[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 31, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E9]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO STATE SENATOR NORMA ANDERSON

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 31, 2006

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I occasionally use this forum to 
acknowledge the contributions my fellow Coloradans make on behalf of 
Colorado and our country. Today, I rise to commend the service of just 
such a person, my former colleague, State Senator Norma Anderson.
  Last month, Senator Anderson announced her retirement from the 
Colorado State Senate after nearly 20 years of uninterrupted service as 
a legislator. Both Democrats and Republicans lauded her record, and I 
wanted to lend my name to her long list of unabashed admirers. While we 
have served in different political parties and held separate offices in 
the public arena, I have always admired Norma Anderson's direct and 
honest approach to public service. She is the kind of person who speaks 
her mind, knows the rules, respects the needs of her constituents and 
above all, she is the kind of leader who is not afraid to let the chips 
fall after making a decision. Norma has never suffered fools and she is 
not one to be intimidated. In my brief service in the Colorado General 
Assembly I came to deeply respect her judgment; I appreciated her way 
of dealing with colleagues, and I still consider her a friend.
  A respected Denver Post columnist, Diane Carman, has called her ``an 
old-fashioned Republican with a sharp tongue, impeccable taste and a 
stubborn independent streak.'' I don't believe I can improve on this 
description of Norma except to add that she has always struck me as a 
formidable and principled woman, and her record of accomplishment and 
service to Colorado has few equals.

                  [From the Denver Post, Jan. 4, 1906]

                  Senator Wielded Grace, Independence

                           (By Diane Carman)

       She's an old-fashioned Republican with a sharp tongue, 
     impeccable taste and a stubborn independent streak.
       In a lot of ways, that explains it all.
       Norma Anderson retired Tuesday after 19 years in the 
     Colorado legislature, saying only, ``It's the right thing for 
     me at this time.''
       She's not sick, the vibrant 73-year-old said. She's not 
     angry or frustrated or bored. She's simply finished.
       The fact that a successor to her Senate seat will be 
     appointed under a Republican governor and will have the edge 
     of incumbency in the next election surely must have crossed 
     her mind, though, as well as the inescapable reality that 
     with the Republicans in the minority again this session, she 
     wouldn't be wielding any gavels in the last months of her 
     term-limited legislative career.
       Still, she exited gracefully with a subtle nod to partisan 
     interests, a private party for her supporters and a firm 
     commitment to personal priorities.
       No news conferences with TV cameras trained on her face. No 
     razzmatazz.
       It was pure Norma, her ego in check.
       Many times over the years, she has been on the short lists 
     to run for the U.S. Congress, for governor or for other 
     statewide offices. She never caught the fever.
       ``At one time I was thinking about secretary of state. I 
     sat down with Donetta Davidson: We talked a little bit, and I 
     just said, `You do it, Donetta.' ''
       Being a state legislator was enough, she said, ``I never 
     had any desire to do anything else.''
       Not that it's been all bill-signing galas and warm 
     accolades.
       Anderson is known for her ability to irritate her fellow 
     lawmakers, maybe especially those in her own party.
       In the 1990s, when Colorado Republicans started leaning 
     decidedly far to the right, Anderson remained a moderate--and 
     a sometimes exasperating one at that.
       In one memorable stand against the party juggernaut, she 
     voted against a bill to outlaw same-sex marriage. In another, 
     she opposed a bill to require students to say the Pledge of 
     Allegiance in schools.
       She wasn't being obstinate, she said, she just didn't 
     believe the government should be messing around in people's 
     personal lives or requiring people to repeat pledges. She'd 
     done her homework, she said, and it didn't seem right.
       She accepts credit for marshaling support for dozens of 
     bills over the years, for establishing the state departments 
     of transportation and human services, and for breaking untold 
     barriers that kept women out of legislative leadership 
     positions for decades.
       There are a few episodes she doesn't recall fondly, 
     however, and one of them was the infamous midnight 
     gerrymander.
       Anderson played a crucial role in slamming through the 
     Republican redistricting scheme in the last three days of the 
     2003 legislative session, though she was clearly ambivalent 
     about it.
       Sure, her expertise with Senate rules and circumventing 
     them was critical to passage of the last minute bills, and 
     she presided over most of the chaotic sessions. But she was 
     not happy about it.
       In the midst of the nasty political uproar, she even 
     declined to return a call from Bush adviser Karl Rove, who 
     was either the mastermind of the ham-handed strategy or 
     simply an interested observer, depending on whose spin you 
     believe.
       That may have been her proudest moment in the whole mess.
       ``It was pretty common knowledge that I had concerns,'' 
     Anderson told me back then, ``but I was elected to lead my 
     caucus, and that's what I did.''
       Months later, when the state Supreme Court threw out the 
     redistricting plan and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear 
     the Republicans' appeal, she didn't join the party bigs in 
     fulminating about judicial overreach and legislating from the 
     bench. She kept quiet.
       She respected the process. She believed in the democratic 
     system. And if some folks think that's being stubbornly 
     independent, she's OK with that.
       In a lot of ways, that explains it all.

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