He Always Plays His Bills

When asked if a fascination with rules binds the various areas of his life--gambling, legislation and his work as an administrative law judge, a high-school football referee and club-hockey timekeeper--again he deflects. And he uses his familiar technique of saying things through someone else's voice: "I had a friend say to me once, 'Have you ever noticed that with all your jobs, you're in charge?' I suppose there's something to that."

As for Wells's future, he doesn't tip his hand. But that hasn't stopped him from attending GOP functions around the state and eating rubber chicken with groups such as the Colorado Press Association. It is the attorney general job that most fascinates him, because it would give him another opportunity to work in the world of rules, laws and control. "It would be true to say that I haven't ruled it out," Wells says of a run for AG.

He says he is also enjoying his work as president of the Council of State Governments, in which he gets to meet with the heads of other organizations and work on such wonky problems as a too-short comment period for proposed EPA regulations. These days he's more likely to brag about being called to testify in front of a congressional committee than about being a big winner in Vegas.

Even in a building filled with people who love to put their names on bumper stickers, Wells stands out as the one who wants all the members of the band to know that he's the professor and everyone should sing his tunes. Sometimes he gives that impression through offhand comments, like his casual mention of one CHSAA-related bill that was started by Senator Bob Schaffer, now a GOP congressman. "It was all screwed up, so he asked me to fix it," Wells says.

Other times, he just tells people that he alone is fighting the good fight. What bothered him most about the CHSAA in the fight over Gabe Lane, he says, was the organization's unwillingness to work with families and local school boards. Even school-board members who do not count themselves as friends of Wells's say the CHSAA has worked with imperial control for years. "To me, [CHSAA's] audacity was amazing," Wells says. Perhaps it takes audacity to know audacity.

"I actually think," says Wells, "that I'm on the side of truth and justice here.