Author: Rachael Wright

Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: An Adams County District Court judge ruled that Republican state Rep. Faye Fleming’s decision to switch from the Democratic Party a year earlier in 1986 – a mere three months after being elected to office – had been neither fraudulent nor illegal, dismissing a lawsuit claiming both. The United Steelworkers…

Fifty Years Ago This Week: In what some Republicans saw at the time to be a partisan election stunt, the Colorado Democratic Party issued a scathing “key issue statement,” charging Republican Colorado Attorney General Duke Dunbar with mismanagement of state funds in the operation of his office. The statement, signed by the Democratic candidate challenging…

Fifty Years Ago This Week: U.S. Rep. Wayne Aspinall, D-CD4, was honored by the Mesa County Jane Jefferson Club in a special “Wayne Aspinall Night” meeting. Speaking to around 85 Mesa County Democratic women, Aspinall said that “Republican charges of increasing socialism in the federal government are unfounded.” Of the entire federal budget, he argued,…

FIfty-Five Years Ago This Week: Gov. Steve McNichols and his Republican rival, Colorado Springs attorney John Love, held their first debate at Editors Day at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Commentators said McNichols had held his own, but several others interviewed following the end of the debate felt the governor had already “flunked out…

Fifty-Five Years Ago This Week: Speaking to concerned farmers, ranchers and campaign supporters in the City of Limon, Conrad McBride, Democratic candidate for Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, said that there was “an obvious price squeeze between static farm prices and inflated land prices today,” and added that – short of perfect cooperation – would require…

Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: In an effort to encourage a rumored announcement from Colorado U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, D-CD1, that she would be seeking the Democratic nomination for president, a bevy of Colorado political figures were putting together “Run-Pat-Run” parties across south-central Denver. “She’s very exciting and will lend a great deal of substance…

Sixty Years Ago This Week: With election season in full swing, Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Fred Betz fired back at Republican Chairman Jean Tool over a spate of negative advertisements from the GOP. “In his desperation to produce a 1962 victory for his party,” Betz said, “Chairman Tool has adopted a policy which gives no…

Sixty Years Ago This Week: Democratic Party leadership expressed their displeasure over what they deemed had been an “ill-advised” attack against Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. John Carroll. Yale-trained lawyer, Army Air Corps WWII veteran and founding partner of Holland and Hart law firm Peter Dominick was challenging Carroll, a former Denver District Attorney and WWII…

Sixty Years Ago This Week: Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Fred Betz expressed his disdain for Republican lieutenant governor candidate Dr. Gail Gilbert’s inflammatory comments about the Democratic Party. Gilbert, an Arvada veterinarian, told members of the press that Democratic Party politics were “ruinous to the American way of life.” “His utterances make the least sense…

Sixty Years Ago This Week: Seventy-five thousand Coloradans arrived in Pueblo to join President John F. Kennedy as he marked the successful completion of a 30-year campaign for congressional approval of the FryingPan-Arkansas Project. The $171 million project involved importing spring snowmelt and runoff from the Western Slope to the Arkansas River-Basin on the Eastern…