Sixty-Five Years Ago This Week: Colorado Gov. Steve McNichols and U.S. Sen. John A. Carroll had each announced in separate press events that they would be seeking reelection, eliciting a collective sigh of relief from many fellow Democrat. Statewide Democratic candidates had been saying for weeks that they felt sidelined because of the absence of a formal statement from either of the two big-ticket incumbents.

Carroll had just completed his first six-year term and his assignments on several important Senate committees had reflected some glory back on Colorado, supporters said. Carroll’s top assignments were the Judiciary Committee, the Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee, and the Committee for Interior and Insular Affairs.

Not able to make it back to his home turf for his announcement, Carroll launched his reelection bid from his D.C. office, saying in a statement that his seniority would “help build a greater Colorado and a stronger America during the years ahead.” The senator also noted that he’d worked hard on Western reclamation issues and assistance for the lead, zinc, gold and silver industries.

In McNichol’s announcement letter, which he had addressed to Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Fred Betz, he wrote that he felt assured the progress Colorado had made during his tenure would ensure Coloradoans “of a bright and prosperous future for themselves and their posterity.”

McNichols also touted his programs, legislative and administrative practices he said had “made state government in Colorado an outstanding example of sound and progressive judgement.”

Thanking the “competent and conscientious members of the Colorado General Assembly” for their support, McNichols argued that the election of Democratic members to lead executive departments “has also been of significant importance in the effective administration of Colorado’s state government.”

In other news, Democratic U.S. Rep. Byron Rogers, CD-1, announced he had added his support to an amendment to a Medicare bill sponsored by Sen. Paul Douglas, D-Ill., that sought to raise “old-age pensions” by $50 a month.

Rogers and Douglas’s amendment originally allowed for pensioners to receive an additional $25 per month without the amount being deducted from their pension check. They had subsequently doubled that amount to $50 per month.

Rogers said he was not only working on getting the amendment through the House but also changing social security payments so that they would be classified as earnings to further boost the incomes of Colorado pensioners.

Thirty-Five Years Ago: U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder, CD-1, addressed a gathering of eager-eared Democratic precinct captains, clueing them in on her potential candidacy for President of the United States.

Schroeder had recently returned from a meeting of state Democratic Party chairmen in Cleveland and from another big gathering, the 21st annual convention of the National Organization for Women. The Denver representative to Congress said her reception by the precinct captains was “amazing” and she had a good feeling about her chances in the deep pool of Democratic hopefuls for the nomination.

“I don’t really know what [the enthusiasm] means,” Schroeder told her fellow Denverites. “I have to put that into context.”

Schroeder told The Colorado Statesman that several people had approached her after Gary Hart withdrew from the presidential race and asked what her excuse was now.

“I didn’t have one, so I said I’d look at it during the summer when everyone is away,” Schroeder said. “My commitment is to keep looking at it into September, sit down and process it all.”

Schroeder had raised over $350,000 at a Philadelphia fundraising event earlier in the month and said that there was so much actual cash that “the hotel wouldn’t put it in a safe.”

When asked whether she was intimidated by the slew of candidates from around the country and their qualifications, Schroeder gave an emphatic no.

“Interestingly enough,” Schroeder said, “I can walk alongside all of the rest who are running. I’ve been in politics longer than the rest of them except Joe Biden, who came the same year I did. I’ve been on the Armed Services Committee for 15 years. None of them can say that.”

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.