Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: A state senate campaign in Adams County devolved into a ham-fisted fight when Republican candidate Joan Johnson accused Sen. Brian McCauley, D-Westminster, of neglecting his duties by being absent for multiple key votes in 1987 and 1988.

“Joan Jonson is a person who doesn’t understand the realities of juggling time between the legislature and a job,” McCauley, an attorney, responded to Colorado Statesman reporters.

But Johnson showed Statesman reporters a two-inch thick notebook that she said documented “the 1,045 recorded votes and 300 days McCauley missed all or part of.”

“I voted in every critical case, and Johnson’s charges are untrue,” McCauley said. “The proof of the pudding is in my election, by my Senate colleagues, to the Minority Whip in 1988, a position I hope to retain if re-elected. God knows I’ve been down there working.”

The candidates took a moment, away from throwing barbs, to talk to the Statesman about their priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

Johnson had worked for eight years as a lobbyist for Browning-Ferris Industries and another year for the Colorado Cosmetology Association. A top priority for Johnson was supporting legislation that would regulate the handling of household hazardous waste. Years of familiarity in the waste-handling industry had made a profound impact on Johnson.

“If everybody put half a can of Drano or turpentine in their trash, we’d have a problem,” Johnson said. “I’d like to see a statewide program that would tell people where they can safely dispose of hazardous waste.”

Johnson also wanted to focus on lifting small businesses in Adams County, which had the highest unemployment rate in the metropolitan area.

“When a new tax is passed, big businesses can absorb it, but small businesses have trouble,” Johnson said. “We need to pay more attention to small business.”

McCauley was also concerned about the economy and said that voters in Adams County were highly concerned with taxes, jobs and the economy. A priority was to shift the state government’s reliance on property tax and other taxes, which put the “burden on the working and the middle class” and not the wealthy.

Twenty-Five Years Ago: “Candidates who didn’t back down on the Second Amendment won big in the GOP primaries,” said Dudley Brown, Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. “The gun-grabbers really got their clocks cleaned last night.”

Brown was referring to the 20 state legislative primary races where candidates had differing views on firearms and gun control.

“In almost every case, guns were the the major issue,” Brown said. “We advised candidates to stand against gun control, and voters agreed with us.”

The most startling upset was in Senate District 28 where Bruce Cairns defeated Rep. Gary McPherson, R-Aurora, who’d been backed by Gov. Bill Owens and was seen as the “heir apparent”. Cairns defeated McPherson 58% to 42%.

Brown argued that McPherson, who’d served four terms in the state house of representatives, had voted in favor of numerous compromises “on the right to keep and bear arms, compromises gun owners don’t take lightly.” McPherson had voted in favor of re-authorizing the CBI for Brady Checks, against deregulation amendments to concealed carry bills and against the reduction of fees for conceal carry permits.

“Gov. Gun Control (Owens) was a lead anchor in this primary,” said Brown. “Where Owens got involved, he either lost the race or tightened what would have been a runaway race. It’s clear by his icy reception at the state GOP convention and with primary voters that Bill Owens has misread the Republican Party on gun issues.”

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 columnist to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette and the Denver Gazette.