As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Charles Ashby reports, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is starting to run ads targeting incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton in Colorado’s CD-3–signaling that once again Democrats will compete for a seat they held until Tipton picked off incumbent Rep. John Salazar in the 2010 Republican wave year:
Seeing 2020 as an opportunity to pick up another seat in Congress, the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is sinking money into the race to defeat incumbent GOP U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton…
Currently, two Democrats have entered the primary race and the right to challenge Tipton. They are Mitsch Bush, a former state representative, and Durango resident Root Rutledge. Mitsch Bush eventually won the nomination in last year’s race, while Rutledge never qualified for the ballot.
Other Democratic candidates are expected to come forward, but no on else has so far. One possible contender, Senate President LeRoy Garcia, D-Pueblo, said he’s been approached about running, but wouldn’t say if he will.
Although Tipton survived in 2018 against former state Rep. Diane Mitsch Bush, Democrats are increasingly hopeful for another wave in 2020 that could give them a shot at this and other “reach goal” districts. The possibility of Senate President Leroy Garcia of Pueblo launching a bid is certainly interesting, and speculation has been fueled to some degree by Garcia’s spending on self-promotion following the end of this year’s session despite being term-limited. Garcia would bring a very different set of qualifications to the race, including the ability to potentially shut down the crucial Pueblo-area vote for Tipton.
Being the only GOP-held seat left in Colorado that Democrats have a realistic chance of picking up, CD-3 is where the House action is in 2020. We’ll be watching to see how Rep. Tipton handles the undivided attention.
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Good. This Bozo needs to be retired.
The best defense is a good offense. Even if we don't take out this bozo, they will be so busy defending him that they won't make much of an attack on Crow.
V's got it. Make 'em spend money on this race, and starve CD-6
Does anyone think he may do a non-campaign a la Gardiner and look for a RWNJ trough?
Yes..
It's worked for him so far. There are more than enough RWNJs on the Western Slope and just enough of the same in Pueblo to keep re-electing Tipton. Only a competitive redistricting could take him out.
Speaking of RWNJ from P-town (employed by Uncle Sam), has PoddyMouth ever given Congressman Tipton
his full-throated endorsementthe kiss of death? He may be feeling a bit frisky now that SmellyAnne is thumbing her nose at the Hatch Act.I did a double take when you mentioned, Michael.
I'm from New England and P-town is the short name for Provincetown. There are not many RWNJs there.
LOL. My bad … one should never confuse the two! They are about as symbiotic as Selma and Santa Monica. Now I'm imagining PoddyMouth wearing a wig in a rose bush in (the real) P-town punching his clown and yelling Fuck off, sore losers!
And claiming he was just on his way to a costume party, like any other average joe would do.
Yeah …Pee-ebb-low (as I believe it is properly pronounced) is not exactly a liberal town. Lotsa them liberal haters there.
But plenty liberals too. Angela Giron, Daneya Esgar, Bri Buontello, Leroy Garcia, Gilbert Ortiz are just some of the prominent progressive legislators and officials from Pueblo.
Pueblo is a university town, an industry town, and a union town, at least in its history. There is generous open park space left over from the union era, and its historic preservation, integrated with its art scene, is the most intentionally liveable and accessible I've ever seen, for all socioeconomic levels, not just the rich artsy folks.
It is the home of the recalls and the gun worshippers, but it's also a pretty prominent hunting and fishing paradise, so there are also a great deal of pragmatic gun owners who use firearms as sport and varmint control tools, not necessities of arming against the encroaching brown hordes.
These days, Pueblo is on the cutting edge (some might say the bleeding edge) of dealing with opiate and heroin abuse and overdoses, as well as the home of a successful cannabis industry. Because it doesn’t sit on a gas and oil patch, but has plenty of sunshine and wind resources, it will also be on the forefront of developing those. Pueblo, like it or not, is a pioneer in Colorado, and should be appreciated as such.
Just had to speak up for the folks of one of my favorite towns.
I spent a lot of time there a decade ago in the era when the city had the opportunity (and legal right) to take over the city grid during the time of the Aquila -> Black Hills sale. The theme of the conversation then was to make Pueblo the first city in the US to achieve 100% renewable energy; "Smoke Stacks to Solar" (and wind). They had a golden opportunity to reshape their energy mix at the time, but passed. The workgroup wasn't populated by the PoddyMouths of Pueblo – but a few did show up for the city council meetings! (a decade later they're revisiting the idea)
I liked the vibe there, and they've done a great job being a pioneer in the cannabis space. Like you said Mama, when your default isn't just 'digging a hole and letting methane escape', developing the natural resources of the region brings about some pretty exciting opportunities.
Those articles you posted by the great Anne Stattelman and Nate Johnson flesh out the struggle between progressives and regressives around the issue of utility rates in Pueblo. It's true that Black Hills Energy has fought renewable energy every step of the way, mostly to hang on to its profitable model of gouging customers with natural gas rates.
But every era eventually comes to an end, and the days of natural gas (as an exclusive or dominant energy source) are numbered, just as coal's were. Gas still has a place as backup fuel.
I remember there was a big fight over whether to charge rooftop solar commercial customers punitive rates for daring to use solar – not sure what happened with that. Black Hills Energy has had to back off some of its extreme positions since companies in Pueblo opened some of the largest solar farms and wind plants in Colorado.
I think there are municipalities around the Denver metro area that are fighting that same battle..
Frances Koncilja, now on the PUC, is another example of a Pueblo progressive fighting (literally) the power company.
Pueblo's political schizophrenia can be seen as dialectics – the ideological struggle between ideas that benefit the corporate regressives vs. progressive working people. You'd have to get one of the commies on here, like V, to 'splain it better.
It's the.Milovan Djilas in me, MJ, that notes the bureaucracies like REA and WAPA that allegedly serve the people are often less progressive than private power companies, who can be lured into green technologies by tinkering with their rate base. Don't know enough about Pueblo to say if that's the case here.
He doesn't seem visible enough to slide out of Congress and on to a RW policy or politics position. Heck, I don't even see him listed as a speaker at the Western Conservative Summit, alongside Buck and Lamborn.
I'm not sure he's been strident enough on cutting spending to fit in with Norquist & Co. I'm thinking he might follow in the footsteps of Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and if and when he's defeated or chooses to retire, he'll come back to Colorado and revitalize his interest in his previous art-related enterprise.
Tipton inherited a boatload of money. His wife runs the pottery shop.
He's a trust fund baby?
I wish they could take down Buck, but alas.
That district needs to be seriously redrawn first. Then Buck needs to step down and he will when he runs against Michael Bennet in 2022. That is assuming Mikey doesn't go to the White House next year.
Then the GOP needs to nominate someone worse than Buck. Think Marilyn Musgrave who so far has been the only Republican who has been able to clench defeat from the jaws of victory.
I know. I'm hoping the redistricting after next year let's Buck retire from politics for the rest of his life.
Is Muskrat still breathing? The last anyone heard from her was when she slipped into D.C. in the wee hours to pack up her office after Angie Paccione kicked her ass in CD4.
‘Twas Betsy Markey who performed that exorcism in 2008, cookie
My bad. Angie lost to Muskrat in her first go, didn't she?
VP of Government Affairs for the Susan B. Anthony List.
Figures. I thought she'd end up at (Wish They'd) Focus on The (ir Own) Family.