Forty Years Ago This Week: Denver Mayor Federico Peña’s office announced that he would be the first mayor “in 20 years” to go to jail – at least, the first mayor in that time frame to venture into a jail, placing a visit to the Downtown Detention Center.

Lou Schneider, Peña’s appointment scheduler, said that Peña’s visit would give him an opportunity to express his “concern for the city employees who are on the front line – the foot soldiers.”

Schneider said that Peña would also visit Denver General Hospital and neighborhood health centers and hoped to visit at least one city agency a week to sit down and talk with city employees.

In other news, Lt. Governor, and candidate for U.S. Senate, Nancy Dick blasted Sen. Bill Armstrong at the American Public Transit Association for his lack of support for funding mass transit.

“My opponent and the Reagan administration insist that mass transit pay its own way out of revenues,” Dick said. “What they seem to be overlooking is that for every person who rides mass transit, there is that much less air pollution, less road repair, and less likelihood of incurring the suffering and expense of an auto accident.”

Dick argued that mass transit reduced the United States’ dependence on foreign oil and gave the elderly and the very young their own means of “independent, reasonably priced transportation.”

“My opponent’s record on voting to slash funding for mass transit is not in the best interests of the people of Colorado,” Dick said.

Thirty Years Ago: State Sen. Claire Taylor, R-Wheat Ridge, told The Colorado Statesman that rigid ideologists of either the left or the right wouldn’t be a good fit for the Joint Budget Committee.

Senate Republicans had gathered to choose Sen. Mike Bird’s, R-Colorado Springs, replacement on the committee after he resigned so he could focus more time on his campaign for governor.

“When making decisions, the JBC, four Republicans and two Democrats, have to work together,” Traylor said. “It isn’t any good to just say ‘no.'”

Several legislators had thrown their hats into the ring, including Sen. Dick Mutzebaugh, R-Highlands Ranch, widely known as ultra-conservative, and freshman Sen. Elsie Lacey, R-Aurora.

“As a freshman, I didn’t plan to run,” Lacey said. “But I decided to when several people urged me to. I talked to some other senators and they all seemed very receptive, but I haven’t tried to get votes committed.”

Lacey had previously served for four years on the Mayor’s Budget Committee and was elected to two terms on the Aurora City Council.

“That’s where my interest in budgeting started,” Lacey said.

Twenty Years Ago: State Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, announced that he planned to introduce a resolution to support the Federal Marriage Amendment during the next legislative session.

Republican U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, CD-4, had introduced the amendment on May 21, 2003, as H.J.R. 56.

“Marriage is the basic sociological unit of society that is essential for a civilized people,” Lundberg said. “It is a moral compass that transcends ages, cultures and creeds.”

Lundberg argued against public policy changing the “gold standard” of marriage between one man and one woman, stating that “an inferior imitation” would “cheat our children.”

House Minority Leader Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver said, “I support families. We ought to tackle the forces that are pulling them apart: joblessness, homelessness and the high cost of health care.”

Romanoff said that the greatest challenge in Colorado was not whether two consenting adults wanted to form a relationship, but whether the 140,000 unemployed adults in the state could find a job and if 700,000 Coloradans who lacked insurance could get health care.

“These are the debates the legislature ought to be having when we convene in January,” Romanoff 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.