Church-Influenced Bills Are Losers for Lundberg

Kevin Lundberg isn’t the only Colorado politician who has made a cottage industry of attempting to pass religious dogma-inspired bills in the state legislature. Like-minded representatives Doug Lamborn and Dave Schultheis with whom the House District 49 representative has co-sponsored bills have made their political fortunes on appeasing the theocratic aims of the right wing.

In Lundberg’s Links of Church and State, Colorado Confidential’s Paul Preston discovered how a website developed by Lundberg advises churches on the finer points of political advocacy.

But the question remains has Lundberg been successful in promoting socially conservative legislation?Kevin Lundberg was first elected in November 2002 to represent Colorado House District 49, a wildly gerrymandered area that reaches to the Wyoming border and comprises all of the mountain communities in western Larimer County, Estes Park, Berthoud, and Windsor. Of the nearly 53,000 registered voters in the district, 43 percent are Republicans.

During his tenure, Lundberg has been the primary House sponsor of 29 bills and resolutions ranging from exempting active duty service members from state income tax to raising the felony threshold for theft. Of the seven laws that passed none addressed conservative social issues.

However, that hasn’t dissuaded Lundberg from repeatedly introduced bills to:

In 2005, Reps. Lundberg and Lamborn jointly sponsored a house resolution to urge Congress to allow workers to invest a portion of their Social Security payroll tax in personal retirement accounts. Though a favorite policy of social conservatives, the Social Security privitization scheme has been discredited by economics experts. The resolution did not pass.

Most interesting, since Lundberg’s legislative interests have predominantly focused on ultra-conservative social and taxation policies, he has not passed a bill nor resolution since 2004.