Tag: 2009 General Assembly

Rep. Don Marostica knows it when he sees it. The Larimer County Republican raised a ruckus at the state Capitol Friday when he came across an anti-smoking message deemed "so offensive I can't put it up on the screen," Tim Hoover reports in Politics West. Marostica, who sponsored a plan to roll back the state smoking ban at casinos, warned House colleagues not to let young, impressionable aides see the "very inappropriate and offensive material" brought into legislative offices by an anti-smoking lobbyist. Marostica even asked Speaker Terrance Carroll whether an ethics violation had been committed, the Rocky Mountain News reports.

Rocky Mountain News reporter Ed Sealover proves why Colorado political watchers are gnashing their teeth over the possibility Denver might soon become a one-newspaper town. In Thursday's Rocky, Sealover breaks the story that Republican and Democratic legislators have hatched a plan to roll back the statewide smoking ban by allowing "bars, restaurants, racetracks and parts of casinos" to be classified as cigar bars -- exempt from the ban -- if they meet certain criteria. Colorado lawmakers banned smoking in most public places in 2006 and added a ban at casinos the next year, citing concerns over workers' health.