Of course my congressman, Republican Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs, works hard to make this a better country. But sad to say, he’s fallen down on the job. Just the other day, I listened to “Morning Edition,” which means Lamborn has failed to protect us from the dangerous elitist radiations emitted by National Public Radio.
Lamborn proposes to eliminate federal funds for NPR, since “we have to get our federal spending under control. It’s that serious.” It’s so serious that his top priority is the $64 million budgeted for NPR.
Any half-smart investigator could likely find that much Medicare or defense-contracting fraud in an afternoon. If Lamborn were serious about saving tax money, rather than grandstanding, there are a lot of places to look besides NPR.
But such posturing helps his standing. For the second straight year, the National Journal named him one of the five most conservative members of Congress, “an honor I share with my constituents,” Lamborn wrote. “I am privileged to represent Americans who share my love of liberty and freedom.”
Strange then, for a lover of “liberty and freedom” to support our moronic drug laws or to oppose a woman’s freedom of choice. Perhaps he was referring to his manful efforts to rescue us from that major menace to our freedoms and liberties, affordable health care.
For a while, I dared hope that we’d be rid of him. Our congressional districts must be redrawn after the 2010 Census, and my Chaffee County home could get back where it belongs, in the 3rd District, which stretches from Pueblo to Grand Junction, but slides around Chaffee and Lake counties.
We’re in the 5th now. It’s dominated by Colorado Springs, so our 17,809 residents don’t count for much and can be safely ignored. The 5th is in no sense competitive; it has always elected a Republican since it was established after the 1970 Census. By contrast, the 3rd has changed parties twice in the past decade.
In the 5th, the economy of Colorado Springs is based on military spending, whereas Chaffee is a public-lands county reliant on tourism and recreation — just like much of the 3rd District.
What gave me hope of escaping from the 5th was that even our county Republicans have gone on record in favor of putting us in the 3rd. They did say a few nice things about Lamborn, but concluded that the county fits better in the 3rd. County Democrats want us in the 3rd, too.
So the politics are good, but there are some pesky numbers. Based on the 2010 census, each Colorado congressional district should have 718,457 residents. The 3rd District is currently 12,271 people short, while the 5th is over by 7,445.
Thus some area should get moved from the 5th to the 3rd, but moving Chaffee County’s 17,809 residents would complicate things. Then the 3rd would be about 5,000 over and the 5th would be 10,000 under. If Chaffee went to the 3rd, some poor souls elsewhere would get shifted from the 3rd to the 5th, and I really don’t want that on my conscience.
Maybe we won’t be stuck with Lamborn for the whole decade. At some point, he’s bound to slip up and say something reasonable, which will inspire a Tea Partisan to call him a Sharia-supporting, tax- raising, job-killing RINO and challenge him in a primary. Mud will be slung, which makes great entertainment. If the Tea Partisan beat Lamborn, he could well be like Dan Maes was in the governor’s race — an unelectable Republican.
OK, the sun is more likely to rise in the west than that there would ever be a candidate too wing-nutty to carry Colorado Springs. But one can dream.
Freelance columnist Ed Quillen (ekquillen@gmail.com) of Salida is a regular contributor to The Denver Post.
