Twenty-five Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … Construction companies handed Denver Mayor Federico Peña a “giant skeleton key, finished in brilliant gold” to the new Colorado Convention Center, which was set to open on time and on budget. “Each of you need to share in the celebration,” said Phelps Construction president Jerry Morgensen as he handed the enormous key to Peña. Helpers handed out dozens of identical, though smaller, keys to those involved in the process of selecting the site, helping secure $36 million in state subsidies and designing and building the center. “After we get done with all the haggling, we can do something right,” joked Denver City Council President Cathy Donahue. …

… State GOP chair Bruce Benson’s scheme to woo Colorado Springs Mayor Bob Isaac back into the gubernatorial race by sidestepping an expensive primary was thwarted when candidate Mike Strang, a former congressman, “refused to gamble,” The Statesman reported. Isaac had put his campaign on ice a month earlier when Strang announced, saying a primary “would be an exercise in futility,” costing too much “in money and emotions” and dashing any chances of unseating Gov. Roy Romer, the Democratic incumbent. Benson proposed a pact between the candidates so that whoever got the most votes at the upcoming GOP state assembly would get the nomination, but Strang declined. “I don’t make deals,” Strang said. “Neither Bruce Benson nor Bob Isaac has the right to deal away the process. The party belongs to the rank and file, not to its leaders.”

Fifty Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … The Republican Senate was at odds with both the Democratic House and Republican Gov. John Love in an impasse over the state budget, holding up plans for adjournment of the General Assembly. Senate Republicans “rammed through” a $177 million budget on a party-line vote, providing substantially less funds for public schools and higher education than the $196 million budget Love had proposed. State Sen. David Hahn, an Adams County Democrat, responded by reading a “criminal indictment” against the GOP senators. “They did, with premeditation and malice aforethought, slay and kill the Co-ordinating Council of Higher Education … They did refuse to submit to a chemical test after recklessly and carelessly driving a freight train through the hopes of responsible Republicans to change the image of the Republican party, contrary to the peace and dignity of the people of the State of Colorado.” …

… The Colorado House passed two “stop-gap water legislation” measures to require the State Engineer to administer all surface and tributary water in the state and to allow certain “Critical Areas” to restrict drilling wells. Sponsor T. Everett Cook, a Democrat of Cañon City, said the legislation was needed “to protect senior water rights of users” because pumps along the Arkansas River were “intercepting and diverting water” directly from the river, greatly diminishing flow. House Majority Leader Forrest Burns, Democrat of Lamar, was opposed, charging that the bills would put too much power in the hands of the State Engineer. “It would make him a czar,” Burns said. Meanwhile, Gov. John Love signed a daylight saving bill, mandating that the state’s clocks be turned ahead by one hour on April 25 and turned back again on the last Sunday in October. Before passing the bill, the Senate amended it to require that “the daylight saving question” be placed on the ballot in 1966 so that voters could weigh in on the clock tinkering. And the House passed a bill creating a $1 state minimum wage, although not without numerous exemptions added by amendment during floor debate. Those who wouldn’t be subject to the wage floor included agricultural workers, babysitters, domestic workers, students working at seasonal hotels and motels, executives, professionals and members of religious orders.

Seventy-five Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … The “beloved and much-traveled first lady of the land,” Eleanor Roosevelt, spent a few brief hours in Denver and received a legion of admirers in her “flower-bedecked suite” at the Brown Palace Hotel. Visitors, according to a Statesman correspondent identified only by the initials “N.M.,” were “thrilled by the friendly handclasp of the woman, who just by being herself and following natural inclinations regardless of convention and precedent has become the most popular and famous woman of modern times.” Her greeting, the reporter enthused, “is almost indescribable. The touch of her hand generates a warmth that flows from heart to heart.” The first lady enjoyed personal visits with Gov. Ralph Carr and Mary Agnes Sullivan, the Miss Colorado winner of a beauty contest sponsored by the Colorado Young Democrats. …

… A front-page story and an editorial took Gov. Ralph Carr to task for trying to pull a fast one with state revenue streams in the face of budget deficits. “Gov. Carr claims to have been playing Santa Claus to the taxpayers,” an editorial in the newspaper mocked. “The false whiskers have come off.” At issue was a plan by the Republican governor to deliver “a ‘Carr’ load of additional taxes to county and local governments” by diverting state income tax revenue to the general fund. It seems voters had approved an income tax, but it was restricted to funding education. A study commissioned by the Colorado Education Association determined that Carr’s claims of “financial wizardry” were unjustified. Further, the CEA charged that the governor’s use of state income tax revenue for other spending was putting a pinch on everyone else. “Many counties have been placed in a position of financial embarrassment,” the newspaper reported. “The Denver City Council has been grappling with a pressing problem of raising the necessary revenue to replace the diverted funds since the beginning of the fiscal year.” …

… Colorado Democrats were gearing up for the annual Jefferson Day banquet, promising to “bring together about the table the rank and filers of the Democratic party.” Democratic National Committee chairman James A. Marsh was set to be the master of ceremonies, refereeing 19 — that’s right, 19 — speakers who had been engaged to discourse on “policies, politics and action” long into the night. “A glance at the speakers list shows promise of an interesting time and possible fireworks,” the newspaper reported. Scheduled orators included Denver Mayor Benjamin F. Stapleton, U.S. Attorney for Colorado Thomas Morrissey, Colorado Attorney General Byron Rogers and Denver District Attorney John Carroll.