Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: Josie Heath and her army of female supporters ultimately toppled Carlos Lucero’s campaign in the Democratic primary for Colorado’s open U.S. Senate seat.

On election night, Heath’s office on the 16th Street Mall and Welton Street was a beehive of activity. And this had been the case throughout the primary election. The Colorado Statesman had reported that the rooms thrummed with the energy of teens and young women all efficiently handling campaign details. Most of the volunteers wore shirts saying “A woman’s place is in the House and Senate” with “Josie Heath” on the back.

Across town in his concession speech, Lucero argued that his defeat was a financial one, that he’d been defeated because Heath had outspent him on radio and in television advertising by $180,000 to $40,000. His campaign, Lucero said, had been small and operated with a minimum of donations and staff.

The Democratic Party did not waste time trying to create hype out of Heath campaign’s energy headed into the general. Dick Freese, Colorado Democratic Party chairman, said that unless Republican Senate candidate Hank Brown could match the numbers and zeal of Heath’s “hordes,” Brown was likely to go the same way as Lucero.

“I think it’s a wide open race,” Freese said during election night. “Josie has an organization that is good and is turned on. I don’t know whether Brown has, or can buy, that kind of enthusiasm.”

Floyd Ciruli, well-known pollster and publicist, said he rated Heath’s chances against Brown, “Better than the conventional wisdom does. Current odds make her a serious long shot and for good reason.”

“Hank Brown is a moderate, well-liked congressman — an incumbent in a way,” Ciruli said. “On the other hand Colorado voters are one-race-at-a-time orientated. Heath being the only Democratic woman going for the Senate this year will raise a lot of interest nationally, and a lot of money. I think Heath has a chance of moving fairly rapidly up into the 30% range in the polls.”

Ciruli predicted that if Heath can dominate the discussion against Brown with her issues of “childcare, health care and the like, she’ll do very well.”

“I entered this race because I believed this country is going in the wrong direction and needed a different kind of politics,” Heath said in her post-primary election press conference. “Reagan, Bush and Brown are probably nice men, but during the 10 years Brown has served in the U.S. House of Representatives they had their chance to make the economy more competitive with those of Germany and Japan. They didn’t do it. Now it’s our turn.”

Fifteen Years Ago: Nearly two dozen supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes hand delivered a complaint to Maes’s campaign headquarters laying out serious concerns with his campaign operation, including a $17,500 penalty Maes had paid for campaign finance reporting violations.

The complaint questioned why Maes had reimbursed himself more than $40,000 for mileage over the past year, which accounted for nearly a quarter of his campaign funds. The mileage reimbursement was one of several violations cited in a complaint filed by attorney Erik Groves on behalf of Christopher Klitzke of Grand Junction.

“We are further concerned that rather than standing up against these claims you agreed to pay a fine,” the letter stated, “…thereby preventing a judge or the public access to your committee’s financial records and gas log. Where is YOUR transparency?”

On the Caplis & Silverman talk show on KHOW, Maes shrugged off the letter as a stunt and said that one woman had pestered his campaign so much that he planned to refund her contribution just so she’d quit calling.

“The violations were clerical errors and I paid a reduced fine to avoid a legal battle that would detract from campaigning,” Maes said.

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.