U.S. Senator Ken Salazar on Wednesday jumped into the fray of the 7th Distict congressional race by denouncing the Republican in the race for writing an essay 11 years ago calling for the abolishment of social security.
The Republican candidate, Rick O’Donnell, now says he no longer wants to abolish social security, but instead thinks the program needs to be reformed.
“I identified a problem and proposed a fix and now I’m better informed, and I’ve proposed a better fix,” O’Donnell said during a recent interview.
But Salazar appeared with the victor of the 7th district Democratic primary, Ed Perlmutter, to emphasize that the essay O’Donnell wrote when he was 24 will figure prominently during the congressional race.
“When you look back at the writings of Rick O’Donnell in his policy wonk days, not so long, just a few years ago, when he was talking about social security, he said it was to time to slay, time to slay, social security,” Salazar said.
Perlmutter added: “He may have changed his position now, but obviously there are some strong feelings within him that there’s somethign wrong with social security, and that’s not going to sit well with the the people of the seventh congressional district.”
O’Donnell, former head of the Colorado Commisson on Higher Education, has said: “I think the voters are smart enough to know my mother’s on social security, and I’m going to continue to fight hard to get it fixed.”
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or at cosher@denverpost.com.
