Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: At a party hosted by the North Denver Democrats, Wellington Webb, Denver City Auditor, addressed the furor that had been created by Denver Mayor Federico Peña’s shock announcement that he would not run for a third term.

Webb said that he was waiting to decide whether or not to run until he’d spoken to his wife, state Rep. Wilma Webb, D-Denver. But that wasn’t proving easy because Wilma was enjoying the warmer climes of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Wilma was attending a meeting of the National Black Caucus of state Legislators,” Webb said. “I made an emergency phone call. She knew I would never make an emergency call like that unless it was something important, so when she got on the phone she asked, ‘Is it my mother or my children?’”

When Webb assured her that the family was safe and healthy and that it was Peña he was calling about, Wilma quipped, “You just never know what will happen when I leave town.”

By statute, Denver District Attorney Norm Early was one of the few potential mayoral candidates who would not have to choose between campaigning for their current position or for mayor. But the potency of his potential campaign was causing other prospective candidates to keep their powder dry, saying they would wait to see Early’s decision before making their own. Early did admit that voters might expect him to resign if he ran for mayor voluntarily.

Webb did the same when he ran for mayor in 1983 and served as the executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. At that time, he had challenged Peña for his job directly, but lost. He was then reappointed to his DORA post by Gov. Dick Lamm. 

Twenty-Five Years Ago: Recently elected state Sen. and outgoing Rep. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, told The Colorado Statesman that even people who didn’t vote for the eventual winner should have a voice in picking the president.

Nearly six weeks after Election Day, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Bush v. Gore, which ended the lengthy Florida recount and officially made George W. Bush the president-elect. 

Because of the disparity between Bush, who won the electoral college, and Gore, who won the popular vote, Tupa said he’d decided to introduce a bill in the next legislative session to apportion Colorado votes in the Electoral College based on congressional districts rather than the “winner take all” system that Colorado and 47 other states used.

“My bill will make our elections more democratic,” Tupa said at a news conference to announce his bill.

Under Tupa’s bill, one electoral vote would go to the winner of each congressional district and two to the statewide victor. Under Tupa’s system, Bush wouldn’t have received all of Colorado’s votes; instead, they would have been split, 6-2, since Al Gore carried two of the congressional districts. Nationwide Gore had 267 Electoral College votes.

Tupa said that if his bill were passed, it could spark action in other states.

“Most people don’t know,” Tupa said, “that they’re actually voting for a slate of electors instead of the candidate.”

State Sen. Gigi Dennis, R-Pueblo, wrote in The Statesman that proposed changes to Colorado’s election process were “premature and unlikely to pass.”

“I think it’s also important to note that the media was quick to politicize the judiciary in Florida, implying that the process was somehow biased,” Dennis wrote. “In Colorado, we are insulated from those concerns because … our judges are selected by the governor from a list of three submitted by a nominating commission.”

Dennis said that the United States, as a country, learned an essential lesson in the razor-thin election margin that had elevated Bush.

“The most telling lesson is that every vote counts,” Dennis mused. “It’s absolutely mind-boggling to realize that an election to decide the world’s best powerful leader essentially boiled down to a few hundred votes. Hopefully, Americans will take this election to heart and turn out in droves in the next election.”

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.