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

Twenty Years Ago This Week: “A waste of $150,000,” seethed Gov. Bill Owens after the special session on growth control ended with the state legislature deadlocking on the issue.

“Had they told me at the start of the session that four Democrats on the Public Policy and Planning Committee would not allow any bills to pass, I wouldn’t have called the session,” Owens said.

The senators Owens referred to were; Senate President Stan Matsunaka, D-Loveland, President Pro-Tem Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, Majority Leader Bill Thiebaut, D-Pueblo, and chair of the PPP Committee Pat Pascoe, D-Denver.

The PPP Committee killed all nine bills that came before it after they had passed the House. Senate Democrats sponsored two of their own growth control bills but didn’t bring them up as there was little likelihood of passing the Republican controlled House.

Owens had called the special session with the primary objective of avoiding an otherwise inevitable ballot initiative, but he told Colorado Statesman reporters that that’s exactly what his office would now have to prepare for.

While another session of the Legislature remained before the 2002 election, during which the matter could be resolved, state Republicans didn’t believe that environmental activists would wait before starting to collect the 80,000 signatures needed to get another initiative on the ballot.

Floyd Ciruli, of Ciruli and Associates, a political and public policy consulting firm, said that neither party would benefit from the political gridlock.

“Democrats, in their first control of a house in 24 years, will be seen as stifled by extreme ideology, and unable to govern. Republicans will be criticized as being in the pocket of developers and lobbyists,” Ciruli told The Colorado Statesman.

Ciruli said that any successful effort in the 2002 legislative session would only be possible with a “significant change in the political landscape or a greater willingness to compromise.”

Fifteen Years Ago: ProgressNow sent a video to nearly 23,000 Coloradans on its mailing list featuring U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez in what appeared to be a flight suit from his 2003 tour of Buckley Air Force Base as well as photographs from a 2004 event at the Front Range Airport.

Jim Hudson, of Colorado Veterans for America, narrated the video.

“One the one hand Bob Beauprez,” Hudson’s voice-over said, “parades around in military garb to make you think he served our country. One the other hand, he received three deferments and a health exemption to stay out of Vietnam.”

Beauprez’s campaign manager, John Marshall, said the matter was simple and couldn’t understand why it had been made an issue.

“When Rep. Beauprez was drafted [in 1970],” Marshall said, “he showed up, gave them the medical history he had, and they took one look and said, ‘nope, sorry.’ The Selective Service at that time was granting medical exemptions to maybe 40 or 50 percent of those drafted.”

Michael Huttner, executive director of ProgressNow, told the Colorado Statesman that he didn’t believe it was that cut and dry.

“In 1970, Beauprez met with an army doctor when he was drafted. He must have given the doctor some kind of information to get him exempted from service,” Huttner said. “We just wanted to know what.”

Marshall also clarified that the garb Beauprez wore in both visits wasn’t military issue. “It wasn’t a military outfit, they weren’t military patches, there was nothing military about it.”

Huttner and ProgressNow said that there were at least three more ads in development and they were a bargain to produce: only $200.

“I’ve got to give [ProgressNow] credit for being wiling to run the same ads again and again without adding anything new,” Marshall said.

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.