Colorado's Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter was elected in 2006 with enthusiastic support from William Dean Singleton, but the Denver Post publisher was apoplectic after the election when his man signed an executive order allowing local and state government employees to join unions and collectively bargain.

On May 11, Singleton's flagship daily – he also heads Media News Group – ran a scorching page one editorial that blasted Ritter's executive order:

"Ritter's weakness also has been exposed in his inability to avert a nuclear showdown on this fall's ballot between business and labor leaders. Ritter provoked the business-sponsored right-to-work initiative with his inane executive order granting collective bargaining rights to state workers.

"That, in turn, provoked labor to run a handful of ballot measures that would be devastating to Colorado businesses. And Ritter, so far, has been powerless to stop it.

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"Ritter needs to spend this summer somehow rebuilding the coalitions he frittered away with his labor giveaway. Otherwise, Coloradans can look forward to two more lackluster years while the state's highways, bridges and universities crumble."

Singleton is far from alone in seeing Ritter as the cause of Colorado's current political turmoil. Another veteran of Colorado Democratic politics who requested anonymity put it this way:

"How a state with a centrist reputation and a history of solving problems through bipartisan cooperation got itself into such a paralyzing mess is a lesson in miscalculation of political power by Ritter, Democrats who control both houses of the Colorado legislature and organized labor."