Thirty Years Ago This Week: House District 12 candidate David Leeds said he was relentlessly pursuing the identity of the person or persons who leaked his financial information just days before the Boulder County Republican Party assembly.

A credit report was anonymously faxed to party officials, and, according to Leeds, violated both state and federal laws. The candidate said he planned to file official criminal complaints in both Boulder and Adams Counties as well as a civil lawsuit.

The campaign had made a great deal of progress in unmasking the perpetrator with the help of TRW, a credit-reporting agency, and that TRWs investigators had pinpointed a questionable credit inquiry at Northglenn Dodge. According to the dealership, only five employees had access to credit data banks and each had a traceable identification number.

Leeds said he’d bought a car from another dealership in February, and therefore had no need to go to Northglenn Dodge. He said it was possible that someone had filled out a loan application in his name and therefore had access to his social security number. While the dissemination of the report was illegal, Leeds said his own credit history had been switched with someone else’s in order to damage his reputation with the party.

Interestingly, several months prior Northglenn Dodge’s financial director, Gil Rogers, wrote to several newspapers, including The Colorado Statesman, criticizing Rep. Michelle Lawrence, R-Arvada, who was then a candidate for Congressional District 2. The Statesman verified Rogers had authored the letter.

Leed’s Republican opponent, Bill Swenson, said that he had no knowledge of the report and “deplored its dissemination.”

Twenty Years Ago: Former Colorado Senate President Stan Matsunaka, D-Loveland, announced his bid for Congressional District 4 with a five city tour.

Matsunaka had previously run for CD 4 in 2002 against incumbent Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, and told The Colorado Statesman that he had chosen to run again after “numerous district residents” encouraged him to do so.

“I know we need more effective federal representation,” Matsunaka said. “People have been calling me about Marilyn not doing anything about healthcare, education, support for our rural transit system or renewable energy systems, but only working on her right-wing agenda.”

Matsunaka said that in 2002, CD 4 constituents were concerned about Musgrave continuing to push ultra-conservative measures, as she had also done while serving in the Colorado General Assembly.

“In 2002 they went so far as to question her about her intentions,” Matsunaka said. “She said she wasn’t going to work on her right-wing agenda.”

Musgrave was the sponsor of House Joint Resolution 106, The Family Marriage Amendment, which defined marriage as consisting between only a man and a woman.

“She’s vulnerable because she hasn’t paid any attention to the district. The district is pretty divided. I hadn’t planned on running again … the last race against Marilyn … left a nasty taste in my mouth.”

Matsunaka recounted how the Musgrave campaign had sent out 22 pieces of “hit mail” and said her campaign had cast him in the role of the “devil.”

According to the longtime politician, he had a broad base of support, both bi-partisan and unaffiliated voters. Musgrave was likely to run in a primary against a more moderate Republican, Bob Faust, who was in the process of petitioning onto the ballot, and the Democratic Party was counting on that potentially weakening the conservative firebrand incumbent.

Musgrave’s chief of staff, Guy Short, issued a short, to-the-point response with the news. “We expected the Dems to be running someone new and since they couldn’t find anyone, we look forward to having ‘Stan the Tax Man’ on the ballot.”

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.