Congress's Community Banker

Northwestern Financial Review, Aug 1-Aug 14, 2004 by Telschow, Tony

Colorado's Bob Beauprez ramps up for reelection

Bob Beauprez first felt a flicker of fascination with federal-level politics during the presidential campaign of 1960. For most of the 42 years between that election and his own to the U.S. House of Representatives, Beauprez toiled not in electoral politics, but in his family's owner-operated dairy business and then as president of Heritage Bank of Louisville, Colo.

By the time Beauprez decided to exercise his interest in politics more directly, he had already built his single-location bank into a 12branch operation and distinguished himself in trade groups such as the Independent Bankers of Colorado and the Independent Community Bankers of America. He had also attracted the attention of the country's power brokers, including President George W. Bush.

In 2002, Beauprez won his first race for congress by 121 votes. The Republican freshman from Colorado's seventh district was preparing for his upcoming reelection race against Democrat challenger Dave Thomas when North Western Financial Review caught up with him in July. The race is expected to be close again and closely watched, in part because the seventh district is split almost evenly among Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters.

But Beauprez thinks that his entrepreneurial path and real-world experience prepared him well to represent his district, and that his effective representation will make him an attractive candidate for reelection this fall.

Citizen legislator

Bob Beauprez's political ascendancy has been fairly conspicuous. he was recruited by Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, at the behest of President Bush. he serves on the largest committee -Transportation and Infrastructure - in the House, as well as on the Veterans Affairs and Small Business committees. Majority Leader Tom Delay placed him on the House Energy Action Team (HEAT), and House Speaker Dennis Hastert appointed him to the conference committee negotiating the national highway and transit re-authorization legislation. Fellow Republicans encouraged him to run for the U.S. Senate seat that will open when Colorado's Ben Nighthorse Campbell resigns, but Beauprez decided to run for reelection to the House.

Whatever combination of political skill and legislative talent might drive such achievement is rounded out by Beauprez's emphasis on his role as representative for the people of his district. "I take that word representative very seriously," he said.

The congressman has repeatedly asserted that community banking is nearly ideal training for would-be representatives. Speaking of his own district, he said: "On a daily basis, a pretty good representation of those 615,000 people walk through your bank. You meet them in your teller line, you meet them at your desk, you hear their stories, you go to their places of business, you meet them in their homes ... and you see the way that government sometimes can be of assistance to them with good policy."

He hastened to add that bad policy or over-regulation "can choke the lifeblood right out of their dreams."

Beauprez said that community banking also helped him hone his "can-do" disposition and negotiate the variability of ways and means. he notes that while he was building up Heritage Bank, he focused on finding ways to help people. One day, one of the bank's lenders asked Beauprez for the "Thou Shalt Not" list, the list of reasons for turning people down. Beauprez replied: "The reasons to say no should be fairly obvious. I want to focus on the reasons to say yes to people and help them out."

Though Beauprez resigned as the bank's president to assume his seat in Congress and cannot by law be involved in its governance, his approach to community banking has been preserved.

"The lessons he taught still dominate in the organization," said Bill Mitchell, who succeeded Beauprez as Heritage Bank's president and CEO. The bank sticks to "that principle, the idea that we want to make a difference," he said.

Few people know better than Beauprez himself what a difference a community banker can make. His family's farm was nearly foreclosed during some dry years in the 1950s, but Beauprez's father had a close relationship with a banker who lent him money based on his character. "That saved the farm and had a huge impact on the family," Mitchell said.

Beauprez was serving on the board of a bank that was part of a Colorado-owned holding company when, in 1989, the board learned that the bank would be converted to a branch. Before long, it had been sold to a national chain. "I came home a little bit angry that the hometown bank was going away," Beauprez said. In 1990, he and his wife Claudia bought Heritage Bank. It had one location and $5.6 million in assets.

Mitchell said that Heritage Bank will open its 13th branch in December and that its assets are approaching $400 million.

According to Mitchell, Beauprez thought that, "every community deserves to have a community bank."

But Beauprez didn't stop at a bank.