Fifteen Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … Denver Mayor Wellington Webb lamented a vote by the Metropolitan Football Stadium District board naming the new stadium “Invesco Field at Mile High,” saying “a piece of Denver history and tradition was lost despite the overwhelming public sentiment to keep ‘Mile High Stadium’ as the stand-alone name.” Webb said he was considering lending support to challenges to the name. “The new name will never create the same type of association that Mile High Stadium holds with this community,” he said. “The public asked the MFSD board to transfer the magic of this name to the new stadium but instead (it) sold our tradition to the highest bidder.” Invesco Field, Webb noted, could be anywhere in the country, while Mile High Stadium was firmly planted in Denver. “But let it be known — to me and to the majority of citizens in the metro area, we will always refer to the home of the Denver Broncos as ‘Mile High Stadium.’” …

… Things were getting tense under the Capitol dome in the wake of the Democrats taking the majority in the state Senate for the first time in 30 years and the passage of Amendment 23, which mandated spending for K-12 education. House Democrats wanted to wait before deciding how to spend the anticipated “flood” of new money headed to public schools. It was expected to be nearly $4.6 billion over the upcoming decade, but House Minority Leader Dan Grossman, D-Denver, cautioned against allocating it all before knowing how much would be needed to keep the school fund solvent. For now, House Dems were proposing $29.2 million to buy textbooks, something Gov. Bill Owens also wanted. Senate President Stan Matsunaka, D-Loveland, wanted the Amendment 23 money sent to school districts rather than spending the bulk of it the way Owens was proposing, which was to reduce class sizes and establish some full-day kindergarten. Lawmakers were also tinkering with the way schools handled report cards, with a bill by state Rep. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, passed by the House and on its way to the Senate. Instead of dispensing the traditional A-F grades, the governor was behind a plan to issue letter grades representing a scale of “excellent” to “unsatisfactory.” Owens also wanted to call them “accountability reports” rather than “report cards.” …

… Every year, one of the first orders of business when the House gavels in had been the approval of a House chaplain in an uncontroversial voice vote, but state Republican Party Chairman Bob Beauprez was crying foul after House Minority Leader Dan Grossman, D-Denver, called instead for a roll call vote on the chaplain. “Grossman’s crusade was cut short,” Beauprez wrote in his regular Party Line column, but not before a dozen Democrats had voted against authorizing the position. “Since that vote, Grossman continues to boycott the morning prayer by refusing to enter the House chamber until the morning invocation is concluded,” Beauprez noted, calling the Democrat’s boycott “a blatant disregard for long-standing tradition and federal law.” The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in the 1980s that using public funds to pay for a chaplain leading daily prayer was fine, “simply a tolerable acknowledgement of beliefs,” in the words of Justice Warren Burger. Beauprez wondered “what else may come under assault,” speculating that Grossman would prefer to eliminate the “one nation under God” line from the Pledge of Allegiance and remove references to God from the nation’s currency. “Fortunately, Grossman’s religious intolerance has been stifled for the time being,” Beauprez opined. “This, however, should serve as a warning to citizens of how easily our freedoms can be endangered when personal agendas are promoted and the laws of the land are ignored.” …

… “Mission Accomplished,” read a banner headline on a full-page ad from Colorado Republicans joining President George W. Bush in congratulating outgoing Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson, who got his start on the RNC in the 1980s as a national committeeman from Colorado. “Under your tenure as chairman, the Republicans captured the White House, retained control of the U.S. Senate, and won a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. … Welcome home, Jim and Suzanne, and best of luck on future missions!” read the ad. A second full-page ad reprinted U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell’s congratulations and recognition of Nicholson’s service. “I am here today to say a heartfelt ‘Thank you Jim,’ on behalf of all Coloradans,” read the remarks Campbell had entered into the Congressional Record. “Jim’s quiet demeanor belies his gung-ho nature. As a ranger in Vietnam, he proved his dedication to a cause. And Jim brought that same gung-ho quality to Washington, where his efforts in the Republican National Committee gave us all a stronger voice and better means of resolving the hardships that all Americans face everyday.”

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com