Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: State Sen. Clifford Dodge, R-Denver, announced he was resigning his seat to accept a post as chief lobbyist for the City and County of Denver, and no one seemed to have fully anticipated how much upheaval it would cause.

Rep. Dorothy “Dottie” Wham, R-Denver, was appointed by vacancy committee to serve the rest of Dodge’s term. This created another vacancy and a special election was needed to fill Wham’s House District 11 seat. Six people put their names forward including veteran campaign worker Cheryl Caldwell, precinct committeeman Ross Corrace, and Sue Haskell executive director of U.S. West’s home and personal services division.

But in the end it was another candidate, Jeff Shoemaker, who narrowly edged out Caldwell in a final ballot after they tied on a fifth ballot. In a question-and-answer period before the voting got underway, Shoemaker told the vacancy committee that he would be the most electable in 1988 because he had worked the hardest during this election.

“I personally contacted all but one of the vacancy committee members in the past 41 days,” Shoemaker said.

Caldwell shot back that though she had entered the campaign less than two weeks previously, “Jeff worked 41 days, but I worked 10 days four times harder.”

Shoemaker who was the executive director of the Platte River Greenway Foundation of which his father, former state Sen. Joe Shoemaker, was chairman, stressed his strong background in fundraising.

“My knees are worn out because I beg for a living,” he said. “I’ll work harder than you can imagine if I win.”

Wham, who was still settling into her new state senate seat, nominated all six candidates herself and declined to publicly state her preference for a successor, stating only in a nomination statement that she was in favor of all of the candidates. Several members of the vacancy committee professed themselves pleased with this setup, as it had cut down on the lengthy nominating and seconding speeches.

One possible Democrat challenger for Shoemaker was attorney Ann Duckett who told The Colorado Statesman that several people had approached her to run for the HD 11 seat.

“I am considering the possibility, but I haven’t yet come to a definite decision,” Duckett said.

In other news, freshman U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley, CD-5, said that he wasn’t sitting idly by in his 1988 campaign for reelection. And for good reason. Hefley’s predecessor, former U.S. Rep. Ken Kramer said he was contemplating a comeback.

Kramer had decided not to run for reelection in order to run for the U.S. Senate in 1986 and said at the time that he had accomplished all he could in the House and really wanted to be where he could make a difference.

Fast forward to ’87 and Kramer wouldn’t make any definite comment on his desire to challenge Hefley other than some opaque “maybes.”

But Hefley was preparing for any eventuality, assembling a strong finance committee with building industry businessman Steve Schuck serving as chairman. Hefley’s finance committee included several former Kramer supporters including Phil Winn, who had served as finance chairman of Kramer’s 1986 senate campaign.

Winn, who said he’d been in touch with Kramer over the past weeks, said blandly that it was a free country.

“Ken has a right to run if that’s his desire,” Winn said. “But for party unity and party stability, I’d hope he would not run. Joel is just beginning and has done well. If Ken ran, it would be destructive to the party.”

Winn also argued that a highly contested primary would drain money from an economically depressed area.

“But for Ken’s sake, I hope he doesn’t do it,” Winn said. “Remarriages don’t usually work out. If Ken runs, I’m supporting Hefley, but Ken will still be my friend.”

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.