Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: After weeks of running the numbers and weighing his options, Steve Katzman announced that he would seek re-election as chair of the Denver Democratic Party. 

Attorney and activist Katzman said he’d considered both the professional and personal factors involved with serving in the city’s top party role and decided to seek another term. 

“I wanted to make sure I had the energy and ability to contribute something,” Katzman said. “And I think I do.”

Lois Ann Rovira, a fellow Democratic activist and wife of Denver District Court Judge Luis Rovira, was rumored to be considering a challenge to Katzman, but had yet to announce a final decision.

“I haven’t made up my mind about whether I’ll run,” Rovira said. “I’m trying to get well after surgery, get my house in order and catch up with my correspondence.”

The decision was entirely independent of Katzman’s decision to run again, she said, and she needed to figure out what she was doing “reasonably soon.”

“It’s a whole different thing from when I ran for vice chairman two years ago,” Rovira said. “I had a lot of work to do then. But it will be less work if I decide to run for chairman this year, because more people know me now. So the time frame doesn’t need to be as long.”

The race for vice chairman of the Denver Democratic Party had dwindled down to just two candidates after Larry Beer withdrew his bid. Virginia Hawkins, the party’s incumbent secretary, said she was definitely going to do it.

Beer told The Colorado Statesman, “My heart really wasn’t in it. Plus I began to realize the huge time commitment required over the next couple years. I have other interests and decided it just wasn’t the smartest thing for me to do in terms of professional and personal considerations. I plan to devote more attention to business and my job at the Colorado Press Association.”

In other news, Statesman reporter Art Branscombe found while roving the state capitol hallways that Sen. Claire Traylor, R-Wheat Ridge, had changed offices, ending up in between the offices of Senate President Ted Strickland and Senate Majority Leader Jeff Wells. 

Branscombe questioned Traylor if the change in location might have something to do with angling for higher office, but Traylor, an outspoken feminist, just shook her head.

“No. It’s only a matter of safety and security,” Traylor said. “I didn’t want to be up in any of the corner offices or on the third floor.”

The Joint Budget Committee had recently moved into new office space in the former state’s museum building, freeing up several office spaces on the third floor of the capitol. 

“I had my choice but wanted no part of them,” Traylor said. “I’m not comfortable in the capitol. Security here is a problem, particularly for women.”

Traylor added that she used to have an office in a well-populated location on the capitol building’s third floor across from the press room but when no press conferences or committee hearings were being held, “A lot of times I’d be the only person on the third floor.”

Several years prior, while on her way to lunch at a church just steps away from the capitol, Traylor had been knocked down in broad daylight and had her purse stolen.

“I’m not comfortable in summer or fall, when we’re not in session, getting in elevators with some of the people who wander through the capitol.”

The new office, shared with Sen. Harold McCormick, R-Cañon City, between the two Senate leadership offices, was the “safest location I could get.”

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.