Station: 560 KLZ
Show: Grassroots Radio Colorado
Guest: Robert Ramirez
Link: http://bit.ly/vMzWoU
Date: 11/29/2011
Topics: ASSET, Reapportionment Commission, Mario Carerra.
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CLARK: I wanted to run to Rep. Robert Ramirez. He has been holding patiently and I would like to thank him for that. Rep. Ramirez, welcome to Grassroots Radio. And first, before anything else, what district do you represent and where is that district?

RAMIREZ: I think its still 29. And it’s in Westminster and Northern Arvada.

WORLEY: This is kind of musical chairs right now.

RAMIREZ: And so far, I think the only person that they have put in with me is a Democrat. And she is just running, she is not an incumbent.

CLARK: So you are not going to be running against one of your own and they didn’t match you up with another incumbent Republican?

RAMIREZ: No, but Mario when he did his original map, this is Carerra, adopted the Democrat version for my district. Which really twists my vote count by over 1,000 votes right off the bat. And I won by 197. So if you kind of understand how that works, it’s interesting. When this commission was put together, I have known Mario for a couple years now, Carerra. And I felt that he was an honest man and a decent man. And that was what I was saying; this guy has integrity and everything else. I have never been so poor a judge of character in my life.

CLARK: I was going to put you on the spot and ask you what you thought now.

RAMIREZ: You know, its funny because the one vote this year that you guys actually praised me on, and we have seen different eye to eye on a couple things, was the ASSET vote. The in-state tuition for undocumented…. or illegals. And he actually came to visit me the morning before that vote, brought me a letter and basically said please vote for this. Its really important and I really want it. And I think we need to do this. Its good for the Hispanic people. Blah blah blah blah. And really I went into that vote open minded, thinking ok lets see if there is something constitutionally we can do here. And they never found that. It was never there. Well then I hear…I over heard a Democrat commissioner talking to another commissioner hearing that while they were working on the maps, Carerra was discussing with people that he was upset with my vote on ASSET. And then I heard from a couple commissioners that he directly told them that he was mad about my vote on ASSET. So when I got my first map drawn, the primarily adopted, I am like wow ok so this is true, it’s working. But the new map with Carerra, and they dumped a 70 percent Democrat voting margin group in and took out my highest Republican voting margin. It was very obvious that he was playing the partisan game.

CLARK: So not to put words in your mouth, I’ll let you finish this Rep. Ramirez, but in your opinion you believe that pretty much everything he has been doing is been from a I’m made at you for this, I’m mad at you for that, how dare you question me on this, and moving towards vindictiveness. And he is using the maps to get back at people he’s mad at.

RAMIREZ: Well, if you look, Ken Summers originally the only people that were really badly damaged that he could do anything with on the original maps were Republicans who had voted against the ASSET bill. And now it’s just, how dare you go against my word, so I’m really going to mess with you. I think it is. I think his pride has got in the way. And its unfortunate because I truly thought that he was a man of integrity. And he is proving that not so.

Worley. So now we can use M for Vendetta. M for Vendetta, we’ll have a new movie title going. Mario for Vendetta.

RAMIREZ: The main thing I wanted to say was, I wanted to thank Mario Nicolais. I wanted to thank the people who were actually trying to do their job. The Republicans that are on there. And its not a just a partisan thing. I’ve watched them, I’ve listened to them. And when you go to one of these meetings and you see the eye rolling of Atencio, Web, Matt…oh gosh…Matt Jones and Carroll. I mean literally, whenever a Republican or a conservative or a non-Democrat would say anything at these meetings they just [sign noise], roll their eyes, and really disrespect them. You never saw that from the people on the Republican side. They would get back at them.

WORLEY: I have heard Ms. Atencio is kind of nasty.

RAMIREZ: Oh absolutely. Without saying. I want to say that I appreciate the commissioners that are in there really trying to really be honest and hold true to the Constitution. Because the original map they gave me wasn’t a better map. It was a little worse than when I ran last year. But it was an honest map. And it followed the rules like you guys were saying earlier. We follow the rules. We go out there and try to do what’s right and then every time the Democrats…and we know they are going to do it, sweep in in the last minute with lies.

WORLEY: Rep. Ramirez, first off, let me thank you for calling. Obviously we all have had our differences and hopefully we can all work together in the future to not have those differences. And I want to leave you with a quote. And this is the same quote I gave to Mario Nicolais. And I have to pull it up here. It is, “The Republican’s have no one but themselves to blame for not submitting additional maps. They were outsmarted in terms of the approach they took that was actually better than the map they had drawn. They were caught flat-footed and they had nothing else other than to blame other people for their lack of coordination.”

RAMIREZ: That’s Mario Carerra trying to make up for…make it look like he did what was right. In essence, his conscious coming out and saying you better cover yourself.

WORLEY: And I have a slightly different take. This is, you know what, too bad you guys were not dirty enough not to play by the rules like these guys were. We will be right back.

RAMIREZ: We also didn’t put two sitting Representatives on the commission either.

WORLEY: Oof. That’s not good.

CLARK: That’s very good. Rep. Ramirez, that you for calling in to Grassroots Radio. You are welcome anytime. We have a policy that we will always put the elected officials on the air, regardless or party or whatever we are talking about. I wanted to thank you for doing that.