GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—Four years ago, Republican Scott Tipton was a small-town pottery dealer known only for getting trounced by Democratic Rep. John Salazar as Democrats took control of the House that year.
How times have changed—both for Tipton and his party.
Tipton still has the pottery business in Cortez, but now he’s also a state lawmaker getting national attention in his rematch against Salazar. In this rural, sprawling district about the size of Arkansas, Salazar has a fight on his hands to win a fourth term.
“We’re taking our government back!” Tipton shouted to a cheering crowd of several dozen in Grand Junction as he prepared to debate Salazar for the first time since 2006. The Tipton supporters even taunted Salazar backers at the debate, joking that Salazar wouldn’t be in office for long.
“It’s time we turn this country around,” Tipton said. “He’s been part of the problem.”
Tipton and his backers seem unusually confident given that Salazar won the 2006 contest with 62 percent of the vote. Two years ago, the potato-farmer-turned-congressman rolled up an even bigger margin of victory against Republican rancher Wayne Wolf. When Salazar’s brother Ken Salazar became Interior Secretary last year, many speculated John would be appointed to fill his brother’s Senate term. John Salazar said he preferred the House.
But as in the rest of the country, Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District is an anti-incumbent mood. Tea party rallies routinely attract hundreds. When President Barack Obama visited Grand Junction last summer for a town hall-style meeting on health care, a throng of opponents lined streets outside the high school where it was held. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has named Salazar to her target list of Democrats to defeat this year.
“We’re irritated with the present situation in Washington,” said Dianna Coram of Montrose, a retired florist who volunteered for Tipton four years ago and sees a big change this time around. Folks are more willing to volunteer and to give donations, Coram said, and more of her neighbors seem unhappy with Salazar.
“We never see him out here. He’s just out of touch,” she said.
Salazar seems to have sensed the anti-incumbent mood of his district and plays up his independence from his national party. The front page of Salazar’s website doesn’t even mention that Salazar’s a Democrat, calling him instead, “An independent voice for rural Colorado.”
Salazar parted ways with ruling Democrats over a climate-change bill that would have capped carbon emissions. Gas and oil is a major employer in Salazar’s district, and the congressman said he feared the bill could cost jobs at home.
In his debate with Tipton Saturday, Salazar talked about how he opposed the climate-change bill pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “I fought like crazy to defeat that in the House,” he said.
Opponents, though, blast Salazar for siding with Democrats on the health care overhaul. Tipton says the whole thing should be repealed, though Salazar called the overhaul “the largest budget reduction package ever in Congress.”
But even as Salazar defended his votes in the debate, he seemed at times frustrated by the angry electorate.
“In this political climate,” he said, “I could walk on water and I’d be criticized for not swimming.”
Even some Democrats waving signs for the congressman outside fretted about Salazar’s prospects.
Andrew L. Meader, a 20-year-old college junior who wasn’t old enough to vote last time Salazar faced Tipton, suggested Salazar needs to address spending criticisms head-on. Meader said that embattled Democrats, including Salazar, aren’t doing a good enough job highlighting the services supported by government spending.
“He should be talking about our money and where it’s going to go,” Meader said of Salazar’s vote for the stimulus law.
Other Democrats are feeling confident Salazar can hang on, suspecting Salazar’s tea-party opponents are loud but not as numerous as they appear.
“He’s done very well in Congress,” said Grand Junction Democrat Mary Beth Pyle. “Salazar has a record of supporting us, and I think if he just stands on his record, he’ll do fine.”
But a Republican volunteer who worked for Tipton four years ago and again this year says he sees a big difference when he makes phone-bank calls this time around.
“People are listening—I mean from little old ladies all the way down to teenagers, people who weren’t necessarily listening before,” said Jerry Denney, a Pueblo retiree and tea-party activist.
Denney recalled feeling a bit lonely two years ago while holding a John McCain sign on a Pueblo street corner when Obama visited for a rally just before being elected president. Denney chuckled and said he’s not lonely anymore, and the district will take out its frustration with the national direction on Salazar.
“It’s like everything is different now,” Denney said.
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