Forty-five years ago this week: In a closed session, the vacancy committee for Colorado’s Senate District 12 selected attorney Peter Susemihl to complete Sen. Steve Durham’s, R-Colorado Springs, term. Durham resigned his seat to become Region 8 Director of the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Ed Bland, El Paso County Republican Party chairman and member of the vacancy committee, said that Susemihl was the first of the five candidates to receive six of the 11 votes from the committee. Bland said that he and the rest of the committee had agreed not to discuss the vote nor would he divulge how many ballots were taken in total before Susemihl won.

Susemihl, a member of the Colorado Springs City Council, told The Colorado Statesman a week before the committee meeting that he felt confident in his chances and that his strongest contender was Harold McCormack, who had previously held the seat until he ran against U.S. Rep. Roy Kogovsek, CD-3, in 1978 and Rep. Chuck Heim, R-Colorado Springs.

McCormack, who had been the favorite going in, told The Statesman, “This week is too early to discuss my future political plans. I tried very hard,” he said. “I thought I was the best man.”

Twenty-five years ago: House Majority Leader Lola Spradley, R-Beulah, urged Hispanics statewide to pay close attention to the process of Colorado’s Reapportionment Commission.

“Rep. Dan Grossman (D-Denver) is resisting an attempt to give Hispanics a greater voice in the legislature,” Spradley said. “This is wrong and represents a step backward in our political thinking.”

Spradley cited census figures released early in 2001 that showed the number of Hispanics in Colorado increased substantially over the decade, from 12.9% to 17.1% of Colorado’s population.

“New boundaries that are now being drawn should reflect these trends,” Spradley said. “At the very least, we should not be making any deliberate efforts to dilute the political influence of minorities.”

Spradley also noted that several Hispanic leaders had appeared before the commission earlier in the month to urge that Jefferson County’s growing Hispanic community be united into one House and one Senate seat, if possible. 

“This would maximize their political influence and give them a better chance of electing Hispanic candidates,” Spradley said. “However, Grossman has downplayed our request, saying he’d go along only if it did not interfere with the competitiveness of Democrats winning legislative seats in Jefferson County.”

Spradley argued that it was wrong to put partisan politics above what’s right.

“It’s long past time to eliminate this mindset that does not consider the political influence of minorities,” Spradley said. 

Colorado Democratic Party 2nd vice chair and co-chair of the party’s redistricting committee, Mannie Rodriguez, expressed grave concerns about Spradley’s statements.

“The Democratic Party has always, and will always, offer a greater voice for Hispanics in the Colorado legislature,” Rodriguez said. “For Spradley to attempt this ruse is cynical and racially divisive. Dan has worked … with Latino community members and leaders to create consensus about all of the maps he has submitted, including Jefferson County.”

Former state Sen. Paul Sandoval, D-Denver, who worked closely with the commission members, called the Republicans “ … hypocrites, because the Republican map of Denver dissolved an entire minority district into another minority district. That map of Denver proves that they’re the ones trying to weaken the Hispanic voice in the State House.”

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.