By

Dan Pilcher

CACI Senior Vice President

& Chief Operating Officer

Phone: 303.866-9600

E-Mail: dpilcher@COchamber.com

Friday, January 4, 2008

Governor Bill Ritter to Headline CACI's Annual Business Day at the Legislature Luncheon January 24^th

Governor Bill Ritter is scheduled to speak at CACI’s annual Business Day at the Legislature Luncheon, 12 Noon—1:30 p.m., at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver.

The Luncheon will be followed by a session on business issues featuring legislative leaders at 2 p.m. in the Old Supreme Court Chamber at the State Capitol.

For more information, contact Denise Reeves, CACI Vice President for Events and Programs, at 303.866.9622 or via e-mail at dreeves@COchamber.com

The Platinum Sponsor of the CACI Business Day at the Legislature Luncheon is Safeway.

The Gold Sponsors are IBM, Coors Brewing Company, CH2M Hill, Lockheed Martin, and Xcel Energy.

The Silver Sponsors are AngloGold Ashanti N.A., Black Hills Corporation, BNSF Railway, Boeing, BP America, Carestream Health, Eastman Kodak, Gates, Pepsi and Pinnacol Assurance.

www.COchamber.com

2008 Legislative Session Starts Next Week

Next Wednesday, January 9th, the General Assembly will convene at 10 a.m. for its 2008 session.

Speaker Romanoff and President Groff, selected by his caucus to replace former President Joan Fitz-Gerald, will deliver the traditional opening-day addresses to their respective chambers as will the two minority leaders, Representative Mike May in the House and Senator Andy McElhany in the Senate.

On Thursday, January 10th, at 11 a.m., Governor Bill Ritter will deliver his second State of the State Address to a joint session of the General Assembly in the Chamber of the House of Representatives.  His address will air on several network television stations in Denver as well as being carried as a Web cast by the stations.  Listeners may also listen to the address by going to the legislative Web site, http://www.leg.state.co.us/ and clicking on the link titled “Audio Broadcasts of Current Proceedings.”

And, for the first time ever, the floor sessions of the Colorado House of Representatives will be televised.  Comcast channel 165 will carry the proceedings.

CACI’s 2008 Lobbying Strategy

For more than four decades, the Colorado Association of Commerce & Industry (CACI) has been the statewide business community’s leading advocate at the Colorado State Capitol to protect and enhance our state’s economic climate.

Colorado’s political circumstances, however, have changed dramatically in recent years.  Major changes to our system of governance, laws and State Constitution have had significant repercussions on the business community.

One example is campaign finance, when the voters in 2002 passed a measure that has enabled labor unions, using “small-donor committees,” to contribute ten times more money to legislative candidates than the business community can through political action committees, such as CACI’s Colorado Business Political Action Committee.

Meanwhile, so-called “527 committees” have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into political television advertising aimed at state and federal campaign races.  (The “527 committee” ads, however, are not under the control of the candidates and are not subject to the contribution limits and disclosure requirements of PACs.)

The Politics of 2008

For the second year in a row, control of the Governor’s Office, the State House of Representatives and the State Senate will be vested in the Democratic Party.  And the nation’s attention will be focused on Colorado this year because the national Democratic presidential nominating convention will be held in Denver in August.

Add to this political brew the fact that 2008 is a general election year, which entails elections for all members of the Colorado House of Representatives and about half of the  members of the Colorado Senate.  We also anticipate controversial legislative referenda and citizen ballot initiatives on the November ballot.

Given the 2008 political context, CACI believes that labor unions, trial lawyers, environmentalists, consumer advocates and social-justice groups will try strongly to lobby state legislators and Governor Bill Ritter on bills that would have a significant, negative effect on the Colorado business climate--and on your company in particular.

We anticipate that business-related bills will be introduced in such areas as health-care reform (cost, quality and availability); employer mandates; labor unionization; unemployment insurance; workers’ compensation; environmental regulations; and transportation funding.

Consequently, as the state chamber of commerce, CACI continues to adapt to this changing political environment with a multi-pronged strategy:

CACI’s New Strategic Plan and Four Key Objectives

Last fall, the CACI Board of Directors approved a new strategic plan that contains a revised mission statement, with four core objectives for CACI to fulfill its mission: “CACI’s mission is to champion a healthy business climate.”  The strategy’s four key objectives are:

1. Maintain & improve the cost of doing business;

2. Advocate a pro-business state government;

3. Increase the quantity of educated, skilled workers; and

4. Strengthen Colorado’s critical infrastructure (roads, water, telecommunications and energy).

Among other things, the plan will

• Strengthen CACI’s lobbying capabilities;

• Bolster and expand CACI’s policy Councils, which study business issues and submit recommendations to the Board;

• Improve press relations and communications;

• Improve CACI’s use of information technology;

• Strengthen relations with local chambers of commerce;

• Expand membership statewide;

• Create new opportunities for business leaders to connect with each other and with public officials; and

• Educate companies across Colorado about business issues being considered by the legislature and mobilize their active involvement in the policy debate at the State Capitol.

Work cooperatively with pro-business legislators of both parties and the Administration of Governor Bill Ritter

As with the 2007 legislative session, CACI looks forward to working with pro-business state legislators of both political parties and the Ritter Administration to protect and strengthen Colorado’s economic foundation.  CACI President Chuck Berry and Donnah Moody, CACI Governmental Affairs Vice President, met in December with House Speaker Andrew Romanoff (D-Denver) and Senate President Peter Groff (D-Denver) to discuss leadership’s views on business issues that will come up during the session. 

