Ten Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … Former three-term Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter officially filed his paperwork for a run for governor, though he made clear that a formal announcement would come later. “With four children, 10 brothers and sisters and 32 nieces and nephews, I have a huge stake in the future,” said Ritter. Former Senate Minority Leader Mike Feeley was Ritter’s treasurer. Other early endorsers included Frank and Martelle Daniels, Bruce Alexander, Dr. Dean Prina, Tammy and Noel Cunningham, Mike Dino and Tim Daly….

… In other jockeying for 2006 campaigns, potential Democratic congressional candidate Peggy Lamm, D-Louisville, was under fire for her endorsement a few years earlier of Republican Gov. Bill Owens. Former Senate Minority Leader Bill Thiebaut, D-Pueblo, who opposed Owens on the ticket as the Democratic lieutenant governor nominee in 2002, “dredged up” a Statesman story about Lamm’s reported support for Owens and passed it on to the Rocky Mountain News, causing what could mildly be termed a backlash by Lamm. This prompted what could politely be called a smack down by The Statesman. Thiebaut told the Rocky’s Peter Blake he was planning to remind Democrats around the state about Lamm’s “political betrayal” and acknowledged he was backing former state Sen. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, for the 7th CD nomination. Lamm told Blake she didn’t know who she was talking to when she told The Statesman she supported Owens, saying the questioning sounded more like a “push poll.” Ahem, penned Statesman editor Jody Hope Strogoff. “I wrote that article myself, and I ain’t no push pollster,” Strogoff wrote, noting that she reported on the endorsement after finding Lamm’s name on a list of supporters distributed by the Owens campaign. Lamm didn’t question the article when it appeared, only raising a fuss now that she was a candidate. Going back over her notes for the 2002 story. Strogoff wrote that what seemed clear was that Lamm was an independent thinker who, along with some other Democrats that year, had lined up behind Owens instead of Democratic challenger Rollie Heath. Along with Lamm, other Democrats who endorsed Owens included former state Rep. Vi June, D-Westminster, powerful attorney Steve Farber and business maven Zee Ferrufino. Strogoff’s advice: “Never put anything in writing that could come back to haunt you in later years. That’s certainly a lesson many Enron executives and other corporate leaders learned,” she noted, offering the same advice to candidates.

Fifteen Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … After serving as state GOP chairman for 15 months, Bob Beauprez described himself as optimistic that the year 2000 “will bring unprecedented success for the Grand Old Party at every conceivable level.” He credited the overflowing crowds greeting him around the state at fundraisers and rallies but also noted the attitude of the Democrats. “They have obviously adopted the tone and tactics of a party in trouble,” Beauprez wrote. “Where our leadership provides thoughtful proposals to deal with the challenges facing Colorado, they simply hurl invectives and call people names.” Gov. Bill Owens and the Republican-controlled Legislature were all about forging “thoughtful, bipartisan coalitions,” Beauprez continued, but Democrats “would rather whine about ‘one-party government.’ Colorado Dems had clearly learned these tactics “at the knee of Al Gore and his political assassins,” Beauprez said, not exactly holding back on the invective. “Voters will have a clear choice between compassionate conservatism and shrill political hyperbole. They will have a choice between a governor with a proven record of reform and a vice president who claims to have invented the Internet.” The choice couldn’t be more clear, he said, nor the stakes higher….

… State Democratic chair Tim Knaus saw things differently. Colorado Democrats were poised to romp at the ballot box, he wrote, pointing to newly inaugurated party operations, including a fundraising school and extensive training for candidates and consultants, a speakers bureau to send Democrats around the state to appear before civic groups, and a recent move to new headquarters — “a wonderful storefront location with excellent signage and the potential for over 400 telephone lines.” Democrats were busy rebuilding after Knaus took over, having found the party with “no voter file, faulty computers, no donor list, inadequate office space and a minimal budget.” After fixing all those deficiencies, he noted, the party became the first political entity in the country to broadcast its state convention proceedings live on the Internet, complete “with chat rooms and interaction by folks at home across Colorado.” Couple all those improvements with the “do-nothing record of the Republican General Assembly,” Knaus added, and Democrats were in a good position. “Voters are sick and tired of the NRA controlling the legislature and imperiling the lives of our kids,” he wrote. “Fasten your seat belts, Bob Beauprez and your right-wing candidates. We are taking your appalling record of inaction and connection with special interests directly to the Colorado voters.”

… Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers — he was the first African-American Republican elected to that position anywhere in the country — took to the pages of The Statesman to deliver a message to Gov. Bill Owens. (Apparently the two weren’t communicating much otherwise.) Rogers asked Owens to let him veto a bill that would allow gubernatorial candidates to pick their own running mates, instead of the second bananas running for the nomination in primaries. Owens was taking no position on the bill, saying he would allow it to become law without his signature. He said that taking a position would represent a “potential conflict of interest,” since it would have an impact on his bid for reelection the next year. If Owens didn’t want Rogers as his running mate, the lieutenant governor wrote, all he had to do was ask, and Rogers would be happy to bow out. But the legislation wasn’t the answer, Rogers argued. “[T]his bill will limit the opportunities of generations of children in our state from every walk of life who might even remotely believe that they — as ordinary people — might someday grow up to serve,” he wrote. The two have had plenty of disagreements and a frustrating, strained relationship, Rogers acknowledged, but it’s imperative to “make clear that it is water under the (bridge) and that we are determined to move forward.” Sadly, Rogers wrote, “the bill reinforces a deep (seated) belief among African-Americans and others that our party is not a big tent and has no interest in the concerns of black people and African-American participation within its ranks.” Instead of perpetuating that perception, Rogers suggested, Owens ought to just hand over the pen to his lieutenant and let Rogers veto the legislation.

Gov. Bill Owens with President George W. Bush, right and Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers, left. The pair were at odds 15 years ago over a bill that would allow gubernatorial candidates to choose their own running mates. Rogers took to the pages of The Statesman to send Owens a message asking the governor to permit the lieutenant governor to veto the bill rather than allow it to become law without Owens’ signature.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com