Sixty Years Ago This Week: Democratic U.S. Sen. John Carroll decried what he called an “insidious carpet bagging” strategy by the Republicans to oust him from his U.S. Senate seat.

In an interviewed by The Colorado Democrat, a partisan publication that was later succeeded by the non-partisan Colorado Statesman, Carroll said the GOP in 1956 had poured more than $120,000 in out-of-state money into defeating him. Every dollar, he said, had been designed to “discredit me and the Democratic Party.”

But that was nothing, Carroll predicted. “I say to you, the attempt this year by outside forces to buy a United States Senate seat in Colorado will make the ’56 campaign look ridiculous,” Carroll said.

Carroll’s Senate challenger, Rep. Peter H. Dominick, who represented Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, addressed Republicans at the party’s state assembly in Boulder and spoke at length about the rising “socialism” in state politics.

“I’m the obvious target,” Carroll said. “Doesn’t it seem strange to you that in the six years I’ve been in the United States Senate not one voice has been raised about John Carroll voting for socialism? They wait until we get in the campaign. They do this every year. I say to you, this is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Colorado.”

Dominick succeeded in ousting Carroll from office by a comfortable margin when Election Day arrived, taking 53.58% of the vote to Carroll’s 45.58%.

Twenty-Five Years Ago: Rep. Barry Arrington, R- Arvada, told The Colorado Statesman that he had decided to appeal the decision made by District Court Judge William P. DeMoulin in a lawsuit he had earlier filed against fellow Republicans Steve Burton and Mike Palmer.

During the 1996 general election, Burton and Palmer had written and produced a postcard that accused Arrington of physically threatening Democratic opponent Ed Perlmutter in a 1994 state senate race. Though Burton and Palmer had indeed authored the card, its distribution was funded by Democratic State Minority Leader Mike Feeley, D-Lakewood.

Arrington vehemently denied ever threatening Perlmutter and said Burton and Palmer had engaged in defamation of his character and libel. Judge DeMoulin ruled that Arrington’s reputation had not suffered, writing “when the threats allegedly took place, area newspapers widely published that over-zealous supporters of Arrington made the threats, not the candidate himself.”

DeMoulin also ruled that if the facts had been widely known, the postcard fell under First Amendment protections of fair comment directed at a public figure.

“I filed an appeal because the District Court’s decision was absurd,” Arrington said. “Just because I’m a public figure, which I freely admit, doesn’t mean they can say anything about me they want.”

When approached for comment, Burton, a former Jefferson County Republican Party vice-chairman, sighed.

“So, just how many judges does it take to teach Barry Arrington the First Amendment? At least three more, I guess,” Burton said.

Burton, then a partner in GOP consulting firm No Vember Associates, argued that Arrington’s decision to appeal amounted to little more than harassment and stood no real chance of reversal.

“As an attorney,” Burton said, “Arrington knows he can’t win, but he wants to keep punishing his two adversaries by making them pay legal fees, probably in the neighborhood of an additional $6,000.”

But Burton and Palmer said they would not let this strategy succeed for Arrington because they had set up a legal defense fund making it possible for donors to help cover court costs.

“We’re pretty close to having our bills paid off, up to this point,” Burton said. “People know what Arrington is, and they’ve been very supportive, I expect that will continue.”

In other news, the 65th Annual U.S. Conference of Mayor’s was happening and Denver Mayor Wellington Webb paid tribute to the late Denver Mayor Bill McNichols Jr., who had died on May 29, 1997, at the age of 87.

McNichols had served as president of the conference from 1978-79 and many members knew him personally.

Webb’s resolution lauded McNichols for his support of his successors Federico Peña and Webb, thanked him for his service to the conference, honored his low-key personality, and acknowledged his love of Denver, the city he had worked so hard to promote.

The resolution also noted that had it not been for the infamous “Christmas Blizzard of 1982,” McNichols could easily have won a fifth term as Denver’s mayor.

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.