Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: “Natalie Meyer’s code is too weak,” Democratic candidate for secretary of state Aaron Harber proclaimed in a press release. Harber was clearly making a political play to draw a distinction between himself and the incumbent he was seeking to unseat.

Harber was taking umbrage with Republican Secretary of State Natalie Meyer’s political “fair practices code” of conduct, and said he was deeply concerned about “dirty tricks” in political campaigns including espionage and sabotage.

According to Meyer, the code of conduct had been written by a non-partisan community group six years previously in an effort to remind candidates about community expectations for fair elections and was entirely voluntary.

But Harber felt that Meyer’s code was far too week… so he wrote his own, and said he would require all Colorado political candidates to sign if elected.

Democratic Party Chairman Dick Freese agreed with Harber.

“Meyer’s code is deficient,” he said, and told reporters he had already signed Harber’s code and went a step further, refusing to sign Meyer’s document.

“Meyer’s reluctance to adopt my revised code is very disturbing,” Harber said. “With only 13 weeks left in the campaign, I hope my opponent joins me in setting the pace for clean campaigns. No candidate for the chief elections office in Colorado should want to use spying or sabotage.”

But The Colorado Statesman reported that Harber had altered some of Meyer’s alleged deficiencies by only changing or adding a few words, adding two further line items and a requirement that all candidates would have to send their opponents a copy of all last minute mailings, which Harber said, “have a reputation for being sleazy.”

“Unilaterally changing the statement on the eve of the primary is inappropriate,” Meyer argued in response. “If the parties wished to look at the campaign pledge after the election and draft a new-bipartisan statement, that would be appropriate.”

Twenty-Five Years Ago: Signing the “Code of Civility” authored by the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado did not seem to stop Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, CD6, and his Democratic challenger Ken Toltz from sparring in the media.

The code said in part that “… the candidate will not condone third-party advertising that does not uphold the principles contained in this code, and will publicly denounce, in a timely fashion, such efforts instituted without my knowledge.”

“This document will set the ground rules of the campaign if my opponent has the courage to sign it,” Tancredo said. “And he can illustrate his courage by denouncing the misleading radio advertisements of one of his supporters, the Sierra Club.”

Tancredo was referencing a $1,000 donation the Sierra Club made to Toltz’s campaign and the $50,000 in advertising that claimed Tancredo supported higher levels of arsenic in the water by voting in support of Amendment 858 to H.R. 4635, prohibiting the EPA from strengthening drinking water standards for arsenic.

“Rep. Tancredo defied public opinion and common sense by voting against reducing arsenic in our drinking water,” said Trish O’Neill, a registered nurse and chair of the Sierra Club South Platte Group. “You don’t need a Ph.D. to know that if you can remove arsenic from drinking water, you vote yes.”

But the Sierra Club’s allegations were labelled as “misleading” by the American Water Works Association.

“I expect Toltz and his allies, like the Sierra Club and the labor unions, to run a nasty and negative campaign … the unions are running negative campaigns in over a dozen congressional races across the country and it is only a matter of time until they start here,” Tancredo said. “If my opponent has the courage to sign this, he will send the Sierra Club and the unions a loud message that in Colorado, we like our politics above board and on the issues.”

A short response seemed to splash water on Tancredo’s accusations. Sarah Kendall, Toltz’s campaign manager, said that Toltz had already willingly signed the pledge and would adhere to it.

Still, Tancredo contended that Toltz was already violating the pledge by allowing the Sierra Club ads to continue running in the district.

Rachael Wright is the author of several novels including The Twins of Strathnaver, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Denver Gazette.