After considering about two-thirds of the bills lawmakers have sent him this year, Gov. Bill Ritter so far has vetoed only two. If that number sticks, it will be decidedly lower than even the lowest number of vetoes by Gov. Bill Owens, Ritter's predecessor in office.

Annual legislative statistical summaries for 1999-2006 -- Owens' eight years in office -- show the popular Republican and former state lawmaker nixed no fewer than five bills during his first year in office and as high as 47 bills in 2005. Ritter, a former Denver district attorney who is new to the Capitol, has only vetoed a bill that would have made it easier to establish closed union shops and one to license P.E. teachers.

"He is not as moderate as he represents himself to be," said Senate GOP leader Andy McElhany of Colorado Springs. "He's rubber-stamping everything that comes out of a left-wing legislature."

The statistics show that even when Owens'  fellow Republicans controlled both legislative chambers, he wasn't shy about using his veto power, killing 13 bills in 2000, 14 in 2001, nine in 2002, 11 in 2003 and six in 2004.

"Republicans also felt the sting of Bill Owens' veto pen," McElhany said. "Compared to him, Ritter's a softy." 

The numbers complement statistics in recent weeks showing that the Democrat-controlled 2007 General Assembly is passing more new laws than when Republicans last held the majority. That data, compiled earlier this month by the Office of Legislative Legal Services, drew a charge from McElhany that the Democrats "grow government faster."

Ritter's failure to veto more bills meanwhile seems to belie his pledge to business leaders on the campaign trail last year that he would veto a lot of the same bad-for-business bills from fellow Democrats that had been nixed by Owens.

McElhany pointed out Ritter still has some "tough decisions" to make on the bills he has left to consider, and the veteran minority leader said he hoped the freshman governor would do the right thing and veto some of them.