The state would continue to be the recreational center for the region, he predicted, but will also grow as a key center for the defense industry, and energy production would only expand. The most important issues in the upcoming election, he said, would be energy, the economy and defense, and he was challenging his opponent — whoever that might be — to get down to brass tacks. “I’m not just saying I’m for a balanced budget,” Hart said. “I’m saying specifically, you get there — what cuts have to be made, what additional spending is required? The same is true of an energy plan to get us off imports by 1990. I’ve worked very hard on these issues to come up with specifics, and not with generalities. All of these things — the integrity issue, disclosure — are standards that I’m challenging the others to meet.” Hart demurred when asked if he might envision another term, should he prevail in the fall. “I don’t know. I don’t, frankly, at this point envision a third term. I’ve said all along my goal was not to die in the United States Senate.” Asked if he had future political ambitions, he was unequivocal: “Oh, no, no, no.” The Statesman interjected that Hart was sometimes mentioned as a presidential prospect. “No,” Hart replied, “those are slow news days.” …

… Secretary of State Mary Estill Buchanan and her U.S. Senate campaign manager, Curt Uhre, were deciding whether to mount a petition drive to get on the primary ballot after she underwhelmed expectations, placing fifth at the state GOP assembly with just 14 percent of the delegate vote. John Cogswell, Sam Zakhem and Bo Callaway made the ballot. Buchannan blamed the unexpectedly poor showing on a “well orchestrated smear campaign that apparently had its effect.” Anonymous leaflets tagged her a “liberal,” prompting talk of an investigation into their source, but her opponents believed it wasn’t the leaflets. “Buchanan lost because she was out-politicked,” said Cogswell. “She never competed with us. She ran her whole campaign on name identification. She was conspicuously absent from Republican events more times than not.” Walt Klein, who managed Callaway’s campaign, said Buchanan had been over-estimating her support. “Our instinct was that her support just wasn’t there to begin with. I didn’t think she’d get on the ballot unless she got a huge percent of the undecided vote.” Not all the fliers were anonymous — one leaflet was signed by an Eagle Forum board member — the organization worked against the Equal Rights Amendment — and accused Buchannan of holding liberal positions on pornography, the ERA and gay rights. It even questioned whether she planned on remaining a Republican, following an off-hand remark she’d once made. “If you like Pat Schroeder, you’ll love Buchanan,” it read. Another, unsigned circular accused Buchanan of co-chairing the state’s ERA movement. At press time, Buchanan and advisors were weighing whether to start gathering petition signatures for the late summer primary. “Coming out of an assembly that was so grossly unfair, I think I’d win the primary,” she said. …

… Hart campaign manager Hal Haddon quipped that he had no idea who the culprit was who slipped small bowls of candy hearts to the 1,000 guests in attendance at the $125-a-plate Ronald Reagan dinner the previous week. At the bottom of each dish was a slip of paper that could easily be mistaken for the message in a fortune cookie, reading, “Hart wins in 1980.” A bemused Haddon said, “I heard it was the ‘Mint Sisters’ who did it. You’ve heard of the Mint Sisters? They show up every six years to dedicate their organizational abilities.” Haddon explained that the trio made their debut at the Democrats’ Jefferson-Jackson dinner in 1974 when there was a five-way battle for the Senate nomination between Hart, Joe Dolan, Herrick Roth, Marty Miller and Allen Merson. Guests there received complimentary fortune cookies delivered by waiters, each including the prediction: “Hart Wins in 1974,” which turned out to be accurate.

Fifty Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … State Rep. Richard Gebhard, D-Boulder, was urging Gov. John Love to call a special session of the Legislature to address the devastating flood that swept the state that week. The session, Gebhard suggested, could last three days and lawmakers would, by resolution, accept no pay, costing taxpyaers just $7,500 for the endeavor. Among the business that could be handled, he said, was raising the state’s gasoline tax by 1 cent per gallon, which could raise $7.5 million in a year, though he left it to the governor to suggest a greater temporary tax hike. In order to restore services, the governor’s disaster fund could be boosted from $150,000 to $2 million, and an emergency fund of as much as $31 million could be made available. …

… U.S. Rep. Roy McVicker, a Wheat Ridge Democrat, toured flood-ravaged areas and reported that he was “impressed beyond words at the cooperation of all people and agencies concerned.” Now that President Lyndon Johnson had designated all of Eastern Colorado a disaster area, he said, the key to rebuilding would be to make sure the cooperation continued “The flood hit people. The flood brought suffering to individual human beings. We must not forget that central fact as the statistics pile up about damages and dollar losses. The statistics are so overwhelming, the cold facts of the disaster are somehow so staggering that it becomes the utmost urgency that we hang onto our perspective.” In order to ensure such a disaster didn’t visit the state again, he wrote, the state’s congressional delegation was hard at work to revive the Chatfield Dam project, which had gone unfunded since a 1950 authorization by Congress.

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com