee, state Representative Mark Paschall, Adams County Commissioner Marty Flaum and state Solicitor General Tim Tymkovich.

Update: November 1998
Democrat Mark Udall defeated Republican Bob Greenlee to gain control of this open seat. Udall's campaign focused on education, gun control and the environment. Click here for a profile of Udall.

The People: Pop. 1990: 548,953; 8% rural; 8% age 65+; 87% White; 1% Black; 2% Asian; 1% Amer. Indian; 10% Hispanic origin. Households: 56% married couple families; 28% married couple fams. w. children; 61% college educ.; median household income: $35,117; per capita income: $15,823; median gross rent: $477; median house value: $89,700.

1996 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 127,702 (49%) Dole (R) 102,107 (40%) Perot (I) 16,605 (6%) Other 12,074 (5%)

1992 Presidential Vote Clinton (D) 123,144 (45%) Bush (R) 83,209 (30%) Perot (I) 66,678 (24%)

Rep. David E. Skaggs (D)

Elected 1986; b. Feb. 22, 1943, Cincinnati, OH; home, Boulder; Wesleyan U., B.A. 1964, Yale, LL.B. 1967; Congregationalist; married (Laura).

Career: Marine Corps, 1968-71 (Vietnam), Marine Corps Reserves, 1971-77; A.A., Rep. Timothy E. Wirth, 1975-77, Campaign Dir., 1976; Practicing atty., 1977-86; CO House of Reps., 1980-86, Minority Ldr., 1982-85.

DC Office: 1124 LHOB 20515, 202-225-2161; Fax: 202-226-3806; e-mail: skaggs@hr.house.gov.

District Offices: Westminster, 303-650-7886.

Committees: Appropriations (13th of 26 D): Commerce, Justice, State & Judiciary; Interior. Intelligence (Select) (3rd of 7 D): Human Intelligence, Analysis & Counterintelligence; Technical & Tactical Intelligence (RMM).

Group Ratings
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CFA	CON	NFIB	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
1996	90	94	100	85	77	93	22	19	0	7	0
1995	85	--	--	88	100	31	--	21	0	--	--

National Journal Ratings
	1995 LIB	--	1995 CONS		1996 LIB	--	1996 CONS
Economic	85%	--	12%		89%	--	0%
Social	88%	--	0%		79%	--	18%
Foreign	79%	--	17%		82%	--	16%

Key Votes of the 104th Congress
1. Reduce Medicare Growth $ N 2. Ovrd. Product Liab. Veto N 3. Increase Min. Wage Y 4. Welfare Reform N 5. Flag Amendment N 6. Drop EPA Limits Y		7. Repeal Assault-Weap. Ban N 8. Ovrd. Part. Birth Veto N 9. Cuban Embargo N 10. Bar Bosnia Troop $ N 11. Cut Anti-Missile Defense Y 12. Bar U.N. Uniforms N

Election Results
1996 gen.	David E. Skaggs (D)	145,894	(57%)	($778,880)
	Patricia Miller (R)	97,865	(38%)	($458,442)
	Others	12,025	(5%)
1996 prim.	David E. Skaggs (D)	unopposed
1994 gen.	David E. Skaggs (D)	105,938	(57%)	($576,719)
	Patricia Miller (R)	80,723	(43%)	($83,999)

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