This is not the photo in question, but it is Dave Young

This is not the photo in question, but it is Dave Young

If Democratic State Rep. Dave Young hailed from a safe liberal district, we might dismiss his absence from yesterday’s Joint Budget Committee in which a highly-contentious vote took place as flakiness.  But, he’s not from a safe district and his public appearances over the years have been…sparse.  And, then, we heard the excuse for his absence – he was getting his picture taken.  From The Denver Post:

“The budget committee is split with three Democrats and three Republicans, but Democratic Rep. Dave Young was not present for the vote, giving the Republicans the majority.

Young was getting his legislative picture taken when the vote was taken, according to Sen. Pat Steadman, one of the Democrats on the committee.”

How convenient.  This is the legislative equivalent of “I’m busy washing my hair” and we’re calling BS.  We are certain that Young’s constituents up in Greeley – by no means a bastion of liberal zeitgeist like Boulder – would be interested to know how he would have voted.

Of course, Democratic Sen. Jessie Ulibarri tried to blame the failed vote on Republican hijinks saying that Sen. Lambert promised him votes.  Unfortunately, Ulibarri must have been hearing the voices in his head because our sources say that Lambert said no such thing.  And, then, The Denver Post accused Republicans of “taking advantage of a momentary majority and voted against the plan”, which is also false.  In order for a measure to pass in the JBC, it needs four votes.

It’s more likely that Democrats didn’t have the votes and wanted to protect a vulnerable member of the team.

There might be someone playing games here, but our money is on Democrats, not the members of the JBC who actually showed up to vote.