{"id":123066,"date":"2013-11-12T00:33:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T07:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/j-paul-brown-announces-political-plans\/"},"modified":"2013-11-12T00:33:25","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T07:33:25","slug":"j-paul-brown-announces-political-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/j-paul-brown-announces-political-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"J. Paul Brown announces political plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cYou
\u201cYou may not agree with me, but I\u2019ll tell you exactly where I stand on the issues,\u201d said J. Paul Brown, who announced he will run to regain Colorado\u2019s 59th House District seat in a Saturday morning speech at Christina\u2019s Grill & Bar.<\/span>STEVE LEWIS\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He called the district, which includes La Plata, Archuleta, Hinsdale, Ouray and a portion of Gunnison counties, one of the most beautiful places in the world and one of great importance to the state and nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the pull of all of Colorado,\u201d he said. \u201cTourism, mining, gas and oil, hospitals. It\u2019s a wonderful district.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Brown, a Republican, said he is not yet ready to propose specific legislation, he did say he had a long list of issues and possible bills.<\/p>\n

Brown, a lifelong resident of La Plata County and a graduate of New Mexico State University, spoke to his early morning supporters about several focal issues, including water, in Colorado and on the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater is an issue here, and it always will be,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Front Range is thirsty. They want our water, and they\u2019ve taken it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown mentioned water-storage initiatives to keep water on the Western Slope and in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix hundred thousand acre feet of water just went to Kansas and Nebraska,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s our water \u2013 we just don\u2019t have any way to keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former member of the Transportation Committee, Brown favors redirecting tax dollars from gas and oil revenues to statewide road improvements to encourage tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, we spread ourselves too thin,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cToo much on bike and walking paths instead of putting it into our roads so we can get around and tourists can come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another issues he discussed was education for levels K-12 through college, saying he believes in local control and less interference from the federal government.<\/p>\n

He also mentioned regulated mining, developing new gold and silver mining near Silverton, supporting the Second Amendment, protecting the environment and creating jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts a wonderful country,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Plata County Planning Commissioner and beef rancher Wayne Buck supports Brown\u2019s ideology. He called Brown a politician of moral fiber and character.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s honest, and Lord knows we need honest politicians in Denver and in Washington, D.C.,\u201d Buck said.<\/p>\n

bmathis@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou may not agree with me, but I\u2019ll tell you exactly where I stand on the issues,\u201d said J. Paul Brown, who announced he will run to regain Colorado\u2019s 59th House District seat in a Saturday morning speech at Christina\u2019s Grill & Bar.STEVE LEWIS\/Durango Herald He called the district, which includes La Plata, Archuleta, Hinsdale, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,70,265,722],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-123066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-news-lead","tag-politics","tag-state-rep-j-paul-brown"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123066","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=123066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123066"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=123066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}