Twenty Years Ago This Week: An exasperated Rep. Tim Fritz, R-Loveland, told The Colorado Statesman that the Senate Judiciary Committee had voted to pass his bill to require public schools and libraries to use filtering software on any computers where minors could use the internet — and then, the committee effectively killed it.

House Bill 01-1376 sought to protect children from violent, pornographic or hateful material on public access computers systems.

Reporter Paula Woodward, of Channel 9 (KUSA), had conducted a month-long investigative study on internet usage logs from public schools in the Denver Metro area. Woodward found that there were few problems with inappropriate material in schools where filters were present. But students at schools without internet filtering software had accessed violent material, pornography and even videos of students shooting teachers.

Fritz’s bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, 6-1, but an amendment was attached, adding a funding requirement which, Fritz said, made the bill much less likely to be approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“It was clear that the Judiciary Committee members were setting up the bill to be killed,” Fritz said. “The funding requirement was unnecessary since some of qualifying filtering software is relatively inexpensive, costing less that 1% of the cost of the computer.”

Fritz argued that he could have gotten the bill to pass the Senate if not for the “unfriendly amendment” that was tacked on in Judiciary.

“It was a very cynical move,” Fritz said, “and the result is that Colorado children are still exposed to this filth on their taxpayer-funded school computers.”

Fritz said he knew that there was strong opposition to the bill, not only on the committee, but from the American Library Association (ALA), which had lobbied strongly against the filtering measures.

Gov. Bill Owens, who was a strong supporter of HB 1376 said, “I am very disappointed Senate Democrats do not want to protect children from pornography and violence on the internet. Rep. Tim Fritz successfully passed this important bill in the House only to see it killed by a partisan vote in the Senate.”

“We don’t willingly make hateful or pornographic material available to our children,” Fritz said. “I see no reason why anyone would want to continue a situation where it is easily available to them at some schools and libraries.”

Fifteen Years Ago: Dick Leggitt, campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Holtzman, resigned his position with the campaign after admitting in court to falsifying polling data and giving the data to a Denver Post reporter.

The Holtzman campaign released an internal letter from Leggitt to Holtzman in which he wrote “[I] fear that I’ve become a distraction” and that it was only with “great reluctance” that he was leaving the campaign.

In March 2006, lobbyist and former Colorado Springs state representative, Steve Durham filed a legal complaint against the Holtzman campaign in which he alleged that there were illegal connections between the anti-Referendum C&D campaign and the Holtzman campaign.

But Leggitt placed the blame on challenger Bob Beauprez’s gubernatorial campaign which he said, “shamelessly launched a campaign of distortion, innuendo and false statements carried out through staff and surrogates. Unfortunately, I have become a target of this effort.”

Leggitt also alleged that Beauprez’s campaign colluded with Durham on the legal complaint. Durham adamantly denied acting on behalf of the campaign but did disclose that he had “donated $1,000 to Beauprez’s bid for the governor’s seat.”

After Leggitt’s resignation was made public, Holtzman released his own statement lauding Leggitt’s work ethic and loyalty while also getting in a jab at Beauprez.

“No one has worked hard or longer hours to convey my message to the voters of Colorado,” Holtzman wrote. “My opponent needs to stop hiding behind his staff and surrogates and show the courage to discuss the issues that concern the voters of Colorado in debates with me face-to-face.”

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.