Referendum C is further proof that politics, indeed, makes strange bedfellows.

Republican Gov. Bill Owens teamed up with the Democratic-controlled legislature to get the tax measure on the Nov. 1 ballot.

Ref C supporters hired Republican strategists to help handle their campaign.

And one anti-Ref C group, with ties to GOP gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman, signed a consulting firm headed by a Washington insider who ripped President Bush's handling of Hurricane Katrina.

"Ballot issues are all about cross-pollination," political consultant Steve Welchert said Thursday. "That's what makes them so fun."

He pointed to last year's ballot measure on renewable energy, which was pushed by U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, an Eldorado Springs Democrat, and state Rep. Lola Spradley, a Republican from Beulah.

"Here was Lola Spradley introducing Robert Redford - Robert Redford! - at an event," Welchert said. "I told him, 'You can't beat up on Bush too bad because Spradley's the Republican speaker of the House.' "

This year's Ref C campaign has its own political odd couples.

Labor unions and big business support the tax measure.

So do state Sens. Nancy Spence, a Centennial Republican and former school board member, and Suzanne Williams, an Aurora Democrat and retired teacher. The Arapahoe County lawmakers have sparred on a variety of issues.

"But we certainly are together on this issue," Spence said.

Political consultant Katy Atkinson, who ran Republican Bruce Benson's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 1994, is the spokeswoman for the pro-Ref C group Vote Yes.

The group's advertising is being handled by Walt Klein and Associates, the same Denver firm that worked for the U.S. Senate campaigns of Republicans Pete Coors and Wayne Allard.

Top Democratic consultants also are involved in Vote Yes - but, as Welchert put it, Atkinson and Klein "are the face of the campaign, so what you have is Republicans fighting Republicans."

"That's why this is some of the best political theater we've seen in a long time," he said.

Ref C has a number of opponents, including several conservative issues committees such as If C Wins, You Lose.

That committee received a $100,000 donation from Holtzman's father, and the gubernatorial candidate is appearing in its TV commercial blasting Referendum C.

The If C Wins group hired Goddard Claussen Strategic Advocacy as its consultant.

Founding partner Ben Goddard blasted President Bush's hurricane efforts in a column this month in a Washington publication.

"He seemed disinterested, disengaged from everything that was going on in New Orleans," Goddard wrote. "It was, after all, only worth a fly-by in Air Force One, as though there were no people down there in all that muddy, brown water."

The chairman of If C Wins, House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, said the Goddard Claussen firm wasn't picked for its politics but for its track record.

"They've won 25 out of the last 26 ballot initiatives they've been involved with," Stengel said.

"Ref C isn't about a party. It's about an issue."

bartels@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5327