Forty Years Ago This Week: Following what he said were in-depth conversations with staffers at both the Colorado Republican Party and Denver GOP headquarters, Gil Stockton said he was seriously considering entering the House District 11 race to unseat Rep. Charles Brown, Jr., D-Denver.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people and I will probably run,” Stockton said.

The furniture distributor had also served as a coordinator for HD 11 and a delegate to the 1982 state and county assemblies.

Stockton was optimistic about his prospects for the race and pointed out to The Colorado Statesman that Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the district. The south Denver district had swung back and forth between parties, though former Rep. Jack McCroskey, D-Denver, had represented the district for a long span from 1975-1982.

“I’ve never met Brown,” Stockton said. “But I consider him a very personable fella, a nice guy. But he’s vulnerable. It will be a tough race and Mr. Brown is like a man without a country. The Democratic Party comes down on him. He’s not effective. He only got one piece of legislation passed last year. And he seems to flow with the wind – whichever wind is blowing the hardest.”

According to Stockton, Brown was failing to adequately address the needs of the district including on important issues like education, financing, criminal justice and fiscal responsibility.

Stockton estimated that the campaign would cost him about $25,000, and, with extra help from state and county organizations, “Brown will be serving his last term in politics,” he added.

“I’m leaning towards it,” Stockton said, keen to remind reporters that nothing was official. “It will be a very exciting and challenging process.”

In other news, Democratic Party U.S. Rep. Ray Kogovsek, CD-3, decided to finally accept a third pay raise after declining two previous raises in order to finance the Third Congressional District Scholarship, which had successfully paid the first year fees for six college freshman since 1980.

From his congressional pay raises Kogovsek had deposited a total of $10,000 in the scholarship account and also purchased a $5,100 money market certificate that would serve as the basis for future scholarships.

A five member panel of district residents evaluated each year scholarship candidates on the basis of academic records, extra-curricular activities, financial need and the desire to enter a field of public service.

The 1983 recipient of the scholarship was Tony John Justman of Fruita who attended the University of Southern Colorado at Pueblo.

Kogovsek said that he had decided to accept the most recent yearly $5,000+ pay increase due to “personal financial reasons.”

Ten Years Ago: Incoming House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, said that his caucus was looking forward to repealing or tweaking several gun-control measures, including the measures that banned high capacity magazines and universal background checks.

“The one thing that we’re going to continue to focus on this year, like we focused on the last couple of years, is pushing to make sure that all of Colorado is heard,” said DelGrosso.

Senate President-elect Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, said that a resurrected gun control debate would lead to an inflammation in the upper chamber.

“I anticipate sort of a repeal-a-thon of all of the gun safety measures that were out there,” said Carroll. “That said, one of the things that was lost in all of the noise last year is that we actually made almost every change or suggestion that anyone had suggested.”

Carroll said that the Democratic caucus was not likely to introduce more gun safety measures in the upcoming session and were waiting to “see how the current laws play out.”

Since Colorado’s universal background check had gone into effect in July 2013, a report by the Department of Public Safely indicated that of 5,000 checks, 72 private sales had been blocked because the potential-buyer was prohibited from purchasing a firearm.

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Gazette.