Why would a Democrat living in an extremely conservative district decide to run against an incumbent who won with 66% of the vote?
Let me explain.
I am running for Congress because there there is currently no one in Congress who represents the interests of the majority of people who live in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District (CD4). In fact, Eastern Colorado has not had a voice in Congress for most of the past 40 years.
The problem is that most of the voters don’t realize that they are not being represented. But let’s look at the facts.
If CD4 had a representative, he or she would vote for the passage of trade bills that promote agriculture, including the TPP, Country of Origin Label legislation, and others. He would be working to promote all of the businesses in Colorado, not just gas and oil. This Representative would recognize that contaminated ground water is useless to farmers, ranchers, and families. He would understand that small business owners need reliable Internet access, good roads, and someone who will work for intelligent, responsible regulations.
If we had a representative in Congress, then he or she would be addressing the 27% poverty rate that exists in Lamar, or the 22% of Greeley that live below the poverty line, or the 14% poverty rate in Longmont. But instead of representing these constituents, the Representative from CD4 voted to give a tax break to that 0.002% of Americans with estates of over $5.4 million. It seems unlikely that any of those Americans would live in Eastern Colorado. Our representatives have consistently voted for tax breaks for Americans who do not live in CD4 while neglecting the very real poverty issues of this part of the state.
In Crowley County, 1 in 3 adults under the age of 65 have no health insurance. In Weld County, 1 in 10 adults are uninsured. Someone who represented the people of CD4 would be working to solve this problem. Instead, our Republican representatives have consistently voted to deny health insurance for these Coloradans – and have joked about having done so.
If CD4 had a Congressman who advocated for their needs, then people would be less likely to die on Highway 287, a road with heavy truck traffic which should be an Interstate but isn’t. A Congressman representing this area would fight for the economic and safety benefits of such an Interstate. If we had a Representative, our farmers would not have to whisper a prayer every time they drove a truck full of wheat across a structurally deficient bridge or road.
If CD4 had a Representative, he or she would be working to protect public schools instead of looking for ways to siphon taxpayer money away from our community schools and into private, for-profit enterprises. Rural Coloradans tend to think that this issue does not effect them because there are no physical private schools in their area. What they don’t realize is that the schools in their communities are still being drained when students leave to go to online schools. Schools in Colorado lose, on average, about $6300 every time a student leaves to enroll in an online school, a charter school, or a private school. A Representative of Eastern Colorado would be working to improve our public schools, not to destroy them.
A Representative of CD4 would fight for water rights for farmers and ranchers. He would not work to kill off programs for wind and solar power – abundant resources in CD4 – but would work to promote renewable energy. He would recognize the boom and bust cycle of the oil industry and would be working for energy sources that are economically stable and environmentally safe.
Someone who represented CD4 would also represent the immigrant families who work in our fields and businesses. His attitude towards immigrants who might be undocumented would be innocent until proven guilty and not the other way around. He would create ways for immigrants to come into American society. He would not create even more barriers to citizenship.
Someone who represented all of the people of Eastern Colorado would not force a woman to carry the child of her rapist. He would not want to shut down facilities that provide reproductive health care services. He would recognize that decisions about contraception are best made by families, not by employers or politicians.
Eastern Colorado needs someone who will represent all of the people of this area. Not out of state donors. Not oil companies and companies that want to have a monopoly on agricultural products. And not the extremely wealthy Americans who do not even live in this district.
CD4 has been without a voice for too long.
Now is the time to speak up.
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Thanks for taking on Ken Buck. Obviously you have an uphill battle.
When Betsy Markey caught the perfect storm and replaced Maryln Musgrave I soon became disenchanted with her. It seemed to me that her attempt to attract the conservative part of CD-4 by becoming a blue-dog (or yellow-dog, of whatever kind of canine a conservative Democrat is) was a hopeless position to take. Like President Obama's attempts at bipartisanship, it was doomed because the only goal of her opponents was to see her fail.
Her attempts to get re-elected led to several bad decisions, notably her resistance to the ACA. It seemed to me that she would have been better off recognizing the unique circumstances of her election and accepting that a conservative Democrat is no better than a Republican in her district. In my view, she should have been as progressive as possible. The results for her reelection would have been the same while the benefits to the country (and her district) would have been much greater without her dogging the Democratic caucus.
So if you are elected, will your primary goal be to benefit the country and your district, or to get reelected?
Thanks for reading the article. My intention – the whole reason I am running – is to provide a voice for this underrepresented district. This is not a career move for me. The only goals I have are to do things that are in the best interest of CD4, our State, and our Country. That includes addressing issues like poverty in Southeastern Colorado, fracking, healthcare, infrastructure, and other issues that have been ignored by our representatives. I am running because I believe that it's been along time since CD4 had a representative that actually worked for our best interests. Republicans have used districts like CD4 to gain a majority in the House so they could pass laws that promote the Republican agenda. That needs to end.
An uphill battle for sure, but thanks for taking it on. I drove past a gigantic grass fire today off 34 West.Nine fire departments are battling the blaze. There was a three car derailment near Brush two days ago. No word on whether the incidents are related.
Fracking tank and battery fires are routine here. We have an earthquake protocol which involves, I kid you not, traffic signals. With all of the injection well-related earthquakes, magnitude 3 is a green light – fracking proceeds normally. Magnitude 4 is a yellow for caution. Magnitude 5 is a red light. Only then will fracking operations be shut down. Don't you feel safer now?
We can't trust authorities around here to tell us the truth. There was a bad tank battery fire in Fort Lupton last Thanksgiving day. Normally, they'd evacuate the town. Nothing happened. It took three fire departments to put out the fire. No news media covered it. The only reason we know anything about it is because the Fort Lupton fire department covered it on Facebook.
Four oil workers have lost their lives in the last year. Again, minimal news coverage.
So if you run on a public safety platform, you may get some nonpartisan traction around here. Ken Buck just wants to cover things up. He's also completely morally bankrupt.
On the immigration issue, as Attorney General, Buck instigated a raid which sent hundreds of undocumented (and documented) Latino workers to Mexico. Then the meat plants needed workers, so they started promoting Greeley as a refugee center, opening the way for Somali refugees to process the meat. This is well known in Greeley.
What really stinks about Bucks oh-so-Christian values on that one is that he's now fearmongering about Muslims on the border, ISIL raiding Julesburg, etc.
So if you're running partly just to raise the issues, then talk about immigrants and Islamophobia and fracking related fires and earthquakes. All Buck has is unlimited fear.
Good luck – I'll help if I can.
mj
All Trump has to do to find his 11 million undocumented workers is to send ICE to raid his contributors.
Thank you for the comments. I am tired of misinformation and manufactured crises. I believe other people feel the same way.