Grassroots Project

To seek greater input into our policy-making process, to communicate with more businesses across the state, and to increase the visibility of the statewide business community at the State Capitol, we are strengthening a broad-based grassroots educational and outreach effort in partnership with local chambers of commerce and individual companies.

More about this important initiative will be announced shortly to CACI members and the general public.

When a vote is scheduled in a committee or on a chamber floor on an important bill that CACI is lobbying, state legislators need to hear from business leaders and local chamber of commerce executives in their districts.  CACI is creating a database of business leaders who are willing to contact legislators and perhaps testify before legislative committees.

Business leaders will be asked by CACI to not only contact the legislators in whose districts they reside or their company is located, they also may be asked to contact legislators with whom they have a relationship.

Legislators value being contacted by their constituents on any given bill.  The combined effect of these constituents’ contacts can often be more effective in persuading a legislator to vote a certain way than the most diligent effort of lobbyists.  The need for business leaders to contact their legislators has become central to CACI’s lobbying strategy.

Participating in this new grassroots network is easy.  Contact Rob O’Regan, Grassroots Manager, at 303.866.9609 or e-mail him at roregan@COchamber.com

And feel free to forward this information to any other business leaders whom you may know in your community and urge them to sign up, whether they are CACI members or not.  The more business leaders across the state who are involved in CACI’s grassroots effort, the more successful we are likely to be with our legislative agenda during the session.

We will contact you when a key vote is coming up and your direct contact with a key legislator can make a difference.  We will provide you with all the information you need to contact your legislator and ask for his or her vote.  If you are willing to testify, then we will provide you with necessary information for your presentation before a committee. 

Public Relations and Communications

Finally, with the assistance of Pete Webb Public Relations, a CACI member, we will continue to strengthen our communications and public relations effort to communicate CACI’s legislative priorities and work during the 2008 legislative session to our members across the state, the news media, the Colorado General Assembly, the Governor’s Office and the public.

CACI’s Legislative Agenda

Each legislative session, the CACI lobbying team analyzes bills for their effect on the state’s business community and decides CACI’s position under guidelines established by the CACI Board of Directors.  The CACI lobbying team then prepares our Legislative Agenda, which is a complete listing of bills that CACI is lobbying, either in support or opposition.  The Legislative Agenda can be found on the CACI Web site, where it will be updated on a weekly basis.

www.COchamber.com

If you wish to track a particular bill’s legislative progress, you can do so by going to the legislature’s Web site:

www.leg.state.co.us

CACI Hires Loren Rachel Furman as full-time Director of Governmental Affairs

We are pleased to announce that Loren Rachel Furman yesterday joined CACI as the full-time Director of Governmental Affairs.  The position was created by the CACI Board of Directors last fall when it approved CACI’s new strategic plan.

Loren had worked since December 2005 as the legislative director for the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration.  In that capacity, she worked with the Office of the Governor and the legislature on such issues as the state workforce, state facilities, purchasing, collections, telecommunications, contracts, risk management, printing and motor vehicles.

Prior to that position, Loren worked as a lobbyist for Floridian Partners in Tallahassee, Florida, from January 2002 to September 2005.  Her clients included municipalities, businesses and trade associations.  Loren represented her clients before the Florida legislature, the Governor’s Office, and state and local government entities on legislative, budget and regulatory issues.  Her work included such areas as insurance, telecommunications, public safety, information technology, business regulation, health care, tort reform, education, transportation and the environment.

From March 2000 to January 2002, Loren worked as a legislative/policy analyst in the Majority Leadership Office of the Florida House of Representatives.  Loren holds a B.S. and M.S. in political science, both from Florida State University.

Loren can be reached at 303.866.9642 (direct) or via e-mail at lfurman@COchamber.com

CACI Members Invited to Attend Breakfast Seminar on Governor Ritter’s Executive Order

CACI members are invited to attend a complimentary breakfast seminar on Friday, January 11th, that will assess the effect of Governor Bill Ritter’s Executive Order that authorizes labor unions to represent state government workers in “partnership agreements.”

The seminar is sponsored by the Colorado Chapter of The Federalist Society.  The featured speakers are Raymond J. LaJeunesse, Jr., and Stanley Greer.

LaJeunesse is Vice President and Legal Director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.  Greer is Senior Research Associate at the National Institute for Labor Relations and editor of the National Right to Work Committee Newsletter.

The breakfast will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the University Club, 1673 Sherman St., Denver.  RSVP to Linda Carroll at carroll6@mindspring.com

State Agency Head Acknowledges CACI’s Role in Influencing Governor’s Climate-Change Proposal

Beginning last summer, a special task force of the CACI Environmental Council studied the climate-change issue and participated in discussions with the Ritter Administration and environmental groups.

CACI played a leading role in informing the Administration of the views of the statewide business community, which in turn influenced the content of Governor Bill Ritter’s policy that he announced on November 5th.

“CACI had a significant role in affecting the outcome of the Governor’s climate change proposal,” said Jim Martin, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

CACI’s policy on climate change, approved by the CACI Board of Directors at its September Retreat, can be found on the CACI Web site.

For More Information . . .

CACI members with questions about legislation that CACI opposes or supports should contact Chuck Berry, CACI President, at 303.866.9601 or e-mail him at cberry@COchamber.com

Questions pertaining to the health-policy bills should be directed to Ralph Pollock, Chair of the CACI HealthCare Council at 303.866.9657 or via e-mail at ralph@apaccess.com