In a November 3 informational graphic listing the positions of Colorado's Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates on a variety of issues, The Denver Post stated that Republican candidate Bob Beauprez “voted for a federal hike in the minimum wage, which failed in Congress.” The Post, however, failed to note that the minimum-wage increase Beauprez voted for was linked to a cut in the estate tax, a maneuver that a Post editorial at the time characterized as “political gamesmanship of the most cynical sort.”

In July, Beauprez voted in favor of House Resolution 5970 -- titled the Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act of 2006 -- which sought both to reduce the estate tax and to raise the federal minimum wage to $5.85 an hour in 2007, $6.55 an hour in 2008, and to $7.25 an hour in 2009. The Associated Press characterized the bill as a “Republican election-year effort to fuse a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates with the first minimum wage increase in nearly a decade.”

Thirty-eight Senate Democrats -- along with three Republicans and one Independent -- successfully filibustered the bill which, according to the AP, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) called “a cynical ploy on the part of the Republican leadership.” An August 4 Washington Post article reported that Democrats, who usually champion minimum-wage increases, thought voters would “see the Republican-backed bill as a ploy to further enrich upper-income families while trying to usurp the Democrats' role as champions of the working poor.” The article quoted Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (NV), who led the opposition to the measure, as saying that, under the bill, “8,100 of the wealthy and well-off hit the jackpot, while millions of working families get $800 billion in [federal] debt.”

According to the July 31 Denver Post editorial, “House Republicans linked an increase in the minimum wage to a tax cut for multi-millionaires. It was political gamesmanship of the most cynical sort. ... GOP leaders see the minimum wage bill as a vehicle to get permanent cuts in the estate tax, a levy paid only on estates of more than $2 million. Republicans are trying to trump an effort by Democrats, who see the minimum wage as a fall elections issue.”

From the November 3 edition of The Denver Post:

Minimum wage

Beauprez voted for a federal hike in the minimum wage, which failed in Congress. He opposes a Colorado initiative that would raise the minimum from $5.15 per hour to $6.85 an hour because it would be embedded in the state constitution and would raise wages every year regardless of economic conditions. Ritter also expresses concern about including the minimum wage in the state constitution but supports the increase because the federal minimum of $5.15 has not increased since 1997.