Sixty Years Ago This Week: State Agriculture Commissioner Paul Swisher’s criticism of Tim Thornton, director of the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee, led to Thornton’s resignation.

This followed the CWAC’s 4-4 tie vote on the committee’s movement of no confidence in his leadership.

Pushing back, state Rep. Forest Burns, D-Lamar, commented on the vote.

“It’s too bad the Commission on Agriculture didn’t accept Paul Swisher’s resignation when he wrote it out a couple of years ago,” said Burns, a member of the House Agriculture Committee.

Swisher had spearheaded the push for Thornton’s resignation, armed with a poll taken from 21 of 270 elevator operators who were unhappy when Thornton had criticized wheat being shipped internationally.

“The poll took no account of what the individual operators said,” Burns said. “Swisher told me Friday all copies of the report had been destroyed … He didn’t leave a copy with the committee. Now nobody is responsible to anybody for what has been done.”

Burns told The Democrat the State Board of Agriculture and the governor’s office were duty bound to look into the matter.

“I don’t see why Swisher had to go to the elevator operators. Operation of the Wheat Administrative Committee is the wheat farmers’ business. The producer pays for it all the way,” he added.

Thornton told The Democrat that he resigned to “put a stop to letting a handful of people prevent every move made to benefit the wheat producer.”

In the following days, Thornton said that he would submit a report to the Colorado Wheat Administrative Committee and to the federal secretary of agriculture.

“Cooperation from the majority of members has been wonderful,” Thornton said. “Opposition has come from only a handful, who fear some of the programs might put into jeopardy storage of federal grain.”

Thirty-Five Years Ago: Though he had a fully up-and-running reelection campaign in place, Republican State Chairman Bo Callaway told The Colorado Statesman that he wouldn’t be seeking reelection and would instead lead GOPAC, a political action committee designed to elect Republicans to the U.S. House.

U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., was the chairman of the organization and had raised more than $4 million the year previous.

Callaway said the offer was one he couldn’t refuse.

“GOPAC has the potential to do in all fifty states what we have done so successfully here in Colorado,” Callaway said. “GOPAC has a mission to build the systems and organizations to insure Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives by 1992. I really think this can be done.”

But a Denver Post story by Carl Miller hinted that Callaway had bowed out, not because of the new job, but because he was facing a tough challenge from Bruce Benson and was at an increasingly likely risk of losing.

Callaway rejected the notion.

“There’s no truth that Bruce’s strength had anything to do with my decision. Everyone was dismayed that I’d abandoned the race… The story that should have been written is this: I have the opportunity to do something real important politically. This is really exciting. This is a big deal.”

“Carl [the reporter] hangs around the legislature,” Callaway said. “He naturally picks things up from the lawmakers. I’m the first to concede that my strength among legislators has never been strong and many of them were supporting Benson in the race.”

Callaway said he’d already received congratulatory calls from former President Gerald Ford, whose presidential campaign he’d managed in 1976, and Frank Fahrenkrog, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

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.