Ten years ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … On the heels of their best performance at the polls in decades, Colorado Democrats decided to deny state chair Chris Gates another term, voting instead for “relative newcomer” Pat Waak by a margin of just three votes. Just months earlier, Democrats had taken control of both chambers of the General Assembly for the first time in memory and the Salazar Brothers had taken a U.S. Senate seat and a congressional seat from Republican hands. But Waak-backing Democrats complained that Gates had displayed “an arrogant attitude” and refused to work with grassroots activists, never “giving Mike Miles a fair shake” in his primary run against Ken Salazar for the Senate nomination. At press time, it was up in the air whether Gates would take a dispute over seven proxy votes to the Democratic National Committee for resolution. …

… Animosity was lingering among state Republicans in the lead-up to the biennial GOP reorganization, with vocal factions signaling “a kind of cataclysmic split,” wrote Statesman editor Jody Hope Strogoff. Bruises were still fresh from the previous year’s divisive U.S. Senate primary between Bob Schaffer and Pete Coors. Many blamed Gov. Bill Owens for “abandoning” Schaffer after initially endorsing him and others charged that the state party had put its thumb on the scale in the intraparty race. The fracas was manifesting itself in the upcoming race for Republican National Committeeman, shaping up to be a race among retiring state GOP chair Ted Halaby and an as-yet-unannounced Schaffer with a surprise last-minute bid by former state Rep. Sam Zakhem. “The time has come for Colorado Republicans to band together for the sake of integrity and conservative values,” said longtime Bent County chair Jace Ratzlaff, throwing down the Draft Schaffer gauntlet. Schaffer boosters included state Sens. Doug Lamborn, Mark Hillman, Tom Wiens and Nancy Spence and state Reps. Ted Harvey, Debbie Stafford, Dave Schultheis and Josh Penry. Zakhem, saying he had been prodded into the race because his “loyalty is to the party and is beyond reproach,” brandished a letter Schaffer wrote encouraging voters to back a Democrat against Republican state Rep. Ramey Johnson in a dispute over vouchers. For his part, Schaffer was mostly mum: “I have no comments to the media on internal party matters,” he said.*

Twenty years ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … Republicans welcomed newly minted party member U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell with somewhat open arms — and a few grimaces — at the state GOP’s central committee meeting. State chair Don Bain won a second term with 60 percent of the vote over challenger John Donley, who had the backing of “disenchanted Republicans and pro-life conservatives.” For their part, conservatives weren’t too enraptured with all the hoopla foisted upon Campbell, who had just switched parties a week earlier. Still, he was greeted with standing ovations and requests to autograph the previous week’s Statesman, which featured the new Republican on the cover. Campbell scoffed at suggestions by U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder that he return the campaign donations that elected him to the Senate in 1992. He said that he had made the offer but had only heard from four donors who wanted refunds and a woman who wanted him to buy back her Campbell T-shirt. Campbell shot back that Schroeder should pony up all the money raised for her brief presidential run. “My loyalty and sense of values is higher than party politics,” Campbell said, promising to hold a pro-choice stance in the face of “the shrill voices” of conservatives. “The moderates are a little shy,” he said, “but I’m not a bit shy!” …

Thirty years ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … State Republican Party chair Bo Callaway, who cruised to another term without opposition at the state central committee meeting, quipped that 1986 election fervor was already evident, a full 20 months before balloting: “I’m drinking Hank Brown coffee from a Martha Ezzard cup and eating a Steve Schuck doughnut.” There was just one contested race for state GOP leadership: Nina Kite, a Jefferson County activist, defeated Boulder businesswoman Lillian Bickel for vice chair. Kite was nominated by U.S. Rep. Dan Schaefer, past congressional candidate Mike Norton and Attorney General Duane Woodard, while Bickel’s backers included Holly Coors, state Rep. Bill Owens “and many of the party’s more conservative members,” The Statesman wrote. Adams County stalwart Hal Shroyer blamed Bickel’s downfall on an endorsement of Democrat Tim Wirth she had signed a year earlier on behalf of the Colorado Homebuilders Association PAC. “She could have had someone else sign the letter,” Shroyer said. “Here she was coordinator of the Reagan/Bush campaign for the 2nd District. She could have had someone else sign it.” …

… Democrats honored long-time District Attorney Dale Tooley as Democrat of the Year at the Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner at the brand-new Westin Hotel. Everyone from U.S. Sen. Gary Hart and U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder to first lady Dottie Lamm and State Treasurer Roy Romer trooped to the podium to sing Tooley’s praises. It was Tooley who introduced Hart to the Democratic Party, the senator said, recalling that when he arrived in town some 20 years earlier looking for a job, Tooley had Hart working a party fundraiser within days. Romer reminisced that he and Tooley had started a law firm together “when both were young and poor,” although the firm soon dissolved as they launched political careers. Tooley regaled Democrats with tales and adages — “Never let yourself be introduced in a bar, someone … is bound to holler out, ‘He just said he’s buying a round for everyone in the house!’” — and concluded by observing that a political career can be filled with surprises. “You have to judge politics by the quality of the journey,” he said.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com

* CLARIFICATION While The Statesman reported 10 years ago that Republican Sam Zakhem said he was running for Republican National Committeeman, in part, because he objected to a letter sent out by former U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer taking fellow Republican state Rep. Ramey Johnson to task over a vote against school vouchers, the letter didn’t urge voters to opt for Johnson’s Democratic opponent. The letter, in the form of a petition, was sent by a nonprofit organization advocating for school choice and didn’t suggest a vote for or against anyone, Schaffer pointed out this week to The Statesman. He acknowledged, however, that it certainly didn’t cast Johnson in a flattering light. For her part, Johnson maintains that the letter – sent to House District 23 Republicans just 10 days before the 2004 election – cost her plenty of votes and tipped the scales to Democratic challenger Gwen Green, who went on to win by only a few dozen votes. “Sam Zakhem was my hero,” Johnson told The Statesman this week, recalling that he was the only Republican to stand publicly against the attack.