DMB: Back For Another Run At Scott Tipton

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by: Colorado Pols

Former Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush (D-Steamboat Springs).

As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Peter Roper reports:

Five months ago, Diane Mitsch Bush lost a bid to defeat U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., but the Steamboat Springs Democrat is already announcing her intention to take on Tipton again next year in the 3rd Congressional District.

Bush, a former state legislator and Routt County commissioner, received 43 percent of the vote last November while Tipton, a four-term incumbent from Cortez, won with 51 percent…

“We need a representative who works to fix our broken health care system, protects family agriculture, believes that women’s rights are human rights and addresses climate-change head-on,” she said in a message asking for financial contributions.

Former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush’s 2018 campaign against incumbent GOP Rep. Scott Tipton was always considered the “reach goal” for ambitious Colorado Democrats. Rep. Bush’s loss was disappointing but attributable in part to a vigorous primary and two minor candidate challengers who soaked up votes that may well have trended against the incumbent. In an interview with the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman, Mitsch Bush explained why she thinks 2020 is her year:

“Now we’re moving into a presidential year, when Democrats tend to turn out more,” she said in an interview. “We also have a major U.S. Senate seat on the ballot. I think Democratic turnout will be higher and the unaffiliated turnout that leans this way will be higher too.”

In addition, Mitsch Bush said she’s launching her campaign months earlier than she did in the last cycle and is “starting out with a much clearer strategy.”

“Last time, I was very reticent to talk about his record at first. But what I found out was that many folks just don’t know how he’s voted,” she said, citing Tipton’s record on health care, veterans issues, public lands and reproductive rights.

Since 2018 (and arguably ever since his election in 2010) Tipton has done little to distinguish himself in Congress, relying on incumbency and the district’s Republican voting advantage to survive. But there’s a good argument to make that if Tipton was going to be ousted, the 2018 “wave election” was the year for it to happen.

With that said, each election brings a new landscape, and DMB was the most qualified challenger among the Democratic CD-3 contenders last year. She’ll be the Democratic nominee in this Cook PVR R+6 district once again in the absence of something unexpected, and R+6 isn’t enough of a cushion to ever really rule out a successful challenge.

13 thoughts on “DMB: Back For Another Run At Scott Tipton”

The realist says:

May 29, 2019 at 12:59 pm

Diane traveled all over CD3 last year, and made many good connections. She'll have an excellent opportunity for success in 2020. Go, Diane!

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1. MichaelBowman says:
  
  May 29, 2019 at 2:39 pm
  
  ^^^what realist said^^^
  
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Pseudonymous says:

May 29, 2019 at 1:17 pm

Garcia, Leroy.

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1. PodestaEmails says:
  
  May 29, 2019 at 1:29 pm
  
  Recalled, Getting.
  
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  1. unnamed says:
    
    May 29, 2019 at 1:39 pm
    
    Sore loser, Fuck off!!
    
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  2. bullshit! says:
    
    May 29, 2019 at 1:42 pm
    
    So you're going to add the ex-Marine to the father of a shooting victim on your shit list?
    
    This is going to end badly, fuckhead. And not for Dems.
    
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  3. Pseudonymous says:
    
    May 29, 2019 at 1:55 pm
    
    Great! So, he's completely free to run for congress, then.
    
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    1. mamajama55 says:
      
      May 29, 2019 at 3:35 pm
      
      That may be part of the calculus. Garcia is not term limited until 2022, but he pissed off many of his colleagues by voting against the Red Flag bill. Up until that point, he did a decent job leading his caucus, and they got many bills signed into law despite monolithic GOP obstruction.
      
      He did vote with the majority on Sb181, the gas and oil/ public health regulation bill, and for the National Popular Vote Bill. That's enough reason why Garcia Must Go! for these people.
      
      Not surprisingly, the mental giants of the recall still want to try to take him on, because …..Pueblo.
      
      I don't think that beating the drums and lying about MILLIONS OF OIL AND GAS JOBS LOST!!! we are DOOMED. is going to go over very well in Pueblo, as it did in Weld County. They don't sit on a gas or oil patch; the newest industries in the area that are putting people to work are solar, wind, and cannabis.
      
      And for every crotchety old couple mad about the pot shop down the street, there are another three who are consuming CBD and MMJ like there was no tomorrow.
      
      I doubt if there is energy for a recall against either Leroy Garcia or Bri Buontello. The Secretary of State hasn't approved any recall petitions for either. The recallers may be limited by that teeny little rule that says that they can't make false statements in the petition wording. I think this is Caldara blowing smoke out of his orifice, and the threatened recalls will never materialize.
      
      I prefer Diane Mitsch Bush for SD3.
      
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      1. Pseudonymous says:
        
        May 29, 2019 at 6:24 pm
        
        I'm not a huge Garcia fan, but, if a Dem wins CD-3, it will be out of Pueblo.
        
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  4. Conserv. Head Banger says:
    
    May 29, 2019 at 2:26 pm
    
    Why is Leroy Garcia to be recalled, Moderatus/PodestaEmails?
    
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    1. unnamed says:
      
      May 29, 2019 at 2:47 pm
      
      Because Poddy Mouth and his ilk are sore losers that can't accept that they are getting their asses kicked, in large part because of #Brokehantas.
      
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  5. MichaelBowman says:
    
    May 29, 2019 at 2:39 pm
    
    PoddyMouth – you're posting at 1:29. Late lunch break today?
    
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Voyageur says:

May 29, 2019 at 2:04 pm

If Kamala Harris destroys the very stable genius in the debates and he just starts clicking steel balls and bombing the Vatican, who knows what Trump's floor will be. We could be looking at a landslide of 1964 dimensions. I sent Bush a check last time just to back a good person against a hack. I'll do so again when I get a few bills paid off.

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