If she was a Democrat, your Aunt Sadie would beat incumbent Republican Cory Gardner in November’s Colorado U.S. Senate election. This state voted for Hillary Clinton by a substantial margin in 2016 and the state government achieved the blue trifecta in 2018.
The general senatorial election in November is a done deal. The major issue to be decided is which Democrat will walk through the open door. This matter is crucial because the differences between former Governor John Hickenlooper and his chief in-party rival former Speaker of the Colorado House Andrew Romanoff are vast.
What the U.S. Senate doesn’t need is another soldier loyal to the oil and gas industry. Hickenlooper had a career as a geologist for the industry and he conducted himself as governor as if he were still on their payroll.
He blocked every good-sense drilling and fracking regulation that came across his desk and stacked the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission with industry advocates with serious conflicts of interest.
As a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Hickenlooper hasn’t changed his stripes. He opposes the federal Green New Deal which would create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the effort to change our power grid to renewables and has refused to take the no-fossil-fuel pledge for campaign donations.
Romanoff, on the other hand, lists climate change as the top priority, supports the Green New Deal, a federal fracking ban, and has taken no money from the fossil fuel industry. Hickenlooper and Romanoff will caucus on March 7.
Diana Bray and Lorena Garcia, two candidates with impressive climate chops, are going the petition route. If they make the June 3 primary ballot, it could make matters worse for Romanoff and better for Hickenlooper. Sixty-two percent of Coloradans believe climate change is an extremely or very serious problem, but those votes could be spread too thin.
Romanoff also has the problem of name recognition. Two terms as governor will get your name in the papers more often than two terms as speaker of the House of representatives.
If you believe as I do climate change is the most critical issue in the world, we must get behind Andrew Romanoff and have a true climate champion in the Senate.
Fred Malo Jr.
Carbondale