Thirty Years Ago This Week: A campaign group billed “Women for Romer/Schoettler” held a press conference publicizing a letter signed by seventy-five women attacking Romer’s Republican opponent Bruce Benson. The letter objected to a donation that had been made by Benson in May 1993. Benson had contributed to Oregon Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Packwood’s defense fund to fight charges made against him of sexual harassment.

“Benson gave the contribution after he was called by a friend,” said Katy Atkinson, Bruce’s campaign manager. “Packwood had a good reputation and if Bruce knew then what he knows today he wouldn’t have done it.”

“At the time you made the $1,000 contribution, 23 women had come forward and accused Bob Packwood with sexual harassment,” the Women for Romer/Schoettler letter stated. “Your financing of a man charged with degrading and sexually harassing over two dozen women, many of whom were his own employees, is unconscionable.”

The Women for Romer/Schoettler urged Benson to request a refund and donate the money to a Colorado sexual harassment awareness program.

The Senate Ethics Committee investigation into the allegations against Packwood took years, beginning in December 1992 and finished in September 1995. It was only after the full Senate approved a court order to enforce a subpoena to obtain Packwood’s diary that the Senate Ethics Committee voted unanimously to expel him from the Senate.

In another matter just days later, over thirty parents of Denver students denounced Benson’s stance that juvenile crime and classroom disruption was linked to welfare.

All Families Deserve a Chance, which was composed primarily of women who received Aid to Families with Dependent Children, also disputed the claim and were able to produce an academic study that found that there was little difference between children from poor families and those who received government assistance.

But Benson responded that his comments had been mischaracterized and blamed the inaccuracy on media reporting.

“I talk a lot about the welfare system and crime and education all being linked together,” Benson said. “And I think there’s a major link there. When you have disruptive kids, you can’t teach. And I would say … a lot of these people are coming out of the welfare system.”

A Republican political consultant who remained anonymous said that behind closed doors GOP officials and consultants were bemoaning a potential negative trickle down effect at the polls, saying that it would only take one controversial thud — a stock deal, savings and loan scandal, or oil spill revelation for voters to flee the GOP in droves.

Twenty Years Ago: Tom Downey and Robert Corry, two Denver constitutional attorneys, spoke at the The City Club of Denver about the rise of “527” groups and controversial political advertising.

A “527” was so named because independent political organizations could file under section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, and were tax-exempt groups able to solicit unlimited amounts of “soft money.”

One Denver TV station had stopped sharing specific ads run by 527 groups against U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-4th CD, in which a skit was used to to draw attention to Musgrave’s vote in support of a bill that cut benefits for U.S. veterans.

“527s have been around for a while … they have experienced an ascendency because of the campaign finance rules that came with the McCain-Feingold bill,” Curry said. “They are more than an isolated issue. They are a signal that the entire system of campaign finance is broken. The caustic and misleading ideas presented in such commercials can end up having unintended consequences.”

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.