Southwest Colorado House candidates meet for cordial debate – The Durango Herald

Democratic and Republican candidates running for Colorado General Assembly spoke Tuesday

Tuesday’s virtual debate between candidates running to represent southwestern Colorado in the House of Representatives was reminiscent of a less divisive era in politics and unlike anything viewers saw in last week’s presidential debate.

The candidates were frank and respectful with one another, ditching titles in favor of first names and being honest when they agreed with their opponent or didn’t know enough about a specific policy to comment.

During a 90-minute video call hosted by the La Plata County Democratic Party, Democratic and Republican candidates for House District 59 and Senate District 6 answered questions submitted live on the chat on a range of topics, from energy production to abortion access to local control.

About thirty people attended the midday event, which was recorded.

Senate District 6

Senator Cleave Simpson, a Republican from Alamosa, is running for re-election in Senate District 6. In 2020, Simpson was elected to represent Senate District 35, but redistricting changed the shape of the district and the counties it represents. As a result, Simpson is now running for re-election in Senate District 6 for the first time.

Simpson is a farmer and rancher in the San Luis Valley and executive director of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District.

Her opponent in November is Democrat Vivian Smotherman, also a farmer who spent 20 years working in offshore oil and gas extraction.

Both candidates have indicated that they take relatively moderate positions on most of the issues that divide voters, at least by modern political standards.

Both Smotherman and Simpson say they recognize the dire impact of climate change — Simpson noted that his surface water rights no longer produce an adequate supply for irrigation — but that a transition away from fossil fuels must be done thoughtfully and gradually.

“We can’t shut down all the gas or oil wells overnight and just do wind and solar – that’s not going to work,” Smotherman said. “We have to do it smart.”

Simpson responded by noting that he and Smotherman were “pretty closely aligned in that area.”

In response to a question about banning assault weapons (the question did not define the often ill-defined term), both candidates indicated they would likely not support such a measure, though Smotherman hesitated a bit and said his support would depend on the exact wording.

Simpson said he believes in Second Amendment rights, but also stressed the impracticality of pursuing such a law at the state level, and said that if it were to happen, federal regulation would make more sense.

“I don’t think anyone needs a weapon that deadly,” she said. “At the same time, I’m not going to take it away right now, because I don’t believe in taking away rights.”

She said she supports background checks and some sort of registry.

In November, voters will vote on Initiative 50, which proposes to cap property tax revenue increases at 4 percent per year statewide. Local and regional officials have expressed concern about the impact this could have on their ability to provide required services.

Smotherman focused his response on how to rethink how the government uses taxpayer dollars and acknowledged that a systemic overhaul is needed to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share.

“Ballot Initiative 50 is quite problematic,” Simpson said. “I think when people fully understand the impact of this initiative, I predict it will not pass.”

The taxpayer rights law, known as TABOR, abortion and single-payer health insurance were the three issues on which the candidates appeared to diverge the most.

Smotherman said he fully supports the idea of ​​studying the viability and impacts of a single-payer health care system, otherwise known as universal health care, in Colorado. Simpson said he would likely support a study on the issue, but that his personal experience with similar systems in Australia (where he worked for a time) had not convinced him of its effectiveness.

Voters in November will also be asked to decide on Initiative 89, which proposes an amendment to the state constitution enshrining the unfettered right to abortion.

“I believe life begins at conception, but I also recognize that I am the representative of the entire community and trying to find a balance – it’s quite difficult in this space,” Simpson said.

He called the general nature of the referendum question “problematic” and said he would not support it, but said he struggled to determine how best to represent the entire electorate on the issue.

Smotherman was more direct.

“I am 100% against the suppression of women’s rights,” she said to support her question.

House District 59

Rep. Barbara McLachlan is term-limited this year. Democrat Katie Stewart and Republican Clark Craig are both running for the seat.

Craig is serving his first term as mayor of Ignacio, has experience in the oil and gas industry and serves on various boards and commissions.

Stewart is serving her second term on the Durango School District 9-R Board of Education and works as organizing director for the political advocacy group Rocky Mountain Values.

Both candidates were asked a series of questions similar to those posed to their counterparts running for the Senate.

When it comes to gun safety, Craig emphasized training courses and laws that target illegal gun use, rather than legal gun owners.

“Guns are tools here in rural Colorado,” Stewart said. “… I support common sense laws like red flag laws.”

She didn’t offer much in the way of specific gun safety measures that she favored, other than to say that most members of the community shared the same values ​​when it came to public safety.

The two candidates appear to be relatively in agreement on the issue of ranked-choice voting. If the issue comes to a vote in November, voters will be asked to change the way the state votes. Voters would rank all the candidates on a ballot, rather than choosing just one; if your first choice is unpopular, your vote would go to your second choice until one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote.

Stewart and Craig both said they want to better understand the long-term impacts of ranked-choice voting before fully adopting a position on the issue.

One point on which the two men disagreed was how county commissioners are elected.

State lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully in the past to change the electoral system so that commissioners in small counties are elected only by voters in a particular district, rather than by the entire electorate. In a left-leaning county like La Plata, where liberal voters in Durango tend to outnumber the more conservative voters in rural areas of the county, the change could mean Republicans would have an easier time getting elected to the county board of commissioners.

Craig said he would support such a change; Stewart indicated she would not.

The two men also have different positions on the issue of abortion.

“It is important that we enshrine and codify these rights in Colorado for women and those who can become pregnant,” Stewart said. “I fully support Initiative 89 because everyone deserves access to reproductive health care in every corner of Colorado.”

Craig said he and his wife are “very pro-life” and do not support Initiative 89.

“I feel like we tend to focus on one issue, abortion, when we should be asking, ‘What if we put equal energy into talking about abortion, family planning, and reproduction?’” he said. “Because to me, that’s where the real value lies.”

Craig and Stewart, both locally elected officials, appear to be broadly in agreement on the issue of unfunded mandates and other state policies that can undermine local governments. Craig has spoken strongly in favor of charter schools and school choice, while Stewart has also highlighted the school district’s positive attitude toward charter schools.

The four candidates will face off in the November 5 election.

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