Wayne Allard had a distinguished political career, serving two terms as a U.S. senator, three terms in the House of Representatives and two terms in the Colorado Senate.
The Colorado native served in the U.S. Senate from 1997 until 2009. But the Republican returned back to Washington, D.C., in 2011 to serve as the American Motorcycle Association’s vice president of government relations, a position that keeps him focused on legislative-based advocacy work on the local, state and national levels.
“When I was in the state Senate, I worked with motorcyclists,” Allard said. “I agreed with a number of their positions, and they’re basically a group that wants a minimum amount of government in their lives, so philosophically, I was aligned with the American Motorcyclist Association.”
The motorcycle association, which was founded in 1924, is an advocacy organization for motorcyclists with around 215,000 members. The stated mission of the association is “to promote the motorcycling lifestyle and protect the future of motorcycling.”
The AMA’s headquarters is based in Pickerington, Ohio, but Allard works out of the association’s satellite government relations office several blocks away from the U.S. Capitol. The location allows him to directly lobby representatives about motorcycle-related issues and legislation as they arise. Allard says the association, which is nonpartisan, focuses on both on-road and off-road issues affecting motorcyclists.
Although not a biker himself, Allard said the free spirit lifestyle of motorcyclists appeals to him. Growing up on a ranch in northern Colorado, he said his family would run cattle on public lands and that his familiarity with those kinds of issues is a definite asset in his current position.
“In Colorado, public lands are a big issue, and it’s a big issue for motorcycle riders throughout the West, so I think they wanted to have somebody who knew a little bit about public lands,” Allard said.
As a politician, Allard was focused on increasing the voice of Coloradans in their government by maximizing their representative’s efficiency. His legislation to decrease the Colorado Legislature’s annual session to roughly four months is still on the books.
“I passed legislation when I was in the state Senate to limit the length of the session of the Legislature to 120 days, so I was firmly into limiting the role of government, including the legislative branch,” Allard said.
When Colorado voters passed several laws in the 1990s that limited the number of consecutive terms their elected officials could serve, Allard was more than happy to abide by their decision. Although the Supreme Court later overturned aspects of state term-limit laws that affected Congress, Allard nonetheless promised to follow the will of the Colorado voters.
In 2008, Allard declined to run for re-election because of the promise he had made to serve only two terms in the U.S. Senate. Although Allard supports mandated term limits, he says he can’t envision Congress taking up legislation anytime soon to make this a reality.
“The Senate is never going to agree to it because then that would mean a lot of House members would be released, so to speak, by their term limits to run for another office,” Allard said. “And that means, potentially, more competition for the U.S. Senate seats.”
Commenting on the state of national politics today, Allard said democracy can often look messy, but it’s the best process we have for managing our country.
“That’s the value of a democracy, that groups have an opportunity to come forward and express their concerns,” Allard said. “So we’re seeing that in the Republican Party. But, for example, when I was in the House, I didn’t like the filibuster rule, and then when I was in the Senate, I didn’t think it was a bad piece of legislation.”
One of the current senators Allard is most pleased about is Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., who worked his way up from legislative assistant to legislative director in Allard’s Senate office.
“I’m proud of all my former staff, but I’m particularly proud of Cory,” Allard said. “He worked hard at each level of government to build up a constituency, and people developed confidence in him, and he got elected, which is basically the same path that I took.”
As for his new career in government relations, Allard said he couldn’t be happier with his decision. While the position has taken him out of Colorado, he says he’s never really left the state.
“It makes for a nice retirement,” Allard said. “But I’ve kept my home in Colorado, and I have a cabin in the mountains, so basically, I remain a Coloradan even though I spend a lot of my time in Washington.”
Edward Graham, a student at American University in Washington, D.C., is an intern with The Durango Herald.
