[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5785]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING PAUL SANDOVAL

 Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, today I wish to honor a 
great Colorado leader and dear friend, Mr. Paul Sandoval. Two days ago, 
Paul passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer, and I want to 
take this opportunity to honor his tremendous legacy and express my 
profound sadness at the loss of my dear friend a man who was the 
consummate public servant. I knew Paul as a fiercely compassionate 
person, tough yet kind, and he maintained these qualities throughout 
his battle with cancer.
  Paul was a true family man. Known for his modesty and generosity, he 
gave as much to his family and friends as he did to his community and 
the State of Colorado. But it is not easy to express just how much Paul 
meant to the people of Colorado.
  He was perhaps most proud of this crowning achievement: being a 
tamale maker. He left an indelible impact on the culinary landscape of 
the State. I won't be the first or last to say this, but Paul's tamale 
shop, La Casita, makes the best tamales in Denver. People flocked to 
his restaurant, a landmark in north Denver, not only because of his 
delicious ``mile high traditional'' tamales but because of the 
community he created for all who visited. For the past four decades, 
anyone seeking fresh tamales and stimulating conversation about 
politics made a visit to Paul's restaurant.
  The consummate public servant, Paul was often called the godfather of 
Colorado politics. He served the State faithfully as a State senator, a 
member of the Denver school board, and an adviser to elected officials 
at the local, State and Federal levels. I often relied on Paul's 
guidance, and I feel the loss of his counsel and friendship deeply.
  I admire Paul because he never let partisanship get in the way of a 
good idea. As a supporter of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, 
he valued a person's character and integrity, not party affiliation. 
Good people make the call to public service worth heeding, and Paul was 
one of the best. He embodied the Colorado principle that when you work 
together, things get done for the good of Colorado's families. Paul's 
example inspires my approach to bipartisanship and collaboration in the 
Senate today.
  Paul's hard-working, entrepreneurial spirit stems from his early life 
and experiences. He started selling the Denver Post at the age of 6 and 
was delivering groceries for a local market by the eight grade. At that 
young age he even tracked down a customer who owed him for a newspaper, 
then negotiated with the man to pay interest for holding out. His early 
training in negotiation paid off for Colorado because Paul became one 
of our State's talented bridge-builders: he formulated commonsense 
public policy and then brought people together to achieve it.
  The son of the founder of a meatpacking union, Paul had politics in 
his blood and was elected to the Colorado State Senate in 1974. In the 
Senate, Paul was a champion of many issues, but education issues held a 
special place in his heart and on his agenda. His leadership ensured 
the passage of Colorado's first bilingual education bill, and he 
cofounded the Chicano Education Project to implement bilingual 
curricula across the State. Paul furthered his commitment to educating 
Colorado's future leaders by later joining the Denver school board, and 
he personally set up scholarship funds to support undergraduate and 
graduate students.
  For all of his work and in recognition of his leadership throughout 
the State, Paul received awards too numerous to recount here. Most 
recently, he was awarded the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro 
Denver's Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, at this year's 
Jefferson Jackson Day Dinner, the Colorado Democratic Party honored him 
with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
  My thoughts and prayers are with Paul's beloved wife Paula, his 
children, and his family, and I share their profound grief at the loss 
of my dear friend and confidant. But Paul's legacy will endure through 
the family he cherished, the generations of public servants he 
mentored, and the gift of inspiration he imparted to all of us.
  I can think of no better way to describe Paul than as authentic, a 
real believer in what people could do through a good education and hard 
work, and a man who nourished a better political system the same way he 
nourished us with the best tamales in Denver. Paul Sandoval will be 
deeply missed but always remembered, for his extraordinary 
spirit.

                          ____________________