{"id":107255,"date":"2016-01-11T20:28:34","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T03:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-rep-j-paul-brown-to-announce-re-election-bid-jan-16\/"},"modified":"2016-01-11T20:28:34","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T03:28:34","slug":"colorado-rep-j-paul-brown-to-announce-re-election-bid-jan-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-rep-j-paul-brown-to-announce-re-election-bid-jan-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Rep. J. Paul Brown to announce re-election bid Jan. 16"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Brown\"
Brown<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Weather permitting, Republican State House Rep. J. Paul Brown of Ignacio will announce his re-election bid in every county in District 59 on Jan. 16, beginning in Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been a (La Plata) county commissioner and (Ignacio) school board member, I\u2019m a rancher, and I have a lot of experience in state government and law, so there are folks that would like me to run again,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness organizations for the state, chambers of commerce and agricultural organizations are very supportive of me because I believe we need to limit government and let the free market work, and with a lot of things, the best the government can do is get out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protecting water on the Western Slope and supporting federal Good Samaritan laws to prevent spills at abandoned mines are going to be frontline issues in the legislative session ahead, Brown said.<\/p>\n

Brown will try to keep his seat this year against Democrat Barbara McLachlan, a retired Durango teacher.<\/p>\n

Brown was first elected in 2010. After an election season filled with mudslinging from both sides, McLachlan\u2019s husband, Mike McLachlan, won the seat from Brown in 2012.<\/p>\n

He said he anticipates another close race this year, and an ugly one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already seen five negative fliers about me, which is unprecedented to come a year before the election,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI wish we could just run on the merits. There are those who think that\u2019s the only way they can win, so it will be a tough and dirty campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past year, Brown has surprised both parties with his decisions, including one in April to prevent a vote to overturn the state ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines. To that, he said he tries to \u201cjust use common sense\u201d and take all of District 59 into consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to run hard and just let the people decide,\u201d he said. \u201cI try to do a good job, be balanced and represent as much of the district as I possibly can, stick to my principles and encourage private enterprise and jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

jpace@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

If you go\u2026<\/h4>\n

Brown intends to visit every county in District 59 on Jan. 16. His tentative schedule is:
\n 8 a.m. Sorrel Sky Gallery, 828 Main Avenue, Durango
\n 9:45 a.m. Dorothy\u2019s Restaurant, 775 San Juan Street, #4, Pagosa Springs
\n 12:30 p.m. Moseley Art Center, 300 Silver Street, Lake City
\n 2:15 p.m. Ol Miner Steakhouse, 139 North Main Street, Gunnison
\n 5 p.m. The True Grit Cafe, 123 North Lena Street, Ridgway
\n 6:30 p.m. Brown Bear Cafe, 1129 Greene Street, Silverton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican expects \u2018tough and dirty\u2019 race<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[120,266,13,722],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-107255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado","tag-election","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-state-rep-j-paul-brown"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107255"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=107255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}