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

Thirty Years Ago This Week: “I was just pretending!” said an irate perennial Republican candidate and former Golden City Councilmember Dick Sargent.

Sargent made the exclamation in a call he made to The Colorado Statesman office. He wanted to confront staff at the newspaper over a recent story that reported on a conversation between Sargent and others at a Colorado Springs Republican women’s group. In the conversation, Sargent was overheard telling the GOP group that he was interested in Mary Dambman’s position as state party vice chairman.

In his phone call with a Statesman reporter, Sargent, a former candidate for state treasurer, expounded at length about his plans to revamp the Republican Party in Colorado in a stump speech to beat the best of them. But Sargent then asked that it be publicized that he “is not a candidate.”

Sargent said he had no idea that The Statesman reporter was present when he made rather disparaging remarks about the state party and its leadership, remarks unbecoming to someone seeking to hold a GOP leadership office, perhaps.

… In other news, an undisclosed Statesman staff member underwent major surgery with Dr. Mike Muftic, a well-known Denver Democrat activist. Muftic inquired about the identity of the married mystery man about whom the Statesman had discovered was having an adulterous affair. The Statesman stuck to its guns and declined to reveal the identity of the politico in question and reported that it wouldn’t publish the story. 

Apparently, even with the influence of sodium pentathol, Dr. Muftic wasn’t successful at wheedling out the name.

Ten Years Ago: As his four years in office came to a close, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, reflected on his experience in politics, policy changes and public service with Longview High School students in Jefferson County.

With around 60 students enrolled, Longview was the smallest comprehensive high school in the state, and Ritter had visited six times since becoming Denver district attorney in 1993.

“One of the things as governor I’ve become really convinced about is that climate change is a serious issue,” Ritter told the students. 

When asked by a student about what his plans were after Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper took office in January, Ritter said, “I think I’m going to do something that involves trying to keep making the case that we should produce energy in a clean way – not just Colorado, but the entire country – and that we should do what we can to have policies that support a clean energy future.”

Ritter chuckled, “That’s that most definitive I’ve been when anybody’s asked me that question – what I’m going to do next.”

The outgoing governor also answered the burning question of why he’d decided not to seek a second term in office. Ritter’s January announcement had shocked political insiders. But even with the more informal audience, he gave the same answer that he’d given all year.

“It was clear to me that governing had become the priority in my life and that other relationships were out of balance.”

Ritter said he’d been able to maintain the balance while he was Denver district attorney, but becoming governor had thrown things “too far out of whack. I just looked at my relationships and, seriously said, I’m not paying as much attention as I should, as a father, as a husband, to these relationships. And that’s actually, in the long run, more important,” he said. 

Ritter, the sixth of 12 children raised by a single mother after his alcoholic father abandoned the family, said that his upbringing was a powerful influence on his life in public service. It was this early life, with his family on food stamps and the difficulties his mother faced caring for his severely developmentally disabled brother that shaped his conviction that government owed a duty to struggling citizens.

“Informed by personal experience,” Ritter said, “is that we have to do what we can to maintain the safety net.”

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.