FIfty-Five Years Ago This Week: Gov. Steve McNichols and his Republican rival, Colorado Springs attorney John Love, held their first debate at Editors Day at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Commentators said McNichols had held his own, but several others interviewed following the end of the debate felt the governor had already “flunked out on his first test on state government and public leadership.”

While McNichols cited substantial growth in Colorado industrial development under his leadership and thanked his staff for their six years of work to earn the state national attention, Love demonstrated what Democratic State Chairman Fred Betz called “a complete lack of knowledge of state work.”

Betz said Love had suggested that he would not encourage the growth of the defense industry in the state and had proposed a rather naïve adoption of a self-help program of promoting the state by using local chamber of commerce organizations.

Love made a campaign pledge to take his staff to every community in the state and spend two to three days consulting with local people.

McNichols retorted that there were 285 incorporated communities in the state, eliciting peals of laughter from the audience.

On the subject of Republican proposals for tax cuts, McNichols recited in detail the “vital” programs that would be cut and gave a thorough analysis of state finances.

Reporters noted that Love limited his responses to tax cuts to general remarks.

Two days after the debate, Love announced that he would not meet McNichols for further discussions prompting pundits to pounce at the opportunity, remarking that this proved both Love and his “financial backers” felt further debates would harm the campaign.

Betz told The Colorado Democrat that “it was made quite obvious at the Fort Collins meeting that the Republican candidate is no match for Steve. His consistent emphasis on ‘checking this out with all of his backers and financial advisors’ makes me wonder what kind of a candidate we face.”

Underscoring that they felt their candidate had performed quite well, McNichols’s campaign announced that arrangements were being made to telecast a 30-minute portion of the debate covering “principal comments on the points covered.”

The Arapahoe County Democratic Party offered up $500 to the Love campaign for a third televised debate with the governor, but newly elected Arapahoe County Dem Chairman William Hart said that Love had so far refused and was “hiding behind a phalanx of advisors.”

Twenty-Five Years Ago: “I haven’t decided what to do when my term ends,” Sen. Tom Blickensderfer, R-Englewood, told The Colorado Statesman. But he put speculation to rest, saying a run for lieutenant governor would not be among his possibilities.

Candidates for lieutenant governor sought party nomination separately from the governor position prior to lawmakers changing this to a two-position slate just ahead of the 2002 election. This reform was partly in response to the poor working relationship between Gov. Bill Owens and Lt. Gov. Joe Rogers. Leading up to this vote, there had been intense debate over whether the second-in-command position should be abolished altogether, a side on which Blickensderfer fell.

Blickensderfer, who had three years left on his senate term, said that he’d decided against running for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor because he believed he would be more effective seeking a leadership post in the state senate. Blickensderfer, a member of the powerful Joint Budget Committee and an outspoken proponent of limited government, said that he believed that the office of lieutenant governor should be eliminated entirely.

“The only official responsibility of the lieutenant governor is the head of the Colorado Bureau of Indian Affairs,” Blickensderfer said, “Which should be shuffled into a different area. Elimination of the lieutenant governor’s office would save taxpayers $250,000 per year. I would prefer elimination of the post than holding such a meaningless position myself.”

When asked about the unlikely event of succession, should the governor be incapable of carrying out his or her duties, Blickensderfer said that the highest ranking member of the governor’s party in the state legislature would be the obvious choice for successor in the absence of the lieutenant position.

Blickensderfer, who had served in the state senate since 1992 when he was appointed to fill a vacancy left by Terry Considine, R-Englewood, had also been mentioned three years prior in 1994 as a possible lieutenant governor candidate, but had declined at that time as well. His history of flirting with the idea and being named as a strong candidate by supporters had helped reignite widespread rumor and speculation leading up to the 1998 race. Alas, it wasn’t in the political cards.

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.