Thirty Years Ago This Week: In a hotly contested gubernatorial race Gov. Roy Romer and opponent Bruce Benson were exchanging sharp barbs in the media and at speaking engagements.

At a speech before the Committee on Political Education, the political arm of the Colorado AFL-CIO, Romer told the over 100 committee members in attendance, “This is a very important election. It will decide how we choose leaders in this state.”

Romer addressed Benson’s nearly $2 million television ad buy during the primary, “I am not a poor man, but I never chose to use dollars to buy an office. We’ve got a democracy 200 years old. Thomas Jefferson put it together where everybody was equal. I don’t think we can get into a circumstance where only the wealthy can run for office.”

Romer said that Benson was afraid to be seen with him and that the Benson campaign was now pulling out of a previously agreed upon debate tour of Colorado’s biggest cities, 30 in total.

“I’m saying to Mr. Benson: this state needs to see us both. I want to do it 30 times, if you want only 25, OK, but let’s get to it. I think we ought to get back on the street, let people see what kinds of leaders we are.”

When The Colorado Statesman called the campaign for a response, Benson’s press secretary, Greg Sparrow, said that his campaign had proposed 11 engagements to the governor based on invitations received from both news media and community organizers.

Romer, according to Sparrow, didn’t like the informal format that Benson and his team suggested.

“We propose an informal setting, in easy chairs, with a moderator setting the stage and then letting the two talk back and forth,” Sparrow said. “This kind of talk can be useful to give voters a better understanding of issues and differences between them.”

Sparrow also reminded The Statesman that Romer was a multi-millionaire and “outspent his previous GOP rivals six-to-one. This is the first time he won’t be able to outspend an opponent.”

The large television ad buy, Sparrow clarified, was done so that Benson could communicate his ideas to voters.

And to the Benson campaign, it was of no concern that Romer had been endorsed by so many labor organizations.

“It’s not surprising that managers of the AFL-CIO endorse Romer,” said Sparrow, “but the rank-and-file of labor may be tired of career politicians and feel differently — be ready for a change.”

Twenty Years Ago: Several presidents of Colorado’s state universities testified before a joint session of the House and Senate Education Committees on how they were protecting the academic freedoms of their students and “intellectual and political diversity.”

Senate Joint Resolution 04-033 commended the institutions who had signed a memorandum of understanding stipulating that “no student should be penalized because of political opinions that differ from a professor’s.”

Senate President John Andrews, R-Centennial, one of the resolution’s co-sponsors, said that, “Just this month we’ve heard about a Marxist instructor at CSU berating a young woman veteran, a law professor at CU saying Republican students are racists and Nazis, and a Metro faculty member telling her class that conservative students can’t think.”

Andrews, who taught on occasion at the Colorado School of Mines, used the names of both students and professors during his speech at the joint session and said, “Without specifics and case studies, we’re not going to get anywhere today.”

After the joint resolution CSU, CU, Metro State addressed how student grievances were handled and updated their student handbook to address political diversity.

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 Colorado Springs Gazette.