Steve Ward (Colorado legislator)
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Steven P. Ward (born c. 1960) is an American former
legislator A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...
in the U.S. state of
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
. Appointed to the Colorado State Senate as a Republican in 2006, Ward represented Senate District 26, which encompassed southern suburbs of
Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, centered on Littleton.


Biography

Currently a resident of
Littleton, Colorado Littleton is a home rule municipality city located in Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe County and is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistica ...
, Ward has served as mayor of Glendale, Colorado and as a member of the
Arapahoe County Arapahoe County may refer to: *Arapahoe County, Colorado *Arapahoe County, Kansas Territory Arapahoe County was a county of Kansas Territory in the United States that existed from August 25, 1855, until Kansas's admission into the Union on January ...
Board of Commissioners. A
colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
in the
United States Marine Corps Reserves The Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES or MFR), also known as the United States Marine Corps Reserve (USMCR) and the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Reserve, is the reserve force of the United States Marine Corps. It is the largest command, by assigned pe ...
, Ward has served tours of active duty at Special Operations Command, in
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, at Northern Command, at
the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...
, in
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
assisting with recovery from the
2004 Asian tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...
and, in 2007, on an assignment in the western Pacific. In August 2007, Ward was called up to active duty in Iraq as part of the
2nd Marine Expeditionary Force The II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF) is a Marine Air-Ground Task Force consisting of ground, air and logistics forces capable of projecting offensive combat power ashore while sustaining itself in combat without external assistance for a ...
, where he served as a military
inspector general An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is "inspectors general". Australia The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (Australia) (IGIS) is an independent statutory off ...
based at
Camp Fallujah Camp Fallujah (formerly known as the MEK (''Mujahedin-E Khalq'') Compound) is a large compound in Fallujah, Iraq formerly used by the U.S. Marines from 2004 to 2009. History Before the Marine occupation, the Iranian dissident group called M ...
. He returned from his Iraq deployment in early February 2008, several weeks into the 2008 legislative session; he was greeted with applause from fellow Senators during the morning roll call. In recognition of Sen. Wards' deployment, Senators had continuously left a lamp on in the Senate chambers during his absence. During his time in Iraq, Ward met with Colorado Governor
Bill Ritter August William Ritter Jr. (born September 6, 1956) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 41st Governor of Colorado from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the district attorney for Denver before his ele ...
and Congressman
Ed Perlmutter Edwin George Perlmutter (born May 1, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, his district is located in the northern and western suburbs of the Denver metropolitan area ...
during their trips to the country, and also met with U.S. Army officer and Colorado state representative
Joe Rice Joe Rice (born May 7, 1967) is a former legislator in the U.S. state of Colorado, an Iraq War veteran, and a former mayor of Glendale, Colorado. Rice presently works for Lockheed Martin Space Systems and also is a member of the United States Ar ...
, who was stationed in Iraq at the same time. Ward is married; he and his wife, Susan, have two children: Justin and Jessica. While not serving on active military duty, Ward operates a real-estate business.


Legislative career


2006 appointment

In November 2006, Senator Jim Dyer was elected to a post on the Arapahoe County Commission and resigned from the state legislature. A Republican Party vacancy commission chose Ward over former
Centennial {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at a ...
councilwoman Betty Ann Habig for the post. Ward was sworn in as a state senator on December 28, 2006.


2007 legislative session

In the 2007 session of the General Assembly, Ward served on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate Local Government Committee. During the session, Ward introduced, with Democratic Rep. Rosemary Marshall, a measure to clarify uncertainties surrounding a gift ban in Amendment 41, an ethics reform ballot measure enacted by Colorado voters in 2006. After several months of legislative negotiations, the measure was killed in favor of a compromise implementing the ethics law as approved by voters; the ethics commission and gift ban later faced a string of legal challenges.


2008 legislative session

In the 2008 session of the General Assembly, Ward serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Local Government Committee. He sponsored legislation, modeled on
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
law, to allow the
death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
as a punishment for
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
of children. The bill died in a Senate committee only a few months before the Louisiana statute was ruled unconstitutional in ''
Kennedy v. Louisiana ''Kennedy v. Louisiana'', 554 U.S. 407 (2008), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause prohibits imposing the death penalty for the rape of a chi ...
''. Ward was also a prime sponsor of a bill passed into law to restrict picketing in residential areas. During the legislative session, Ward denounced as the "
nanny state Nanny state is a term of British origin that conveys a view that a government or its policies are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice. The term likens such a government to the role that a nanny has in child rearing. An early ...
bill of the year" a measure which would require single-family homes to install
carbon monoxide detectors A carbon monoxide detector or CO detector is a device that detects the presence of the carbon monoxide (CO) gas to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. In the late 1990s Underwriters Laboratories changed the definition of a single station CO de ...
.


2008 Congressional campaign

Ward entered the race to succeed retiring Rep. Tom Tancredo in
Colorado's 6th Congressional district Colorado's 6th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Colorado. Located in central Colorado, the district encompasses much of the eastern part of the Denver metropolitan area, including all of Aurora, as well as ...
in November 2007; he made the decision to enter the race while on duty in Iraq, citing a need for more
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...
veterans in Congress. Ward was one of four contenders for the Republican nomination in the conservative district, including Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman. The contest saw few policy differences between Ward and his Republican opponents, with the exception of Ward's push for a "
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
"-type effort to develop alternatives to
fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...
s, including
flex fuel A flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV) or dual-fuel vehicle (colloquially called a flex-fuel vehicle) is an alternative fuel vehicle with an internal combustion engine designed to run on more than one fuel, usually gasoline blended with either ethanol or ...
standards for automobiles. Although Ward trailed his opponents in fundraising, his campaign emphasized his web presence and his detailed policy proposals. As an Iraq veteran, particular attention was paid to Ward's position on the U.S. presence in Iraq. Although Ward opposed a timetable for withdrawal of troops, he was critical of mistakes made early in the conflict, called for the increased involvement of non-military U.S. agencies and the establishment of "benchmarks" leading towards eventual troop withdrawal. Ward was critical of Republican leadership for straying from traditional conservative principles of limited government and for failures on energy and economic policy, going to so far as to eschew endorsements from prominent Republicans. He pledged to work towards a balanced budget and stated that he would place high priority in Congress on delivering transportation funding for Colorado. Ultimately, Ward raised a total of about $100,000 for his campaign and placed fourth among the contenders for the Republican nomination with roughly 12 percent of the vote; he conceded the race to Coffman early on the night of the primary and expressed support for the fellow Iraq veteran. Following his defeat, Ward planned to return to his real estate and development business. His retirement from the legislature created an open seat sought by Republican Lauri Clapp and Democrat Linda Newell, a race that became one of Colorado's closest races in 2008, with less than one percent of votes separating the two.


References


External links


Colorado General Assembly profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Steve Living people Republican Party Colorado state senators Mayors of places in Colorado People from Littleton, Colorado Year of birth missing (living people)