Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher is surely one of a kind, as documentary shows

More than 150 friends, family members and fans of Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher gathered to watch the premiere showing of a documentary film chronicling the storied North Denver Democrat’s life and political career on Wednesday night at the Oriental Theater.

“Gallagher: One of a Kind” uses interviews, photographs and archival footage to depict the Irish politician’s background, early life and his 44-year career, from his election to the first of two terms in the Colorado House in 1970, through a 20-year career in the state Senate, followed by a stretch on Denver City Council and three terms as auditor. The lively, 67-minute documentary was written and produced by Denis Berckefeldt, the auditor’s communications director, who introduced the screening at the historic theater.

“When you’re brought up in the Jesuit tradition, you’re not supposed to be seeking after self-aggrandizement, but I’m very honored that people would be making this remembrance for me,” Gallagher told The Colorado Statesman moments before taking the stage to welcome the audience. “I’m so glad I got to see it before the wake,” he added with a grin.

The film features humorous and insightful interviews with Gov. John Hickenlooper — he was elected Denver’s mayor the same year Gallagher won the auditor’s race in 2003 — and former Govs. Bill Ritter and Dick Lamm, who marveled at Gallagher’s ability to charm a room with humorous remarks. Longtime political ally Wellington Webb — the two only broke over naming the Webb Building after the mayor while he was still in office, which Gallagher opposed — adds remembrances, as does lobbyist Wally Stealey, Colorado Municipal League director Sam Mamet, former Denver City Councilwoman Susan Barnes-Gelt and former state Sen. Ron Stewart, D-Boulder. Gallagher’s brother Tim and son Daniel are among the many others who add to the portrayal.

The documentary starts nearly a hundred years ago to trace Gallagher’s North Denver roots, including stories about his Irish grandparents and the challenges they faced in a state that had only recently been all but run by the Ku Klux Klan. This a background fostered Gallagher’s lifelong duty to look out for those in need. The Irish, Gallagher says he learned, would always have to show up earlier, work harder and do a better job, Gallagher says, because the Anglo Saxons weren’t going to give an inch.

Gallagher recalls spending Saturdays at the Oriental Theater in its heyday, where he’d spend the 25 cents he had left over — after earning $7.50 a week at his job, he’d put $5 into savings, spend $2 to buy books and have a quarter left over for the movies. “It cost 14 cents to get in, a dime for a box of popcorn and a penny jawbreaker,” he says.

The young Gallagher turned to forensics after breaking his collarbone and shortly after became state champion and ranked eighth in the nation for the discipline — with particular distinction in humorous storytelling — beginning a lifelong devotion to oratory. Gallagher graduated from Regis College with a degree in English Literature, specializing in Shakespeare and James Joyce, and received a master’s degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., returning to teach speech at Regis throughout his career in public service.

Among the crowd was author and attorney David Kopel, whose father, longtime lawmaker Jerry Kopel, first got to know Gallagher some 50 years ago.

“Besides an important political ally, he’s been a longtime family friend,” Kopel said, recalling that the Gallaghers would take care of his younger brother when his parents went on vacation.

They don’t make ‘em like Dennis Gallagher anymore, Kopel acknowledged, though he added, “But that’s not a sign of decline, because they only made one in the first place. It’s not like there were a bunch of Dennis Gallaghers in 1970. It’s a well-named documentary — he’s one of a kind, in a very positive and constructive way.”

Kathy Tolman, who managed Gallagher’s first campaign for the House in 1970 — the young hopeful was going up against an older candidate backed by a powerful Democratic boss — recalled with a smile that his primary opponent’s supporters stoked fears with anonymous phone calls warning that the young Regis professor was selling marijuana to students.

“Dennis was worried about marijuana, but the people didn’t care about that,” Tolman said. Instead, as the documentary recounted, Gallagher said he was hearing that seniors were concerned about property taxes driving them out of their homes, so he hammered that through the campaign and won the election. (A dozen years later, along with Republican House Speaker Bev Bledsoe, then-Sen. Gallagher would craft a constitutional amendment to set restrictions on property taxes, known as the Gallagher Amendment, which was approved by voters by a 2-to-1 margin.)

Standing alongside state Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, who represents the North Denver precincts where Gallagher has lived his entire life, House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst read a tribute from the Colorado House to Gallagher.

Barnes-Gelt, who had been cross-wise with Gallagher ever since he led a group of “rowdy North Denver Democrats” to oppose a nomination for her former husband in the 1980s, said she warmed up to him slowly but surely as they served together on city council and later as he became auditor.

“We’ve had a checkered relationship,” she said with a chuckle. “However, I think he’s done an incredibly outstanding job as auditor and has set the bar high. I’m a fan.”

Gallagher is nearing the end of his third term as Denver’s auditor — he’s term-limited — and has overseen tremendous change in the office, which used to be responsible for the city’s bookkeeping and payroll but was granted expanded watchdog powers over city government by a charter amendment approved by voters.

Denver City Councilman Chris Nevitt, who is running for auditor and has Gallagher’s backing, smiled that he has “very big shoes to fill, both literally and figuratively. I’m doing everything I can to be worthy of the endorsement of Dennis Gallagher. I’m going to do everything I can to make him proud.” (Timothy O’Brien is also an announced candidate for the office and has said he intentionally didn’t seek Gallagher’s endorsement in order to maintain independence for the office.)

Asked to sum up what he’s learned about politics from Gallagher, Nevitt responded without pause: “Never too much retail. The man is a master of retail politics — he goes to everything, he knows everybody. There’s not a baptism or a bar mitzvah that he’s not there. Everybody knows him and, generally, he knows their parents.”

The documentary is produced by Prairie Fire Communications, headed by Berckefeldt, who also performs the narration. The associate producer is Terry Brown. Steef Sealy of Denver Film and Digital is cinematographer and director and Chris Sealy is the other associate producer. The film will air on PBS affiliate KBDI and has been submitted to film festivals. Berckefeldt established a nonprofit organization called Education for Public Service to fund the film and solicited donations after the screening to finish paying for production costs, he said.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com

See full photo coverage in the Jan. 30, 2015 print edition.