Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: “It’s a green-scam pure and simple,” said Ali Webb of the League of Conservation Voters. “Hank Brown is trying to fool the voters into believing that he has a pro-environment record.

U.S. Senate candidate Josie Heath, along with the League of Conservation Voters, sent an 11-page report to The Colorado Statesman on Republican opponent and former U.S. Rep. Hank Brown, stating that he’d voted against the green vote at least 19 times.

Brown responded with a 12-page fax to The Statesman in which he focused on law enforcement and the drug war. Later in the week he convened a press conference during which Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan praised Brown’s positions on law enforcement. Sullivan was sharply critical of Heath, a former Boulder County Commissioner, for her support of a Boulder-based program aimed at alleviating the spread of AIDS by providing free needles to drug users.

As both campaigns gained momentum, the candidates were receiving big-name endorsements. Former Democratic presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro dropped by Heath’s headquarters; arguing that more Democratic women were urgently needed in the Senate.

“Women deal with problems in terms of generations to come,” Ferraro said. “They try to find the grey area in between.”

Meanwhile William Bennett, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, was scheduled to speak at a fundraising luncheon for Brown.

“We’re hoping this luncheon will be more than just a fundraiser,” Brown said. “We want it to be an anti-drug event.”

Twenty-Five Years Ago: Gov. Bill Owens took the opportunity during his weekly radio address to repeat his opposition to Amendment 21, a proposal drafted by Douglas Bruce which called for progressive $25 per year cuts in state income, utility, vehicle and property taxes.

Owens also voiced his opposition to Referendum F which asked voters to approve $50 million per year for five years taken from the state surplus and used for math and science grants as well as Amendment 20 which would allow chronically ill patients to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Owens spoke about eight total ballot measures and voiced support for only two: Amendment 22,  which would require criminal background checks on all gun sales at gun shows and Amendment 25 to require a 24-hour waiting period for an abortion.

In other news, “More money would help but that’s not going to happen,” said Executive Director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife and former Colorado House Speaker Russell George, R-Rifle, referring to spreading disease in the state’s wild fish population.

The spread of “whirling disease” in trout, a parasitic condition in trout that causes cartilage damage and skeletal deformities, and how best to combat it had led to vociferous differences of opinion both within and without the Colorado DOW. George said he was seeking solutions to frictions between “warring camps.”

Following the unexpected resignation of DOW Executive Director John Mumma in January 2000, George had subsequently resigned his position as Speaker of the House and took the position at the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

George spoke before the legislative interim committee overseeing the DOW and said that “Consensus and communication are the main tools I bring to this job.”

He told the interim committee that it was not his job to make wildlife policy but to present facts to the appropriate policy-making bodies to determine the correct route for wildlife management decisions.

A member of the interim committee, Sen. Ken Chlouber, R-Leadville, told George that the legislature didn’t have time for wildlife management but stated that he “wouldn’t hesitate to introduce a bill if I think the division is doing something wrong.”

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.