Twenty Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … The 60th General Assembly received a mostly good grade from most politicians after the final gavel had sounded. “Before going home,” the Statesman reported, “the legislators ran interference for the Denver Broncos in their bid for a new stadium, dealt a final blow to those seeking to derail the Envirotest system of testing cars for air pollution, lowered the age to 12 when children can be tried as adults, took a swipe at affirmative action, approved a statue of former astronaut and congressman-elect Jack Swigert for Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C., and finally confirmed Rabbi Steven Foster’s reappointment on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.” In addition to the hefty agenda that dominated the last few days of lawmaking, the session also saw the passage of an $8.8 billion budget, a boost in K-12 spending by $22 million to $1.3 billion, a new requirement that third-graders would have to pass a reading test, and a hike in the top state speed limit to 75 miles per hour. Oh, and the Hairstreak Butterfly was named the official state insect. Before passing the Broncos’ bill — it gave the Broncos the OK to seek an election in 1997 asking metro voters to extend a penny-per-$10 sales tax being used to finance Coors Field for a new Mile High stadium — a conference committee removed an amendment that would have capped the price of beer sold at Broncos games. Before adjournment sine die, lawmakers also approved a bill that put limits on state political contributions for the first time ever. Senate President Pro-Tem Tilman “Tillie” Bishop and House Majority Leader Tim Foster, both Grand Junction Republicans, sponsored legislation to make Colorado the 46th state in the nation to impose contribution limits. Common Cause and the League of Women Voters denounced the bill for not going far enough the next day, however, saying they weren’t consulted and intended to forge ahead with an initiated campaign finance reform ballot measure with stricter limits. The legislation, for instance, set a $5,000 limit on contributions to a gubernatorial candidate, while the initiative would set the limit for that office at $500. …

… The Freemen of Montana militia group had requested that state Sen. Charlie Duke, R-Monument, help mediate a resolution to a 40-day standoff with federal authorities at the “Justus Township,” but Duke was awaiting a go-ahead from the FBI before heading north. Duke’s name surfaced when James “Bo” Gritz, a former Green Beret and leader in the Patriot movement, said the El Paso County lawmaker was the only one who could communicate with the Freemen. “I’m willing to go if the Freemen want me to,” Duke told The Statesman. “I want to see a peaceable solution.” Although the Freemen reportedly had a “cellular phone,” Duke hadn’t talked with any of them yet. He noted that he didn’t agree with every one of the group’s beliefs — they had been issuing checks based on credit, for instance — but said he understood the tenets of the Common Law they practiced. Talks between the Freemen and Gritz had broken down when they refused to surrender to the feds, claiming “sovereign citizenship” while denouncing the federal government as unconstitutional. Gritz explained to reporters that the Christian Identity movement validated the Freemen’s positions, because they “have had communication with God, Yahweh.” In fact, Gritz maintained, “Yahweh has placed an invisible barrier around their sanctuary that no enemies can penetrate.” Some sympathetic observers speculated that Duke would have better luck negotiating with the Freemen. “Bo is a good man, but he doesn’t understand Common Law,” said Gene Schroeder, a self-described Constitutionalist who had been in sporadic contact with the FBI since the siege began. Wyoming attorney Gerry Spence had also offered to represent the Freemen. The celebrity lawyer won a $3 million settlement for the deaths of Randy Weaver’s wife and son after a 1992 standoff at the family’s cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The Freemen wanted all charges against them dropped and a Common Law court hearing before a jury of 23 white men who were debt-free and weren’t government employees or attorneys. Charges against Freemen included passing bogus checks and threatening to kidnap and kill a U.S. district court judge. Two members were wanted in Colorado in connection with a Fort Collins-based group’s activity selling investments in a lawsuit against the federal government to more than 1,500 Coloradans. …

… Statehouse chaplains condemned the morning prayer delivered by state Rep. Mark Paschall, R-Arvada, taking issue with its tone and political agenda. Considered anti-Semetic and homophobic by some, Paschall’s prayer had also prompted a walk-out by state Reps. Doug Friednash, D-Denver, and Marcy Morrison, R-Colorado Springs. Paschall dismissed the criticism, saying the prayer was between him and “his” God, later revealing it had been supplied by the legislative liaison for the Colorado Right to Life group. “We have worshipped creation and multiculturalism instead of you, the Creator who is blessed, Father,” Paschall said in the House, delivering the prayer on the last Monday of session. “We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.” The prayer, delivered “in the name of Jesus Christ, the kind of kings and lord of lords,” also asked for forgiveness for a variety of sins, stating, “We have killed our unborn and called it expedient, compassionate choice.” It turned out the same prayer had been delivered by a member of the Kansas House a few months earlier, leading to a similar walk-out by lawmakers there. “We are all passengers in the same ship of life, and you would not have us, especially in your name, be intolerant of, unkind toward or insensitive to the beliefs, convictions, ideologies, religious persuasions of either our fellow legislators or fellow citizens,” Rabbi Stanley Wagner, a Senate chaplain, said in his own address in that chamber two days later.

— ernest@coloradoradostatesman.com