March 22, 2018 04:26 PM UTC

Progressive group aims to hold Western Slope Congressman Scott Tipton accountable for 'abysmal voting record'

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• by: Jason Salzman

A new progressive organization has launched a campaign to hold U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO) accountable for what it sees as the Western Slope Congressman’s record of attacking working families and health care.

Colorado United for Families will, among other things, conduct educational campaigns about Tipton’s votes in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act and in support of the Republican tax bill, signed late last year by President Donald Trump.

“Rep. Tipton has made it clear that his allegiances lie with big healthcare profiteers and not with the families in southern and western Colorado,” said Joel Dyar, a member of the advisory board of the campaign and a member of Grand Junction Indivisible said in a statement. “Today, we declare our intention to make sure every resident in our communities know Tipton’s abysmal voting record against healthcare for our neighbors, and for tax breaks for his ultra-wealthy campaign donors.”

A call and email to Tipton’s Washington Office seeking comment were not returned.

Tipton, who represents what’s widely seen as a fairly conservative district, took heat last year from constituents about his vote to repeal Obamacare. A KFQX-TV Grand Junction report about Tipton’s April town-hall meeting, which took place in a packed gymnasium in Montrose, stated:

“The Congressman won his re-election bid in the fall with two-thirds of the vote in Montrose County, though it didn’t seem like it in the Montrose High Gymnasium as the democrats were out in force.”

Colorado United for Families points to a report produced by the liberal Center of American Progress stating that the Obamacare bill, backed by Tipton, would have resulted in about 45,000 people losing health insurance in Tipton’s district.

Eric Sondermann, who comments frequently on Colorado politics, doesn’t think Tipton, who was first elected in 2010, is in much danger of losing his seat in November.

“If Tipton were to fall, it would only be part of a national tidal wave of tsunami proportions,” said Sondermann. “If Scott Tipton is in jeopardy, then the better part of 150 Republican Congresspeople are in jeopardy, because he is nowhere near the top of anyone’s target list.”

To mark the eighth anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care ACT, Colorado United for Families is organizing an event tomorrow in Grand Junction to urge Tipton to protect health care.