A weekly dive into the pages of Colorado Politics’ predecessor, The Colorado Statesman, which started in 1898:

Thirty Years Ago: The Arapahoe County Republican Party clawed its way back to solvency after owing $3,000 in rent and facing imminent eviction from its offices. Chairman Tory Brown resigned, ostensibly to devote more time to his business, and it was to be several weeks before Debbie Allen was elected as acting chairman.

After a particularly rousing meeting of the county party, Allen said that everything was peachy.

“People are still in there talking with big smiles,” Allen said.

Allen divulged that in the interest of party unity she ran unopposed as chairman, and vice-chairman candidates Russ Oberlin and Joe Larkin withdrew their candidacies in favor of South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce Acting Director Brian Vogt.

Allen gleefully told Colorado Statesman reporters that Mort Marks engineered a “pass-the-hat” foray which garnered over $2,000 and put the county party’s finances back in the black.

It would be several months before the party would hold an election for a permanent chairman, and Allen said she’d make good use of the time by concentrating on building a more robust of network grassroots workers.

When asked by dubious Statesman reporters whether all was really as harmonious as claimed, Allen laughed.

“Well, not quite,” the new chairman said, “but at least we’re unified enough to get the Arapahoe County GOP officers elected.”

… Meanwhile in Denver, Republican businessman John Fuller made waves when news broke that he was heading an exploratory committee for Democratic Denver Mayor Federico Peña. Peña hadn’t yet committed to running for a third term.

Fuller was not at all shy about explaining why he meandered from the Republican party and reminded reporters he was one of the first Republicans to publicly attach himself to Gov. Roy Romer’s campaign.

“My business is located in Denver. I’m a registered Republican and a registered voter in this community,” Fuller told Denverites at a Peña reception at the Wellshire Inn. “Why do I want the mayor to run again? He represents what I believe is best for Denver. I’m tired of partisan rhetoric. I like results.”

Fuller rattled off a lengthy list of accomplishments he felt Peña was mainly responsible for: the building of Denver International Airport, the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, the completion of the Convention Center, an emphasis on rebuilding Denver’s infrastructure and a reduction in the size of the city’s government.

Fuller said that because of Peña’s work cleaning up the city and investing in it he now felt safer walking and working downtown than he’d ever felt in the suburbs where he’d been robbed twice, and once at gunpoint.

“It’s important that we keep this city moving forward,” Fuller concluded. “There’s no need to change the city’s leadership when we’re moving forward. I’m going to vote for you this time, Federico.”

Peña, meanwhile, was much more guarded with his plans on running for a third term and said that after the November elections he would “sit down and have a chat” with his wife, Ellen, and their three-month-old daughter Nelia.

While Fuller may have rattled the GOP’s bars with his overt support for Romer and Peña, several well-known Democrats backed Republican Congressman Hank Brown’s U.S. Senate bid and in 1987, more Democrats backed Republican Don Bain in the Denver mayoral race.

Political commentators and party officials suggested that this was a sign of a deepening trend that would lean toward non-partisan citywide elections.

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and the Colorado Springs Gazette.