Thirty-Five Years Ago This Week: With state House Speaker Carl “Bev” Bledsoe, R-Hugo, term-limited, eager Republicans — and a Democrat — were gearing to step into the shoes of the longest-serving house speaker in the Colorado General Assembly.

In the running were Reps. Paul Schauer, R-Littleton, Chuck Berry, R-Colorado Springs, and Ruth Wright, D-Boulder. But Wright was unlikely to make it to the speaker’s gavel because Republicans held a 39-26 edge in the House, which meant that Democrats would need to gain seven seats in the Nov. 6 election.

Schauer had already served 12 years in the House and was the current speaker pro-tempore, Berry was serving as assistant majority leader, and Wright was serving as House Minority Leader.

Schauer told The Colorado Statesman that his style would be different from Bledsoe.

“Philosophically there isn’t much difference between us,” the self-described “responsible conservative” Schauer said. “My style will be much more open. Just look at the way I’ve run the finance committee.”

Schauer said he was much more independent than Bledsoe and less likely to be influenced by lobbyists.

“That’s the major difference between myself and Mr. Berry,” Schauer said.

Schauer was referring to the fact that Berry had married a lobbyist, Maria Garcia, the year previously. Garcia however had given up her statewide clients and focused only on municipal interests, to avoid any hint of impropriety or conflict of interest.

Berry told The Statesman that he was very encouraged by the commitments he’d received from Republican legislators. Although he declined to name his supporters, Berry said that he had 24 votes between incumbents and new candidates.

“I have not tried to exact promises from Republicans campaigning in open seats, to support my own race for speaker of the house,” Berry said, “but I’ve merely emphasized the importance of getting them elected. Then we can talk about my race. I think I will have earned their support.”

The chances of Democrats regaining control of the House, which was last accomplished in the mid-1970s, was going to “be tough” said Wright.

“But we have some good candidates in districts the Democrats feel they might win,” Wright said. “If that happens and I become speaker, I’ll be more democratic, with a small ‘d’, and will open things up more.”

Wright argued that the House had become too partisan over the past years and minority Democrats weren’t allowed to carry important bills.

“When a Democrat comes up with a good bill it gets swallowed up and becomes a Republican bill,” Wright argued.

If the Democratic Party failed to gain a majority, Wright said she would seek re-election as minority leader.

Twenty-Five Years Ago: At the funeral service for 37-year-old Rep. Gary McPherson, R-Aurora, Gov. Bill Owens told McPherson’s three daughters that he “was honest and kind. Gary was always someone who could look for the positive in a situation.”

McPherson died in a tragic accident when the small plane he was piloting to attend a family reunion in British Columbia crashed.

House Speaker Russell George, R-Rifle, wore a tartan tie in memory of McPherson, who along with Rep. Bog Hagedorn, D-Aurora, had sponsored a measure to create a state tartan for Colorado. McPherson also served as chairman of the House Finance Committee and was instrumental in creating much of the framework for Owens’s overall fiscal policy. He sponsored House Bill 99-1001 which specified how the $565 million surplus would be returned to taxpayers and HB 99-1259 which lowered Colorado’s sales tax rate from 3 to 2.85%.

House Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, told The Statesman that McPherson was well respected among members of both political parties.

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.