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Gary Hart isn't running again for the U.S. Senate, so he is thereby the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988.
Which means that Colorado has an important role in presidential politics. As a somewhat chauvinistic native, I do feel honored. But as a conscientious American, I'm worried. Just look at Colorado's previous contributions to presidential politics.
The first time that Coloradans ever voted in a presidential race was in 1876, a mere three months after attaining statehood. That election was among the most corrupt in history. When the ballots were counted, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden had 4,284,757 votes; Republican Rutherford B. Hayes had but 4,033,950.
However, it is the Electoral College, not the popular vote, that determines who shall be President. It took 185 votes then to win. Tilden had 184, and Hayes had 165. Twenty electoral votes -- from Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon -- were in dispute.
A special commission was named to resolve the disputed votes. If Tilden had received even one of those electoral votes, he would have won. But there were eight Republicans and only seven Democrats on the commission; guess who got each and every disputed electoral vote?
As a brand-new state just learning its way around, Colorado could contribute little to the corruption. But Colorado did contribute three electoral votes to Rutherford B. Hayes. Without those three votes, there is no way that even the Republicans could have stolen the election of 1876. If Colorado had waited until 1877 to enter the union, Samuel J. Tilden would have been the 19th president of the United States.
After that auspicious start, Colorado's next major contribution to national politics came in 1908. Then as now, Denver did not boast a state-of-the-art convention center, but the Democrats met there anyway, nominating William Jennings Bryan for the third and last time. He lost by even greater margins than he had in 1896 and 1900.
Although Bryan was the most prominent, he wasn't the
only presidential loser to be nominated in Colorado. In
1968, both the Constitution Party and the Universal Party
convened in Denver to name their candidates -- respectively
Richard K. Troxell, of whom I know nothing, and Kirby J.
Hensley. The Rev. Hensley founded the Universal Life
Church, which charges $50 for sainthood and $20 for a
bishopric, but grants the status of ordained
minister
without charge to anyone who asks for it.
Colorado may be as hard on presidents as it is on candidates. On Sept. 24, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, while visiting his in-laws in Denver, was stricken by a major heart attack that kept him in bed for seven weeks.
Eisenhower recovered to run again, but a previous presidential prostration in Colorado may have led to World War II. Woodrow Wilson could not get the U.S. Senate to accept the League of Nations as part of the peace treaty to end World War I. So Wilson went out to rally popular support.
One of his stops was Pueblo, Colo., where he collapsed while making a speech on Sept. 25, 1919. Felled by a stroke, Wilson watched from the sidelines while the Senate stayed out of the League of Nations. Some scholars contend that World War II might not have happened if the United States had joined the League. Which it might have, if Wilson had not destroyed his health by visiting Colorado.
Just as he did in 1984, Gary Hart will no doubt play the Colorado image for all it's worth. The Yale graduate will wear cowboy boots when he's shaking hands at factory gates in New Hampshire. A Stetson will protect his rugged visage from the Florida sun. He won't be caught dead with a can of Coors, but he will be photographed in faded Levis while driving the farm roads of Iowa in an old pickup.
And if Gary Hart wants to win and then enjoy good health during his term, that's as close as he should come to Colorado.
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