September 07, 2018 10:56 AM UTC

Tipton Trips Trying To Trash Opponent's Hick Endorsement

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• by: Colorado Pols

David O. Williams writes for the Vail Daily:

Gov. John Hickenlooper this week endorsed the campaign of fellow Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush, as Mitsch Bush, a former state representative and Routt County commissioner, tries to unseat four-term Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, of Cortez, in the Tuesday, Nov. 6, general election.

“I’m proud to endorse Diane Mitsch Bush for Congress,” Hickenlooper was quoted as saying in a news release. “I worked closely with Diane during her time in the Colorado Legislature. … She is both hard working and dedicated to her community. Diane’s experience and fact-based legislating would make her a strong voice for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.”

Naturally,

Tipton’s campaign questioned Hickenlooper’s endorsement of Mitsch Bush.

“It’s bizarre that Gov. Hickenlooper would support someone who is against Jordan Cove and a supporter of a Bernie Sanders-style, government-run health care system, but clearly he is trying to remake himself in the image of the new extremist Democrat Party as he gears up to run for president,” Tipton campaign spokesman Matt Connelly wrote in an email.

Setting aside the government-run “health scare” boilerplate, some variation of which is finding its way into basically every Republican press release in 2018, there appears to be a problem with the claim that former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush is “against Jordan Cove”–meaning the proposed Jordan Cove, Oregon liquified natural gas export terminal that would enable sales of Colorado natural gas to Asian markets. Although Jordan Cove would be good for energy companies, energy consumers would likely see big increases in the price of natural gas on the local market–all for the purpose of exporting energy reserves, not domestic energy independence. The project was voted down by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2016, but has been controversially revived by the Trump administration.

Not to mention, you know, fracking the West for China. Is that something we want as national policy?

With all of this in mind, given former Rep. Mitsch Bush’s record of voting for environmental protection and renewable energy it would not be a stretch for her to come out against Jordan Cove. The problem is that she has not done that yet, so this attack is just wrong. But more importantly, this weak-sauce response to a key endorsement for Mitsch Bush underscores that Tipton really has very little with which to attack his opponent this year. This election will a referendum on many things, but outside a small bubble of safely Republican pro-fossil fuel voters, Jordan Cove isn’t one of them.

Tipton’s campaign had better sharpen their pencils, because better comebacks than this will be needed.