Thirty Years Ago This Week in the Colorado Statesman … Colorado U.S. Sen. Gary Hart officially announced his second run for U.S. president on his home turf at Red Rocks Amphitheater, saying, among other remarks, “I guarantee you that I’ll make some mistakes.”

At a press conference the next Tuesday, in Denver City Council chambers, he said that he had referred to campaign tactical issues, not mistakes on issues. He told reporters that he would be better prepared for victory – or defeat in 1988.

“In 1984, we were unprepared for the early win in New Hampshire,” Hart said. He noted that the inadequate delegate slates in some states and a lack of adequate money in the bank hurt his campaign.

Perhaps the most dramatic statement Hart made in the 30-minute session, was that his $1.3 million 1984 campaign debt, “will be paid off before the 1988 election. It will not be an issue in 1988.”

Hart went on to become the front-runner of the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination until he dropped out over allegations of an extramarital affair with model Donna Rice. Hart served as a Colorado U.S. Senator from 1975-1987 and went on to serve as vice chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council from 2008-2011. Since 2014 he has served at the U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.

In other news, House Speaker Bev Bledsoe, R-Hugo, and Senate President Ted Strickland, D-Westminster, appointed ten of the Legislature’s top lobbyists to prepare an official lobbyist handbook and code of ethics.

Bledsoe said formal guidelines were needed because new lobbyists and new legislators were sometimes confused about the role lobbyists are supposed to play.

“Our lobbyists have a deservedly-fine reputation for being honest and genuinely fair in helping legislators understand the intricacies of any given bill,” Bledsoe said. “We needed the handbook so new people can learn quickly what our accepted practices are.” He emphasized that self-monitoring was the most effective way to assure continued proper conduct.

Bledsoe and Strickland tapped Roger Walton to direct the committee. Others charged with compiling the code included: Diane Rees and Bonnie Geiger, contract lobbyists; Stan Sours and Jim Wexels, in-house lobbyists; Ray Slaughter and Pat Radcliff, government lobbyists, Scott McVey, volunteer lobbyist; and Frank DeFilippo and Fred Anderson, former legislators.

Walton said the panel would examine Colorado statutes, regulations, lobbyist conduct and House and Senate rules governing lobbyists to see if changes to the established practices were necessary. Any recommendations would be presented to Legislative Council for approval.

Walton expected the manual would be ready for distribution in 1988 at the start of the legislative session.

… Ten Years Ago … A Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request, filed on Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada, by facethestate.com, revealed a message from Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, in which he wrote about the debate over charter schools: “There must be a special place in Hell for these Privatizers, Charterizers, and Voucherizers! They deserve it.”

The email spawned an outpouring of criticism, which ultimately culminated in Merrifield’s resignation from the chairmanship of the House Education Committee.

“Rep. Merrifield’s comments go way beyond what’s acceptable in the discourse of public policy down here,” said Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch. He added that he was “very disturbed” by the exchange.

In late March, Merrifield issued a statement in which he said he didn’t want “my remarks or my health to side-track the important work of the House Education Committee.” He asked Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton, to take over as chair. Merrifield was undergoing chemotherapy for neck and throat cancer and had been diagnosed in January 2007.

“I vented my frustration at political opponents on the school board in my district, and my comments were narrowly tailored to the recall election there,” Merrifield wrote. “I regret if they have caused misunderstanding, hurt, or offense. I never meant to disparage the parents who are advocating for their children’s best interests.”

A few days after Merrifield-gate, the weblog coloradoconfidential.com reported that Brad Jones, the owner of facethestate.com, had been paid to construct coloradosenatenews.com, the communications hub for the state Senate GOP. The bottom of each Senate News webpage even read, “hosted by Brad Jones, LLC.”

The registration was changed once the story broke, but Jones was still listed as a technical contact. Senate Majority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, said the switch was made so as to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

“We didn’t think we ought to be advertising for him, especially if he’s going to be involved in partisan activities. This is not a partisan operation,” McElhany said. He went on to say that Jones was paid for his website work on coloradosenatenews.com with “campaign funds.”

Some Democrats were crying foul over the website “scandal”, and Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, was one of the loudest. “The only reason they took his name off is when people started asking questions about it. That’s not ‘oh gee, we think that’s inappropriate,’ that’s ‘oh gee, we got caught,”’ Carroll stated. “I think we do need to do an investigation into the Senate and make sure we understand where all the funds went. Just clean house. Let’s make sure there’s no commingling where there shouldn’t be.”

Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, said he wasn’t sure whether there would be an investigation, but he quipped, “It doesn’t seem like a conflict of interest. It seems like their interests run in the same direction.”

Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, called allegations of wrongdoing on the part of his colleagues “ridiculous.”

“I actually hired somebody to build my first web site, too, and I have no idea who else he’s built web sites for, but that doesn’t connect me to those people, does it?” Brophy said.

McElhany said no one in the Senate Minority Office heard anything about the Merrifield email before the story broke, but that if they had, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Though Jones did not respond to The Colorado Statesman’s repeated attempts for comment, Windels said she believed that the CORA request stemmed from Jones’ friendship with Jessica Corry, who ran against Windels (and lost) in 2004.

The CORA request Jones filed with Windels’ office demanded all of her emails from 2005-April 2007, and under state law, Windels only had three days to comply.

“They were fishing,” Windels said. Windels and her aids spent two full days just making copies, she said, and thought she asked her assistants to remove anything that looked “personal,” but the Merrifield email stayed in the stack.

“In hindsight, I wish I had gone home that night and spent all night going through thousands and thousands of emails,” Windels lamented.