Twenty Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … Democrats dispelled any preconceptions that their 1996 national convention would mirror “the GOP’s tightly controlled production” that relied on “cheerleading youth to generate enthusiasm and whips to silence dissenters,” The Statesman reported from Chicago, where delegates nominated Bill Clinton and Al Gore for a second term and controversial first lady Hillary Clinton took center stage. “When you make every political issue a moral issue, as the Republican Party has done, discussion becomes impossible,” said Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Mike Beatty after the dust had settled. “Everyone winds up choosing sides and throwing rocks.” Aiming the four-day coronation squarely at uncommitted voters, Clinton repeatedly described his campaign as a “bridge to the 21st century” – a contrast to Republican nominee Bob Dole’s admittedly backwards-looking platform – and won a 20-point post-convention bounce in the polls. It wasn’t all smiles and accord. The welfare reform bill recently signed by Clinton drew attacks from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and mixed reviews from others, including Colorado Gov. Roy Romer and Penfield Tate III, a vice chair of the Colorado Democratic Party and the party’s House District 8 nominee. “At the Black Caucus meeting,” Tate reported, the consensus was that the welfare reform bill would be much worse under a Republican president and Congress.” Even as the jokes flew nearly nonstop about presidential adviser Dick Morris’s burgeoning prostitution scandal, convention speakers repeatedly countered a barrage of criticism aimed at Hillary Clinton, and her own speech marked a significant departure from her more activist 1992 themes. Gone was the “two-for-one” promise, and health care reform didn’t even merit a mention. National Republican Chairman Haley Barbour scoffed, “There’s not anybody bashing Hillary Clinton,” and then proceeded to bash her, blaming her for “‘Travelgate,’ a terrible scandal, an embarrassment to the United States.” El Paso County Democratic Party Chairman Ed Raye said he thought Republicans failed to portray themselves as diverse yet united under a big tent. “I wouldn’t feel welcome there as an independent thinker, much less as an African-American.” …

… His broken leg propped on a chair, Gov. Roy Romer held court in Chicago with delegates and reporters, and many wondered if Romer expected to be offered a cabinet position in a second Clinton term or might run for the U.S. Senate in 1998 against Democrat-turned-Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Romer staffer Jim Carpenter said one thing was certain: Romer wasn’t ready for retirement. A Romer challenge would be considered payback for Campbell’s decision to switch parties in January 1995, observers noted, as well as returning Campbell’s snub when the senator refused to attend a dinner for the Japanese emperor because the senator’s wife, Linda Campbell, had been inadvertently left off the guest list. …

… With the national conventions in the rear view mirror, the presidential campaigns were gearing up in Colorado, which was considered a key swing state by both tickets since tilting to Democrat Bill Clinton four years earlier. The Bob Dole-Jack Kemp campaign had just opened state headquarters at 1400 Glenarm St. in Denver with former Secretary of State Natalie Meyer at the helm. The Clinton-Al Gore headquarters quickly followed suit, opening doors at 700 Grant St. Alan Salazar, deputy chief of staff for Gov. Roy Romer, was taking a leave of absence to run the president’s reelection effort in the state, and Mike Dino, top aide to Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, would be serving as political director for the Colorado Democratic campaign. …

… State Rep. Diana DeGette demonstrated quite literally that she was prepared to fill U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder’s shoes at a press conference outside the Denver Public Library when the 12-term congressman anointed her successor. Saying Denver voters should send someone who shares her passion for protecting families to Congress, Schroeder told the crowd, “I am very, very proud to say that Diana DeGette will be that person.” DeGette smiled that she had trouble persuading some voters that it was OK to vote for her and not for Schroeder, despite their protestations “Pat” must be on the ballot again. Whoever she talked to, DeGette noted, they all said she’d have “some mighty big shoes to fill.” “Oh, I think your foot will fit right in that shoe,” Schroeder quipped, kicking off a black pump. DeGette did the same with her identical black pump and slipped her foot in Schroeder’s shoe. “Hey! It fits perfect!” exclaimed DeGette. …

… Columnist and former lawmaker Jerry Kopel announced he was going to vote for Referendum A, a constitutional amendment placed on the ballot by the Legislature, which would require a 60-percent majority to amend the state constitution, but he didn’t expect the ballot measure to pass. “There are a lot of yahoos who think a constitution is the perfect junkyard in which to dump their favorite toy-of-the-month, and that the constitution should be as easy to change as diapers,” he wrote. It was immensely easier to amend the Colorado constitution than it was the U.S. Constitution, Kopel noted – the federal version took two-thirds votes of both the House and Senate and then ratification by three-quarters of the states, while Colorado’s required just more votes cast for amending than against – and the document was getting cluttered, he wrote. The U.S. Constitution had been amended but 18 times in 209 years (the Bill of Rights were a package deal and counted as a single amendment), but the Colorado constitution had been amended 113 times in just 120 years, with more than half of those in the past 30 years. Comparing the number of pages in the state and federal constitutions, he noted, the U.S. Constitution was about nine pages and the state one was 59 pages, though the ratio had been nearly reversed when Colorado’s was adopted. “That’s quite a change, a careless and reckless abuse of the permitted system,” he concluded.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com