U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is good at what she does, to the great appreciation of her supporters. When the congresswoman drapes a border-crosser’s insulation blanket across her lap, shouts at the president during his address to tie him to the final American military casualties in Afghanistan or bill-boards her shawl with “drill baby drill,” recognition of her positions - and herself - is magnified a thousand times over. A setting with national cameras does that.
Advocating for “freedom” has universal appeal. It is in the shading, which is difficult to admit and doesn’t make good punchlines, where the challenges lie: “Your freedom ends where mine begins.”
Life is full of nuances.
Our preference is for someone to represent the 3rd Congressional District who doesn’t wear positions on sleeves. To launch any legislation that will improve life for those in the district, and not only to score political points with the base, requires much less of an in-your-face beginning. Bringing others on board is what legislation is all about.
Boebert has recently proposed legislation that includes cutting roads to reach large expanses of beetle-killed timber and a permanent end to gray wolf protection with no judicial review. Those ideas are too extreme to receive broad traction.
Boebert has a good sense of the straightforward positions that her supporters want and how to deliver them, reflected in her very considerable re-election bank account. She’s a figurehead for those who believe that wherever you look, the country has turned upside down and the solution is to forcefully confront its government leadership without concern for the aftermath. That adds to the extremism in Washington.
State Sen. Don Coram will deliver a very different style in front of a national audience and in legislative chambers in Congress. As a former member of the Colorado House, now in the state Senate, Coram is very familiar with the multitude of Western Slope issues. He was raised in agriculture, and knows it succeeds in all its diversity with the proper management of water, soils, forests, prairie and open spaces. Those underpinnings are foundational to living in, and making a living in, small- and medium-sized towns and cities west of the divide. Coram’s Senate district, the 6th with eight counties, has given him a solid start on learning the very expansive 3rd Congressional District.
As to positions, you heard him in Ignacio: Bringing inflation back to its earlier low level won’t come by just flipping a switch to cut federal spending. It entails more than that and will require a plan. An open southern border? Absolutely not, but those who make a valid claim for entry deserve legal representation.
These positions can be a part of effective legislation that comes from those in both parties closer to the center. Coram believes that corrections, redirections within a Republican limited-government framework, are still possible. We like that perspective for what ails Congress.
Our Pick: Vote for Coram to challenge the primary winning Democratic candidate.
