WASHINGTON – Agreeing in a debate? While the Democratic and Republican candidates running in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District disagreed on abortion rights, they found more common ground on other policy ideas in a debate last weekend at Club 20.
Throughout the debate, Adam Frisch, a Democrat, and Jeff Hurd, a Republican, agreed on policies for government spending, recreation on public lands, nuclear energy and water regulation. However, Hurd called out Frisch for meddling in the Republican primary by running attack ads against Hurd. The ads were an apparent attempt by Frisch to get one of Hurd’s opponents elected and thereby improve Frisch’s chances in the general election.
Frisch supports a women’s right to choose up to 39 weeks. On the other hand, Hurd is anti-abortion “with exceptions.” The right to protect abortion and health insurance coverage for abortion care is on the ballot in Colorado this November.
“I fundamentally believe that this is an issue that should be left to the states,” Hurd said during the debate.
Both candidates want to lower government spending in response to Americans feeling the effects of high inflation and high costs of living. Frisch also wants to increase affordable housing and education opportunities outside of four-year degrees.
“We have 13 or 14 colleges and universities: CMU (Colorado Mesa University), Fort Lewis and CSU (Colorado State University) are some of our flagships,” Frisch said.
Both candidates want to take away regulatory power from the Bureau of Land Management to enable local residents to have greater decision-making capabilities related to tourism and recreation. Hurd proposed a plan to compensate local and county governments for the lack of tax revenue from federal lands.
“The BLM has too much control on their making bad decisions for communities, not just in western Colorado but in southern Colorado as well,” Hurd said.
Both candidates would like to see nuclear energy developed in Colorado to boost the economy and help the environment. They would also oppose any projects that would use up water in parts of the state outside of CD-3 and other states such as Arizona and Nevada.
Hurd criticized Frisch, his Democratic rival, for running ads during the Republican primary campaign attacking Hurd. Frisch did so in an effort to help Hurd’s Republican rivals, believing Hurd’s rivals would be “easier to beat in November.” Frisch acknowledged that his campaign ran the ads.
“We learned very early on that there was going to be a high probability of two Republican candidates,” Frisch said. “They were going to be running against yourself and Mr. Hanks. So we decided, because we had some resources, to start working with the same messaging in the primary as we did in the general election.”
Frisch touted that he “does not accept donations from corporate PAC money.” PACs are political action committees set up by a corporation. Hurd pointed out that his campaign still takes money from corporations, regardless of whether they are PACs.
“Saying that he doesn't get corporate money is like him saying he doesn't eat from Taco Bell because he orders it through a food delivery service,” Hurd said.
Frisch and Hurd agreed to work across the party aisle if elected.
Maria Tedesco is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mtedesco@durangoherald.com.
