Thirty Years Ago This Week: The executive committee of the Colorado General Assembly’s Legislative Council found itself kicking a public relations hornets nest after Senate President Tom Norton, R-Greeley, and House Speaker Chuck Berry, R-Colorado Springs, decided to place the House and Senate Chambers off-limits to anyone but legislators.

For the first time in 40 years, the YMCA’s Youth In Government Program was unable to hold a mock-three day legislative session. The program allowed high schoolers from around the state the chance to take on nearly every governmental role, from governor to legislators, lobbyists and journalists. Over 400 students were scheduled to participate in the program.

“Senator Norton told us they’ve received too many requests to use the chambers,” fumed Sharon Fraser, a YMCA Youth in Government parent. “He said, ‘It’s not fair for you to be able to use them and nobody else.’ So, they said nobody could use them.”

Norton and Berry did stipulate that the group could still use the committee rooms and the cafeteria and the First Baptist Church of Denver, across 14th Avenue, which had offered to let the YMCA use its sanctuary for ‘Floor Action.’

“But I’m worried that would send the wrong message,” Fraser said. “This country is supposed to have a separation of church and state, so using a church is directly opposite of that. If the kids are supposed to be learning the way a legislature operates, I guess they’re getting a good look at the real thing, here.”

Fraser told The Colorado Statesman that if the executive committee didn’t change its policy, she and other parents would find a legislator to sponsor a joint resolution during the next regular session to permit the public to use the legislative chambers again.

“It’s a building that is paid for and maintained by tax dollars,” Fraser noted.

Twenty Years Ago: Denver Attorney Mike Huttner announced the launch of a new website, Rocky Mountain Progressive Network, to “combat the radical right and give a voice to Coloradans who are being hurt by their misguided policies.”

Huttner argued that Republican Gov. Bill Owens and Senate President John Andrews, R-Englewood, had failed Colorado and made Colorado a “ground-zero for … social engineering agendas.”

Alamosa healthcare executive and RMPN financial backer Marguerite Salazar said that the new venture would “give a voice to those who have abandoned hope.” Other financial backers included Boulder internet tycoon Jared Polis and longtime Denver Republican Mary Lou Halliburton.

“If you support abortion rights, you’re ostracized by your party,” Halliburton said. “The whole shift toward the religious right made me look for a way to put more balanced ideas out there.”

Huttner told The Statesman that RMPN was not out to reinvent the wheel but was working “with existing groups and think tanks, like The Bell Policy Center, to advance the policies and ideas they stand for.”

Bill Vandenburg, co-director of the Colorado Progressive Coalition said RMPN would provide a valuable tool for existing organizations.

“They’ll be able to bridge the gap between communities doing the hard work in the trenches and the broader public who hear very little about our efforts,” Vandenburg said.

Jon Caldara, of the conservative Independence Institute, said he was not worried about any competition or loss of revenue with RMPN.

“The website is pretty … but progressive,” Caldara said. “It’s amazing to see how much the left has tried to counter the Independence Institute.”

Caldara added that he was delighted that “rich liberals” were pooling resources to counter what the Independence Institute had been accomplishing in the state for some time.

“The more they are out there espousing socialist causes, the more opportunity we have to present the other side,” he said. 

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.