Measure 47, the November ballot initiative to make Colorado a "right to work" state, has so many opponents (labor and business leaders are both opposing it after a recent deal) that it's become something of a political orphan. The Rocky Mountains News, unable to get a clear answer about how the initiative came to be, has turned up legal documents showing its origins.

While I was asleep in Switzerland, peace broke out Thursday in Colorado's multi-measure labor vs. business war. As part of a deal negotiated just before the deadline for sponsors to pull their support for an initiative, business groups agreed to fund a campaign against three ballot initiatives targeting labor prerogatives, including Amendment 47, the initiative to make Colorado a right-to-work state. In return, labor agreed to drop four initiatives that it had qualified to challenge business prerogatives. More details here.

The four labor initiatives being withdrawn are Amendments 53 (making executive wrongdoing a state crime), 55 (requiring employers to show cause before firing a worker), 56 (requiring most employers to provide health insurance for workers), and 57 (permitting workers to sue employers in workers comp cases). The measures still appear on the ballots, which have been printed, but votes won't be counted.

Now business and labor will team up to defeat not only Amendment 47 but also Amendment 49, a so-called "paycheck protection" member limiting the political use of dues by public employee unions, and Amendment 54. This last is an interesting case, since it's not targeted solely at labor unions. It's an attempt to end "pay to play" politics by banning political donations from anyone -- including unions -- who has an exclusive contract with government agencies.

The country's largest labor union, the Service Employees International Union, has been backing legislation and ballot initiatives around the country to establish standards for home health care workers. The bills and measures are part of a strategy to organize more of those workers. It's a fine strategy. But in Washington state, SEIU appears to have made a major error.

Instead of qualifying an initiative directly for the ballot, the union labeled its petitions as an initiative to the legislature. Washington, like some other blockbuster democracy states, permits citizens to gather signatures on a document and present it to the legislature first, instead of the voters. The union didn't really want that. And it's possible that state officials may allow them to get away with the mistake and put the measure on the ballot.

Denver Post columnist Al Lewis, looking at a right-to-work initiative on the November ballot in Colorado, asks where the victims are of union abuses. It's an interesting question, given the low rates of unionization in the private sector in his state and nationwide. But let me be the first to predict that Lewis will be deluged from complaints from public sector workers -- particularly teachers -- angry about being forced to give part of their paycheck to powerful organizations who practice politics they don't agree with.

It appears that labor is trying to shorten the playing field in the massive, multi-initiative union vs. business Colorado ballot contest.

The United Food and Commercial Workers -- the union best known for representing grocery store workers -- announced it has pulled two of four ballot initiatives it was circulating for signatures. The UFCW says this is a gesture of "negotiation," a peace offering in hopes that business interests won't back a "right-to-work" initiative sponsored by conservatives. We'll see. Signature gatherers in Colorado tell me that the initiatives being dropped did not appear to have gotten many signatures.

Those two measures would have increased commercial property taxes and required annual cost-of-living increases for workers in firms with 10 or more employees. The union continues to support two health-related measures, including an intiative requiring that firms with 20 or more employees provide health coverage. Similar legislation passed California in 2003 but was narrowly overturned by voter referendum in 2004.

The union opponents of the November ballot initiative to make Colorado a "right to work' state went to court today to try to throw the initiative. The court case alleges "massive" signature fraud, with so many duplicates and false signatures that the measure could not have properly qualified for the ballot. Such suits are common and usually get thrown out. But the political climate in Colorado is so hostile to direct democracy and signature gathering now that if I were a backer of the "right to work" measure, I'd be worried.

National unions have put more than $1 million into Colorado, mostly to fight the right-to-work initiative that recently qualified for the ballot. SEIU, the nation's largest union, has donated more than $600, and things are just getting started. This Denver Post story predicts that the right-to-work initiative will cost more than $25 million, and the ballot will have more than a half-dozen measures. Look for Colorado, not Ohio, to be the biggest swing state this fall, as presidential contenders battle over it, and the forces of business and labor from across the country attempt to bloody each other with initiatives here.

The "right-to-work" ballot initiative in Colorado has qualified for the ballot.

Followers of politics in California and Colorado should take a look at this piece in the Denver Post how Molson Coors, the brewing company, is keeping its distance from the right-to-work ballot initiative being championed by Jonathan Coors, nephew of Pete Coors and known to many California politcos as a well-liked aide and the tallest advance man to Gov. Schwarzenegger. The family dynamics are explored, and there's this money quote from Dan Baum, author of a book on the Coors dynasty, about how a Coors championing right-to-work is bad news for Coors: "I'm surprised they're not locking Jonathan in the trunk of a car and leaving him at long-term parking out at (Denver International Airport)." Isn't that precisely what former Schwarzenegger advisor Fred Beteta, who was Jonathan's boss in advance, used to do to the young man after a poor event?

I missed this last week because of extensive travel, but proponents of a "right to work" initiative in Colorado filed signatures despite Gov. Bill Ritter's pleas to head them off. That will deepen a ballot fight between labor and business in Colorado, and will certainly make that state the center of blockbuster democracy -- and perhaps the country's hottest political battleground --  this fall. Inevitably, McCain and the Democratic presidential are going to be drawn into this fight because they will be campaigning extensively in the state..