I "met" Ritter over the weekend

[Robb]

Not much to report, it was a quickie stop on a two-day, 800-mile Western Slope meet-n-greet.

He had handouts ready on his abortion position (basically that he's personally opposed but says he has no intention of legislating at it), but no one in my little town wanted to hear about that so much as civic education and TABOR stuff.

Ritter made a nicely-put point about how TABOR and the anti-C&D crowd are all about a rush to condemn representational government. He waxed rather eloquently, I thought, about how public officials need to be trusted -- and right now, they haven't earned it. Hence the popularity of legislation like TABOR that torpedoes representational government.

That, and he was a nice enough guy. We chatted briefly about the Western Slope's growing energy industry, and he remarked it was a delicate act, balancing all the jobs it creates with the (his word, IIRC) "birthright" of anyone to have public lands available.

I told his driver, a long-time friend of Ritter's who worked with him back in the DA's office (sadly don't remember his name) things looked good for Ritter so long as he didn't screw up. The guy smiled and said nobody would let him. :)

[hlthe2b]

1. thanks for the report...

I'll support him, of course if he's the nominee and I'm no single issue person. But, my concern is not that he is anti-abortion (aren't most of us who are pro-choice NOT PRO-ABORTION?) I believe him when he says he is not planning to legislate on it. BUT, and this is a big BUT, I believe he has said that he would sign anti-choice legislation if it came to him. So, he wants his cake and to eat it too....:mad:

That said, I'm glad to hear him address/counter the libertarian viewpoints on Tabor. I'd like to hear what he would do to counter the proposed Bush* admin sale of forest lands (although I don't know how much would impact Colorado) and more on the enabling of oil, natural gas and mining on public lands.

[Robb]

2. On that sale proposal

a little more than 20,000 acres in CO.

Here's the website.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[paulk]

4. compared to who's running - he's the best

We need to get some Democrats winning statewide races - right now that means more conservative people like Ken Salazar and Ritter. The real test will be 2008, when a true liberal like Udall will be going after Allard's Senate seat.

[boulderuberalles]

5. What's Ritter doing in a car, eh?

As I tried to get through to Heath’s staff, Colorado has the ONLY manufacturer of self-propelled diesel railcars in the United States, http://www.coloradorailcar.com/

The do have an odd past, but that said, what gets you free press? Riding about in a Dodge Dynasty (a guess – that’s Salazar’s car in ’04) – or riding a sleek, sexy train, talking about using transit to build jobs on Colorado?

I have 20 years political experience, and I assume Ritter’s people are not short-sited as Heath’s staff. When I faxed them – they totally did not use the internet in any meaningful way – they didn’t even take me up on the offer of FREE WORK to see if I could help them. So I hope this tip gets out there, as unlike in ’02, I don’t know any friends of the candidate.