Thirty-five Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … House Majority Leader Ron Strahle’s congressional redistricting plan was already drawing veto threats from Gov. Dick Lamm, who swore he would never accept a Republican-drawn map that guaranteed the GOP five safe seats with just one seat a Democrat might win. Instead, Lamm proposed aiming for three safe Republican seats, one safe Democratic seat and two swing districts. Legislators were scheduled to return for a special session to tackle redrawing congressional and legislative lines in September, and already the competing sides were gaming out potential maps that might ultimately be decided by the state Supreme Court. In the meantime, legislative committees were meeting and considering various configurations. A Republican-dominated interim committee including House Speaker Bev Bledsoe, Senate President Fred Anderson, Strahle, Senate Majority Leader Ralph Cole and minority leaders Regis Groff in the Senate and Federico Peña in the House were planning to meet up and negotiate with Lamm ahead of time, Bledsoe said. Setting the stage was a just-concluded 10-day, $50,000 TV and radio campaign produced by a Washington-based ad agency and funded by state GOP Chairman Bo Callaway. It called for “fair apportionment” and decried “job security for politicians,” attempting to sway Lamm toward some more outlandish maps being considered by Republicans. The governor’s press secretary, Sue O’Brien, however, said the advertising campaign had just generated 38 letters and 17 phone calls to Lamm’s office — hardly an overwhelming mandate. Nonetheless, Strahle was planning to push ahead with a jigsaw map that would have maintained safe seats for Republicans Ken Kramer and Hank Brown while throwing Democratic incumbents into hostile districts teeming with Republicans. Pat Schroeder would have had to run from heavily Republican Arapahoe County in a district that included a swath of equally Republican-leaning south Denver. Tim Wirth would have been drawn into a district covering the Western Slope. Ray Kogovsek’s district would have included just a tiny thumb of Pueblo and all of Jefferson County. The new, sixth district, according to the GOP plan, would slash across Denver from the southwest to the northeast parts of town and lump in a big section of Adams County — potentially a base for state Sen. Ted Strickland’s congressional run. Columnist Harold Knight suggested drawing less convoluted districts and aiming for competitive seats. “In a state which can simultaneously pile up big majorities for Dick Lamm and Bill Armstrong in 1978 and for Ronald Reagan and Gary Hart in 1980, nobody can predict what will happen in 1982!” he wrote. …

… First daughter Maureen Reagan enthralled a crowd of some 350 at the Colorado Lincoln Club’s 64th annual dinner, answering questions about everything from her father’s recent appointment of Sandra Day O’Conner as the first woman on the Supreme Court (“I’m very excited,” she said) to her endorsement of the Equal Rights Amendment, something her father opposed (“I think the main reason we will disagree is that I’m a woman and have been discriminated against, and he isn’t a woman and hasn’t been”). She warned Republicans about getting carried away with their ideas and forgetting their responsibility to govern by taking care of “ourselves, our neighbors and our communities.” Reagan concluded, “We’ll be there to make sure there’s no ceiling to block how high they can attain, but a floor at which they can’t go under.” …

… Gov. Dick Lamm was the featured speaker at the monthly Aurora Democratic Forum, which drew 80 guests to the breakfast, including Aurora Mayor Dennis Champine, City Councilman Steve Hogan, Aurora Public Schools board members Jeanette Ray Goins and Arapahoe County deputy district attorney Doug Bahr. “We should get rid of red tape, but we must do it logically,” Lamm said when asked about President Ronald Reagan’s tilt toward deregulation. “Examine what’s good and what’s bad about each program first.” He acknowledged that the public appeared to be behind Reagan, adding, “If Democrats are waiting for Reagan to fail, we are a bankrupt party with bankrupt ideas.” Instead, he said, Dems needed to come up with better ideas. Paraphrasing Toynbee, he proclaimed: “The future is something you create, not something you inherit.” Lamm also addressed the day’s top issues, including the Lowry Landfill, the Social Security crisis, his veto of the pornography display bill and potential effects of the end of federal revenue sharing. …

… U.S. Rep. Hank Brown, who was already gaining notoriety as the president of the freshman Republican class in Congress, was back in Colorado briefly to pack up and drive a house-load of furniture back to D.C. in a U-Haul truck, and his wife, Nan, and children were set to join him. Brown said he was more encouraged about working in Congress since his interior committee was finally starting to act on some bills — a good sign, he noted, since until a week or so ago all the committee had discussed was a bill to place a plaque on the Marine memorial stating the photographer’s name and another bill to keep the name Mt. McKinley for Mt. McKinley. He insisted he wasn’t being coy about running for governor in 1982, adding he was content being a congressman and liked the nation’s capital. “I plan on staying in Washington for at least another year and a half,” he remarked, through the end of his first term. …

… Meanwhile, two dozen Republican county chairs gathered to plot strategy for the 1982 gubernatorial race, when Gov. Dick Lamm would likely be seeking a third term. There was no clear consensus on “the one” candidate to clear the field, but U.S. Rep. Hank Brown seemed to be the clear leader. Brown let it be known that he wouldn’t accept a draft, if that’s what the county chairs decided. State GOP Chairman Bo Callaway, incidentally, had been informed about the confab but pointedly not invited.