Forty Years Ago This Week: Western Colorado’s Third Congressional District U.S. Rep. Ray Kogovsek was eager to solving some of the federal government’s budget woes by playing collection agent to some of the constituents he was elected to serve back home — perhaps not the most popular move. He told The Colorado Statesman that there was no time like the present to collect the $175 billion, of which $23.5 billion was delinquent, owed to the government by taxpayers.

To collect this, Kogovsek said, “… Federal agencies could refer names of defaulted borrowers to credit bureaus.”

And students who didn’t pay back their $1.5 billion in delinquent education loans should have their details handed over to private collection agencies and referrals made to the Justice Department and the IRS, he added.

Kogovsek also envisioned keeping the tax refunds of those who owed money and any federal employees would have their wages garnished. By his math, he opined that the federal government could “effectively return $20 billion to the federal coffers by the end of fiscal year 1982.”

Meanwhile back in Colorado, a Republican scramble to oust Democratic Gov. Dick Lamm was underway and two potential candidate’s names to do just that had emerged in the ever-attentive newsroom of The Colorado Statesman.

An “informed reader,” after perusing the Statesman’s March speculative list of possible Republican candidates, told the paper that reporters had missed the biggest front runners: John Fuller and Joe Coors.

Diligent Statesman reporters followed these leads to what appeared to be no-go dead ends.

Republican Party Finance Chairman John Fuller said that his life was “just so super that I don’t see any point in entering the public forum as a candidate for anything.”

Fuller said that friends had approached him to spearhead the “Oust Lamm Movement of 1982” but he quibbled, saying he was too old and had too many other interests to start a political career.

While Fuller admitted that any politician, anywhere, could be beaten, “it would take some serious mistakes by Lamm and the efforts of an outstanding candidate on the Republican ticket to defeat the governor.”

Coors was of the same mind.

“Anyone in public office can be beaten,” said Coors, “and that includes Lamm. But we Republicans aren’t going to beat Lamm by running three or four good candidates against each other in a primary in September and then expect the winner to be the governor.”

Fuller said that he was sure the right candidate was out there, but no one to his knowledge had, of yet, come forth.

“I think there are some good men, who could do the job,” Coors said, but he then resolutely refused to name names.

Twenty Years Ago: State Rep. Fran Coleman, D-Denver, expressed her outrage over the abrupt closure of the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach by President Bush —who she said had offered no explanation for the closure.

“The President’s actions are extremely disappointing,” Coleman said. “To close this office with no due process signals that women are in second place as far as this administration is concerned. We need policy that helps us work and live at the same level as men, not the symbolic appointments that President Bush has highlighted as indicative of his commitment to women.”

Since 1995 the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach had worked with administration policymakers and women’s organizations from across the United States to evaluate and shape policies that affected women.

“It is outrageous to see the President so blatantly saying the interests of women in this country are not a priority anymore,” agreed state Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver. “As disheartening as the closure of the office is, the way it was closed is even worse. It’s insulting that this president doesn’t even think women deserve an explanation for why we’ve lost a voice and resource in the national policy area.”

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 Gazette.