John Salazar served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era, and is the only veteran in Colorado’s congressional delegation. He’s a farmer who isn’t away from the land long enough to forget its many challenges. When he was elected to Congress two years ago, we wondered whether Salazar would bring this experience to bear.
In his first term representing the sprawling 3rd Congressional District, Salazar gained a seat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and used the position to push for expanded veterans health care, fairer treatment of military widows and for cracking down on fraudulent claims for military medals.
Salazar also has been active on two other panels well-suited to serve a district that counts farming, ranching and tourism as key industries: Transportation and Infrastructure, and Agriculture. In those roles, he has fought for overdue highway improvements and sought to promote cleaner fossil fuel technologies, along with such renewable energy sources as ethanol.
Salazar’s freshman performance and keen interest in 3rd District issues has earned him re-election.
By Democratic standards, Salazar is cut from conservative cloth, as evidenced by his vote to repeat the estate tax and the fact that he has the support of the National Rifle Association. That may account for the fact that the GOP has invested little in the 3rd though registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 20,000 voters.
Republican candidate Scott Tipton, owner of the Mesa Verde Trading Co., is an engaging rival and longtime GOP activist. Tipton’s been crisscrossing the district in a high-mileage pickup, and we like his spunk and his willingness to provide an alternative.
Tipton sounds the standard-issue Republican calls to rein in a federal bureaucracy and free-spending Congress, but he has no answer to the fact that Congress has been entirely controlled by his own party for the past six years as the fiscal climate has turned ugly.
Third district voters are more likely to achieve real change by returning the free-thinking incumbent, Salazar, than by sending Tipton to Congress to reinforce the status quo.
