With incumbent Udall seeking a senate seat, three-way race fills the vacuum
With Colorado’s current 2nd Congressional District Congressman Mark Udall running for the Senate in 2008, a tight three-way race to replace him begins.
Will Shafroth, Joan Fitz-Gerald and Jared Polis lead the ballot for the Democrats in Boulder. All three hope to take on the Bush administration.
Monday evening at the Boulder County Democratic Party Headquarters, the three candidates participated in a panel discussion answering pre-prepared questions regarding their various plans of action if elected to congress in 2008.
Will Shafroth, a Colorado native and former executive director of the Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund holds the Rocky Mountains in high regard. He has helped to conserve over 300,000 acres of land.
Shafroth called himself, “not a typical candidate for public office,” in reference to being new to the game of politics.
“The old style of politics is not going to get the job done,” Shaforth said. “I am going to reverse failed policies of the Bush administration.”
All three candidates were excited to share their views with the people of Boulder but Jared Polis was perhaps the most animated.
Polis’ campaign team was standing at the front door with smiles and stickers, hollering loudly after every statement Polis made.
“It is time for democrats to have their voice be heard, we need to stop taking our voice for granted,” Polis, the former chair of the state Board of Education, said.
Being experienced with the Board of Education, Polis plans to push for improvement of the public education system.
“I’m the type of guy that calls a spade a spade,” Polis said.
Joan Fitz-Gerald is the only woman on the ballot this year and was the first woman to serve in Colorado as Senate President.
With a handful of successfully passed bills under her belt, Fitz-Gerald feels confident in her ability represent herself and the state of Colorado strongly as a congresswoman.
“President Bush is constitutionally overreaching, and his hand should be slapped,” she said.
Each candidate had similar priorities. Their combined policy priorities include getting U.S. troops out of Iraq, tending to America’s health care crisis by developing a single payer health care system, picking up the pieces of No Child Left Behind and taking on the extreme challenge of carbon emissions reduction.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Clare Lane at clare.lane@thecampuspress.com.
