By: Ernest Gurulé
Colorado Democratic Congressman Ed Perlmutter’s career and party allegiance were sealed long before he was born. The eight-term congressman’s grandfather—his mom’s father— was the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, also a staunch Republican determined to main- tain the family’s good name and standing in the grand old party. But a family vacation to Colorado ended up having—at least for his grandfather—some very unpleasant and unintended consequences.
The vacation, said Perlmutter, was enough for his mother to “fall in love with Colorado” and she began making plans to move here when she came of age. “You come to Colorado, you’re gonna become a damn Democrat,” was the last travel warning the old man gave. His mother followed through, enrolled at the University of Colorado and just as her father had warned, though not immediately, became a Democrat.
Her political evolution was hastened along by falling in love and later marrying the editor of the “Silver and Gold,” the university student newspaper. “He was a pretty liberal character,” said Perlmutter, and the die was cast for Perlmutter and the whole family. Since then, they’ve lived and voted blue.
A year spent at Colorado College before finishing up his undergraduate degree and law school at CU, set Perlmutter on track for life as a practicing attorney and life in the public arena as an elected official. He won his first election to the state legislature in 1995 where he served until 2003. He won a seat in Congress in 2006 and has been reelected seven more times. And, said Perlmutter, that’s enough. His days in public office end when his current term expires.
“We’ve been building a good bench,” he said in a recent weekend interview with La Voz Bilingüe. “At some point you’ve got to let the bench rise. That was always the deal.” When he leaves office, the plan is to return to Colorado and Jefferson County, a place he’s called home for his entire life.
Announcing his decision ten months early, said Perlmutter, was the best way to ensure his staff, one he calls “the best staff in America,” gets an off-ramp, ‘congresspeak’ for time to catch on with another member of Congress or find something else.
Leaving the political arena and his beloved 7th Congressional District is done with both satisfaction and a degree of melancholy. Politics, like sports, is the proverbial long game. You win some and, at the same time, you know you’re going to lose, and regularly. And in a divided and polarized Congress as is the nation’s reality today, good or bad legislation is at the mercy of immovable party loyalist and ever present special interests.
Ever the optimist, Perlmutter takes a degree of sat- isfaction with even pyrrhic victories, wins or near wins that often come with huge costs and, oftentimes, even bigger blemishes. Even in the 2021 impeachment of former President Trump, Perlmutter finds a ray of light. “Seven (Republican) senators voted to convict,” he said with a ray of hope in his voice. The final vote, 57-43, fell well short of the two-thirds majority required to convict.
While he cheers congressional collegiality, he nonetheless laments the all too automatic knee jerk partisanship. But when the two sides work together good things, he said, can happen. Perlmutter cites the new Veterans Hospital in Aurora as a prime example. “We all worked together,” he said. “I worked with (former Colorado) Senator Allard…we got it moving.” There were snafus, including cost overruns, “but perseverance got it done.” He calls the VA health cen- ter, which serves veterans across a multi-state region, “the best in America.”
A two-year congressional term might make it difficult to deliver big promises, but Perlmutter says it’s still enough time to accomplish big things. Among his proudest accomplishments are maintaining funding for the Orion Project. Orion is the spacecraft that may one day take astronauts to Mars. Additional funding not only saved jobs for Colorado’s Lockheed workers but added to the workforce.
Perlmutter also helped infuse Golden’s Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) with both a bigger budget and larger workforce. The same for the U.S. Geological Survey located on the School of Mines campus and Jefferson County’s Federal Center. A number of structures at the Federal Center were “dilapidated” and are now set for a rebuild. “I came from a construction family,” he said, “so we love it.”
But being a Congressman means more than giving floor speeches and casting votes. Part of the job is simply answering to the needs of constituents. There, the eight- term Perlmutter is in his element.
A few years ago a group of WWII’s veterans had gone back to mark the Iwo Jima anniversary and one they had fought in. “I get a call on a Friday saying these folks are stranded,” recalled Perlmutter. The group was stuck in Okinawa without a plane and, because the sacred site was open only for a set amount of time, were in danger of missing the event. Perlmutter scrambled, working the phone, calling in favors and finally, got a Marine plane to get the vets to the event. It was a close call, but mission accomplished.
Another instance that remains both sad and satisfying, he said, involved returning the bodies of two Coloradans who had left to fight against ISIS. They were killed and their bodies were left “in no man’s land,” he said. Their families were desperate to bring them home. “We went through all kinds of hurdles,” he said. “It took us a little while, but we did it.” The pair was brought home to family.
Decades in public service, said the kid who grew up in Wheat Ridge and played in the streets “until the lights went on” is something special, said Perlmutter. “The abil- ity to serve is a high calling and honor and my staff has extended my reach.” Perlmutter’s life in the arena ends January 3, 2023. The next day, he once again becomes Citizen Perlmutter.
